Fang Yuan seemed to consider the offer for a moment before saying, "Alright. We will impose on you for a while."
"Haha, as I said, it is nothing," Bei Mo Xing said.
Fang Yuan turned around to Bai Ning Bing and whispered, "Do you feel well enough to travel?"
"No," she answered.
"Well then, take this," he said, pulling something out from his aperture. "It's a special medicine that should help you feel better." In truth, there was no such medicine. Fang Yuan was simply, while handing it over to her, using Doctor Gu while they brushed against each other for a moment, which would have an almost instantaneous effect now. Doctor Gu was quite effective but needed physical contact if he wanted to heal someone else, unless he was using something like Charity Gu alongside it.
"Why didn't you give this to me earlier?" she hissed back.
"There are some possible side effects, and I didn't want to risk it," Fang Yuan said, "but I'm sure it's safe enough now." The mixture was just dried herbs collected together. They wouldn't taste very good, but it was enough to meet some of the nutritional requirements that would not have come from eating meat.
Fang Yuan and the Bei clansmen traveled down the mountain toward some tents set up near the foot of the mountain. It looked like the Bei clansmen had arranged for some kind of mobile base here.
"What is this?" Fang Yuan asked.
"Oh, we were just holding a hunting expedition to temper the hearts of some of our young masters," Bei Mo Xing said.
In truth, the purpose of the expedition was to hunt monsters and to find a proper trail that they could use to lead up to a new primeval spring. They had just barely begun to stitch together this party, so the Bei clan leader was not here. However, Bei Mo Xing something said that he would call for her.
In total, there were only about 40 or so Bei clansmen at this encampment. The majority were Rank 2 with only a few Rank 3 elders scattered among them.
Fang Yuan noted this. It looked like the Bei clan had been planning to come here for a few months beforehand. 'Perhaps I should have made a move on this inheritance sooner,' he thought to himself.
However, there was no way he could have possibly known this from beforehand. His memory from his past life told him that they would only properly settle here 10 years later and that the inheritance would not be found until after then.
As it was it looked like the Bei clansmen were also only in their beginner phase of trying to explore the mountains. This might have even been their first foray up there, and without a doubt, it would take a long time, perhaps even several years, for them to fully establish themselves on the mountain.
Both him and Bai Ning Bing sat down to a lunch hosted by a Bei clan elder.
Many of the younger clansmen stared at them with curiosity.
This was partly because of Bai Ning Bing's beauty, but also because of Fang Yuan's Rank 5 aura. Most of them had never seen a Rank 5 Gu master in their entire lives, with the highest being Rank 4, the Bei clan leader. Of course, they all made a note to do nothing that could possibly offend the two of them.
They were naturally shocked at how much progress those two had made. At first, they would have come and thought that it was incredible that Bai Ning Bing was Rank 3, but to see Fang Yuan at Rank 5 short-circuited many of their minds. While getting to Rank 3 was impressive, it was at least understandable if Bai Ning Bing was an accomplished genius.
On the other hand, to see Fang Yuan, who looked to be about the same age, to be at Rank 5 was almost inconceivable to them.
"Did he have some kind of heaven-defying talent or stumbled upon some precious inheritance?" That seemed to be the only explanation that they could have.
"Where is Bei Mo Xing?" Fang Yuan asked, noting his absence at lunch.
"Apologies, but he had to attend to a message from our clan leader," one of the other Bei clan elders said.
Bei Mo Xing was communicating with their clan elder, who was still back in Bei clan village, and updating her about the situation in a different tent. Once he was done, the Bei clan head fell into deep thought.
After a pause, Bei Mo Xing asked, "Do you think that there is any truth to his claim that there was actually ever a Gu Yue and Bai clansman on that mountain?"
"Of course not," the Bei clan head said, shaking her head. "Otherwise, we would have heard about it."
Bei Mo Xing sighed as he, of course, had come to that very conclusion.
"So, then why is he here?"
The Bei clan head had several theories, but the most obvious one was the one she put forth. "They're here to try and claim the mountain."
"What? Claim the mountain? But don't they already have a home on Qing Mao Mountain? Why would they want this other mountain? They couldn't even properly defend it even if they happened to successfully claim it. And..." Bei Mo Xing then trailed off as he realized what the Bei clan head was saying. As far as they knew, Qing Mao Mountain was still operable as a home even after recent events. However, the recent events there could have potentially destroyed their spirit spring, or the spirit spring just might be coming to an end of its life, much like theirs was.
"And if their spring is dying, Fang Yuan isn't going to openly say it now, then, was he? Either their spirit spring is dying," the Bei clan head said, seeing that Bei Mo Xing had understood, "or their mountain has been damaged to such an extent that they have to relocate."
"Why all of this nonsense about a pair of eloped lovers, then?"
The Bei clan head smiled wryly. "Fang Yuan may be strong, he might be at Rank 5, but he is still a righteous path Gu master. The righteous path has its own rules. He simply can't come into our own territory and then declare that it is his." Bei Gu Mountain did not technically belong to the Bei clan. However, because it was situated right next to them, it was considered half of their territory so to speak, although they had made no formal claim to it.
"So the reason that he has cooked up the story is so that..." he said, the gears turning in his head, "so that they would have some reasonable explanation as to why they're claiming the mountain?!"
"Exactly," the Bei clan head said. "Normally, there would be people asking why he is moving his clan there, when it is right next to us. Even if we have never staked a formal claim to it, others would think that he is courting war by settling his clan right next to ours. However, if he can say that there had always been a Bai and Gu Yue clansman living there, he can say that the mountain technically belongs to the Gu Yue clan, since our clan never formally had any settlement there."