Chapter 49

From the window of the third storey, the academy elder watches the arena below and frowns as Fang Yuan walks off the stage, calling him hard to catch, since he follows the academy’s rules, answers when called on despite sleeping in class, and gives the elder no fault to exploit. The elder notices in himself a rare, deep dislike, unlike the tolerance he shows even the most rebellious students, and realizes the difference is that Fang Yuan shows no fear at all, where other defiant students are only agitated and therefore manageable. ^{ch. 49}

He resolves that a student without reverence for his teachers must be suppressed before his fearlessness spreads and erodes the other students’ respect for authority, yet he finds no wrongdoing in Fang Yuan to seize on. Having lost faith in the martial arts instructor, he concludes that only time, once the other students reach rank one middle stage, will curb Fang Yuan’s dominance. By his own estimate, Gu Yue Fang Zheng, Chi Chen, and Mo Bei stand the best chance of advancing first: an A grade and two B grades, backed by elders with primeval stones to spare. ^{ch. 49}

Watching the arena, he reads three factions already forming around these three: one around Chi Chen and his peers, one around Fang Zheng backed by the clan leader’s own younger generation, and one around Mo Bei, recovering from his injury with classmates asking after him. He is pleased that Fang Yuan’s extortion has pushed this division earlier than in past years, since only Fang Zheng, Mo Bei, and Chi Chen have dared stand against him, and he plans to name the first two to advance as class chairman and vice chairman to cement their followings. Fang Yuan alone belongs to no faction; the students who try to attach themselves to him are turned away, since only the useful count to him as pawns, and this refusal to integrate is another reason the elder distrusts him. ^{ch. 49}

Watching Fang Yuan stand apart, arms behind his back, unmoved by the contest around him, the elder tells himself the boy is still young enough to be shaped by the coming honors, the Small Redflower Award, the Blue Neckcloth Prize, and the Five Outstanding Student Prize, and by the kinship and loyalty the clan cultivates through its ranks of chairman and team leader. He reflects that the clan turns every member, however wild or friendless, into a loyal one through this same system of resources and rules. ^{ch. 49}