Performing a great show
On the third day, Bai clan leader again calls Fang Yuan out to hunt and gifts him primeval stones. At the banquet, Fang Yuan toasts her with what looks like sincere gratitude, and she is privately pleased. That night, Bai Lian comes to Fang Yuan’s tent alone to borrow the Clearing Heat Gu for a poisoned friend. Fang Yuan sneers inwardly at how quickly she has come, but lends it without objection. Bai Lian is grateful. The two grow closer as he draws her into conversation. ch. 218
On the fifth day, Bai clan leader asks Fang Yuan outright whether Gu Yue clan means to settle at Bai Gu mountain. Fang Yuan stands and denies it, unable to fully hide the panic in his eyes. Bai clan leader only grows more certain of their target. She and Bai Mo Xing both press him to stay as an ally, and Bai Lian raises it indirectly too, but Fang Yuan will not admit to anything. Afterward, Bai Mo Xing complains that the young man’s mouth is too tight, and Bai clan leader decides they must raise the pressure. ch. 218
The next morning, Fang Yuan is woken by shouting and finds Bai Zhan Lie gripping Bai Lian’s hands outside his tent. Bai Zhan Lie accuses her of favoring the young man from Gu Yue village after she lent him the Clearing Heat Gu, and Bai Lian shakes him off, calling his pursuit unwanted. Seeing Fang Yuan, Bai Zhan Lie calls him a stray dog and challenges him to a contest, with the loser giving up any claim on Bai Lian. Fang Yuan objects that a rank one cannot fairly fight a rank three. Bai Zhan Lie answers that there is no fairness in this world, only strength, and mocks him as a coward, until Bai Mo Xing arrives and scolds Bai Zhan Lie for rudeness to a guest. ch. 218
Bai Zhan Lie insists Fang Yuan is no warrior and deserves no courtesy from him. Bai Lian says only a fool would accept the challenge, since Fang Yuan’s cultivation has been weakened by his injuries, and offers to fight in his place. Enraged at being refused a woman opponent, Bai Zhan Lie demands Fang Yuan fight him directly, and Fang Yuan, seemingly provoked, agrees. Bai Mo Xing objects that the ranks are unequal and that Fang Yuan is their guest, and Fang Yuan begins to withdraw his agreement. Bai Lian then comes to him in tears, begging him to fight off Bai Zhan Lie’s harassment, and Fang Yuan accepts, worrying aloud that he might lose. She reassures him she already has a plan, then proposes to Bai Mo Xing that the two sides settle it instead through five-person teams competing on hunting results for the rest of the competition. Bai Mo Xing agrees, on condition that each team’s average cultivation stays proportionate. ch. 218
An hour later the two teams set out. Fang Yuan’s side has Bai Ning Bing, Bai Lian, and two other rank two Gu Masters close to Bai Lian’s age, among them Bai Sheng Jing, cured of her poison by Fang Yuan’s Clearing Heat Gu. Bai Sheng Jing scouts ahead to valuable prey, and the group wins its kills with almost no effort from Fang Yuan, who holds the lowest cultivation but is treated as its core. Bai Sheng Jing asks if Gu Yue clan is really moving to Bai Gu mountain; Fang Yuan calls the talk baseless. Bai Lian tells him settling the mountain would mean fighting beast packs and wild Gu near the spirit spring, that the first exploration group would pay in blood, and that the mountain’s own bone Gu are tough and its ground bare of soil. As she talks, she secretly activates the Anxiety Accumulation Gu hidden in her aperture, a Gu that quietly deepens the worry of everyone within ten steps of it. Fang Yuan’s smile fades as the Gu takes hold, and he presses her with questions about the back of the mountain, which she patiently answers. Watching the whole exchange in her tent’s smoke image, Bai clan leader smiles and turns to a map to work out where on the back mountain he means. ch. 218
