Fang Zheng took the Tie clansmen to the place where the body was being kept. If there was one upside of the ice that had encased the mountain after Bai Ning Bing’s detonation, it was the fact that it made body preservation quite easy. At the very least, the body hadn’t been destroyed.

It was Tie Ruo Nan’s first time looking at an unclothed dead body, though she knew that her father oftentimes had to do these sorts of things to look for clues.

“No markings as far as I can tell,” Tie Xue Leng said, turning the body over and examining every single part of it. His gu worms also detected little abnormal. “Nothing abnormal about his aperture either. Do you happen to know where his other gu worms are, other than the Rank 3 Testicular Torsion Gu?”

“Yes,” Fang Zheng replied. “Some of them were taken by clan members. But… many of them might be dead. We had to cull a few gu worms since we couldn’t feed them at first. And as for the records of what happened to their Gu worms? They might be there in the clan records, but I’ll have to check.”

“Let’s go see them then,” Tie Ruo Nan said.

Fang Zheng looked hesitant. “I’m sorry, but I can’t allow you to see the clan records; those are for clan members only.”

“That is… not a problem,” Tie Xue Leng said. “I think we can trust Gu Yue Fang Zheng here. We’ll wait while you go search the records yourself.”

“The thing is, even I can’t access those records,” Fang Zheng said. “They are for elders only. I’ll have to get an elder to help out with that.” Fang Zheng didn’t want to ask Qing Shu for anything. However, in the current circumstance, he had to rely on someone, and the others were busy. “Let’s see. There was a… no, that person’s dead, and their gu worms are gone. And… no, it looks like this Gu worm was destroyed in the fighting.”

“I’m sorry, it doesn’t look like there was anything that could lead us there,” Fang Zheng said to Tie Xue Leng after reviewing the records.

“I don’t happen to recognize his face either,” Tie Xue Leng said. “I can send word to the Tie Clan about him to see if they have any records or a picture. However, if he was a small-time demonic cultivator, we might not find anything at all.” Their ‘investigation’ into this matter pretty much hit a stone wall at this point, as there was nothing more to go on.

Later that evening, Fang Yuan greeted them himself. The reason that he had been absent earlier in the day was because he had been busy hiding the traces of first gen Gu Yue in the Blood River Graveyard.

That place was massive, and it had many entry points. Even if he tried to barricade the direct entry under the clan, it didn’t mean that Tie Xue Leng wouldn’t be able to get there. If anything, if he dug deep enough, he would eventually run into that blood lake, much like the Flower Wine Monk had.

If word got out that the Gu Yue Clan’s ancestor had been a Blood Path cultivator, they would be labeled as the fruit of a demonic path Gu Master, and it would cause endless headaches for them.

If the Immortal Crane Sect tried to push for it, they might even be attacked by other clans.

As such, Fang Yuan had put away things like the Gu Yue Ancestor’s coffin, as well as his Blood Chariot Wheel, which had been sufficiently fed for now. As for the Dollhouse, it had its own stealth mechanism, which was more than enough to hide it from a Rank 5 Gu Master and had been placed away to hide it.

“My apologies for not being able to see you sooner,” Gu Yue Fang Yuan said. The Tie Clan father and daughter duo took a look at this youngster. He looked exactly like Fang Zheng did, but without a doubt, there were some key differences. He stood more upright, was more confident, and there was an aura of righteousness about him. Tie Ruo Nan instantly felt far more warmth towards him than she did towards Fang Zheng, not the least because of Fang Zheng’s off-handed comment earlier.

Now this was how a true righteous cultivator was supposed to behave.

“No worries. I can understand the problems of a small clan such as this,” Tie Xue Lang said.

Fang Yuan was eager to get rid of these two as soon as possible, but he couldn’t exactly just chase them away. It was creating a massive headache for him, as he was now busy trying to deflect their investigation rather than doing quite literally anything else. Not to mention, they had decided to come right after the Blood Path demonic Gu Masters had attacked, not during that time, during which they would have actually been somewhat helpful.

“How is your investigation going?” Fang Yuan asked. “I am quite eager to know who the underlying organization might have been behind the person who attacked my younger brother.”

“Regarding that,” Tie Xue Leng said, “we unfortunately have found no more clues than you were able to, or any leads. Given this, it’s likely that he was a demonic cultivator acting on his own.”

“Is that so? I don’t think so,” Fang Yuan said. “It was very odd for him to target my brother specifically and to attack in the way that he did. Someone had clearly put him up to the job. More likely than not, one of the other two clans. However, we never got to the root of the issue. Have you really been unable to find any clues?” There was disappointment in his voice, which took the two of them abck.

But even if that was not why they were actually here, if they walked away without having completed the job in question, it would look like they were incompetent to some extent and Tie Xue Leng might end up losing face. “The issue,” Tie Xue Leng said, “is that it’s been a long time since the incident occurred. Many of that person’s Gu worms are gone, and as such, there are no leads to go off of.”

The person in question who was responsible, Fang Yuan’s uncle, was dead and buried. So there really was no chance of them being able to unearth the culprit.

“Actually, we wanted to ask you about something else,” Tie Xue Leng said. ᴛʜɪs ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ɪs ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ʙʏ novｅlfire.net

“Oh, do please go ahead.”

“It was said that there was a Blood Path Gu Master on Qing Mao Mountain before the attack of the Gu Master who wielded several cranes. Did you happen to know anything about that?”

“Perhaps the old Clan Head did,” Fang Yuan said. “However, I only became Clan Head a few weeks before that incident, as I’m sure you’re well aware. If there was a rumor regarding such, I…” Fang Yuan paused. “With that said, it’s possible that Zuo Chen, the Blood Path Gu Master whom I killed recently, had scouted the mountain beforehand for some reason or the other, and that he only returned later on because he was familiar with this area. So, perhaps he was the Blood Path Gu Master you’re thinking about?”

While that was a plausible explanation, neither of the Tie clansmen thought that that was the case.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep