Nan Qiu Garden.
On the small square, the flagstones laid with star stones offered a clear, unobstructed view beneath a brilliant canopy of starlight.
Fang Yuan stood at one end of the square, hands clasped behind his back, feet slightly apart, eyes closed, his breathing deep, slow, and measured.
Before him stood over a dozen stone pillars.
Each pillar measured a full two zhang in diameter, dark and unyielding. They were spaced out across the plaza, nearly filling the entire small square.
Hoo...
Fang Yuan exhaled a turbid breath and abruptly opened his eyes.
In that instant, it was as if a bolt of lightning flashed through the void!
Charge!
He surged forward, taking huge strides. Within a few steps, he arrived before one of the stone pillars.
His feet halted abruptly. His waist and abdomen twisted, his arm whipped out violently, and his fist swept horizontally.
Boom.
A muffled impact. The stone pillar shuddered, a spherical pit punched deep into its surface. Stone chips flew in every direction.
Again.
Fang Yuan held his breath, alternating between fists and palms in a relentless barrage. At the same time he threw kicks, knee strikes, elbow jabs, shoulder checks... every part of his body was transformed into a sharp weapon of attack.
Boom, boom, boom...
The muffled impacts rang out without cease, the stone pillars shuddering continuously as stone chips scattered in all directions.
Fang Yuan attacked without a moment's pause, his assault like a torrential storm — endless and unrelenting.
In the span of moments, one pillar had been reduced to half its volume, looking like a small sapling battered by a tempest.
Crack.
Fang Yuan's leg lashed out in a sweeping kick with a sharp crack. The pillar, already on the verge of collapse, could endure no more and snapped in two, toppling to the ground.
Fang Yuan slowly lowered his leg, his breathing slightly labored, fine beads of sweat forming on his forehead.
He swept his gaze across the ground.
The two broken pillars were unrecognizable, their surfaces riddled with pockmarks — every crater a testament to Fang Yuan's fists and feet.
"This was without using Full Effort Gu. Ordinary attacks truly struggle to bring out the Beast Force Phantom."
Tah.
He let out a light shout, and with two enormous strides, darted to the nearest stone pillar.
His right hand formed a palm, and he slapped it down hard against the pillar.
Roar!
A phantom brown bear materialized in the air behind Fang Yuan. It was fat and muscular, its massive jaws gaping to reveal glistening white fangs. At the same time, it raised its right paw to strike, mirroring Fang Yuan's motion exactly.
In that instant, Fang Yuan felt a surge of tremendous power flooding into his right palm!
Boom!
His palm struck the stone pillar with a thunderous impact.
The pillar — thick enough that two people couldn't wrap their arms around it — was shattered in a single blow, crashing to the ground with a resounding boom and smashing a shallow crater into the stone tiles.
A wave of recoil force transmitted back through his arm, numbing Fang Yuan's right palm.
Ever since acquiring the Brown Bear Strength Gu, Fang Yuan had been training with it ceaselessly. Now his efforts had borne fruit — he had gained the strength of a bear.
"That previous pillar took dozens of strikes to barely destroy. With Full Effort Gu, a single blow was enough to shatter it..."
Fang Yuan contemplated the vast difference.
Full Effort Gu was not an offensive gu — it was an auxiliary gu. But once activated, it produced an almost miraculous effect! The difference in Fang Yuan's combat power before and after its use was like heaven and earth.
Using an auxiliary gu as the core of one's arsenal was relatively uncommon. For most Gu Masters, auxiliary gu merely served as supplementary support alongside the main pillars of their set.
To take an example from someone nearby: Wei Yang used Rainbow Light Gu, a movement gu, as his core, with Blade Light Gu as his primary offensive pillar, and Light Source Gu as his secondary pillar. Light Source Gu could drastically reduce the True Essence consumption of light-attribute gu.
The fact that Full Effort Gu could serve as a core despite being an auxiliary gu spoke volumes about its precious value.
"However... while Celestial Canopy Gu's defense is considerable, it lacks rigidity. If I swapped it for Gold Vigor Gu, the effect would be even better," Fang Yuan thought.
Throughout the entire attack sequence, he had been channeling Celestial Canopy Gu. Otherwise, his hands and feet would have been destroyed.
Forces are mutual.
Though Fang Yuan's bones were forged of iron, his flesh, skin, tendons, and blood were still those of a mortal. That single palm strike — without Celestial Canopy Gu's protection — wouldn't have broken his bones, but it would have reduced his hand to a bloody mess.
However, Gold Vigor Gu was not currently available.
And Fang Yuan had no money left.
At the start, he had possessed over nine hundred thousand Yuan Stones, but Bai Ningbing had claimed half.
Then, to acquire Full Effort Gu, he had spent a fortune at the Gambling Stone Hall.
On top of that, his daily expenses — food, clothing, lodging, and feeding his gu — in the Shang Family's Third Inner City were substantial.
After that came the great overhaul, requiring a massive investment of Yuan Stones. Eight days ago, at the martial arena, he had handed over his remaining eighty thousand-plus Yuan Stones to Li Ran in full public view.
Now, not only was Fang Yuan completely destitute, but he was also in debt.
According to the terms of the poison oath, he still owed Li Ran another twelve thousand Yuan Stones.
Fang Yuan understood this was a necessary investment.
Reputation was secondary — the main point was to stabilize Li Ran and demonstrate a posture of sincere cooperation. Even though Fang Yuan had already used Promise-Breaking Gu to nullify the poison oath gu on his body days ago.
Li Ran was an unexpected asset. Killing him would leave evidence, arouse the Shang Family's suspicion, and would absolutely be a blunder — so Fang Yuan chose not to act.
For Fang Yuan, Li Ran was a chess piece — difficult to handle, but very useful. Perhaps in the future, Fang Yuan could even extract the recipe for synthesizing the Fifth Transformation Full Effort Gu from the Wu Family through Li Ran.
For now, the priority was using Li Ran to keep the Wu Family at ease.
Three days ago, Li Ran had already contacted his handler through the emergency channel. He had reported that Fang Yuan was someone who could be used. With this, the likelihood of retaliation from the Wu Family was greatly diminished.