Exposed
The morning after the wolf assault, the caravan packs up and moves on, but the attack proves only the start. Days later a larger grey wolf pack strikes again; this time the caravan’s precautions hold its losses below the first attack’s. Three days after that, a pack of three frenzy lightning wolves and nine bold lightning wolves kills fifteen Gu Masters before a wounded frenzy lightning wolf flees with the survivors, too deep into Xiao Yue mountain for anyone to give chase. ch. 246
Shaken, the caravan’s leaders decide to speed out of Xiao Yue mountain, but attacks by grey wolves, lightning wolves, snow wolves, two-headed wolves and blood fang wolves continue for another fifteen days before the mountain is finally behind them. A calm stretch follows, then old turtle carapace apes ambush the caravan on Bai Hu mountain; few people die, but the goods take heavy damage, and Fang Yuan’s dozen carts shrink to less than half. Morale collapses. One merchant reports earnings under two thousand primeval stones, another has lost thirty percent of his goods outright, and Zhang clan is said to have already lost most of its own. ch. 246
Five days later white tigers attack, and seven days after that flame tigers set the camp alight, burning a large share of what remains. Ten days on, as the caravan nears the edge of Bai Hu mountain’s territory, five tigers and a Biao, a winged tiger ranked at least a thousand beast king, kill some vice leaders and tail the survivors for almost a hundred miles. To satisfy it, the leaders sacrifice close to a hundred servants, most already injured or crippled, who curse and beg as they are given up to the beast; only once it has had its fill and left does the caravan finally rest, its numbers cut to half of where the trip began. ch. 246
Further on, beast groups and swarms of insects and wild Gu worms harry the caravan by turns, and survivors start abandoning goods outright just to move faster. A handcart stalls on a muddy trail. Fang Yuan lifts it free with his bare hands. Bai Ning Bing, examining the jammed wheel, finds fine grey powder ground into grease inside the axle; Fang Yuan claims he added it himself to ease the wheels. ch. 246
She cannot recall ever seeing him get the powder, and his sudden care for a handcart sits oddly beside his indifference to every other loss the caravan has taken. That evening, a large group of cold jade owlcats storms the half finished camp; three of them pounce on one Gu Master in the first line, killing him as his scream cuts off mid-cry and flesh and blood scatter, and the defenders fall back twice more to a barricade of linked handcarts and stacked goods. ch. 246
Moving a trunk alongside Fang Yuan in the chaos, Bai Ning Bing murmurs into his ear that he attracted the cold jade owlcats himself. Fang Yuan admits it outright, calling her sharp for finally seeing it, and she realizes in that moment that every beast attack since the caravan set out has been his doing. When she demands to know why, he refuses to answer and only tells her to guess, leaving her furious. ch. 246
