"Clan leader, what is the matter?" The academy elder respectfully stood at a corner.
"It's nothing much, take a seat, I have a story to share with you." Gu Yue Bo squinted his eyes and said slowly.
"Your subordinate shall listen with full attention!" Academy elder chose to sit at the seat closest to the clan leader.
Clan leader Gu Yue Bo began his story on Ren Zu.
Some say ——
Ever since Ren Zu was able to get their names and subdued the Rules and Regulation Gu, his first order was for them to capture a longevity Gu.
Rules and Regulation Gu, one round and other other square, worked together and could capture all the Gu in the world, a longevity Gu was nothing difficult.
Ren Zu used the longevity Gu and got back his youth, becoming 20 years old again.
But now the rules Gu said, "Human, although you subdued us, every time you command us, it will add a rule and regulation."
Regulation Gu continued, "We can catch the longevity Gu for you, this is the first order. Our new rule and regulation is, we will not repeatedly catch the same Gu for you."
That means, if Ren Zu wanted to catch a longevity Gu again, the two Rules and Regulation Gu would not help.
Ren Zu nodded, having no choice but to accept.
He gave his second command, "Then, other than the longevity Gu, please capture all the other ten thousand Gu in the world for me."
Rules and regulation Gu got this command and Rules Gu turned into a giant circle, encompassing the universe. Regulation Gu turned into a giant square, covering the large world.
One square and one round formed a giant net together, enveloping the entire world.
When they shrunk again and returned to Ren Zu, all the Gu in the world other than longevity Gu were captured.
Ren Zu was overjoyed, with this all the Gu belonged to him, from now on he was the ruler of the world!
But once he opened the net, with a swoosh, a large number of worms flew outside and the Gu that Rules and Regulation Gu worked hard to catch, all escaped fervently.
When Ren Zu closed the net, only five Gu were left.
"Why is this?" Ren Zu was astonished.
Rules and Regulation answered him, "Human, the world has over ten thousand Gu with all sorts of abilities. You have no strength or knowledge, how can you subdue them? We can only capture Gu for you, to subdue them, you have to rely on yourself to get them to work for you."
Next they added, "This is your second order, so we'll add a second rule and regulation —- From now on, we can only catch one Gu for you at a time."
Ren Zu could only nod, and carefully opened the net, only showing a small gap.
The remaining five Gu contained the Strength and Wisdom Gu. Seeing this, Ren Zu was overjoyed.
He said to Strength Gu, "Strength Gu, you left me back then, do you have any regrets? If you succumb to me now, I will return you your freedom."
Strength Gu said, "Human, you are wrong. I didn't leave not because I couldn't, but because I wanted to stay. You want to subdue me but that's impossible. I only succumb to those stronger than me, but you are out of the question. However we can deal again, give me your youth and I will temporarily obey you."
Ren Zu was reluctant upon hearing this, he had just gotten back his youth, was he about to lose it again?
But he desired strength, he knew that with strength, he would get stronger and life would get easier.
Moreover, with strength, he could subdue more Gu.
Thus, Ren Zu accepted, and formed a second deal with it.
Ren Zu became middle-aged at once, and the strength Gu flew out of the web and landed on Ren Zu's shoulder.
Ren Zu had strength, and was full of confidence.
He said to Wisdom Gu: "Wisdom Gu, you left me back then, do you have any regrets? If you succumb to me now, I will return you your freedom."
Wisdom Gu said, "Human, you are wrong. I did not leave not because I couldn't, but because I wanted to stay. You want to subdue me but that's impossible. I only succumb to those smarter than me, yet you are not smarter than me. But we can deal again, give me your middle age and I will temporarily obey you."
Ren Zu upon hearing this, refused to do the same deal again.
He treasured his life more, and he also knew that once he sold his middle age, he would be left with old age. Before long, the Strength and Wisdom Gu would leave him again, just like last time.
Ren Zu refused to deal, but did not want to let go of the Wisdom Gu.
Wisdom Gu was anxious, reluctantly giving in, "Alright, Human, you win. I lost to you this time. As long as you tell me what method you used to capture me, I will admit defeat and not take anything from you, being at your disposal."
Upon hearing this, Ren Zu was overjoyed and before the Rules and Regulation Gu could stop him, he said, "I used the Rules and Regulation Gu to capture you."
Wisdom Gu laughed upon hearing, "I remembered it, so these Gu are called Rules and Regulation. Haha, now that I know your names, you can no longer capture me."
Saying so, it turned into a flash of light and flew away, vanishing into thin air.
Rules and Regulation Gu begin to complain, "Human, we told u long ago that our name should be known by you alone, and not others. Otherwise, we would be used by others. Look what happened, now that Wisdom Gu knows our names, it spells trouble."
Only then did Ren Zu realise that he was tricked by Wisdom Gu. He was anguished, for he knew he lost the only chance he had of capturing the Wisdom Gu using Rules and Regulation.
Saying so, Gu Yue Bo's story came to an end. He looked at the academy elder with a meaningful gaze.
Academy elder jumped from his seat. He had heard of Ren Zu's story long ago, but from Gu Yue Bo's mouth, it had a greater meaning.
His gaze shone and his heart understood. He bowed slightly at Gu Yue Bo, respectfully saying, "Clan leader, you are using this story as an analogy? Fang Yuan as the Wisdom Gu and the clan as Ren Zu. Although Ren Zu used the Rules and Regulation Gu to capture Wisdom Gu and managed to trap it, the Wisdom Gu eventually escaped."
Saying so, the academy elder paused and thought about it for a while, before looking at Gu Yue Bo. "Sir clan leader, you want me to let go of Fang Yuan and stop pressuring him? But he's getting more and more overboard…"
Gu Yue Bo stopped the academy elder's words, holding out his hand, indicating for him to sit and speak.
The academy elder sat and heard Gu Yue Bo sigh, "You, your comprehension is still superb, being an intelligent person, easily getting my point. Unfortunately your grasp of the situation is still too small, you can only see that tiny plot of land in front of you. Let me tell you, the academy is a small matter, and the clan is really the important one."
"I know what you are worried about, afraid that the other students are heavily suppressed by Fang Yuan, eventually losing the fire in their heart. Hehehe." Gu Yue Bo shook his head, pointing at academy elder, "You're overthinking it."
"What do you think the clan is doing? Just relying on your academy to nurture new people? Of course not, behind every student, there's their parents, elders, and friends. Only with these people's support, encouragement, expectations, our Gu Yue clan's new generation can have the confidence and motivation in their hearts."
"Fang Yuan has indeed repeatedly exceeded my expectations, he has a hint of outstanding excellence. I have been observing Fang Zheng secretly and I have long known about Fang Yuan's extortions, just let him continue. Use him to train Fang Zheng, Mo Bei and Chi Cheng, these rough jades.
There are many advantages in this matter, at the very least this round of students have the best fighting skills among all the previous seasons."
Academy elder was worried, "But clan leader, excessive hurdles isn't a good thing either, it will crush the jade. Especially that Fang Yuan has the Liquor worm now, this worm provides great help to a Rank one Gu Master. I'm worried that at the Rank one stage, under Fang Yuan's suppression, no one can overturn the situation."
"Then let them be unable to turn over the situation!" Gu Yue Bo snorted, showing the grace and callousness of a person in power, "This tiny setback, what does it matter? Is it scarier than death? With their family elder's support, if they still lacked motivation, then they are not even jade to begin with and have no value to nurture.
The clan has tons of new students into the academy each year, so if this season doesn't succeed, there's always the next. As for Gu Yue Fang Zheng, starting tomorrow night, I will teach him in secret."
"With the clan leader's personal teaching, that is really Gu Yue Fang Zheng's fortune." Academy elder licked his boots at the appropriate timing(1).
Gu Yue Bo's expression softened as he looked at academy elder, instructing, "Do you know the reason why after so many decades, you are still the academy elder? Have greater tolerance, I know Fang Yuan infringed your dignity and made you humiliated, but do you really have to be so calculative with a junior from a younger generation?"
"I know that Fang Yuan has some earlier wisdom, but he is still a youngster and tends to be rash. If not, he would not have hurt the guards in public and caused you to be in a predicament. He was furious internally back then and that is understandable. From being hailed as genius to a commoner, it is normal to be angry at the clan."
"He is actually very childish, you can tell from him trying to hide the Liquor worm. How can the Liquor worm be hid? He is not mature yet and is still innocent, don't think of him as a scary being. Comparing him to the Wisdom Gu, I am thinking too highly of him. At most, he has some small intelligence, but lacks true wisdom and knowledge.
If he hid the fact that he rose to middle stage silently, or accepted the class chairman position without any displeasure, that would truly be deep scheming."
"Clan leader, your meaning is?" Academy elder raised his eyebrows.
"What I'm trying to say is, Fang Yuan is discontented with the clan, thus let him go vent his anger. An ant spitting at an elephant, will the elephant care? Emotions are meant to be let out and not bottled inside, so once he's done venting, he will naturally fuse into the clan. Our Gu Yue clan has been around for nearly a thousand years ever since the first generation founded it.
There has been countless of people who were discontented with the clan, but eventually did any of them manage to overturn the clan?"
"A clan is not just about rules and regulations, there's also blood relation and kinship. Ren Zu wanted to use the rules and regulations to capture wisdom. Yet not only did he lose, but he also informed wisdom of the rules and regulations. There is profound meaning in this story—the rules are dead, but people are alive, and relationships are deep.
If you only know how to use rules and regulations to catch people, it will only increase resentment and cause Fang Yuan to be more dissociated with the clan. Fang Yuan is only a C grade, if he's lucky, after tens of years he'd still be a low-ranking clan elder. But he is still Gu Yue Fang Zheng's twin brother, do you understand now?"
"Understood!" Hearing Gu Yue Bo's final sentence, the academy elder realized at once.
"Mmm, if a family only has rules and regulations, then the family is a pile of dead objects. But if you add in blood relationship, it'll be alive." Gu Yue Bo nodded, "and one more sentence, I want you to remember."
"Please admonish me, sir clan elder."
Gu Yue Bo, with a distant gaze, looked out of the window towards the moon, "The sea can hold the water from thousands of rivers, it's big because of its capacity. A person is great when he can be tolerant and forgiving to many other people. Remember this, and leave."
"Yes clan leader sir, your subordinate takes his leave," said the academy elder as he left the hall.
(1) Boot-licking basically.