New Alliance Agreements
Bai Ning Bing’s arrival at the clan banquet pulls attention away from Fang Yuan. His looks are ordinary, though Wei Yang praised him on his first arrival; her beauty makes the contrast obvious to everyone in the hall. She too receives the Purple Thorn Token. Outwardly the banquet reads as one cohesive gathering, but the young masters of a large clan often compete for standing, openly and in secret, because a large clan can afford the rivalry. Smaller clans like Gu Yue village and Bai clan village raise only one successor instead, not for lack of children but to keep the clan from splitting against itself. ch. 272
Fang Yuan plays the forthright, hotblooded young master, working to befriend the other young masters since good relations will greatly help him during his years at Shang Liang Mountain. He tells them only that he was Gu Yue clan’s former heir apparent, just as Bai Ning Bing was for the Bai clan. When pressed about why Qing Mao Mountain became an icy hell, he says only that it was a nightmare and shows a pained expression. No one presses further, since he holds the Purple Thorn Token. Young masters toast Bai Ning Bing, who ignores them and does as she pleases, and where this would once have angered them, her beauty now leaves them charmed instead. The banquet lasts an hour. ch. 272
As the guests part, Shang Xin Ci asks if she may still call him brother Hei Tu, and Fang Yuan tells her to call him whatever she likes. She notes that his injuries have healed and that he now holds the Purple Thorn Token, so he can enter the Second Inner City freely, and asks whether he is staying at Nan Qiu Garden. He confirms it and invites her to visit and go shopping in the huge city; she brightens, and Xiao Die beside her complains that staying home has been boring. Xiao Die no longer finds him frightening now that his looks have been restored. Shang Yan Fei takes Shang Xin Ci away, the first to leave, and once the banquet’s restraint lifts, the other young masters show their true colors, showering Fang Yuan and Bai Ning Bing with invitations that Fang Yuan accepts without meaning to keep. ch. 272
Back at Nan Qiu Garden, Bai Ning Bing admits she underestimated him, saying that even though she wants to chop him into pieces she greatly admires his tactics. She asks under what terms he will return the Yang Gu to her. Fang Yuan answers only that they are both smart people, then names his price: he will return the Yang Gu once she helps him reach rank five peak stage. They had agreed on rank three earlier, and Bai Ning Bing’s anger rises at his shameless smile over going back on it; she asks if he takes her for as much an idiot as Shang Ya Zi. Each accuses the other of ingratitude, trading reminders of Qing Mao Mountain, Bai Gu Mountain, and a swamp where each claims to have saved the other’s life, until they fall silent. Their relationship is a huge mess, but neither of them would have survived to reach Shang Liang Mountain without the other’s help. ch. 272
Once calm returns, Bai Ning Bing asks about his plans, and Fang Yuan says they should spend a few years in Shang Clan City assembling a matching set of Gu now that they hold the token and primeval stones. Bai Ning Bing settles for helping him reach rank four peak stage at most, and demands half the primeval stones for her contribution on Bai Gu Mountain. Fang Yuan agrees and jokingly offers a handshake to seal it, but Bai Ning Bing refuses and insists on a Poison Vow Gu oath instead. He accepts, then adds one more condition of his own: any future gains split thirty percent to her and seventy to him, with first choice of any Gu going to him against a primeval stone payment to her. Bai Ning Bing is relieved rather than offended, since a Fang Yuan without hard terms would worry her more, and she agrees at once. They talk through the night, and she checks the agreement more than ten times before deciding it has no loophole. ch. 272
The next day they buy the Poison Vow Gu, a rank three Gu priced at forty five hundred primeval stones and normally requiring at least a Yellow Pear Token; the Purple Thorn Token earns Fang Yuan a fifteen hundred stone discount, and he pays three thousand. Bai Ning Bing insists on refining it herself so Fang Yuan cannot tamper with it, finishing in fifteen minutes with the shopkeeper’s earlier work already done. They also pre order a Primeval Elder Gu through the auction zone, paying sixty seven hundred primeval stones for it. Fang Yuan tallies their spending at ten thousand primeval stones and proposes splitting the Poison Vow Gu’s cost while she alone covers the Primeval Elder Gu; Bai Ning Bing waves off the accounting, having always spent freely, and looks down on his stinginess. Under the Poison Vow Gu oath, Fang Yuan hands over half of his fortune of more than nine hundred thousand primeval stones, gaining an ally who still hopes he can help her recover the Yang Gu. Fang Yuan then asks Bai Ning Bing to help him reach rank three, and smug at his expense, she agrees to start that same day. ch. 272
