chapter 16

"Big brother, what you're doing is wrong! You better stop this before you get into any trouble!"

At the Gu Yue Village Academy, in front of the academy's gate, Fang Yuan had once again blocked the only entrance and the exit to the academy.

on the ground nearby a group of students leyd on the ground, scattered, all of them unconscious, including Mo Bei and Chi Cheng, two of the three most talented students in the academy.

Amidst the fallen bodies of unconscious students, Fang Zheng was still remained awake, shouting at Fang Yuan, trying to convince him that he was making a huge mistake.

But Fang Yuan remained unmoved by Fang Zheng's words. He didn't respond, Instead, he just briefly glanced at Fang Zheng, then turned his gaze toward another student who had been spared from the beating.

The frightened and scared student, understanding what Fang Yuan wanted, hurried to retrieve Fang Zheng's bag of primeval stones.

It wasn't Fang Zheng's main bag, where he keeps all his primeval stones, but it was the bag that contained his weekly academy allowance—with three primeval stones in it.

The scared student, trembling, opened the bag, taking out just one primeval stone while leaving the others inside, and putting the bag back on fang Zheng.

Afterward, he moved to another unconscious student and another and another, repeating the same action, collecting one primeval stones from each of them.

Fang Zheng watched the scene "helplessly", unable to stop what was happening. His extreme anger and frustration was evident on his face, but there was nothing he could do, he was beaten up by fang yuan, not having even the power to raise his hand.

After a few minutes, the scared student handed the primeval stones to Fang Yuan, who then, after getting the primeval stones left the academy without a word.

As soon as Fang Yuan was out of sight, the academy guards arrived, quickly gathering the unconscious students bodies from the ground, as if they were some kind of valuable treasures.

But most of the guards focused on Fang Zheng, mo bei and chi Cheng, the top three most talented students on the academy, showing just how important those three are.

A couple of guards approached to help Fang Zheng to get up, but suddenly, he pushed them away and stood up on his own.

He was no longer the "helpless" person he had appeared to be while Fang Yuan was still around, as if the scene before was just hallucinations, not something real that happened.

Without a word to the guards or a glance at the students lying on the ground, Fang Zheng began walking home.

It had been seven days since Fang Yuan's last extortion, and during this time Fang Zheng had mentally prepared himself for the next beating from fang yuan, preparing himself to pretend better.

He knew he could avoid this beating by simply handing over one primeval stone and he actually didn't have problem about it, but that would be too out of character for him, so he decided to not do that...at least for now, to be safe

beatings didn't bother him that much anyway. Fang Yuan wasn't going too hard on them—yet.

Most of the students, "Fang Zheng included", lacked real combat experience, so they didn't put up much of a fight. No students could even resist just one fang yuan's move, at best after two or three move, they would easily be knocked down by fang yuan.

Of course, as Fang Zheng, he had to put up at least a bit of resistance, which....earned him some extra pain in the process.

But he never truly tried during these fights, so the beatings weren't severe and that much painful, just a bit uncomfortable at best.

"Hmm, maybe I should use Fang Yuan as a sparring partner..." Fang Zheng thought to himself as he walked in the streets.

He always paid close attention during basic martial arts classes, and now that more students were taking this class seriously because of fang yuan, he could use this opportunity to quietly reveal his own martial arts "talent". By doing so, he could appear to be a "fast learner" with "natural fighting talent".

Revealing his true level in martial arts had its advantages. For example the martial arts instructor would likely focus more on him actually giving him better training and lessons that could help him improve not those amateur lessons for newbies, and another thing, if he done that, he could really go all out, especially when sparring with Fang Yuan.

Fang Yuan had a lot of combat experience, far more than anybody in in the gu yue village, and fang Zheng fighting skills weren't even close to the level of normal rank 2 gu masters in gu yue village, let's not mention fang yuan.

But by slowly revealing his true abilities and fighting Fang Yuan seriously, he could use these battles as real training and truly grow stronger, sharping himself using fang yuan as a sharpener.

Fighting Fang Yuan with everything he had would help him improve his combat skills, not only "learning" from fang yuan, but also experience the intensity of real fights, that he couldn't experience in the modern world, thanks to fang yuan being a serious man.

For now, Fang Zheng didn't have any pressing concerns or "grand schemes" in mind, so he could focus on these little details, laying low and focus on his cultivation, using everything he could to make himself stronger.

.....

The next day, a shocking piece of news spread throughout the village, causing quite a stir, especially at the academy, where this happened And The biggest impact was on the students in the academy.

In the class, the students were unable to concentrate. They weren't paying attention to the lessons at all, Instead, they were all talking about the shocking accident that happened last night.

"Did you hear what happened last night?" one student asked, his voice trembling.

"Yeah, I heard. Fang Yuan... that guy actually killed someone!" another replied, his tone filled with fear.

"I always knew Fang Yuan wasn't a good person, but how evil do you have to be to murder someone?" a girl added, her voice quivering with fear.

"Yes yes , he's truly evil. The guards said they saw him that night, the poor man he killed begged for mercy before his death, But Fang Yuan, without even blinking, just killed him mercilessly" another student added.

"And that's not even the worst part! Many saw him take the body afterward. They say he even forcibly took a guard his sword, they say he didn't spared even the dead body, dragging it back to the hostel and and ..... Chopping it into meat paste."

Throughout the academy, whispers of Fang Yuan's actions last night filled the air. Most of the students were too distracted by the news to focus on their lessons.

The thought of someone being killed was terrifying for them, especially considering the fact that they are only fifteen year olds and specially that they had all experienced Fang Yuan's extortions and a lot of them fought with him before, engaging with him in physical combat.

Could they be the next one ? Could fang yuan actually kill them ?

The thought that they had fought with a murderer that could easily kill a human before was too terrifying for them, The fear was palpable.

Among the students, Fang Zheng's face was pale.

As usual, he didn't pay attention to the "unimportant" lessons, but this time, he wasn't even cultivating during the class like usual, just sitting there, doing nothing except staring at the wall with a pale face.

This weird situation was all because of what Fang Yuan had done last night.

Unlike the other students, Fang Zheng was actually an grown man. He had seen a lot in his life, so he wasn't scared simply because a "murderer" was in class with him or that he had fought with one before, thought it was something to be scared of, but it wasn't the reason for fang Zheng weird situation now.

Still his situation was quite similar the students in some aspect, and that aspect being the fear he felt towards fang yuan, what happened last night, It reminded him of just how dangerous Fang Yuan was, intensifying the fear in his heart.

Lately, everything had been going too smoothly for Fang Zheng. In fact so smooth that he almost forgot who he was dealing with.

This was the Gu World, and the one that he was trying to deceive was fang yuan, one of the most cunning and experienced individuals in this world, a absolute demon.

And he ? He wasn't a mastermind or an old man with hundred years of experience. He was just a regular guy. This incident reminded him of how terrifying Fang Yuan truly was, and how dangerous it would be if he made any mistake and mess thing up.

Time flew by...

With his fear of Fang Yuan intensified again, Fang Zheng became more cautious, much like how he had been during his first days in the gu world, maybe even more.

Soon after, he moved forward with his plan about the basic martial arts class.

This time, he was a bit smarter about it. His acting felt more natural, like someone with real talent who improved after each fight.

He was more successful in that regard this time, giving the to others the impression that he wanted to give them, more easily, of course it was naturally more exhausting too.

After all even though he was good at acting, but he grown in the modern world so to apply that acting skill in the middle of combat was really exhausting.

When it came to dealing with Fang Yuan, Fang Zheng made sure to act like the original Fang Zheng, but he was careful not to overdo things, act even more flawless than before.

Another thing he did during these days was using Fang Yuan's extortion as an excuse to ask his uncle for more primeval stones. Surprisingly, it was easier than normal. It seemed maybe his uncle had become used to these requests and became a little numb about it, not minding about little amounts of primeval stones, giving him one or two more.

Before long, half a month had passed.

...

In the Southern Border, there are hundreds of thousands of mountains, and Qing Mao Mountain was just one among them.

Each mountain is home to a few villages, and between the mountains lie deep, dangerous forests.

Due to the poor economy and the need for rare items and ingredients, trading was something essential. Caravans were the most important means of doing this.

The Southern Border was vast, but only a small portion of it is inhabited by humans. If you needed something, you would likely have to venture into the wild to find it. However, roaming in the wild required at least rank 3 cultivation, making caravans that came from other parts of southern border extremely important. They were often the only way to trade and get what people needed.

Today was the time of year when the merchant caravan arrived at Qing Mao Mountain.

The caravan entered the village, led by a giant toad known as the Treasure Brass Toad.

This toad was two and a half meters tall, it had a orange-yellow body and its back covered in warts and knots. Ropes were tied around its back, loaded with various goods, making it look like a huge toad with a massive backpack.

Sitting cross-legged on the toad's head was a man with a round face full of pockmarks. This was Jia Fu, a rank 4 Gu Master and the leader of this merchant caravan.

Following the Treasure Brass Toad, there were many other strange animals carrying goods.

A fifteen meter long fat worm, a giant beetle, a huge spider with abnormal amount of hair even for a breast, a snake with two pairs of wings, and more.

There were also mortals and regular people walking with the caravan, carrying smaller items, while the beasts carried the heavier and more valuable ones.

Fang Zheng stood in the street, watching the enormous caravan as it entered the village.

Sooner, the sounds of the approaching caravan had interrupted his cultivation, so he came out to see what was going on and he meet with the bustling scene of the huge Carvan entering the village.

"Hmmm, I wonder if I could get something good..." Fang Zheng muttered to himself, patting his bag of primeval stones as he watched the scene.

Before long, the clan head himself arrived to greet the caravan, he was a important man, being at rank four, he was a powerhouse but so was jia Fu the leader of the caravan, so it wasn't polite to send a rank 3 elder to greeting someone like jia fu thus he himself came to do that.

.....

"Fang Yuan, are you sure you want me to do this?" a teenager whispered fearfully in a quiet alley.

"Hehehe, why are you hesitating? Don't you want primeval stones? Or is the allowance that academy gives is enough fo you?" In front of him was another teenager, his face plain and his hair messy, but his dark eyes had a strange light in it, but this light was trapped inside, covered with a facade of darkness.

"No, no, I'll do it," the scared teenager replied, looking at Fang Yuan's hand nervously.

"Good. Once you've done what I told you, I'll give you three primeval stones" the teenager with messy hair said, handing a small bag to the frightened boy.

"And don't forget, if you try anything funny, I'll make your life a living hell. Remember what happened to that Mo family servant? You think I can't do that again?" The voice of the teenager with messy hair turned menacing before he leaves the dark alley.

"I I won't, I promise to you fang yuan" the scared boy stammered, his voice trembling as he watched Fang Yuan walk away, fear still evident in his eyes.

Stepping out of the alley, Fang Zheng smoothed down his hair, smirking "hehehe, Acting like Fang Yuan is easier than pretending to be the original Fang Zheng. At least I don't have to fake many emotions, since Fang Yuan doesn't show much of them anyway."