Fang Zheng sat cross-legged on his bed, turning the jade token over in his hands. The carved characters caught the lamplight, casting tiny shadows across his palms.
This token was never mentioned in the original novel.
He frowned, searching through Lu Yu Fang's memories of the story. Gu Yue Bo had given Fang Yuan resources, certainly, but never something like this—unrestricted access to the clan's archives and breeding caves. Either it was a minor detail the author hadn't included, or...
"Or the patriarch is testing me," Fang Zheng murmured. His lips curved into a bitter smile. "Two months to reach Rank 3. He expects me to fail."
Outside, rain continued its steady drumming against bamboo. Despite the late hour, lights still flickered throughout the village. The wolf tide had everyone on edge, cultivators standing watch through the night, families sleeping in shifts.
Fang Zheng set the token on the bedside table with a soft click. "Gu Yue Bo probably thinks he's being clever. Give the arrogant boy an impossible task, let him crash against reality, then rein him in as a loyal clan servant." He leaned back against the wall, eyes gleaming. "But what's in my hand is mine now. And I have advantages the old man can't even imagine."
He knew what was coming. Every plot point, every hidden danger, every opportunity—it was all laid out in his mind like a map of treacherous terrain. The question was how to navigate it without getting crushed.
First things first. He needed to understand exactly where he stood.
Closing his eyes, Fang Zheng turned his attention inward, his consciousness sinking down, down, past flesh and bone, into the mysterious space that existed within yet somehow beyond his physical body.
His aperture.
The sensation was strange—like falling into himself. One moment he was aware of the bed beneath him, the rain outside, the faint smell of bamboo and lamp oil. The next, he was there, floating in a pocket dimension that defied normal spatial logic.
The aperture stretched before him, impossibly vast and impossibly small at once. Its walls were translucent, a membrane that pulsed with faint light—currently showing the dull sheen of water, though Fang Zheng could see stress fractures beginning to form, cracks where stone was trying to push through.
Below, the primeval sea filled nearly the entire space.
Red-bronze liquid stretched from wall to wall, its surface mirror-smooth despite the changes happening around it. Each drop was condensed vital energy, the crystallization of body, mind, and spirit into something that could interact with Gu worms—the fundamental currency of power in this world.
Three Gu worms occupied his aperture.
High above the sea, a milky-white ladybug with seven black spots drifted lazily through the air. Bronze Skin Gu—a defensive type that toughened his body against attacks. Basic, but reliable.
In the sea itself, two worms swam in lazy circles. One was crescent-shaped, translucent blue like frozen moonlight. Moonlight Gu, the signature worm of the Gu Yue clan, used for attack. The other looked similar but had a faint jade-green tint where it merged with the blue—Moon Raiment Gu, a defensive type created by combining his original Jade Skin Gu with another Moonlight Gu.
And tucked in a pocket of his robe in the physical world, drawing minimal essence, was a Vitality Leaf—a healing Gu shaped like a small green leaf.
"Four Gu worms total. Five hundred primeval stones remaining." Fang Zheng opened his eyes, mentally calculating. "For an ordinary Rank 2 Gu Master, that's decent. For what I need to accomplish..."
He trailed off, shaking his head. It wasn't enough. Not remotely. But dwelling on limitations wouldn't help.
What mattered was moving forward.
He stood, pacing the small room. "The original Fang Zheng should have reached upper Rank 2 around the same time Fang Yuan broke through to Rank 3. But he was too busy being kind, lending out primeval stones to clanmates who barely repaid him, hesitating when he should have been cultivating."
Irritation flared in his chest—though whether it was his own or an echo of the original soul's frustration, he couldn't tell.
"Well, I'm not that person anymore."
Fang Zheng sat back down, settling into meditation posture. Time to stop analyzing and start acting.
He sank back into his aperture, but this time with purpose. His consciousness touched the primeval sea, and immediately he felt it respond—the liquid essence stirring, beginning to circulate through channels only a Gu Master could perceive.
The aperture walls trembled.
Fang Zheng pushed harder, drawing on the meditation techniques from Fang Zheng's memories while applying Lu Yu Fang's ruthless focus. The primeval essence began to churn, waves building across its surface. Small ripples became surging swells, crashing against the water-film walls of the aperture.
Crack.
The first fracture appeared—a line of gray cutting through translucent blue.
The original Fang Zheng had been on the cusp of this breakthrough for weeks, too cautious to push through, too kind to use the primeval stones he'd saved. All that accumulated potential was still here, waiting.
Fang Zheng seized it.
The primeval sea roared. Waves as tall as houses crashed against the aperture walls in steady rhythm, each impact sending cracks spiderwebbing further. The water-film shuddered, pieces flaking away to reveal stone beneath—harder, denser, able to contain more essence.
His three Gu worms scattered, instinctively fleeing the turbulence, but Fang Zheng paid them no mind. His entire being focused on this transformation, on forcing his aperture to evolve.
The walls groaned. The membrane buckled.
Then, with a sensation like breaking through ice into open air—
CRACK!
The water-film shattered completely. Stone-film expanded in its place, gray and solid, expanding the aperture's volume by nearly a third. The primeval sea surged to fill the new space, though it no longer reached the brim. Room to grow. Room for more essence, more power, more Gu worms.
Fang Zheng gasped, consciousness snapping back to his physical body. Sweat drenched his robes. His hands trembled slightly, muscles aching as if he'd run for miles.
But when he checked his aperture again, the transformation held.
Upper Rank 2.
"Finally," he breathed, unable to suppress a grin. "The original Fang Zheng wasted so much time, so much potential. All that talent squandered on being a 'good person.'"
He thought of his brother—Fang Yuan, the cold-blooded protagonist who would stop at nothing to achieve his goals. Who used every resource, exploited every advantage, crushed every obstacle. Even with Heaven's Will itself supporting the original Fang Zheng as a counterbalance, he'd only barely reached Rank 7, maybe Rank 8 with Star Constellation's backing.
Meanwhile, Fang Yuan had become Great Love Immortal Venerable, the eleventh Venerable in human history, fighting multiple ancient monsters simultaneously.
The difference wasn't talent. It was ruthlessness. Clarity of purpose. The willingness to do whatever it took.
"This world doesn't reward kindness," Fang Zheng murmured. "It rewards strength. And I intend to become very strong indeed."
He walked to the window, pushing it open to let cool night air wash over his face. The rain had finally stopped. Clouds parted to reveal a sliver of moon, its pale light painting the village in silver.
Fang Zheng's mind turned to the future—the immediate future, the threats already gathering.
"Let's see... Fang Yuan will advance to Rank 3 soon, become a clan elder. Then Tie Ruo Nan and her father arrive from the Tie clan to investigate the demonic cultivator—which is, of course, Fang Yuan himself. He'll manipulate events to obtain the Flower Wine Monk's inheritance."
His expression darkened. "But that's when things get truly chaotic. The first generation ancestor will revive from his coffin. Old monster Sky Crane will emerge. The Tie clan investigators, two powerful Gu Masters. Bai Ning Bing, that walking catastrophe."
He counted them off on his fingers, each name a potential death sentence.
"Fang Yuan will betray the village, slaughter anyone in his way, and escape into the wilderness. Meanwhile, I'm supposed to... what? Stand aside? Get crushed in the chaos? Play the loyal clan member and die when the ancestor goes on a rampage?"
Fang Zheng laughed softly, but there was no humor in it. "Qing Mao Mountain. A starting village that would kill most protagonists before they could leave. And I have two months to prepare for multiple Rank 5 Gu Masters to start fighting over this place."
The jade token caught his eye, still sitting on the bedside table.
His smile turned predatory. "But I have advantages too. I know what's coming. I know where the opportunities are hidden. I know which Gu worms will be valuable, which techniques actually work, which alliances to avoid."
He picked up the token, feeling its weight. "And I have access to knowledge the clan has been hoarding for generations."
The pieces were starting to come together in his mind. Not a complete plan yet—he needed more information, needed to see the clan archives, needed to understand exactly what resources were available. But the outline was forming.
Survive the immediate threats. Grow stronger, fast. Position himself to seize opportunities when chaos erupted.
And most importantly: never forget that in this world, hesitation meant death.
"The original Fang Zheng failed because he clung to morality in a world that has none," Fang Zheng whispered to the night. "I won't make that mistake."
He closed the window, shutting out the moonlight.
Tomorrow, he would begin. The clan archives awaited, full of secrets. The underground caves held Gu worms he could study, perhaps even acquire. Two months to reach Rank 3—an impossible task for the original Fang Zheng.
But Lu Yu Fang had never been bound by what was supposed to be impossible.
He lay back down, but sleep was a long time coming. His mind churned with plans, calculations, memories of a story he'd once read that was now his life.
The aperture walls have changed from water to stone, he thought as consciousness finally began to fade. But that's just the first step. Stone becomes iron. Iron becomes jade. And jade...
Jade became something beyond mortal comprehension.
He would climb that ladder. No matter what it cost.
No matter who stood in his way.