Merely ten minutes later, Fang Yuan could hear fighting sounds from outside the boar's stomach, as well as the cries of the lightning wolves.
He quickly kicked the female Gu Master out, and crawled out with blood stains all over him.
Fang Yuan was naturally not afraid of the lightning wolves, but he was afraid of getting caught in the battle. If a Gu Master accidentally attacked the corpse, wouldn't he be too unlucky, by then who can he hold responsibility for?
With a big living person suddenly crawling out from the boar's stomach, this caused the few Gu Masters fighting the lightning wolves to be taken aback.
Fang Yuan's entire body was a bloody mess, and his leg was still entangled in the wild boar king's intestines. His entire body emitted a nose-piercing bloody smell, and the few Gu Masters frowned in response.
But Fang Yuan paid no heed to that, he breathed deeply in enjoyance, extending his limbs and observing the battlefield.
As he had predicted, there were five lightning wolves.
The battle continued for a while and stopped.
The five lightning wolves continued to fall, and the new reinforcement group did not venture further. Their primeval essence had been used up nearly, and their battle strength had been greatly reduced. To be safe, they stopped on the spot. As they recovered, they awaited further reinforcements.
A group of five, with the reconnaissance Gu Master keeping alert while the other three used primeval stones to recover their primeval essence, the healing Gu Master bent down and observed the female Gu Master's corpse.
"She's dead…" Healing Gu Master sighed deeply. Seeing his sad expression, it seemed like he knew the female Gu Master.
Fang Yuan watched coldly.
The originally beautiful and sexy body was now lying on the ground, still and unmoving. Her previous glamour was nowhere to be found, being just an ugly dead corpse now.
"She's dead, and it is all your fault! As a man, why did you hide behind a woman? You're a disgrace to men!" The healing Gu Master looked up, staring at Fang Yuan.
Fang Yuan shrugged emotionlessly, his expression calm, "The truth is, she competed with me over the spot, but eventually I won, so I'm very glad about the results."
"Scumbag!!" The healing Gu Master rushed up.
Bam.
Fang Yuan raised his feet and sent him flying.
Healing Gu Masters were normally weak at combat, and because of the clan rules, he did not dare to use his Gu worms. Just competing with physical strength, how can he be Fang Yuan's match?
"This detestable guy!" Healing Gu Master crawled up with a dusty face and wanted to rush up again, but was stopped by the reconnaissance Gu Master.
"If you think I committed a crime and caused her to die, you can report it to the punishment hall, I'll take it," Fang Yuan said lightly as he stared at the healing Gu Master, and left.
"Damn! Damn it!" The healing Gu Master's eyes were blowing fire as he stared at Fang Yuan's backview, urging to rush up but was restrained by his teammates.
"Calm the hell down!"
"Even if you report it to the punishment hall, the clan won't punish him!"
"We know you liked her, but although the clan cannot punish him, we can spread this matter out…"
Under the urging of his teammates, the healing Gu Master calmed down and lowered his head, crying.
"A boat encountered trouble, a man grabbed onto a wooden plank and was temporarily saved. At this time, another man swam up and wanted to grab the plank as well, but this plank can only hold the weight of one man, so the first man pushed the second man away so that he could be safe, causing the other person to drown in the sea. The rescued man was later tried in court but declared not guilty. This is the wooden plank incident on earth."
"Meaning, to save oneself under forced circumstances, endangering another person's life is no crime. On Earth, it is the Necessity Law. In this world, there are similar clan rules. This means, even if the healing Gu Master reports it to the punishment hall, I will not be punished."
Fang Yuan continued to walk as he pondered. He moved in a steady pace without any rush.
Along the path that had been cleared, Fang Yuan would discover corpses, the majority of these being wild beasts of all kinds of varieties, and in the mix were some Gu Master corpses.
At the same time, there were small rescue groups rushing to the front lines. When they met Fang Yuan on the way, they would look at this bloody young man with curious and confused gazes.
Fang Yuan paid no attention to them. His eyes were a dark abyss, continuing his train of thought.
Fang Yuan's footsteps came to a halt.
He saw the corpses of Kong Jing and Jiao San.
Both of their bodies had already been eaten until it was unrecognisable.
"Good, that means that other than me, everyone else is dead." Fang Yuan evaluated internally, feeling joy.
"For the sake of those who died and will die, I have to live even better than before."
...
Internal affairs hall, interrogation room.
Fang Yuan was sitting on that chair, bathing in the sunshine.
In the darkness ahead of him was a long table where three elders were seated.
The interrogation had already continued for an hour.
"Fang Yuan, are you sure there are no mistakes in your narration?" An elder asked.
"Yes." Fang Yuan's eyes were down, looking at his toes. The sunshine shone on his fair face, making him look like a white sculpture.
He had already expected this situation.
"Then narrate your account on the battle situation at that time again." The elder continued to ask.
"Okay. we went to the village gate as a group and then we were having a fierce fight with the wild boar king…" Fang Yuan calmly narrated.
Now the sickly snake and the team were dead, so he naturally fabricated the events. But, he could only conceal some main details and narrate the majority of the events as they were.
This was already the fifth time Fang Yuan narrated the events. The three elders frowned as they listened.
They couldn't find any holes, but they knew – if it was fabricated, then there would be unnecessary details. After one kept on talking about it several times, there would naturally be holes. But after five times, although there were some differences in how Fang Yuan narrated the events, the contents were the same.
"It should be true." The three elders communicated with each other using eye signals.
But one elder was not satisfied.
Her daughter was the sickly snake group's healing Gu Master whom she loved dearly but ended up dying a cruel death in the wolves' mouths. Thus she was very angry and her gaze carried coldness as she looked at Fang Yuan.
"Fang Yuan, you cut the knife scales net with your moonblades, why did you do it?" This middle-aged female elder spoke sternly.
"Because I wanted to have some contributions, but it ended up being a bad move." Fang Yuan replied.
"Then let me ask you, did you intentionally use your teammate – the female Gu Master – as a shield when you hid in the boar's stomach?" The elder asked again.
"I don't know. I was very scared at that time and hurriedly tried to hide inside the boar king, but she also entered inside and fought me for the inside position. She couldn't defeat me and was bitten to death by the lightning wolves. I am ashamed." Fang Yuan answered.
The middle-aged female elder grinded her teeth. Fang Yuan's answer was cunning, he only stated the fact but didn't mention his subjective intentions at all. This made the elders who wanted to suppress him, not find any handle on him; their hearts were filled with anger but they couldn't do anything.
Under such situation, they couldn't judge Fang Yuan guilty.
It had already been three days since the small beast tide.
The statistics of the casualties made all the higher ups have ugly expressions.
The female elder continued to ask several questions but she had to finally give up under Fang Yuan's invulnerable answers.
"Then Fang Yuan, what do you plan to do from now on?" Another elder asked with deep intention.
"I plan to apply for the family assets, inheriting and continuing my family's heritage." Fang Yuan spoke openly, there was no need to conceal it.
Sickly snake group was destroyed and now only Fang Yuan was left.
The elder nodded his head then shook his head, "You didn't understand my meaning. Apart from you, your group is no more. I can give you a suggestion: Join another group. Internal affairs hall's missions difficulty is designed for groups, it is very difficult for a lone person to complete them. Whether it is your family inheritance mission or the compulsory monthly missions, they are both like this."
Fang Yuan was silent.
This elder continued, "Of course, there is another option. You are the only survivor of your group. So, you can now become a group captain. You just need to pass the examination mission and you can build your own group. Which do you want to choose?"
Fang Yuan blinked his eyes: "I don't know yet, I need some time to consider."
"Then you can leave. Think it over as soon as possible. After a few days pass, it will be difficult for you to join a group," the elder said concernedly.
Fang Yuan sneered inwardly, he wouldn't choose any of these two paths.
Coming out of the internal affairs hall, he gazed at the sky.
It was just an ordinary winter afternoon.
The winter was bleak along with biting wind. The sky seemed to be pervaded with deep grief.
"He is really cold-blooded and heartless…"
"He simply doesn't have a feeling of friendship!"
"Hehe, there is a rumor going around recently. You should have all heard it, right? The reason Fang Yuan survived was because he hid inside a boar's stomach and used his female Gu Master teammate as a shield."
"He is really a disgrace with no worth. He doesn't even have the manners of a man." Chi Cheng folded his arms and laughed coldly.
"Big brother…" Fang Zheng lowered his head and grinded his teeth.
Hearing these discussions, as Fang Yuan's brother, he felt shame.
Fang Yuan left and as he walked farther, the mockeries behind him gradually couldn't be heard anymore.
His heart was calm.
"Why would insults matter to me?"
Insults were insults, what could they do?
A superficial person would be angry due to curses and would be happy due to praises.
These were just bystanders' way of looking at you. Those who lived according to other's point of view were really pitiful.
In fact, some people had deliberately spread the rumors to degrade Fang Yuan's name.
Sacrificing a female teammate to protect oneself wouldn't be subjected to punishment, but would be criticized by moral consensus.
But, this was the exact situation Fang Yuan wanted.
Once one enters the system, one would be a pawn with no freedom and must follow the system's rules. To Fang Yuan, it was a huge obstacle, he needed resources and even more needed to be solitary.
So, he wanted to be a loner.
What if you were rejected by the crowd? Haha, only weak-hearted people would be afraid of being rejected.
If this happened on Earth, no matter who, they would end up dead. After all, two fists can't beat four hands, social connections were the way to survival.
But in this world, if the cultivation was strong, one person could beat ten, hundreds and thousands of enemies. So what if you were rejected, just kill the ones who block your path. If you don't have resources, snatch them.
Every world had different rules and regulations, the society structure was also bound to be different, causing the difference in human behaviours.
And in a world of martial arts, group thoughts were rather weak.
So in this world — Devils run amuck.