For the sake of those who died
Inside the boar’s stomach the primeval essence Fang Yuan recovers goes unused, since the Gu Yue higher-ups quickly respond to what had been a supervised beast horde with a lightning wolf pack as its only real surprise, sending three clan elders and their teams to the scene. Ten minutes later he hears fighting outside, kicks the unconscious female Gu Master’s body out ahead of him, and crawls out drenched in blood and still tangled in the wild boar king’s intestines, startling the Gu Masters fighting nearby. ch. 96
As predicted, five lightning wolves are fighting there, old or sickly animals the wolf king had expelled from the pack to conserve resources for its healthier members, now further weakened by full stomachs against reinforcements who still carry peak primeval essence unlike Jiao San’s exhausted group. The battle winds down as the newly arrived group of five, its own primeval essence spent, holds its ground to recover rather than press further, while its healing Gu Master bends down over the dead female Gu Master’s body and sighs that he knew her. ch. 96
The wolves’ bites carried electric current that stopped the unconscious female Gu Master’s heart, and though the wolves had also torn her badly, cardiac arrest was what killed her. The healing Gu Master accuses Fang Yuan of hiding behind a woman and being a disgrace, and Fang Yuan answers only that he had competed with her for the safe spot and is glad he won, prompting the healer to rush him; Fang Yuan kicks him down, and the man’s own teammates hold him back, telling him the clan will not punish Fang Yuan even if he reports it to the punishment hall. Fang Yuan tells the healer he may report it to the punishment hall if he believes a crime occurred, then walks on, privately reasoning that a rule against punishing someone who endangers another to save himself under forced circumstances protects him regardless. ch. 96
Passing more corpses toward the front, Fang Yuan finds Kong Jing’s body eaten past recognition and Jiao San’s corpse still intact beside the red lava python, now a dead pile of lava rock, and feels satisfaction that only he seems to have survived until he sees Jiao San’s finger twitch. With healing Gu Masters approaching and no time to kill him without leaving traces, Fang Yuan kneels beside Jiao San with a grieving expression and presses his own blood-soaked, pig’s-blood-heavy shirt over Jiao San’s nose and mouth, smothering him while appearing to mourn. ch. 96
A Gu Master from the medicine hall offers to examine him, and though Fang Yuan pushes him away, the man calmly consoles him and is allowed to check his body, finding that despite being covered in blood Fang Yuan carries no injuries at all. The medicine hall’s Gu Master then examines Jiao San, confirms no pulse and an aperture already emptied of Gu worms, and reminds Fang Yuan that a dead Gu Master’s worms pass to his inheritor rather than to whoever is nearby; Fang Yuan denies taking anything, and the Gu Master clarifies he meant no accusation and urges him to live well for the sake of the dead, to which Fang Yuan agrees, declaring that he must live even better than before for the sake of those who died. ch. 96
