Welcome to Bai Gu Mountain
Seeing the image, Bai clan leader understands everything at once, and the Gu Masters around her panic, calling the pair scoundrels who acted their parts too well. Bai clan leader forces herself calm: she is the twins’ mother, but she is the clan leader first. She orders Tie Dao Ku released and bows to apologize for doubting him. Displeased as he is, he respects her for it. Seated and resting, he watches the smoke image with open hatred for Fang Yuan and Bai Ning Bing, though he tells himself he must confirm they are truly responsible before condemning them, vowing to cripple their apertures and tear them apart if they are. He advises Bai clan leader that the priority now is capturing the two and saving her children, but he has no further counsel to offer when she asks for it. ch. 221
In the cave, weapons are raised. Fang Yuan orders everyone out, threatening the twins if they refuse. Bai Lian and the others are stunned, having believed until moments before that he had found the spirit spring. Three clan elders who had secretly shadowed the group the whole time appear and demand the twins’ release, offering safe passage and even primeval stones and Gu in exchange. Fang Yuan signals Bai Ning Bing, who activates the chainsaw golden centipede, its razors spinning toward Bai Hua’s arm. Bai Sheng struggles and chokes as Fang Yuan tightens his grip. The text calls the twins Bai clan’s future rank five Righteous Twin Stars, defenseless now in a stranger’s hands. When Fang Yuan threatens to take a limb on the count of three, the elders order a full retreat rather than risk it. ch. 221
Once the cave empties, Fang Yuan hands the twins to Bai Ning Bing and studies his surroundings. Bai Gu mountain is bone throughout, with no rock or soil, and this cave’s spiral tipped bone spikes mark it as the entrance to the Grey Bone Scholar’s inheritance. Fang Yuan has never set foot here, but he knows the layout from stories the twins told him in his previous life, and he begins searching for one particular spike. Outside, the Bai clan Gu Masters call in threats mixed with offers of leniency if he releases the twins unharmed. Bai Hua sobs, but Bai Sheng, calmer than an adult might be, tries to negotiate his and his sister’s release with a promise of safe passage. Fang Yuan ignores them all. ch. 221
His eyes finally light on the spike he wants, and he twists it. A section of bone wall contracts, opening a secret door onto a square passage beyond. Bai Hua stops crying in shock, and Bai Sheng shouts out that there is a cave, deliberately loud enough for the pursuers outside to hear. Bai Ning Bing knocks him unconscious with a chop to the neck, but the shout has already caused a commotion outside. Fang Yuan warns that he will kill Bai Sheng first if anyone follows, and the threat holds the Bai clan Gu Masters back. He enters the passage, and Bai Ning Bing, having also knocked out Bai Hua, carries both children in and follows. Sharp bone spears seal the well lit tunnel almost completely, leaving only a narrow gap toward a hall beyond. Bai Ning Bing moves to cut through them with her weapon, but Fang Yuan stops her, saying the spears are too tough to rush. Working again from memory, he finds and pulls the shortest spiral spike, and the entrance behind them seals while the spears in the tunnel retract, clearing the way ahead. Fang Yuan tells Bai Ning Bing they have arrived at Bai Gu mountain, and she looks back to see the entrance already sealed behind them, buying time before Bai clan can force it open again. She smiles, excited that this is finally the life she wants. ch. 221
