Chapter 369

Bao Tong regrets not knowing about the three kings inheritance’s retreat token sooner, wishing he could have moved more freely instead of pulling back early, and Li Qiang, who moments ago flattered Century Boy, now toasts Fang Yuan and calls the dead man scum of the strength path. Fang Yuan waves off the toast and instead turns to Century Boy’s godsons and goddaughters, telling them to leave if they don’t mean to try killing him, and the cave empties by half at once. ^{ch. 369}

Those who stay kneel and beg to serve him: one godson claims Century Boy forced him into the relationship and calls Fang Yuan his savior, a goddaughter pleads to remain and serve him, and an old man in his seventies begs to call him godfather instead. Fang Yuan laughs, pleased at first, then turns grim and calls them bootlickers: killing is killing and crime is crime, he says, and he scorns their hypocritical praise, since he openly likes killing and committing crimes and finds that far more honest. He tells them to leave and come back only once they’ve built the strength to challenge him, then kills one of them on the spot with a beast phantom; the rest flee screaming, some wetting themselves in their panic. ^{ch. 369}

The Gu Masters left standing feel the room’s temperature drop; hateful as Century Boy had been, the narration calls him far more likeable than Fang Yuan. Only Bai Ning Bing, seated at his left with her blue eyes half closed, stays unmoved. Li Qiang, still holding his untouched wine cup, suggests killing the surviving godchildren outright so none of them can grow into a future threat, offering to handle it himself as thanks for the inheritance secrets Fang Yuan gave him. Fang Yuan refuses, for reasons he keeps to himself, and instead lays out his philosophy: since taking the demonic path he has never feared making enemies, and as long as he keeps growing stronger, revenge means nothing to him. If ten people want revenge he will kill ten, he says; if a hundred want it he will kill a hundred; if the whole world wants it, he will exterminate the whole world, and if anyone ever actually succeeds against him, that will only prove he wasn’t strong enough and deserved to die. ^{ch. 369}

Watching him, the crowd calls him ruthless to others but even more ruthless to himself, says his demonic nature runs too strong in a man who fears neither revenge nor death, and calls him crazy and not right in the mind, warning that making an enemy of him would be a nightmare. Fang Yuan settles the room with a smile and calls for drinks; everyone raises a trembling cup, the wine tasteless with fear, as if drinking beside a man-eating tiger. He goes on trading three kings inheritance secrets for over two hours, holding court from Century Boy’s own cave, and only Li Xian sits uneasy, unable to guess what Little Beast King is really after by giving away so much. Century Boy’s torn body is left where it fell, blood soaked into the ground and bone pale under the moonlight; no one leaving the cave spares him a glance, and the demonic path’s own creed holds that the defeated are always in the wrong. ^{ch. 369}

Elsewhere, rain falls on Tie Ruo Nan as she kneels before a row of grave markers cut from mountain stone: Tie Mu, Tie Dao Ku, Tie Xian Hua, Tie Ao Kai, Tie Ba Xiu. The head of Tie clan’s four old-timers, Tie Xuan Zhi, stands behind her offering condolences, but she says nothing, her once-bright eyes gone hollow. She blames herself for surviving when her companions did not, calls herself a coward, and tells her dead father, Tie Xue Leng, that she has blemished his name. ^{ch. 369}

An aged voice speaks from close behind Tie Xuan Zhi without warning, close enough that his senses should have caught it and did not; he spins to strike, but a wizened hand settles on his shoulder first, and a voice tells him to compose himself. His whole body locks rigid, the primeval sea in his own aperture pinned down by a force he cannot resist, as though a mountain had dropped onto him. His terror and despair turn to ecstasy the instant he recognizes the man: Tie Mu Bai, Tie clan’s previous generation clan leader, who says he has abdicated and asks to be called simply by his own name rather than by any title. Tie Xuan Zhi will not accept the familiarity and bows deeply instead. ^{ch. 369}

Tie Mu Bai walks past him toward Tie Ruo Nan, stands with his back to her before the tombstones, and rests a hand on the stone: Tie clansmen are buried where they fall, he tells her, because Tie clan has always held that dying in battle is its members’ greatest honor, naming Tie Mu, Tie Dao Ku, Tie Xian Hua, Tie Ao Kai, Tie Ba Xiu and her own father Tie Xue Leng in turn, and promising the same will be true of himself, and of her, when their own deaths come. ^{ch. 369}