The winter sunlight streamed through the single skylight, illuminating the floor.
Dust motes drifted slowly in the column of light, every single particle visible.
The beam of light enveloped a chair.
Fang Yuan sat in this chair, bathed in the sunlight.
Opposite him, in front of a wall shrouded in shadows and darkness, stood a long table. Behind the table sat three Clan Elders.
The interrogation had already been going on for an hour.
"Fang Yuan, are you sure there are no mistakes in what you just recounted?" an elder spoke.
"Yes." Fang Yuan lowered his eyelids, looking at the tips of his own feet. The sunlight shone on his fair face, making him look like a white sculpture.
He had already seen this situation coming.
After all, in the Ninety-Seventh Section: Demons Run Rampant, the other four Gu Masters in his group had died. He was the only one still alive.
In fact, every Gu Master would be subjected to a certain degree of debriefing to allow the clan to collect battlefield data. However, Fang Yuan had been debriefed for an hour straight. Clearly, someone behind the scenes was targeting him and making things difficult for him.
This was perfectly understandable.
As long as someone was human, they had social relations, and behind them, a whole string of people could be implicated.
"Then describe the situation on the battlefield at that time in a bit more detail," the elder continued to press.
"Yes. I spent a few days breaking through to Rank 2, and just as I returned to the village entrance, I encountered the Chishan group... After discovering Jiao San and the others, I joined the group. At that time, they were in the middle of a fierce battle with the Boar King..." Fang Yuan spoke in his usual calm tone.
He had deliberately exposed his Rank 2 cultivation; without the corresponding Gu Insects to conceal it, a Rank 2 aura couldn't be hidden anyway.
Now that the four members of the Sick Snake group were dead, the so-called "facts of what happened" were naturally whatever he wanted to fabricate. However, Fang Yuan only omitted some key details. Most of what he said had actually happened.
This was already the fifth time Fang Yuan had told the story. The three Clan Elders listened with furrowed brows.
They couldn't find a single flaw in the Ninety-Seventh Section: Demons Run Rampant, but they knew one thing—fabricated lies were afraid of being repeated. If said too many times, inconsistencies would naturally appear. However, after five rounds, although Fang Yuan's wording differed slightly each time, the content was consistent.
"It must be true." The three elders exchanged glances, communicating with their eyes.
However, one of the elders was not satisfied.
One of her daughters was the healing Gu Master in the Sick Snake group. She had always been her favorite, and ended up tragically dying in the wolf's jaws. This caused her to hold a grudge. As she looked at Fang Yuan now, her gaze was filled with cold intent.
"Fang Yuan, I ask you, did you cut apart the Scale Blade Net with a Moon Blade? Why did you do it?" the elder, a middle-aged woman, interrogated sternly.
"Because I was flustered, and I wanted to earn merit, but I ended up causing more harm than good," Fang Yuan said.
"Then I ask you again, when you hid in the boar's belly, did you do it on purpose to make the female Gu Master in your group take the blow for you?" the elder pressed again.
"I don't know either. I was terrified. In my panic, I just wanted to hide inside the Boar King's body. As it turned out, she also burrowed inside and fought with me for the space. She couldn't beat me and got bitten by a Lightning Wolf, dying. I am very ashamed," Fang Yuan replied.
The middle-aged female elder gritted her teeth. Fang Yuan's answer was very cunning. He was simply stating a fact without actually revealing his subjective intent. This gave the elder, who was wholeheartedly trying to suppress him, no grounds to criticize him. Naturally, she was furious, but she could do nothing about it.
In a situation like this, it was impossible to sentence Fang Yuan...
Three days had already passed since the small beast tide.
When the casualty results were tallied, the faces of the clan's high-ranking members generally turned ugly.
In the past, although small beast tides also brought losses, they were never this severe. The reason lay with the Lightning Wolves. In the past, such a pack of wolves would only appear after at least three waves of small beast tides.
In this world, the environment was harsh, and survival was difficult.
For humans to survive, they not only had to compete with other humans for resources but also struggle against ferocious beasts and harsh weather.
And these struggles were often extremely arduous.
The small beast tide was only a prelude. What was truly terrifying was the large wolf tide a year later. By then, tens of thousands of Lightning Wolves would assault the village, along with the terrifyingly powerful Thunder Crown Alpha Wolf.
After reluctantly asking a few more questions, the female elder finally gave up in the face of Fang Yuan's unassailable answers.
"So, Fang Yuan, what are your plans next?" another elder asked, seemingly with a deeper meaning.
"I plan to apply for a family separation mission, inherit my parents' legacy, and live on well," Fang Yuan stated frankly. There was no need to hide this point.
Since the Sick Snake group was almost completely wiped out, leaving only Fang Yuan, he could receive the family separation mission without having to use a Rank 2 Gu Master's right to abandon a mission.
The elder who asked the question nodded, then shook his head, saying to Fang Yuan, "You still don't understand my meaning. Besides you, all your members have been sacrificed. My advice to you is to join another group. The difficulty of the Inner Affairs Hall's tasks is designed for groups. It's very hard for one person to complete them. This applies to both your family separation mission and the monthly mandatory mission."
Fang Yuan remained silent, not answering.
This elder continued, "Of course, there is another choice. You are already a Rank 2 Gu Master, qualified 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?"