Chapter 82

Gu Masters from the clan’s small groups arrive at the academy on the morning of the year end exam to scout new recruits, among them Gu Yue Qing Shu and Gu Yue Yao Hong. Students name Gu Yue Qing Shu, Gu Yue Chi Shan, and Gu Yue Mo Yan as the clan’s rising stars, known to all of them. Yao Hong spots Fang Yuan beside Fang Zheng and blurts that she sees two Gu Yue Fang Zhengs, mistaking the resemblance between them. Qing Shu explains that Fang Zheng has a twin brother of only C grade talent, and tells her the clan leader has ordered their group not to recruit him, guessing the clan leader wants to observe him for some reason of his own; he adds that the brothers do not get along and that Fang Yuan would probably refuse to join anyway. ^{ch. 82}

Clan leader Gu Yue Bo enters with clan elders Gu Yue Chi Lian and Gu Yue Mo Chen and takes a seat under the tentage, a show of attendance the crowd credits to Chi Lian and Mo Chen both having grandsons, Gu Yue Chi Cheng and Gu Yue Mo Bei, in this year’s class. The exam opens on three stages at once, moonblades and shouting filling the arena through the day. Watching the fights, Yao Hong notices this year’s physical combat skill is unusually high, and Qing Shu credits it to Fang Yuan; hearing his fuller explanation, she calls Fang Yuan daring to the point of fearless for bullying even his own brother. ^{ch. 82}

On one stage, Mo Bei wears down Gu Yue Jin Zhu until her stamina fails and she surrenders, while he shows no strain from the fight. Watching from below, Fang Yuan reads his endurance as the Yellow Camel Longhorn Beetle Gu. He notes that his own six Gu worms, drawn from his prior-life experience, are an exception; most students his age keep to one or two, limited by the cost of feeding them and by how much practice each worm demands. On another stage, Chi Cheng uses the Scarlet Pill Cricket Gu to leap and dodge an opponent who owns only a Flower Boar Gu, and refuses to trade blows with him hand to hand. The bout ends when a moonblade from Chi Cheng costs the man too much blood to continue. ^{ch. 82}

By noon, every D grade student has been eliminated; their limited talent pushed them toward support type Gu suited to production or transport rather than combat. Small groups recruit newcomers on the spot even as the matches continue, most bouts ending quickly once one side burns through its primeval essence firing moonblades, since most students rely on the Moonlight Gu. By evening, fewer than ten students remain on the stage. The hosting Gu Master then calls the last round of the day: Gu Yue Fang Zheng against Gu Yue Mo Bei. ^{ch. 82}