Chapter 138

Fleeing Fang Yuan, Bai Ning Bing throws Xiong Zhan’s Plunder Gu at him to slow the chase, and Fang Yuan catches the black beetle Gu and, once Spring Autumn Cicada reveals its aura, refines it on the spot. Bai Ning Bing, who had spent days failing to refine that same worm because its will hated him for Xiong Zhan’s death, is shaken that Fang Yuan can do in an instant what he could not, and grows more wary of him. ^{ch. 138}

The distraction buys Bai Ning Bing distance, and Fang Yuan regrets having no movement Gu worm to close it again. As the chase stretches on he worries that Bai Ning Bing’s essence and injuries, under the Northern Dark Ice Soul physique, are recovering faster than his Moonglow Gu can grind them down, to where he doubts he can still kill him; that neither wolf pack nor Gu Master group crosses their path the whole way tells him Bai Ning Bing is also using a recon Gu worm to steer around danger. ^{ch. 138}

Elsewhere on the mountain, Gu Yue Qing Shu leads a five person field group, Fang Zheng, the healing Gu Master Gu Yue Yao Hong, and two others among them, and briefs Fang Zheng on wolf tide tactics. He names Bai Ning Bing, who has been suppressing his cultivation to red steel rank two essence while picking fights across the mountain with Xiong Li, Chi Shan and others, as his own likely next target, and tells the group that facing him is best avoided. ^{ch. 138}

The group’s recon Gu Master spots two Gu Masters moving fast ahead; Yao Hong assumes a party scattered by the wolf tide and the group moves to help. Bai Ning Bing’s own recon Gu worm senses the approaching five without telling him who they are, so he changes course to avoid them, and once neither party can shake the other both grow wary. Fang Yuan judges that whichever of the three clans the unknown group belongs to, the odds run 66% in his favor against Bai Ning Bing’s one third, and decides the gamble is worth revealing himself for. ^{ch. 138}

Bai Ning Bing rounds the corner first, bloodied and in flight, and the Qing Shu group’s scorn at his sorry state turns to shock when Fang Yuan’s voice carries from behind him, shouting that he means to kill Bai Ning Bing that day. Their shock turns to open astonishment once Fang Yuan himself steps into view, with Fang Zheng and even Qing Shu left speechless to find him behind the chase. ^{ch. 138}