92 RI

A day later.

During an evening banquet.

"A tribesman of your esteemed tribe saved my daughter, I, Chang Biao, am extremely grateful. This first cup is a toast to Ma tribe leader!" Chang Biao raised a wine cup.

Ma Ying Jie quickly lifted his cup and modestly replied: "That was only a chance encounter. I had not expected her to be Lord Chang Biao's beloved daughter, this is Hong Yun's honor."

"Hahaha." Chang Biao laughed heartily and drank the wine.

Ma Ying Jie also followed suit and downed the wine.

Ma Hong Yun who was sitting beside him had become the main character of the whole banquet at this moment and dozens of gazes gathered on him.

Feeling these probing, curious and doubtful gazes, Ma Hong Yun felt a little uncomfortable.

Chang Biao lightly placed down his wine cup and hinted Pan Ping who was beside him, with his eyes.

As they had already discussed properly, Pan Ping understood the signal, and looked at Ma Hong Yun: "Virtuous junior, if I speak so, aren't you like a hero saving the beauty?"

"I.. I..." Ma Hong Yun hesitated, speechless.

In truth, he also did not know how he had saved Chang Li. He had only been concerned about escaping from the endless iron beak birds chasing after him; the situation was so urgent, even if he had saved Chang Li, he did not think much.

Pan Ping stared with his eyes wide open at Ma Hong Yun who looked like he would not start speaking even till the cows came home.

Fortunately, Chang Biao had already calculated Ma Hong Yun's nature in his plan and at this moment, his gaze moved towards a certain person in the banquet.

This person immediately stood up and came to the center, cupping his fist towards Chang Biao: "Elder Chang Biao and all lords, I was one of the people involved in this matter and I was able to fortunately see the whole situation. Lord Ma Hong Yun is generous and modest, not claiming the credit and becoming arrogant, but I cannot endure a heroic deed being buried like this, so I summoned my courage by drinking to narrate the event to all lords."

Hearing these words, everyone knew this person was someone who was good at speaking.

Chang Biao nodded: "You can speak."

This person spoke with confidence, adding plentiful emotions and speaking in a way that echoed and added to their effects; he narrated in such a vivid way that it portrayed Ma Hong Yun as an aloof hero with an unwavering mind, with brains and brawn, not afraid of dangers.

As they listened to the narration, the crowd cheered and praised from time to time.

Their gazes towards Ma Hong Yun also started to change, becoming respectful, warm or appreciative.

Ma Hong Yun's eyes were wide open as he listened to this seemingly heavenly tale. He was feeling incredulous: "Is this person talking about me? When did I become so amazing? Did he mistake me for somebody else?"

There was one other person who did not dare to believe this - Ma Ying Jie.

Ma Ying Jie was Ma tribe leader, an outstanding hero of this generation. He was familiar with Ma Hong Yun's nature and character, how could he be deceived by these flowery words?

He had a faint smile on his face, and also nodded at the appropriate timings, looking at Ma Hong Yun approvingly; his mind, however, was in a state of deep thought: 'If say, Ma Hong Yun saved Chang Li by luck, there is nothing strange about it. But why would elder Chang Biao send a phony to explain things for Ma Hong Yun? What is he planning? In this banquet, although there are tens of distinguished guests, but the true main characters are only two in number, Chang Biao and Pan Ping.'

Ma Ying Jie was inwardly on guard.

Ma tribe had lost in the Imperial Court contest, falling down from their peak. Ma Ying Jie's master and father died in the battlefield, all these difficulties and setbacks caused Ma Ying Jie to quickly mature into an outstanding person.

He was secretly guessing Chang Biao's plan, but on the surface, he did not even bat an eyelid.

The current Ma tribe was declining, while Chang tribe was like the sun in the noon sky because of Fang Yuan! Pan Ping left demonic path and turned to Hei tribe, and was now an external elder of Hei tribe.

No matter which, they were both not people the current Ma tribe, the current Ma Ying Jie, could offend.

"Good, good, good." After that person finished narrating Ma Hong Yun's heroic deeds, Chang Biao repeatedly praised him.

"Heroes indeed arise from young people." Chang Biao looked at Ma Hong Yun, not stinting on his praise.

He paused, then continued: "Since ancient times, heroes love beauties and beauties are matched with heroes. I won't conceal it from everyone, ever since my daughter was saved, she has been silent, taciturn and her mind seems to be drifting off. I inquired her of the reason and only then learned her heart was somewhere else, worrying about the young hero who had saved her during the time of danger. I held this banquet to express my gratitude and also because of this."

The hall was in an uproar.

Countless gazes, mixed with admiration, envy, shock or unconvinced feelings, turned towards Ma Hong Yun.

"What bullshit luck does this kid have? He actually received Chang tribe's young miss' favor?"

"Chang Li is beautiful and pleasant, who could have thought she would prefer such a foolish kid. Sigh, if I had known this earlier, I would have also gone to the forest of iron beak birds."

"Chang Li might not be Chang Biao's own daughter, but he had taken her in and cared for her since she was young, she has always received Chang Biao's love and is a beloved daughter of elder Chang Biao. If this kid, Ma Hong Yun, marries Chang Li, his father-in-law would be Chang Biao!"

Instantly, everyone's mood surged.

Ma Ying Jie quickly reacted from his shocked state and rapidly thought with some suspicions: 'Is this the reason for Chang Biao entertaining us with such great fanfare? Although there is the tale of the Night Elopement of Su Xian, but isn't this going too well?"

There were even better things to come.

In front of everyone, Chang Biao took out two red steel relic Gu: "The new constantly replaces the old, Virtuous junior is a young hero of our northern plains, we cannot have him be unrewarded. These two red steel relic Gu are a little expression of my thanks to the benefactor, please accept them."

The commotion in the hall increased even more.

"Huh?" Ma Hong Yun quickly looked at Ma Ying Jie.

Ma Ying Jie nodded and pointed out with a smile: "We cannot dare to reject senior's gifts, Hong Yun, why are you not kowtowing and expressing your thanks?"

Ma Hong Yun immediately walked forward and kowtowed: "Many thanks for Lord Chang Biao's gift."

Chang Biao laughed heartily and also walked forward, personally putting the two red steel relic Gu in Ma Hong Yun's hand.

Under everyone's gazes, he amiably patted Ma Hong Yun's hand and asked: "I wonder how virtuous junior feels about my daughter?"

"Eh?" Ma Hong Yun raised his head with a flushed face, not knowing how to reply for a moment. After a while, he finally squeezed out a few words, "MIss Chang Li is beautiful, very beautiful."

"Hahaha." Chang Biao threw his head back and laughed, "This is good, this is good. Virtuous junior, please return to your seat."

They returned to their seats, and continued to enjoy the banquet.

The banquet continued from evening to late at night; only then the hosts and the guests had enjoyed to their fill and started taking their leave.

As the crowd dispersed, the matter of Chang tribe marrying off its daughter to the lucky kid Ma Hong Yun, also spread everywhere.

On the second day, Chang Biao again invited Ma Ying Jie and Ma Hong Yun to a banquet. The scale of the banquet would be smaller this time and only a few people were invited.

Ma Ying Jie gazed at the invitation card in his hand with a grave look.

After returning back, he had not slept the whole night and was pondering over this matter.

The small invitation card felt exceptionally heavy to him.

He placed the invitation card on the table and called his servant: "Go, call Ma Hong Yun to see me."

The servant immediately accepted the order and when he was arriving at Ma Hong Yun's residence, Zhao Lian Yun was in the process of instructing Ma Hong Yun: "You fool, what kind of bullshit luck do you have? But this matter is so good that it instead makes it feel hollow. I think tribe leader Ma Ying Jie will definitely call you to ask about this. At that time, explain everything clearly in full detail, don't hide even the smallest details!"

"Okay." Ma Hong Yun immediately agreed.

"Also." Zhao Lian Yun's large eyes turned, "Didn't Chang Biao reward you with two red steel relic Gu? When you meet the tribe leader, offer these two Gu to him."

"What?" Ma Hong Yun's eyes opened wide as he shouted, "This is something I risked my life for and obtained with great difficulty! And they were gifted to me by Lord Chang Biao, I will immediately advance to rank two upper stage after I use them. These are such good things."

"You fool!" Zhao Lian Yun kicked Ma Hong Yun's leg in anger.

Ma Hong Yun immediately held his leg in pain: "Why did you kick me?"

Zhao Lian Yun rolled her eyes and unhappily rebuked: "What do you understand? Even if you become rank two upper stage, what use would it be with your skill? What is the basis for us being able to stand up? It is not your rank two cultivation, but the friendship with tribe leader Ma Ying Jie. How did you advance to rank two? It is because tribe leader Ma Ying Jie gifted you with three green copper relic Gu. Offering the red steel relic Gu is an expression of loyalty, do you think the tribe leader will embezzle your red steel relic Gu? Hmph, he can't use it for himself, so he will definitely accept them then return them to you again."

"Eh, since he will accept them, why would he return them to me again?" Ma Hong Yun asked with doubt.

"Idiot!" Zhao Lian Yun again rolled her eyes, "Ma tribe has declined, there are very few tribesmen while there are many things to do. The whole tribe only has one rank three elder, Ma You Liang, and he is handicapped now. Ma Ying Jie has recently taken the tribe leader position and doesn't have any usable subordinates. He wants to revitalize the tribe and will be looking for talents to nurture into trusted aides. Although you were once surnamed Fei, now you are surnamed Ma, and you were once Ma Ying Jie's head servant. Ma Ying Jie knows everything about you and will be at ease in using you compared to other people. You will be showing your loyalty by offering the Gu worms, he will definitely be happy and accept your Gu worms; this is because he recognizes your loyalty."

"But Ma Ying Jie is not a petty and miserly master, accepting your Gu worms will only be as a gesture and he will definitely return them to you. Why? Because he wants to establish an example, from which the tribesmen can study and be encouraged to imitate your loyalty. I am certain, he will not only return your red steel relic Gu, he will even add in more rewards. Although you are insufficient in ability, you have loyalty. This is called buying horse bones with a thousand gold 1 . "

Ma Hong Yun was confused: "What is buying horse bones with a thousand gold ?"

"Sigh, you won't understand it even if I explain. Just do what I say and it will definitely be to your benefit."

"Ah." Ma Hong Yun agreed while scratching his head.

The two had just reached an agreement when Ma Ying Jie's servant came running over to summon Ma Hong Yun.

Ma Hong Yun followed Zhao Lian Yun's words and offered the two red steel relic Gu. But different from Zhao Lian Yun's estimation, Ma Ying Jie accepted them but did not return them back to Ma Hong Yun.

After Ma Hong Yun returned, he started complaining endlessly to Zhao Lian Yun.

"Could it be my estimation was wrong?" Zhao Lian Yun also felt some doubts.

-x-X-x-

In the evening, Ma Ying Jie took Ma Hong Yun to Chang tribe's banquet.

When the banquet ended, Chang Biao urged Ma Ying Jie to stay and have a talk in the study while letting Chang Li entertain Ma Hong Yun.

"I wonder what insights might Ma tribe leader have in six arm heavenly zombie king?" After some discussion, Chang Biao changed the subject to the killer move.

Ma Ying Jie, however, had not tested the killer move, speaking frankly: "I am an enslavement path master and have no affiliation to strength path. I was quite disappointed for the reward in passing the eighty-ninth round to be this killer move. I plan to sell this killer move, thus haven't tested it. What happened?"

Chang Biao was stupefied, glancing at Pan Ping next to him.

The two had not expected this situation, but it was actually reasonable.

Ma Ying Jie was different from them, he had a concrete and comprehensive enslavement path inheritance. His master Ma Zun relied on this inheritance to make a name and be a ruler of a region.

This inheritance contained a killer move as well. And besides it, Ma Ying Jie still had the powerful killer move from Snowy Mountain's Gu Immortal — Dragon Horse Spirit.

He had yet to master these killer moves, why would he go cultivate a killer move of another path?

He had been cultivating enslavement path since his youth, and as long as he cultivated it properly, he could become a ruler of a region and revitalize his tribe. Cultivating side paths would instead divide his energy.

Since ancient times, Gu Masters prioritized one path, and very few cultivated two paths. Dividing energy and continually moving back and forth will only result in achieving nothing on both ends.

Fang Yuan could dually cultivate paths because of the accumulation of his previous life's experiences.

Ma Ying Jie also had to manage the tribe's affairs and had no extra energy to cultivate some strength path killer move.

"I won't conceal it from you, I and brother Pan Ping have been testing this killer move. Its might is astonishing and overwhelming. We might as well speak the truth to Ma tribe leader." As he said this, Chang Biao paused, considering his words while somewhat hesitating.

He looked at Ma Ying Jie with a sincere gaze and shockingly said: "I would like to request Ma tribe leader to keep this killer move a secret and not spread it to others. Spreading it outside means the reward for clearing the round will be received by others."

Chang Biao intentionally spoke evasively, Ma Ying Jie was smart as he suddenly understood everything.

"So it was like this! Chang Biao was once Chang tribe's leader, now he is only a great elder and the tribe leader is his adopted son Chang Ji You, and the true decision maker is Wolf King Chang Shan Yin. Chang Biao obtained this killer move and wants to keep it a secret. This is a normal practice of Gu Masters. But there is a problem, if Chang Shan Yin learns of this and asks him for it, he will definitely have to hand it over."

Ma Ying Jie observed Pan and Chang's expressions and intonations, and knew six arm heavenly zombie king was absolutely an extraordinary killer move. @@novelbin@@

Humans were selfish, who would be willing to hand such a valuable treasure for no purpose? Ma Ying Jie understood this point.

Seeing Ma Ying Jie's gaze flicker, Chang Biao continued: "I have already talked with the others, Ma tribe leader can rest at ease. We still need Ma tribe leader's strength for the coming round. Hehehe."

Ma Ying Jie's expression turned solemn: "Lord Chang Biao exaggerates, my ability is limited, it is my fortune to be able to cooperate with all the experts, making it a win-win situation. I am okay with this matter being done like Lord Chang Biao says."

Hearing Ma Ying Jie's answer, Chang Biao and Pan Ping both smiled.

"Sigh, what lord, Ma tribe leader can just call me by my name." Pan Ping saw the chance, and immediately tried to pull their relation closer.

Pan and Chang wanted to pull Ma Ying Jie to their faction while Ma Ying Jie also wanted to rely on Chang tribe and Hei tribe's help to grow his tribe. The three went out of their way to curry favor with each other, addressing each other as brothers.

The three discussed in the study till late at night, getting along with each other.

It was near midnight, the three separated after setting Ma Hong Yun and Chang Li's engagement.

"Brother Chang's plan is excellent. With this connection by marriage, Ma Ying Jie will be tied with brother Chang, and when we deal with the Wolf King later on, he would have to help out." After closing the door, Pan Ping laughed heartily.

Chang Biao, however, slightly shook his head: "Ma Ying Jie is not someone easy to fool, he knows when to bow and submit, and at the the time of danger, he will definitely make a quick decision. It is still not the time to recruit him now, but as long as we continue to be on good terms with him and let people know of our close relation, and put in some resources to support that Ma Hong Yun, we will be able to increase our control over Ma tribe. And when we declare war against Chang Shan Yin in the future, as long as Chang Shan Yin recognizes Ma tribe as an enemy, Ma Ying Jie will have no choice but to get on our boat to protect his tribe!"

At night in Imperial Court blessed land, the bright and warm silver light shone on the ground.

In a carriage, Ma Ying Jie and Ma Hong Yun were sitting opposite each other.

"Hong Yun, you truly are a lucky guy, actually getting the interest of miss Chang Li. Hehehe, I have already come to a decision with lord Chang Biao; the first day of the next month will be a day of celebration for you and Chang Li." Ma Ying Jie said with a smile on his face.

"Ah?" Ma Hong Yun had not expected this news at all, and was not able to react for a while.

"I have seen your loyalty, good, this is your reward." Ma Ying Jie patted Ma Hong Yun's shoulder while sighing with emotion as he took out three red steel relic Gu from his aperture.

"This..." Ma Hong Yun was astonished, and dazedly received the three red steel relic Gu.

"You will be getting married with lady Chang Li, if you don't have power and status, wouldn't it weaken my Ma tribe's name? You can advance to rank two peak stage with these three red steel relic Gu; it should not be a problem for you to advance to rank three with your aptitude. I will now appoint you as a deputy elder and your duty will be to handle the miscellaneous affairs of the tribe." Ma Ying Jie proclaimed.

"Ah?" Ma Hong Yun's eyes opened wide, looking at Ma tribe leader with a stupefied expression.

To him, this surprise was really too heavy and too sudden.

Ma Ying Jie intentionally looked solemn: "You are still not kneeling and thanking me?"

Ma Hong Yun's mind was in a mess, but his body subconsciously kneeled down on the ground: "Thank you lord for promoting me!"

"Yes, work well." Ma Ying Jie encouraged with a few sentences, his thoughts, however were on a different matter, "Six arm heavenly zombie king, this killer move seems to be really powerful. Since it is regarded with such importance by Pan and Chang, and also does not need too much attainment in strength path cultivation, how about I give it a try as well?"

Eighty-Eight True Yang Building, central control room.

"Ink transformation!" Fang Yuan's gaze flashed with a sharp light as he softly shouted and pressed down his hands.

Immediately, all kinds of Gu worms sprinkled down like rain from air, rapidly mixing with each other as they fell down.

When they landed on the sand table, they had already turned into drops of inky liquid.

The inky liquid quickly accumulated and covered the surface of the whole sand table once again before soon finding a flaw; the liquid then turned into a whirlpool and converged together.

Mo Yao's will in Fang Yuan's mind satisfiedly commented at this sight: "Good, you have now become skilled at the refinement technique I taught you - shower. With this method, you can quicken Gu refinement process by at least thirty percent and raise the quality by twenty percent. There is nothing more I can teach you about this method now. You only need to remember the essence of shower lies in speed. But you cannot just go fast, you need to pour all your concentration during the whole process. Thus, this method cannot be used too often. If you use it over the limit, you will feel dazed and dizzy in the minor case, causing the Gu refinement to fail, and in the serious case, your soul can be injured, you can suffer memory loss and you might become demented."

Gu refinement had dangers and was not any safer than an intense battle.

Fang Yuan already knew this; he listened to Mo Yao's guidance while methodically throwing the owner token into the ink whirlpool.

In a flash, the ink liquid was depleted completely and the owner token slowly flew up before landing on Fang Yuan's palm.

Fang Yuan observed the owner token which now already possessed five edges.

This meant ink transformation had already been carried out five times.

Strange, Fang Yuan was scarce on immortal essence stones and should have only been able to use ink transformation once more, how could he use it for three extra times beyond that?

After Fang Yuan got the one-edge owner token, his authority was raised and he could learn the contents of rewards for every round of a single floor of Eighty-Eight True Yang Building through the one-edge owner token.

Fang Yuan did not hesitate and choose one floor on the spot.

This floor was the seventh floor.

One-edge owner token could allow the Gu Master to control one floor of Eighty-Eight True Yang Building.

The seventh floor had already been broken through to the eighty-ninth round by the collective efforts of Gu Masters. So why did Fang Yuan choose this floor instead of others?

It was because the reward for this eighty-ninth round was five immortal essence stones!

Fang Yuan secretly used the owner token to take control of this floor. Chang Biao, Pan Ping, Ma Ying Jie and others passed the round, and Fang Yuan was able to secretly take the five immortal essence stones, sending a downgraded version of six arm heavenly zombie king into everyone's aperture as the reward.

The genuine six arm heavenly zombie king used borrow strength Gu as its core, the six great flying zombie Gu as the backbone and many other Gu worms as support. Through modification by Fang Yuan and Mo Yao's will, the downgraded killer move used overlord Gu as its core, which greatly reduced its strength.

Although the other flying zombie Gu were not changed, the old earth chief zombie Gu was used instead of Mo Yao's modified Gu.

More importantly, the support Gu worms were also modified and some Gu worms like intention Gu were added to secretly gather the information on the use of six arm heavenly zombie king by Chang Biao, Pan Ping and others.

With this, it not only gave others no reason to doubt the reward being tampered with, it also made them test the killer move in place of Fang Yuan to find any insufficient areas.

"Half a month has gone by since the reward of the killer move was distributed. It is time to catch the fish in a net. What do you think?" Fang Yuan used a consulting tone to ask Mo Yao's will.

Mo Yao mumbled: "It has neither been too long nor too short, we can first take away two sets and see the results."

Fang Yuan grasped the five-edges owner token, and with a shift of his mind, he found two familiar figures in the ninetieth round of the seventh floor.

They were none other than Chang Biao and Pan Ping.

The two were currently running quickly.

Pan Ping shouted to Chang Biao while running: "It has already been seven days since we came here. Even if the time flow here is faster than Imperial Court blessed land, according to our speed, we should have already travelled an immeasurable distance but we have not been able to see anything other than walls."

The running Chang Biao nodded, his clothes fluttering in the wind: "In this place, we cannot fly to the sky nor can we escape under the ground, we can only move in these passageways along the walls. The passageways here spread in all directions, we have travelled so long but haven't encountered a single monster. Clearly, this round tests the Gu Master's scouting and movement ability. This round should be an extremely large maze."

The two guessed correctly, this ninetieth round was precisely a maze.

And just as Chang Biao guessed, it tested the Gu Master's scouting and movement ability.

But Fang Yuan had taken control of this seventh floor now and after he discovered these two, everything was going to be different.

-x-X-x-

Howl—!

Wolf howls suddenly echoed out, a large group of turtleback wolves appeared ahead.

"Wolves, how could there be a wolf group here?" Pan Ping's movement slowed down, shouting in surprise.

Chang Biao's expression sank. Because of the connection with Fang Yuan, the animal he hated the most now was the wolf.

But he had never even thought that Fang Yuan would be controlling this round, and said in a gloomy voice: "Our priority this time was to probe, now that there has been a new change, we should see what happens after killing these wolves."

"Okay!" Pan Ping nodded in agreement.

The two cooperated and started killing the wolves.

At first, the two were occupying the upper hand even to the extent that it could be called a slaughter; how could ordinary turtleback wolves be their match?

But soon, other species of wolf started appearing continuously in front of them - vermillion wolves, water wolves, wind wolves and so on. Even mutated wolf groups like frenzy wolves and white-eyes wolves started appearing.

The two were gradually becoming unable to endure this.

"How could there be so many wolf groups?"

"Could it be this round also tests the Gu Master's ability to fight?"

Large numbers of thousand wolf kings entered the battle along with myriad wolf kings; Pan Ping and Chang Biao's expressions gradually turned unsightly.

"This round is so difficult!" Pan Ping sighed woefully.

"In Eighty-Eight True Yang Building, the difficulty keeps on increasing as one passes the rounds, with the ninetieth to hundredth rounds being the most difficult." Chang Biao responded.

After a while more, the two could not continue fighting much longer.

"We have already probed the situation, the ninetieth round not only has a maze, but also wolf groups!" Chang Biao summarized in a heavy voice.

"We have walls on both sides, the terrain is narrow, we already are restricting the large crowds attacking us, what else can we do? Pan Ping frowned.

"Let's talk after retreating." Chang Biao sighed.

He and Pan Ping did not have Giant Sun bloodline, and had used guest tokens to enter Eighty-Eight True Yang Building.

Guest tokens were precious, thus they had to spend a lot of resources every time they entered.

"Alright!" Pan Ping already had the thought of retreating, he glanced at the wolf groups with hate, "These damned wolf beasts, there will be a day when I will step on your Wolf King and humiliate him! Hahaha...."

He cursed and vowed, the 'Wolf King' he was speaking of naturally referred to Fang Yuan.

"Eh!" The next moment, Pan Ping's laughter suddenly came to a stop, shock and fear replacing it.

"What's going on? We can't go out?" Chang Biao who was at the side also discovered this serious problem.

The two had used guest tokens to enter the tower and could leave with just a thought. They had already entered and exited many times, and were very familiar with this.

But now, this floor was under Fang Yuan's control, the five-edge owner token was many times more powerful than a guest token. These two were like birds within a cage, trapped in a predicament.

"Damn it, what should we do? I only have thirty percent primeval essence remaining!" Pan Ping shouted in panic.

Chang Biao's expression was grim as he shouted: "Calm down!"

His condition was a little better than Pan Ping with fifty percent primeval essence remaining in his aperture. But even if their primeval essence was full, it would be exhausted sooner or later in front of these endless wolf groups.

"This situation is very rare, how could we not get out of this tower? This round is strange, what it might be testing is the Gu Master's courage! We cannot act cowardly!" Chang Biao thought for a while and shouted.

Pan Ping heard his words, and slightly calmed down his panicked mind. He remembered that there were indeed strange rounds recorded in the past history, testing none other than the Gu Master's mind. Often in these rounds, the more cowardly the Gu master becomes, the stronger the monster they would have to face.

Pan and Chang forcibly calmed down, and then tried to break through the wolf groups' encirclement.

But Fang Yuan was in control of this round and was clear of every corner of the maze.

He mobilized the wolf groups with extreme smoothness; no matter how Pan and Chang tried to break through, there would always be wolf groups encircling and cutting off their path.

"No, I cannot die here! Damned wolf beasts, take my killer move!" With no alternative, Pan Ping used up almost all his primeval essence to activate the killer move 'six arm heavenly zombie king'.

He turned into an eight armed zombie; his battle strength rose explosively, creating surging waves wherever he moved. The wolves suffered severe losses with none being able to resist his attacks.

Chang Biao took the valuable chance to preserve his primeval essence by following behind Pan Ping, and was able to save quite a bit of strength.

The good situation did not last long and soon, Pan Ping's primeval essence was thoroughly exhausted.

Chang Biao quickly moved to save him: "In this time of danger, we need to work as one to have the hope of escaping alive. Take a rest and use primeval stones to recover your primeval essence, I will protect you!"

Chang Biao also used six arm heavenly zombie king and firmly protected Pan Ping.

With this kind of assistance between the two, they were able to stabilize the situation.

Seven-eight days went by like this, Chang Biao and Pan Ping's primeval essence were completely exhausted, no longer able to carry on.

"Am I going to die here?" Pan Ping roared at the sky.

"Damn it, there is definitely a way out, definitely!" Chang Biao had lost his earlier demeanour as he started shouting and roaring.

Just at this time of despair, the two suddenly saw a large pile of primeval stones in the corner ahead.

"Primeval stones!"

"Such a mountain of primeval stones, I am not hallucinating, right?"

Finding a way out of death's door, the two were elated and summoned all their bravery to kill their way through. The situation was stabilized once again as they used the primeval stones to recover their primeval essence.

"I understand, I understand now, this round tests the Gu Master's endurance!" Chang Biao shouted with wild joy.

"So it was like that." Pan Ping also came to a realization.

The two were so happy they did not realize the strange changes on their bodies.

As they started using 'six arm heavenly zombie king' more often, their bodies were now growing some irrecoverable zombie speckles.

"This hill of primeval stones is sufficient to last us two-three months." Pan Ping pounced on the primeval stone hill, crying tears of joy.

"Quickly use this time to recover primeval essence. We can't just keep sitting idly, there should be other primeval stone hills. When thirsty, we can drink wolf blood, and when hungry, we can eat wolf meat, maybe we can pass this round if we persevere like this." Chang Biao's eyes shone brightly.

"Brother Chang, you are right!" Pan Ping stood up quickly, his face flushed red as he imagined the scene Chang Biao portrayed, "This round is so difficult, it is almost an absolute death ground. There should definitely be a great reward for passing it!"

Chang Biao resisted the wolf groups' offense, sighing: "I finally know why we can enter but not exit this round. If we could easily leave, how could this round test the Gu Master?"

It was truly a pity these two still did not know this primeval stone hill was intentionally arranged here by their great enemy Fang Yuan. His goal was to make them use the killer move more, and continue the experiment.

The situation was fully within Fang Yuan's control. Even if these two had not been willing to use the killer move and only used their own moves, Fang Yuan would have controlled the wolf groups to continue attacking them, creating a dangerous set of circumstances where these two would have no choice but to use the killer move.

Fang Yuan's worry was unnecessary in this aspect.

As these two used the killer move, they started gradually becoming dependent on it, using it more and more. And in the following battles, they rarely used their own methods.

When their zombie speckles became denser and seriously affected them, they came to their senses.

But it was already too late.

"I don't accept this, I don't accept this, dying right here! Wolf King, I won't let you go even as a ghost!"

Pan Ping was the first to die.

Before he died, he cursed Fang Yuan.

Several days later, Chang Biao also died with exhaustion in the battle.

He died with grievance, mumbling to himself as he neared death: "Exit, where the hell is the exit?"

He had a lot of worries, too many things he could not let go.

Wolf Killing Alliance was only just being set up, the scheme of forcing Ma Ying Jie to join it had only just started, but even more than these, what made him the most unreconciled was his own son - Chang Ji You.

Truthfully speaking, Chang Biao was a pitiful person.

For his reputation, he dared not admit his own biological son and was only able to hear Chang Ji You call him 'godfather', 'godfather'...

Even so, he did not feel secure and to cover it further up, he adopted several orphans as his adopted sons and daughters. Among them was Chang Li.

He had made such painstaking efforts, laid low his whole life, planned so much, but now as he faced death, nothing had come to fruition.

He was unreconciled, full of regrets and annoyance, but what could he do?

"I really... really wanted to hear him call me father..." At this moment of death, his intense thoughts burst out as a sorrowful and regretful voice, passing away with the light of his life.

"The killer move was activated two thousand three hundred and eleven times, although he was exhausted in death, the main reason for fatality is the accumulation of zombie energy in his body." Fang Yuan appeared beside Chang Biao's corpse out of thin air.

He slightly smiled, the experiment had attained the expected purpose, but he found a problem —

Even if the killer move was used every time, it could not surpass a certain time limit, but instead the more it was used, the zombie energy in the body would accumulate till it led to the Gu Master's death.

Whether it was Pan Ping or Chang Biao, they both died because of this.

Fang Yuan took out the Gu worms from the two's corpses and stored them in his storage pouch.

This round was under his control, making it impossible for Pan and Chang to detonate their Gu worms even if they wanted to.

Chang Biao possessed a set of wind path Gu worms, all of them of excellent quality. Pan Ping's Gu worms were also not ordinary, but with Fang Yuan's current scope and capital, they were only considered better than nothing.

Only that sole blade Gu had some collection value, making Fang Yuan look at it for a moment.

Several days later.

In a study, Fang Yuan was thinking with his eyes closed while grasping an east window Gu.

"Hostile intent Gu can condense hostile intent. The hostile intent is strong and fiercely encroaching as fire, but it somewhat lacks flexibility and does not have the power to persist for long."

"Sharp intent Gu can condense sharp intent. The sharp intent is very sharp like swords and spears, however it can be subdued through soft tactics and is very difficult to restore."

"Reckless intent can condense reckless intent. Nothing is a taboo for the reckless intent and it can easily spread unchecked, but it is difficult to control and can easily injure the Gu Master."

This east window Gu, which Fang Yuan had purchased from treasure yellow heaven, recorded a fairly intact wisdom path inheritance. He paid all his small savings of immortal essence stones for it.

But it was worth it, Fang Yuan made some gains after reading it.

Fang Yuan pondered: "This inheritance records fourteen wisdom path Gu worms with six that touch upon the aspect of intent - hostile intent Gu, sharp intent Gu, reckless intent Gu, changing intent Gu, cold intent Gu and chaotic intent Gu. The first three are used to condense will, with each having their own pros and cons."

Wisdom path was the most mysterious among Gu Master paths, extremely broad and profound. It originated from Star Constellation Immortal Venerable and had existed from Remote Antiquity Era. The Gu Masters who cultivated it were extremely few in numbers, but it still remained and passed down till today, never declining.

"Then what is Mo Yao's will classified as - hostile intent, sharp intent or reckless intent?"

Fang Yuan was researching these wills to guard against and deal with the enormous hidden danger in his mind.

"Hostile intent is fierce like fire, sharp intent is sharp like a spear, reckless intent is flamboyant and difficult to control, but Mo Yao's will is mysterious like the sea, hidden and indistinct. From the confrontations I had with her, it felt like I was not able to display my strength, like punching cotton."

Fang Yuan carefully analyzed and perceived Mo Yao's will was not any one among this list.

This inheritance he had gathered was only a corner of wisdom path; there were definitely many other wisdom path Gu worms.

"It seems I still need to continue gathering information on wisdom path..." Fang Yuan inwardly sighed.

Fang Yuan was not able to easily use his methods against Mo Yao's will because he was not familiar with wisdom path, and did not know her trump cards.

"As the proverb goes, know yourself and know your enemy, and you will go unscathed through a hundred battles. I need to bear with this for the moment, make her think continuously and wear herself down, while also using her to help in exploring True Yang Building."

Right as he was thinking, Mo Yao's will appeared with her indistinct figure in Fang Yuan's mind.

"It is done, the six arm heavenly zombie king this time is truly perfected, there are no more unsuitable factors." Mo Yao said with a weak tone and exhausted expression.

'Looks like she had been worn down a lot from all the thinking over these days." Fang Yuan was inwardly happy, and as he looked at the modified killer move, this hidden happiness gradually turned into exultation!

-x-X-x-

Fang Yuan was a vigilant person, he had always felt that everyone else in this world was unreliable, the only dependable person was himself. Thus, he researched the six arm heavenly zombie king killer move the moment he obtained it.

This killer move was originally created based on the foundation he provided, furthermore during these few days, with Mo Yao's guidance, his refinement path attainment was deepening, and his perspective had widened greatly.

Right now, he had a great understanding of the concept of six arm heavenly zombie king, it was clear as water to him.

At this moment, he looked at the completed killer move, without any experiments, he knew that this killer move was close to perfection.

Mo Yao had reduced many supplementary Gu worms from the original base, while keeping the core and the six zombie Gu unchanged, only adding several supplementary Gu worms in.

Sensing the ingenuity of this, Fang Yuan praised endlessly.

In his mind, Mo Yao's will explained: "This is all thanks to the intention Gu on Pan and Chang. With their experience and insight, I could refine this move to such an extent, we have reached an extreme level of perfection. As long as the time does not exceed thirty minutes, no matter how many times you activate the killer move, it will not accumulate zombie energy in your body and cause zombie speckles to grow." @@novelbin@@

Fang Yuan nodded, knowing that Mo Yao's words were true.

This killer move was truly refined to its limits, according to this line of thinking, it had already reached its strongest potential. Unless he added Immortal Gu in the future, or changed the core Gu.

But if he added Immortal Gu in, this would destroy the original coordination of the Gu, he would need to reassemble it and the move would become completely different, it would truly be a situation of 'pull one hair and the whole body moves'.

If he changed the core Gu, that would be going into another line of thought. The new killer move would be completely different, rather than calling it 'six arm heavenly zombie king', he might as well give it another name.

In all, the killer move six arm heavenly zombie king, be it the core Gu, the zombie Gu or the supplementary Gu, they were being used to their fullest potential, there was no way to refine this further.

Even though there were still backlashes from using it, if one exceeded thirty minutes, the zombie energy would cause great damage to the Gu Master's body, if the time was too long, the Gu Master might even turn into a zombie.

But this was a problem caused by inappropriate usage by the Gu Master, it could be avoided. The reason was that even if this move was used many times, it would not accumulate the zombie speckles. If the Gu Master activated the move multiple times in a period of time, they could potentially sustain the killer move for a long duration.

Except, Fang Yuan was still not satisfied with this huge result.

"If you have any other ideas to refine this killer move, this grandmaster here is willing to listen." Mo Yao laughed eerily.

"At this point, six arm heavenly zombie king is at its limit, there is nothing to improve. But there is still one part that I am not satisfied with, that is the backlash of the killer move." Fang Yuan said.

"After the improvement, the current six arm heavenly zombie king's power has doubled, and the duration has reached thirty minutes, it is sufficient for you to handle anything in this mortal realm. What are you dissatisfied with? You must know, any killer move represents the combination usage of Gu worms, since it is the use of Gu worms, there has to be weaknesses. A killer move's backlash cannot be avoided, they are only different in terms of severity. This strength path killer move's power is at the top five of killer moves in my memory. Don't be too greedy." Mo Yao lectured.

Fang Yuan snorted.

His potential enemies were Gu Immortals, beings who surpassed mortals!

With six arm heavenly zombie king, even if Fang Yuan abandoned his enslavement path, he could still dominate the mortal realm, but it was far from sufficient to deal with Gu Immortals.

Battling an immortal as a mortal, this aim was too arrogant, it was too much for people to believe. Fang Yuan had no intentions of informing Mo Yao about this.

Immediately after, he said: "Preparedness ensures success, and unpreparedness spells failure. If one day, because of a peculiar situation, I overuse the killer move and become

a zombie, what happens? I am also clear that the killer move six arm heavenly zombie king cannot be improved further, but now, my goal is to resolve this weakness."

Mo Yao finally understood Fang Yuan's intention, she sunk into silence.

Fang Yuan was young and arrogant, Mo Yao did not expect that he had such a cautious side. To speak the truth, Mo Yao was looking at him in a different light now —

"This lad, he has talent, resources, and opportunities. He has great perseverance and is able to lower his head when needed. On one hand, he advances bravely, while on the other hand, he is cautious and vigilant, always considering all sides of the matter. This lad, one day, he will definitely shake the world."

She was silent for a short time, soon, Mo Yao said: "It is very troublesome to resolve this backlash. Six arm heavenly zombie king is not an ordinary zombie, the zombie energy is extremely thick, once the Gu Master transforms, they cannot even use Yin-Yang rotation Gu!"

"As a refinement grandmaster, is there nothing you can do?" Fang Yuan did not believe her.

Mo Yao did not fall for his taunting, she spoke in a calm manner: "I need a rank five Gu Master to fully transform into the six arm heavenly zombie king, after which I will experiment on their body. I need this test subject to cooperate with me fully, and I need to have full control over their condition, in terms of body, mind, and personal experience... These are all important information that I need to consider."

Mo Yao did not want to ponder about this deeply as it would expend too many of her thoughts, she used the same method again, planning to use people as experimental fodder. They would replace her thinking and undergo the most crucial steps for her.

Fang Yuan frowned: "Rank five Gu Master? And a fully cooperative one?"

"That's right, it would be best if they are willingly doing it. Because if slavery Gu is used to control them, their emotions would be affected, their experience and feelings when turning into a zombie would be ruined."

This was troublesome!

If Fang Yuan wanted to resolve the problem of six arm heavenly zombie king, he would need to find a rank five Gu Master, and they would need to be cooperative and listen to Fang Yuan, risking their lives to undergo this experiment.

Where was Fang Yuan going to find such a person?!

Three days later.

Central control room.

From the ink whirlpool, the owner token rose up and flew into Fang Yuan's hands.

Activating the refinement path killer move ink transformation once again, five-edge owner token had transformed into six-edge.

Fang Yuan was both happy and worried.

Happy because he had the six-edge owner token, once Hei Lou Lan's owner token becomes four-edge, he would be able to snatch it and form the ten-edge owner token.

With a ten-edge owner token, he could obtain one of Giant Sun Immortal Venerable's true inheritances!

An Immortal Venerable inheritance had a huge attraction to almost anybody.

Worry was because Fang Yuan had expended almost all his resources to undergo this sixth ink transformation. In order to accumulate funds, he had sold the Immortal Gu remnant recipes again and caused these remnant recipes to have no value left.

At the same time, he sold large numbers of rockmen, fox groups, wolf groups, Gu worms, and even the precious hairy men and some air bubble fish.

Like the rank four emotion poetry Gu, golden dragon Gu, golden breeze Gu, as well as rank five Gu including multiple spring egg Gu, vajra stare Gu, turn gold Gu, soft bones Gu, pitch black Gu, and hints and clues Gu.

"Right now, I only have the enslavement and strength path Gu worms left in my aperture. In Hu Immortal blessed land, I have Blood Sea Ancestor's true inheritance, rank four blood skull Gu, as well as rank three bone flesh unity Gu and the yang Gu left after using yin Gu of the yin-yang rotation Gu. Other than that, I still have some stargate Gu, hole earth Gu, connecting heaven Gu, divine sense Gu, burial soul toad, and some supplementary Gu."

These Gu were all of utmost importance, they could not be sold. Some were absolutely necessary, he needed them in the future.

"Hu Immortal blessed land was almost squeezed dry by me, it needs to recover. But now that I have the six-edge owner token, I can control six floors in Eighty-Eight True Yang Building as I wish. All of the rewards in these six floors can be taken by me. These rewards are extremely valuable, if I take them all, my wealth would grow by at least sixty times that of my current foundation!"

Fang Yuan had his plans.

But currently, he could not touch these rewards.

Hei Lou Lan had gathered some experts, and was at the final round of the fifth floor.

Soon, he was going to obtain a one-edge owner token.

With this token, he could check any floor's round rewards in Eighty-Eight True Yang Building.

If Fang Yuan took the rewards, wouldn't he reveal himself?

"At the final moment, when Imperial Court blessed land is about to close and everyone gets sent out, I will take the rewards then, by that point, nobody would know a thing."

...

Bam!

The bear paw smacked and the earth quaked, rocks were sent flying like shrapnel.

As the smoke dispersed, a huge bear paw the size of five to six horse carriages was lifted, showing a huge crater.

The rank four Gu Master who was unfortunately hit by the bear paw had turned into a pile of mushy flesh, mixed with some bone shards and brain matter.

"Too fast! We cannot react to it."

"The final round is truly harder than ascending to heaven..."

"This is only the phantom image of a flying bear, it only has half the strength of the true body. If this was really the desolate beast flying bear, we would not even be able to escape!"

The Gu Masters on the battlefield were all injured, they were in a pathetic state and felt great lingering fear.

It was the phantom image of the desolate beast flying bear that was guarding the fifth floor's hundredth round.

It had a huge body, like that of a mountain, it had white, snowy fur, and a full set of Gu worms in it, each were elite Gu worms. It attacked fiercely, but moved just as agilely, it could dart around like lightning, which was ironic due to its huge bulky figure. After fighting for only thirty minutes, the Gu Masters had already suffered huge losses.

"Lord tribe leader, we should retreat. Our motive this time is to probe it, now that we have understood most of the Gu worms on the flying bear, we have actually achieved our goal already." Sun Shi Han stood beside Hei Lou Lan, advising.

Hei Lou Lan frowned, looking around the battlefield.

He was an expert in leading men to wars and battles, he knew that his troops had low morale now.

"Since I started challenging the Eighty-Eight True Yang Building, this flying bear phantom is the strongest opponent I've met. To defeat it, our strength is not enough, we need even more helpers."

Hei Lou Lan assessed in his heart before snorting and saying one word: "Retreat."

Sun Shi Han felt relieved in his heart, and not just him, the other Gu Masters already had the intention to retreat, but because of the Black Tyrant's fierce reputation, no one dared to suggest it.

-x-X-x-

Everyone retreated from Eighty-Eight True Yang Building, as Hei Lou Lan gave an order to recruit experts that night.

He was the alliance leader that won this contest, according to the rules, the entire army was his to mobilize. Everyone knew about the Black Tyrant's fierce reputation, together with him opening Eighty-Eight True Yang Building to everyone without any cost, they were deeply grateful to him.

With both authority and gratitude, Hei Lou Lan's influence reached its peak.

With this order, it created a huge commotion as everyone who was called showed up without fail.

Wolf King Chang Shan Yin, Water Demon Hao Ji Liu, Twin Demons Gao Yang and Zhu Zai, Little Ma Zun Ma Ying Jie, Fox Commander Tang Miao Ming, White Fairy Xi Xue, Shadow Sword Expert Bian Si Xuan, Tai Bai Yun Sheng, Lu Shuang, Tao You, Gu Guo Long, Dou E, Nie Ya Qing, Ye Lui Sang...

On the day of the alliance meeting, the hall was filled with shining stars as heroes and conquerors whipped up a huge storm.

"Old sir, with you here, it is like having a giant pillar of support, we do not have to fear about low morale, hahaha!" Hei Lou Lan sat grandly at the main seat, looking around and laughing with great ambitions.

Among those who were present, Tai Bai Yun Sheng had the greatest reputation, he healed people all over the land, countless people were indebted to him, even Hei Lou Lan or Chang Shan Yin could not compare to him.

But the person who sat next to Hei Lou Lan was not Tai Bai Yun Sheng, but Wolf King Chang Shan Yin.

Reputation was something, but battle strength was another aspect.

After the Imperial Court contest, everyone agreed that Fang Yuan's battle strength was the greatest. Dual path cultivator, flying master, enslavement master, all these auras gathered into one person, it was dazzling and overwhelming, thus no one had any disagreements regarding Fang Yuan's position.

Thus, after Hei Lou Lan talked to Tai Bai Yun Sheng, he turned around to Fang Yuan: "Brother Shan Yin, we will need to count on you for this battle! If we get through, you will earn half of the rewards."

He understood Fang Yuan's nature, he would not act without benefits, thus he gave such a tempting offer.

The final round's rewards were nothing ordinary. Once Hei Lou Lan spoke, he gave half the benefits to Fang Yuan, this meant that he, along with the others, would have to share the remaining half of the rewards.

As their interests were concerned, some discussions could be heard in the hall.

Many people were indignant regarding this allocation, but no one had the guts to openly oppose Black Tyrant's arrangements and offend the grand Wolf King in this hall.

"Very well, we will go with that." Fang Yuan nodded, his arrogant gaze swept the hall, as the voices came to a stop.

"Why has elder Pan Ping not arrived yet?" Hei Lou Lan asked around.

Pan Ping was born in the demonic path, nowadays he had entered Hei tribe and become an external elder. As the current Hei tribe leader, Hei Lou Lan's orders did not summon Pan Ping, Hei Lou Lan was extremely displeased by this.

Actually, not just Pan Ping, Chang tribe's first elder Chang Biao was not present either.

But Chang Biao was a Chang tribesman, Hei Lou Lan had to ignore it because of Fang Yuan.

Fang Yuan did not react.

The information regarding the deaths of Pan and Chang had not been spread yet.

Challenging Eighty-Eight True Yang Building normally took several days or even half a month, the tougher the rounds, the longer it would take. Especially someone like Pan Ping, as a person without Giant Sun bloodline, he would incur huge expenses when he entered Eighty-Eight True Yang Building using the guest token. Precisely because of this, these outsiders treasured their opportunity in entering the building, if possible, they would not leave it unless they had no other choice.

Hei Lou Lan's words had just been spoken, when his attendant Hei Shu stood up and reported: "Reporting to lord tribe leader, elder Pan Ping and Lord Chang Biao had gone into the seventh floor not long ago, I have sent people to inform them, but the seventh floor's layout is very confusing, it is like a huge maze. The maze prohibits the use of letter Gu, and there are even wild wolf groups deep inside. The servants have tried to find them for many days, but they only found some battle traces, they could not find the two lords."

Hei Lou Lan snorted as he waved his hand: "Then forget it, we will not wait for them, the guest tokens are ready, we will depart tomorrow morning!"

By the second day, everyone grandly charged into the fifth floor.

This was the largest force that had gathered to enter Eighty-Eight True Yang Building since it was formed, it attracted countless gazes in the sacred palace.

The final round of the fifth floor was a barren and desolate mountain.

Brown soil, hard as steel rocks, with no grass or plants.

The moment everyone entered, the flying bear phantom was alerted and growled, tearing through the air, and causing a thunderous noise.

Swoosh!

They saw in the dark yellow sky, a white whirlwind come crashing down.

The experts retreated at once.

The flying bear phantom crashed on the ground, with a loud bang, the earth shook as intense winds blew, causing many to lose their balance.

"Ferocious indeed!" Pei Yan Fei's expression was solemn, if he had been hit directly, he would be heavily injured if not dead.

"It was thanks to tribe leader Hei Lou Lan's reminder, if not, the moment we came in we would've been attacked by this bear." Gu Guo Long looked at the howling flying bear inside the crater and said with lingering fear.

"This is called learning from past experiences, the last time we came here, we were sneak attacked by the flying bear, five experts died on the spot!" Hei Xiu Yi gritted his teeth, saying with deep hatred.

"Brother Shan Yin, the rest is up to you guys." Hei Lou Lan urged.

According to their battle plan earlier, the first wave of attack should be unleashed by the enslavement path Gu Masters, in order to wear down the flying bear phantom's battle strength.

Without any words from him, large numbers of wolves came from all directions, from the sky and land, charging and attacking the flying bear phantom.

In the sky, there was the azure wolf group, on the ground, there were the white-eyes wolves, frenzy wolves, blood forest wolves and others.

Ordinary wolves numbered to over four hundred thousand.

At once, the wolves engulfed the area, charging like the huge waves of the great sea, submerging the island-like flying bear phantom.

Roar!

The flying boar roared, shaking heaven and earth.

Howl!!!!

The wolf groups were not to be outdone, howling in a similar fashion.

The battle ensued, whipping up a bloody storm.

The flying bear phantom's four paws slammed, killing at least dozens of wild wolves with one strike. The ordinary wolves could only be a disturbance to it, only the mutated beast groups could pose a threat and cause injuries to the flying bear phantom.

But the essence of enslavement path had always been to overwhelm quality with quantity, expending the enemy's energy to their greatest limit.

Fang Yuan manipulated the wolf group, attacking as freely as the wind, or as crushing as the snow, the flying bear phantom seemed to have sunk into a deep swamp, even with its frenzied attacks, it could not break through the encirclement.

"Now this is a master level attainment."

"Wild beasts are beasts, without a human's intelligence, they are being toyed around by Chang Shan Yin."

"The beast groups are like a work of art under Wolf King's control!"

Everyone was in a daze, the enslavement Gu Masters Tang Miao Ming and Hei Qi Sheng could see the brilliance of his actions, feeling a strong sense of admiration and adoration towards Fang Yuan.

But the good situation did not last, the flying bear phantom suddenly stopped its actions, opening its mouth and exhaling.

With this, the world changed colors, as starlight shone brilliantly to form into a river.

Rank five — star river Gu!

The star river poured down, like a dragon or python, it engulfed the places it went, be it frenzy wolf or blood forest wolf, they were swept away by the star river, some were holding their ground desperately with their defensive Gu, but those that did not have defensive Gu were turned into stardust.

At once, the wolf group suffered huge losses.

Fang Yuan's gaze was unmoved, it was as if the losses did not affect him, and he did not stop for now.

Only until half the wolves were left, did he order them to retreat.

Tang Miao Ming and Hei Qi Sheng quickly ordered their beast groups to replace the wolves.

These two, one was called Little Fox Commander with quasi-master attainment, in terms of enslavement attainment, she was second to Fang Yuan alone in the sacred palace.

The latter was an enslavement path Gu Master nurtured by the super force Hei tribe, although he had not attained master level skill, he had deep foundations and great strength. @@novelbin@@

Tang Miao Ming controlled the fox groups, while Hei Qi Sheng controlled the eagle groups, one dominated the sky while the other was on the ground.

But the flying bear phantom was getting more ferocious, after the star river had fully looped around in a ring, it clapped its paws together, roaring again as an intense wind blew, and clouds formed from nothing.

In an instant, the intense wind turned into tiger-shaped wind tigers, while the clouds turned into dragon-shaped cloud dragons.

Rank five — wind tiger cloud dragon Gu!

Thousands of wind tigers and cloud dragons charged forward, facing the foxes and eagles head on.

At once, the battlefield was in chaos as blood rained and the pungent smell spread.

"Oh no, at this rate..." Tang Miao Ming's forehead was full of sweat, her head was hurting as she was gritting her teeth desperately.

The battle was too intense, she wanted to preserve her fox group, thus she manipulated them very meticulously, it caused her soul to be greatly worn out, and she was reaching her limit.

As for Hei Qi Sheng, his situation was even worse than hers.

The fox group could still resist the enemy, but a large proportion of Hei Qi Sheng's eagle group had already been killed by the wind tigers and cloud dragons, they were in disorder and he could not attend to one aspect without neglecting another.

The other Gu Masters retreated time and time again, but they did not show any surprise.

Star river Gu and wind tiger cloud dragon Gu were exposed in their previous probing, everyone was prepared for them.

"Have you finished the investigation?" Hei Lou Lan asked an investigative Gu Master beside him.

The investigative Gu Master was very nervous, he sat on the ground as he activated his Gu worm wholeheartedly. His forehead was folded into a frown as he replied with a trembling voice: "Star river Gu's location has been found, it is in the flying bear's mouth, on the largest tooth on the left side. As for the other Gu worms, we have to continue searching."

It was different to deal with beasts compared to Gu Masters.

All the Gu worms on the wild beast are wild, they can be captured. Gu worms on Gu Masters were usually refined already.

Hei Lou Lan ordered his men to search for the location of the wild Gu because of this.

As long as they can capture the wild Gu on the flying bear's body, it would be much easier for them to destroy the flying bear phantom.

Even if they could not capture it, it would suffice if they destroyed the Gu.

Gu worms were very fragile on their own, even for Spring Autumn Cicada which was rank six, Fang Yuan just needed to squeeze lightly to squish it.

Wild beasts did not have apertures, the wild Gu resided in their bodies, this was a huge weakness.

Hei Lou Lan snorted, shouting: "Continue searching!"

He was not pleased with this result, the star river Gu was inside the flying bear's mouth, the difficulty to capture it was too high.

During their conversation, the battlefield's situation was getting worse.

"Tang Miao Ming and Hei Qi Sheng are slowly becoming unable to resist!" Pei Yan Fei said with a heavy expression.

"The flying bear's attacks are too ferocious, luckily the wild beasts are attracting its attention. But even if the foxes and eagles die, we can replenish them, our motive of weakening the enemy has been achieved." Sun Shi Han stroked his beard as he evaluated.

-x-X-x-

Although wild Gu absorbed energy from the air directly, being able to use their abilities freely without any limits on primeval essence.

But during an intense battle, towards the end, the wild Gu would become more and more passive, if they sensed that the battle was going south, they would leave their host and escape on the spot using their instinct of sensing danger.

Thus, when attacking a wild beast, especially beast kings or desolate beasts, during the first half of the battle, it would usually contain the most firepower, after a while, the attacks would slowly become weaker and less oppressive.

"Even so, we cannot allow the fox group and eagle group to suffer such losses, we should invite Lord Chang Shan Yin to step in." At the side, Hei Xiu Yi said.

"Step in... to what end?" Fang Yuan folded his arms, scoffing arrogantly as he heard this: "According to our battle arrangement, I will strike first while the two of them take over after me, with such intervals, we have to each hold on for fifteen minutes. Right now, they have not even been there for half the allocated time, it is not time for me to step in yet."

If they entered the battlefield now, the wolf group would only face the cruel slaughter of the flying bear phantom, although it would weaken the flying bear phantom as intended, if he could reduce his losses, Fang Yuan was very willing to watch on the fence.

As for the others' losses, was that Fang Yuan's problem?

Hei Xiu Yi was furious upon hearing this, but because of Fang Yuan's status, he could only hold in his anger: "Lord Wolf King, everyone is putting in their full effort for this battle, right now Tang Miao Ming and Hei Qi Sheng are fighting with their life, but lord is watching by the side, isn't this too much?"

"Hmm? You dare to lecture me?" Fang Yuan frowned as his killing intent surged.

Although he was folding his arms, a monstrous arm grew out from his back.

The monstrous arm was extremely powerful and strong, but it also moved extremely fast, directly assaulting Hei Xiu Yi.

Never in Hei Xiu Yi's dreams did he think that Fang Yuan would dare to publicly, and especially during such an important battle, try to kill him?!

Before the fist hit, he felt the intense winds blowing towards him, causing his face to feel pain already.

An incomparable feeling of fear and danger instantly filled his heart.

At the crucial moment, his battle senses from many years of fighting saved his life successfully.

He reacted before even thinking, activating his defense Gu and putting up three lines of defense.

He was a defensive Gu Master originally, and because his specialty was defense, Hei Lou Lan had once sent him to Fang Yuan as a form of protection.

But during the battle, Hei Xiu Yi cherished his own safety and forgot about his mission, abandoning Fang Yuan on the battlefield.

The monstrous arm was unstoppable, it smashed the three defenses quickly and hit his chest.

Crack.

A crisp sound could be heard.

Hei Xiu Yi's rib bones were all crushed, the monstrous strength sent him flying like a cannonball.

He vomited blood while flying in the air.

Then with a rumble, he crashed on a small mound several hundred steps away.

When the sound of the impact was heard and the dust settled, he was half embedded into the mound, falling unconscious and losing his battle strength.

"Lord Wolf King?!"

"What happened? What happened! Why did they fight?"

"Hei Xiu Yi urged Lord Wolf King to battle, the two could not get along and Wolf King suddenly burst into anger, sending Hei Xiu Yi flying!"

Seeing such a shocking event, everyone was gasping.

Internal conflicts were always so sudden, so severe.

Hei Xiu Yi's identity was not simple, he was one of the three commanders of the black banner army, an important person within the Hei tribe higher-ups. Fang Yuan attacking him with such intensity was no different than openly taunting Hei Lou Lan.

Once Hei Lou Lan and Chang Shan Yin stood on opposing sides, this battle would not only end up in failure, the entire sacred palace would also fall into political turmoil!

"Wolf King, what happened? I would like to hear your explanation." Hei Lou Lan's expression was like still water as he came over to question Fang Yuan.

He usually called Fang Yuan "Brother Shan Yin" to show their close relationship, but now that he called him "Wolf King", it showed his anger.

But no matter how angry he was, would Fang Yuan be afraid?

Immediately, Fang Yuan stared back at him with no fear, his killing intent dispersed as he snickered: "Tribe leader Hei Lou Lan, you came at a good time, your subordinate was truly stepping out of line, he dared to lecture me? Such a lack of respect with a complete disregard for seniority, I punished him for you, no need to thank me, don't forget about our friendship after all."

Using "disrespect" and "seniority", he sent two reasons over just like that.

His final sentence mentioning "our friendship" had even deeper meaning.

It was like he was trying to say that they had a great friendship, but it could also mean that they had no friendship at all!

Hei Lou Lan stared furiously!

"This Chang Shan Yin is too arrogant! He dared to hit my man! Looking at his lawless manner, does he really think I cannot do anything to him just because of his great battle strength?" Black Tyrant roared in his heart.

He was cultivating dark path on the surface, but in truth, because of the Great Strength True Martial physique, his real cultivation was in the strength path.

His battle strength was superb, but he could not use his strength path methods because that would accelerate the disaster of one of the ten extreme physiques.

"I'll endure it! Right now, we are at the crucial moment of attacking the flying bear phantom, if we get into an argument now, it would all go to waste! What is most important now is to find my strength path Immortal Gu and ascend to become a Gu Immortal!"

As long as they killed the flying bear phantom this time, Hei Lou Lan would be able to get through this floor and his owner token would immediately become a one-edge owner token.

With the one-edge owner token, he would be able to inspect the reward of any round of any floor, the one with a strength path Immortal Gu would be his focus and target.

Precisely so, it was extremely important to kill the flying bear phantom, even with Hei Lou Lan's temper and cruelty, he had to endure it.

"I'll let you be arrogant for once! One day, I will make you kneel down at my feet and lick my toes, if I tell you to shut up, you will keep quiet. If I ask you to bark, you will wag your tail!"

Hei Lou Lan was extremely furious, veins were popping on his forehead, but his eyes were fixed on Fang Yuan intensely.

Just as everyone was feeling a heavy atmosphere from this silence, and were feeling uneasy, Hei Lou Lan suddenly raised his head and laughed loudly: "Good, brother Shan Yin did a good job, such a disrespectful person should be taught a lesson indeed."

This was akin to Hei Lou Lan taking a step back, those who knew his poor temper were all shocked.

"His tribesman was beaten till he was unconscious in public, Hei Lou Lan actually agreed with him?"

"Wolf King is too strong, he did not care about the super force Hei tribe, now even Hei Lou Lan need to take a step back."

"Bullshit, this is tribe leader Hei Lou Lan caring about the big picture! He did not want to stoop to the level of Chang Shan Yin! Chang Shan Yin beat us Hei tribesmen, one day, he will pay the price."

Everyone had their comments as they conversed in secret.

Roar!

The flying boar's roaring attracted everyone's attention again.

The eagle and fox groups were facing great losses.

"I have let down all the lords." Hei Qi Sheng's nose was bleeding, his face was full of shame.

Tang Miao Ming's expression was pale, as her slim body was swaying with weakness.

"Protect the two of them." Tai Bai Yun Sheng shouted.

"Both of you have had a huge contribution to this, I can see your sincerity. After this battle, you will be greatly rewarded." Hei Lou Lan had an amicable expression as he came forward to console them.

The flying bear lost its obstacles and charged forward towards everyone.

By right, the wolf group should be charging up to continue weakening the bear.

But Hei Lou Lan looked at Fang Yuan who was folding his arms arrogantly, not saying a word, in fact his wolves were retreating faster than anyone on the battlefield.

"I'll endure! One day, I will make you pay a huge price!" Hei Lou Lan gritted his teeth, knowing that he could not make Fang Yuan do anything, if he forced Fang Yuan and got rejected in public, he would take a huge hit to his reputation and be deeply humiliated.

Thus, Hei Lou Lan shouted loudly: "Strike, initiate the second step of the plan!" @@novelbin@@

"Go!"

Immediately, two people flew out like lightning.

One was a slim and elegant person wearing a fluttering blue dress, it was White Fairy Xi Xue.

The other was muscular and stable, wearing a yellow robe, it was Gu tribe leader Gu Guo Long.

White Fairy Xi Xue flew into the air, her sleeves were waving as she shouted in an alluring manner, causing snow to descend immediately.

It was her signature rank five Gu worm — flying snow Gu.

Gu Guo Long ran on the ground, his legs were moving like turbines, everywhere he went, smoke rose as rocks were sent flying.

It was also a rank five Gu, called flying sand moving rock.

At once, white snow was floating in the air, while sand and rocks were rolling on the ground.

The giant mountain-like flying bear phantom was stuck between the snow and sand, its speed reduced drastically as its vision was also obscured.

It roared loudly, waving its paws in the snow and sand, but the air currents generated from its attacks made the sand and snow even more intense, blurring its sight.

Seeing this, Hei Lou Lan laughed cruelly, ordering: "Third step!"

This time, almost ten people charged into the battlefield.

Every one of them was an expert, there was Bian Si Xuan, Hao Ji Liu, Pei Yan Fei, Gao Yang, Shu Zai, Dou E, Nie Ya Qing, Tao You, Lu Shuang...

These Gu Masters were either rank four peak stage or rank five experts.

Adding in Gu Guo Long and Xi Xue, they were truly a powerful formation.

They drilled into the snow and sand, attacking furiously towards the flying bear phantom.

The flying bear phantom roared continuously, it was very agitated and attacked randomly, but had little effect.

On the other hand, the Gu Masters had used their investigative Gu worms from the start, their vision was clear as they constantly avoided the bear while unleashing strong attacks.

Pei Yan Fei grew wings as his swallow wings were like scissors tearing through the sky.

Swallow wings Gu.

Golden coat Gu.

Rainbow transformation Gu.

Killer move — Golden Rainbow Strike!

He turned into a golden flash of lightning as he charged down with fierce crackling.

The flying bear roared in pain, blood was spewing as a huge injury appeared on its chest, from the left shoulder to its right waist.

Nie Ya Qing followed closely after.

He was a rank five Gu Master, using the iron hook silver slash Gu.

His palm formed into an eagle claw shape as he aimed at the flying bear phantom, slashing with his fingers.

Immediately, several flashes appeared in the air, some were as dark as steel while some were shining like silver.

His claws continued to tear at the sky, as countless flashes attacked the flying bear phantom's eyes, nose, and mouth.

Nie Ya Qing attacked its weak points, causing the flying bear to take the hit passively.

"Overlapping shadow." Bian Si Xuan shouted lightly, as the shadow sword in her hand waved.

A dark sword shadow flew several hundred steps and attacked the flying bear's right leg noiselessly, leaving a ten meter long wound.

"Protect me." Ye Lui Sang shouted, raising both his palms as a fireball appeared above him, growing and expanding at a rapid speed.

The fireball became larger and larger, as the battlefield was dyed red, the light from the fireball could not be concealed by the snow and sand.

The flying bear felt the danger too and struggled, charging towards Ye Lui Sang who was in the air.

But the next moment, it was attacked by Dou E, Gu Guo Long, and Tao You.

Dou E was a transformation path Gu master, turning into a giant crocodile as he battled and retreated.

He opened his mouth, shooting out his teeth one by one.

The teeth hit the flying bear's body and were embedded into it, in a few breath's time, they exploded, causing the flying bear's body to be covered in flesh and blood.

Gu Guo Long waved his sleeve and dozens of Gu worms flew out.

These Gu worms landed on the ground, causing the earth to grow into a mound.

The mound broke and rockmen-like giant statues appeared, standing up and attacking the flying bear phantom.

Tao You was an earth path Gu Master.

But he and Gu Guo Long had different methods, he continued to absorb the earth energy as he gathered it into himself.

Next, he punched consecutively, with each punch shooting out earth energy. Flying in the air, they transformed into meteors and crashed onto the flying bear's body.

Bam bam bam...

As the intense meteors collided, the flying bear's attacks towards Ye Lui Sang slowed.

Finally, Ye Lui Sang was finished with his charging and he pressed his palms down, as a giant fireball was sent down like a descending mountain, hitting the huge flying bear phantom without regard for its welfare.

Bam——!

With an intense explosion, ears were deafened.

The intense wind stirred, spreading everywhere, blowing the snow and sand away to the edge of the battlefield.

The Gu Masters who were there were blown by the intense winds, getting shocked as their clothes and hair were pulled along by the wind.

When the dust settled, a huge crater formed on the battlefield.

All around the deep crater, a sand-like surface could be seen due to the strong heat from the fire.

The flying bear phantom was curled up into a ball, making no sounds. Its body was covered in five lights that were interchanging, black, white, red, yellow, and azure.

Rank five — five element bear skin Gu.

This Gu could greatly reduce the damage from metal, wood, water, fire, and earth path Gu worms, but under the attacks of so many experts, the flying bear's body was covered in injuries as blood spewed everywhere, and some injuries were so deep bones could be seen.

Gu Masters were standing at the edge of the crater, watching the flying bear.

Although the flying bear was strong, after two rounds of battle, such results had been obtained.

"Be careful, do not forget that it still has the grand chaotic dance Gu." Sun Shi Han reminded.

The Gu Masters had a serious expression as some nodded lightly.

Grand chaotic dance Gu was a rank five Gu, it could cause the flying bear to go into a frenzied state, increasing its strength and speed greatly, at the same time its four limbs could be twisted at will.

Once this wild Gu was activated, the flying bear's danger level would surge, if one was not careful and got caught, they might be turned into meat paste in no more than a few breath's time.

"What's there to be afraid of, don't forget we have Old Sir Tai Bai here, whoever charges first will be heavily rewarded by me!" Hei Lou Lan shouted, his promise of rewards made the Gu Master's eyes shine brightly.

When great rewards are offered, brave people emerge.

"I'll do it!" Hao Ji Liu shouted, whipping up a wave as he charged towards the flying bear.

Under everyone's gazes, he advanced towards the flying bear quickly.

A thousand steps, five hundred steps, three hundred steps!

The flying bear suddenly raised its head, its eyes were blood red as it growled loudly, shooting out an invisible air bubble.

The bubble expanded at lightning speed, covering both Hao Ji Liu and the flying bear, as it contracted quickly and vanished completely.

In an instant, the flying bear and Hao Ji Liu both vanished!