For Gu Fangchen, this question didn't even require thought.
Who was Gu Yuye?
Did he not know that man well enough?
Everyone knew the saying, there are only wrongly chosen names, never wrongly given nicknames.
"Legendary Undying King" wasn't a joke.
Give that man even the tiniest chance, and he would find a way to escape, regroup, and return stronger than before.
That was precisely why Gu Fangchen had to cut off every possible retreat, strip him of all support, trap him within an inescapable siege, and then deliver the killing blow.
Only then would the original body's karma be settled.
It would be his repayment, nineteen years of carefully woven despair, returned in full.
And nothing else could be allowed to distract him from that goal.
Ning Wuzhen looked at him and asked,
"You're not afraid your mother will be heartbroken?"
Gu Fangchen met his gaze squarely, speaking each word with deliberate weight.
"Has Gu Yuye not already broken her heart ten thousand times over?"
"She bore his children, managed the affairs of the royal residence, has she ever done anything wrong? Yet Gu Yuye sought to separate her from her own flesh and blood, made her raise a child of unknown origin, pour her entire heart into him, and then destroy it all."
"A man like that is unworthy of being a father, unworthy of being a husband, and unworthy of being human."
"When such a thing dies, my mother won't grieve for him, she'll grieve only because the love she gave was wasted on a dog."
"That kind of sorrow only lasts a while."
Hearing that, Ning Wuzhen's expression turned subtly complicated.
After all, Gu Fangchen himself was that "child of unknown origin."
Yet, despite that, Ning Wuzhen couldn't help feeling moved. A faint smile tugged at his lips as he asked,
"And how are you so certain your mother's sorrow will only be temporary?"
Gu Fangchen pointed at himself, answering with full confidence,
"Because she has me. If she's sad, I'll cheer her up."
Ning Wuzhen froze and fell into a long silence.
Gu Fangchen blinked and said,
"Grandfather, that was already the fifth question."
He stretched out his hand shamelessly.
"Any more questions, and I'll start charging."
Ning Wuzhen was speechless. He batted the boy's hand away and glared at him.
"Enough nonsense. Those three questions barely count as passed."
"Take your entry token, and go into the Forbidden Ground together with Xu Yuexiu."
Gu Fangchen withdrew his hand. In his palm lay a dark sword-shaped token engraved with the character for "Forbidden."
He thanked him and turned to leave, only for Ning Wuzhen to suddenly grab him by the back of the neck.
Gu Fangchen yelped in alarm, twisting his head back.
"You're not going to go back on your word, are you?!"
Ning Wuzhen tossed him a set of the Sword Pavilion's inner-sect robes.
"Put these on."
He paused, then added,
"And wear a cloak. Don't reveal your identity."
Gu Fangchen widened his eyes.
"Grandfather, are you embarrassed of your grandson? You think it's shameful for me to take first place, don't you?"
Ning Wuzhen glanced at him impassively.
"What do you think?"
Gu Fangchen took the clothes gloomily and put them on, pouting.
It wasn't about shame, he just didn't trust him not to forget to conceal his cultivation.
Truly, all old men were the same brand of tsundere.
...
Xu Yuexiu had been waiting at the entrance to the Forbidden Ground for a long time before the mysterious senior brother who had defeated her finally arrived.
Earlier, she had been nearly crushed by the defeat. Even her confidence in her swordsmanship had wavered.
After all, while she didn't expect to dominate, she had always held her own in puppet sparring and matches against her master or several elders.
Even the Pavilion Master and the Young Pavilion Master had praised her swordsmanship.
Yet today, she had been defeated in a single move.
She had thought her skills had deteriorated to that point, that the elders must have been humoring her during practice, and she was already planning to add two more hours of sword training each day.
Of course, that idea was firmly rejected by her master. She was already cultivating ten hours a day, adding two more would leave no time for rest.
Later, several elders of the Sword Pavilion stepped forward to clarify that the one controlling the puppet earlier had actually been a personal disciple of Ning Songjun, the Sword Saint.
At that, Xu Yuexiu's defeat suddenly made perfect sense.
Losing in one move to the Sword Saint's true disciple, how could that not be reasonable?
Everyone had seen how stunning that strike had been. No one could possibly doubt the legitimacy of the first-place result.
The only unreasonable thing was, since when did the Sword Saint have a personal disciple?!
For a time, the inner-sect disciples were in uproar. No one knew when Ning Songjun had taken on such a disciple, and not a whisper of news had leaked beforehand.
To be honest, until she saw the man in person, Xu Yuexiu remained skeptical.
She half-suspected the elders had simply fabricated such a person to comfort her after seeing how shaken she was.
Gu Fangchen tugged down the brim of his cloak, further hiding his face as he looked at the beautiful woman in a violet dress before him.
He was quite familiar with this "Number Two of the Inner Sect."
Perennial second place in the inner rankings, and infamous for her obsessive cultivation habits, utterly relentless, to the point of madness.
In fact, one of his past quests had involved figuring out how to make her take a proper rest.
Players had to rack their brains over that one.
That alone said plenty about how extreme her dedication was.
"May I ask, Senior Brother... how should I address you?"
Xu Yuexiu asked curiously, bowing respectfully.
Judging from his posture, he was straight and slender like bamboo, but he didn't seem like a swordsman.
He carried no sword in his hand, none at his waist.
Nor did he possess the sharp, cutting aura that sword cultivators usually carried.
And those hands, long, pale, elegant like a woman's... no, even more delicate than hers.
Xu Yuexiu's own hands were rough and calloused, with scars that could no longer be erased. Her fingers were coarse and hardened.
Medicine could heal them, yes, but with her relentless training, the calluses always returned.
In her eyes, though, such hands only added to a swordsman's spirit.
Gu Fangchen thought for a moment, then said seriously,
"I recently gave myself a Dao title. You can call me 'Not.'"
Xu Yuexiu: "..."
It was clear he didn't want to reveal his true identity, but was he so lazy he couldn't even make up a proper pseudonym?
Her lips twitched as she forced herself to say,
"Not... Senior Brother."
Gu Fangchen nodded.
"Junior Sister Yuexiu, time's about up. Let's head in together."
Xu Yuexiu nodded, letting the matter drop, and produced her own token.
"Alright!"
Gu Fangchen raised his token high.
Before them, the great gate of the Forbidden Ground loomed like a bottomless abyss.
As the tokens in their hands began to glow, the gate shuddered, and in the next instant, both were pulled inside.
...
Gu Yuandao turned into a streak of light as he entered Donglong Commandery, but instead of going straight to the Sword Pavilion, he made his way to the Commandery Governor's Mansion.
The governor of Donglong Commandery was an old senior brother from his Confucian Sect, a cultivator of the Third Grade, and one of his key allies on this mission!