His words had just finished, and two young hunters carried Wang Er's corpse in.
Seeing this corpse, old man Wang's body shook!
"Second brother —!" the young girl screamed pitifully, rushing forward and grabbing Wang Er's corpse, her face flushed with tears.
"Wang family's daughter…" The two young hunters, seeing the girl they liked crying in front of them, felt terrible. They wanted to console her, but no words came out.
"Old man Wang, I heard you're a hunter, the best among the few villages. At such an old age, you can still hunt and get a good result every time, this is great."
Fang Yuan paused here for a moment, and continued expressionlessly, "Draw me a map of all the traps of the nearby mountain area now, as well as the results of your observation of wild beast territories from your hunting experience all these years. Draw it for me and I will spare your son's sin of offending me, if not… hmph."
These villages were under Gu Yue village's control. The villagers were all farmer slaves of the Gu Yue clan.
With Wang Er's offense for offending his master, according to the clan rules, their entire family would be implicated!
Old man Wang's body shook again, almost falling to the ground. An impact like this was too sudden and great to him.
"Murderer, you are the murderer that harmed my brother! You treat human lives like livestock, and you dare to confront us? I will exact revenge for my brother!!" the young girl screamed, her voice full of hatred and anger towards Fang Yuan, and she rushed towards him.
But she was only halfway there when she got stopped by someone.
It was not the two young hunters, but her father.
"Disgraceful wretch!" Old man Wang screamed as he gave the young girl a tight slap, sending her to the ground.
"Your second brother is dead, do you want to die too? Do you want this old father of yours to be old and alone forever?!" The old man cried profusely saying this, his body trembling furiously.
"Father!" The young girl was awakened by this, and her tears poured out. Her voice was full of sadness, injustice, pity, hatred, and helplessness.
The old man turned his body, facing Fang Yuan as he kneeled down and placed his forehead on the ground, prostrating deeply at Fang Yuan's feet. His voice shook as he said, "Lord Gu Master, my son offended you and deserved to die! I shall draw the map for you now, please spare us with your magnanimity."
Fang Yuan's expression turned milder, he looked at the old man arrogantly, saying, "Be at ease, as long as you draw honestly, I will spare you. But don't think of lying to me, for if I find any suspicious points, your lives will be forfeited!"
"I understand, this old man understands." Old man Wang kowtowed non-stop, "Please Lord Gu Master, allow me to retrieve my brush and paper."
"No need." Fang Yuan waved his hand, looking at the two hunters he had forced along, ordering, "Enter the room and find paper and brush, and bring them out."
"Yes, Lord Gu Master." The two youngsters did not dare to rebel under Fang Yuan's authority.
"Lord, the paper and brush are on the square table in the kitchen." Old man Wang said.
Fang Yuan's eyes shone but he remained silent.
The two hunters barged into the house and quickly brought out the paper and brush.
In the southern territory, the paper was specially made of bamboo, where the quality was bad and the paper was tough with green overlays. Paper like this was suited to the moist weather of the southern territory.
If it was rice paper, it might be destroyed after a week due to moisture.
The old man carried the brush and kneeled on the ground, drawing out black lines, curves or dots.
He used over ten bamboo papers before handing them all to Fang Yuan.
Fang Yuan looked through them and split these bamboo papers into two, handing them to the two hunters, "Take a look if there's any inappropriate areas. Every mistake, I'll give you one primeval stone!"
The two hunters took the bamboo papers, their hands trembling, eyes shining.
During this period, old man Wang was kneeling on the ground, his forehead touching the ground as he expressed his respect. The young girl was lying on the ground, as if she had gone lifeless.
"There is no problem, lord."
"The trap areas in these bamboo papers are all accurate."
The two answered.
"Lord Gu Master, this concerns me and my daughter's life, I would definitely not lie to you!" The old man on the ground shouted as he continued to kowtow.
But Fang Yuan did not care, "I don't believe it."
Old man Wang jolted, raising his head, but only saw an eerie blue moonblade enlarging within the reflection of his iris.
Pew.
A skull flew into the air, fresh blood spewing all over.
"Argh!!!"
"Lord, this—!"
The two young hunters were taken by surprise. Shock and disbelief showed on their faces.
"Father—!" The young girl cried out profusely as she leapt towards old man Wang's headless corpse, but midway, a moonblade flew towards her face.
Splat.
She fell onto the ground, lifeless.
Her beautiful face, from her forehead to her chin, slowly showed a thin red line.
Using Rank one middle stage primeval essence, the moonblade could slice Gu. Now that he was using upper stage primeval essence, it could break bones and even cut steel!
"Wang family's daughter!" A young hunter fell onto the ground in despair after seeing her demise with his own eyes.
"Lord Gu Master, spare us!" The other hunter feeling Fang Yuan's faze, nearly died of shock as he plopped on the ground.
"Get up, go inside and search!' Fang Yuan ordered, "I know that a hunter's family always keeps a beast skin map. On top of it is the terrain, trap locations and the beast territories. Find it for me, and I'll let you keep your lives."
"Yes, yes, yes, we will search immediately. Give us some time, Lord Gu Master!" The two frantically got up and ran into the wooden house.
Sounds of wardrobes overturning and falling could be heard from the wooden house.
But a moment later, even though the hunters ransacked the house, there was no beast skin map to be found.
"Lord, please give me some time, we will find it right now!" The two hunters were terrified as they got more desperate and searched boorishly, smashing many furniture in the process.
"Fuck, where is it?"
"Appear, please appear!"
They muttered as their bodies shivered, their eyes getting bloodshot.
"Useless trash." Fang Yuan slowly walked into the house.
"Lord! Lord! Forgive us, please…wahh…" The two young hunters shivered like they were electrified and fell to the ground, begging for their lives.
Fang Yuan ignored the two and observed the firepit.
Fang Yuan walked to the firepit, slowly squatting down and taking a shovel beside the firepit, digging out the charcoal.
Most of the charcoal still has their wooden shape, they were brittle and easily broken into two.
He used the shovel to dig out this charcoal block, smashing it on the ground. The charcoal smashed into bits, revealing a bamboo tube.
The two hunters gasped at this scene.
Fang Yuan took the bamboo tube and opened it on one side, shaking it, causing a map to fall out.
Fang Yuan took the map and hide it inside his shirt.
"I'm going to ask you — in Old man Wang's household, is there anyone else?" Fang Yuan's gaze was dark, his tone cold as he asked.
The two young men kneeling on the ground shuddered immediately when they heard this question from Fang Yuan. They thought about what had just conspired earlier, and the greedy expressions from their faces disappeared in an instant, replaced with fear and terror.
"There is no one else, the entire family is dead, lord Gu Master!"
"Hunter Wang originally had a wife, but that was decades ago, and she was killed by wild wolves that intruded the village. Before his wife died she gave birth to two sons and a daughter. But the oldest son Wang Da died on the mountain while hunting three years ago. There is no one else in the Wang family."
This was the immediate reply from the two young hunters.
"Is that so…" Fang Yuan narrowed his two eyes and he looked at the two men kneeling before him, knowing that they were telling the truth. When one's life and death was in the hands of others, the probability of lying was very small. Another thing was Fang Yuan isn't fully paying attention to them anyway; he was just waiting for another person to show up.
But he asked anyway, "Did you lie to me?"
"We would not dare to lie even the slightest, lord!"
"I-I thought of something! Old man Wang actually also has a daughter-in-law, Wang Da's old wife. But after Wang Da disappeared, his wife died due to a broken heart. That year, the village even specially sent down a chastity memorial arch! But rumour has it that Wang Da's wife wanted to remarry, and she was actually hounded to death by Old man Wang. When you killed Old man Wang, lord, you are helping us citizens, rooting out the evil and bringing people peace!"
The other hunter quickly added, "That's right, that's right. Actually lord, we have long found this old Wang unfavourable. Hmph, he's nothing special, just that he can hunt better than us. We're all just mortals, yet he thinks he's more special than us and purposely moved out of the village to live here. As the younger generation, we sometimes will ask him to teach us and impart his experiences, but he would just outright chase us away and never allow us to show up again near the wooden house!"
Fang Yuan listened quietly while putting his attention at his aperture to nurture it.
"Hmm, I have heard enough you both can leave now." Fang Yuan's tone softened.
The two young men kneeling on the ground felt surprise and joy once they heard this.
"Thank you so much for your mercy, lord!"
"Lord, your generosity and indulgence, we shall remember in heart forever!"
"Hold it." Just at this moment, a voice suddenly travelled over.