Chapter 309

With Wei Yang’s win, the auction ends, and Fang Yuan hosts a feast to keep everyone together a while longer. Over wine, Wei Yang hands him a heart engraved Gu, a scarlet, ladybug shaped storage Gu whose four white heart shaped spots mark it as rank four within a series that runs one to five. Rather than refine the recipe into it himself, Fang Yuan has Wei Yang activate it directly, since Wei Yang had already prepared it; the Gu dissolves into a thread of pink light, enters Fang Yuan’s heart, and leaves the recipe for the heavenly essence treasure monarch lotus imprinted there permanently. Fang Yuan had arranged for Wei Yang to place the winning bid precisely to avoid drawing suspicion onto himself. ^{ch. 309}

Privately, Fang Yuan is pleased. He already owns a rank three heavenly essence treasure lotus, useful now but soon to lose value once he reaches rank four, so a recipe that lets him refine the rank four monarch lotus himself is a real gain. Judging by his own experience, he rates the chance the unappraised recipe is fake as very small, reasoning Shang clan would not risk its name on a fraud, though he still wants further Gu to check it against traps. He reasons that the lotus, unlike the singular and dangerous blood skull Gu, is rare but not unique, which is why he can risk buying its recipe so openly now that his cultivation and the purple thorn token both shield him. ^{ch. 309}

Around the table, Wei Yang privately notes how quickly Fang Zheng has risen in just over two years and wonders about the lotus without asking; Shang Xin Ci wonders the same but holds her tongue, remembering Shang Yan Fei’s early teaching that asking another Gu Master what Gu they hold is a serious taboo. Bai Ning Bing sits quietly, still unable to work out why Fang Yuan gave up the bitter strength Gu to chase the atmosphere Gu instead. ^{ch. 309}

Shang Xin Ci sighs that a young master’s yearly right to three free clan-funded Gu would have made getting the bitter strength Gu simple. Fang Yuan reassures her that Shang Ya Zi may yet hand it over on his own, which Shang Chi Wen privately dismisses as fantasy. Asked whether he already has a plan, Fang Yuan credits Bai Ning Bing, to her visible surprise, and promises the truth will surface within two or three days. ^{ch. 309}

Turning serious, Fang Yuan asks Shang Xin Ci whether she truly wants to become a young master, warning that the position means real danger and the loss of her freedom. She answers that she has never truly had freedom, that she nearly died more than once on the caravan journey into the city, and that only strength and influence can turn a small, helpless boat into one able to shelter the people she cares about. Wei Yang praises her resolve, Shang Chi Wen is startled to find such ambition beneath her gentle manner, and her attendant Xiao Die proudly calls her mistress a business genius fit for the role, earning an embarrassed glare. ^{ch. 309}

The narration traces her resolve to a hard childhood among bullying clansmen and a dangerous journey that hardened her further without souring her kind nature, unlike Fang Yuan or Bai Ning Bing. Relieved, Fang Yuan commits to help her. Shang Chi Wen explains that this year’s young master exam has already passed, so her chance is next year at the earliest, against as many as hundreds of rivals for one seat. Privately, though, she doubts Shang Xin Ci can win it. Her cultivation sits at only rank one upper stage, her aptitude falls short of even B grade, and her mother’s Zhang clan bears old hatred for Shang clan. Her one advantage, her father’s affection, is itself a liability: it was won only when Shang Yan Fei paid an enormous price to make her aptitude cultivable at all, a favor shown no other child, and it isolates her further, drawing even Shang Chi Wen’s own quiet envy. ^{ch. 309}

Fang Yuan, aware of all this, recalls that in his previous life Shang Xin Ci became a young master only after six years and without his help; this time will be different. He vows to see her made young master within the year; Shang Chi Wen smiles outwardly while inwardly curling her lip in disdain, judging him more unreasonable the wilder he boasts. Wei Yang notes that as an elder he cannot interfere in the young master contest, and Fang Yuan answers that no such help is needed, since the plan was laid two years ago, crediting Bai Ning Bing once more. Every gaze turns to her, and though her face stays composed, she is inwardly baffled at what any of this has to do with her. ^{ch. 309}