But this investigation was not thorough. The clan's upper echelons had their attention almost entirely consumed by the increasingly severe wolf tide. Fang Yuan's Earth Listening Flesh Ear Grass and Concealed Scale Gu remained hidden, and even if they were exposed, he could push all the blame onto the merchant caravan.
In any case, with the wolf tide raging, all trade routes had been severed and no caravans would be arriving. Under these circumstances, the clan would have no way to verify things with the caravan, and the investigation would simply drag on.
By the time any real results came, Fang Yuan would have long since cultivated to Third Transformation and walked away from Qing Mao Mountain.
Of course, if the Four-Flavor Wine Worm or the Spring Autumn Cicada were exposed, that would be an entirely different matter.
Whichever one was discovered would cause an earthquake throughout the entire stockade.
The Four-Flavor Wine Worm represented a completely new refinement secret method of enormous significance. Even if Fang Yuan tried to blame it on the merchant caravan, he wouldn't be able to explain it away. The clan would launch a full-scale investigation without question.
Once the Spring Autumn Cicada was found, the wolf tide could drop dead for all anyone would care. This was a Sixth Transformation Gu Insect! Even Patriarch Gu Yue Bo himself would immediately cast aside all pretense—family affection, the position of patriarch, none of it would matter. He would seize it by force, no questions asked.
……
July, the blazing height of summer. The air shimmered like flowing fire, thick with the iron tang of blood.
The wolf tide grew ever more severe, and the battles grew ever more intense.
Many people were beginning to realize that the scale of this wolf tide was something rarely seen in all of recorded history.
The Lightning Flash Wolves had already been reduced to supporting players. Thousands of狂电狼—Frenzied Lightning Wolves—emerged in pack after pack around the stockade.
The survival space for humans had been compressed to the barest minimum.
Even the Guye Clan's main stronghold was no exception, let alone the villages at the mountain's foot.
Nine out of ten homes stood empty. A fortunate few villagers had managed to secure shelter within the stockade through various connections, but the majority had no choice but to abandon their homes and trek through mountains and rivers to escape the wolf packs.
Their destination was another mountain stockade along the way. But the fierce beasts, the wild Gu insects, and the nearly mountain-covering hordes of Lightning Wolves along the route reduced their hope of migration to infinitesimal specks.
This was a journey of despair.
These mortals had already been abandoned by the Guye Clan. They would perish along the way in their entirety—devoured by beasts, or slaughtered by swarms of insects.
Mortal and Gu Master alike struggled between life and death. Even the Elders, who normally held lofty positions of authority, were forced to personally don armor and take the field.
Gu Masters who had previously retired from active duty were conscripted once more. When the wolf tide finally subsided, the true survivors would number less than one in ten.
The cruelty of nature revealed itself in full at this moment. The strong devoured the weak, the fit survived and the unfit perished—no amount of sentimental words could change that.
……
Fang Yuan sat cross-legged on his bed, eyes shut tight, his mind sinking into his Empty Orifice.
Inside the Empty Orifice, forty-four percent of the Red Iron Sea churned with rising and falling waves, tides surging and receding. The True Essence here was so dark red it verged on black—the dark red of Second Transformation Peak.
All Second Transformation True Essence was collectively called Red Iron True Essence. But across the four minor stages of Initial, Middle, High, and Peak, the Red Iron True Essence varied slightly.
At Second Transformation Initial Stage, the True Essence was light red. At Middle Stage, it was crimson. By High Stage, it had deepened to dark red. Only at Peak did it become the near-black hue Fang Yuan now possessed.
Many days ago, Fang Yuan had advanced from Middle Stage to High Stage. The original dark red True Essence, refined by the Four-Flavor Wine Worm and replenished through Yuan Stones, had all been converted into the current near-black variant.
Now inside the Empty Orifice, the walls of the orifice were no longer the shimmering, flowing Water Film of before. Instead, they had become a thick, layered stone membrane studded with overlapping patches of white light.
The Jade Skin Gu and the Concealed Scale Gu both rested at the bottom of the Red Iron Sea.
The Four-Flavor Wine Worm frolicked through the waters, but the moment the Spring Autumn Cicada's silhouette gradually materialized, it immediately swooped down and dove straight to the deepest seabed.
Whenever this happened, the entire surface of the True Essence Sea would be suppressed beneath the Spring Autumn Cicada's aura until it was smooth as a mirror, without a single ripple.
The Spring Autumn Cicada's condition was improving steadily.
Both wings had fully recovered, resembling a pair of fresh, tender green leaves. Only the main body remained withered as before.
Fang Yuan checked on the Spring Autumn Cicada at regular intervals, and he could now clearly feel that its recovery speed was accelerating.
Previously, the Spring Autumn Cicada had been like a patient on the verge of death—unable to open its mouth, sustained only on liquid food to keep the flame of life flickering.
Now that patient could get out of bed, open wide, and consume far more food to replenish its strength.
Naturally, the recovery only grew faster.
Beyond the Spring Autumn Cicada, there were two new members inside Fang Yuan's Empty Orifice.
Both had been obtained from Bai Ningbing. One was the Water Shield Gu, which floated through the sea like a jellyfish. The other was the Red Iron She Li Gu.
Fang Yuan's advancement from Middle Stage to High Stage had been the result of the Four-Flavor Wine Worm refining his True Essence, combined with the prolonged nurturing of his Empty Orifice until a qualitative transformation occurred. He had not yet used the Red Iron She Li Gu.
In terms of pure cultivation level alone, Fang Yuan was now the third-ranked Second Transformation Gu Master within the entire Guye Clan. Xiong Li and Qing Shu had both fallen, and across all of Qing Mao Mountain, Fang Yuan ranked within the top five.
As for Chi Shan and Moyan—they had originally been at High Stage, but both had recently advanced to Peak. This had provided a much-needed boost to clan morale following Qing Shu's sacrifice, when spirits had been running low.
Fang Yuan was making progress, but so were others.
Previously, Chi Shan and Moyan had been stalled at High Stage for some time, always overshadowed by Qing Shu at Peak.