Fang Yuan went to retrieve the gu worms from Qing Shu's and the others corpses. He could gain quite a number of merit points by exchanging them, and if this small incident was a portent of future events, he would need as many as he could gather.
There was no hiding his Rank 4 cultivation level anymore. Several Bai clansmen had already seen it, and with it, word would spread throughout the mountain.
There were too many witnesses now for Fang Yuan to hide it. If it was only Bai Ning Bing spouting nonsense he might've been able to suppress it, but he couldn't now.
All in all, the fight with Bai Ning Bing had been a massive loss for him. He had not gained anything save for perhaps the Moonlight Plate Armor Gu, and had lost the chance to get a Yellow Golden Relic Gu, and also revealed his Rank 4 Initial Stage cultivation to the world.
Fang Yuan could get around the story regarding what had happened simply enough. He had found Bai Ning Bing but was too late to stop him from killing Qing Shu and the others before he pursued the latter and was forced to turn back.
The clan bought this explanation well enough- he had a reputation after all.
The issue was his Rank 4 cultivation!
It had been two days since news had gotten out, yet, no one from the elder's hall had come to investigate him.
He had expected that there would be some investigation into his sudden burst in strength, perhaps even the clan head might visit him, but no such event happened.
He knew the village was in a storm upon hearing it- how could he, someone who had graduated little more than a year ago, have reached Rank 4 so quickly?
In a way his strength protected him from people questioning him openly- because no one wanted to mess with him. But that was only for the time being, once the elders gathered their strength- that was when the axe would descend upon them.
"Brother... you didn't tell me that you were so far ahead!" Fang Zheng said. While it might be expected that he was a bit shocked that Fang Yuan had hid this from him, at the same time, he had realized how important strength was in this world and was partially happy- not realizing the problems that this would create for Fang Yuan.
Fang Yuan now asked for permission to enter the underground cavern to search for Rank 4 gu recipes, and to his mild surprise, was allowed to enter without any resistance.
He now had recipes for the Rank 4 advancement of both the Blood Moon Gu and the Golden Moon Gu. He had tried one attempt at advancing the Blood Moon Gu, but had sadly failed.
Two days after that, as he tried to gather the materials for another attempt, the time finally came when the clan head came to visit him.
Fang Yuan had anticipated this, and prepared the necessary stories to explain away his newfound strength.
"Elder Fang Yuan, I apologize for not being able to come earlier, but I wanted to congratulate you on reaching Rank 4," the clan head said.
There was no air of arrogance from the man at this point, because Fang Yuan was almost his equal now. Almost, but not quite.
"I thank you for your kind words," Fang Yuan said. "I only wished that I could have intervened sooner on Brother Qing Shu's behalf... perhaps he would still be alive were that the case..."
"It cannot be helped, the Bai clan has reared quite the demon," the clan head said. "However, we have to put that matter aside for now. There is a more pressing issue that has come up that we need to deal with..."
Fang Yuan began putting the pieces together- he had not been questioned until now, so it was likely that this matter was so important that it had saved his neck for the time being. "What is it?"
"A group was fighting a group of wolves, and things were going well enough," the clan head said. "However, suddenly, among the wolves, one of them began behaving differently. Most of the people who witnessed this event are dead, but they were able to leave a few information-type gu worms for us. One of the wolves suddenly stood up on its hind legs, almost like a human, before surrounding the battlefield in thick black smoke. It also had a gu worm that allowed it to shoot lightning- even the elder's defensive gu worms failed when faced with it."
Fang Yuan already had a good idea at to what kind of creature it was based on that description alone, but he let the clan head finish.
"It was a Lightning Lycan King - this wolf is quite dangerous as it is a mutant," the clan head explained. "It has the strength equivalent to a Rank 4 Gu Master, but that isn't all- what makes it truly dangerous is the fact that it possesses an intelligence that rivals even that of humans. With that, it is even more dangerous than a Thunder Crown Wolf."
"Wait, but clan head..." Fang Yuan began. "That means that combined with the three Thunder Crown Wolves we've seen- there are four beasts with Myriad Beast King strength in the wolf tide!?"
"Indeed it looks like we've greatly underestimated the amount of trouble that we're in," the clan head said.
Before, when it had only been three Thunder Crown Wolves, each clan could take care of one. But now, there was a fourth- and it was more likely than not that the Gu Yue clan would end up facing not one, but two foes. The Lightning Lycan King, with its intelligence, might naturally wish to take them, the strongest of the three clans down first.
With Qing Shu dead, there was no way that the clan head could even dream of kicking Fang Yuan out. On the contrary, he would feel the need to arm Fang Yuan. Even though Fang Yuan was a potential rival for the position of clan head, the current clan head could do nothing to suppress Fang Yuan. One could only think of the future and their position if they were alive, after all.
Fang Yuan's assessment was correct as the clan head handed him some refinement materials. "I have taken them from the clan's storage, they should help you advance your Golden Moon Gu to Rank 4." Naturally between the Blood Moon Gu and the Golden Moon Gu, he would prefer that Fang Yuan advance the latter. "Also, I have spoken to the underground cavern, you can take a single Rank 4 gu worm with no cost. I hope that will help you increase your strength- we will need it in the coming days."
The clan head's face was pale and he had clearly been under a lot of stress the past few days. It even seemed to Fang Yuan that there was something that the clan head was hiding from him, but he couldn't piece that together right now.
However, with the clan head acknowledging him as such, no one else in the village would dare find trouble with him in current circumstances. Of course, once the wolf tide was over, it would be a completely different story, but that meant that Fang Yuan would be left alone until then.
Fang Yuan's weekly allowance had also been increased from 300 primeval stones to 2,000.
Using this new fortune, he was able to successfully turn the Golden Moon Gu into a Rank 4 Electrum Moon Gu, with far greater offensive power than before. He needed more Moon Orchid Petals to feed it, but with his increased allowance this was manageable.
Secondly, he refined the Three Steps Fragrant Grass Gu to Rank 3 Ten Steps Fragrant Grass Gu. To advance it to Rank 4 would take too much time as some of the resources were simply not available regardless of how much one paid for them.
Then, it was time for him to pick out a Rank 4 gu worm.