Chapter 200

Five days after the battle at Qing Mao Mountain, Fang Yuan and Bai Ning Bing drift down the Yellow Dragon river on a raft they cut from Qing Mao bamboo, having broken free of the ice with neither of them left holding a transportation Gu. Fang Yuan’s thousand li earth wolf spider had already died, and Bai Ning Bing’s white form immortal snake had flown off with no word since. Travel on foot would be too slow to escape Lord Sky Crane, so the river current carries them instead. ^{ch. 200}

By the fifth day, Fang Yuan doubts pursuit will come at all, reasoning the Ironbeak flying crane king needs rest that the drifting raft does not, and recalling that Lord Sky Crane returned from Qing Mao Mountain alone after killing First gen Gu Yue. Bai Ning Bing laughs off his worry, saying that if the old man catches them they will simply fight to the death, and that even drowning here would make an interesting end. Nearing Bai Gu Mountain, Fang Yuan recalls a secret inheritance hidden there, left by a righteous path rank four Gu Master and rumored to require two people cooperating to pass its trials; he glances at Bai Ning Bing and wonders whether two people bound only by threat and leverage can truly work as one. ^{ch. 200}

A mast rope snaps from five days of wear on the river; Fang Yuan, whose strength alone can hold the loose bamboo, grips it while Bai Ning Bing, practiced from earlier breaks, fetches fresh rope to retie it. Fang Yuan warns the raft can hold together for no more than about a day more, so they need the shore soon. A shoal of Shuttle Swordfish then strikes from beneath the river, one grazing Bai Ning Bing’s ear and drawing blood before Fang Yuan orders the sail turned toward the bank. These fish hunt in groups of hundreds or thousands and take prey ten times to hundreds of times their own size, and even the raft’s tough Qing Mao bamboo begins to split under their repeated charges. ^{ch. 200}

A second wave breaks more bamboo and starts the raft sinking; a spent swordfish lands beside Bai Ning Bing, who has no Gu worms left to fight it, hers having died in the earlier freeze and the Yin Yang Rotation Gu unable to revive them. As a third wave gathers, Fang Yuan forces open the rank three Sky Canopy Gu despite his rank one primeval essence barely meeting its cost, and the weak armor it produces still turns aside every strike aimed at him. Bai Ning Bing, already hurt, shelters behind him and dodges what the armor cannot cover. With less than a third of the raft left and water at their ankles, the fish inexplicably hold back their next charge, and Fang Yuan realizes the water has gone shallow enough that the swordfish will not follow. ^{ch. 200}

Both reach the beach exhausted and bleeding; Fang Yuan’s aperture emptied itself within minutes of powering the Sky Canopy Gu, leaving his own body undefended and injured by the time they land. Still short of Bai Gu Mountain, he steers the ruined raft past the reefs and beaches it on open sand. Bai Ning Bing sits down pale and bleeding, warning she could die from blood loss, and demands a healing Gu. Fang Yuan can only give her a bitter smile: he has none. ^{ch. 200}