Internal Affairs Hall, interrogation room.
The winter sunlight passed through the sole skylight, shining onto the ground.
Specks of dust slowly floated within the pillar of light, every detail completely visible.
The pillar of light shrouded a chair.
Fang Yuan sat on this chair, bathing in the sunlight.
Opposite him, in front of a wall shrouded in shadow and darkness, stood a long table, and behind the table sat three elders.
The interrogation had already lasted for an hour.
"Fang Yuan, are you certain that what you just recounted has absolutely no errors?" an elder said.
"Yes." Fang Yuan lowered his eyelids, looking at the tips of his feet. The sunlight shining on his fair face made him look like a white sculpture.
He had long anticipated this current situation.
After all, the other four Gu Masters in his group were all dead, and only he survived.
In truth, every Gu Master would undergo a certain degree of interrogation to facilitate the clan in collecting battlefield information. However, Fang Yuan having been interrogated continuously for an hour clearly meant someone behind the scenes was targeting him and making things difficult for him.
This was entirely understandable.
As long as one was human, there would be social relationships, and a whole string of people could be dragged out from behind.
"Then recount in detail the situation on the battlefield at that time once more," the elder continued to question.
"Yes. I spent a few days to break through to Rank Two. Just as I returned to the mountain village gates, I ran into the Chi Shan group… After discovering Jiao San and the others, I rejoined the group. At that time, they were engaged in an intense battle with a Wild Boar King…" Fang Yuan spoke with his usual calm tone.
He had actively exposed his Rank Two cultivation. Without corresponding Gu worms to conceal it, the aura of Rank Two could not be hidden.
Now that the four of the Sick Snake group were already dead, he naturally could make up the so-called process however he pleased. However, Fang Yuan only concealed some crucial details; most of the things he said had actually happened.
This was already the fifth time Fang Yuan had recounted this. The three elders listened while wrinkling their brows.
They couldn't hear any loopholes, but they knew one point—when making up lies, one feared speaking too much. Elaborating several times would naturally produce flaws. However, after five times, every time Fang Yuan spoke there were slight differences, yet the content remained consistent.
"It should be true." The three elders looked at one another, communicating with their gazes.
Only, one of the elders was not satisfied.
One of her daughters was the healing Gu Master in the Sick Snake group, whom she normally loved the most, but who ended up dying tragically in the mouths of wolves. This involuntarily filled her heart with resentment. As she looked at Fang Yuan now, her gaze revealed a chilling coldness.
"Fang Yuan, I ask you, you used moonblades to cut open the Blade Scale Net, why did you do this?" This elder, who looked like a middle-aged woman, asked in a stern voice.
"Because of panic, wanting to achieve merit, but ending up doing a disservice instead," Fang Yuan said.
"Then I ask you again, you hid inside the boar's abdomen, did you intentionally let the female Gu Master of your group block the disaster for you?" the elder asked again.
"I don't know either. At that time I was extremely terrified, and in my panic I just wanted to hide inside the Wild Boar King's body. As a result, she also squeezed in and fought with me over the position inside. She failed to beat me, was bitten in the body by the lightning wolves, and died. I am very ashamed," Fang Yuan answered.
The middle-aged female elder gnashed her teeth. Fang Yuan's answer was very cunning, merely stating a fact. He actually didn't speak of his subjective intentions, leaving the elder who whole-heartedly wanted to suppress him unable to grasp any leverage. Naturally, she was intensely indignant in her heart, yet had no alternatives.
Under such circumstances, it was not possible to convict Fang Yuan…
Three days had passed since the small beast tide.
The casualty results had been tallied up, causing the expressions of the clan higher-ups to generally turn unsightly.
In past small beast tides, although there were also losses, they were absolutely not this severe. The reason lay exactly with the lightning wolf pack. If placed in the past, at least three waves of small beast tides had to pass before these wolf packs would appear.
In this world, the environment was arduous, and survival was difficult.
For humans, to survive, aside from competing for resources with other humans, they also had to struggle against ferocious wild beasts and harsh weather.
And these struggles were often extremely difficult and bitter.
The small beast tide was merely a prelude; what was truly terrifying was the large-scale wolf tide a year later. By then, there would be thousands upon tens of thousands of lightning wolves impacting the mountain village, along with the terrifyingly powerful thunder-crown head wolf.
After unwillingly asking a few more questions, the female elder finally chose to give up under Fang Yuan's flawless answers.
"Then Fang Yuan, what are your plans next?" Another elder asked with seemingly profound meaning.
"I plan to apply for the family property separation mission, inherit the legacy left behind by my parents, and live on properly," Fang Yuan stated directly; there was no need to hide this point.
Because the Sick Snake group was almost completely wiped out, leaving only Fang Yuan alone. As a result, this also led to him being able to receive the family property separation mission without having to utilize the right of a Rank Two Gu Master to abandon a mission.
The questioning elder nodded, then shook his head, saying to Fang Yuan: "You still haven't understood my meaning. Besides you, your group members have all been sacrificed. The suggestion I give you is to join another group. The difficulty of missions from the Internal Affairs Hall are all designed targeting groups; a single person has a very hard time completing them. Whether it is your family separation mission, or the once-a-month mandatory missions, they are all like this."
Fang Yuan remained silent, not answering.
This elder continued again: "Of course, there is another choice. You are already a Rank Two Gu Master, possessing the qualification to become a group leader. As long as you pass an assessment mission, you can form your own group. Which one do you want to choose?"
Fang Yuan blinked his eyes: "I haven't thought about it yet, I need time to consider it."
"Then you may leave. After going back, consider it as quickly as possible. Restructuring groups will happen within these next few days; once this period passes, wanting to enter a group again will be difficult," the elder said with concern.
Fang Yuan sneered in his heart; he would not choose either of these two paths.
He had far too many secrets on his body. Moving alone was not only safer, but also more convenient for his actions. Otherwise, if he always had to act together with other people moving forward, wouldn't it annoy him to death?
Leaving this interrogation room, Fang Yuan did not leave the Internal Affairs Hall directly, but instead applied for the family separation mission. As a result, he was informed that matters were busy recently, and to come back in three days to receive it.
Stepping out of the main doors of the Internal Affairs Hall, he looked at the sky.
It was just a winter afternoon, ordinary beyond compare.
The winter sun was gloomy, and the freezing wind bit into the bones. The air seemed to be permeated with sorrow and heaviness.
"Today is the collective memorial service. Gu Yue Jin Zhu died, did you know, Fang Yuan?" Mo Bei and a group of youths passed by here and stopped their footsteps.
Besides Mo Bei, there were also Fang Zheng, Chi Cheng, and others.
Mo Bei and Chi Cheng normally got along the least, but today, they seemed to have forgotten their mutual grudges and walked together.
"Big brother, Jin Zhu studied and lived together with us for a year. Come with us," Fang Zheng said.
Gu Yue Jin Zhu…
The figure of a young girl instantly surfaced in Fang Yuan's mind.
She had once fought on par with Mo Bei on the arena, later suffering a narrow defeat due to lack of stamina. She was a hardworking and diligent girl.
However, in the face of death, whether they were beautiful things or ugly things, all were treated equally without discrimination.
Most people would feel pity because of this, but in Fang Yuan's eyes, it had long been perfectly ordinary.
"Oh, she also died? However, birth, aging, illness, and death are all common affairs of humans. When you see too much of it, it fades. You guys go ahead, I have no time." Fang Yuan brushed past the crowd.
"This guy!" Instantly, many youths became indignant.
"Truly cold-blooded and heartless…"
"He fundamentally doesn't care about the feelings between classmates at all!"
"Hehe, it has spread throughout the clan recently, you all should have heard right? The reason Fang Yuan was able to survive was precisely by hiding inside the stomach of a pig, and then using a female Gu Master in his group as a meat shield."
"Truly a disgrace, to shamelessly drag out a feeble existence, he doesn't have the slightest demeanor of a man." Chi Cheng hugged his arms and sneered.
"Big brother…" Fang Zheng lowered his head and gnashed his teeth. Listening to such discussions, as Fang Yuan's younger brother, he felt a wave of shame.
Fang Yuan walked on. The cold ridicule and burning mockery behind him grew further and further away, gradually becoming indiscernible.
His heart was completely peaceful.
What does verbal abuse add to me?
Let them curse if they want to, what can cursing do?
People with shallow minds often become furious because of curses, and joyful because of praises.
But in fact, these are all nothing more than bystanders' views of you. Those who live because of bystanders' views are destined to be pitiful people.
In reality, after the deliberate publicizing by some people with underlying motives, Fang Yuan's reputation was already exceptionally foul.
Sacrificing a female companion to preserve oneself, such behavior, although it would not be punished, would be condemned by moral public opinion.
However, this was also precisely the situation Fang Yuan wanted to create.
Once entering the system, one became a chess piece. One could not act on one's own will and had to handle matters following the system. To Fang Yuan, this was too restrictive; he needed resources, and even more so, he needed to move alone.
Thus, he had to become a solitary loner.
So what if he was ostracized by everyone? Hehe, only people with weak hearts would fear being ostracized.
If this situation were to fall upon Earth, then no matter who it was, they would be dead for sure. After all, two fists cannot rival four hands, and social relationships were the guarantee of survival.
But in this world, as long as one's cultivation was powerful, a single person could rival ten, a hundred, or tens of millions of people. So what if he was ostracized? If they obstructed his path, he would directly strike and kill them. If he lacked resources, he would directly seize them by force.
Different rules in each world destined the differences in social forms, creating deviations in the ways humans behaved.
The more highly advanced in martial arts a world was, the weaker the concept of the collective became.
Therefore, in this world—
Demons run rampant.