The streets of Shang Clan City were bustling with people as was usual.
Among the throbbing crowd there was a man who was walking towards his destination, a new skip to his step that hadn't been there before. A light smile adorned his features and there was a sparkle in his eyes that wouldn't be there usually.
This man was Li Ran. However, Li Ran wasn't his actual name - it was Wu Ran. Li Ran was a spy sent from the Wu Clan to infiltrate the Shang Clan as one of their external elders.
He had gone through multiple rounds of secrecy in order to hide his identity. For one, he had wandered the wilderness for several years before he had found himself on the Shang Clan's doorstep under the alias of 'Li Ran.'
After that, he had made a persona for himself. He was known to go around fighting in the Battle Arena, sometimes winning, sometimes losing, but always ending up gambling whatever proceeds he had away and ending up with zero regardless of what had happened.
He even had a 'family' in the city - a wife and a child. Because of his gambling habits, his wife had left him and his child never saw him.
From the surface, it would seen that Li Ran was nothing more than a vagabond - a loser drifting through life, which while shameful, was not all that uncommon within Shang Clan City.
In truth however, this was merely laying the foundation for his ultimate plan.
He had been handed a treasure by the Empress Wu Di - a gu worm that was extinct in modern-day times but had unparalleled value to a Strength Path cultivator.
All-Out Effort Gu!
The plan was simple - he would masquerade as an ordinary Gu Master in Shang Clan City in order to throw off any suspicion. After that, when the time was right, he would use this All-Out Effort Gu to rise in the ranks of the Shang Clan Battle Arena. If he proved himself, he would end up becoming a Shang Clan external elder.
From there, he would feed intelligence back to the Wu Clan as a spy amongst the Shang Clan.
It was a dangerous and tricky job, but out of loyalty to his clan Li Ran had agreed to take it up.
But it wasn't the danger that ended up being the most soul-crushing part of this job.
It was the loneliness.
As part of his identity, he had tried to start a family within Shang Clan City. It had only started as part of his deception, but human hearts are not made of stone - he had come to care for his wife and his son very much over the years. But, he had still been forced to abandon them...
And so, he was alone - adrift in Shang Clan City without any real friends or family that he could call his own. He was not even true to himself; a spy who could confide in no one.
However, something had happened recently that had greatly lifted up his mood.
He only met up with a messenger from the Wu Clan every six months or so, to keep suspicion off of him. The usual exchange of information was simply, 'there has been no change in the status quo.'
Now though, it was different.
"The time has finally come, Sir Wu Ran. The Empress Wu had decreed that it is time for you to show your hand now!"
Li Ran knew that this meant that it was finally time to reveal the All-Out Effort Gu he had kept hidden for so long!
'Ah, all my years of working have finally come to fruition,' he thought to himself. The Wu Clan had employed a specialist by the name of Wei Shen Jing in order to create a counterfeit gambling stone.
Wei Shen Jing was a counterfeit specialist - the fake goods that he made and sold could not be distinguished from the genuine articles unless it was done by the most experienced of eyes.
As such, the plan was to hide the All-Out Effort Gu within a counterfeit rock. This step was already done in advance.
He would then place it under a table he knew of in a gambling den, bump into it by accident, buy the rock and - voila! It would seem that he had chanced upon the invaluable All-Out Effort Gu entirely by chance. After that he would skyrocket through the ranks of the Battle Arena.
It was a very well thought out plan, and had even succeeded in Fang Yuan's previous life. Of course, the public didn't know the full details of such, only that Li Ran had found the gu worm in question in such a spectacular way - which is why Fang Yuan had heard of it and had tried to obtain it for himself when he had been teaching Shang Xin Ci how to dissect gambling rocks.
Of course, Fang Yuan had failed - because the rock in question hadn't been swapped out yet!
Right now Li Ran was heading towards Fu Tiang Xe He Restaurant. It was one of his favorite places to eat - he would oftentimes come here. Although he owed money to several people, he would never underpay the restaurant owner here and always paid in full.
That was because there was a view that he could only get from a special seat there...
However, right as he was about to walk into Fu Tiang Xe He Restaurant, he nearly ran over someone in his excitement to get in.
The person in question was a beggar. Not an uncommon site within Shang Clan City - the man was disheveled and his body and clothes stank.
What stood out to Li Ran, however, was that the man was a Rank 1 Gu Master. Sometimes Rank 1 Gu Masters couldn't find work and had to resort to begging, but that wasn't what stood out to Li Ran.
The man didn't even seem to mind the fact that Li Ran had nearly run him over. He had a strangely vacant expression on his face - Li Ran wondered if the man was using some kind of substance like opium or alcohol based on how he looked.
However, the words that the beggar spoke flowed smoothly from his mouth, even if they made no sense to Li Ran, "Welcome to Fu Tiang Xe He Restaurant. I love you."
Li Ran's mind was thrown off balance. Why was this man saying something so strange instead of asking for a primeval stone, or even apologizing for getting in his way?
What even was the first part? Was this man affiliated with the restaurant? Why was he in such a state of disarray then? Were they not paying him?
"Don't mind him," another customer said, descending down the stairs when he saw Li Ran staring at the beggar in a state of bewilderment. "He's been doing that since this morning. Don't know why, but he says the same thing to anyone who walks in - 'Welcome to Fu Tiang Xe He Restaurant. I love you.' Don't pay it any mind. I think he's been hit by Stupidity Gu or something."
"So he isn't affiliated with the restaurant then, hmm..." Li Ran muttered.
With that, Li Ran shook his head and made his way up to the usual table he sat at in the restaurant. It was reserved for him - he paid the owner half a primeval stone extra each time for this privilege. There was a reason he wanted this seat though. The reason he gave to the owner was that there was a woman in the nearby brothel who could be seen from this angle. That fit the image that Li Ran was trying to cultivate. But the real reason was that his wife and son could be seen shopping in the market from there.
His heart ached for the two of them. He wanted to be a good husband and a good father to his son - but his duty to his clan prevented him from such. The thought of his son going through life without knowing who his father truly was, or thinking that his father was such a useless bum that he had abandoned them... it made his heart ache in ways he could never have imagined. No amount of wine could dull that kind of pain.
Now though, things were going to change. He was going to be able to face the world properly once he used All-Out Effort Gu, and might finally be able to support them properly.
The food tasted excellent that day, likely because of his good mood.
He was so engrossed in his thoughts that he didn't notice he was surrounded until it was too late.
He had closed his eyes, savoring a dumpling, and when he opened them - he was surrounded by the Shang Clan City's guards!
They had appeared as quickly as lightning. Several of them were Rank Three, and were glaring at Li Ran with hostility. To have Rank Three Gu Masters here... these were not the run-of-the-mill guards that patrolled the city, but specialists who were clearly tasked with a dangerous mission.
The other members of the restaurant were all looking his way, but before the Shan Clan guards none of them dared to speak up.
"Li Ran - you are under arrest on orders of the Shang Clan Elders! I have been tasked with taking you into custody!"
"What is the charge? Enjoying a meal? A succulent-" Li Ran wanted to protest, but he was whisked away by the guards before he could even finish his sentence.
Whispers circulated around the restaurant as to who Li Ran might be as he was escorted out. Li Ran made no effort to resist, maintaining as plain an expression as possible even though his heart was racing at a million miles an hour in his chest. The main question in his mind was - 'just how much did they know?'
He had done nothing up until now that would warrant such excessive force being used to arrest him. Nothing other than being a Wu Clan spy. But did they really know about that, or was this just a suspicion? If it was just suspicion, he needed to act as if he didn't know what was going on as much as possible.
Li Ran was hardly paying attention to it given the commotion his arrest was causing, but the beggar that he had seen earlier was no longer there near the entrance of the restaurant. Not that he would have ever in his wildest daydreams connected that disheveled hobo he had nearly stepped over carelessly with the current state that he was in. No, he wondered if there had been a traitor in the Wu Clan who had sold him out instead...
Li Ran wanted to run or fight back - but he was surrounded and did not have all of the gu worms he would've wanted for something like that.
Where was he going to run to anyway? This was the Shang Clan's territory. He would be caught before he could take fifty paces. He was smart enough to know when the jig was up.
His main thought was about the All-Out Effort Gu which he kept at his residence - what was going to happen to it? He had measures to keep it hidden but if they searched his apartment thoroughly they would without a doubt have found it. And if they found it, he would be instantly exposed for who he was. Let alone the valuable gu worm being lost from the Wu Clan's hold and instead ending up in the Shang Clan's hands!
Truth be told, that All-Out Effort Gu was worth more to the Wu Clan than his own life was. But he had not even refined in properly; and could not order it to self-detonate to keep it from getting into the Shang Clan's hands.
His other thoughts were regarding his family. 'My son... I'm sorry... it looks like your father might not be able to visit you again after all...'