Chapter 255

With the wooden wall mostly down and zombies fighting through the camp, Fang Yuan sees a horde that neither swarms in all at once nor simply lets the black-hair zombies follow once the white-hair ones have died off; battle tactics unlike either pattern are on display, and that is what tells him someone is directing this horde: Ding Hao. From his previous life he remembers Ding Hao as the inheritor of the Second Zombie King, who later became the man’s eldest disciple, loyal despite the demonic path, and who chose of his own will to take his master’s place in the war between the righteous and demonic paths at Yi Tian mountain, dying there. Fang Yuan had meant to seek Ding Hao out himself, so having him appear first only saves the trouble. ^{ch. 255}

Fang Yuan had already planned to use Ding Hao to destroy the caravan, since attracting a beast group of the right size was hard to control and a group large enough to finish the job risked his own life while he still had to protect Shang Xin Ci. Without the Earth Hearing Ear Grass or any other way to scout, he can only reason out Ding Hao’s position by logic: high ground, with an escape route close by. ^{ch. 255}

The Gu Masters fall back to a bunker built from piled goods at the camp’s center as losses mount, and split into two camps: break the siege now, or hold and wait for dawn, when sunlight will weaken the zombies. Fang Yuan stands and silences the argument. He calls the defenders idiots for wanting to stay, then, once the break-through faction cheers him, calls them fools too, and insists the horde be scouted before anyone moves. ^{ch. 255}

Fang Yuan sends out three groups in turn to test different directions, southeast, then another, then a valley he insists on despite a leader’s objection, slapping the man when he questions the order. Each group is pushed back with losses. By one investigative Gu Master’s count, at least hundreds of zombies wait in the dark on one side alone. Only the high slope remains untested, and Fang Yuan is sure that is where Ding Hao hides. ^{ch. 255}

Fang Yuan announces he will lead the real attempt himself, leaves Bai Ning Bing to guard Shang Xin Ci, and charges out with eight Gu Masters; using his strength together with Canopy Gu, he forces a way through a side of the horde Ding Hao has thinned to plug the earlier gaps, though five of the eight die in the attempt. The camp cheers, certain they are saved, and Ding Hao vows to seal the gap and moves zombies to close it. ^{ch. 255}

Instead of continuing to flee, Fang Yuan turns his two surviving companions toward the direction Ding Hao is hiding in. Ding Hao sends his two green-hair zombies, stronger than the black-hair kind and, by night, as strong as a thousand beast king, to meet them. Fang Yuan fights one to a standstill; the other two Gu Masters struggle against the second until Fang Yuan leaps in calling that he will help, then kills both of his own companions with two spiral bone spears instead. Ding Hao, watching, is thrown into doubt by what he has just seen. Fang Yuan calls into the open for Ding Hao to come out. ^{ch. 255}