Fang Zheng woke up feeling not too confident about the meeting which was going to happen later on, but what else could he do? At the very least, it meant that he could delay any other work that would otherwise eat up his time today; he dismissed them as unnecessary as he went to meet up with the Bei Clan leaders.
Up until now, the Gu Yue Clan as well as the Bai Clan had been communicating either through messenger-type gu worms or, if they needed to do so in person for whatever reason, they would meet near a fork in the road that led up the mountain. This narrow path had been cleared out mainly by Fang Yuan while going up the mountain and later on to make it easier for the Gu Yue Village inhabitants to live.
One of the higher branches that came from this fork went to their primeval spring, where the new Gu Clan was settled and well-established. The other path leading to the primeval spring the Bei Clan was hoping to claim was barely formed by this point; the Bei Clan was still trying to clear it out. Each foot of land they gained had to be won from the surrounding bone beasts and then maintained. The path was also not easy to pave and make wide enough for carts and the like to be able to traverse.
However, clearing it was certainly much easier now that Fang Yuan had assisted them as part of their deal. The major threats had been eliminated by Fang Yuan.
Now, the issue was trying to clear out the rest of the path before the bone beasts could repopulate and then Myriad Beast Kings appearing amongst their number.
Of course, Fang Zheng knew that their little deal would not last forever.
That was why the Gu Yue Clan was also expanding a road down from their own village to the base of the mountain in another direction. It took advantage of a natural trail which had already formed there by the paws of many bone beasts; it just needed a few minor constructions, like a bridge over a stream or certain caves to be cleared out, to have a separate, shorter road to the base of the mountain so that they would not be relying exclusively upon this common road with the Bei Clan.
For now, though, it was the Gu Village who was in control of the majority of this road simply because of their superior military strength - even though it was the Bei Clan which had set up various encampments below the fork so that they could continue exploring and foraging into the mountain beyond.
Fang Zheng was accompanied by Gu Yue Qing Shu as well as one other elder. That was how they tended to make these things work out. They weren't necessarily just there for protection; as a Rank 4, Fang Zheng could probably take on over half a dozen Rank 3 Elders, and if they attempted to kill him, it would definitely take more than that.
But he did not know the Bei clan heads' strength, and having these two was also necessary for ceremonial purposes. It would not look good for the top brass to be wandering alone.
The other elder who accompanied Fang Zheng was originally from the Gu Yue Clan. Fang Zheng did not take any of the Bai Clan or the Xiong Clan elders with him during his meetings with the Bai Clan as a simple way of cutting off communication between the groups. These groups - the Bai and the Xiong Clan encampments within the new Gu Village - were kept away from this little fork in the road, so that if they tried to communicate with each other it would be much harder than usual. Things like messenger gu worms existed of course, but this was still considered to be a necessary precaution.
The greatest threat to the Gu Yue Clan currently was that if the Bei Clan decided to undermine them from within with the help of one of the other clans. It was so obvious that they had already taken countermeasures for it.
With Fang Yuan, a Rank 5, around, they were not going to try anything anytime soon.
But the problem was that Fang Yuan wasn't around most of the time.
The brief visits did suppress most thoughts of resistance, but the moment he left, the other clans couldn't help but wonder just how much Fang Yuan actually cared about his clansmen.
If it looked like Fang Yuan was only interested in exploiting them, well, that would also mean that he would be very angry if anything happened to them.
So, in a way, the fact that Fang Yuan kept coming for resources was helpful to Fang Zheng, which made the fact that he had not appeared lately all the more disturbing even if the other elders didn't see it that way.
The meeting began as was usual with matters that were not of any huge relevance like material flows and fixing parts of the road. Fang Zheng knew the meat of the matter was still waiting for him. Otherwise, such stuff could have been done simply through the use of messenger-type gu worms.
"There has actually been a new development," the Bei Clan leader said at last. "Which is a bit troublesome. As you may know, ever since we have claimed Bei Gu Mountain and gained access to the Flesh Bone Lord's inheritance, there have been jealous eyes looking at us. The Xia, He, and Ye clans are all circling around us like wolves." These three clans neighbored where the Bei Clan's original home was - they had a somewhat complicated relationship with each other, but with so many of them around, naturally, there was a balance of power which had been maintained for some time.
This balance of power had shifted the moment they saw that the Bei Clan had moved towards a new mountain and the appearance of the Gu Yue Clan with Fang Yuan as well.
"What exactly is going on?" Fang Zheng asked.
"I'm not entirely sure how this happened, but it seems that rumors of our primeval spring dying out have reached some of the other clans," the Bei Clan head said.
It was not entirely impossible to think that this would be the case. How could they possibly hide the fact that they were doing something on a nearby mountain with the Gu Yue Clan nearby?
Most clans would not go to a neighboring mountain for no reason; the cost in terms of labor as well as materials in order to clear out wild territory - a dangerous area which the clan likely wouldn't even be able to control properly given its population - was not worth it. The Flesh Bone Lord's inheritance could be said to be the reason for such, but given the fact that the Gu Yue Clan had settled here and that it seemed like the Bei Clan was very well involved with them there would be other theories floating around.
"But I'm guessing that these are all just rumors," Fang Zheng countered. "After all, if they were more certain about it, I don't think they would have hesitated so long before you were attacked."