Mo Bei went to the academy early in the morning and claimed the reward.
"Gu Yue Mo Bei, you have finished refining your Vital Gu in 1 day!", the academy elder was pleasantly surprised.
"I spent whole night continuously refining the Moonlight Gu using more than 15 primeval stones and finally refined this Gu."
Academy Elder hurriedly gave him 20 stones as promised and sent him a word or two for congratulations. Mo Bei had left an impression of him of being bright and hardworking.
Mo Bei left the academy and headed towards the private practice ground in his home to better understand the use of Moonlight Gu.
After several hours practice, he followed his daily schedule of planning for the future and then slept for the night.
He had almost recalled all the major content of the novel. He was a hardcore fan of RI who focused on each and every minute details in the story. That lead to him rereading it 100s of times.
He could recollect many minute details with absolute clarity. The things he was nervous about were those that were not mentioned in the novel or skipped over. This was something that he had to face with his own power.
He knew the next day Fang Yuan would be living in an inn and will be left with very less primeval stones. Also, he knew that Fang Yuan would very soon find out that he has Spring Autumn Cicada. Mo Bei was feeling jealous as having Rank 6 Gu at this point was essentially a cheat but when he thought about what Fang Yuan had gone through to refine this Gu, he couldn't help but shiver.
He wanted to take advantage of such a situation. With Spring Autumn Cicada, he knew that Fang Yuan's development would not fall behind much.
✵✵✵
At late night on the same day, Fang Yuan went to claim the first prize for refining Moonlight Gu.
"Gu Yue Fang Zheng?" the guards called out. They knew that recently there was A grade talent within the clan.
Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
Fang Yuan kept silent.
The elder came out and after hearing from Fang Yuan, he was surprised "Wait, what did you just say? You are called Gu Yue Fang Yuan, not Gu Yue Fang Zheng?"
He felt that his view of the world had totally changed. B Grade talent Mo Bei and C Grade talent Fang Yuan had refined a Gu earlier than the A Grade talent Fang Zheng.
"You have refined the Moonlight Gu?" The surprised academy elder asked.
"Yes" saying so Fang Yuan showed a proof.
"Great! Keep up the hard work Gu Yue Fang Yuan and you might make it to Rank 2 within some years. However, it's a pity that you are not the first to come hence there's no reward."
Fang Yuan felt weird since it had only been yesterday afternoon that the Gu worm was given to the students. He asked in confusion "Who was the 1st place? "
"Gu Yue Mo Bei, He claimed the prize today morning" Academy elder didn't think much before answering. It was good for students to be competitive. It will helpful the clan if they raise their cultivation levels.
'It's him again', Fang Yuan frowned. It might be easy to fool the elder but not a 500 year old demon. 'There's something wrong with Gu Yue Mo Bei. Even if he has B Grade and does not care about usage of Primeval stones, he should atleast take upwards of 2 days to completely refine Moonlight Gu since he does not have a prior experience in refining Gu. Did he take help from his grandfather Gu Yue Mo Chen? No, that elder would never help his son because that would shun his son's future growth. I also don't remember much about Mo Bei in my past life but I heard he died during the wolf tide. This is interesting.' Thinking so, he had a smirk on his face. He wanted to test out Mo Bei. Although, he felt that there was no one worth his attention in a small place like Qing Mao Mountain, he was innately cautious person and he could not rest if he didn't knew what was happening. With Spring Autumn Cicada, his plans had taken a huge leap and now what he wanted was cultivation resources to advance as fast as possible.
✵✵✵
The Mo branch family home
The greenery in the courtyard was overflowing, the fragrance of tea dancing about.
Mo Bei was standing by the window staring into the dark sky with deep thoughts.
"Fang Yuan must be feeling wary of me now. Yes, he should have already detected some problems. But he definitely wouldn't act within clan's premise or try to confront me. He will try to test me through other means. I have to be cautious of him. Any wrong move can lead to my downfall. But this is a small price to pay if I want to achieve my future objectives." Mo Bei analyzed the situation.
"I also received 100 stones as reward from my grandfather for achieving first place at refining Gu on my own. Including my prior savings, I have a total of about 1250 primeval stones. Grandfather still does not know about my liquor worm though. I can use the same excuse that Fang Yuan used to get the liquor worm - Gambling rocks. But I can't reveal it soon. It still has many uses and is also my vital Gu worm."
Thinking so, Mo Bei headed to his room to sleep. He knew that some of the students such as Fang Yuan had already shifted to academy grounds and would stay there until their education as Gu Master is finished. However, he himself prefered staying in his manor where he could easily leave and come back home without much monitoring.
Also, He loved attending academy since many things that were taught in academy were skipped over in novel due to Fang Yuan already knowing it. But it was the first time for Mo Bei to come into contact with such deep and refined knowledge.
It had been 10 days since he came to this world but he was already starting to form a new perspective. All the blank areas were starting to fill in. Along with his understand of the world's fundamentals, the ground view of the different aspects of this world enlightenment him. He felt more and more interested in exploring the world which had not been shown in the novel. Maybe he could come back to Earth and write a novel of his own.
(AN : I am jealous of this guy, aren't you?)