Fang Yuan went over to the man and slapped him across the face. The shock of this seemed to have finally woken the man up, and he noticed himself standing with a Gu Master.
"Ah, Lord Gu Master..."
"Tell me about what happened there," Fang Yuan said.
The man seemed to immediately shut up at the memory of all that had happened, and Fang Yuan looked like he was about to strike him again before he finally started babbling.
His story was still somewhat incoherent, but Fang Yuan could piece together much of it. The caravan had been having a nice time and was about to stop near their village when, out of the blue, they had been assaulted by a pack of wolves. These had been dealt with after some time, but they had ended up in an unfavorable position because of this, where it was hard to move.
During this time, while they were trying to get out of the situation they were in, they were attacked by a group of Iron Fang Sabretooths and a Chimera Iron Fang Sabretooth King. The Gu Masters who were leading the caravan realized that they could not deal with it, and so the decision had been to send out a bunch of mortals as bait, hoping that once the Chimera Iron Fang Sabretooth's appetite was satisfied, it would leave them alone.
This man was actually part of the group of mortals sent out as a live offering, and he began describing how the others had been torn apart before starting babbling nonsense like a baby. Somehow, though, he had managed to escape and, through his good fortune, made his way to the hamlet, meaning that the caravan was not too far away from there.
"...But so many people are there, like the kind Lady Zhang Xin Ci... my friends... who knows what happened to them?"
The name mentioned stuck out to Fang Yuan; it seemed to be somewhat familiar, tugging on some strings in his memories, but he could not place where it was. Regardless, he had more than enough information.
"I'm heading out."
"Wait a moment," Bai Ning Bing said, pulling on his sleeve as he walked outside the village. "Are you honestly going out to help out this merchant caravan?"
"The Chimera Iron Fanged Sabretooth King is likely already satisfied with the food it had gotten. It should be easy to rescue them and demand a reasonable price for what we did," Fang Yuan said. "It will be more than profitable on our end."
Bai Ning Bing had reached Rank 4, but she did not have any of the corresponding gu worms of that rank.
It would be extraordinarily difficult for her to get them and refine them, probably taking over a year or so.
Also, while advancing was good for her, it was bad in a way. It would also mean that the Northern Dark Ice Soul Physique would begin rearing its head soon. She had been able to keep it at bay thanks to the effect of Yin Rotation Gu and partly because of the effects of Equality Gu. However, those were only a temporary stopgap measure.
What was more dangerous was that Fang Yuan was advancing faster than her - if he managed to become an Immortal before her, would he give up his hold on her? Of course not - the only card she had to play against him was her share of control over the Dollhouse, but this had to be cemented in the future.
Whatever the criteria was for gaining the full inheritance from the Dollhouse, she had been unable to find any further clues as of yet. And even with her Rank 4 Initial Stage primeval essence, she couldn't make the White Form Immortal Snake move for longer than half a li. And so both she and Fang Yuan headed out.
There was a little more to what had happened to the caravan after the mortal had escaped.
The man had said that after the Chimera Iron Fang Sabretooth was done eating, more of its brethren came out, picking off the Gu Masters one by one. The rank three Gu Masters attempted to deal with it, however, despite their attempts, they died in large numbers. And once that happened, pandemonium broke throughout the caravan.
While dealing with beasts was nothing new, the fact that their leadership was dead meant that people abandoned their posts as morale broke, fleeing in all directions, abandoning even the goods that they had guarded so well up until this point.
Many of them hoped to make a break for it, but more likely than not, they were unsuccessful. After all, the mortal who had managed to get back to the hamlet in question had just been one out of four hundred people - not a very good survival rate by any means.
"Missy," a girl with a plain appearance but a firm expression said, as she led another girl wrapped in a green robe with long black hair. The girl that she was addressing as 'Missy' had a peerless appearance. Her skin was flawless like jade, her pupils dark black like an inky pool, but radiated with kindness. Her form was fair, and she could be said to be as beautiful as Bai Ning Bing - a peerless beauty seen only once every generation. Her name was Zhang Xin Ci. The girl with her was Xiao Dei, a servant whom Zhang Xin Ci saw as more of a friend than anything else.
Both of them were mortals. However, they had come along this journey under the protection of Zhang Xin Ci's uncle Zhang Zhu, a Rank 3 Gu Master. Although he was only specialized in healing, his status as a Gu Master had kept them safe up until now. No, that was not true. It wasn't that he hadn't tried to keep them safe; he had done so but had failed, buying them a few minutes of time from which they could escape, only to find themselves surrounded by a large number of beasts.
Just as the two girls thought that they were done for, something emerged from the darkness—something which seemed even blacker than the pitch black of the night. It emerged and immediately bisected the Iron Fang Sabertooth. As more of them began to fall from the sky, a figure descended. He was a man with an average appearance, but who looked sharp and fierce. His wings emanated a soft yellow glow and seemed to crackle across their surface as if there was lightning coursing through. He was dressed up as a Gu Master, and the number five was very clearly visible on the plate he wore on his belt. Despite his ferocity of attack, he gave the two girls a warm smile, and as he said, "There's no need to worry. We're here now." All around them, the screams of humans were suddenly replaced by the screams of the Iron Fang Sabretooths, as they began promptly fleeing back into the woods.
With the merchant caravan so scattered and haphazard even after Fang Yuan had dealt with most of the beast tide, it still took them until dawn to get everyone together. As the fresh morning rays fell upon the remnants of the merchant caravan, it only made the nightmare from last night even more visible in the clear daylight. Corpses were strewn about. Some people were still moaning in pain. Iron Fang Sabretooths did not cleanly kill their prey, but tended to eviscerate their bowels instead. Many of them cried, but help did not ultimately come. It was a nightmare scenario, she thought.
"I thank you kindly," one of the vice-leaders of the merchant caravan said to Fang Yuan. "If you weren't here today, I think we would have been done for."
"There's no need to worry," Fang Yuan said with a gentle smile. "When I heard that you were in trouble, I decided to come forth. It was as simple as that. Helping those in need is the duty of all lifeforms - and there is no need to demand any kind of reward for doing one's duty, now then is there?"