Reverend Insanity: The Goody Two-Shoes System

"For this, we will be needing to make certain changes in the way that we operate," Fang Yuan continued. "Some of these may be... unorthodox, but a wise man submits to circumstances. First, our food supply needs to be secured. We will be fine until next spring, but if we don't plan the appropriate seeds now they will not be ready to be harvested by then. Secondly, in order to bolster our numbers, we will allow the surviving mortals to awaken their apertures."

There was dead silence at this proclamation. Those who were not of Gu Yue lineage may have had the aptitude to cultivate, but they could not go down to the primeval spring to attempt to open their aperture. The reason for this was simple clan cohesion- blood was thicker than water of course, and even if in some cases some mortals were allowed to visit the primeval spring if they married into the clan or as a reward this was done quite rarely.

The mortals were quite excited at this announcement of course, but it was the Gu Yue clansmen who spoke up first.

"Clan leader, please reconsider!"

"Those who do not share our bloodline cannot be trusted with that kind of power!"

Many of the elders were also in disagreement.

It wasn't that Fang Yuan was unaware of these issues- it was just that he had far different priorities than the other Gu Yue clansmen. He wanted as many Gu Yue clansmen as possible to continue harvesting Human Path dao marks. While there were enough right now, in the coming months, some of them would not survive.

Furthermore, he was an individual confident in his own strength. Rebellion? Perhaps that might be an issue - the Gu Masters had suppressed the mortals for a long time and many of them carried bitter memories after all. However, before Rank 4 strength they could do little even if they wanted to cause turmoil.

Not only that, but Fang Yuan was accustomed to such a kind of structure being the leader of a sect in his past life. Out of the mortals, only about thirty or forty percent would have any talent based on his estimations, and the majority of them would be good only as foot soldiers being D or C grade talents. With that said, the clan needed all the manpower that it could get at this point.

These new Gu Masters would immediately be elevated in status compared to the other mortals. In time, they would see themselves not as former mortals, but as new Gu Yue clansmen. They would then suppress the other mortals as well.

"Naturally though, this will not come without stipulations," Fang Yuan said. "Any mortal woman who wishes to start cultivating will have to either marry or become the concubine of a Gu Yue clansmen and bear at least two children before she can have access to Rank 2 gu worms if she manages to awaken her aperture. Any mortal man who wishes to cultivate will have to adopt one of the orphans and raise them as their own for five years before they can access Rank 2 gu worms."

There were a number of orphans from this incident. Families had been torn apart, with many new widows and widowers. Some of the orphans had already been taken in by families who had lost their own children, but there were quite a few left.

Many of the mortal men's faces twitched. Fang Yuan was asking them to raise other people's children as their own, though many still felt that this kind of a deal was worth it even if they were going to be worked to the bone as Rank 1 Gu Masters.

"I think those restrictions are fair," Fang Yuan said. "Additionally, I think that we should also allow any willing Bai or Xiong clansmen to become Gu Yue clansmen."

There was a much bigger uproar at this suggestion. Fang Yuan raised his hand and there was immediate silence.

"I know that there is quite a bit of bad blood between the three clans," Fang Yuan said. "However, we must also look at our own situation. We are too few in number to populate without there being a large amount of inbreeding and will need outside blood to make sure that we can continue to flourish." Inbreeding was quite common in the gu world - the Mo clan's long horse like faces were the result of several generations of the same. While many people in this world wouldn't bat an eye at such a thing, Fang Yuan knew the dangers of inbreeding from his time on Earth. Also, these new Bai and Xiong clansmen could bolster their manpower.

"Will they even want to join us?" Qing Shu asked a rather pertinent question.

"They might not want to," Fang Yuan said. "As it is of course, I will demand several things if they wish to assimilate into our clan. The Xiong clan's Bear Strength Gu is rather useful given it does not need primeval essence to be used. The Bai clan's Stream Gu is useful in raising fish and can help with our food situation." These were those clan's trump cards, so naturally they would not be easy to snatch. "However, do remember that both of these clans have lost their leaders. They don't have a Rank 4 Gu Master like myself to serve as the pillar of the clan. In the coming months, they will realize the difficulties of life in such a scenario and likely see reason and agree to come under our yoke." It was technically still possible for the Bai and Xiong clans to rebuild with only around a thousand members - for that matter most of the clans were founded by a single strong individual who had taken multitudes of wives and concubines such as first gen Gu Yue. The only issue was that they would need this strong individual to appear before the wolves could recover.

Say, if another Thunder Crown Wolf appeared in the coming decade, wouldn't they be little more than meat on the chopping block without someone like Fang Yuan to protect them? Not only that, but there were other dangers like wild gu worms and the weather that the clans had to deal with. Even if they had someone with A-grade potential that genius would need to be reared and nurtured for several years before they could see the fruit of their labor. Otherwise they would end up like Fang Zheng, crippled because of an accident, or killed before their prime.

"In the meanwhile, I do have a temporary solution to our manpower issues," Fang Yuan continued.

From behind him, several puppets walked out. They were dressed in various uniforms - cooks, guards, soldiers, dancers, etc. but most of them could still function so long as they were given primeval essence. "Fortune and misfortune seem to come together. It turns out that our evil ancestor was hiding this right under our noses- he had obtained an inheritance in the Puppet Path. We have professions like soldiers and farmers covered for the time being." There were also some Human Path gu worms related to professions like Soldier Gu and the like within the Dollhouse which Fang Yuan was using, and he showed these to those gathered below as well.

Someone in the crowd asked: "Is there also a Prostitute Gu? Asking for a friend."

"Can someone slap whoever asked that for me? I can't reach them from here," Fang Yuan said.

SLAP!

A loud and crisp noise cut through the evening ambience.

"Good work Fang Zheng," Fang Yuan said. "Now, like I said, these will assist us in rebuilding the village. Starting with rebuilding our wall- we need it to keep undesirables outside like bears and wolves." It had been damaged in the prior fight, though the basic framework still stood there were numerous holes in it. It was the most basic defensive asset the village had and needed to be a priority when it came to thinking of things to repair.