Actually, I was a victim too
Fang Yuan lays out how he pieced the secret together: as the spring’s output falls, Bai clan must be covering the gap from its stores or through trade, and either move leaves traces for anyone who looks closely. Watching the truth land, the younger Bai clansmen realise what exposure would mean: with Bai Gu inheritance already drawing covetous neighbours, losing their deterrence would invite an attack. Fang Yuan warns them he has come prepared for violence, and the group, weighing his purple thorn token and their clan’s own stake, holds back its killing intent. ch. 295
He then names his price: three million primeval stones to keep quiet. The Bai clansmen erupt, some vowing to die alongside him rather than pay, but Fang Yuan answers that his death would only guarantee the secret gets out, leaving them as the ones who doomed the clan by refusing him. Bai Zhan Lie, whose grandfather Bai Zhan Wen died because of Fang Yuan and Bai Ning Bing, smashes the banquet table with his bare fist, unable to take revenge and unable to walk away. ch. 295
Fang Yuan shifts his tone, calling himself a victim too. Bai Gu inheritance was his find first, he says, and Bai clan stole it from him. The chase that followed forced him and Bai Ning Bing to kill Bai Hua and Bai Sheng just to escape, and he nearly died of his injuries afterward on Zi You mountain. He insists three million is his floor, and that he has already shown restraint by keeping the secret close and sending Tie Dao Ku out of the room. The Bai clansmen answer with their own account: the hospitality they gave him, and everything it has already cost them. Two young clan leaders are dead, elder Bai Zhan Wen is dead, and other clansmen were killed or crippled protecting him around Bai Gu mountain. ch. 295
Fang Yuan turns to leave, saying he will sell the secret to Shang clan’s Feng Yu Manor instead. Bai Feng blocks his path in desperation. Bai Zhan Lie advances on him, and Fang Yuan reminds him that attacking would doom the whole clan; Bai Zhan Lie freezes, and Fang Yuan slaps him back five or six steps. The Bai clansmen close in again, but Fang Yuan dares them to strike, telling them he does not mind dying if it drags their clan down with him. Outnumbered as he is, it is the Bai clansmen who back down. ch. 295
Fang Yuan gives them thirty breaths to decide. The breaths pass and go, and it takes another five minutes of silence before Bai Feng speaks: three million is too much, and they do not carry that kind of sum. Fang Yuan lowers the demand: he does not need it all at once, only five hundred thousand within a day, on the condition that no Bai clan members remain in Shang clan city. ch. 295
