Although Fang Yuan had the purple thorn token, he did not dare to investigate this openly.
But in his memory, Li Ran also participated in the battle stage. After obtaining the legendary Gu, he won his way up and swept the battle stage.
This made it easier.
Fang Yuan still had the once per month enforced challenge unused, thus, he came to the secret reception area using it.
There were three people who were named Li Ran among the ones who had signed up.
Two males and one female.
Eliminating the female since Li Ran was a male in the rumors.
The remaining two, one was an old man around sixty years old, slightly famous. With rank three cultivation, he had gone up to third inner city’s battle stage a few years ago, but his body was getting worse as the years went, falling back to fourth inner city eventually. This was obviously not the Li Ran Fang Yuan wanted to find either, since Li Ran in his memories had a tough life.
The other is a middle aged man, over fifty years old. With rank two cultivation, he had arrived in Shang clan city for around ten years, but had remained at the fifth inner city battle stage. He loved gambling, and lived a difficult life. He had married and bore children in Shang clan city, but the couple did not get along and separated.
Fang Yuan secretly investigated, and found that this person was the one he saw at the gambling den.
Tailing him for several days, Fang Yuan found that this Li Ran lived from day to day, sometimes, after eating today, he could not afford food the next day.
But this did not mean he had no capabilities.
He relied on the primeval stones he earned in fifth inner city battle stage to survive.
Fang Yuan investigated his battle records, he won more than he lost.
According to logic, he should not be living such a life. But this person loved to eat, gamble and visit prostitutes, he spent his money without restraint. In order to gamble, he would even use all the primeval stones he has, such that for the next half a month, he would have to borrow money from people, and eat the cheapest food possible to survive.
Similarly, in order to have a feast, he would go to the highest grade restaurant, and spend most of the money he had. He even ate without paying, and still owed several restaurants money now.
“This person must be the owner of the legendary Gu in my previous life. But he could not control his desires, thus even with the legendary Gu, what could he do? No wonder he was like a shooting star, going missing soon after his fame.” Fang Yuan shook his head secretly.
“He obtained the legendary Gu in my previous life, would he get it again now? It is not possible for me to continue tailing him for long. The day where he finds the legendary Gu is nearing. Am I truly not fated to receive this Gu?” Fang Yuan frowned.
These days, Fang Yuan spent a lot of time and effort in tailing Li Ran. If he spent this time on cultivating, he might achieve greater success.
Most importantly, Fang Yuan had no confidence of whether he would gain anything from doing this.
And if he continued, he might get found out. Thankfully, Wei Yang was a busy man, only coming over to watch when Fang Yuan had a battle, if not, Fang Yuan would not have the opportunity to tail Li Ran.
If Wei Yang found him doing this, how would Fang Yuan explain himself?
The greatest suspicion now was, why was the legendary Gu not inside the stellar stone, this did not match with the rumors!
Fang Yuan could not understand, this was too unimaginable! All the elements were present, but the Gu was nowhere to be found.
It could just be Fang Yuan’s overwhelmingly suspicious nature, but he found this Li Ran very strange. He could not pinpoint what the strangeness was, but it was a feeling, an instinct. It was such a baseless feeling that even Fang Yuan could not be sure of it.
LIke this, after another twenty over days, Fang Yuan fell into deep perplexity. That strange feeling became stronger, but Fang Yuan did not know where it originated.
Li Ran’s actions had nothing amiss.
He lived in Shang clan city for nearly ten years, if there was anything wrong with him, outsiders would’ve known already.
“I am too entrenched into this, and have thought about this too much. At this time, I need an outsider’s opinion to inspire myself.” Fang Yuan was clear of his situation.
But he only trusted himself, although he made a poison vow with Bai Ning Bing, Fang Yuan did not trust Bai Ning Bing one bit. He only used her to cultivate, since the bone flesh unity Gu was much better than the liquor worm.
Without anyone to help, Fang Yuan could only rely on himself. And he had gotten used to relying on himself, and liked it too.
Thus, he came to the shop: “Shopkeeper, do you have a flash of inspiration Gu?”
Fang Yuan had asked a few shops, they did not have it. Finally, a shop had it, but it was priced at twenty nine thousand primeval stones.
A flash of inspiration Gu, a rank three consumable Gu, gone after one use. Who would spend so much primeval stones to buy this?
But the truth is, many people did.
These people were recipe masters who specialized in creating Gu refinement recipes.
When they got into a bottleneck, and were a step from success, they would choose to use this Gu. Once this Gu was used, it would give them that spark of inspiration that would allow them to successfully create the new recipe.
A recipe’s worth is far greater than twenty nine thousand primeval stones.
Thus, a flash of inspiration Gu was a Gu with a lot of demand, if Fang Yuan did not have the purple thorn token, the shop would never sell it to him.
A similar Gu to the a flash of inspiration Gu is the cactus pointer.
But the latter was a Tie clan specialty grass Gu, it was not sold in the market.
Fang Yuan gritted his teeth, buying this a flash of inspiration Gu.
This Gu was like a blue jewel tadpole, small and agile, swimming about and waving its tail.
Fang Yuan activated his primeval essence, and this Gu entered his brain, turning into a white spiritual light, and like lightning, tore across the layers of mystery in Fang Yuan’s head.
Fang Yuan’s eyes shone with brilliance, finally realizing what the strange feeling was.
“That’s right, although this Li Ran’s life is a mess, without any control over himself, there exists a pattern among this mess. He goes to the restaurant once every three days, goes to the gambling den twice every seven days, and the brothel once every five days. And every ten days, he would go to a restaurant named ‘Fu Tai Xiang He’.
From the messy report, under the influence of the a flash of inspiration Gu, the pattern within was revealed .
This was the strange part.
If a person was truly unrestrained and did not think of what to do, his life would be a complete mess, how could it have such a perfect rhythm?
Three days later, in Fu Tai Xiang He restaurant.
“Clerk, the bill.” Li Ran looked away from the window, calling loudly.
“Coming, lord Li Ran, five and a half primeval stones please.”
“This is six, no need for change.” Li Ran tossed out six primeval stones.
“Thank you lord, take care!”
Dun dun dun…
Li Ran walked down the stairs, and as he walked out of the restaurant, he turned into an alley and gradually vanished under the shadow.
Downstairs, Fang Yuan observed silently, before calling the shop assistant, pointing at Li Ran’s seat: “The view here is horrible, I want to sit there instead.”
According to his understanding, every time Li Ran came here, he would sit at the window seat, that was indeed strange.
“No problem!” The shop assistant laughed: “It is a man’s interest to peek at beauties.”
“What?” Fang Yuan’s eyebrows raised.
“Hmm, isn’t esteemed customer trying to see Qin Yan brothel’s number one star, Lady An Yu? Hehe, that seat can directly look into her room, if you’re lucky, you can even see her body. That Li Ran earlier, he always sits here to look at her. He always makes me reserve the seat for half a primeval stones.” The shop assistant said with a lecherous expression.
“Oh is that so?” Fang Yuan replied curtly, sitting at Li Ran’s seat.
Through the window, he could indeed see into the brothel.
Qin Yan brothel had eight storeys, the number one lady An Yu was a rank two Gu Master, having a room at the top floor. She had a great body, and her Gu Master identity could invoke men’s conquering desires, rumors say it takes almost ten thousand primeval stones to have her for a night.
With Li Ran’s fortune, he could not afford this, but was he really here to peek at Lady An Yu?
Looking at the way he left the brothel, he was not such a man.
Fang Yuan looked outside, there were many restaurants around Qin Yan brothel, why did he choose this one?
If he had a Gu worm to improve his vision, then maybe, but Fang Yuan knew he did not have such a Gu.
At this distance, even if Lady An Yu was there, he would only see a blur image.
“Eh? This is…” Fang Yuan’s gaze concentrated on a tofu shop opposite the street.
A pair of mother and son were packing up their stall, ready to go home.
Fang Yuan recognised them, they were Li Ran’s wife and son!
“Don’t tell me, his real motive was to look at them?” Fang Yuan could not help but think.
He closed his eyes, and the map of the street appeared in his head.
There were better places to peek at Lady An Yu, but to observe this mother and son pair, this was the only spot!
“If he really wanted to look at them, why does he have to do it sneakily? According to my findings, he abandoned them years ago, is he feeling guilty? Strange… if he was guilty, and wanted to show concern for them, he could appear in front of them personally, why does he have to be secretive.”
“No, it could be that he was too ashamed to face them. But if he was, why would he not turn over a new leaf? This is really weird, he seems to be a mess, and cannot restrain himself, but his life is actually an orderly mess. This evidently shows he has good control over himself.”
Fang Yuan’s eyes were eerie as possibilities flashed across his mind.
He chewed on the food, but could not taste them at all.
He felt himself nearing the truth, like a blind man in a room getting close to the door.
All the clues and suspicions flew around in his head like a tornado.
Such a thinking speed, caused his eating action to be greatly slowed.
He slowly put down the chopsticks, raising his wine glass, the wine inside glimmering as it emitted a strong fragrance.
Suddenly, Fang Yuan’s black pupils expanded!
The wine glass was raised halfway, and his arm stayed in midair, not moving like a statue.
In his mind, a bolt of lightning struck and exploded.
“So that’s why… I finally understand!”
He screamed excitedly in his heart, as a great brilliance flashed across his eyes like lightning.
The mystery involving his last life and current life had finally been solved, all the suspicions were lifted and Fang Yuan found the answer he wanted!
At the same time, he ‘found’ the legendary Gu he lost!