News of what had happened to Fang Zheng had spread quickly throughout the village- including about him reconciling with Fang Yuan.

Both Fang Yuan and Fang Zheng were rather famous by this point- Fang Yuan for his role in finding the Flower Wine Monk’s inheritance, and Fang Zheng for being an A-grade talent (formerly). Not to mention the news of a Rank 3 demonic Gu Master attacking was without a doubt, going to cause quite a stir. Especially as no one knew who had been behind the attack and speculation was rampant. It was the number one topic of discussion for quite some time.

In the academy, people were more interested in the fact that Fang Zheng and Fang Yuan had apparently made up and were now working together. It became news quickly enough that Fang Zheng had been given Fang Yuan’s Liquor Worm, and that he was trying to get back on his feet and become Rank 1 Middle Stage once again.

Some people were quite happy to hear this, for various reasons.

Mo Bei and Chi Cheng were absolutely delighted- for one, their greatest competition, Fang Zheng, had been knocked out of the ring. Not only that, Fang Yuan had lost his key advantage over them as well, and would now be burdened by having to support Fang Zheng. This was the best case scenario that either of them could’ve asked for!

Other people were just happy to see the brothers together again.

Some found it odd just how quickly they had gotten over their animosity for each other, but to most of them, it made sense. They were twins after all, how long could they stay mad at each other?

Li Mei found herself in an awkward position. The Fang Zheng faction of the student body had basically collapsed by this point without their leader, and while some of them migrated to the Mo Bei or Chi Cheng factions, most of them followed Fang Zheng and wanted to join the ‘Fang Yuan faction.’ Li Mei was basically the leader since she was the only one other than Yu Sai who was a member of it, but, the fact of the matter was that she had no real connection to Fang Yuan and when the others asked her for guidance on what they should do, she was tongue-tied.

Some of the girls were worried about the fact that Fang Yuan was supporting someone like Fang Zheng. The rumors of what Fang Zheng had done to Shen Cui had spread far and wide, and some of them believed them.

“I don’t believe them, Fang Zheng must’ve been set up,” Li Mei said firmly. “If Fang Yuan says so, it must be true!” She couldn’t imagine someone as righteous as Fang Yuan supporting someone who would do something terrible to a woman, even if they were his own twin brother. He was the kind of person who would fight the entire world for what he felt was right, that was her impression of who Fang Yuan was. Moreover, Fang Zheng had not been part of the group led by Yu Sai who had tried to peep on the girls earlier during the hot springs incident, leading credence to her claim.

However, even now, some female Gu Masters would give Fang Zheng dirty looks whenever he wandered outside. What Uncle had done had been a complete fabrication, but it had been somewhat effective nonetheless.

Speaking of, Uncle and Aunt were shocked themselves to see that Fang Zheng had made up with Fang Yuan so quickly. They had tried their hardest to drive a wedge between the two brothers, after all. If he had known it was going to be like that, Uncle might’ve thought twice about kicking Fang Zheng out.

Even though Fang Zheng had surrendered his claim to his parent’s property, they could’ve still used him somewhat as a pawn against Fang Yuan to restrict him. It wouldn’t have been likely to work, especially as Fang Zheng was only a C-grade talent now, but it was still something that they could try.

The reason that Uncle had been so eager to get rid of Fang Zheng was that he had been paranoid that if Fang Zheng stayed around for too long, he would somehow make the connection that Uncle had been the one who ordered the attack on ‘Fang Zheng’s’ life! Either that, or that someone else might figure it out.

As it was, Fang Yuan was a bit surprised that his Uncle would throw out Fang Zheng so quickly- but he was unaware of the true reason behind it. Of course, he had expected that his Uncle would eventually kick Fang Zheng out now that he was a liability rather than an asset, but he had expected a few more schemes from him to prevent him from taking his parent’s inheritance before that happened. Fang Yuan still didn’t think that his uncle would be capable of ordering a hit like that, and so, could only put this mystery aside for now.

Still, Fang Yuan, even if he didn’t fully understand it, took it in stride.

“And this is my reward for the same,” he said as he held a Green Copper Relic Gu in his hands. This was the second one in his possession, and he had gotten this reward from the system for relinquishing the Liquor Worm to Fang Zheng.

He had been waiting for the right time to use this, as he would need some time to believably advance to Rank 1 Peak Stage. Now, the time was right as he injected his primeval essence into it, and the walls of his aperture now turned as hard as crystal.

At this point, the Liquor Worm would’ve been useless to him anyway. He could only rely on his own primeval essence to break through to Rank 2 Initial Stage now. As it was, if he needed it in the future, he had no doubt that he could easily snatch it back from Fang Zheng.

The academy elder and clan head hadn’t been happy with the fact that he had given the Liquor Worm away. From their perspectives, Fang Yuan was now one of the most promising talents and he could’ve used this far better than someone like Fang Zheng was now only ordinary. Even if Fang Yuan had no use for it, it was ‘wasted’ in their eyes on a C-grade talent like Fang Zheng and would’ve suited Mo Bei or Chi Cheng better. However, given Fang Yuan’s reputation for generosity and the fact that they were, after all, twin brothers, neither of them suspected anything off about the current situation.

With 59% primeval essence, Fang Yuan could break through to Rank 2 far easier than he had in his past life. However, as he no longer had the Liquor Worm’s assistance, his progress would be greatly slowed as he no longer had his primeval essence effectively doubled. Right now, it would be good if he could reach Rank 2 before the end of the school year.

He had not been idle while waiting for the right time to use the Green Copper Relic Gu, however. He no longer focused on breaking through and instead on absorbing as much as the White Boar Gu’s strength as possible. He had also used that time to stock up on primeval stones to make his breakthrough easier in the future as there was no need to waste primeval essence on something the Green Copper Relic Gu could do easily, and also to prepare for breaking through to Rank 3 as well in the future. He had things set up so that he would soon have 3 Red Steel Relic Gu in the future to go from Rank 2 Initial Stage to Rank 2 Peak Stage nearly instantly- of course, to maintain appearances he would have to move a bit slowly while building up a primeval stone reserve to break through to Rank 3 after that.

Once that was done, he could leave the village, but there were certain things to take care of before that.

The system, for one, had promised him greater rewards for lending even more help to Fang Zheng. He was greatly interested in one of them, though that might take time and some planning to achieve.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep