Chapter 6

The Primeval Sea Aperture that formed in Fang Yuan settles as a green copper sea, its water level at forty four percent, the ceiling a C grade talent allows. Twenty seven steps confirms only a C grade result. The crowd reacts with open disbelief that a genius managed no better. The clan head curses the result aloud, and the watching elders debate whether the measurement could be wrong. Fang Zheng stares in shock, unable to believe his brother is not the A grade talent everyone expected. Fang Yuan walks back across the cold river feeling the same stares that broke him in his previous life, but this time recalls the Hope Gu legend and stays calm. What he holds is small, but it is more than those who drew no talent at all, and other people’s disappointment is theirs to keep. ^{ch. 6}

Fang Zheng is called next and stumbles into the river to laughter, until Fang Yuan pulls him up by the collar and tells him the road ahead will be interesting. Fang Zheng walks into the flower sea in a daze and comes to a stop forty three steps in, an A grade talent, the first the Gu Yue clan has produced in three years. The academy elder and the watching elders erupt, and Gu Yue Chi Lian and Gu Yue Mo Chen immediately argue over which of their families should adopt and raise him. The clan head, Gu Yue Bo, silences them both and claims the right to raise the boy himself. ^{ch. 6}