A little cute
Four days of rain end and the sun breaks through over Qing Mao Mountain as summer approaches. At the academy’s training grounds, Fang Yuan kicks Gu Yue Mo Bei in the abdomen after more than ten exchanged blows, sending him stumbling back out of the ring, and the instructor declares Fang Yuan’s 33rd consecutive win. Mo Bei denies the injury is serious, then vomits blood mid-sentence, pale with a fear he has never felt before, and two healing Gu Masters help him from the arena. ch. 48
Only Mo Bei, Gu Yue Chi Chen, and Gu Yue Fang Zheng have ever dared to challenge Fang Yuan, and with all three already beaten, no other student steps forward. The instructor, remembering the academy elder’s order to keep Fang Yuan’s dominance in check, tries to shame the students into fighting by pointing out that Fang Yuan is just fifteen years old like the rest of them. The students answer only that his blows are getting too vicious to face, citing Mo Bei’s blood as proof. ch. 48
The instructor privately knows the truth: after thirty-three fights without rest, Fang Yuan’s stamina is failing, and his rougher strikes are a sign he is losing fine control, so a few more challengers could beat him. He turns his frustration on Fang Yuan instead, accusing him of excessive violence toward classmates, and Fang Yuan answers that sparring loses its purpose if fighters go easy on each other, then points out that the instructor set a prize of twenty primeval stones and thereby caused the injuries himself. Threatened with disqualification if he argues further, Fang Yuan laughs it off, says he does not care for the twenty stones, and walks off the stage. ch. 48
Alone at the center of the ring afterward, Fang Yuan pants from real exhaustion, having no supporting Gu worm at only fifteen years old, and feels the other students growing stronger around him even as his own control weakens. He knows that since he killed Gao Wan, fewer students dare to challenge him and those he extorts hand over their primeval stones without resistance, income he needs and would lose if his dominant image broke. Judging that fighting on risked exposing his fatigue while refusing to fight risked showing weakness outright, he decides that walking away on his own terms is the safer move, and watching the flustered instructor, he thinks the man is a little cute. ch. 48
