Blurred Grey Eyes
Once rested, Fang Yuan reenters Thieving Heaven’s dream realm, where a market gathers around the clan’s tightly guarded pool, trading mostly food and Gu materials since Western Desert has few plants but many beasts and Gu worms. Guards turn young Thieving Heaven away from the pool. He judges it the oasis’s only water source, guarded extremely tightly even now. At the same time Sha Xiao’s voice warns him inwardly that only a month or so remains of their agreed limit, and that failing to progress by then means his death. Young Thieving Heaven silently asks why Sha Xiao does not simply force his own way in, but Sha Xiao refuses to explain and only orders him to obey. Young Thieving Heaven resolves to endure for now, planning to one day escape Sha Xiao’s control and repay every suffering. ch. 1496
Over the next few days he exhausts every method to get near the pool, but the guard never slips, and his means, having only just advanced to rank one, are truly lacking. Every attempt fails. Word then spreads of a clan competition in half a month, whose winner may choose a Gu worm from the pool as reward. Young Thieving Heaven sees his opening, probably the best one he will get to complete Sha Xiao’s task. ch. 1496
Young Thieving Heaven tells Sha Xiao he means to enter and win, and Sha Xiao mocks him for secretly plotting to grow strong enough to overturn his control, which young Thieving Heaven frankly admits. Sha Xiao offers help if he calls him grandpa again. This time no life or death presses him, and torn between his noble birth and the hope of ever returning home, young Thieving Heaven yields and calls him grandpa once more. Sha Xiao then violently forces a huge amount of information into his mind over nine agonizing breaths, mostly fighting techniques and Gu recipes, all of it genuine and valuable. Among them is a mortal killer move, Blurred Grey Eyes, built from sandpit Gu, chimney smoke Gu and clear water Gu in eight steps. Once cast it puffs white smoke that coats a target’s eyes in blinding white ash, and washing that ash with water turns it into a heat that burns the eyes permanently blind. ch. 1496
Upright by nature, young Thieving Heaven recoils from the move’s insidious cruelty and refuses to train it, putting his effort into the fighting techniques instead, where his prior-life foundation helps him progress quickly. He notes the move needs exactly the three Gu he owns and guesses Sha Xiao had planned to raise his strength all along. His battle strength soars within days. He puts his chance of winning the clan competition at sixty percent, and reckons he can handle most opponents without ever using blurred grey eyes. On stage, the crowd and his arrogant opponent mock him as weak, and he stands motionless, dazed. The pause is only Fang Yuan regaining control, and once he registers this, he attacks with Blurred Grey Eyes, the move young Thieving Heaven had refused to train. The opponent cannot defend in time, retreats three steps blinded by the white ash, and Fang Yuan kicks him in the face and off the stage for victory. ch. 1496
