"Oh, you must be here to investigate the demonic Gu Master, right?" the shopkeeper asked, shaking his head. "Terrible thing, what happened. My wife and youngest son were both killed in the fighting there. Only my oldest and I remain. I hope you can find whoever did this and stick something right up their rear!"
"Uh," Tie Ruo Nan said, not sure how to respond to that, but she continued her questioning. She didn't find out much which was new from this man.
All he knew was that one day he was simply lying around after the wolf tide was over, thinking that it was safe. He and his family had even made plans to visit a nearby pond in a few days. But before he could do that, something that he had been looking forward to, the cranes had attacked from nowhere, killing most of them. He had barely managed to escape with his life.
His wife at the time had been stationed somewhere else and had been killed far away from where he could've helped. And as for his youngest son, he had just recently enrolled in the Gu Master Academy, and as such, had been away from home.
"I thought he would be safe there," the man, the shopkeeper, continued. "You know, safe at school. However, the elder in charge of keeping them safe there also died, and all of the youngin's there perished."
The man then started to tear up and took a moment to compose himself before continuing.
Tie Ruo Nan wasn't sure what to say in this situation.
She tried to keep herself neutral, and her expression calm. However, she couldn't help but feel overwhelmed by sadness upon hearing the man's words. It wasn't just him who had suffered; nearly everyone on the mountain had also lost a great deal at the hands of that demonic Gu Master.
However, the fact remained that while his story may have been quite emotional and heart-wrenching, there was very little actual information Tie Ruo Nan could get about it.
Much of what he knew was hearsay and confirmed what she knew: that a demonic Gu Master who could control cranes had attacked their village until being defeated by the Gu Yue Clan and forced to retreat. He had not seen the demonic Gu Master in question use an Ice Path Gu worm to freeze the mountain, but he did not doubt the truth of that statement.
Tie Ruo Nan was interested in other things though. "I heard that there was some demonic Gu Master activity even before then. Can you tell me about that?"
They had been told that there had been a Blood Path Gu Master on the mountain for some time, and she wanted to see if she could find anything about that particular story.
"Oh yes, as a matter of fact, there was one thing..." the shopkeeper said, as if he had been struck by some kind of epiphany. "But... I don't know how reliable it was because I'd never seen it with my own eyes, y'know?"
"It's okay, even if it was a rumor. It's at least something to go on," Tie Ruo Nan said, urging him.
"Well, like I said, this is just a rumor, so I never really heard about it, or like, saw it with my own eyes. But they say that there was a demonic Gu Master from the Bai Clan... " the shopkeeper said, his voice dropping to a whisper dramatically. "And they say that the Bai Clan was pumping chemicals- alchemical solutions- into the rivers in order to make the frogs gay!"
Tie Ruo Nan blinked several times. This was not the kind of information she had been expecting, nor was it something that she had ever heard of before. "I'm sorry... did you just say... alchemical solutions to make the frogs gay?" she asked.
The shopkeeper nodded. "I heard I overheard some people talking about it, and everyone seems to think it's true. So it must be true. Why else would someone spread something so ridiculous?"
"Um," Tie Ruo Nan said. "Why exactly would someone dump alchemical solutions for that purpose, and what would they gain from making the frogs gay?"
The shopkeeper shrugged. "Who knows? Demonic Gu Masters tend to be messed up in the head. And maybe they were just trying to feminize all three of the clans on the mountain, you know, to make it easier for them to conquer? No offense," he said, noting the fact that Tie Ruo Nan was a girl after all.
Tie Ruo Nan shook her head. "Thank you," she said, realizing that she was not going to get any more information out of this person, at least not more useful information.
She visited several other areas of the village.
Some people outright shut their mouths whenever she asked them something. However, her father had told her that this was to be expected.
People tended to be wary of strange people wandering around asking them questions. However, there were a few who were willing to talk with her.
Two male Gu Masters had even declared their love for her and asked to marry her. Though when she dropped the name of her father, they both shut their mouths rather quickly.
Most of the information she got confirmed just the same things she knew already - or just brought a tear to her eye. That shopkeeper did not have a monopoly when it came to misery within Xiong village.
She didn't get much more that was new and substantial. However, when she mentioned the story about the demonic Gu Masters mixing things into the water to some people, several people said that they'd heard those rumors, and they thought that it must be true, but they had never seen it themselves.
By this time, her father called upon her that it was time to go. She had not made much progress, she felt. As she went to speak with her father, "Father, were you able to find out anything?"
"There is something indeed," Tie Xue Leng said. "A Blood Path Gu Master was indeed on Qing Mao Mountain a while back."
"Really?" Tie Ruo Nan asked.
"However, I don't think that that is the Blood Path Gu Master we were chasing." Tie Xue Lang sighed. "As per the clan elder, someone by the name of Zuo Chen came to extort the people on the mountain."
"Extorting people when they're weak and suffering like that? That's just terrible!" Tie Ruo Nan said.
"Indeed. But what else can we expect from demonic Gu Masters?" Tie Xue Leng said. "I know about this Zuo Chen, actually. He is a rather infamous demonic Blood Path Gu Master in the Southern Border."
Tie Ruo Nan's eyes widened. She didn't know much about the Blood Path, but from whatever tales she had heard, they were reviled even amongst demonic Gu Masters. The pinnacle of wickedness - the grandmasters of everything bad with the world!
"Yes, there are numerous warrants out for him, and even our clan was looking for him," Tie Xue Leng said. "It looks, however, that he had met his end at the hands of the Gu Yue Village Head. In other words, that hero you so greatly admire, Gu Yue Fang Yuan."