Reverend Insanity: The Goody Two-Shoes System

"And what about this strange house?" Han Lin asked. Fang Yuan's explanation did not mention it at all, and it was clear to all of them that it was quite powerful even if they didn't understand the full extent of such power.

"The house was one of the relics that the first-generation ancestor was keeping," Fang Yuan said. "I'm not entirely sure how it works. However, I've managed to make part of it function. Of course, we will also need to keep it hidden."

There were those who wanted to delve further, but one hand motion from Fang Yuan told them that was all that he would hear on the matter. If these had been normal times, even the clan head couldn't escape such kind of scrutiny. However, these were not normal times.

Some of them, such as Qing Shu, were even fine and approved of something like this - they saw it as Fang Yuan keeping a potential weapon secret so that it could be used during times of crisis.

Seeing as that this line of questioning was going to get them nowhere, they moved on to other matters.

"Regarding our benefits..." one of them piped up.

"Oh, given the current state of affairs, we can continue with the increased allowance of 300 primeval stones a week," Fang Yuan said. With so many of the elders deceased as well as ordinary clan members, maintaining this level for now was not an issue.

However, that did not solve the real problem on the elder's minds.

"About the Moon Orchid Petals..."

"We have about ten thousand currently in storage," Fang Yuan said. While that sounded like a large amount, when taking into account how many Gu Yue clansmen there were, that would normally only last them all about one or two months. Given the number of clansmen who died and the many dead gu worms at well, things might last two or three times as long.

The shortage, however, would impact these elders the most. Who else had Rank 3 gu worms and needed the largest amount of Moon Orchid Petals? Not only that, it was their battle strength that mattered far more than even ten Rank 2 Gu Masters.

What did it matter if they had an increased share of primeval stones if there were no gu worms to use them on? It was the equivalent of being stranded on a desert island with nothing but a huge pile of money - you would starve to death regardless.

Some of them were thinking that Fang Yuan had the right idea in going for the Blood Moon Gu for his advancement of the Moonglow Gu- all he needed to feed his own gu worm was fresh blood.

"What about the flowers themselves?" one of the elders asked.

"Does anyone have any idea on how to save them?" Fang Yuan asked.

"The method through which the Moon Orchids were planted and maintained was devised by our first generation ancestor himself, much like with the Moonlight Gu," Han Lin said.

They very well couldn't ask that person for help, now then could they?

"Are there any Wood Path experts who might be able to lend us a hand there?" Fang Yuan asked.

"There was Gu Yue Yi Fei... not an expert by any means but an amateur who studied the Wood Path."

"He was killed by the wolf tide two weeks ago?"

"Is that so? I had no idea..."

"No, that was Gu Yue Fei Yi who was killed by the wolves two months ago... Gu Yue Yi Fei was killed when he ate some unripe fruit and had uncontrollable diarrhea..."

"Oh right, how could I have mistaken the two?"

"Regardless," Fang Yuan said, interrupting them all. "Almost ninety percent of the Moon Orchids seem to have been damaged to some extent. The other ten percent might still have signs of damage that we cannot detect- though as you all can understand, we can't continue to harvest any more until the batch grows back without risking the fact that they might turn extinct." They had done their best to defrost any areas of the underground cavern that were still icy, but that didn't mean that the temperature there had returned back to normal.

Fang Yuan did know a Wood Path Gu Master as a matter of fact - the Wood Path Gu Master when you got down to it, but whether or not that person would be of the slightest help had to be seen.

"Given this," Fang Yuan continued, "we will need to restrict the sale and purchase of Moon Orchid Petals in the clan. Elders, naturally, should get the first pick, though I would advise you all to consider changing which gu worms you wish to rear to something which is more sustainable in the future. Speaking of, the Moonlight Gu are the biggest fraction of the gu worms the clan feeds, but not the entirety. What else are we running low on?"

The clan spent up to over a thousand stones in order to keep the gu worms in their storage fed. However, in the current environment, money was not the issue- many of these things could not even be bought from the Xiong or Bai clans simply because they wouldn't have them either.

"Lightwood Soil, Clay Earth, Rainbow Water, Red Crickets..." one of the elders read out a list of materials they would be short on. There was little in common with these materials, so there was no single source they could work on to get them all. Red Crickets were found in the wilderness, though many would have died after Bai Ning Bing's explosion. The Lightwood Soil and Clay Earth might recover to some extent once the ice had melted, but there was no use in trying to defrost the Rainbow Water.

"Additionally, there are many Gu Masters petitioning us asking if we can assist them with the feeding of their gu worms," Qing Shu said.

Such a thing would've been scoffed at in the past, one's gu worms were one's own and had to be fed by oneself, but in this scenario with such widespread damage they would no doubt want some kind of answer.

"Stall them for now while we consider things further," Fang Yuan said. "In the meanwhile, we need to send envoys to the Bai and Xiong clans giving them an offer of assimilating with us."

"You were serious about that? I thought that was a joke..."

Fang Yuan sighed. "Look around you - how many people and gu worms do we have left? The threats on the mountain might have perished along with us, but with this kind of void other animals will soon move in to fill in the gaps. Even if the surrounding Gu Masters do nothing, we will need greater strength to deal with what will be coming up ahead."

There was a good chance that those two clans would reject them, but if that were so, so be it. They would soon see the harsh realities of this world.

"Any other issues to touch upon?" Fang Yuan asked.

For now, while there were a pile of other mundane things to deal with, but they would only pop up in the coming days as people realized that they needed to be dealt with in the first place. Given the widespread extent of damage that threatened even the foundation of the clan, many weren't even sure how much things they needed to deal with.