The songs of the dead are the lamentations of the living.
It was a somber day for Gu Yue Village.
Those who had died recently (only counting the incident with Lord Sky Crane and Bai Ning Bing's detonation, let alone the casualties from before because of the wolf tide) outnumbered the living by more than three to one.
Many people simply didn't have anyone left to bury them.
Attempts were made to identify many of the deceased, but given that some body parts had to be pulled out of the bellies of cranes, and some had even been partially digested or decomposed from the environment made it a rather macabre puzzle to solve.
Fang Zheng observed the procession with a grim look on his face.
How was he supposed to feel? He would have thought earlier that the deaths of his aunt, uncle, and Shen Cui would have brought great joy to his face.
However, in truth, all it did was make him feel empty inside. He felt no sorrow for them, but at the same time, it didn't make him feel as good as he otherwise would have thought.
It wasn't just the atmosphere of the village, either. He had felt this for some time, not knowing why it was that the deaths of those who had wronged him did not bring a smile to his face.
He had voiced his concerns to his elder brother once, who had replied with, "It doesn't matter what happens to those who wrong you. Ultimately, what matters is how far you can go. Even though they're dead, you still haven't managed to advance, have you? But that doesn't matter. You need to keep moving forward. You need to keep building upon what you know and not dwelling on what has happened to you."
Fang Zheng found it odd that his brother could let go of his grudges so easily. No, it seemed that somehow, Fang Yuan had never kept any grudges in the first place.
Despite himself, Fang Zheng often found himself wrestling with his negative emotions, believing that it would have been good for his aunt and uncle, and especially Shen Cui, to have suffered as much as they could have before dying. He would imagine their pain in his head. And yet, all he could feel after these thoughts was emptiness, as if his heart were drained.
Fang Yuan was watching these ceremonies from the clan head's pavilion.
From his own viewpoint, all of this was completely pointless and a waste of time. If he had still been leading the Blood Wing Demon Sect, they wouldn't have even bothered with such ceremonies for their fallen members.
However, even if he personally felt that it was a waste of time - those who had died were gone from this world after all, and there was no use dwelling upon them; a person's death to him was no different than an animal's death - he was the leader of a righteous village right now.
If he did not give them time to air their grievances and bury their dead, it would greatly affect their morale. Many of them were likely wondering who would grieve for them if they passed away. The wolves did not grieve their dead, but the hearts of humans could not be helped.
Even Ren Zu, once he had found out how alone he was in the world and that no one would grieve for him once he was gone, had gladly given up both his eyes simply to gain some company. He had tried to rescue Verdant Great Sun after he had passed away and had ended up dying himself in the process.
Fang Yuan had played his role and then retired; saying a few words and some choice poems from Earth that were appropriate for the occasion.
Nearby, he saw Gu Yue Yao Le crying near the body of her grandmother. Despite what they had tried, Gu Yue Yao Ji had passed away and was still being buried while being considered an elder meaning her funeral rights were slightly different from the plebians.
Not that this mattered much to Yao Le, her tears running down upon the soil below. "Grandmother, how could you leave me alone like this? Without you, how am I supposed to go on forward?"
A few moments later, a hand reached out to her, holding out a handkerchief for her to wipe her face on. She wasn't ready for that yet, though.
A few moments later, when she had somewhat stabilized, she gladly accepted it before seeing who her benefactor was. "Fang Zheng...?" Most people had trouble telling the Fang twins apart, though that had only been initially. Now, there was no mistaking the difference in aura between the two of them.
"Yes," Fang Zheng said.
"I... I just don't know how to go on further," Yao Le said.
"I felt much the same at many points in my life," Fang Zheng said. Yao Le looked around her. Although she was overcome with sorrow, she could also tell that she was not the only one; far from it, who had lost someone close to her.
"How can you be so calm during this time?"
Fang Zheng had been wandering around, helping out people with some minor issues here and there. Yao Le felt that even if no one close to him had died, no one could watch this kind of destruction and not be moved by it, even if those people were not Fang Zheng's relatives. They may have been close classmates or people who just happened to work with him.
Granted, Yao Le had no idea how much Fang Zheng had basically isolated himself from the world, only communicating with Fang Yuan and perhaps Qing Shu on occasion.
Fang Zheng wasn't sure what to say. If he spoke his mind, it would undoubtedly seem cold and heartless and make Yao Le burst into tears.
And while he disliked women in general, Yao Le had not done anything specifically against him. "I'm sure your grandmother was still alive," Fang Zheng said. "She wouldn't have wanted to see you crying like this. She would have wanted to see you going ahead and moving forward. After all, you are one of the genius healers of our clan, aren't you? Isn't it your job then to look after anyone who has been hurt and to lead the Medicine Hall of Gu Yue Village in a new direction?"
Yao Le nodded. "That's right. I only wish, though, that if my healing was better, I might have been able to save her life."
Fang Zheng shook his head. "Don't blame yourself. It wasn't a lack of healing skill, but ultimately all that did her in. No one can escape that."
Meanwhile, on the clan head's pavilion, Fang Yuan felt something changing in his aperture. 'This is ...?'
Integration Gu was reacting to the wills of the Gu Yue villagers. Their sorrow, their sadness, and their longing, were all coalescing around Integration Gu before being condensing into one focal point.
Thus, a new Gu worm had formed within Fang Yuan's aperture.
He recognized what this one was.
This was a Rank 2 Grief Gu.
'It's an emotion type Gu worm that can be used to attack an enemy, making their head filled with sadness and sapping their will to fight,' Fang Yuan thought to himself. However, given the fact that it had been made by the Integration Gu, there was a chance, Fang Yuan felt, that it might actually be a Human Path gu worm.
This was the effect of Integration Gu - although it only had one effect; to gather human wills the output could be different based on certain factors that he was still experimenting with. Normally one could use those wills while activating certain Human Path killer moves, but they could also be used for gu refinement in advancing Hope Gu.
This was the first time it had directly refined a gu worm, however.
Fang Yuan found as he went back inside that there was an additional development waiting for him.