Chapter 137

As Xiong Li’s punch is about to land, Bai Ning Bing’s right arm suddenly turns to transparent blue ice from the rank three Ice Muscles Gu he had already trained into his flesh, and his fingers form a blade that punctures and freezes Xiong Li’s heart, killing him on the spot. Getting up, Bai Ning Bing tells the shocked Xiong group that his earlier show of a broken arm was a lure meant to draw someone into a surprise attack, glancing toward Fang Yuan as he says it. ^{ch. 137}

Xiong Lin charges at Bai Ning Bing in grief and rage, but Xiong Jiang restrains him and steps forward instead, activating Shadow Bond Gu to link his own shadow to Bai Ning Bing’s so that any injury Bai Ning Bing deals him will also strike Bai Ning Bing. He urges Xiong Lin, whose talent he calls better than his own or Xiong Li’s, to flee, though he privately knows the bond breaks once enough distance opens and that his own primeval essence is nearly spent, with Roaming Zombie Gu already unmaintained. ^{ch. 137}

Fang Yuan needles Bai Ning Bing about how much primeval essence he has left, having reasoned from Xiong Li’s penetrated defense that Bai Ning Bing forced a rank three Frost Demon Gu using only rank two essence to break their stalemate; Bai Ning Bing confirms it, saying he left his right side idle earlier as bait that failed, and promises the real fight is only starting. Fang Yuan privately counts his own seven Gu worms, Moonglow Gu, White Jade Gu, Stealth Scales Gu, Four Flavour Liquor worm, Spring Autumn Cicada, Earth Communication Ear Grass and Nine Leaf Vitality Grass, against the more than six Bai Ning Bing has already shown, and rates his own C grade talent a world apart from Bai Ning Bing’s. Resolving that Gu Yue Man Shi’s group and the Xiong Li group will not be the end of it, he strikes. ^{ch. 137}

Fang Yuan’s moonblade flies not at Bai Ning Bing but at Xiong Jiang, who had let Roaming Zombie Gu lapse to save essence and dies instantly; the still linked Shadow Bond Gu carries a tenth of that fatal injury to Bai Ning Bing, who coughs blood with his ears, nose and eyes bleeding, the worst hurt he has taken in the fight. Xiong Lin, calling out Fang Yuan’s betrayal, is too shaken to help chase Bai Ning Bing, who retreats through the valley while Fang Yuan presses after him. ^{ch. 137}

As the chase drags on, Bai Ning Bing’s wounds close and his essence recovers faster than Fang Yuan expects, since his ice muscles need no essence to hold once formed; Fang Yuan is unsettled at how quickly the Northern Dark Ice Soul physique restores him even from near empty. He lands another Moonglow Gu blade that slices off part of Bai Ning Bing’s arm, and frost immediately seals the wound shut. ^{ch. 137}