The hall was brightly lit.
At the round dining table, the wine had gone cold and the dishes had cooled.
The scarlet candle flames flickered, casting the shadows of Uncle and Aunt on the wall.
Their two shadows merged into one, swaying gloomily with the candlelight.
Before them, Shen Momo knelt.
Uncle broke the silence. "I never imagined this Fang Yuan would be so dead set on opposing me. Sigh. Originally, I planned to persuade him with kind words, keep him placated, have him stay in the house first, then find a reason to drive him out. I didn't expect that little brat to see right through it! He's set in his ways — he flatly rejected my invitation without leaving an inch of room for negotiation! He wouldn't even step one foot through my door!"
Aunt gritted her teeth, her expression panicked. "That ungrateful wolf cub has already turned sixteen. If he demands a share of the family inheritance, we can't refuse. The inheritance we received back then — every last bit was registered in the Internal Affairs Hall. We can't deny it. What are we going to do?!"
"You may leave." Uncle waved Shen Momo away, then sneered. "There's no need to panic. Over this past year, I've already been planning and scheming. First of all, to split the family estate, one must have a First Transformation Middle Stage cultivation level. Fang Yuan has long since met that requirement — he's even at Peak Stage, and he won first place in the year-end competition. Truly impressive... Heh heh..."
"But successfully claiming a share of the inheritance is far from that simple! First Transformation Middle Stage is merely a prerequisite. To receive the inheritance, Fang Yuan still has to submit an application. Once the Internal Affairs Hall approves it, they'll issue a task to assess whether he is qualified. This is the clan's policy to prevent reckless division of assets, which would lead to excessive internal drain and weaken the clan's strength."
Aunt suddenly understood. "So you're saying Fang Yuan has to complete this task before he can receive his parents' inheritance."
"Precisely." Uncle smiled sinisterly. "But the tasks issued by the Internal Affairs Hall are assigned to groups. This inheritance task is no exception. For Fang Yuan to complete it, he'll need to rely on the group's strength — he can't do it alone. The clan does this to integrate groups in every way possible, pushing members to unite and build cohesion."
Aunt burst into hearty laughter. "Master, you are truly brilliant. Having Jiao San recruit Fang Yuan into his group means that for Fang Yuan to complete the inheritance task, he'll need their power. But Jiao San is our man — Fang Yuan won't be able to complete the task on his own."
A gleam of smugness flashed in Uncle's eyes. "Hmph. Even if we fail to draw him into the group, I have other ways to deal with him. Forget completing the task — even if he wants to apply for the family split and receives this inheritance task, it may not even be possible!"
...
Night fell and the snow stopped.
Fang Yuan walked along the street, the bamboo buildings on either side covered in a layer of white frost.
His feet made faint sounds on the snow's surface. The crisp, cold air filled his lungs, clearing his mind to a razor-sharp focus.
After turning down Shen Momo's offer, Fang Yuan had ignored the pleas of Jiao San and the others, bid them farewell, and struck out on his own.
"So that's how it is," he mused as he walked. "Uncle and Aunt want to bottleneck me, drag things out, and rob me of any chance to reclaim the inheritance."
"After the new year, I'll be sixteen and eligible to split the family estate. Both parents are dead, and my younger brother has already acknowledged new adoptive parents. If I succeed, the entire inheritance becomes mine. But recovering it requires two steps, and each one has its own hurdles."
"The first step, provided I have no active tasks, is to file an application at the Internal Affairs Hall. The second step is to complete the inheritance task they issue — only then will I be qualified to claim the estate."
"Jiao San is cut from the same cloth as Uncle and Aunt. Leaving aside the second step, he'll bottleneck me at the very first one."
Clan rules dictated that a Gu Master could only work on one task at a time. This was to prevent Gu Masters from blindly taking on multiple tasks, which would foster vicious competition within the clan.
Jiao San had been accepting tasks in succession. Having just completed the task of harvesting frozen mud, he immediately took on a new task to capture wild deer.
Clan tasks were issued to entire groups, which meant that under the rules, Fang Yuan had to finish this wild deer capture task before he was even permitted to apply for the family split.
"But by then, I'm certain Jiao San will accept yet another task. As group leader, he always gets priority in task handovers — he'll always be one step ahead of me. I'll always be one step behind, unable to apply for the inheritance task, because he's blocking the way." At this thought, a cold, sharp glint passed through Fang Yuan's eyes.
These petty schemes and conspiracies were truly annoying — like an invisible rope tied around his legs, weighing down every step forward.
But Fang Yuan didn't regret joining the group.
At the martial arena, the situation had left him in a bind. Jiao San's invitation had actually served to extricate him.
Had he not joined the group, Uncle and Aunt would surely have deployed other measures — impossible to guard against. Now that he was inside the group, he could see their layout clearly and strike back at his leisure.
"There is, of course, a way to solve this problem. The simplest and most direct approach would be to eliminate Jiao San outright and assassinate Uncle and Aunt. With them gone, no one would contest the inheritance. But the risk is far too great. They are Second Transformation Gu Masters, and my First Transformation cultivation is still too low. Even if I killed them, there would be no way to clean up the mess — unless a perfect opportunity presented itself that I could exploit. But such opportunities are beyond my control."
Fang Yuan could kill a household slave like Gao Wan. He could execute Wang Laohan's entire family. That was because they were all mortals, servants — lives cheap as grass. Killing them was like crushing a blade of grass or snapping a twig. It didn't matter.
But assassinating a Gu Master — that was a different matter entirely.
Every Gu Master bore the surname Guye. They were all clan members. No matter which one died, the clan's Judicial Hall would launch a thorough investigation. Fang Yuan assessed his own strength and concluded that killing right now carried far too great a risk — he might even be killed in return. And even if he succeeded, the Judicial Hall's investigation would become an even larger headache. His future movements would be placed under surveillance, and they might even uncover Hua Jiu Xing Zhe's hidden legacy.
"To eliminate a small problem only to invite a hundredfold greater one — that is not the act of a wise man." He paused. "Hm? I've arrived."
Fang Yuan murmured softly to himself and stopped before a dilapidated bamboo building.
The structure was in a state of utter disrepair, like an old man on the verge of death, bent at the waist and clinging to life in the bitter winter wind.
Looking at this bamboo building, a flicker of reminiscence crossed Fang Yuan's face.
This was the house he had rented in his previous life.
When he had been expelled from the family by Uncle and Aunt in his past life, he had fewer than fifteen Yuan Stones to his name. After sleeping on the streets for several days, he had found this place.