The night sky of early summer was beautiful.
There was not a single floating cloud in the sky, and crystal-clear stars twinkled with moving radiance.
Sandalwood crickets made their stage appearance, taking the place of the Dragon Pill crickets, singing lyrical songs in the grass, by the mountain streams, and on the tree branches.
Sparse lights shone in the Gu Yue village, seemingly reflecting the starry sky from afar.
The jade-green stilt bamboo houses stood tall in the night wind, possessing a unique, peaceful, tranquil, and leisurely atmosphere beneath the starry sky.
At this moment, Fang Yuan was not in the village, but had sneaked into the stone crevice secret cave.
He half-knelt on the ground, his right hand stroking the shadow wall, a ball of blue moonlight radiating from his palm.
On the shadow wall, the original images had long since vanished, appearing no different from the surrounding stone walls. If it weren't for Fang Yuan clearly remembering the location, who would know that the Flower Wine Monk's strength inheritance was hidden beneath this shadow wall?
More than a month ago at night, an anomaly occurred with the shadow wall, and the Flower Wine Monk's secret inheritance suddenly appeared. First, an image of the Flower Wine Monk bathed in blood emerged on the shadow wall, proclaiming he would leave behind an inheritance. Then came a line of blood-red text, hinting to descendants that breaking the shadow wall would reveal an entrance. After that, the blood-red text disappeared, the power of the Photo-audio Gu on the shadow wall completely dissipated, and the shadow wall restored itself to an ordinary mountain wall.
Although he knew about the Flower Wine Monk's inheritance, Fang Yuan never had the time to explore it.
Because of that accident, he had killed Jia Jinsheng on the spot, and was busy dealing with the scene that night. Afterwards, to cope with the upcoming interrogation, he meticulously set up a layout, restricting his range of activities strictly within the village.
It wasn't until Jia Fu left and the academy elder called off the secret investigation; after more than ten days passed like this and the rumors gradually died down, did Fang Yuan secretly sneak back here.
The bronze sea in his aperture was slowly dropping. Fang Yuan mobilized streams of primeval essence, continuously pouring them into the Moonlight Gu in the palm of his right hand.
The Moonlight Gu emitted a ball of gentle moonlight that flickered continuously. Under its effect, the stone wall was constantly pared down, and a large amount of stone powder sprinkled down.
This was Fang Yuan's fine manipulation of the Moonlight Gu; he had used this exact method originally when opening rocks.
Compared to opening rocks, this method still appeared quite rough. But for breaking open this thick stone wall, this method seemed a bit too gentle.
This was already his sixth consecutive day using the Moonlight Gu to grind this stone wall.
On the ground, a thick pile of dark red stone powder had already accumulated.
Logically speaking, the soil of Qing Mao Mountain was all green mud. But the mountain soil here bizarrely presented a crimson red color and even emitted a faint glow.
Fortunately it was like this; with this light source, Fang Yuan did not need to prepare a torch.
To avoid arousing suspicion as much as possible, Fang Yuan did not use any tools. Hammers and pickaxes would undoubtedly make it more convenient for him to break the stone wall, but doing so would cause the sounds of breaking the wall to echo in the summer night.
Regardless of whether this sound seemed faint or loud from the outside, Fang Yuan had to eliminate the appearance of these suspicious points.
Details often determine success or failure.
To Fang Yuan, being cautious was not so much an advantage as it was a habit.
In his previous life, he had been careless before, but quickly received a bitter lesson. It is often said that the older one gets, the more cowardly they become. In reality, it is not cowardice, but caution and patience. Five hundred years of time had precipitated the word "caution" deep into his bones.
"Phew…" Panting a heavy breath, Fang Yuan slowly stopped the instillation of primeval essence.
He plopped his buttocks onto the ground, truly feeling somewhat tired.
The entire half-person-tall shadow wall had been ground away by a full three inches of thickness by him.
He wiped the heavy sweat from his head, moving his shoulders while stretching his legs. Because he had been squatting for a long time, waves of numbness continuously transmitted from his legs at this moment.
Thump thump thump.
Fang Yuan knocked his knuckles against the stone wall.
Hearing this sound, a faint joy arose in his heart, knowing that this stone wall was getting thinner and thinner.
He closed his eyes again to calm his mind and sense the situation within his aperture.
Less than twenty percent of the bronze primeval sea remained.
"Keep working hard!" Fang Yuan gritted his teeth, stretched out his right hand again, and pressed it against the stone wall.
The water-blue moonlight shone continuously for a quarter of an hour when Fang Yuan's movements suddenly paused. He removed his right hand and joyfully discovered that a small hole had been broken through the stone wall.
He immediately stood up and delivered a kick with his foot.
With a crash, the hole instantly expanded, forming a size similar to a bamboo basket.
Fang Yuan cautiously took a few steps back, feeling a depressing, stagnant air gradually emitting from the hole, and then permeating into this secret cave.
The ventilation of the secret cave wasn't very good. Fang Yuan thought for a moment, then chose to squeeze out of the stone crevice and return to the outside world.
After a good while, he returned.
The stuffy feeling in the secret cave was much more relieved than before. Fang Yuan continued to widen the hole, sometimes using the Moonlight Gu, sometimes pulling and scraping with his hands, and sometimes kicking with his foot. A moment later, he finally widened the hole to a size he could leisurely enter.
Looking through the hole, inside was a straight, diagonally downward tunnel.
The tunnel was not wide at first, but became more spacious the further down it went. When a person first entered the tunnel, they had to bend their waist and lower their head, but once reaching the latter half, they could straighten their body and walk with large strides.
The four walls of this hole were also made of that bizarre red soil, emitting a somewhat dim and dusky red light. This made the scene within the tunnel clearly visible.
But the tunnel was very long, extending beyond his field of vision. Because of the angle, Fang Yuan could not see what was at the end of the tunnel.
He stood steadily at the entrance of the hole, not stepping in immediately, but narrowed his eyes and stood in place.
A strength inheritance is different from a legacy.
A legacy refers to the things left behind after a Gu Master dies. He who discovers a legacy often obtains everything on the corpse all at once.
A strength inheritance is when a Gu Master, before dying, out of reasons such as not wanting their school to go extinct, wishing to bestow blessings upon descendants, or wanting to leave a final mark on the world, deliberately sets up checkpoints to test those who come later.
Taking the Flower Wine Monk for example, the reason he set up this inheritance had a very clear purpose: to cultivate an avenger to seek revenge against the Gu Yue clan on his behalf!
If descendants could pass these tests, they could obtain various benefits. A person passing the final test meant they had obtained the complete strength inheritance.
According to the faction alignment of the one passing down the strength inheritance, strength inheritances are naturally divided into orthodox path inheritances and demonic path inheritances.
Orthodox path inheritances are usually exquisitely designed, testing the temperament and moral character of later generations. Those who fail midway will not have their lives endangered.
Demonic path inheritances are complicated.
Demonic path members are often mad and obsessed, or cold and merciless, or murder like scything flax, and cannot be judged by common sense.
Some demonic path inheritances are designed to extremely test one's intellect. They are heavily riddled with puzzles, and many people trap themselves inside for their entire lives, pondering bitterly but failing to get a result.
Some demonic path inheritances are extremely simple, simply being a secret room with Gu worms and primeval stones directly laid out inside.
Some demonic path inheritances have extremely cruel checkpoints, and failing midway often means death.
Furthermore, the inheritances of some demonic lords and demonic heads are completely lies, acting as massive traps themselves. Adhering to the behavioral principle of harming others without benefiting oneself, they would exert their utmost to design schemes and screw others over even right before they die.
"Which kind will this inheritance of the Flower Wine Monk be?" Fang Yuan pondered.
He had the memories of his previous life, and was crystal clear about many famous demonic path inheritances in the future. But fate would have it that this particular inheritance was never excavated by anyone in his previous life, so he knew absolutely nothing about it.
"Logically speaking, the possibility of a trap is not very high. Otherwise, the Flower Wine Monk wouldn't have needed to design this shadow wall. But could there be mechanisms?"
Fang Yuan picked up a piece of stone he had scraped out and threw it towards the hole.
The stone bumped and rolled down the tunnel, quickly rolling out of Fang Yuan's line of sight. He only heard a continuous series of sounds echoing within the passageway.
Fang Yuan looked thoughtful. The result of tossing a stone to ask for directions seemed safe.
But he still did not enter the tunnel. Instead, he took out stone powder and evenly sprinkled it near the newly opened tunnel entrance. At the same time, he also sprinkled a thin layer at the stone crevice entrance of the secret cave.
Then he squeezed out of the narrow stone crevice at the entrance and left this place.
In an extremely hidden patch of grass hundreds of meters away from the riverbank, he found the green bamboo wine he had specifically brought along this time. He knocked open the wine jar, took a fierce gulp, and purposely spilled some wine liquid to wet his clothes, plastering himself in the smell of alcohol.
Carrying the wine jar, he returned to the village and arrived at his dormitory exactly at midnight.
Frequently not returning the whole night would attract people's suspicion. This was very good, going out in the first half of the night and coming back in the second half.
When he was looking for the Liquor worm, Fang Yuan had already done this. Having this prior record, this kind of behavior now did not seem abrupt.
Stars faded and the sun rose, a night without words.