Plotting
The explosion throws Bai Ning Bing to the ground, but the Sky Canopy Gu keeps her uninjured, though her white armor fades by at least 30% and a few more hits would destroy the Gu. From the cave, the demonic female Gu Master laughs and dares her to come again, and Bai Ning Bing refuses to be baited. She threatens to camp outside until the Gu Master has to come out, and the Gu Master answers that she has prepared a large amount of food. Time favors Bai Ning Bing. The green python’s poison will weaken the Gu Master. ch. 210
Fang Yuan then cups his fist, says the two met her by coincidence and are only passing by, and turns to leave. Bai Ning Bing objects that the Gu Master is only rank three. He snorts that she is rank three too but he is rank one, and tells her to stop causing trouble. She grasps that he is acting. Pretending to be angry, she follows him into the woods. ch. 210
Out of sight, Bai Ning Bing proposes luring wild beasts to test the traps she guesses were buried ahead of time. Fang Yuan asks what comes next. Cornered, he reasons, the Gu Master would fight to the death and take at least one of them with her, and even in defeat would destroy her Gu worms with one thought, leaving them none. Their aim has turned from guarding against her to killing her and taking her Gu worms, which very few people manage. Bai Ning Bing asks about Plunder Gu, but Fang Yuan says one has little effect against Gu Masters and needs harsh conditions. ch. 210
Bai Ning Bing worries that the Gu Master will escape. Fang Yuan answers that she will not, for now. He reads her as a farmer lucky enough to gain an inheritance, from her rough accent, poor tactics, untidy traces, and tough body with large hands and feet. The explosion, he judges, is a rank two grass Gu she buried in advance, the Charred Thunder Potato, which goes off under whoever steps on it. In fear, he says, she has planted many in front of the cave. If forced she might do extreme things, but now that they have left she may relax, and those Gu give her the greatest assurance. Bai Ning Bing grudgingly agrees, though she says the poison will drive her out eventually. ch. 210
Fang Yuan answers that they will watch her with his Earth Communication Ear grass Gu, a rank two Gu whose range beats most rank three Gu worms. Bai Ning Bing objects that it demands continuous primeval essence, so one person cannot watch her always. He points out that there are two of them and a Gu worm can be lent, so they can take turns. She is ashamed at missing it. Fang Yuan privately enjoys her failed retorts, since each subdues her further, and counts Chen Cui Hua as one target and Bai Ning Bing as the second. ch. 210
The demonic female Gu Master, Chen Cui Hua, is shellshocked. She was a farmer who fell into a cave while plowing, found a corpse, and became a Gu Master by its inheritance. A mountain leopard then wiped out her village, and she escaped it by her Gu worms. After half a year in the wilderness her Gu worms died one by one, and a large python she killed poisoned her. This is the third time she meets Gu Masters, she is still half-baked and lacking foundations, and she knows she is no match for the girl. Unsure that they have truly left, and unable to see through the forest with her investigative Gu worm, she decides to wait three days before going out. ch. 210
