Chapter 189

As the sun sets, Bai Ning Bing stands alone on a slope while the combined Gu Yue and Xiong clan forces, about a hundred Gu Masters strong, close around him and call for his surrender. He answers with contempt, naming only Fang Yuan interesting among them and inviting them all to attack together. No one moves first: Xiong Lin warns that fighters with no shared training will only waste effort and hand Bai Ning Bing the advantage, and the crowd argues over who should risk the opening strike. Xiong Jiao Man finally steps forward, and her whistle brings over two hundred black bears out of the forest, led by a bear ranked as a hundred beast king, the trump card of her Bear Enslavement Gu, now risen to rank three and able to enslave bear-type hundred beast kings. ^{ch. 189}

With Xiong Li and, on the Gu Yue side, Qing Shu and Mo Bei all already dead, the clans pin their hope on Xiong Jiao Man and on Fang Zheng, since Fang Yuan’s rank three and C grade aptitude count for little in their eyes. Fang Zheng has fought harder through this three-clan competition than before, killing several Bai clan Gu Masters, and the clan reads it as the true showing of an A grade genius. He means to avenge Qing Shu personally. ^{ch. 189}

Bai Ning Bing feels his own body nearing its end: the Northern Dark Ice Soul Physique is turning his flesh to ice and snow, and he expects to die soon regardless of how the battle goes. He stays calm all the same, watching the bear charge and telling himself the fight might bring some excitement to what is left of his life. Off to the side, the Bai clan leader alone shows no worry, certain the others have underestimated Bai Ning Bing, while Gu Yue Bo frets that Fang Yuan and Tie Xue Leng still have not appeared, and privately resolves to protect Fang Yuan and bring him into the blood lake graveyard if his aptitude proves to be the Desolate Yin Ancient Moon Physique. Beside him, his captive Tie Ruo Nan is already turning over how to capture Fang Yuan herself, reasoning that if he really carries a ten extreme aptitude, an assessment would settle it and mark him as the most suspicious person present. ^{ch. 189}

Underground, Fang Yuan curses as the Thousand Li Earthwolf Spider begins to go out of control again, absorbing natural essence and clawing new paths at random rather than carrying him forward. He understands why: corrupted by the Blood Frenzy Gu in its old battle against the first gen Gu Yue, the spider still carries the damage, and losing his grip on it entirely is a real risk, so he can only ride and hope, keeping what control over its general direction he still has. Where it will surface, he has no way to know. ^{ch. 189}

By the time the sun’s last light fades, the bear group is gone entirely, and fewer than thirty Gu Masters remain standing in a spreading field of ice. Bai Ning Bing has beheaded Xiong Jiao Man, run Xiong Lin through with icicles, and frozen Chi Cheng solid mid-dodge, while Fang Zheng survives only because Bai Ning Bing means him to, his wounds sealed in frost rather than left to bleed. A rank three Gu Master, Bai Ning Bing now fights with strength close to rank four. He tells Fang Zheng he only resembles the brother he wanted, and raises an iceblade that swells five to six times its size, sending an unblockable slash toward everyone still standing. ^{ch. 189}

Gu Yue Bo moves to intervene, but the Bai clan leader stops him, invoking their agreement not to interfere, and when Gu Yue Bo protests that no ordinary rank three could fight this way, the Bai clan leader admits the truth: Bai Ning Bing carries the Northern Dark Ice Soul Physique, a ten extreme aptitude. Both Gu Yue Bo and the Xiong clan leader are stunned by the revelation. At that moment, a Gu Yue clan Gu Master arrives with news from the village: an earthquake has toppled bamboo buildings and left the ground seeping blood water, and though few report being hurt, the clan is left shaken. ^{ch. 189}