Chapter 248

Zhang Zhu and Chen Xin flee together until two flying elephants trap them at a cliff, and Zhang Zhu shouts for them to split up. Both elephants crash and lodge their tusks in the rock. For a moment Zhang Zhu believes he is saved. As he stands, a white spiral bone spear stabs through his back and out his chest. Before he can turn to see who struck him, a second spear pierces his skull from behind and exits his mouth, killing him where he stands. Fang Yuan watches from hiding, having marked Zhang Zhu as an obstacle to remove. A flying elephant tramples the corpse into unrecognizable meat paste, crushing every bone, and he leaves without needing to hide anything himself. Chen Xin had buried himself underground with a bury Gu that traps its user in one spot while draining primeval essence. He digs free afterward, sees the ruined corpse, realizes a Gu Master assassinated Zhang Zhu, and flees in fright. ^{ch. 248}

The elephants rampage for two hours before withdrawing. Shang Xin Ci and Xiao Die stagger out of the rainforest caked in mud, Xiao Die’s face bruised from a fall while escaping. Gathering the survivors turns up only about a hundred people, mostly Gu Masters. Chen and Jia clans are gutted, Lin clan is down to three Gu Masters, and some clans’ parties are wiped out entirely, many killed by the rainforest’s beasts and poisonous insects rather than by the elephants. Shang Xin Ci thanks Bai Ning Bing, travelling as Bai Yun, for drawing an elephant off her in the rainforest. Fang Yuan, distrusting Bai Ning Bing, chose to kill Zhang Zhu himself; as a result, she followed and protected Shang Xin Ci in secret. Bai Ning Bing answers in her true voice for the first time, cold and clearly female, leaving both girls’ faces slightly shocked, since they have only ever heard her disguised. Asked about Zhang Zhu, she knows he is dead but tells Shang Xin Ci he might simply be delayed. ^{ch. 248}

Jia Long orders the column moving again within thirty minutes, since the carnage will draw more beast groups. Anything too heavy to carry is left behind. Badly wounded servants beg to be brought along, some offering primeval stones, but only a few are helped, and most are abandoned to curse and crawl after the column. Some call out to Shang Xin Ci by name. She falters, and Fang Yuan takes her arm and pushes her onward, telling her to trust him. She struggles at first, breathless and trembling, needing his support, but steadies within fifty steps, stops on a slope to comb her wind-blown hair, and her face settles into resolve. She thanks him for the hardest road she has ever walked. Fang Yuan and even Bai Ning Bing note how fast she has recovered for a mortal who just lost her only protector. Fang Yuan asks why, if she is so kind, she did not save the abandoned; she answers that she would if she could but cannot. He praises the answer, calling irrational kindness a crime and telling her that doing what she can is enough for peace of mind. Shang Xin Ci already suspected Fang Yuan and Bai Ning Bing were not mortals, and is now certain of it from his tone. She reflects that they have helped her repeatedly with nothing to gain from her, and thanks him again. Bai Ning Bing privately reflects that the whole disaster traces back to Fang Yuan alone, and wonders what Shang Xin Ci would do if she knew. ^{ch. 248}