Chapter 304

Tie Ruo Nan leaves as promised, taking Tie Dao Ku with her. Watching them go, Fang Yuan resolves that she must eventually be eliminated, since leaving her alive is a threat that will only grow: he, Bai Ning Bing, and Tie Ruo Nan share the same rare trait, people who have already found the path they mean to walk, and such people are sure of huge accomplishment if nothing kills them first. Her A grade aptitude and Tie clan’s backing, as one of its eight young masters, put her ahead of what Fang and Bai’s purple thorn tokens can match under ordinary growth. Only a shortcut can close that gap, he decides: the three kings inheritance, and the great demonic and righteous battle building at Yi Tian mountain. ^{ch. 304}

A year and a half passes. In his secret room, Fang Yuan attempts to fuse four Gu into a single bitter strength Gu at once, and fails for the fourth time, losing brown bear strength Gu, galloping horse strength Gu, green bull labor Gu, and now stone turtle strength Gu across the four attempts, along with rare materials and large sums of primeval stones. The failure sends blood from his nose and damages his soul, leaving him dizzy for over a month and weakening his battle strength in the meantime. He cannot simply buy the Gu instead: it is rare and costly even in Shang clan city, and Shang Ya Zi, who controls the city’s shops and still resents the extortion Fang Yuan once put him through, obstructs the purchase from the shadows, restrained by the poison vow Gu from any fatal move but not from these quieter ones. ^{ch. 304}

Bai Ning Bing arrives afterward as she always does, and for four hours pours her snow silver primeval essence into him in silence, part of a routine the two have kept for a year and a half; she deliberately holds her own cultivation at rank three peak stage while his climbs toward rank three upper stage. Once he reaches it, he plans to use the white silver relic Gu to push straight to rank three peak stage, closing the gap with her. That would also ease the pressure his rank six vital Gu, Spring Autumn Cicada, keeps placing on his aperture as it grows stronger on the river of time’s water, a pressure the bone flesh unity Gu and Bai Ning Bing’s help have kept far lighter than it was on Qing Mao mountain. From the changes in her aura, he judges she is nearing rank four herself, and reasons that her yellow gold primeval essence would help his own breakthrough greatly once she gets there; her aptitude, by her own count, has climbed to ninety-three percent, seven short of the hundred that would restore her northern dark ice soul physique in full. ^{ch. 304}

Seven days later, Wei Yang brings word of an auction: a rarely seen disaster has struck Ju Feng mountain and destroyed Ju clan, and its survivors, now sheltering in Shang clan city, are selling off their collection to live, including a bitter strength Gu. Because the whole city is watching this sale, Wei Yang notes, Shang Ya Zi will find it harder than usual to interfere. Fang Yuan, certain a clan with centuries of holdings will have much worth bidding on, counts close to a million primeval stones saved over the past year and a half and decides to attend. In his own study, Shang Ya Zi reads the same auction papers and resolves to bid against him out of spite; the narration calls him narrow-minded and petty, unable to ease his grudge over the old extortion any way except by watching Fang Yuan and Bai Ning Bing suffer. ^{ch. 304}