Battling Falling Star Hound
After the handover, Fang Yuan leaves Hei Fan grotto-heaven despite Chu Du’s request that he stay, since his fourth earthly calamity is close, and before going he casts hundred years harmony to bind a fresh alliance agreement with Chu Du. He travels back to Lang Ya blessed land alone, where a hairy man Gu Immortal shrugs off his return as human and not one of them. Fang Yuan overhears every word through his investigative methods. His calamity is near, and with Hei Fan’s inheritance already raising his strength greatly, he means to face it alone, though Chu Du’s help would be safer, because sharing would split Reckless Savage’s true meaning. He needs Lang Ya Sect’s immortal tribulation tempering aperture and Gu borrowed from land spirit, but their cooled relationship means land spirit will not lend without a large gain. He decides instead to complete the sect’s mission against the falling star hound, both to mend the relationship and to earn contribution points toward the borrowing. ch. 1134
Fang Yuan flies to the first cloud city. Lang Ya land spirit greets him coldly, but Fang Yuan’s bitter, apologetic look, sharpened by attitude Gu, eases his suspicion. Land spirit warns him that Twelfth Hair’s group has already coordinated a new strike after a failed attempt, and taking the mission now would put Fang Yuan in conflict with them first. Fang Yuan proposes letting Twelfth Hair’s group go first, offering to step in only if they fail, and land spirit agrees and announces it to the sect. The announcement stirs a commotion, hairy men calling Fang Yuan despicable for waiting to see them succeed first, and Twelfth Hair resolves not to let them down. He had meant to strike in two days, and puts the attempt off to prepare more carefully. ch. 1134
Seven days later Fang Yuan is notified that Twelfth Hair’s group is about to move, and he joins them uninvited. Sixth Hair, a Shadow Sect spy whose deal with Fang Yuan keeps each safe from exposing the other, greets him strangely, having suffered immensely when he last dealt with Fang Yuan on Ying Wu Xie’s behalf. Since then he has quietly stirred the hairy men against Fang Yuan. Twelfth Hair, his own earlier fight having given the hairy men fresh confidence, tells Fang Yuan he will be disappointed this time. Fang Yuan reads him as visibly changed, heavily injured and bedridden before but drastically improved since in cultivation and mental state, and answers only that he will await Twelfth Hair’s victory. ch. 1134
The group gathers at the center of the main formation, the hairy men standing close together and Fang Yuan the only outcast. Twelfth Hair activates the Gu formation, noting that one more person raises its cost in immortal essence. Fang Yuan set up this same teleportation sub-formation in Tai Qiu himself, and had once used it easily alone. After a long expenditure of essence it fires, carrying them all to Tai Qiu. Twelfth Hair notes with some disdain that the cost barely rose for Fang Yuan, guessing his dao mark foundation is shallow. ch. 1134
They set out, Fang Yuan trailing behind on purpose, and soon find an immature falling star hound. Twelfth Hair charges, but the hound bursts forward at incredible speed, scattering the hairy men. Furious, Twelfth Hair vows to battle it for three hundred rounds and summons three desolate beasts: a chestnut yak, a golden-white tiger and a diamond bear. The beasts engage the hound in the towering giant grass while Twelfth Hair draws its attention and the rest strike from hiding at range. Fang Yuan watches from further back, seeing real improvement in the hairy men though it remains poor, and the immature falling star hound still fights them evenly. He smiles up at the sky. Silently he asks heaven’s will how it will deal with him this time. ch. 1134
