"Miss, you can't." Zhang Zhu immediately said.
"Miss, our Zhang Clan's group here has the least power in the whole caravan. If we take him in, no doubt we will offend another force. It's not worth doing it for just two insignificant servants. Miss, even if not for yourself, think about our Zhang clan's group here, or just think of those with you." Zhang Zhu persuaded.
"This…." Shang Xin Ci was placed in a dilemma and couldn't make a decision.
"What difficulty is there? Lady Zhang, I am only a hired hand of Chen family and am not their servant. Lady, if you are still feeling troubled, I have a way to solve it. You can tell the Chen clansmen that I and my companion offended you, and you want to punish us so you are imprisoning us. Chen clan definitely won't offend you for us two mortals." Fang Yuan said.
"That is a good idea!" Shang Xin Ci's gaze brightened.
"Miss…." Zhang Zhu gave a helpless sigh, knowing he couldn't persuade her anymore.
Fang Yuan immediately crawled up with a stick and bowed at Shang Xin Ci: "Miss Zhang, you are a good person. I will definitely repay you in the future!"
Shang Xin Ci shook her head: "I don't need you to repay me. I will definitely help those who need my help to the best of my ability. Sleep in my camp tonight. Xiao Die, arrange a tent for them."
"Yes, missy." Xiao Die answered, unwillingly.
"Follow me. Don't blame me if you get lost." Xiao Die didn't show Fang Yuan any hospitality, but led the way anyway.
Zhang Zhu's brows furrowed deeper as he looked at Fang and Bai's leaving figures.
He didn't like these two from the depths of his heart, and at the same time he had to think of Shang Xin Ci's safety as her bodyguard.
He decided to personally handle this matter.
This was a small tent with not much space inside.
However, Fang and Bai didn't care. They had treated even the beast trapping trees as tents, much less this environment which was much better.
The two laid down in the dark tent.
Fang Yuan clasped his hands with Bai Ning Bing's: "Everything will be okay, Bai Yun."
Bai Ning Bing rolled her eyes, she knew Fang Yuan's true intention. In the darkness, she transferred a portion of her snow silver primeval essence to Fang Yuan through her palm.
"Sleep early, luckily we met such a good person like Lady Zhang." Fang Yuan closed his eyes the moment he finished saying this, and began cultivating secretly.
He was already rank two now; his primeval sea filled with red steel primeval essence. Although he could already use four flavors liquor worm, Bai Ning Bing's snow silver primeval essence was no doubt much better.
To Fang Yuan, four flavors liquor worm had already lost its use with Bai Ning Bing here.
Snow silver primeval essence cleaned and refined the aperture, rapidly increasing Fang Yuan's accumulation. He didn't need to worry about his aura leaking out with the breath concealing Gu.
His disguise wasn't likely to be broken unless he used the Gu worms outside of his body.
At present, breath concealing Gu had yet to truly walk onto the world stage. In his previous life, only after a hundred and fifty years, it was made popular by the hunting king Sun Gan. Within fifty years after that, in that great war that affected the whole Southern Border, breath concealing Gu was widely used and took the limelight.
In other words, according to Fang Yuan's previous life, mankind would be conscious of guarding against the breath concealing Gu only after one hundred and fifty years. And after two hundred years, they would have methods and experience to respond against the breath concealing Gu.
Breath concealing Gu was a rank three Gu, this caravan didn't have a rank four Gu Master and although there were many Gu Masters, why would they especially pay attention to 'Hei Tu' and 'Bai Yun', two ordinary people?
Fang Yuan immediately activated crocodile strength Gu after the portion of snow silver primeval essence was used up.
Bits of new strength was permanently added to his body. His skeleton was no longer white, but was like firm black iron. It was like a firm cornerstone, stably supporting the continuous increase in strength.
The night passed quietly.
The next day, at the crack of dawn when the sun had just risen, the whole camp was awake.
After a period of hustling and bustling, the caravan resumed its journey.
Zhang Zhu didn't go directly to Chen clan, but rather made secret inquiries through his subordinates first.
There was indeed a fight yesterday night, and many had witnessed it.
As for Brother Qiang and his group, they had covered up the fact that Fang Yuan had beat them up; if it were to be known that so many of them couldn't beat one Fang Yuan, they would lose all their face! How would they be able to go around then?
In fact, they had gone through everything yesterday and strung up false statements which they all agreed to; saying 'they bullied the newcomer and Fang Yuan offered them primeval stones, but later he was indignant and looked for the old steward'.
After confirming the fight really happened, Zhang Zhu set out and found Chen clan's head in the caravan.
This vice leader couldn't help but ponder when he heard his two mortal subordinates offended Zhang Xin Ci and were detained.
Although he wouldn't offend Zhang Clan because of two mortals, if he just readily compromised, Chen Clan's prestige could fall. Moreover, he had some close people among the servants.
Thereupon, he inquired which two servants they were.
Chen clan's vice leader was slightly surprised when he heard Zhang Zhu's answer. He had some impressions of these two, he had let them enter because of the old village head's request. But to think, they had screwed up on their first day.
According to him, Fang and Bai should be the old village head's relatives, but so what?
The old village head was someone he enlightened and was someone under his control. Giving up these two would not mean anything to him. Moreover, they were the ones who had commited crimes, bringing troubles upon Chen Clan, even death would not be sufficient punishment.
As he thought of this, the vice leader had already decided to give up these two to resolve the conflict with Zhang Clan.
However, he put on a difficult expression: "Brother Zhang, I won't conceal from you, our Chen Clan might not have enough manpower if you take those two. We can't make our Gu Masters work and move the goods, right? How about this, I will call my steward over. He understands the situation, if there really is a scarcity in manpower, we might not be able to hand those two to you at the moment.
We will temporarily keep them here and hand them to your Zhang Clan to deal with after we get new workers in the next village."
"That works." Zhang Zhu nodded his head.
Vice leader couldn't help but reveal a smile. Like this, there wouldn't be any gossips and rumors saying Chen Clan was afraid of Zhang Clan.
The old steward was somewhat nervous when he was called over: Did I make some mistake?
However, when he was clear of the situation, he suddenly felt alive.
This was a heaven sent opportunity!
These two are really out of luck, falling into Zhang Clan's hands. Die, both of you die, then those two primeval stones would be mine.
Thinking of this, the old steward immediately slapped his chest and guaranteed that there were no issues with the manpower.
Even if there were to be some issues, he was determined to stake out his weary aged body to personally move goods, for those two primeval stones!
Now, the dust had already settled regarding this matter.
Zhang Zhu bade his farewell; his heart, however, felt stuffed.
In the coming dozen or so days, Fang and Bai worked during the day and cultivated during night.
The caravan had already left Zi You mountain far behind and was now in Fei Hou mountain region.
Fang Yuan knew the farther they were from Zi You mountain, more concealed his identity would be and thus, more safety.
Through these few days of cultivating, he had gained half a crocodile's strength. Unfortunately, a lot of bone spear Gu had starved to death; the amount of milk spring on him was less than sufficient, he could only give up some to feed the remaining Gu worms.
Fang Yuan felt heartache due to this. Although he wouldn't use these Gu, they could have been sold.
He planned to purchase a set of Gu worms in the Shang clan city. This required a great amount of primeval stones. He could use the Heavenly Essence Treasure Lotus to produce dozens of primeval stones daily, but he couldn't use it in the caravan so as to prevent his identity from being revealed.
Hence, he needed to get Shang Xin Ci in his grasp even more.
She would become one of the young masters once they reached Shang Clan, this would make Fang Yuan's trip in Shang clan city extremely convenient.
Of course, the premise was that he not only needed to get close to Shang Xin Ci, but also gain her trust.
The forest in the mountain was dark and mysterious with fog lingering around the air.
The caravan slowly moved through the narrow mountain passage, and as they travelled further, the fog became denser, the range of their sights shrunk till they could only see within ten steps.
Fei Hou mountain was covered with fog, Fang and Bai would need to go through great troubles if they had travelled by themselves. However, they were in a caravan now, and there naturally were investigative Gu Masters.
Suddenly, there was some sort of clamor in front of them; the caravan stopped.
"What's happening?"
"There is trouble."
"Monkey groups are blocking our path!"
In moments, most of the people in the caravan began discussing, but none of them were surprised.
Fei Hou mountain was ruled by monkeys, there were too many monkeys to count. Caravans passing through this place, would be blocked by the monkey groups and robbed. Anyone who had some experience and knowledge, would not feel surprised at this.
"Monkeys of the Fei Hou mountain? Hehe, I have read about them in the books… to think I could personally see them today." Bai Ning Bing softly said with a hint of excitement.
Initially, when the caravans had first passed through Fei Hou mountain, they had a huge fight with the monkey groups, they killed waves after waves of monkeys but the monkey groups appeared again and again. Finally, the caravans were either annihilated or had to retreat in defeat.
Fei Hou mountain was once known as a forbidden and unpassable land for merchants.
If it were other mountain ranges, the different wild beasts kept each other in check, and there would be a gap to pass through. However, there were only bandit monkeys in Fei Hou mountain. They lived together, and although there were fights between monkey groups, all the bandit monkeys would unite if they came across an external enemy.
Such strength was not something a caravan could rival.
Even a large scale clan might not be able to purge all these monkey groups.
This was until the 'Sky Crown Marquis' appeared.
This was a rank five Gu Master of the righteous path. He travelled deep into Fei Hou mountain until he reached the peak, and using a monkey language Gu, he came to an agreement with the monkey emperor.
Everything changed thereafter.
A trade route opened through Fei Hou mountain for the first time.
Now, this trade route was one of the three most important trade routes of Southern Border, connecting east and west, its importance was self-evident.
"These damn monkeys appeared again. They are blocking up our path, you all know the rules. I will tell you bluntly, anyone who breaks the rules and implicates us, my Jia clan will not let them off!" The caravan leader shouted, coldly.
"Of course."
"Brother Jia Long is right, everything should be done according to the rules."
"Anyone that wants to take advantage will be driven out of the caravan!"
Other vice leaders went along with Jia Long.