Chapter 18

At breakfast Fang Zheng confronts Fang Yuan over Shen Cui, who came out of his room in tears the day before, and demands an explanation. Fang Yuan says nothing and keeps eating until his brother, humiliated, slams the table and accuses him of taking his misfortune out on a servant girl. Fang Yuan slaps him twice, once for the accusation and once mid protest, and reminds him that he gave up their one shared New Year robe so his brother could wear it, and once brought him home after he was bullied. He then tells Fang Zheng that from today they are no longer brothers. Nothing happened with Shen Cui, he adds; she remains untouched, and he offers to pass her to Fang Zheng as a personal maid for six primeval stones. Fang Zheng agrees at once and hands over his money pouch, which holds six stones, one worn down to half size from powering his own Moonlight Gu refinement and all the primeval stones he owns; Fang Yuan pockets them and sends him away. Fang Zheng leaves feeling he has lost something important, then brightens at the thought of finally having Shen Cui to himself. ^{ch. 18}

Fang Yuan sits a long while afterward with an expressionless face, his cold dishes untouched, before he tells the worker to reheat them. At the family hall Fang Zheng repeats the story, and his uncle scolds him for accepting Fang Yuan’s trade instead of simply asking, since Shen Cui was assigned to Fang Yuan and not his to give away. He gives Fang Zheng six more stones and sends him to cultivate. Alone with his aunt, the uncle drops his composure and calls Fang Yuan cunning for out maneuvering them. He explains the plan: clan rule sets rank one middle stage as the cultivation needed to head the house at sixteen, so denying Fang Yuan resources and academy support would keep him under that bar and unable to claim the family inheritance. With twelve stones instead of six, Fang Yuan can refine faster than the uncle intended, and the uncle vows to treat Fang Zheng better and shape his resentment into a future tool against his brother. ^{ch. 18}

Two days later Fang Yuan is still refining the Liquor worm, spending twelve stones for barely a fifteenth of progress, yet he stays calm. Then the worm curls into a glowing ball and unleashes everything it has, driving its will straight down into his primeval sea in one last stand. Fang Yuan is startled but not afraid; breaking this final surge would greatly weaken the worm’s will, so he braces to meet it and hopes for no interruption. At that moment a Gu he did not summon appears above the sea and lets out a mighty roaring aura. Fang Yuan stares at it in shock: this is the Spring Autumn Cicada. ^{ch. 18}