Night, and the compound had gone very quiet.
"Welcome home." The smart voice sounded at the yard gate, and Fang Yu, who had been sitting in the living room all this time, got up at once and went to the front door.
From a distance.
Fang Yu saw a burly middle-aged man in casual clothes come in, the hair at his temples going faintly white, a weariness on his rough face that he could not hide.
But when the middle-aged man saw Fang Yu, he smiled all the same. "Fang Yu."
"Dad," Fang Yu said.
This was his father, Fang Ping'an. Since Fang Yu's mother had gone, he had held this family up alone, right up to today.
The two of them walked over to the living-room sofa.
"Where are Xiao Long and Siyue?" Fang Ping'an asked, setting down his bag and shrugging off his jacket.
"I've already sent them up to bed," Fang Yu said, and then pointed at the glass on the coffee table. "Dad, you've only just got in — drink some water first. I don't suppose you've had any all day."
"All right, I'll drink it." Fang Ping'an smiled.
In his day he too had come out of a martial junior college, and at his peak his Life Tier had reached Level 15; but as he grew older and let his training lapse, with all the dinners and the drinking that business required, he had picked up any number of chronic complaints.
Kidney stones were one of them. Not life-threatening, but a torment all the same.
"Come on, come upstairs with me. We'll pay our respects to your great-grandfather," Fang Ping'an said slowly.
"Mm." Fang Yu nodded. Some years back, when he had first got into college, his father had told him certain things about the family, and he had understood then that there were responsibilities he would have to carry.
The villa had one basement level, the martial arts hall, and three floors above ground.
On the third floor, in a small room partitioned off for the purpose, was the Fang family's little ancestral shrine. Father and son went straight up and pushed the door open.
They closed it behind them, and the sensor lights came on by themselves.
The room was not large, and even its decor was thoroughly modern; the incense and candles were electronic. It was very quiet.
Only three tablets stood there.
Fang Ping'an stood before them without speaking, and Fang Yu stood to one side, his eyes moving over the names on the three tablets — his great-grandfather Fang Tiankuo, his grandmother Tao Yujie, and his mother Bai Qing.
Then.
Fang Yu made his obeisance, following his father, Fang Ping'an.
"Fang Yu, do you still remember what I told you about your great-grandfather when you came of age?" Fang Ping'an turned his head to look at him.
"I remember," Fang Yu nodded.
Back then, after the entrance exam, once he had been admitted to the martial junior college, his father had told him: his great-grandfather, Fang Tiankuo, had been among the first wave of immigrants to the New Moon.
Only, for reasons unknown, he had later returned to Blue Star, and to his home town — Wuling City.
And of the last words his great-grandfather left behind, there was only one instruction: "If any of the descendants awakens the Upper Aspect, the Sun-Devouring Python, that one must return to the New Moon."
Which was exactly why Fang Yu had been so shaken to hear that his brother and sister had both awakened the Sun-Devouring Python.
"Your great-grandfather had already died when you were born," Fang Ping'an said slowly. "Your great-grandfather was in fact a High-Rank Warrior. Level 39 at his peak — and even after he was injured he still had the strength of a Mid-Rank Warrior. In his time, that counted for a great deal."
Fang Yu could not help nodding.
It was in New Calendar year 38 that the Blue Moon civilization produced its first Starry Sky Warrior; before that the strongest were only Sky-Patrol Warriors... To reach Level 39 in that age was to stand on the very threshold of Earth Warrior. He had been a formidable man, without question.
Even now, Level 39 was nothing to sniff at.
"He had high hopes for your grandfather. That's why he named him Zhiyuan — 'far-reaching purpose'." Fang Ping'an sighed. "A pity your grandfather never even wanted children."
Fang Yu did not know what to say to that.
He had lost count of how many times his father had told this story.
His great-grandfather had named his grandfather Fang Zhiyuan, and the meaning needed no explaining; but his grandfather had spent his whole life lying flat and enjoying himself, styling himself the founder of a childless line — and at ninety he had not changed.
It was not until his forties that his great-grandfather forced him into marriage, with the threat of leaving the entire estate to the state.
And so there was a father.
His grandfather had named his father Fang Ping'an — peace and safety — meaning only that he should live free and untroubled all his life... and instead his father had turned out to be the one who tried, and who carried something of the great-grandfather's bearing in him.
"Your great-grandfather raised me."
"I was eighteen when he died. Nearly thirty years, in the blink of an eye." Fang Ping'an's voice was level. "He said nothing more at the end, but I know there was a great regret in him."
Fang Yu listened in silence.
Neither his grandfather nor his father had awakened anything but a Lower Aspect — nowhere near the Upper Aspect, the Sun-Devouring Python, that his great-grandfather had spoken of.
There had to be secrets in his great-grandfather's past.
"Later I married your mother, and we had the three of you," Fang Ping'an said. "The names I gave you carry certain hopes of mine as well."
Fang Yu nodded slightly.
His own name and his brother's were taken from the line: the great python passes through tribulation, and feathers into a dragon. His sister Fang Siyue's name carried a meaning of the same kind.
His father had been deeply shaped by his great-grandfather.
"I thought: I never awakened a strong enough Void Star Aspect, so returning to the New Moon by the martial road was beyond me. Then I'd emigrate with money instead." Fang Ping'an sighed. "A pity..."
"Dad, you've done more than enough," Fang Yu could not help saying.
The New Moon.
In this age it was heaven on earth to so many people on the old soil of Blue Star. In every news report, everyone there was a warrior, and the technology was at a height beyond imagining.
To go and see it as a tourist did not even cost so much: through the Star Gate, with a tour group, a hundred thousand Star Coins would about cover the trip.
But emigrating, settling there? That was far harder.
One road was the warrior's road, and its standard kept rising; these days, if you could become an Earth Warrior you could bring your family with you outright, and the Blue Moon Alliance would allocate you a permanent residence.
If you were only a High-Rank Warrior, you had to complete assignments and accumulate "immigration points".
The other road was emigration by assets — which meant you had to buy property... Fang Yu had looked into it once: on the New Moon, commercial housing ran to over a million Star Coins per square metre.
Even the smallest units sold for tens of millions, and there were limits on how many people could live in them.
You could put it this way.
To become a New Moon citizen you had to be either a powerful warrior or a rich man...
As far as Fang Yu knew, the estate his great-grandfather left behind had been far from small. A pity that most of it had gone on his grandfather — especially since his grandfather's Life Tier had never reached Level 10, so that getting a Parenthood Certificate in his forties had cost another large sum... His father had come this far the hard way.
"There's something in what your grandfather says."
"Times change, and people live differently. The old generation's ideas shouldn't be forced on the next one... and besides, the odds of awakening an Upper Aspect really are very low," Fang Ping'an said.
Fang Yu sighed inwardly too.
Looked at across the whole world, across the whole civilization, the rate at which Upper Aspects appeared was not low; a sizeable crop came every year... but for any one individual the odds were tiny.
Take Wuling City: the rate of Upper Aspects was about one in three thousand.
"So after you didn't awaken the Sun-Devouring Python, I stopped asking for so much." There was an excitement in Fang Ping'an's voice that he could not quite hold down. "Only — I truly never imagined Xiao Long and Siyue would awaken it at the same time."
A brother and sister awakening Upper Aspects together.
It was rare indeed.
Fang Yu understood, too, that his brother and sister had rekindled hope in his father's heart... He himself had never met his great-grandfather, so returning to the New Moon was no obsession of his.
But for his father, it was another matter entirely.
"The best talent."
"Deserves the best conditions to grow in," Fang Ping'an said. "Your brother and sister are only fifteen. The best thing would be to build their foundation with Myriad-Form Genesis Fruit — one fruit a year, three years running, until they're eighteen."
"I understand," Fang Yu nodded.
The Myriad-Form Genesis Fruit was a treasure they had studied in a required junior-college course: it strengthened sinew, bone, flesh and blood, fortified the spirit, improved mental focus and more besides — comprehensive, in short. Setting aside a few unimaginable natural treasures, it was the finest foundation-building treasure there was, and wealthy families whose children meant to walk the martial path all bought it. It came from the Primordial Star... its effect was superb, and its only flaw was the price.
Two million Star Coins per fruit.
If his brother and sister both took one, that was four million a year... The financial pressure on his father would be crushing.
"Dad."
"Xiao Long and Siyue matter more," Fang Yu said directly. "I'm nearly graduating anyway. You don't need to give me a living allowance for my fourth year."
The allowance Fang Ping'an gave Fang Yu was five hundred thousand a year.
It would not solve the whole problem, but Fang Yu believed that closing a five-hundred-thousand gap would take some of the weight off his father... It was the decision Fang Yu had made in his own mind the moment he learned his brother and sister had awakened the Sun-Devouring Python.
If he could not give the family more help for the moment, then he would at least be less of a burden.
As the eldest brother.
Some things always called for sacrifices... and besides, over all these years of martial training, Fang Yu had done the sums roughly: his father had spent several million Star Coins on him alone.
Before Fang Ping'an could answer.
"Dad, no."
"Dad." Two urgent voices rang out; the door was flung open and Fang Siyue and Fang Long came pushing in, which left both Fang Yu and Fang Ping'an momentarily at a loss.
"Why aren't you two in bed?" Fang Ping'an frowned.
Fang Siyue did not answer that.
She went straight to it: "Dad, my brother and I don't necessarily need the Myriad-Form Genesis Fruit, it's far too expensive. After the assessment today the examiner told us the Myriad-Form Genesis Fruit isn't good value for money — with Aspects like ours, ordinary training resources are fine, it basically won't affect our getting into a martial arts university... It's our eldest brother who needs it. He's about to start his fourth year, he's about to sit the transfer, he can't be short of training resources. This is his most critical year."
"Dad, I think the same as my sister," Fang Long put in.
"Xiao Long, Siyue." Fang Yu frowned. "What do a pair of children like you understand? The Myriad-Form Genesis Fruit isn't so you can get into a martial arts university, it's for the future. You're young, nothing about you is set yet. A few million spent on your foundation now will do more for you than a hundred million could later."
"Money isn't for you two to worry about. Both of you, back to bed," Fang Yu said, fixing his eyes on them.
One stern look from Fang Yu was enough to make Fang Long quail.
That was years of an eldest brother's authority.
"I won't." Fang Siyue set her teeth and pouted.
"Enough."
"What are the three of you arguing about? I'm not dead yet!" Fang Ping'an's voice rose abruptly, overriding the three of them — but there was a trace of a smile on his face. "Siyue, who said I was cutting your brother's allowance?"
"But he just said..." Fang Siyue was getting agitated.
"And I didn't agree to it." Fang Ping'an shook his head. "Don't worry. Your dad will handle a little thing like this. You and Xiao Long go down and get some sleep."
"Really?" Fang Siyue did not look entirely convinced.
"You don't believe your old man? When have I ever lied to you?" Fang Ping'an said, smiling.
Fang Siyue thought about it. In all her life, her father really never had lied to her. She nodded slightly. "All right, Dad. But you'd better not be lying to us."
"I won't be," Fang Ping'an said.
Soon enough.
Fang Siyue and Fang Long went downstairs, leaving only father and son in the third-floor room.
"Dad, do it the way I said. You don't need to give me an allowance for the fourth year," Fang Yu said quietly.
"What, you think I really meant to cut your allowance?" Fang Ping'an shook his head. "Siyue's right. The fourth year is a critical one for you."
"When I dared to have the three of you, I took on the duty of raising you properly," Fang Ping'an said, smiling. "Otherwise, why have you at all?"
"But..." There was urgency in Fang Yu's voice.
Fang Ping'an waved a hand and cut him off. "Your old man isn't dead yet. Your brother and sister aren't your worry. Speaking of which — is the transfer recommendation list out?"