Fang Zheng sighed as he considered these aspects, going about his usual morning routine. He would wake up and gaze out at the skeletal, bony scenery of Bei Gu Mountain from his vantage point in the new Clan Head's Pavilion. It was the tallest building in the new village, though it didn't compare in the slightest to the corresponding structure back on Qing Mao Mountain.
The original Clan Head's manor was likely still intact back on Qing Mao, one of the few buildings left standing after the disasters that had occurred. But there was no way to transplant it here, especially given the differences in soil between Qing Mao and Bei Gu Mountain so it was abandoned. Wolves and bears were likely living within those walls now, turning it into a nest or watching it slowly crumble into ruin, unable to even understand why humans built structures like that.
Fang Zheng was still often surprised to see the white soil of the mountain greeting him rather than the lush greenery of what used to be his home. Many of the clansmen felt the same; they would occasionally think of going fishing before remembering where they were and that it was not conducive to fishing. The milk streams, unfortunately, did not give rise to milk-based fish they could hunt.
Once he was done with a quick survey of the village, it was time for breakfast.
Being the Clan Head, Fang Zheng was one of the few who could afford variety in his diet - vegetables and fish imported from surrounding villages - though he still ate a large helping of the local yogurt and cheese.
Trade was a double-edged sword. Anything that couldn't be locally sourced - either a dairy product or bone beast meat, had to come from outside. The economy was not well-built with local monopolies in nearly every single step of this world.
While a reliable route between surrounding villages would allow the Gu Yue to offload their milk products to other villages and to get their produce in turn, leading to a 'win-win' situation theoretically, in practice this was not possible. Proper trade routes could not be constructed as all areas were dangerous to traverse alone unless you were at Rank 3 or higher.
But that wasn't the only factor limiting trade.
One had to be careful when trading with other villages.
In this world, the resources you supplied to a neighbor today might finance your destruction tomorrow. Or it might give them hints on how you worked. For example, exporting too many milk spring-based products might let rival clans start developing Bone Path gu worms, or discover secrets about their own weapons.
How could one allow that to happen?
Consequently, trade was limited to the occasional merchant caravan.
As time went on, food not sourced from the mountain became so expensive that only someone of Fang Zheng's status could afford it. It wasn't just about money - you had to have sufficient status to buy some of the rare food products. That was just how it worked.
The meal reminded him of the mortals who had died from being unable to digest the food made from the milk springs. It used to bother him deeply, but now he had learned to ignore it - a fact that annoyed him upon reflection.
The old Fang Zheng from the Academy would never have been so flippant about death. But after witnessing the slaughter by Lord Sky Crane, the fighting with first gen Gu Yue, and Bai Ning Bing's explosion, he was numbed.
People had become mere numbers on a page, much like the ink marks in the ledgers he used to help Fang Yuan manage at the wine tavern.
It as an inevitable fact of life that those at the top would need to start seeing the bigger picture. To see their people as more of numbers than individuals.
After breakfast, he visited the clan's primeval spring and checked on the Moonlight Orchids. They had enough for now, but eventually, the entire clan would have to switch from the Moon Path to the Bone Path.
When he mentioned this to the elders, they simply said that they hoped it would happen "later rather than sooner." Many were so entrenched in their ways they hoped to die before being forced to change their cultivation.
It wasn't an easy transition to change one's core set of gu worms. The Moonlight Gu was a medium-range attack, while most Bone Path Gu were close-range.
As such, one would need to transform one's entire battle style. Only the younger generation, like Gu Yue Qing Shu, were seriously considering the change as they would still be alive when the clan ultimately fazed out the Moonlight Gu completely.
Qing Shu had relied on Wood Charm Gu until now, but on Bei Gu Mountain he had issues feeding and advancing it.
He was searching for a Bone Path alternative to Bone Spike Gu that wouldn't harm the user - a venture that had so far been unsuccessful. But that didn't stop him from trying.
Fang Zheng himself had considered the switch, and likely would have, if not for Fang Yuan. Since Fang Yuan had gifted him multiple Strength Path Gu, he remained focused on that path.
Because of this he no longer used any high-ranking Moon Path gu worms, and the Moonlight Orchid Petals could be spared for the other elders.
Seeing that they were doing well, he examined the primeval spring itself next. Given that they had to make this huge move because their original spring had died out, he was a bit paranoid that something might happen to this one as well. It was well-guarded, but that didn't mean that he still didn't occasionally get nightmares of something happening to it.
Were that to happen he would need to find another primeval spring. And that would mean conflict with the Bei Clan.
However, nothing of the sort was ever reported to him. The primeval spring continued to function well. The Hope Gu flourished near it, and the primeval stones collected from it continued to be distributed to the clansmen as was usual.
The only real reason to wonder whether or not something had happened to the spring was that some elders had complained about how many stones Fang Yuan and Bai Ning Bing had 'borrowed' when they had been by earlier.
"What if taking that many stones damages the springs?" some of them asked.
Fang Yuan assured Fang Zheng that such a thing wasn't possible and that the elders were only be selfish and concerned about their own interests. "Do you truly think that I would do something to harm the clan?" Fang Yuan remarked.
Naturally, Fang Zheng trusted Fang Yuan. But he couldn't help the tiny voice of doubt deep in his heart that didn't fully accept this.
That was why he kept checking in on the primeval spring.
"Brother, it looks like I was wrong to doubt you," Fang Zheng said. The spirit spring was as healthy as ever.