Chapter 339

Fairy Bi Xia greets the newcomer as Sir Wei, avoiding his gaze as she reassures him that Fang Zheng kept her safe; Wei Wu Shang, narrowing his eyes at Fang Zheng, asks who this young hero is, and Fang Zheng answers for himself, cupping his fists as an Immortal Crane Sect disciple. Bi Xia praises him as the top scorer in the sect’s most recent middle examination, able to command ten thousand cranes, the same cranes that carried them to Tian Ti mountain so quickly, and she blushes as she says it. Stung, Wei Wu Shang dismisses the birds as mere ironbeak flying cranes despite their number and challenges Fang Zheng to a spar, revealing himself as the leader of Heaven’s Envy Sect’s disciples on this trip and the holder of an undisclosed trump card. ^{ch. 339}

In his mind, Fang Zheng’s master Lord Sky Crane laughs that saving Bi Xia earlier has won her favor and made him many enemies, Wei Wu Shang only the first. Startled by the idea that she likes him, Fang Zheng thinks instead of a mortal girl he loved, his former servant Shen Cui: far plainer than Bi Xia, yet holding an extraordinary place in his heart, and the years he spent with her are his fondest memories. She is dead. He vows silently that his true goal remains defeating his brother and avenging his ancestors, his uncle and aunt, Shen Cui, the clan leader, and lord Qing Shu, since although Gu Yue village was destroyed, its bloodline still lives. ^{ch. 339}

Fang Zheng does not want to fight: Wei Wu Shang is a healing Gu Master and a strong A grade aptitude genius who usually leaves a battle unscathed, and even a win would cost Fang Zheng condition he cannot spare before the Gu Immortal Inheritance contest. Lord Sky Crane insists the fight go ahead anyway, explaining that the Hu Immortal Inheritance tests willpower rather than battle strength, promising his own secret aid gives Fang Zheng a great advantage, and urging him not to spare the cranes, since the sect can always replace them. Fang Zheng sighs and agrees to fight. Wei Wu Shang opens by tearing space apart and stepping through it, covering several hundred steps to appear directly before Fang Zheng, a trump card even Lord Sky Crane had not expected. ^{ch. 339}

Far away on San Cha mountain, the Ten Tyrants gather in a cave, where their leader Tyrant Heng Mei learns that Hu Mei Er tricked and injured his seventh and tenth brothers to test the black and white twin demons. When the second brother demands revenge, Heng Mei slaps him hard and scolds the group for their recklessness, reminding them that San Cha mountain, unlike their home ground of Nan mountain, holds men such as Kong Ri Tian, Long Qing Tian, Wu Shen Tong, and Yi Chong, any of whom could kill them without effort. He forbids them from provoking Hu Mei Er again, naming her ties to three rank four demonic Gu Masters: Lin San Chi, skilled in both the metal and earth paths; Li Xian, an eastern sea merchant with a wide trading network; and Mo Wu Tian, heir to a mysterious ancient Gu Immortal’s inheritance and the demonic path’s foremost rising star. The names leave his men pale. ^{ch. 339}

Judging that San Cha mountain’s rank four and five Gu Masters are currently holding each other in check, with no one daring reckless action, Heng Mei decides to call on the black and white twin demons in person rather than summon them, meaning to propose an alliance against Hu Mei Er while actually steering the young pair, already at odds with her, into serving as his vanguard; his men praise the plan as genius while he leads them out. Meanwhile Fang Yuan and Bai Ning Bing study the mountain from below, its three peaks each holding an entrance to the Three Kings inheritance that opens periodically as three beams of light, admitting a limited number of Gu Masters before vanishing again, while those who fail its trials are cast back out over time and deaths inside are common. With about eight days left before the next opening, Fang Yuan chooses to find a cave and settle in. ^{ch. 339}