Tragedy

It had been three days since Bai Ning Bing had attacked Gu Guangzhi. Gu Guangzhi decided to visit Wang Mei a few days later to avoid any future ambushes. He decided to use this time to complete a mission that was assigned to him by the clan leader. As an elder of the Xiong clan, he was assigned a few tasks by the clan leader. Some of them were short term tasks like collecting a few dangerous materials from nearby mountains for the clan and some were long term tasks like training younger Rank 2 gu masters and guiding them. One task which was unique to Gu Guangzhi was imparting his insights to a younger gu master with low aptitude and making them breakthrough to Rank 3.

Jiao Lin was the perfect candidate for the task according to the clan leader because she only had C-grade aptitude and she was his wife. The secret teachings wouldn't be spread carelessly. The clan leader wanted a proof of concept of Gu Guangzhi's insights. Gu Guangzhi called for Jiao Lin who was busy cultivating in her room. She immediately came before Gu Guangzhi.

Gu Guangzhi declared, "Today, I'm going to teach you some of the insights I had which helped me breakthrough to Rank 3. You are in Rank 2 middle stage now but following my teachings would help you later when you attempt to breakthrough."

Jiao Lin was skeptical about the 'insights' he gained. According to her, he was able to breakthrough only because of external primeval essence that was infused from Yu Wen Zi. She spoke up, "You don't have to keep up this charade. I don't want to practice some weird techniques and hinder my cultivation. If the clan leader asks I will flatly lie to him that I am receiving some teachings from you." Gu Guangzhi was a bit annoyed at her. He only wanted to help her because she was diligent and now she rejected his help. He thought, 'Fine. It's your loss anyway. I wasn't sure how much my teachings would help you since you don't have the boiling primeval essence but I guess we will never find out. Speaking of cultivation, I should also help Wang Mei to become a gu master. She handles herself well in the forest but becoming a gu master will be beneficial for her. It's been three days. I must go visit her tonight.'

Gu Guangzhi was feeling giddy at the thought of meeting Wang Mei. Though they haven't formally declared their love for one another, both had a silent yearning for one another. Gu Guangzhi wanted to bring her to the Xiong village and live with her but since he was recently married, the clan leader and Jiao faction may object to him bringing in another woman as his concubine. So he decided to wait for a few months before he did something of that sort. In the darkness of the night, he silently left the Xiong village to meet Wang Mei. He was already aware of Wang Mei's residence and since they didn't plan to meet beforehand, he went to their residence to sneakily meet her.

However upon reaching Wang residence, he found that the entire place seemed as if it was ransacked. Upon further inspection, he found slight traces of blood marks as well. He was a bit taken aback and his worst fears came to mind. 'Did a demonic path gu master attack their house? Or was it wild beasts? No, it can't be beasts. It looks too clean for that. What happened to Wang Mei?'

As he was thinking, various scenarios came to mind. He decided to enquire about it in the village. He burst open the doors of village chief's house in an agitated state. Seeing a Rank 3 gu master in such a fury, the village head's knees buckled. He immediately knelt and asked for forgiveness even though he didn't know what he did wrong.

"What happened to the Wang family?", asked Gu Guangzhi.

"They… They… offended a gu master. So they were punished with death… my lord!", replied the village chief.

Gu Guangzhi who had been suspicious so far collapsed to the floor at once when he heard that the entire family was executed. He felt regret for not coming to Wang Mei's rescue. If he had come to Wang Mei's place as planned the other day, he could've protected her easily. Suddenly rage filled his eyes at the thought of the gu master who killed her. He lifted the village chief by the throat and asked him, "Who? Who is that gu master?". The village chief who identified Gu Guangzhi as a Xiong clan gu master didn't want to get into any trouble by snitching. He hesitated to say anything. This enraged Gu Guangzhi further. He summoned his water wolf and it looked extremely menacing due to the anger it felt from Gu Guangzhi's soul.

The village chief soiled his pants at the terrifying sight and immediately said, "It's master Gu Yue Fang Yuan. I swear that's all I know! Please have mercy my lord."

Gu Guangzhi's mind went berserk once again upon hearing Fang Yuan's name. 'Fang Yuan? Did he say Fang Yuan? Why is he involved in this? He got offended by the Wang family's actions? No. That's not possible. Is he so petty even with 500 years of experience?Then why did he kill Wang Mei? Why did he kill my Wang Mei? Why didn't I kill him before? This is all my fault! I knew Fang Yuan was a demon from the start. I should've just snapped his neck when I was a kid! Damn! This is all my fault! I was just afraid of the consequences of killing Fang Yuan. But why must I care anymore? I will kill Fang Yuan. Yes. I will kill him!'

Gu Guangzhi left the place and headed straight towards Gu Yue village. He was brimming with anger and wasn't able to think rationally. As he neared Gu Yue village, a few patrolling Rank 2 gu masters spotted him and tried to stop him. "You are now in the territory of Gu Yue village. Do not take another step!", saying so the gu masters attacked with a barrage of pine needles. Gu Guangzhi used Bamboo swamp Gu to protect himself. His water wolf snarled menacingly at the Rank 2 gu masters.

"Scram! I'm not here for you! Get out of my way!", roared Gu Guangzhi.

The patrolling gu masters were visibly scared of the Rank 3 opponents but they stood their ground. This was because they had already informed their leader of the situation. It wouldn't take long before the Dark Hall Elder arrived on the scene. "Don't get involved in this fight. I don't want to hurt anyone unnecessarily.", warned Gu Guangzhi for the last time. He used Hellrise bamboo bird Gu to send hellrise birds at the Rank 2 gu masters. The explosions were enough to harm a few of them who didn't have good defensive gu insects. Suddenly, he heard a voice from the darkness.

"Bullying juniors? How shameful! Why don't you pick someone your own Rank?"