"It will not be wise to provoke me," Fang Yuan said, taking the book back. "Especially given that your clan's spirit spring is dying." The Bei clan leader's expression froze.
'What? Is this man bluffing? How could he possibly know that?'
"It's rather obvious seeing how eager you are to explore this mountain. You intend to make Bei Gu Mountain your own, don't you? To make it your new home? And you're looking for a spirit spring there, it's not a bad idea. It's what I was here to do myself, actually," Fang Yuan said, no longer hiding his intention.
"So you do intend to bring the Gu Yue Clan to Bei Gu?" the Bei clan head asked, her worst fears all but confirmed.
"Indeed, I do," Fang Yuan said. "We need a new home for ourselves, and this seems close enough. I've actually grown quite fond of the place after just seeing it once - its natural beauty has truly captivated my heart."
The Bei clan head's knuckles whitened as she squeezed them against the nearby table. She gritted her teeth. "So then, why are you here? Do you just want to lord your victory over us?"
"No, actually," Fang Yuan said. "I think that just because we happen to move here does not mean that we need to be enemies. Since the Gu Yue and the Bei clans will now be neighbors, shouldn't we try to get along?"
The Bei clan head snorted. "Is this what 'getting along' means? By taking away our only source of salvation?"
"Who said it was your only source of salvation?" Fang Yuan said. "As a matter of fact, I was here to make a deal with you."
The Bei clan head paused. "What kind of deal?"
"As you can imagine, our justifications for moving to Bei Gu Mountain are rather flimsy. However, if the Bei Clan were to come out and say that we had always lived here, then it would make it far easier for us to establish ourselves. In addition, I would like for the Bei Clan to assist us in moving our clan to our new home on Bei Gu Mountain. We would need resources and the like, as well as a secure path to travel, which would be much easier if we had a friendly welcoming force on the other side."
"And why would I do that?" the Bei clan head asked.
"Well, two reasons," Fang Yuan said. "One is my sheer strength as a Rank 5 Gu Master." The Bai Clan head's eyebrows twitched. This man was just coming out and saying that he was going to use violence if they did not give him what he needed! This was not a righteous, but rather demonic way of diplomacy! "But this can also be beneficial towards you," Fang Yuan added. "There's not just one primeval spring on Bei Gu Mountain, after all."
The Bei clan head's eyes widened.
"Are you trying to say that…?"
"Of course, a mountain as large and as ancient as this would have more than one spirit spring," Fang Yuan said. "I happen to know the location of two spirit springs on it. One of them is, of course, going to belong to my clan. However, if you cooperate, I will give you the location of the second spirit spring in question."
The Bei clan head paused, thinking about Fang Yuan's offer.
"It will save you quite a large deal in terms of time and manpower," Fang Yuan said. It was true, it could take them several years to try to find the primeval spring if they were searching blindly. On the other hand, if they knew exactly where they were searching, they could cut down their efforts to only a few months. It would not only save time but the lives of many Bei clansmen as well.
"How do I know that you'll hold up your end of the bargain once this is all over?" she asked.
Fang Yuan pretended to act shocked. "I will have you know that I've always been the pillar of the righteous path on Qing Mao Mountain. My reputation spread far and wide as someone who cares deeply not only for my own clansmen, but for everyone. Do I look like someone so shameless as to renege on my word?"
The Bei clan head was a bit taken aback by Fang Yuan's show of sincerity, but she also wasn't born yesterday. No matter how trustworthy Fang Yuan looked, she was not going on his word alone. "I would still need something better than your word..."
"I am willing to use Poison Vow Gu to bind the two of us," Fang Yuan said. "If that will set your heart at ease."
"I do not have a Poison Vow Gu," the Bei clan head said.
"You are being far too suspicious when I am so sincere. It will take time for me to move my clan to where I want to," Fang Yuan said, shaking his head. "A lot of time. The continued cooperation of the Bei clan would help us greatly in settling down in our new home. If I want to keep that, of course, I will continue to cooperate with you. How about this? If you wish, I'm willing to give you 200,000 primeval stones as a deposit, which you can return to us once you've verified that the primeval spring is there." The Bei clan head considered it. It was not an insignificant amount of primeval stones, even to a Rank 5 Gu Master.
"Alright then, Fang Yuan," she said. "I will need to discuss this with the rest of my clan elders before I can give you a response. Please take a seat in the meanwhile."
The elders' meeting was rather short, as the very next morning, Fang Yuan got their answer, saying that they agreed. Although they demanded a deposit of 300,000 primeval stones, Fang Yuan said, "I do not like such bickering over such a small amount of primeval stones." He agreed to their condition.
He pointed to a place on the map. "This is where the spirit spring that your clan might be allowed to use is." The Bei clan head noted the location. There were a large number of bone beasts there, and it would be hard to get through, even if they knew where it was. It would take them eight to ten months at the very least to get a foothold there, and longer to fully establish themselves.
Fang Yuan and the Bei clan head both used an Information Path Gu Worm to record the transaction and each kept a copy of the same.
Fang Yuan returned to where Fang Zheng and Bai Ning Bing were camped.
"How was the Bone-Flesh Unity Gu?" Fang Yuan asked.
It had five series as per what the Flesh Bone Scholar had written down. The worst quality was Fratricidal and the best was Blood Kin Relation. They had ended up refining an intermediate quality Bone-Flesh Unity Gu of 'Friendly Relation Gu.' Although Fang Zheng thought highly of Fang Yuan, these feelings were not reciprocated, hence the lower quality of the gu worm that was produced. It was still better than the alternative worst case scenario, however.
It had not been as easy to trick the gu refinement as it had been to trick the skull with Bai Ning Bing.
Bai Ning Bing was testing it out for him - injecting her Rank 3 Peak Stage primeval essence into Fang Zheng's aperture. There was a loss of about 60% from this, however, that still meant that Bai Ning Bing could give about 36% of her primeval essence to Fang Zheng.
Each drop was eight times as potent as Fang Zheng's own essence, so this was like him having 288% additional primeval essence!
If Fang Yuan used Rank 5 Training Weights Gu, this amount could be doubled! Given how cultivation was not linear and instead could increase by several multiples depending on how high one's aptitude was, it was an incredible advancement!