Chapter 133

Fleeing a bold lightning wolf and several hundred ordinary lightning wolves, Fang Yuan repeatedly vanishes and reappears to draw the pack onward, then activates full stealth once he reaches his real destination, a valley where five Gu Masters, among them Gu Yue Man Shi with his Monolith Gu, are already fighting off another wolf pack. The bold lightning wolf, its attention pulled away by the fresh scent, forgets Fang Yuan and leads its pack straight into the valley battle, and a Gu Master there fires a signal Gu into the sky begging for reinforcements that Fang Yuan judges will never matter. Watching from a cliff, Fang Yuan reasons that killing lightning wolves earns only ten merit points an eyeball, while returning a fallen enemy’s Gu worm to the clan is worth at least a thousand, and that Gu Yue Man Shi’s Monolith Gu alone should be worth around 3900 points and raise his own place on the battle merit board by at least twenty positions. ^{ch. 133}

He explains to himself why he settled on this particular group after weighing the others: Chi Shan’s group has Gu Yue Chi She, whose Snake Communication Gu senses heat and would see through his stealth; Mo Yan commands an even sharper investigator than Chi She; and Qing Shu’s group, though weak on investigation, travels with Gu Yue Fang Zheng, whom the clan is certain to have assigned an elder to protect, making it too dangerous to lure. He deliberately chose only the bold lightning wolf rather than a thousand-strong frenzy pack, giving Man Shi’s group a longer, harder fight to survive rather than a quick death. ^{ch. 133}

Nearby, Bai Ning Bing wakes from a nap at the sound of battle and, glancing down at the valley, notices Fang Yuan watching the fight from a tree with no intention of helping. Bai Ning Bing’s stillness had kept the Earth Communication Ear Grass from sensing him, but the moment he moves to get closer he is discovered, and Fang Yuan turns to find Qing Mao Mountain’s number one genius standing before him, the young man who killed a rank three clan elder while still rank two and has since reached rank three himself. Bai Ning Bing circles him with open curiosity, remarking that he senses an odd familiarity in Fang Yuan, and correctly guesses that Fang Yuan lured this wolf pack to kill the trapped Gu Masters himself rather than act directly, to avoid leaving evidence. ^{ch. 133}

Fang Yuan recognizes in him a fellow “natural demon,” someone who has abandoned worldly attachment and looks on others with indifference, and privately recalls from his previous life that this same Bai Ning Bing later murders the three clans and turns the lush green Qing Mao Mountain into a hellish ice mountain. When Fang Yuan tells him plainly that he is lonely, Bai Ning Bing agrees without hesitation, mentioning that killing a Xiong clan Gu Master recently and taking his Plunder Gu was the one thing that had been fun lately. Fang Yuan asks if he means to kill him too, and Bai Ning Bing, his eyes shifting to blue crystal, laughs and declares that he does, thrilled to have finally met someone as interesting as Fang Yuan and thanking him, by name unknown, for the chance to fight him to the death. ^{ch. 133}