Chapter 43

That night, meditating in his room at the academy, Fang Yuan finishes converting the forty-five percent of his primeval sea he has cultivated so far entirely into middle stage primeval essence, the reserve that let him grind through the gambling den’s rocks five times in one sitting. He reflects that carrying five hundred and thirty-eight primeval stones is dangerous for a rank one initial stage Gu Master in the Gu Yue Mountain Village, since a stronger cultivator who coveted the sum could kill him for it and he would have no way to stop them. ^{ch. 43}

He takes out the sixth and final purple gold fossil, the one he kept back after opening the other five at the gambling den, and grinds it down himself in private, finding nothing inside. He is not disappointed, because the powder is exactly what he came for: since he alone knows this rock held nothing, he can now claim that the Liquor worm already in his possession was awakened from a purple gold fossil rather than taken from the Flower Wine Monk’s inheritance. He reasons through the cover story’s strength: nobody can say for certain what any fossil holds, the Gu Masters who watched him win the Mudskin Toad already believe in his luck, and anyone who doubts him has no way to argue against luck as an excuse. ^{ch. 43}

He decides the Liquor worm must eventually be exposed rather than hidden forever, since a rank one Gu draws little dangerous attention from higher ranked Gu Masters the way the Spring and Autumn Cicada would if discovered. Weighing his finances, he notes that his classmates Gu Yue Mo Chen, Chi Chen, and his brother Gu Yue Fang Zheng have grown strong enough that he now needs five or six strikes to beat them down instead of one or two, and that three or four more such fights will polish their skills fully and end how easily he can extort them. ^{ch. 43}

Even his five hundred odd primeval stones will not stretch far against a daily expenditure of four stones, and with no treasure left on Qing Mao Mountain itself, he considers the secretly built inheritance of a rank four righteous path Gu Master hidden on nearby Bai Gu Mountain, and the possibility of selling the Flower Wine Monk’s image wall to a merchant in the caravan, before finally falling asleep. ^{ch. 43}