Tie Xue Lang took a better look at the person who had addressed them. To call that person frosty was an understatement. They seemed to embody the beauty of an ice-filled, desolate tundra, and at the same time, also carried no warmth or kindness, much like the snowy plains themselves.
In short, they embodied 'ice' in both the physical and mental sense of the word completely.
"My name is Tie Xue Leng," her father answered. Normally, people would be somewhat astonished facing a Rank 5 Gu Master, particularly in small clans like this. However, this lady seemed to have no fear whatsoever as she walked up to them.
"Well, if you're here to deal with those Blood Path Gu Masters, then you're too late," Bai Ning Bing said. "They're already dead." Her tone had an edge to it, as if she was blaming the two of them for not arriving on time and forcing her to deal with the problem instead of dealing with it themselves.
"Oh, so you know more about that incident?" Tie Xue Leng asked, nonplussed by her attitude.
"Know about it? I was involved hand and foot in it!" Bai Ning Bing responded.
After she had gained the approval of the Immortal Snake, she had landed back in Bai Clan Village. Upon seeing that their most prestigious gu worm was back, many of the villagers came around to greet it and see if they could finally feed it as they thought this was the underlying reason as to why it had flown away in the first place. It would be more accurate to say that it was given sacrifices rather than food, however.
They quickly noted that it had been refined, and Bai Ning Bing stepped off the gu worm.
'Did you really want to name yourself Ling Ding Ching? That sounds like a fake name. That also sounds even worse than the example I gave, and that was a joke,' Fang Yuan's criticism was still ringing in her ears, even as she said that name while introducing herself, too stubborn to change it.
The Bai Clan villagers were initially quite fearful of her, though to her immense relief, none of them seemed to recognize her.
While some of them did mention that her frosty demeanor and cold attitude seemed to match that of their former genius, Bai Ning, none of them would reach the conclusion that the person standing before them was that former genius, only gender-swapped.
Once Bai Ning Bing showed the remaining elders proof that she had indeed found the first generation Bai ancestor's inheritance, they were far more open to accepting her.
As it was, before the might of one who controlled a Rank 5 Gu worm, they did not want to risk offending her, even if she only had Rank 3 cultivation. It wasn't like they had a Rank 4 Gu Master within their ranks either.
Bai Ning Bing, therefore, was in the process of becoming an external elder of her own clan. The Bai Clan had not taken an external elder before, at least not someone who they hadn't nurtured from being a Gu Master to being Rank 3.
It was odd for them to take in someone who was already Rank 3. However, given the pressure that Gu Yue Village was exerting, they chose to temporarily take their chances with this stranger. As it was, it wasn't like Bai Ning Bing was competing for clan head, only for a position of external elder.
'If only I could've gotten my hands on those gu worms,' Bai Ning Bing thought to herself. The inheritance had mentioned the location of several more gu worms for the inheritor to take. However, when she had visited that area, she found that, thanks to her own detonation, those gu worms had already been killed.
Before the might of the explosion of an extreme physique, very few mortal methods could last the test of time.
"I would like to ask a few more questions about that incident then, if you don't mind," Tie Xue Leng requested.
Bai Ning Bing scoffed, but she didn't refuse them either.
The three of them walked outside.
Bai Ning Bing told them the same story she had told the clan: that she had been a lone cultivator who cultivated the Ice Path and had been somewhat attracted to the recent disaster on Qing Mao Mountain. While the ice could be said to be a detriment to the mountain's overall ecology, blessings and misfortunes usually came together when it came to heaven's tribulations.
Under the thick layer of ice, many Ice Path resources could potentially form, so it was only natural for someone like her to seek them out. And when she had done so, the White Form Immortal Snake had found her and then acknowledged her as its master.
Since the story said that the White Form Immortal Snake would only acknowledge a Bai clansman, some people began to speculate whether she was some kind of long-lost child from some Bai clansmen who had wandered away from the mountain and settled down somewhere else.
It was not entirely unreasonable or impossible, and Bai Ning Bing would rather prefer that they think that compared to the truth.
"Actually, now that you mention it," Bai Ning Bing told them, thinking quickly in the heat of the moment. "I do think that one of my grandparents was said to have once come from Qing Mao Mountain..."
Clansmen generally tended to live in their villages their whole lives, but occasionally someone would strike out into the wider world. Fang Yuan had been an example of such in his first life - though he had been thrown out; people left for other reasons as well.
"Come to think of it, Lady Ling Ding Ching looks somewhat close to Lord Bai Ning Bing..."
"Maybe they were long-lost cousins or something..."
"Ah, a pity that he died before being able to meet with one of his relatives."
"Right, ah, this Bai Ning Bing fellow seems to be quite the character," Bai Ning Bing said. "He seemed to have been quite heroic and daring. I can only hope to live up to his example as I start living as a true Bai clansmen..."
There were cheers at this. Some of them were still not fully convinced - even if this Ling Ding Ching somehow had Bai clan blood in her veins, she had not been raised as a Bai clansmen from birth. Could they really trust her?
For now though, those people were in the minority - as many people just wanted some kind of good news after all the tragedies that had happened.
With this mystery solved, the Bai clansmen had welcomed Bai Ning Bing under this new alias with open arms and very little further probing.
Tie Xue Leng, however, was far more astute. He did not completely buy this explanation.
"Well, there's unfortunately not much more that I can tell you," Bai Ning Bing said. "I only just came to the mountain recently, you see. But if you ask the Gu Yue clan leader, Gu Yue Fang Yuan, he might be able to tell you more."
"Understood," Tie Xue Leng said. "Thank you for your time."
By now, the sun was about to set, so there was not much more they could do. They chose to stay near Bai Village - which had been so badly damaged that there was no tavern for them to stay in- so instead they camped out in the wilderness. They declined any invitation to stay with some of the elders.
Not that they were unused to this, having traveled all the way here through the wilderness in the first place.