Meanwhile, Fang Zheng screamed as he had been hit by a javelin in the left leg, leaving it hard for him to move. His eyes widened as Lord of the Mysteries prepared the final blow.
Though, as he was about to skewer Fang Zheng's head, one of the Gu Masters managed to land a moonblade, neatly nicking his left leg, and causing the javelin to strike Fang Zheng's abdomen instead.
If Fang Zheng was in medieval times on Earth, this blow would still be fatal as some of his bowel loops were perforated and he would certainly develop peritonitis. As it was here though, such a wound could be patched up so long as he got to a healer in time.
As for Lord of the Mysteries, he had exhausted his primeval essence in chasing down 'Fang Yuan.' He took out a primeval stone, but would the others give him time to recover?
Moonblades flew at him, many of them now hitting their mark as the Gu Masters rushed to cover Fang Zheng. 'I shouldn't have used my Rank 3 Testicular Torsion Gu so quickly- that was my trump card!' Lord of the Mysteries thought to no avail. Aside from his stealth gu worm, that was his only Rank 3 gu worm. All the rest of his gu worms were Rank 2; there was a reason he was so desperate for primeval stones, after all. He had essentially been stranded near the mountain when his other Rank 3 gu worms had died when he had been unable to feed them.
However, he had greatly underestimated the difficulty of this task.
The other Gu Masters, though only Rank 2, showed excellent teamwork and had a full set of gu worms for the most part. They could also actually recover their primeval essence using primeval stones so long as one of them covered for the other.
It looked like he was cornered.
"You might call yourself Lord of the Mysteries- but the only thing that you'll be remembered as- is the Fool!" a Gu Master declared.
With a swift motion, that Gu Master beheaded Lord of the Mysteries.
While this was going on, the real Fang Yuan leisurely walked into camp. Naturally, he was spotted by someone who had been looking for Fang Zheng. "Fang Zheng- thank goodness we found you! You need to get to safety immediately!"
Fang Yuan frowned, but for the time being, did not correct the Gu Master. If there was danger, why would he loiter around just to correct this guy? Obviously, it was more important that he get to safety!
"Academy elder, we've brought Fang Zheng!"
The academy elder rushed in to ensure that Fang Zheng was alright, and then paused.
Although someone else might've been fooled at how close the two brothers' appearances were, he had spent enough time with them to be able to distinguish them based on their facial expressions. He said, rather slowly, the gears in his head turning, "You are not Fang Zheng?"
"That is correct, academy elder, I am Gu Yue Fang Yuan," Fang Yuan said. He looked around and saw that most of the other students had already been brought back to the headquarters- though Fang Zheng was not among them. Clearly there had been a case of mistaken identity.
The academy elder's face blanched. That meant that the person he had abandoned to his fate... immediately he felt his heart erupt in anger. "Fang Yuan! Why are you so late to the examination?"
"Oh, an old lady's cat was stuck in a tree on the roadside while I was walking here, and so I stopped to help," Fang Yuan said nonchalantly.
If it had been someone else, the academy elder would've given that student a good lecture and perhaps even a thrashing given his mood for saying such a blatant lie- but this was Fang Yuan, and the way that Fang Yuan said it... he didn't seem to be making it up!
And for that matter, it was 100% true. While Fang Yuan had been walking towards the location where the exam was being held, the system suddenly told him that he could get yet another Red Steel Relic Gu if he helped this old lady get her cat out of a tree.
While Fang Yuan had been regularly delinquent in the past, ever since becoming class president, he had been quite regular with showing up and had rarely if ever shirked his duties. Even Fang Yuan was bound by the role that he had been given and had to play the part. That was because he needed those ten primeval stones a week. However, he was more than willing to be late if the benefits were high enough- and a Red Steel Relic Gu was more than worth it.
However, this kind of action was somewhat consistent with what the academy elder had heard of Fang Yuan, so he moved onto something else.
"And what about your class president pin?"
"That- oh, I think I misplaced it during yesterday's hunt," Fang Yuan said. 'It is odd- several weird things happened today. For one, I woke up late, two, I had forgotten the pin which is unlike how I usually do things. Three, doing something as simple as helping a cat out of a tree got me a Red Steel Relic Gu? Clearly there is something greater at foot here.' By now he had pieced things together enough to the point where he was rather certain as to what was going on, but still chose to play dumb.
The academy elder no longer bothered wasting his time with Fang Yuan-he was the most experienced healer here and he rushed to go find Fang Zheng.
Fang Yuan was filled in on what was going on from the other students. 'Heh... it seems that I got quite lucky avoiding it. Maybe that Luck stat isn't worthless at all. Though, why did someone want to kill Fang Zheng? This did not happen in my old life... is this something that I changed?"
The Gu Masters returned with the corpse of the assassin and Fang Zheng, whose stomach was badly injured.
The academy elder's face paled when he saw this- it was not that the wound couldn't be healed, but it looked like Fang Zheng's aperture had been damaged! That would be far harder to fix than the damaged organs.
It was to such an extent that the clan head himself came to investigate.
"It seems that there was only this lone assassin and no one else," the scouts said after scouring the area. That said, there could still be more Rank 3 Gu Masters with stealth-type gu worms lurking around, and no one wanted to take chances.
Naturally, the exam was cancelled.