Soon a week passed.
In the village academy, the academy elder talked with confidence and composure. In front of him were 57 students, seated and listening attentively.
"If you all work hard in your cultivation, your cultivation base will naturally advance to rank two, even rank three. Of course, the higher your talent the bigger your chance of promoting."
Many of them couldn't help but look at Gu Yue Fang Zheng who was sitting rigidly at the first row. He was an A grade talent after all. Their eyes were filled with feelings of envy and jealousy. At the same time there were some who stared at the corner at the last row of the classroom.
Leaning against the window at the corner was Gu Yue Fang Yuan, who was bent over the desk sleeping soundly.
"Look, he's still sleeping," someone whispered.
"He's been sleeping continuously for a week, yet he's still not awake?" Someone cut in.
"There's more. I heard that he was up all night, wandering about at the edge of the village."
"There's been people who've seen it more than once, apparently he holds a wine-jar at night, dead drunk outside. Luckily these few years the village surroundings have been cleared clean, so it's safer." The fellow schoolmates whisper here and there, letting all kinds of small gossip spreading around quickly.
"Ah well, the blow was just too big. Someone hailed as a genius for so many years unexpectedly ending up to be a C-grade talent in the end, hehe."
"If only it was just the case. Of all the people his own little brother was pronounced an A grade, right now being the center of attention, enjoying the best treatment. The younger brother soars up to the sky, while the older brother falls to the ground, tut tut…"
As the discussion amongst the students got louder and louder, the academy elder's brow deepened into a frown.
"It's already been a week, yet he's still so dispirited. Hmph, initially I must have been mistaken by him, how could someone like this be a genius!" The elder thought disgruntledly.
"Forget it, he's just a C grade. If he can't even withstand this sort of blow, fostering him with that kind of temperament will just end up wasting the clan's resources, nothing good will come out of it." The elder's heart was filled with disappointment towards Fang Yuan.
Seeing, that the class was almost over, the academy elder finally informed, "This week I have taught you all how to contemplate and check your own aperture's primeval sea, and how to meditate and shift around the primeval essence inside your body. Now is the time for you all to refine your vital Gu. After this class ends, you will all go to the academy's Gu room and pick a Gu worm. After choosing your Gu, please go home and focus on refining it. When you have finally refined your Gu, then you can come back to the academy and continue attending class. At the same time, this is your first assessment. Whoever can finish this assessment first will be rewarded a generous sum of 20 primeval stones."
"Is it over…" Awoken by the classroom's noisy chatter, Fang Yuan opened his sleepy eyes.
He stretched his body and thought with resentment in his heart, 'How long these people are going to monitor me?'
At the end of class, the excited teenagers rushed towards the Gu room.
"Form a line, enter one by one," some voices suddenly yelled; it was natural that there were guards outside the Gu room. The youths went in one at a time and came out. Finally it was Fang Yuan's turn to enter the Gu room.
This room was a mysterious room. The four walls all had holes; in each one of these embedded square holes were another square hole. Each of the holes differed in size, some big and some small. The bigger ones were no bigger than a an earthenware cooking pot, the smaller holes no smaller than a fist.
In the many square holes were all kinds of containers – there were grey stone basins, verdant jade dishes, exquisite grass cages, earthen stoves etc. These containers kept in all kinds of variety of Gu.
Some Gu were silent, while some Gu made a lot of noises, creating chirping, clucking, rustling sounds and so on. All these noises combined together to create a sort of life symphony.
"Alas, I wanted to obtain the Liquor worm early. But right now my uncle's people are monitoring my every move. So, it's hard to move towards the place where Flower Wine Monk's inheritance is at. Just to be safe I'll pick a Moonlight Gu first." Fang Yuan sighed inwardly as he walked straight along the wall on his left.
Fang Yuan casually chose one and took it. The Moonlight Gu was very light, comparable to the weight of a piece of paper.
As Fang Yuan put it on his hand, he could see through it and gaze at the lines on his palm.
With one last look and finding nothing wrong with it, Fang Yuan put the Moonlight Gu into his pocket and walked out of the Gu room. Outside the Gu room, the queue was still quite long. As soon as the next person in line saw Fang Yuan leave, he went into the room hurriedly with excitement.
After he left the Gu room, Fang Yuan headed straight for the tavern.
"Shopkeeper, two jars of aged wine!" Fang Yuan fished around his pockets and drew out a few primeval stone pieces, putting them onto the counter.
The shopkeeper was a short and fat middle-aged man, his face oily. After these few days he had already remembered Fang Yuan.
These few days Fang Yuan would come here and buy wine, then go around the village border, intending to catch the Liquor worm, but realising that he was being monitored the entire week, he didn't made a move.
As he walked with the two jars of wine in his hand, he started to wonder. "Is he here, yet?"
It was at this moment, the voice of Gu Yue Fang Zheng called out to him from behind. "Big brother, you really did go to the tavern and buy alcohol! Follow me, aunt and uncle want to see you."
Fang Yuan stopped in his tracks and turned around. He found his younger brother was no longer like before, always lowering his head as he spoke. Right now the two brothers gazed at each other face to face.
Just a short period of one month has gone by, yet humans change.
A week after the Awakening Ceremony, a huge change came upon the older brother and the younger brother. The older brother Fang Yuan fell from the clouds, the title of genius mercilessly destroyed. And the younger brother began to bloom with radiance, slowly rising up like a new star.
Sometimes when Fang Zheng walked on the road, he would hear people around him talking about himself, voices praising him. His face would heat up and he would feel completely at a loss of what to do, his eyes trying to avoid gazes, he even almost forgot how to walk properly!
The first ten days or so, Gu Yue Fang Zheng became thinner yet his energy became more vigorous. From the inner depths of his heart, something called 'self-confidence' began to manifest.
He was the outstanding one, this was the real truth!
Hence when he saw Fang Yuan holding the wine jars, his hair messy and clothes untidy, Gu Yue Fang Zheng felt relieved, his breathing also becoming a lot easier. But yet he said, "Big brother, you have to stop drinking, you cannot go on like this! You have no idea how worried the people who care about you are, you need to wake up!"
Fang Yuan was emotionless; he did not say anything. But he smirked inwardly.
Guu Yue Fang Zheng's eyes were shining, giving off a sharp and keen feel. And Gu Yue Fang Yuan's two orbs were a deep black, faintly resembling a deep ancient pool. These eyes could not help but make Fang Zheng feel a strange oppression. Not long after, he subconsciously turned away his gaze and looked somewhere else.
But when he realized it, he felt a sudden rise of anger. It was an anger that was directed at himself.
'What's wrong with you? Can't even muster the courage to look directly at your big brother?'
'I've changed, I've completely changed!'
With these thoughts his eyes shifted back their sharpness and he shot his gaze at his brother again. But Fang Yuan was already not looking at him. Holding a jar of wine in each hand, he walked past Fang Zheng and said in a dull voice, "What else are you gawking at? Let's go."
Fang Zheng's breathing became disoriented, the strength that had accumulated inside his heart no longer able to be released. This made him experience a depression that was hard to describe.
Seeing that his older brother had walked far ahead, he could only quicken his pace to catch up. But this time his head was no longer lowered, but rose to meet the sun. His gaze was fixed on his own feet that was stepping on his older brother Fang Yuan's shadow.