Chapter 34 – Suppressive Beating!
Fang Yuan paid no heed to the man and started to multitask. He simultaneously absorbed the natural essence from the primeval stone and observed his aperture.
The primeval sea level which had originally fell drastically within the aperture, with help from the constant stream of natural essence, began to slowly rise up again. This form of recovery speed was inevitably slow, but Fang Yuan was in no hurry.
Cultivation was meant to be accumulative; it could not be rushed.
The urgent matter at hand was in fact the middle-aged servant outside the house.
After half an hour, Fang Yuan’s green copper primeval sea reached 44%, the maximum capacity it could hold. But this was not the end.
At this point the primeval sea showed a jade-green colour, this was only a Rank one initial stage green copper primeval essence. The primeval essence that Fang Yuan had previously used to nurture the aperture wall was no longer initial stage primeval essence. It had been turned into middle stage primeval essence, refined by the Liquor worm.
“Liquor worm.” With a thought from Fang Yuan, the Liquor worm within the primeval sea instantly flew out and hovered in mid-air, its body curling into a ball form, resembling a white rice ball.
Swoosh.
10% of his initial stage primeval essence was deployed and sent into the Liquor Worm’s body, and soon the essence was fully absorbed by it. Soon after, a surge of liquor mist emerged from the Liquor worm’s body and congregated into a lump.
Once more, Fang Yuan deployed 10% of his primeval essence and invested it into this liquor mist. Once the mist had been fully expended, the original 10% of initial stage primeval essence shrunk by half physically, and at the same time the colour changed from jade-green to pale-green.
This is middle-stage primeval essence.
“In order to advance in their cultivation, ordinary students all use initial stage primeval essence. However, I’ll be using middle stage primeval essence, and the efficiency is at least twice of theirs. Similarly, when using middle stage primeval essence to activate the Moonlight Gu and throw a moonblade, it will be far stronger than activating it using initial stage primeval essence.”
Only when all the primeval essence in the primeval sea had been converted to middle stage primeval essence did Fang Yuan open his eyes.
Time passes in the blink of an eye when cultivating, and at this point it was already midnight. The sky was no longer a pure black, but it had turned a deep dark-blue colour. The moon was no longer visible, and only a few lingering stars remained.
The door was open almost throughout the entire night, and a corner of the wooden door was already wet, showing a dark colour as the water tainted it.
The school hostel had this disadvantage, it was not as comfortable as an ordinary wooden lodge that was built above the ground (1), but it was directly built on the ground and thus it had high humidity.
Coming back to reality, Fang Yuan felt a chill down his spine. After sitting cross-legged for such a long time, both his legs felt numb. He opened his clenched right fist and scattered a handful of white stone powder.
This was the primeval stone after its essence had been fully absorbed, and what remained was only the leftover powder.
“After a night of cultivation, I had expended three primeval stones.” Fang Yuan calculated in his mind.
He had C ranked talent, but in order to pursue faster cultivation speed, he used primeval stones to replenish his primeval essence. What was more crucial was the Liquor worm, as it had been used to refine his middle stage primeval essence.
This had greatly increased the expenditure of his primeval stones.
“Although I plundered another sum of primeval stones yesterday, a night of cultivation cost me three stones. In this case, although it might seem that I have a lot of resources, it is unable to sustain me for a long time with my current cultivation speed, but this is the price I have to pay for pursuing cultivation speed and efficiency.”
Fang Yuan looked outside the room again, only to see Gao Wan, the muscular servant, squatting at a corner with his body curled up, seemingly fallen asleep.
“Looks like that Rank two female Gu Master had left long ago, leaving this Gao Wan here to keep a watch on me. Hehe.” Fang Yuan revealed a cold smile as he got off the bed and began to exercise his limbs.
Once his body had warmed up, he left the hostel.
“Lad, you finally decided to come out. So how about it? Obediently surrender and leave with me to kowtow and apologise to our young Miss.” Gao Wan’s ears caught Fang Yuan’s footsteps and he stood up immediately.
His muscular body was almost twice the size of Fang Yuan. The muscles in his body tightened and his brows knitted together, a pair of cruel eyes shining with evil light, resembling a starving hyena.
Fang Yuan expressionlessly walked towards him.
“Lad, you should have came out earlier. By coming out now, do you know how much The Great Me had to suffer by watching over you?” He snickered while approaching Fang Yuan, evidently planning something sinister.
At this moment, Fang Yuan lightly cried out, and with a ferocious leap he aimed both fists towards Gao Wan.
“Bastard, you’re courting death!!” Gao Wan’s face distorted with rising anger within him, raised his brick-sized fist and he punched towards Fang Yuan.
The fist was extremely powerful, slicing through air and the swooshing sound of the wind could be heard.
Fang Yuan’s eyes shone clear as crystal. Seeing that the fist was approaching close, he side-stepped and turned towards Gao Wan’s rear. Stretching out a finger, he struck towards Gao Wan’s waist.
Gao Wan blocked with his retracted arm – Fang Yuan did not get a clear hit, and ended up hitting onto Gao Wan’s left forearm.
Fang Yuan’s finger felt like it had hit a steel plate, painful and numb.
“This Gao Wan has already approached the limits of a mortal’s physical prowess. Right now I can only use the Moonlight Gu to fight, and without any other Gu worms to assist me, I am not his match at basic close combat!” Fang Yuan’s eyes shone and he decided quickly to give up on attacking. Instead, he retracted a few steps and pulled some distance away from Gao Wan.
In the Gu Yue village, only the Gu Yue clansmen had the rights to cultivate as a Gu Master. The outsiders, regardless of whether they had cultivation talent or not, had no rights to attend the Awakening Ceremony.
But these mortals could train in physical combat.
Just like the Gao Wan here, although he was not a Gu Master, he had trained vigorously in his punches and kicks and his basic skill was steadfast. Additionally he was a middle-aged man, and this meant being at the physical prime in a mortal’s lifetime.
Fang Yuan, other than having the Moonlight Gu to fight, had only the body of a 15 year old teenager. Be it strength, agility or endurance, he was not Gao Wan’s match.
Martial artists like Gao Wan were sufficient enough to kill a Rank one initial stage Gu Master. Even towards a Rank one middle stage Gu Master, they still posed a certain threat.
“This lad is too sneaky!” Seeing that Fang Yuan had drawn some distance between them, Gao Wan felt anxiety within his heart.
The waist was a vital point of the body, and if it was damaged by someone through brute force, the harm was not negligible. If the force was exerted beyond a point, it could also be deadly.
Gao Wan had waited outside the hostel for the entire night, and thus his body was enshrouded by the moist atmosphere, causing his reaction speed to be slightly slower. Hence the strike earlier had almost succeeded. Fortunately, although he was a bootlicker, he had trained hard in his physical ability. So at the crucial moment his body’s reflex instinctively reacted and allowed him to narrowly block Fang Yuan’s attack.
“I can’t be careless anymore! This lad behaves like a wolf, striking harsh and deviously, getting his way whenever I am even but a little careless. No wonder young master was knocked out by him twice.” Gao Wan wiped the sweat off his forehead and swept away all hints of contempt. He started to take his opponent seriously.
“If I can capture this lad, it’d be a great accomplishment. Young Miss is sure to reward me! A Rank one initial stage’s moonblade is at max only like a small dagger, so as long as it does not hit my vital points it’ll merely be a light external injury.”
Thinking of this, Gao Wan’s heart started to beat faster. Stretching out his shovel-like hands, he grabbed at Fang Yuan.
Boom boom boom!
Fang Yuan showed no fear and approached Gao Wan to engage in close combat. Exchanging punches and kicks, taking turns attacking and defending, loud impact sounds echoed through the area.
When plundering the students, he had only used his palm with his objective being to control the crowd. But now when engaging with Gao Wan, Fang Yuan had gone all out.
At times he used his fingers to jab at the eyes, sometimes strangling the throat, hitting the jaw with the base of his palm, chopping at the back of his opponent’s head, using the knee to strike the pelvic area, or using his hands to grab at the waist.
Gao Wan’s sweat poured out like a river.
Fang Yuan’s moves were all aiming at the vital points, each strike devious and deadly as if he wanted to end Gao Wan’s life right there!
Gao Wan was a mere mortal, and unlike the Gu Masters, although he trained well in his physical combat, his vital points remained vital. Mortals were unable to train their eyelids to become steel-like. This was the limits of the mortal martial arts.
In addition, Gao Wan did not dare to unleash any deadly moves on Fang Yuan.
Fang Yuan was a Gu Yue clansman, so killing him would incur public rage and he would be immediately executed. In fact, the Mo family will be the first to carry out his punishment. Thus his only thought was to capture Fang Yuan alive, and it would be good if he could make Fang Yuan suffer in the process of capture.
One side has apprehension while the other side had killing intent. The situation thus became Fang Yuan suppressing Gao Wan in the fight!
(1) 吊脚竹楼 – ordinary wooden lodge that was built above the ground (see image).
*This chapter was brought to you by Chibigen and Skyfarrow. Credits to Chibigen for helping with the translations.