Fang Zheng and Fang Yuan made their way to the courtyard outside the Clan Head's Pavilion.
Back on Qing Mao Mountain, it would be decorated with a number of plants. Here though, on Bei Gu Mountain, it was instead decorated with a number of bone sculptures that shone with a light aura in the pale moonlight.
The new Clan Head's Pavilion on Bei Gu Mountain had been rather hastily constructed.
Even after all this time, it was only a hollow shell compared to the one that had existed in the original Gu Yue Village. The space was more than sufficient but there was not enough time to build it to its full extent. Some parts remained unfinished, and because of the village's diminished population, the staff was minimal. Fang Zheng didn't need that many servants anyway. This gave anyone living within a rather haunting feeling as the building emanated an aura of emptiness.
The white bone decorations, enchanting in their own way, only added to the eerie, lifeless atmosphere.
Compared to this, Fang Zheng actually preferred the times when it had just been him and Fang Yuan living together in the close quarters of the bamboo flats Fang Yuan had inherited. They were smaller and less illustrious with him having to deal with some of the tenants (the female ones were especially annoying to Fang Zheng), but also felt more like home.
At the very least, during that time, there was a sense of closeness to someone he knew, rather than the vast emptiness of far too much space for a single person.
Right now, though, Fang Zheng felt a sudden dread for a reason other than the house's somber atmosphere. A chill crept down his spine that had nothing to do with the weather.
Fang Yuan was staring at him with an equally frosty gaze. He had released several gu worms into the air.
"They've created a barrier around us," Fang Yuan said. "Thanks to this, we can attack each other without concern of damaging the pavilion."
Fang Zheng glanced around. The gu worms were nothing big for an Immortal, but to Fang Zheng, it was still a massive surprise whenever he saw his brother pull out such quantities of them. Even Fang Zheng had difficulty raising just six or seven gu worms, so the thought of someone pulling out dozens effortlessly was still jarring to him.
The servants were awake, having gotten up when they saw Fang Zheng walking through the hallways; they were now standing near the courtyard waiting for their masters' replies or to be called upon.
"Shall I dismiss them?" Fang Yuan asked, seeing where Fang Zheng was looking. "If they're making you nervous, then-"
"No, no, it's not a problem," Fang Zheng said, taking a fighting stance.
The anxiety simply came from the idea of trying to attack his brother.
Part of his mind went against it - the part that was closely allied with Fang Yuan. The other part was simply scared by Fang Yuan's oppressive aura. Although he had sealed his cultivation from Rank 6 to Rank 5, just as promised, Fang Zheng still felt there was far too wide a gap between them for him to do anything.
A few breaths of time passed until Fang Yuan blinked. "We can't stand here forever, younger brother. I want to see how well you can fight."
That was it. No matter how anxious Fang Zheng felt, he wasn't about to keep his brother waiting.
Much like he had learned in his martial arts lessons, he prepared himself and launched at Fang Yuan.
He did not activate any Strength Path gu worms at the moment; this was typical of how fights were done initially. Strength Path Gu Masters would simply rely upon their innate strength initially; when that failed, they would start activating Gu worms to boost themselves. Then, if they had access to them, they would attempt to activate killer moves, though Fang Zheng had not reached this final level yet.
Fang Zheng feinted with his right hand before striking with his left. Fang Yuan ducked and tried to sweep Fang Zheng off of his feet. Fang Zheng responded by somersaulting over him, attempting to strike at his older brother's back.
Fang Yuan, however, avoided this blow without even glancing at Fang Zheng and struck him in the shin.
Fang Zheng had been holding back, thinking that since Fang Yuan was not a Strength Path Gu Master, he didn't want to accidentally hurt him. However, despite the multiple additions of strength and defense he had made to his body using gu worms, Fang Zheng still felt the pain of Fang Yuan's strike.
"No need to worry about hurting me," Fang Yuan said. "I want to know just how strong you are and to see if you need to improve."
Gritting his teeth, Fang Zheng launched himself at Fang Yuan once more. Fang Yuan was simply trying to probe Fang Zheng's abilities and was not attacking seriously. As such, Fang Yuan was mainly on the defensive.
Fang Zheng's blows carried a massive amount of force by this point - sending shockwaves through the air which made the pebbles on the ground vibrate as he launched blow after blow. This was even without him activating any of his Beast Phantoms - though if he did so, the result would've been an even greater display of force and speed.
Fang Zheng could've torn through an ordinary bull elephant without a problem using nothing but his raw fists - with a set of synergistic first-class gu worms courtesy of his brother most other Rank 4 experts would also have trouble keeping up with him.
And yet, this was not enough.
Though Fang Zheng attempted to attack, most of his blows ended up meeting nothing but air. Fang Yuan replied with gentle taps, which still stung all over.
"All right, that is enough," Fang Yuan said. He deactivated the gu worms surrounding them and placed them back within his immortal aperture.
Fang Zheng was panting - not necessarily from the stress of the fight, but from the tension of the situation and the fear that his elder brother was disappointed in him. "Big Brother... how have I done?"
"You still have quite some room to improve," Fang Yuan said, dashing Fang Zheng's feelings. Fang Zheng knew that his combat prowess was not up to par since he had been burdened with his duties as clan head, but it still felt embarrassing to be called out on it. "But it can't really be helped that you're at this level; without a proper person to practice against, you won't be able to refine your moves."
"I will work harder on this in the future," Fang Zheng said.
Fang Yuan grunted. The truth of the matter was that it didn't matter how hard Fang Zheng worked unless he saw true combat. "We're going to be busy tomorrow morning. I have things to discuss with you and Qing Shu. You should go to sleep."
Fang Zheng was already exhausted, so he did not protest as he went back to bed.
Fang Yuan did not go into one of the rooms.
Instead, he hovered above the village and began tinkering with materials from within his aperture. Most of these were Emotion Lilly petals, in addition to other Emotion Path resources.
These resources had to be prepared a few hours in advance for this little project of his, so he felt that he might as well get started.
Fang Yuan was working with them as he wanted this project to be finished by the time he went back to Shang Clan City.