I really want to kill her
Tie Ruo Nan never actually suspects that Fang Yuan holds the blood skull Gu, and Fang Yuan’s guess to that effect is correct. She has always assumed the real Fang Yuan carries the Desolate Ancient Moon physique, whose weakness would have killed him long before now, and Tie Dao Ku’s reports of a brave, forthright fighting style read to her as proof of the milder Fang Zheng rather than the devious brother she has heard of. On her fourth visit she finally meets him alone. She presses him for the truth of her father’s death and offers to swear to her own word on the poison vow Gu if he doubts her. ch. 303
Working from a plan he had already made, Fang Yuan answers with grief for a lost clan and a life spent as a guest in someone else’s land, and his eyes redden. Her hard gaze softens at the sight, and she judges him, between the two of them, the more pitiable for losing every one of his own family. She then reminds him that he killed a young master of Tie clan and would have faced Tie clan’s trial had she not intervened. Fang Yuan insists the killing was no more than a trap meant for grass skirt monkeys, sprung by men who chose to follow him; when she calls it a life for a life, he accuses her clan of holding back only because of the purple thorn token in his hand. She admits the token is the main reason, but promises that if he gives her the truth, Tie clan will let the matter rest for good, even outside Shang clan city, for as long as she lives. ch. 303
Fang Yuan deflects by asking whether she, now Tie clan’s young master, cannot already guess the truth herself, a question meant to test her without her noticing. She answers that she has already worked one out for herself: whoever sealed all of Qing Mao mountain in ice was not, as she once thought, a Desolate Ancient Moon physique bearer, but a Northern Dark Ice Soul physique bearer, and she credits this now to Fang Yuan rather than to the man in front of her. Silently, he realizes this must be why the old clan leader once protected him for no clear reason, and that her mistaken guess is now the best cover his secret could ask for, so he lets his silence stand in place of an answer. Taking the silence as confirmation, Tie Ruo Nan states plainly that Fang Yuan alone ruined the family home and murdered the whole clan. Fang Yuan stops her and, when she insists she still needs him to say it aloud, nods and lets tears fall in silence. She tells him of returning to a Qing Mao mountain buried in snow, of wanting to kill her father’s murderer herself and finding him already dead, and of the regret of being too late to be filial to her parents or to take revenge. Fang Yuan answers coldly that Fang Yuan is his brother and already dead, and asks what more she wants. ch. 303
She next asks about a letter her father received claiming a blood sea inheritance lay in Gu Yue village, the reason he rushed to the mountain despite his injuries, and asks whether Fang Zheng or Bai Ning Bing hold it now. Fang Yuan denies it, and when she asks him to hand it over regardless, to ease some of her own regret, he refuses flatly: no means no. She then names a Gu of his that gives off a strong blood aura, once used for ranged attacks and abandoned since he took up the strength path, suspecting it is tied to the inheritance. Fang Yuan produces the blood moon Gu and hands it to her, explaining it came down from the Gu Yue clan leader, who died alongside the Bai clan leader protecting him and Bai Ning Bing. Of every Gu he carried away from that day, he tells her, only this one did not starve on the road, since it was easy to feed. The same account explains how the two of them survived the mountain’s ice. Satisfied, Tie Ruo Nan calls the clan leader’s sacrifice noble, and Fang Yuan answers coldly that this is exactly why he must live well and rebuild Gu Yue village, killing whoever stands in his way; the narration credits this same resolve for the ruthlessness he shows on the battle stage. ch. 303
Tie Ruo Nan remarks that he has changed since she barely knew him; he turns the question back on her, and she answers only that she has been walking her own road, then both fall silent. She rises and leaves decisively, promising Tie clan will pursue the matter no further for as long as she lives and wishing him success rebuilding through Shang clan. Watching her go, Fang Yuan feels an uneasy premonition that she is not simple and will bring him trouble later, and admits to himself, in helpless regret, that he wishes he could kill her in advance, before she grows too dangerous to stop. ch. 303
