Bai Ning Bing pretended to think about Zuo Ming's offer of surrender for about a second before she said, "I think I'd rather just kill you."
Zuo Ming barely got out of the way before Bai Ning Bing was upon him. With the matter reduced to a one-on-one, it was clear who had the upper hand. Bai Ning Bing had killed multiple Rank 3 elders back in the day when she had only been Rank 2. Although her might was somewhat suppressed, her killing intent was not.
As Bai Ning Bing moved to land the final blow, however, one of his strikes shattered the mask upon her face. The gap in attention from Zuo Ming as he saw Bai Ning Bing's face was what allowed her to close the match in rapid succession.
As she saw that her task was done; her mask on the ground shattered - she hadn't thought to bring another one.
She gritted her teeth. 'Who even was she now?'
Since the events following her detonation, she had been wandering around, basically aimlessly from one point to another, hiding her face from everyone. 'Was this the kind of fate the genius of the Bai clan would have wished upon herself?' The greater the kind of being a former genius was, the harder it was to look in the mirror and accept yourself for what she currently was. That was why she hid herself, metaphorically going into a cave, much like Blazing Glory Lightning Brilliance had.
"Honestly, if I were to continue living like this, it would be worse than death," she said, coming upon an epiphany as she saw the sunlight reflect prismatically off the ice shards that still remained nearby. New hope began to rise within her. 'So what if I've been turned into a woman? Did that mean that I continue living my life stuck in that dollhouse, not moving outside? Who would worship someone who's searched for excitement wherever they came?'
'What kind of excitement would I find hiding very deep inside? So what if people laugh at me? So what if they shun me for having turned into a woman? There's nothing a single ice stab to the heart wouldn't fix.' 'Since when had I cared for insults before that? Why did I care for them now?' Bai Ning Bing said to herself. She kicked away the fragments of the mask. "I don't want to need any mask."
***
"Well, what are you going to say?" Fang Yuan asked Zuo Chen, who was on his last legs. "Hand over your Blood Path Gu worms, and I might consider sparing you."
"Screw your eighteen generations of ancestors, righteous path hypocrite!" Zhu Chen said before Fang Yuan landed the killing blow.
He examined Zuo Chen's aperture afterwards and confirmed that his gu worms had all detonated. "A pity," Fang Yuan said.
"What happened to your mask?" Fang Yuan asked, glancing at Bai Ning Bing.
"Destroyed," Bai Ning Bing said.
"Well, then. Our job here is done," Fang Yuan said, stretching lazily.
"Fang Yuan, there's something I want to say," Bai Ning Bing said as she watched the noon sun cast its brilliant rays upon the surrounding area, its prismatic reflections occasionally bouncing off the ice. "I no longer want to stay cooped up there in the dollhouse. I want to come out and wander around - which I'll do as I please!"
"Oh, is that so?" Fang Yuan asked her, smirking slightly. "Have you finally come to terms with your identity as a true woman?"
Bai Ning Bing coldly snorted and glared at Fang Yuan. She still wasn't ready to tell the world who she truly was. But that didn't meant that she had to hide, either. "Introduce me as some kind of lone cultivator or external elder for the clan."
Fang Yuan scratched his chin. He would have actually preferred introducing Bai Ning Bing herself as the former genius of the Bai clan. After all, that would make it easier for the Gu Yue clan to take them under their wing by manipulating her. "Oh well," Fang Yuan said, "but we'll need to find a new name for you then. How about Nai Bing Ning?"
Bai Ning Bing snorted. "Think of something better than that next time!" She barely got these words out as something emerged from her aperture.
Fang Yuan took five paces back, slightly shocked at the Rank 5 aura.
Bai Ning Bing had little time to react as the White Form Immortal Snake Gu flipped her over with its snout and then placed her on her back before carrying her away into the sky.
'The prophecy, was it true?' Bai Ning Bing thought.
Wings erupted from Fang Yuan's back as he prepared to follow them.
"Bai Ning Bing! What's going on?!"
The White Form Immortal Snake glared at him, letting out a hiss before he swerved away.
"I'll explain later!" Bai Ning Bing yelled out.
Fang Yuan considered following them. However, he found that his speed could not match that of a Rank 5 Gu.
He had enough human wills collected via Integration Gu to use his Human Path killer moves, but he had been saving them as a last resort in case he needed it against those demonic Gu Masters.
He decided that it wasn't worth it to chase after Bai Ning Bing and then fluttered down tot he ground.
Bai Ning Bing was carried by the White Form Immortal Snake higher and higher, above the clouds overseeing Qing Mao Mountain. The cold wind tore at her.
However, she endured without complaint as they happened upon an area which seemed to be no different from any of the other areas in the sky.
'Is this where the first-gen Bai clan ancestor's inheritance is hidden?' she wondered to herself.
The White Form Immortal Snake landed upon a certain cloud which, strangely enough, was able to bear its weight.
Someone like Fang Yuan wouldn't have found this to be out of the ordinary, although it was the first time Bai Ning Bing was encountering something like this.
She stepped off the snake, landing lightly on her feet. The cloud was able to support her weight, meaning it had likely been constructed this way for a reason.
The snake approached a section of the cloud, sinking its claws beneath the white, fluffy surface, and then pulling out a gu worm.
Bai Ning Bing took it. It was an Information Path Gu.
She was able to refine it with ease, as it was suppressed by the White Form Immortal Snake. Bai Ning Bing's mind began filling with information from the Information Path Gu worm.
The first generation Bai Clan ancestor had realized that in the future, someone with the Northern Dark Ice Soul Physique would be born within their clan.
The Information Path Gu worm, first of all, contained a way for someone with the Northern Dark Ice Soul Physique to continue surviving. One had to keep cultivating if one had one of the Ten Extreme Physiques so that their aperture would be strengthened, but the more that one cultivated, the more that the Extreme Physique would manifest, leading to a vicious cycle. As per the information written here, this would continue until one could ascend to the level of an Immortal. 'Hmm, I need a Rank 6 Ice Type Gu before I can ascend to immortality,' Bai Ning Bing thought to herself.
The inheritance had been created by a Rank 5 Gu Master and as such did not contain an Immortal Gu worm, as one would expect.
There was, however, something there.
The first generation Bai Clan had, through a fortuitous encounter, managed to find an incomplete recipe for a Rank 6 Ice Type Gu worm.
The recipe was left inside this inheritance, along with the recipes for many other mortal Ice Path gu worms.
Additionally, a location was marked down to her in the mountain below, where she could find additional gu worms from the inheritance.
Finally, the White Form Immortal Snake had acknowledged her as its true Master, and she was able to refine it instantly.
'To think! As a Rank 3 Gu Master I have direct control over a Rank 5 Gu!' She was sure that Fang Yuan would throw jealous looks at her once he told him - the Dollhouse notwithstanding, which was somewhat shared between the two of them.
Laughing, she climbed atop it before flying back down to the ground.