Dark clouds filled the sky bringing forth a heavy atmosphere and signs of heavy rain.
The caravan moved along the mountain path with a solemn atmosphere.
All the large black skin fat beetles in the caravan were dead; two winged snakes remained but in a crippled state; instead it was the baggage toads that survived mostly, all because they were small in size and moved pretty fast, easily hiding from the wild beasts' attacks.
As for the ostriches, they were similar in size to the backpack toads, but they had a habit of burying their heads in the ground once they sensed any threats, so this caused their casualty to be the highest.
Shang Xin Ci was mixed in the crowd, her gaze somewhat complex as she looked at the dozen of baggage toads beside her.
The goods these baggage toads were carrying were all Zhang Clan's.
Fang Yuan and Bai Ning Bing didn't participate in the discussion, but the caravan leaders still sent large quantities of goods to her.
"All of this because of strength…" Shang Xin Ci sighed.
Previously, when Zhang Zhu was here, these caravan leaders showed an indifferent attitude; but now, they were polite to the extent that they even seemed to currying favor with her.
Moreover, when these Gu Masters and the servants looked at her now, their gazes carried reverence and fear.
"All these changes are due to them." Shang Xin Ci gave a complex gaze towards Fang Yuan and Bai Ning Bing who were not that far away.
On one hand, she received a feeling of security from Fang and Bai; while on the other hand, the kindhearted her felt fear from how they were able to easily kill people.
"Hahaha, it seems we have really frightened that girl." Bai Ning Bing was walking side by side with Fang Yuan and feeling Shang Xin Ci's gaze, she laughed softly.
Seven to eight days had passed since they killed Ou Clan's father and son.
This had affected the whole caravan, including Shang Xin Ci and Xiao Die.
Xiao Die did not even dare to breath loudly in front of Fang and Bai, while Shang Xin Ci also didn't dare to match Fang Yuan's gaze anymore.
Such reactions were all within Fang Yuan's expectations.
This master and servant pair grew up in Zhang Clan since young, the righteous path ideology was ingrained into them. It was inevitable for them to be aware of the differences when Fang and Bai displayed their demonic nature. They would have to change their thought process to accept these two demonic path figures.
Fang Yuan wasn't worried.
They would have no choice but to accept and compromise when they face external pressure. After all, humans wanted to keep on living. After few beast group attacks, the estrangement in their hearts would gradually disappear.
"The problem now is him." Fang Yuan looked at Chen Xin.
This young Gu Master was the guy that fled together with Zhang Zhu. Fang Yuan had thought he was already smashed into meat paste by white feather flying elephant, but to think he was actually alive.
Gu Masters that possessed unusual Gu worms, even if their cultivations were not high, could not be looked down upon.
Fang Yuan had lost the earth hearing ear grass and had no other scouting methods, causing him to overlook Chen Xin. He also did not know how much the latter had found out. But regardless, he had countermeasures for everything.
He was cautious in nature and always considered failures first. At that time, he already had measures prepared if someone found out.
Thus, after he killed Zhang Zhu, he intentionally displayed formidable strength. If someone had really found out, they would thus be scared by Fang and Bai's vicious strength; and would keep themselves hidden.
Ou Clan's father and son ran themselves into the line of fire; had it not been for Ou Fei coming to find trouble, Fang Yuan would have looked for trouble himself or display his formidable methods during beast group attacks.
Naturally Fang Yuan had many methods to strike back even if he was exposed. The caravan leader Jia Long was one such chess piece.
He was Jia Fu's subordinate and Fang Yuan had received a token from Jia Fu back at Gu Yue village. As long as he showed the command token, he could obtain Jia Long's trust for several actions.
However, for every single plan, no matter how perfect it appeared, accidents could always occur when they were implemented.
Also known as: Man proposes but God disposes1.
Even if Fang Yuan had plentiful experience, was astute and had deep foresight, he also had the possibility to fail. But it was because of this, that life could be so brilliant and full of uncertainty.
Fang Yuan's first consideration was the worst outcome.
If his luck was extremely bad and someone saw him or he left behind ironclad evidence when he killed Zhang Zhu; and it led to Shang Xin Ci realizing the truth, she would feel deep hatred towards him; someone who bit the hands that fed him.
What to do then?
Simple, kill Shang Xin Ci.
She was only a mortal now and killing her was very simple. Shang Clan's clan leader also didn't know she was his own daughter; there would be no repercussions from Shang Clan if he killed her secretly.
Looking at the outcome now, Zhang Zhu was dead but Fang Yuan's luck wasn't the best as he left behind a trail. But it was also not the worst, at least Shang Xin Ci was still in the dark.
Fang Yuan was sure of this because Shang Xin Ci was still young and her emotions were completely exposed in his eyes.
"There is a crocodile-elephant1 group ahead!"
"A crocodile-elephant group is charging towards us!!"
"Be on guard, be on guard!"
An investigative Gu Master hurried towards the caravan from ahead, bringing bad news.
A disturbance occurred in the caravan before quickly turning calm.
"It is just crocodile-elephants, no need to panic."
"We don't have enough manpower to defend ourselves here."
"Correct. Everyone disperse, enter the rainforests!"
Gu Masters gave forth the most sensible command; people were already in a very strained state and were able to quickly disperse in all directions.
If they had encountered such situation before Fei Hou mountain, they might be worried about their goods and keep on hesitating. Now however, they firmly gave up the goods without taking another glance at them, concentrating on fleeing.
Fang Yuan and Bai Ning Bing directly charged straight into the rainforest while protecting Shang Xin Ci and Xiao Die.
He was not surprised at the crocodile-elephant group's arrival because it was his plan.
Rumble...
The crocodile-elephant group stomped its way through, soon there were blood-curdling screams and sound of trees falling down.
Fang Yuan carefully led Shang Xin Ci and others through the rainforest, but there were too many crocodile-elephants; they still ran into one.
Crocodile-elephants were small in size, about the same size as yaks, which allowed them to be more agile. Their whole body were covered in scales like that of a crocodile with defense that far surpassed white feather flying elephants. Their tails that was similar to that of crocodiles, trailing along the ground.
"Ahh!" Xiao Die let out a scream upon the sight of this hill-like crocodile-elephant charging at them.
Shang Xin Ci was also pale.
"No need to worry." Fang Yuan indifferently said, before charging towards the crocodile-elephant.
One human and one elephant collided midway; their collision producing a loud sound.
Fang Yuan took two steps back, and the white light armor on his body flickered thrice. But that crocodile-elephant, its skull directly shattered and blood spurted out as it fell on the ground, pushed back by a dozen steps before colliding against the trunk of a large tree and stopped.
"Amazing!" Xiao Die's eyes were wide open with shock.
This was an ordinary crocodile-elephant and not a hundred beast king, while Fang Yuan possessed snow silver primeval essence along with the strength of two boars and a crocodile; handling it was naturally very easy.
However, Shang Xin Ci and Xiao Die had never seen such fierce scene.
Zhang Zhu did not have great physical strength and was also a healing Gu Master, so he relied mainly on dodging and assisting during a battle.
Fang Yuan, however, met the attack head on, fighting without restraint; this naturally left a deep impression on the master and servant pair.
About two hours later, the crocodile-elephant group gradually left and the caravan group started walking out of the rainforest.
After the casualties were counted, they had only lost a Gu Master and a dozen servants; it was not a big loss.
The caravan set on their journey again after reorganising all the goods.
Several days later, they were out of Xiang Ya mountain region, and began their journey to Mu Bei mountain.
Within the next half a month, the caravan was attacked by black rock bears, iron crown deers and other beast groups.
And because Fang and Bai acted as inseparable bodyguards, Shang Xin Ci and Xiao Die suffered no harm. This close contact all the time started to change the master and servant's attitude.
Shang Xin Ci started to get much closer to Fang Yuan, cheerfully talking with him and no longer evading his gaze. Xiao Die had completely changed into a worshipper of Fang Yuan and Bai Ning Bing.
Worshipping the strong was the character of all living beings, because strength meant higher probability of survival.
Moreover, Fang Yuan and Bai Ning Bing were people with principles even though they were of demonic path. In the two girls' perspective, those two did not ask for anything nor took advantage of them, only returning a favor. This conduct was full of heroic aura, and even among righteous path, how many people had such character?
No matter how ugly Fang Yuan looked, in the master and servant's heart, he was much more likeable than the many hypocritical and crafty righteous path people.
Several days later, the caravan entered Mu Bei mountain region.
Zombies started appearing.
Mu Bei mountain hadn't always had the same name. Over hundred years ago, there was a large clan on this mountain.
A demonic Gu Master changed everything.
He used to be a servant of this clan. At the day of his wedding, his beautiful wife had been seized by a Gu Master of the clan and humiliated to death.
He buried this hatred deep into his heart and as luck would have it, he obtained the inheritance of 'Zombie King', a demonic head.
After enduring hardships for nearly hundred years, with rank five cultivation, he commanded an army of zombies and attacked the clan, slaughtering everyone. He did not spare their corpses, turning them into zombies.
After finishing all this, he erected a huge tombstone in the ruins of the clan.
On the tombstone, he carved his wife's name.
This event shook the whole Southern Border.
This mountain has been called Mu Bei mountain ever since then. Zombies roamed free on the mountain, killing wild beasts or passerbys, absorbing blood as their food. And the ptomaine on them would infect the corpses, producing new zombies.
Like this, there were endless amount of zombies on Mu Bei mountain.
To protect the safety of the trade route, clans organized zombie hunting squadrons every year to clean up these zombies.
But no matter how much they cleaned up, they could not kill all the zombies due to their endless numbers.
After all, the zombie hunting squadrons were limited in size, with so many mountains in Southern Border and dangers in the way, they had to make considerable expenditures for this long expedition. It was a situation where they had to invest a lot but gained less, and even then it was impossible to overturn Mu Bei mountain.
As long as a zombie escaped, a zombie army would appear again after a short while. After failing several times even after large scale expeditions, the enthusiasm of the people started to disappear.
The caravan decided to camp at the base of Mu Bei mountain for the night.
The stars were shining brightly in the sky. Fang Yuan looked at the dark Mo Bei mountain, a thoughtful look flashing through his eyes.
"It is time, these people are no longer valuable. It is time to settle all these troubles."
Chen Xin must die, but just disposing of him alone could make the situation even more troublesome. How much did he know, who had he revealed to, and were there anyone else who had seen the murder? Fang Yuan didn't know any of this.
However, Fang Yuan had no intention to find out. Because in his plan, Chen Xin would die and others would also die.
Only the dead are clean1.