"Regarding this matter," Tie Xue Leng said. "Fang Yuan, I have a request of you. I would like to be able to access some of the clan's records. Of course, I realize this must be done in the presence of an elder. But we were hoping to find some information there."
Fang Yuan pretended to be in deep thought. In truth, there was nothing that he could really do to stop them. If he said no to Tie Xue Leng right now, the force of the Tie Clan might fall upon them. Fang Yuan knew that they weren't really here to investigate Lord Sky Crane but rather the rumors of first gen Gu Yue. With that said, he did want to appear that he was overly pleasing.
"To ask to look into our records is..."
"Ah, your village was the one who invited us in the first place to dig into things - but we can't do that without information, Fang Yuan."
"Could I give you the answer by tomorrow morning? I need some time to think about it."
"Certainly," Tie Xue Lang said.
'If I had been Rank 5 right now, I might have been able to pull a bit more weight,' Fang Yuan thought to himself. Rank 4 peak stage and Rank 5- there was a massive gap between the two of them, even if he could somewhat bridge the distance with the help of Human Path methods temporarily. No one would truly acknowledge him as being a Rank 5 Gu Master's equal.
That night, Tie Ruo Nan and Tie Xue Leng discussed their findings.
"Father, what do you think really happened?" Tie Ruo Nan asked. Despite interviewing several people in the village, she had not managed to come across anything that might lead to some kind of deeper revelation. "It seems that if there is anyone who knows what really happened, they're keeping quiet. Do you really think that there is something in the clan records which can help us?"
"We have no other choice but to attempt to do so as there is no other place to look," Tie Xue Leng said. "What are your thoughts up till now?"
"The biggest thing which bothers me," Tie Ruo Nan said, "is the layer of ice around the mountain. It doesn't seem to match with what happened with an Enslavement Path Gu Master." Gu Masters at one point would usually specialize in one path. And if this person in question had been an Enslavement Path specialist, it was odd for them to carry a gu of the Ice or Snow Path that could cause this level of destruction. It was not impossible, just highly improbable.
"In truth, I've seen something before," Tie Xue Leng said. In his long life, although he had not encountered someone else with the Northern Dark Ice Soul Physique, he had witnessed the aftermath of the explosion of a Gu Master who had the Myriad Gold Wondrous Essence Physique in his earlier days. "Was there someone on Qing Mao Mountain with an extreme physique?"
The most obvious candidate for that would be Gu Yue Fang Yuan. Advancement to Rank 4 was extremely rapid, even if he had been greatly nurtured by his clan and even with explanations like the Liquor Worm.
However, investigating a random clan member and investigating the Clan Head himself were two completely different things. If it was Gu Yue Fang Yuan who was behind all of this, it would be a tough nut to crack. ɪꜰ ʏᴏᴜ ᴡᴀɴᴛ ᴛᴏ ʀᴇᴀᴅ ᴍᴏʀᴇ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs, ᴘʟᴇᴀsᴇ ᴠɪsɪᴛ 𝓷𝓸𝓿𝓮𝓵·𝕗𝕚𝕣𝕖·𝙣𝙚𝙩
And that was disregarding the most obvious issue with this kind of thinking: if Fang Yuan was responsible for what happened on the mountain, how was he still alive? Resurrection was not unheard of, but was extremely difficult. And as far as he understood, even after resurrection, there would be the issue of him possibly detonating once again.
"You're right," Tie Xue Leng said. "The destruction which happened. It almost seems like it was from the detonation of a Northern Dark Ice Soul Physique."
Tie Xue Lang told his daughter about the ten extreme physiques in a few words. At first, while Tie Ruo Nan had been excited to hear this, her face gradually dropped. "But Father? Doesn't that mean that whatever happened on the mountain was completely unrelated to the crane-wielding Gu Master? It might have been just someone else within any of the three villages then."
Other than Gu Yue Fang Yuan, the only other notable, extremely talented Gu Masters included someone from the Bai Clan by the name of Bai Ning Bing.
This meant that their line of questioning was essentially going to hit a dead-end in that regard.
The net day, Fang Yuan agreed to their request, though he demanded to be in the room when they looked through the records. "And I can only allow you to see through relevant records."
"We might not know what's relevant or not until we see it."
"I can't let you see through anything, you have to understand," Fang Yuan said.
His 'resistance' was only nominal - the actual records were kept deeper underground which had many of the true details that were omitted in these. But if he didn't act like these were important, it might give something away.
"So be it," Tie Xue Leng said, going through recent records.
"Another elder killed by Bai Ning Bing..." Tie Ruo Nan noted.
"Yes, he had been quite the nuisance to our village back when he was still alive," Fang Yuan said.
The reason that Tie Ruo Nan fixated on this was because fighting people stronger than your own rank was said to be another identifying feature of the Ten Extreme Physiques.
'So it was him detonating that really caused the ice on this mountain...' she thought to herself. 'Why then would he say something else?'
"Lord Fang Yuan, did you happen to see the demonic Gu Master who attacked your village use a gu worm to encase it in ice?" Tie Ruo Nan asked.
"No, but I don't see who else it could've been," Fang Yuan said.
Tie Ruo Nan felt that there was something that she was missing here. She trusted Fang Yuan's words - a mistake, to be sure, but that meant that there were still unanswered questions.
Tie Xue Leng, meanwhile, was looking for anything that might be related to the clan having a Blood Path Gu Master, though he came up with nothing. Not even the slightest rumor - and of course he couldn't, first gen Gu Yue's secret was well hidden from everyone save himself.
"Not much more here," Tie Xue Leng said as the exited.
"Father, can we go back to Bai clan village? There is something that I think I've stumbled upon," Tie Ruo Nan said.
"Back there?" He couldn't see any link between the Bai clan village and this issue, but he was supposed to let his daughter take the lead when it came to this investigation. "Alright then, so be it."
The two of them traveled to Bai clan village to look for more leads. Tie Ruo Nan wanted to ask more questions about Bai Ning Bing.
"The clan's genius..."
"Very good with Ice Path Gu Worms..."
"And elder within a year of leaving the academy..."
"What did he look like, well, I don't have a portrait or anything but..."
"...say, doesn't Lady Ling Ding Ching look kind of like him?..."
"...you're right! Yes, that's the best example I can think of if you don't have a reference to go off of!"