"It is him, hehe, heaven has opened its eyes." Brother Qiang and his group's gazes turned bright with excitement upon Fang Yuan's figure.
"I can't wait to see his arm break."
"Lady Zhang is kind, he wasn't put to execution even after offending the Zhang Clan. It turns out they were waiting to send him here."
Fang Yuan walked slowly towards the stone table and directly sat down.
The monkey king gazed at him, then stretched its arm.
The two sides clasped their palms together and began the contest under countless gazes.
The monkey king exerted its strength, but Fang Yuan's arm was like it was made from steel and didn't budge even a little.
The monkey king's pupils shrunk, revealing a hint of astonishment; this was the strongest human it had met in its life!
Fang Yuan inwardly laughed: I could defeat this monkey king even when I only possessed strength of two boars, let alone now when my strength has increased by half of a crocodile's strength.
The monkey king had already gone through many rounds before and it was already lacking in strength now. One could say, this situation was of an absolute victory to Fang Yuan.
"This monkey king doesn't have enormous strength. Before, those Gu Masters who possessed strength of a bear or strength of a horse had ended up losing to it, it wasn't because their strength was inferior to the monkey king's, but rather because they couldn't bring out all their strength in arm wrestling."
In fact, all strength type Gu like bear strength, horse strength, rabbit strength, fish strength, tortoise strength, crocodile strength, were different.
This difference wasn't only in the amount of their strength, but was more on their fields of expertise..
Bear strength for smacking, horse strength for galloping, rabbit strength for jumping, tortoise strength for endurance, crocodile strength for biting. They each had their own fields of expertise.
In other words, in certain situations, some types of powers could be utilized to their maximum effects.
As for arm wrestling, it focused on the strength of arms.
The bandit monkeys were experts regarding this. One could tell just from looking at their physique, with their upper limbs being over two time thicker than their lower limbs. They could arm wrestle from their birth, possessing the foundation of strength training.
If the armwrestling was change to another form of contest, many of the defeated Gu Masters might be able to win against the bandit monkey king.
From this, one could derive that every power possessed their own unique points, and they couldn't simply be differentiated by looking at the amount of their strength.
"Take humans for example, a punch would definitely be weaker than a kick. Under normal condition, a person cannot use all their strength. I have strength of two boars, half of a crocodile's strength and my own strength, but it is impossible for my arm wrestling strength to match theirs. Of course, concentrating all of one's strength in one movement is not impossible.
One would need that legendary Gu worm…"
Fang Yuan couldn't display his true strength in arm wrestling, but he was someone with very deep foundations, and could guarantee his victory.
However, he couldn't make it blatantly obvious. Hence, he intentionally revealed a strained expression, his arms shaking as he maintained the deadlock with the monkey king.
Slowly, his arm pushed down on monkey king's.
When the contest ended, almost everyone was stumped.
"He actually won!"
"This guy has innate divine strength!"
The human groups were in an uproar, their surprised gasps spreading to others.
"Inquire about this guy. We need to immediately recruit him if possible!" The heads of main clans felt a rush of excitement.
Compared to the Gu Masters who they could only nurture after investing large amounts of funds, Fang Yuan's quality to price ratio was much higher.
They could use him without any investment, and bring in profits for their caravan.
"Zhang Clan's luck is good, picking up such a treasure." Instantly, many Gu Masters' gazes towards the Zhang Clan contained some envy.
"No wonder we couldn't beat him!" Brother Qiang and his group were speechless.
"This is a monster."
"Now that I think of it, I am really lucky to not have been beaten to death by him."
As this group of servants thought back, they were immediately filled with afterfear.
They had previously still been looking to take revenge against Fang Yuan, but now looking at this sight, all their hopes of revenge were gone. On the contrary, they became worried that Fang Yuan would look for trouble for them in future.
Chen Clan's old steward's expression looked ugly.
"To think this idiot actually had such brute strength. What bad luck… now if only the vice leader doesn't blame me…" He cautiously glanced at the Clen Clan's vice leader.
Chen Clan's vice leader was frowning, he was thinking of much more.
He started to doubt Zhang Clan's intention. Was demanding for those two a trap? Did they see this servant's worth and intentionally kept him, then came to demand for them?
The more he thought, the more reasonable he felt his thoughts were; he couldn't help snorting coldly. Anyone who felt he was played with and cheated, wouldn't have a good mood.
But the mistake was already done, he could only pinch his nose and endure this bad luck.
"Am I seeing things?" The servant girl Xiao Die covered her mouth; she was speechless at this result.
Worry disappeared from Shang Xin Ci's face, and was replaced by a smile.
"Let's go." Zhang Zhu waved at the troops to move ahead with a complex look on his eyes.
Fang Yuan won, allowing Zhang clan's caravan to pass through this checkpoint.
Fang Yuan won two rounds straight; the Zhang clan's caravan were able to pass through most of the path. At the third round, Fang Yuan intentionally lost to keep up his disguise, resulting in many goods being taken out of Zhang clan's wagons.
Even so, Fang Yuan's performance was enough to make others see him in a whole new light.
He received a warm welcome back at the caravan.
"Lady Zhang, I have finished my mission." He cupped his hands to Shang Xin Ci.
Shang Xin Ci's beautiful eyes shone as she sized up Fang Yuan again, and said with a gentle voice: "My mother said to never judge people by their appearances, and Hei Tu, you have given me a live example. I am really thankful to you, this is one hundred and fifty primeval stones as my thanks to you."
"One hundred and fifty primeval stones?" The servant girl Xiao Die was startled, "Miss, what are you doing giving him so much!?"
Fang Yuan backed a step and righteously declined: "Lady, I did it to repay your kindness and not for these primeval stones. Please take them back, I can't take this reward."
Xiao Die immediately agreed: "Miss, look he doesn't want it, it is better if you put it away."
Shang Xin Ci, however, insisted: "This isn't a reward, but a gift of thanks, my thanks to you."
Fang Yuan showed a righteous expression and said with a solemn tone: "Let alone this one hundred and fifty primeval stones, even if it was one thousand primeval stones, I don't want them. Lady Zhang, I may only be a mortal, but please don't humiliate me!"
"This…" Shang Xin Ci was helpless against such remark and could only put the primeval stones back.
"Hmph, you know how to be tactful." Xiao Die quirked her mouth.
Zhang Zhu remained silent, his gaze turning more complicated.
"The favor of repaying life is hard to repay. Please let me use my strength for you." Fang Yuan cupped his hands.
There were numerous monkey groups in bandit monkey mountain and every so often along the trade route, there would be some monkey groups who would occupy the area and set a checkpoint.
Fang Yuan repeatedly went to compete with them, and under his deliberate performance, he lost some and won some.
Caravans moved and stopped continuously, spending over twenty days in bandit monkey mountain before they got out of this tall mountain.
The goods in the caravans had decreased by almost half by now. The mood couldn't help being low.
Zhang Clan was the only one that was happy.
Because of Fang Yuan's strength, their losses were far less than their previous estimations.
Fang Yuan became famous and a many clans sent their servants to visit him.
They all wanted to recruit Fang Yuan and gave attractive terms, but Fang Yuan refused all of them and stayed with Zhang Clan.
"You have some conscience, kid. You didn't waste missy's kindness." Xiao Die's attitude towards Fang Yuan had changed.
This servant girl said whatever she thought and wasn't shrewd, but whatever her attitude is, it was never in Fang Yuan's considerations. Fang Yuan only cared about Shang Xin Ci and her guard Zhang Zhu.
Shang Xin Ci was gentle and kind, but also very smart. The Gu Master Zhang Zhu was very experienced and prudent.
Fang Yuan even felt that Zhang Zhu was already beginning to suspect him.
In private, Bai Ning Bing also reminded Fang Yuan: "Refusing that hundred and fifty primeval stones was a mistake. With your current identity, how could your heart not be moved by such a huge sum? For cautiousness, we should stop cultivation for some time to guard against Zhang Zhu's secret investigation."
However, Fang Yuan refused this suggestion and still cultivated non-stop every night.
Bai Ning Bing also cooperated. She held an indifferent attitude towards her identity being exposed, in fact, she was more willing to see Fang Yuan's defeat.
Snow silver primeval essence gave an enormous help to Fang Yuan, his cultivation speed was rising as if it had grown wings.
On the night they had officially left Fei Hou mountain's region, Fang Yuan advanced from rank two initial stage to middle stage.
By the time, the travel-worn caravan arrived at the base of Huang Jin mountain, Fang Yuan was finished with the crocodile strength Gu, his strength permanently increasing by the strength of a crocodile.
Huang Jin mountain possessed a lot of gold mines. Its soil contained abundant gold, and one could even obtain dozens of granules of gold if they scooped the water from the mountain streams and filtered the sediments.
In day, when the sun shone upon the Huang Jin mountain, the mountain would often reflect a layer of hazy golden light. The scene of the mountain surrounded by the light was a glorious beauty.
If this Huang Jin mountain was to be on Earth, there would definitely be bloody fights and wars for it. However, in this world, the currency used was the primeval stone, and gold was reduced to just a type of metal mineral - its greatest use was as a material for refining Gu.
There were two clans located in Huang Jin Mountain.
In the southern side of the mountain was Huang village; and in the northern side was Jin village.
A mountain can't hold two tigers. One could infer from Qing Mao mountain that the relation between Huang and Jin clan was not harmonious.
The caravan's arrival would naturally be welcomed by both the clans. However, the notice from the two clans arrived — the caravan could only choose one clan. If they chose Huang clan, they couldn't go to Jin clan and the same went for opposite.
There were many people in caravan with many things to do, thus there was always a large flow of traffic. There were notorious records of the two clans attacking each other with the help of caravans, thus they laid down strict orders.
The heads of the caravans had different opinions about choosing which clans to go.
They had their own needs and considerations, and so after discussing with each other, this coagglomeration of caravans divided into two; the two groups would go separately to the two clans.
Of course, they couldn't enter the village, most of the troops could only station around the village.
After this was settled, Zhang Zhu privately looked for Shang Xin Ci: "I have secretly investigated for many days; Hei Tu and Bai Yun are very suspicious, I suggest we evict them from our group!"