The first thing that Qing Shu liked to do when he woke up in the morning was to go around Gu Yue Village and see how all of his clansmen were doing.
He passed by a Gu Master who was busy fiddling with something.
"Oh, what are you doing?" Qing Shu asked.
"Oh, Elder Qing Shu," the Gu Master replied. "I was simply making this little ornament for my girlfriend." He held up a necklace which had several pieces of bone strung together. In this world, primeval stones were the main currency, making gold and silver little more than ornaments. As such necklaces made of them weren't quite as valued as they would be back on Earth.
These bones had been collected from various bone beasts and would not have been easy to get, especially for a Rank 1 Gu Master. In a way, it could be said that the effort put into making this gift was not something that could be so easily purchased with primeval stones.
"I see what you're doing," Qing Shu said. "Indeed, a gift made by your own hands tends to carry the most meaning."
"Why, thank you!" the Gu Master answered. "Do you really think she'll like it, Elder Qing Shu?"
"I think she would have to be blind in order not to."
"Oh great, my girlfriend's going to love it then, when I gift it to her for our four-year anniversary!" the man, clearly in his twenties, answered. "It's just a few days before here Awakening Ceremony too..."
Qing She had spent about two minutes beating up the man before realizing that his girlfriend was an adult mortal woman who was planning on participating in the Awakening Ceremony through Fang Yuan's new rule.
With that part of his morning wasted, he went on somewhere else.
The Bai and Xiong Clansmen had their own cordoned-off section in the village. It was not strictly Bai or Xiong Clan territory, but rather more of an invisible partition.
'If only we could all get along,' Qing Shu thought to himself. But it wasn't so easy to cast aside a thousand years of enmity. Even he felt apprehension towards the Bai and Xiong clansmen, loathsome as he was to admit it.
When asked if they could truly be trusted by his own Gu Yue clansmen, he tried to give them an optimistic picture. But he couldn't but help feel like he was feeding them a lie that he didn't truly believe.
Cooperating wasn't just about trusting each other.
Sending teams of mixed clan origin led to problems where their fighting styles and gu worms did not align with one another.
The obvious solution was just to have teams made up of people from only one clan.
However, because of logistical issues, this was not always possible. It also meant that the integration of the clans with each other would be reduced. If the Gu Yue, Bai, and Xiong Clans all just kept to themselves rather than trying to become part of a single united new Gu Yue Village, it would eventually fracture.
For now, the Bai and Xiong Clans were doing nothing because the new Gu Yue Village had enemies. The Bei Clan might be pretending to be friendly, but if Fang Yuan were to disappear they would quickly turn into their enemies.
And if there was struggle between these three internal factions within the Gu Yue Clan, the only ones who would win would be outsiders.
On top of which was the fact that some Gu Masters had already tried integrating the Bone Path gu worms into their own fighting sets. The eventual plan was to phase out their original fighting methods entirely and switch wholly to Bone Path cultivation. However, training to use gu was an important part of being a Gu Master. You cannot just hand an ordinary Gu Master a different kinnd of gu worm entirely and expect them to use it flawlessly.
Since they could not handle these new gu worms properly, they would often end up injured while doing their clan missions. This coupled with a lack of coordination between the various team members constantly generated headaches for them.
Thankfully, the Elders were mostly isolated from this fact and could work together, but this was due to greater experience and training. The ordinary rank-and-file could not do so.
If it were not for Fang Yuan clearing the mountain of the most egregious threats, they would've been in dire straits.
'But how much longer are we going to rely on Fang Yuan?' Qing Shu thought to himself. Fang Yuan was not going to live forever. Eventually, the time would come when the clan would need to stand on its own.
His thoughts drifted to the academy, which was not functioning as well as he would have liked, and then to next year's Awakening Ceremony, in which there would be more mortals who would try to become Gu Masters under Fang Yuan's new rules.
The village seemed peaceful, but that was only on the surface level. There were undercurrents of discontent and resentment beneath this tranquil surface, kept that way only by the harsh environment that they were living in.
Qing Shu felt it in the air - Rank 5 Cultivation Aura!
He walked over to see Fang Yuan and Fang Zheng standing across from one another.
Fang Yuan was saying something to Fang Zheng, handing him a Rank four Gu worm that Qing Shu did not recognize, while saying something before turning around.
Fang Yuan then left after acknowledging Qing Shu with a quick nod, explaining that he was going back to Shang Clan City.
Qing Shu, like many of the other Gu Yue clan elders, was not necessarily happy about this. He would have preferred Fang Yuan to remain in the village, but he had come to realize that a Rank 5 Gu Master could only truly show strength with Rank 5 gu worms, and that might only be possible for Fang Yuan to accomplish if he went back to Shang Clan City.
Not to mention that any glory that Fang Yuan won in Shang Clan City would only advance their name further.
'Fang Yuan has moved out of the small pond of the Gu Yue Clan,' Qing Shu had to admit. He was now contending with forces the village could not fathom, but many of the other elders did not understand this. Even Qing Shu, when trying to deal with a problem, couldn't help but think of Fang Yuan at times.
Fang Zheng seemed to have cheered up quite a bit as he walked towards Qing Shu.
"Ah, Clan Head, what's going on?" Qing Shu asked.
"Well, nothing," Fang Zheng said, holding a gu worm. As King Shu got a closer look at the gu worm in question, he saw it was a bird made of stone with two wings sprouting from its back.
"Is that the Footless Bird?" Qing Shu asked.
"Indeed, it is. Brother gave it to me," Fang Zheng said.
Along with it, he had also given Fang Zheng a word of advice: "The reason why I adore this Footless Bird so much is that it is given one chance to fly. Once it lands, its life is over."
Fang Zheng had some time to think about it. It was a single-use Gu worm, but it could come in clutch during a crucial moment for him. However there was clearly a deeper meaning to his brother's words.
Fang Zheng had been about to ask about various things regarding dealing with the clan's issues, but it seemed that Fang Yuan had already anticipated them by giving him the gu worm. Because Fang Zheng in his mind was also flying something like this.
He was running the role of being Clan Head by the seat of his pants. Surely, failing would mean destruction, given his family and everyone was on the line. But no matter what one tried, one only had one chance in order to achieve things in this life.
"I think I finally decided what to do about that woman," Fang Zheng said, changing the topic. "Nothing short of execution is sufficient to deter further mortals from trying something like that. We need to make an example of her. It doesn't matter what we accuse her of. Simply bringing shame to Fang Yuan's name by taking advantage of his kindness is enough."
Qing Shu knew that Fang Zheng did not like to speak about women by name most of the time, but he was usually able to tell from Fang Zheng's tone which woman he was speaking about.
Based on Fang Zheng's disgusted tone, he could think of only one person.
"The one involved with three different male Gu Masters? Ah, I see your reasoning. It's harsh, but it's not that it cannot be done," Qing Shu said.
It was a pity that a mortal woman with an okay-ish aptitude - 55%, not that bad, who could potentially reach Rank 3 by the end of her life - had gotten greedy and tried to hop to the top as fast as possible by extorting her lovers for gifts.
Only now, much like the Footless Bird, she was going to crash.
Qing Shu was a bit surprised that Fang Zheng was asking for execution. Fang Zheng was not bloodthirsty, but there were times when an example had to be set for the masses.
There might be a good bit of backlash from this decision, however.
"Don't worry, I have your back," Qing Shu said, as the two men watched Fang Yuan and Bai Ning Bing leave atop the White Form Immortal Snake.