Chapter 234

As the caravan loads for departure, servants scramble under threats of beatings, and nearby a Gu Master vice leader named Chen scolds a subordinate whose winged snake has already swallowed three servants these past few days. The old village head asks this Chen Gu Master to vouch for his two young lodgers so they can travel with the caravan; distracted, Chen agrees, mostly to keep the village head obligated to him for future crossings. He tells them simply to report to a junior Gu Master, Chen Xin, since he is too busy to meet them himself. ^{ch. 234}

A messenger interrupts with a new warrant: the Bai clan is offering a thousand primeval stones for information leading to two wanted demonic cultivators, a rank one man and a rank three woman, and a killing reward running as high as five to eight thousand. Chen Gu Master reads it with interest, but never connects it to the mortal newcomers waiting nearby: the Bai clan lies thousands of li away, and warrants like this, he assumes, are for notorious cultivators, not obscure rank one and rank three newbies. The old village head, handling the same poster, privately hopes such dangerous criminals never come near his own village. ^{ch. 234}

Chen Xin, who processes them, senses no Gu Master’s aura from either and is put off by Fang Yuan’s ruined face, losing interest at once. Fang Yuan gives their names as Hei Tu and Bai Yun, husband and wife. An old attendant assigns them to move goods and warns Fang Yuan that a woman among the servants means trouble; Fang Yuan assures him she will stay by their cart, away from other people. ^{ch. 234}

Watching from a corner, a group of veteran servants under a man called Brother Qiang decide to test the newcomers, the way old hands there always haze anyone who drags in private goods of their own. A thin servant nicknamed skinny monkey walks over with a friendly greeting. Fang Yuan gives him one word back: scram. Skinny monkey retreats without a fight. Brother Qiang, unsettled by such confidence from an apparent nobody, resolves to look into where the two of them really come from. ^{ch. 234}