The academy elder was not having a good time- having been awake for most of last night due to Fang Yuan's discovery.
Just as he had dozed off, one of the guards woke him.
"Gah! What's going on?" he asked, snarling. The guard, a mortal, immediately began cowering.
"This one requests your forgiveness!" the guard said. "But, Lord Elder had asked us to wake him when the first student who refined their gu came, regardless of the hour!"
The academy elder rubbed the sleep from his eyes.
That was true. "Who is it?"
"Gu Yue Fang Yuan..." the guard said, though he seemed to be hesitating slightly while saying so.
"Not Fang Zheng?" the academy elder wondered. He was the favorite to finish first with his A-grade talent, after all. But Fang Yuan had B-grade talent, and had recently gotten the Liquor Worm. It was too soon for him to have refined the same, but with luck...
'Eh, whatever, I'm too tired to think, let me just go outside and check,' he thought to himself.
The twins were so similar that at first glance the academy elder couldn't tell which one it was, but if he had to hazard a guess, he was about 70% sure this was Fang Yuan.
"Ah, you are...?" he asked directly, not bothering with trying to deduce who it was through clues.
"Gu Yue Fang Yuan," Fang Yuan replied. "I have successfully refined the Moonlight Gu."
"I see, let me check," the academy elder said.
This was the reason that Fang Yuan had to be so careful when it came to how quickly he advanced during this first year.
The aperture was the source of a Gu Master's power, and could not be examined casually by others. That was, of course, outside this year in the academy where the academy elder would take a look on and off.
Because of this, although Fang Yuan felt that he could rocket forward with his cultivation provided the system continued to be generous with rewards, he had to halt it and could not run too far ahead for this first year.
There was another matter that had worried him slightly- he was pretending to be a B-grade talent, though he only had 50% aptitude right now, being smack in the middle of C-grade.
He had exhausted most of his primeval essence as a precautionary measure, so that it looked like he had just emptied most of it before coming here, which was only natural if he had just been refining gu.
When the academy elder examined his aperture, he saw an aperture that had most of its primeval essence depleted. There was the Moonlight Gu, refined, and the Liquor Worm, which Fang Yuan likely still had to work on but would refine eventually. The academy elder knew that he had just gotten it last night and wouldn't have the time to have done so.
As for the Spring Autumn Cicada- it was a Rank 6 Gu, and he had no ability to detect it as a Rank 3 Gu Master.
"Ah, well done," the academy elder said.
Now that Fang Yuan had the Liquor Worm, which he would likely soon refine, he would now be the top student in the class.
That wasn't to say that his advantage would last- it would only be till Rank 1 Peak Realm, but most Gu Masters couldn't even get past Rank 1 Middle Realm in that span of time.
Outside the academy though, Fang Yuan's future would still be relatively bright, being a B-grade talent, only not as good as Fang Zheng's.
The academy elder gave Fang Yuan a few more words of praise before returning to bed, stifling a yawn.
Mission Successful!
Reward: 2% permanent increase to aptitude
Fang Yuan smiled- he would be given 10 primeval stones tomorrow, but that could not compare with this increase to his aptitude.
Only twenty minutes later, Fang Zheng approached the house, panting.
"Oh? Fang Yuan, you're back?" the guards asked.
"Fang Yuan?" Fang Zheng wondered. He had rushed over here when he had finally finished refining his Moonlight Gu, excited that he would be the first, though he quickly realized what was going on even though he didn't want to believe it. "Ah... I am Fang Zheng..."
"Ah, yeah, you two really do look alike... well, what is this about?"
"I refined my Moonlight Gu..." Fang Zheng said in a soft whisper, and the guards confirmed that he was late by a sliver of time.
Fang Zheng could only scream internally. He had thought that he would finally one-up his brother, especially given the fact that he was now in the spotlight for finding the Flower Wine Monk's Inheritance- Fang Zheng's desire to surpass him was fueled even further. However, to think that he had lost again.
'Maybe I shouldn't have tried to go a second round with Cui Cui later on tonight...' he thought, wondering if that was what had caused him to lose. However, she had just looked so cute in her miniskirt and thigh highs and he hadn't been able to help himself...
Meanwhile, when the news reached Mo Bei and Chi Chen later, they were even more dejected.
"What are you sulking around for?" Mo Chen asked Mo Bei a few days later. "Such setbacks are normal when it comes to cultivating gu."
"It's not that..." Mo Bei said despondently. "It's that now he has the Liquor Worm- grandfather, with that, doesn't it mean that he'll leave us all in the dust? What's even the point of trying?" As far as they knew, Fang Yuan had the equivalent of 120-140% primeval essence right now.
"So what?" Mo Chen asked. "The Liquor Worm is only useful until Rank 1 Peak Realm, after that, it's useless. And there are many more aspects to Gu Master cultivation, like using gu, refining gu, and also there is training your body as well. If Fang Yuan gets dependent on the Liquor Worm, it will only hamper him later on if he is too used to it."
Mo Bei sighed. "If only I could also have a Liquor Worm..." However, there was no point wondering about that. There were none sold in the village, and even the merchant caravan that would come once a year might not have one even if one was willing to pay the price.
If he knew that Fang Yuan had an extra with him, he would no doubt cough out a mouthful of blood in anger.
However, Mo Chen continued to encourage him, and his mood marginally improved.
"So, does that mean that you'll give up? Admit that you're he's always going to be better than you?" Mo Chen asked rhetorically.
"Nah, I'd cultivate," Mo Chen said, now invigorated with energy and willing to work hard again.