Chapter 362

Tie Xian Hua charges Fang Yuan under his alias Fang Zheng, screaming that she wants him dead for killing Tie Mu. He smiles lightly, lets her close the distance, then turns and slips past her on open wings. Blood fountains from her throat, and her head flies free. Fang Yuan laughs heartily and takes to the sky; Tie Ba Xiu rushes to help, but the ratten shell grass soldiers block him. ^{ch. 362}

Fang Yuan dives indiscriminately before wheeling toward Tie Ruo Nan. When Tie Dao Ku moves to guard her, Fang Yuan lands and meets him head on, cold faced, refusing to dodge and showing his fierce nature. Tie Dao Ku’s barrage of blade Gu shreds Fang Yuan’s golden shield Gu and tears through his bronze skin defense, ripping flesh and drawing blood. Tie Dao Ku, Tie Ruo Nan’s capable general and a rank three Gu Master already fighting all out, burns through his primeval essence, and Fang Yuan smiles as he snaps his neck with a single twist. ^{ch. 362}

Watching him die drives Tie Ruo Nan past reason; grief for her father, resurfacing, mixes with fresh horror. She floods the field with thousands of ratten shell grass soldier puppets, but her control is too frenzied to aim, and raw overuse leaves her bleeding from eyes, nose and mouth. The puppets collapse into a useless heap and pen in her own side instead of Fang Yuan. Tie Ba Xiu begs her to calm down. Fang Yuan sneers that she is still too young, flies clear of the wreck, and watches the battlefield emotionlessly as his gaze settles on Tie Ao Kai. ^{ch. 362}

Bathed in blood, his black hair, eyes and wings make him look like a demonic god incarnate: ruthless and courageous, but also cruel and devious. Tie Ao Kai, the group’s scout, sees him coming with a face gone aghast and bolts for San Cha mountain to warn Tie clan’s four elders. Tie Ba Xiu’s shout cannot call him back, and on foot he is no match for Fang Yuan’s wings. Fang Yuan returns carrying his severed head. Tie Ba Xiu, shaking with fury, roars curses at “Gu Yue Fang Zheng” and dares him to fight without running. Fang Yuan chuckles, unmoved by the taunt, laughs off the word heinous, says he will happily earn a few more sins to his name, and dives on the rest of the Tie clan Gu Masters, killing them one after another while Tie Ba Xiu, trapped by the grass soldiers, can only watch. ^{ch. 362}

Only Tie Ruo Nan and Tie Ba Xiu are left. Fang Yuan stops attacking. He weighs killing Tie Ruo Nan outright against a better use for her: since Tie Ba Xiu must protect Tie clan’s young master, holding her as a threat turns her into leverage against him. Tie Ba Xiu, rank four upper stage and empowered by earth overlord Gu, is the strongest opponent Fang Yuan has faced since leaving Qing Mao mountain, and Fang Yuan judges that even at full strength he could not beat him outright, though Tie Ba Xiu’s one weakness is a lack of ranged attacks. What makes this fight winnable at all is Fang Yuan’s foreknowledge of all seven Tie clansmen from his previous life, and having already drained their long range methods in the fighting before this chapter. He also weighs the four Tie elders’ combination killer move, limitless search and lock, the number one capturing method: once a lock Gu is planted, it would catch him wherever he flew. In his previous life, Fang Yuan recalls, even the demonic expert Kong Ri Tian fell to it. Wary of the elders arriving and unwilling to drag the fight out, Fang Yuan takes out a primeval stone to restore his essence and uses self-reliance Gu to heal his worst wounds. Tie Ba Xiu, seeing him pause to rest rather than press the advantage, is shaken that someone so young could be so scheming and calm. ^{ch. 362}