Chapter 171

Tie Ruo Nan is startled to hear she will lead the murder investigation herself. Tie Xue Leng tells her his injuries cannot be cured and that she must learn to stand on her own. He assures Gu Yue Bo that she has already learned most of what he knows. Gu Yue clan hosts a banquet for the pair, though the wolf tide has left the village short on food and resources. Only a handful of injured elders remain to sit at what was once a full table. Gu Yue Mo Chen, badly hurt two weeks earlier, drags himself from his sickbed to attend. Gu Yue Mo Chen’s old rival, Gu Yue Chi Lian, had joined the clan leader’s assault on the thunder crown wolf and did not survive it, killed instead by the lightning lycan. ^{ch. 171}

Gu Yue Bo toasts Tie Xue Leng for saving his life. Tie Xue Leng tells the clan leader that the worst of the wolf tide has passed. The wolves, he says, will not mount another large attack for years. His words are accurate, but Gu Yue Bo feels the clan’s losses as a grief no explanation eases, understanding this better than Tie Xue Leng himself does. Asked by Tie Ruo Nan why the clans do not simply destroy the wolf den, Gu Yue Yao Ji explains that the den holds over a million thunder gas worms and many wild Gu besides. Breaking it would take all three clans working together, a possibility she calls unlikely. She then turns the table’s attention onto Fang Yuan, accusing him of hiding during the battle. ^{ch. 171}

Fang Yuan had spent the wolf tide exploring the Flower Wine Monk’s inheritance in a hidden cave. The elders, Gu Yue Bo included, read his absence as cowardice. Rather than deny it, Fang Yuan flatly admits to the room that fear held him back. Silently, he reasons that a lie would only give the visiting Divine Investigator something to unravel. Tie Xue Leng already has intelligence from Jia Fu tying Fang Yuan to Jia Jin Sheng’s disappearance. He listens for what the confession reveals of Fang Yuan’s character. He comes away certain of one thing: this young man carries an inbred demonic nature. ^{ch. 171}