What Fang Yuan had said earlier in front of the crowd was simply for the sake of the general populace. There was another meeting after that in the Clan Head's Pavilion. This was of necessity, as the central Clan Hall, the usual meeting place, had been damaged to the point where it could no longer be used for that purpose. This was the only building in the village which had a room that could be used for such a purpose. This meeting was only for the elders - what few of them that remained.
"Gu Yue Yao Ji is not here," one of the Gu Masters said. There was an uncomfortable silence, as many of them knew what to say but lacked the courage to speak it. Yao Ji's cultivation had now fallen from Rank 3 to Rank 2, and so she was no longer an elder.
However, given the fact that she had dedicated many decades of her life to the village's fortune, none of them would feel right about tossing her out, especially as it appeared that her life was coming to a close. It was the equivalent of kicking someone while they were down or adding insult to injury.
"For the moment," Fang Yuan said, "we do not need to revoke her title of elder until we get a clearer idea of what our situation is. If she ends up passing away shortly, there's no need to do so. As a matter of fact, as long as she does not do anything to 'rock the boat,' so to speak, there's no need to do anything about her." Human Path methods could do quite a lot, but they could not reverse ageing. At least, Fang Yuan had not found something which could do anything like that. The only thing that could cure aging was Lifespan Gu. If Yao Ji did pass away, they would allow her to be buried as an 'elder.' If she survived, they would consider that matter another day.
"There's another matter that we must discuss," Fang Yuan said, "which is why I've called all of you here. And that is regarding the truth of what happened that day." Fang Yuan gave them a very abridged version of events. Some of them had overheard Lord Sky Crane's words, but many of them did not want to believe it. And of course, Fang Yuan left out certain details, such as that of the Northern Dark Ice Soul Physique and Bai Ning Bing's detonation.
"The point which I wish to come to," Fang Yuan said, "is that we cannot let information leak outside of the village. Otherwise, we will be the ones who are considered in the wrong."
"Considered in the wrong?" Qing Shu asked. "We are the ones who were attacked by Lord Sky Crane!"
"That is correct," Fang Yuan said. "However, the righteous path is entirely about justification. Even the worst of atrocities can be justified as long as one has the correct reason. The righteous path can sometimes be even more underhanded and despicable than the demonic path in the way that it acts, so long as one can save face. Demonic cultivators will simply attack, but righteous cultivators will attack while claiming that it was you who harmed them in the first place!"
Many of the elders had a strange feeling as Fang Yuan spoke . He was speaking as if he was not a member of the righteous path himself.
Then again, most of them shook these feelings away. If a noble hero like Fang Yuan could not be said to be righteous in this world, then who could be?
"Lord Sky Crane can simply use the justification that we were harboring a demonic cultivator, and then he will brand all of us as demonic cultivators as well by extension. The fact that the first generation Gu Yue engaged in Blood Path cultivation is an even bigger stain upon us. Even demonic path Gu Masters stay away from the Blood Path," Fang Yuan said. "Of course, we have our own slight advantage in that regard. The first generation Gu Yue is dead, and so are his Blood Path Gu worms. Most of the evidence can be hidden, thanks to the destruction of much of the mountain. In a way, it is a double-edged sword, a blessing and a curse as well. Furthermore, this Lord Sky Crane hails from the Central Continent, and it will be difficult for them to mount a large-scale attack upon the Southern Border. We can brand him as a foreign invader wanting to infringe upon our benefits." Fang Yuan said this, though he knew this was only true temporarily. In the future, there would come a time when the five regional walls would vanish and the Central Continent would invade all of the other regions. However, that time had not come yet.
While it's one thing for Lord Sky Crane to enter the Southern Border on his own, the Immortal Crane Sect could not send their Rank 6 or higher Gu Immortals after them. Such a thing would attract the attention of every single Immortal within the Southern Border, and they would be preempted to act if only to preserve their own interests. Immortals of a different region were always suppressed when they went to another region, with perhaps one exception being the Eastern Sea. Because of this, Fang Yuan knew that they were temporarily safe. As for mortals, the Immortal Crane Sect could not send a large number of them into the Southern Border either.
"Why even discuss this matter? No one other than Lord Sky Crane knows of what happened here, and the other parts of the Southern Border will not care," an elder scoffed.
"Do you think so? Have you all forgotten about the Tie clan?" Fang Yuan asked.
"The Tie clan? Why would they be interested in investigating?"
"Because Gu Yue Bo invited them," Fang Yuan said, having found out about this from the former clan leader himself. "To investigate the case of the demonic Gu Master attack earlier. No doubt, the Tie clan would not care for the woes of a medium-sized clan like ours, nor would anything that could be offered sway the heart of famous Tie Xue Long. But when word of this strange anomaly gets out, naturally other clans will come to investigate. Even if the famous investigator thought of ignoring our request or postponing it for several decades, this might arouse his interest."
They were silent as Fang Yuan said this. Now that all the evidence was gone, there was little to no chance that the origin of that demonic Gu Master could be found out. However, they had inadvertently invited trouble into their own house by asking for Tie Xue Long's help.
"Furthermore," Fang Yuan continued. "When word gets out of what happened, nearby clans and the like will start circling the mountain like vultures. There are still many resources upon the mountain that others might covet - like our own signature Moonlight Gu and Moon Orchids. Either that, or the prospect of easy slaves might be enough for them to come swooping down on us."
"Selling human slaves is something only demonic cultivators would do..."
"Are you sure?" Fang Yuan asked, his eyes flashing. "The righteous path, so long as it can justify it, will find any number of reasons to 'capture' us should we show weakness. They would call us prisoners or the like. But this is why we can't show weakness or give them a reason to strike out at us."
The subtext was also clear to everyone there who was experienced- 'You all want to survive? Then you're going to have to rely upon me, the only Rank 4 Gu Master in the village, Gu Yue Fang Yuan!'
There was no need for Fang Yuan to openly state something like that - the others understood, after all, that was just how the righteous path operated!