Chapter 1050

The rainbow light from Cloud Cover Continent shines across all three continents, and hairy men take it as an immortal miracle, since Lang Ya land spirit’s changed personality has already stirred competition among the continents to select candidates for cultivation there. Black Hair King, moved by the light, decrees a martial competition to commemorate it, promising the winner a treasure from the treasury. He reasons that the war showed combat skilled Gu Masters, not only refinement ones, are needed ahead. The order spreads outward from the imperial city as a huge commotion. ^{ch. 1050}

Half a month later, Hua Feng City Lord arrives as an honored guest. Steel Thread City Lord receives him personally. He proposes a preliminary contest between their two cities’ Gu Masters, since the king allows each region only three competitors and their region holds two cities. Across several rounds, Hua Feng City wins every match and Steel Thread City loses every match, while Hua Feng City Lord drinks casually. Steel Thread City Lord grows anxious that a shutout will definitely become widely spread news, burdening her city with years of pressure from Hua Feng City. ^{ch. 1050}

For the last match, an elder makes a secret suggestion. He proposes fielding the newly bought rank five human slave, Fang Zheng. Steel Thread City knows the slave only as Fang Yuan, the name he took rather than expose his own under torture. Steel Thread City Lord objects on reputation grounds, but the elder knows the real reason is her reluctance to lose a slave she has visited almost nightly since buying him. The elder argues that the current king values talent regardless of race and that either result benefits her: a loss falls on the slave, a win sends Fang Zheng to the competition and wins her the king’s favor. She reads the elder as really scheming and sees that either result costs her the slave, then refuses to let lust outweigh power and swaps Fang Zheng in. ^{ch. 1050}

Told that winning would open a path to the competition, Fang Zheng walks onto the stage. Sensing his rank five aura, Hua Feng City Lord grows alert and invokes hairy man tradition to choose Gu refinement, not combat, as the round’s content. Steel Thread City’s elders watch with visible distaste, but the rules already agreed leave Steel Thread City Lord unable to object. She orders Fang Zheng to win at all costs or lose his life. ^{ch. 1050}

Already utterly humiliated by Steel Thread City Lord’s nightly demands and ready to accept death as release, Fang Zheng hears a mysterious voice in his mind urging him not to give up and to seek revenge instead. Startled, he cries out asking who it is. Hua Feng City’s final Gu Master steps onto the stage, names himself Mao Shi Ba believing the cry was addressed to him, and turns furious when Fang Zheng says nothing, so animosity is already huge before the contest starts. ^{ch. 1050}

The refinement contest begins, and Mao Shi Ba, Hua Feng City’s strongest Gu Master and skilled in both combat and refinement, quickly takes and extends a commanding lead. Fang Zheng, who has only explored refinement path a little while mainly cultivating enslavement path, falls immensely behind by the contest’s middle. Onlookers from both cities, and Fang Zheng himself, believe he will lose. ^{ch. 1050}

As Fang Zheng resigns himself to losing as a release through death, the voice returns. Its shout startles him, his hands shake, and the half finished Gu goes up in smoke while Hua Feng City Lord laughs. He recognizes it as the surviving will of Fang Yuan, left behind in his mind after Fang Yuan’s death. Fang Yuan’s will scolds Fang Zheng, calling him brother, for not seeking revenge and refusing to grow stronger, then offers to help him win. Resentful, Fang Zheng at first refuses. Fang Yuan’s will insists he truly cannot watch this and wants revenge on the hairy man Gu Immortals who killed Fang Yuan, urging Fang Zheng to act in Fang Yuan’s name. Desperate for any chance at victory, Fang Zheng follows the instructions, restarting the refinement with profound gold, ice gold, and tear gold placed in order. ^{ch. 1050}

Fang Zheng successfully refines the Gu before everyone and declares his win. The hall falls silent, and Mao Shi Ba, unable to accept the result, stares blankly. The hairy men struggle to accept that a human has defeated an expert hairy man Gu Master at Gu refinement. ^{ch. 1050}

Attention shifts to the fading rainbow light, where a figure walks out: a restored Fang Yuan, who thanks Lang Ya land spirit, calling him first supreme elder. Lang Ya land spirit laughs and asks for Dang Hun Mountain, Luo Po valley, or wisdom Gu as thanks. Fang Yuan refuses to simply give them but offers a trade instead, asking what price the land spirit will pay. Caught off guard, Lang Ya land spirit hesitates, awkwardness written on his face. ^{ch. 1050}