Chapter 356

Five days later, three light pillars rise again over San Cha mountain, red for King Bao, yellow for King Quan, blue for King Xin, as the three kings inheritance reopens after a gap of several months. Watching them, Yi Huo privately renews his ambition to earn the Shang surname through achievement here, and resents little beast king for refusing him again and again, though he still judges the man’s knowledge of the inheritance’s secrets worth having if he could be brought to heel. ^{ch. 356}

Through his own information channel, Yi Huo already knows Fang Yuan made a fortune at Shang clan city trading on that knowledge, fights at rank four middle stage strength, and is never apart from Bai Ning Bing, so that winning one would win both; this is why he showed Fang Yuan such patience despite the refusals. His patience is wearing out, though, and he vows to teach little beast king a lesson once this round of the inheritance ends, that not everyone can simply set their own price. ^{ch. 356}

At the peak, four rank four peak stage rivals wait as they always do when the inheritance opens: Kong Ri Tian, called pink butterfly gentleman, Long Qing Tian, called he who once dyed the sky blue, Wu clan’s elder Wu Shen Tong, and Yi clan’s elder Yi Chong. Yi Huo claims King Bao Inheritance for himself, fitting for a fire path Gu Master, and the three attack him at once: Kong Ri Tian bursts into hundreds and thousands of phoenix winged golden butterflies, wings sharp as knives, Long Qing Tian drives a poison wreathed palm of light at his face, and Yi Chong floods him under surging blue water. ^{ch. 356}

Yi Huo answers by smacking his own chest and releasing flames that outshine the light pillars themselves, effortlessly smothering the water, burning off the poison palm, and sending the butterfly swarm retreating to reform as Kong Ri Tian. Yi Chong and Long Qing Tian, shaken, recognize it as his rank five Gu, prairie fire, and the watching Shang clan Gu Masters cheer as he stands within the flames like something more than human before walking, unopposed, into King Bao’s red pillar. Kong Ri Tian and Long Qing Tian go on to King Xin Inheritance; Wu Shen Tong and Yi Chong, to King Quan. ^{ch. 356}

Onlookers gossip over Yi Huo’s frequent visits to little beast king’s cave as proof of a real bond between them, and sneer at Fang Yuan and Bai Ning Bing, whom they call the black and white twin demons, as secretly righteous path’s own tools through their ties to Shang clan’s young master Shang Xin Ci. Needled about avenging his goddaughter Xue San Si, killed by little beast king, Century Boy coldly claims the earlier clash was only a probe with nothing decided, though privately he is badly afraid, having weighed striking at Fang Yuan himself and held back by Yi Huo’s repeated visits to his cave, and Yi Huo’s ease against three rank four peak stage rivals leaves him more unsettled still. The group decides against fighting over the point and enters the inheritance as well. ^{ch. 356}

Fang Yuan climbs to the peak and is recognized at once; he walks straight into King Xin Inheritance without a glance toward Bai Ning Bing, and both demonic and righteous Gu Masters alike remark on the chill of it, some calling it proof of demonic path’s heartlessness. Bai Ning Bing, watching from inside the barrier, goes pale with fury and curses him for it. Tie clan’s four elders, embarrassed that their trap caught her but never drew Fang Yuan out, weigh retreating against the shame it would bring their clan, and settle instead on requesting a rank four peak stage reinforcement of their own, reasoning that Shang clan’s example makes the request no disgrace. ^{ch. 356}

Inside King Xin Inheritance, grey fog swallows Fang Yuan’s sight, and Spring Autumn Cicada’s stirring wings confirm the blessed land’s time still runs three times faster than outside, its steady recovery a danger he feels ticking toward him. A paper crane Gu, the only Gu besides Spring Autumn Cicada not suppressed here, floats ahead and leads him forward until a blurred shape in the fog resolves into a hairy man: a mutated human, thickly built and covered in reddish brown hair down to his eyelids and buttocks, roaring broken words that amount to a challenge to lose is to die. A whole group of hairy men stands as King Xin Inheritance’s obstacle, low in intelligence but naturally gifted at Gu refinement, and any Gu Master who loses to one is torn apart and eaten. Fang Yuan stops ten steps away, calm, as Gu and materials appear in both their hands and the refinement contest begins. ^{ch. 356}