Chapter 90

Behind closed doors, Uncle admits to Aunt that his plan to lull Fang Yuan into staying under their roof before finding a pretext to expel him has failed, since Fang Yuan refused the invitation outright and will not set foot in the house. Aunt frets that at sixteen Fang Yuan can now legally reclaim the family fortune on record with the inner affairs hall and asks what they can do, and Uncle reveals his real scheme: Fang Yuan first needed rank one middle stage cultivation to qualify, a bar he has already cleared by placing first in the year end exam at peak stage, but reclaiming the inheritance also requires him to apply at the internal affairs hall and complete a testing mission assigned to his group, so having Jiao San recruit Fang Yuan ties his hands to a group Jiao San controls on the couple’s behalf. Aunt praises the scheme, certain Fang Yuan can never complete the mission through a hostile group, while Uncle adds that he has other means ready even if the group ploy fails. ^{ch. 90}

That night, walking alone through the snow after refusing Mother Shen and slipping away from Jiao San’s group, Fang Yuan works out on his own that his aunt and uncle mean to delay him past his chance to reclaim the inheritance, reasoning that he must apply at the internal affairs hall while free of any other mission and then complete that mission to earn the assets, and that Jiao San, tied to his aunt and uncle, will keep accepting new missions ahead of him so he can never apply. He weighs simply killing Jiao San or his aunt and uncle to remove the obstacle, recalling that killing the mortal servant Gao Wan and old man Wang carried no such risk since a servant’s life counts for nothing, but judges assassinating Gu Masters far more dangerous while his own cultivation stays low against their rank two strength, since any Gu Yue clansman’s death draws a punishment hall investigation that could expose the Flower Wine Monk’s inheritance behind his current power, so he rules the plan out for now. ^{ch. 90}

Fang Yuan arrives at the same worn-out bamboo building where he rented a room in his previous life after being thrown out by his aunt and uncle, remembering it as unusually cheap, billed by the day rather than the month, and safe from any trap his relatives might have laid this time. He settles the rental terms with the landlord after half an hour and is shown to a bare second floor room with only a bed, a patched and holed blanket, and an oil lamp. ^{ch. 90}

Sitting on the bed, Fang Yuan drives his black-green primeval sea against his aperture’s crystal walls in an attempt to break through from rank one peak stage to rank two, cracking the walls under the impact, but his primeval essence, only 44% of a full sea, runs out before the walls give way, and the cracks begin healing once the attack stops. He judges that breaking through to rank two at full effort needs 55% black-green primeval essence, a bar his C grade talent falls short of, so brute force alone cannot finish the breakthrough. ^{ch. 90}

Fang Yuan rises and opens the window onto the moonlit, snow-covered mountain, and with his expression calm, declares that his troubles are merely a small bit of wind frost. ^{ch. 90}