Over a hundred fifteen-year-old youths gather at the Gu Yue clan pavilion for the Awakening Ceremony and are led underground into a cave holding the spirit spring that founded the village, then to an underground river facing a sea of moon orchids. The academy elder explains the test: each youth wades into the flowers and walks as far as the pressure allows, and the distance measures cultivation talent. Fang Yuan recognizes the moon orchids as the clan’s main Gu-feeding crop. The clan’s above-average talent traces to its first clan head, a powerful ancestor whose bloodline carried strength into later generations. ch. 4
Early candidates manage only a few steps and are marked as having no talent, until Gu Yue Mo Bei reaches thirty-six steps for a B grade rating, delighting his grandfather Gu Yue Mo Chen and souring his rival Gu Yue Chi Lian. Gu Yue Chi Lian’s own grandson, Gu Yue Chi Chen, matches the same thirty-six steps for a second B grade, which Fang Yuan privately identifies as a cheat: his memory holds that Chi Chen only has C grade talent and that Chi Lian, one of the clan’s two most powerful elders, faked the result to outdo Mo Chen. Fang Yuan considers exposing the fraud but judges it not worth the reward against the cost of angering Chi Lian, and decides to hold the knowledge for later use instead. The elder then calls his name. ch. 4
