Graduation

"I can give it to you." Gu Yue Bo laughed even more amicably, "But as the clan leader, I have to be impartial and cannot give it to you for no reason, thus I have a condition."

Fang Zheng nodded repeatedly, staring widely, "What condition?"

Gu Yue Bo's smile vanished, showing a stern expression, "I want you to be the first to breakthrough Rank one into Rank two out od you and Gu Yue Mo Bei and Gu Yue Chi Cheng, And this Jade Skin Gu is your advancement reward."

"Ah, advance to Rank two?" Gu Yue Fang Zheng hesitated for a moment. He had just become Rank one middle stage after middle stage was upper stage, and after that, there was still peak stage.

But now Gu Yue Bo wanted to him to be the at least be the second person to advance to Rank two."What's wrong, are you afraid? Then I can only give this Gu to others." Gu Yue Bo pretended to keep the Jade Skin Gu.

Fang Zheng was incited by this sentence, immediately his brain heated up as he shouted, "No, I promise you! I will defeat everyone and be the first Rank two cultivator I'll even surpass big brother!"

"That's the way but I don't think you'll be able to yet but with my help, you might in the future." Gu Yue Bo showed his gentle smile again, placing the Jade Skin Gu on Fang Zheng's hand. He thought in his heart, "Fang Zheng, I know you feel inferior, but this inferiority complex is too harmful to your growth. The best way to dispel your inferiority is success. You have A grade talent, so advancing to Rank two as one of the first the chance is small but even if you come second you won't be far behind with this your inferiority towards your brother will diminish greatly giving you great hop to surpass him. You must at least claim second, for if you fail even this, I would be too disappointed."

Time flies, autumn leaves and winter comes.

Many events had happened with Fang Yuan slowly getting more and more lowkey where his current reputation is slightly Fang Zheng and slightly better than the other two stars of Gu Yue, in the midterm exams where one competed to see whoever had the most boar teeth, surprisingly this time Fang Zheng snatched 1st place, after getting his first success over his brother he went over the moon and gained massive confidence, pride and arrogance overnight and became famous across the whole village as the new number 1, there was one point he thought he could take everything back from Fang Yuan but sadly he wasn't even able to get through the front doors of the Mo residence before forced to leave and realize what marrying into the Mo family had given his brother with his rage and hatred growing ever more violent.

But unaware to Fang Zheng was that Fang Yuan couldn't even be bothered dealing with this 'number 1' and drawing attention back to himself again and has already reached the peak of middle rank 2 while already possessing a method to hide his cultivation from anyone below rank 5 and was about to advance to upper rank 2. While his Gu collection has gone extremely well while he has already refined all his necessary Gu's for rank 2 according to his very own recipes he's developed with no failures of course due to his unheard of attainments in the path of refinement that was used as apart of his rank 9 title.

Now he had already gathered all necessary materials to also purge the harmful effects on the Thousand Li Earthwolf Spider but was just holding for the moment when the time of the final battle of Qing Mao Mountain happens as this rank 5 Gu would be a great battle asset and transportation as well as escape option not to mention easily attainable food source, soil. Tomorrow would be the end of year exams where one would leave the academy and form teams.

On the arena in the academy, three stages had already been built.

Beside the stage, near the bamboo walls of the arena, there were tents and long tables and chairs.

The academy elder, clan leader, and a few other clan elders were sitting below the tentage cover.

There was a little snow in the sky. Fifty-seven students stood straight on the arena. Each of their noses were bright red from the weather, and every breath they took had steam coming out of their noses.

The academy elder spoke loudly, "In a flash, a year has ended. During this year you were trained in the academy and have started to grasp the qualities of a Gu Master. Tomorrow, you will have the year end examination to test the fruits of your hard work! Not only will the clan leader and clan elders come personally to watch, your family elders and seniors will also come to observe to pick excellent performing students to join their small teams."

"Your performances tomorrow, will to a large extent affect your future. Getting first place, not only is it a hundred and fifty primeval stones, but you also get an advantage in picking Gu worms! Now, start the final cultivation check in your academic life!" Saying so, the academy elder nodded to a Gu Master beside him.

The female Gu Master received the instructions and called out the name from the list, "Gu Yue Jin Zhu!"

A young girl walked towards the Gu Master with a nervous expression.

The Gu Master stretched out her hand, touching the young girl's abdomen. She closed her eyes to feel, then opened her eyes and declared, "Gu Yue Jin Zhu, rank 1 middle stage. Next, Gu Yue Peng."One after another, youngsters went up to check. Then they walked back down and returned to the group.