Fang Yuan's brief advantage wouldn't last long.
As they exchanged blows back and forth, he was already panting heavily. Gao Wan, by contrast, still breathed in long, deep cycles — a vast gap in stamina separated them.
At the same time, as Gao Wan warmed up from the exertion, his body heat rose and his punching speed grew ever faster. He was gradually shaking off the numbness and sluggishness brought on by the cold, and beginning to truly display the strength he had honed over decades of bitter training.
"You brat, you can't beat me," Gao Wan roared. "The clan rules clearly state that inside the Academy, you cannot use Moonlight Gu. You're finished — today you're destined to become my prisoner!" His grin was savage. He was a seasoned fighter and attempted to crush Fang Yuan's willpower with words.
"I'm still just a teenager — my body hasn't finished growing, so my physical素质 are naturally inferior to this brute's." Thirty-fifth Heart Insight of Gu Master cultivation: *You can scream all you want.* After five hundred years of tempering, how could his willpower possibly be shaken?
*Moonlight Gu!* He activated his True Essence with a thought and hopped backward, creating distance between himself and Gao Wan.
Gao Wan lunged to pursue, but suddenly caught sight of a layer of blue watery light glowing from Fang Yuan's palm.
His expression darkened instantly. "You brat — using Gu Insects to fight inside the Academy is a violation of the clan rules!"
"And what if I violate them?" Fang Yuan sneered. He had studied the clan rules and mastered them precisely so he would never have to follow them.
Without hesitation, his palm slashed through the air toward Gao Wan.
A sharp hiss sounded, and a blue Moon Blade shot straight toward Gao Wan's face.
Gao Wan gritted his teeth, raised both arms and crossed them in front of his face to form an arm shield. At the same time, he didn't stop moving — he charged straight at Fang Yuan, intending to tank the hit and end the fight quickly.
The Moon Blade struck his arms. With a wet thud, flesh and blood sprayed through the moonlight, and an excruciating pain shot through Gao Wan's nerves. Caught off guard, the agony nearly made him black out.
"How is this possible?!" His charge ground to a halt. Trembling with shock, he discovered that both of his forearms had been sliced open with a deep横向 gash. Blood flowed ceaselessly from the wound, and from the side he could see the bloody, mangled muscle beneath. He could even glimpse the pale, severed arm bone.
Gao Wan's heart flooded with horror. "This can't be! A First Transformation Initial Stage Moon Blade should only be able to cut my flesh — how could it sever my bone? Only a blade at Middle Stage can do that!"
He had no way of knowing that although Fang Yuan was indeed only a First Transformation Initial Stage Gu Master, the refinement provided by the Wine Worm had given him True Essence equivalent to Middle Stage.
The Moon Blade, fueled by Middle Stage True Essence, naturally carried far greater power than one powered by Initial Stage essence.
"That brat's not right — something's off about him!!" Gao Wan, completely caught off guard, had taken a devastating blow. His fighting spirit evaporated, and he made an instant decision to flee.
"Think you can run?" Fang Yuan sneered, giving chase as Moon Blades flew from his hand in rapid succession.
"Help!!" Gao Wan screamed and scrambled away, his cries echoing far through the silent Academy.
"What's going on? Someone's calling for help!" The shouting alerted the nearby Academy guards.
"It's a servant left behind by Miss Gu Yue Moyan from the Mo Family." The guards rushed over, saw the chase unfolding, and stopped in their tracks.
"He's just a servant — there's no need to protect him!"
"Leaving him here was already showing face to the Mo Family."
"We should still be careful, though — don't want him to act out of desperation and hurt that Fang Yuan."
The tense guards surrounded the area but didn't intervene, merely watching from the sidelines.
This servant called Gao Wan — if he died, he died. It had nothing to do with them. But if Fang Yuan was killed or injured, that would be their responsibility.
Seeing this, Gao Wan's heart went completely cold. He let out a desperate wail: "We're both outsiders — you can't just stand there and watch me die!"
He was losing more and more blood, and his speed was flagging.
Fang Yuan caught up from behind, his voice cold as ice, delivering Gao Wan's death sentence: "Scream all you want. No matter how loud you cry out, it won't help."
As he spoke, his hand blade flipped. Two more Moon Blades shot out in quick succession.
Two sharp swishes — both struck Gao Wan square in the neck.
Gao Wan felt his heart go cold, as though he had taken a step into a bottomless abyss.
In the next instant, his vision lurched into a dizzying spin. He saw his own feet, his chest, his back… and his neck, sliced clean through.
Then he plunged into total darkness.
Gao Wan was dead.
Decapitated by two of Fang Yuan's Moon Blades, his head went flying while his body ran another ten meters before finally collapsing to the ground. From the severed neck, bright red blood gushed upward like a fountain, dyeing all the surrounding flowers and grass a deep crimson.