Chapter 216

Bai clan leader has wine brought out when Fang Yuan goes quiet. He opens a jar and drinks, and tears fall again, which he explains as the wine recalling the green bamboo wine of Qing Mao mountain. Bai Ning Bing, who never drinks wine and only takes water, stays silent through it. ^{ch. 216}

Bai Mo Xing gently probes whether Fang Yuan expects to rejoin his clansmen soon, and Fang Yuan answers vaguely that it should be in a few days. Bai Mo Xing and the clan leader exchange a look at the answer. ^{ch. 216}

After the banquet, Bai Mo Xing and the clan leader meet privately, where he argues the Gu Yue survivors might mean to seize Bai Gu mountain and that the clan should strike first. The clan leader laughs this off, and explains her actual concern: the Bai clan’s own spirit spring is running dry, and the hunting competition is cover for a quiet search of the mountain for a new one. Any large mountain gathers primeval essence into a spring somewhere, she says, but finding the exact spot takes manpower and resources they cannot spend openly, with rival clans nearby who would exploit the news of their spring failing. ^{ch. 216}

She reasons that since Gu Yue clan’s remnants are heading to Bai Gu mountain itself, they must already hold intel on it, quite possibly the spirit spring’s location, and that the two young strangers in her camp are a rare chance to learn it. Bai Mo Xing warns that neither of the two is easily read: Bai Ning Bing seems iron willed, and Fang Yuan stayed calm even when surrounded, so forcing answers out of them will not be simple. The clan leader answers that composure like theirs is exactly what she would expect from real young masters, and tells him she already has a plan, though the chapter does not say what it is beyond Bai Mo Xing’s approving reaction. ^{ch. 216}

That night, Fang Yuan drinks at the banquet, then feigns drowsiness and wanders from the latrine in the wrong direction, testing how closely they are watched. Patrolling Gu masters intercept him in under twenty steps and walk him back. He returns to bed still play acting drowsy, tells Bai Ning Bing to sleep, and appears to fall asleep himself. ^{ch. 216}

Bai Ning Bing recognizes the act, and understands that the tight patrols mean they cannot slip away in the dark. She worries over their position: her own Gu are not yet optimal despite her rank, the Bai clan leader is rank four, and five or six clan elders share the camp with a great many rank two Gu masters. She knows Fang Yuan’s story about waiting for Gu Yue clansmen is the only thing holding the Bai clan back, and that his lie will not hold once no clansmen appear. ^{ch. 216}

The next morning, three drumbeats open the Bai clan’s seven day hunting competition, and most of the camp’s Gu masters rush out to compete. The camp thins out considerably, more spacious than before. ^{ch. 216}

The Bai clan leader asks whether Fang Yuan slept well and invites him to join the hunt, and Fang Yuan declines, telling her he was recently heavily injured and his cultivation fell from rank three to his current rank one middle stage. She offers him a reward anyway: if he can hunt down an adult black bear, a green copper relic Gu, shown to him finger sized and round, is his. Fang Yuan accepts with a show of earnest enthusiasm, while inwardly laughing coldly at the gesture. ^{ch. 216}