"Why stop it?" The academy elder lifted his eyebrows and laughed. He lifted a finger and pointed it at Fang Yuan who was far away and said, "This young man has taken control of the entire situation, and his attacks are fully restrained. Look at the way he cuts at the neck, he only acts on the left or right side, but never cutting at the nape.
This is because he knows that striking the neck sides can make a person faint on the spot. Meanwhile attacking the area at the back of the head and neck could cause death, so he automatically abandoned that way of attacking."
"Look at all those youths on the ground, which one of them is actually heavily injured? None! Even if they were badly hurt, so what? Are you saying that our academy's treatment Gu Masters won't be able to cure this sort of traumatic wound?"
"But sir elder, that child is just too arrogant. He blocked the entrance; this is obviously not acknowledging our existence as guards! Being ignored isn't the main problem though, the important matter is how the clan will think of our academy. To actually allow a small petty C grade student make a fuss in the academy and not stop it.
If word goes out, we're afraid this might affect your reputation, sir elder." The guard squinted as he said this.
"Hmph, in reality is that because you all were disregarded by the boy, so your own dignity feels challenged?" The academy elder was not too happy. He sneered and shot a gaze as sharp as a sword edge at the guards. They all lowered their heads, all of them disagreeing.
"What's wrong with fighting? As long as lives are not lost, it will stir up the competitive side of the students and temper their will to fight. To stop this kind of fight is to stifle the student's fighting passion! Was there no fighting in the past batches? Every batch had their own battles, and it happened very often.
The only difference was that it usually happened in the latter half of the year when the students had already mastered some means of fighting. With strength they itched to fight, and at the same time it is an aggressive age. Why didn't you stop those people back then?" The academy elder questioned in a cold voice.
"Maybe it was because the fights in the previous years were all single battles, there were rarely huge scale fighting like this one. But this Fang Yuan is really good at creating a disturbance!" The chief of the guards replied.
"No, no, no." The academy elder shook his head, "That was because you all did not dare to stop it. Because after half a year, a Gu Master will have the ability to fight beyond a mortal's strength, and with your petty mortal bodies, how are you supposed to stop it? Right now you all want to stop Fang Yuan, perhaps it is because he just started cultivating, so he doesn't have enough power.
It's also because you feel that he ignored your existence and offended your dignity. But you must all remember, these students all bear the surname of Gu Yue! They are my Gu Yue clan's clan members, your masters! Even if they are still of young age, no matter how weak, they are still your masters!"
The elder's tone had turned sharply.
"Your surnames are not Gu Yue, what is your worth? Because of your loyalty, you were all given the position of guards, rewarding you with some sweet benefits. But in reality, you are still slaves. Just slaves! A slave dare give preposterous opinions of their masters, caring about the matters of their masters?" The elder's face was dark like water.
"This was not your subordinates idea, not my meaning!"
"I wouldn't dare! I wouldn't dare!"
The guards were ashen-faced as they kneeled down to the ground, spouting nonstop. The academy elder gave a cold snort and pointed at the chief guard who had just called Fang Yuan a person good at creating disturbances. "You gave an outrageous comment on your master. You are relieved of your position."
After a while, the elder said to the others, "After half a month, there will be a re-examination to determine the new chief."
The other guards immediately had eyes that shone, their hearts pumping with enthusiasm.
"The position of chief of the guard! Every month I'll be able to receive half a primeval stone more!"
"To be able to become the chief is to become a man above men. Aside from the masters, I dare to see who else would show displeasure at me?"
"If I became the chief, how cool that would be…"
"Alright, what are you all pestling here for? Get downstairs and wait for the battle to end, then sweep the field!" The elder roared.
"Yes, yes, yes."
"Your subordinate takes his leave!"
The guards left in reverence and awe as they went down. One of the guards on the stairs lost his footing and fell down. Immediately there was a series of sounds implicating a chain of people falling and knocking down.
However under the academy elder's power and influence, the guards reddened their faces and endured in suffering, not letting out a single noise.
"Hmph! Those minions are just like dogs. Every once in a while they'd get this itch to misbehave; you'd have to smack them so that they know fear and respect. Then just throw some small victories and bones to them, letting them fight amongst themselves like dogs, letting them compete amongst themselves to serve my clan with their life.
To hold a stick in one hand and a carrot in another—This is the unique way of the upper echelons." As the academy elder heard the quiet movements below, he sneered in his heart and turned his head, looking through the window and at the school gates.
A fresh group of ten or so students were on the ground at the entrance. Fang Yuan stood proudly, and there were three young girls back-to-back, huddling at a side opposite him.
"You, you-you better not come over!"
"If you come over, we'll shoot you with the moonblade!!"
In their hands were a layer of blue radiance. It seemed like they were compelled to the point they would actually mobilize their primeval essence and use the Moonlight Gu.
Fang Yuan's body was still that of a normal fifteen-year-old boy, and if they attacked him with the moonblade it would not do him any good. Yet he was not afraid—instead he sneered at them and walked step by step towards the girls. "You girls have pretty big guts huh, have you forgotten the rules of the school? Inside the academy fighting using Gu is forbidden, or else the penalty will be expulsion.
If you girls want to be expelled, then just do it."
"This…"The young girls hesitated.
"Indeed there is such a rule." The blue light in their hands faded away.
Fang Yuan's eyes flashed as he caught this opening and dashed forward, his palms waving in the air, cutting down two of them without a shadow of doubt.
Being the last one, her morale dropped and her knees turned weak. She collapsed to the ground crying heavily, begging fang Yuan, "Don't you come over Fang Yuan, please let me go."
Fang Yuan stared down at the young girl with a condescending look, his cold voice sounding in her ears. "A piece of primeval stone."
The girl's body fluttered and she quickly opened her money pouch, realization taking hold of her. She took out three to four pieces of primeval stones and held them in her palm, stretching out her hand to Fang Yuan, "Don't hit me, I'll give them all to you, I'll give all my stones to you!"
Fang Yuan was expressionless as he slowly reached out with his right hand. He lifted his forefinger and thumb, gently pinching at a piece of primeval stone from the girl's hand.
The young maiden could not stop trembling. Fang Yuan's hand had a youth's pale and slender form, but in her eyes his hand was horrifying like a ferocious claw of terror.
"I've said it earlier, I will only take one piece of primeval stone." Fang Yuan paused for a moment, then he said plainly, "You may leave."
The girl stared at Fang Yuan for a good while, then she finally got up. But her limbs were still weak and she could not properly stand. Her heart was already full of fear towards Fang Yuan, and she was afraid to the point that she could not muster a single breath of energy.
When the academy elder saw this, he could not help but shake his head. One of his reasons to remain an observer was to borrow the chance to see each of the student's respective fighting talents.
This girl who collapsed on the ground was only a C grade talent, but with this kind of mentality she could only become a logistics Gu Master. She would be able to be productive in the clan, but there was no expectation for her to be on the battlefield.
"As for this Fang Yuan…" The academy elder rubbed his chin, his eyes squinting with a flash of light. He felt that Fang Yuan was very interesting. Not only did Fang Yuan possess fighting talent, he even had a sense of propriety. To just extort for a piece of primeval stone was not beyond the bounds in the elder's heart.
But if fang Yuan wanted to blackmail for two pieces, that would be too much and he would need to intervene.
The academy's allowance was originally three pieces. To have a piece taken away would still be considered harmless. But if he extorted away two stones, then what is the point of giving out subsidy? He might as well just give everything to Fang Yuan.
Very quickly the last group of students arrived. There were only five people, and among them was Fang Yuan's twin younger brother.
"Brother, how could you be like this?! You are too bold, to actually beat up your classmates at the gates and take away their primeval stones!" Gu Yue Fang Zheng was wide-eyed as he looked at the scene.
He could not believe what he was seeing before him, "I advice you to quickly go to the academy elder and take the initiative to admit your mistake, or else with you making such a huge matter, it's not a joke, you might actually get expelled!"
Fang Yuan laughed and said, "You're right."
Fang Zheng heaved a relieved sigh. Seeing that his older brother hadn't gone insane and could still be persuaded, that was good.
But very quickly he heard Fang Yuan say again, "Every one of you, a piece of primeval stone."
"What?" Fang Zheng opened his mouth wide with surprise, "Even I need to pay up?"
"My dearest little brother, of course you can choose not to." Fang Yuan's tone was very gentle. "But you will end up just like them," he said and pointed at those fallen on the ground. Some of them had fainted, and some of them were moaning in pain.
"Even his own younger brother isn't spared!"
"This Fang Yuan is crazy, he's too vicious…"
"We cannot defeat him, a wise man does not fight when the odds are against him. We better hand it over and overcome the trouble."
"That's right, we'll just pass up the primeval stone first. It's just one piece anyway, when we go back and report to the teachers, he'll be getting it!"
With the lesson drawn from their classmate's mistakes, the remaining youngsters obediently accepted Fang Yuan's blackmail with gazes of defiance.
"Hold up." Just as they were about to leave, Fang Yuan shouted at them to halt.
"Fang Yuan, are you actually going to go back on your word?" The youths started to become nervous.
Fang Yuan faced the teenagers on the ground, gently sighing. "Do you guys really think that I would squat down and search through their bodies one by one?"
The youths stared blankly, then they were hit by realization one by one. Each of them turned red in the face and stood at the spot hesitatingly.
Fang Yuan stared at them, narrowing his eyes. There was a flash of cold light in his gaze; immediately the five youngsters felt their heart beating fast, their scalps going numb at the same time.
"Alright, Fang Yuan. We understand your meaning."
"We'll just help you this once."
Under Fang Yuan's despotic aura, they could only lower their heads and search through each of the young teen's money pouches on the ground, taking out a piece of primeval stone from each bag. Then they brought it together and passed it to Fang Yuan.
The entire class had a total of fifty-seven people. By extorting a piece of primeval stone from every single one of them, Fang Yuan held fifty-six pieces.
He originally had twenty pieces, but he spent ten to buy a few jars of green bamboo wine. Adding the number of primeval stones from his own allowance and reward, the total number of primeval stones he had in his possession amounted up to seventy-nine pieces.
"This sort of capital free business that consists of extortion and plundering is really the most profitable business." Fang Yuan pocketed his money pouch that had suddenly expanded greatly into his bosom and strutted away, leaving behind a floor full of teenagers, lying like corpses on the ground.
And a few teenagers, Fang Zheng among them, blankly stared after Fang Yuan's gradually disappearing shadow.
"Get out there fast."
"All of you, faster! Arrange the little masters properly."
"The treatment Gu Master, where is he, ask him to come over fast!"
The guards were yelling as they all rushed forward, falling over each other in their eagerness to present themselves. They willingly gave their all for the small position of being the chief guard.