"Alright. Let's look around these caves," Fang Yuan said. They spent the rest of the day exploring the caves. Although Fang Yuan did not find anything that resembled what he was looking for, Bai Ning Bing also did not find any traces of a primeval spring.
"I think we should look below this if we want to find a primeval spring," Bai Ning Bing said.
Fang Yuan replied, "Let's continue searching the top. If we don't find anything here, then we can go down."
Bai Ning Bing, feeling too tired to protest Fang Yuan's idea, tried to snort, but it ended up as a sneeze. They searched the next day as well, but Fang Yuan still had come up with nothing. By evening, however, they had a new problem on their hands: Bai Ning Bing had started to feel feverish and had slowed down as she developed a cough.
"You caught a cold, didn't you?" Fang Yuan said, sighing as he took out some medicine from his storage and started applying it to Bai Ning Bing.
She really did feel sick at this point and could only lie down as Fang Yuan used his medicine to try to get her to feel better. She had felt so tired, as a matter of fact, that at some point in the evening, she thought she saw two shadows in the cave above - one Fang Yuan and another person. She even felt that she had dreamed up snippets of a conversation going on around her because of the fever.
"She has a cold, can you do anything about it..."
"Young Master, she seems to be a bit too warm to be having a 'cold'... ahaha... ah, Young Master, please don't hit me..."
She did feel marginally better by next morning, though still not well enough to go around.
"Relax. You can stay here," Fang Yuan said to her he wandered off to go check on more of the caves. Bai Ning Bing was beginning to think that they had wasted their time coming here. Fang Yuan had not even told her how it was that he thought there was a primeval spring in this mountain. It was certainly possible... and he wouldn't have come all the way here if he hadn't been certain...
Fang Yuan returned only two hours later.
"What happened?" Bai Ning Bing asked him.
"There are some people approaching," Fang Yuan said, sighing.
"There are some people approaching?"
"They probably either saw us specifically or are just scouting out the area. More likely than not, they are Bei clansmen. Do you feel good enough to get up?"
"Yes," Bai Ning Bing said. Her body still ached all over, but she could still walk the distance to the mouth of the cave. If it came to fighting, Fang Yuan realized that she would not be of much help unless he used the full might of his Doctor Gu upon her.
The reason why he hadn't done so was, simply put, so that he could make it seem as if it had taken longer for her to recover than it actually had. He did want Bai Ning Bing to eventually become dependent upon him. The threat of detonating the Yang Rotation Gu was just one way that he could control her. However, there was too much at stake here, namely the Dollhouse and its associated inheritance, for him to simply leave things at that. If he had healed her up too fast, it would seem as if he had done nothing. That was why he had dragged out the process, only healing her as much as necessary to make it seem as if he had really tried his hardest.
If it came to a fight, though, he would likely need her full fighting strength.
"Who are they? Demonic Gu masters?" Bai Ning Bing asked, not having paid attention to Fang Yuan's speech entirely.
Fang Yuan shook his head. He could see their uniforms from this distance. "When I tell you to do so, take out your White Form Immortal Snake. Those are Bei clansmen - a clan which lives near this mountain."
As far as Fang Yuan knew, the Bei Clan had only come to this mountain in about 10 years' time. It was very odd to see them here right now, unless... 'Of course,' he realized.
Much like him, the Bei Clan had decided to take the initiative and find another location for their clan before things got too bad. That was why they were here, just to scout out this mountain and to see if there was a primeval spring that they could use.
The group that was headed towards them was consisting of mainly Rank 2 Gu masters, with a Rank 3 elder, Bei Mo Xing, at the head. The elder was approaching seventy years old by now. He had nearly gone into retirement.
However, his niece, the current Bai clan leader, had requested his help with this matter. Given the fact that he had already given up so much of his life towards the clan's benefit, he felt like he could not abandon them during their time of need, certainly not now when their primeval spring was about to run dry. The future of the clan's survival was at stake.
They were part of an early scouting party simply to examine the mountain and to see if there was a primeval spring there, which they could obtain. If there was, then they would start priming the mountain as the new home of the Bei Clan. However, this morning, one of their members had seen something near the top of the mountain.
"There's movement up there," they had said. "It almost looks like a person."
All of them froze.
Why would there be people here? It couldn't possibly be a mortal; otherwise, they would have died already. So then there was only one possible explanation: Gu Masters.
"Are there demonic Gu masters up there?" his nephew said. "If so, we should go ahead and check it out."
Bei Mo Xing, however, frowned. If they could make their way all the way up to this mountain, they had to have at least Rank 3 battle strength. While his group did outnumber them, demonic Gu Masters were oftentimes very good at fighting simply out of necessity and experience.
Their group would no doubt take casualties if they happened to fight. At the same time, they simply could not ignore this either. After all, if those demonic Gu masters were near this mountain, they were also near their own village, meaning they might end up coming to cause trouble for the Bei Clan later on.
"Alright. Keep alert, but let's go up," he said. "How strong do you think they are, and how many?"
"I only saw one person," a scout replied. There were signs that the surrounding trail had been disturbed somewhat, they found as they went up, meaning that indeed, there was someone here. Fang Yuan did not have the time to hide those traces yet.
"Rank 3," one of the scouts said as they approached the entrance of a cave, and all of them paused.
There was a woman there with long, silvery hair. Although Bai Ning Bing still felt sick, it only added to her pale complexion. She was quite a stunning beauty and, without a doubt, had made them all hold their breaths for a moment. None of them really noted the fact that she was slightly slumped over against the cave's wall or the fact that she gently moved one of her hands behind her and signaled to Fang Yuan, who was hiding near the rear of the cave.
"Hello and good morning," Bai Ning Bing said with a faint smile, snapping them out of their reverie.
"Oh, right, uh, good morning," Bei Mo Xing replied. Even in this strange situation, they were righteous path Gu masters, after all, and the instinct of courtesy kicked in before they could make another move.
However, they were suddenly enveloped by an oppressive presence coming from within the cave.
"Rank 5 aura!"