Aftermath

Gu Guangzhi was blown away by Gu Yue Bo's punch. The water wolf immediately came to Gu Guangzhi's rescue. It surrounded Gu Guangzhi protectively and growled at Gu Yue Bo.

'It's a mutant beast!', thought Fang Yuan when he saw the water wolf. Well, in reality it mutated into a Nether river wolf several years ago. As a mutant species, it had incredible strength matching a Rank 4 gu master. This was partially the reason why it was able to take on so many elders during this battle. Gu Yue Bo prepared his golden moon blade in preparation for an attack from the water wolf. However, the water wolf used River flood Gu at full force in all directions sweeping away all the gu masters in the arena. Gu Guangzhi even felt that the River flood Gu on the water wolf's body might even be damaged due to this excessive use. Only Gu Yue Bo was able to stand his ground. The river wolf swiftly escaped with Gu Guangzhi in the river flood it created. Gu Yue Bo tried to chase after it but his movement type gu didn't suit well to traverse the raging flood waters.

As the water wolf escaped Gu Yue village, Gu Yue Bo looked at the destruction caused by the river floods. A large portion of the academy collapsed and several students were injured. Zou Cheng and other elders arrived at the scene. Gu Yue Bo ordered them to treat the injured gu masters. A few elders used Therapy Light Gu to treat the gu masters nearby. It was a healing type gu with an area of effect healing. The wounds on the injured gu masters recovered completely. Fang Yuan was among them. Gu Guangzhi, even in his rage, didn't kill gu masters wantonly.

A short while later, all the elders gathered in the conference hall of Clan leader's pavilion. "What the hell is going on? Zou Cheng, how did Gu Guangzhi intrude into the village under you watch? Tell me, do I need to look for a new dark hall elder?", asked Gu Yue Bo angrily. The dark hall elder was responsible for the security of the entire village.

Zou Cheng bowed and answered, "This subordinate was unworthy. Gu Guangzhi had several powerful Lightning bamboo Gu on him that he was able to wreck chaos in our forces. It is highly likely that the Xiong clan is behind this attack. How else could he have so many powerful gu insects? Xiong village had always been on the lowest rung in Qing Mao mountain. I believe they wanted to use Gu Guangzhi as a suicide attacker to harm our village."

"But to what end? Gu Guangzhi only attacked Fang Yuan in the academy with killing intent. It almost seemed like he wanted to avoid killing other gu masters.", said Academy Elder.

"Perhaps, he wanted to attack Fang Zheng! That way, our village's future would be greatly crippled.", replied an elder.

"But Fang Zheng stays in his own residence. Why did he attack the academy?", another leader raised a doubt. "Did he not know much about our village? Perhaps that is why he confused Fang Yuan for Fang Zheng!", continued the elder, answering his own question.

"Thank the heavens that they are on our side.", exclaimed another elder.

"Damn that Gu Guangzhi! He was awakened with a D grade aperture and was expelled from the village after breaking our rules! So he held a grudge against our clan and wanted to kill Fang Zheng who had an A grade aperture to harm our clan.", said a disgruntled Zou Cheng. He was still unhappy about Gu Guangzhi slipping away from his hands.

Gu Yue Bo motioned for silence and spoke, "Zou Cheng, make necessary preparations to safeguard Fang Zheng more closely. I don't want such things to happen again. Also, I will personally start to teach Fang Zheng from now on. He needs to be prepared for any kind of danger that he is going to face. Also, send an envoy to Xiong clan and demand for Gu Guangzhi's surrender and appropriate compensation. They will try to wiggle out of responsibility, I'm sure of it but put as much pressure as possible. They must've known about the threat of the upcoming wolf tide. Threaten them that we will not cooperate with them if they do not accept responsibility for this attack." All the elders nodded furiously. They all had one thought in their mind, "We must make the Xiong clan pay!"

…

Fang Yuan was resting in the temporary dormitory that was setup. He had never experienced such a danger in Gu Yue village. He hadn't even heard about such a powerful gu master called Gu Guangzhi in his previous life.

'Who is this Gu Guangzhi? Why haven't I heard about him in my previous life? Is this a side effect of using Spring Autumn Cicada or did one one my actions trigger this unforeseen danger? Is this the butterfly effect?'

Fang Yuan started thinking about the recent events he was involved in. A few days ago, he had killed a hunter named Wang Er after a small fight. This hunter had a father and sister alive. When arrived at the the Wang residence to demand for a map as compensation, the old father tried to deceive him by drawing a map with several traps on it marked as safe locations. However Fang Yuan suspected that the old man was lying to him and killed him on the spot. His goal was to get the beast skin map that all hunters had with them, so to him their lives were as cheap as grass. He wanted to kill the daughter as well but apparently she was out to meet with someone. He had a notion that 'When cutting down weeds, you must get at the roots. Otherwise, the weeds will return with the spring breeze.'

After Fang Yuan searched the Wang residence and found the beast skin map, he encountered Gu Yue Jiang He. He was the gu master stationed at the village. After making friends with him, he left. He wanted to wait till the daughter returned to kill her as well but killing her now would make it too suspicious so he left.

'Is this Gu Guangzhi related to Wang Er's sister somehow? He truly had hatred for me in his eyes.', thought Fang Yuan.

…

The water wolf had brought Gu Guangzhi to Yu Wen Zi's residence. He was shocked to see Gu Guangzhi in such a state and quickly started healing him. Gu Guangzhi, in his half dead state was crying, "I'm sorry, Wang Mei. I couldn't avenge you."