Chapter 376

On the mountain peak, the three light pillars, once red, blue and yellow and bright, have visibly dimmed and shrunk to less than half their original size. The Gu Immortal blessed land beneath them is likened to a sinking ship with only its mast still above water. Wu Lan Shan defers to Tie Mu Bai, still acknowledged as the strongest rank five Gu Master on San Cha mountain and a top tier one across all of Southern Border, even by rivals like Ku Mo and Wu Gui. ^{ch. 376}

He enters King Xin Inheritance first, watched by several thousand Gu Masters, and Wu Gui and Ku Mo deliberately choose other entrances to avoid him, since rank five Gu Masters save their real rivalry for the decisive battle still to come. Wu Lan Shan, Wang Xiao and the rest follow Tie Mu Bai into their own chosen entrances. Then the rank four peak stage Gu Masters begin entering, starting with Yi Huo; righteous and demonic Gu Masters who would otherwise attack each other on sight keep this one gathering orderly for the sake of the prize. ^{ch. 376}

A commotion breaks out when the black and white twin demons reappear: onlookers recall that one of the pair once withstood Tie clan elders for months without falling, and that the other fought seven Tie clansmen alone and killed Tie Ba Xiu. Reactions split. Some recall Tie Ba Xiu’s death soberly, some scoff that his reputation as an overlord of the age is overstated and call him a disgrace to his generation, and others simply note that with six rank five Gu Masters now on the mountain, two rank four intruders can do nothing here. A few add that he only dared come because Tie Mu Bai, who would not forgive him for the Tie clansmen he has killed, had already entered the inheritance. ^{ch. 376}

Others watch Tie Ruo Nan instead, who must line up with the rank four Gu Masters despite her teacher’s rank, since even Tie Mu Bai follows the rules he sets for San Cha mountain. She confronts Fang Yuan directly, calling him by the name Fang Zheng; seeing the enemy with her clansmen’s blood on his hands fills her heart with hatred and anger and she wants to kill him on the spot, her fists clenching and loosening again and again before she finally opens her hand and steadies her breathing. She tells him he need not fear old clan leader Tie Mu Bai’s wrath today, but that his life belongs to her, and that she will one day kill him and offer it to her clan’s dead; then she turns and vanishes into the light pillar. The crowd argues over what her restraint means: that she was afraid to fight, that little beast king’s fearsome reputation held even her back, or that she was simply too wise to risk a rare opportunity like this one on a personal grudge. ^{ch. 376}

Fang Yuan is struck by how few famous Gu Masters could master their fury the way Tie Ruo Nan just did, and for once he feels genuine threat from someone his own age; privately he decides she cannot be allowed to grow any further. What Tie Mu Bai has been teaching her is no secret, and Fang Yuan knows it as well as anyone: with her talent, her resolve and her clan’s backing, the narration compares her to a swallow bound to rise into a phoenix. ^{ch. 376}

Restraining his own killing intent, Fang Yuan walks toward the inheritance entrance. Yun clan’s young leader Yun Luo Tian steps into his path, eyeing Bai Ning Bing, then accuses Fang Yuan of an unfair win: using a flying Gu to kill a righteous clansman and taking the easy way out. The insult brings the crowd to the edge of a fight, and many Gu Masters step back to clear space. ^{ch. 376}

Fang Yuan agrees at once, admitting with an eerie calm that he used a loophole to kill Tie Ba Xiu, and apologizes for it. Yun Luo Tian is stunned. He had trained for years in flight, hoping to challenge Fang Yuan’s reputation as a flier, but cannot press a quarrel against such courtesy. Aware that every action of his, as Yun clan’s young leader, reflects on the clan’s name, Yun Luo Tian recovers and tells Fang Yuan that since he admits his win was unfair, he should stand aside for the many heroes and geniuses still waiting to enter. ^{ch. 376}

Fang Yuan steps back and yields the point, and Yun Luo Tian laughs and walks into the light pillar, certain that word of scaring off the little beast king will spread and raise his own and his clan’s standing. Fang Yuan and Bai Ning Bing then enter King Bao Inheritance together, leaving the rank four Gu Masters behind to marvel that the little beast king backed down twice without a fight, some calling it cowardice and others noting that Yun clan, though not a super clan, is still first class. ^{ch. 376}

Inside King Bao Inheritance, Fang Yuan finds himself on a plain of grey white sky and light red ground scattered with volcanic rock, hot steam and grey dust. Tiny, pink skinned people the size of babies emerge from the rocks, each carrying a round red egg on its chest; Fang Yuan recognizes them as red eggmen, a variant human people who build their homes from the same volcanic rock. The frightened eggmen call each other to defend Hong Dan village against the invading demon, and King Bao Inheritance’s trial is built to make Fang Yuan use his one remaining exploding egg Gu to wipe them out and advance. ^{ch. 376}

Fang Yuan does not move. He lets the red eggmen’s attacks pile up until he is bathed in blood and struggling to breathe, past the point where even the exploding egg Gu could change anything, and as death closes in, he smiles: this moment, he thinks, has finally arrived. ^{ch. 376}