Stepping into Northern Plains
Fang Yuan’s fixed immortal travel Gu deposits him barefoot and naked onto a poison grassland in northern plains, in the middle of a wolf pack’s final charge on Ge Yao. A few hundred poison beard wolves, led by a hundred beast king, have already run her horse to death and ringed her in; she kills one overeager attacker with a water arrow through its skull, but the smell of blood turns the whole pack, and the wolf king sends them charging together just as Fang Yuan’s jade-green arrival blinds and scatters them into chaos. ch. 426
The wolf king turns on Fang Yuan instead, driving for his neck. Fang Yuan calls out a rank four golden dragon Gu; the first strike shatters the wolf king’s bones and flings it down still struggling, and a second strike is needed to finish it off. Crossing from southern border into northern plains has suppressed his rank four peak stage true gold primeval essence down to the strength of rank three peak stage snow silver primeval essence, taking the golden dragon Gu’s own power down with it, which is why a blow that would have killed outright in southern border needs two here. Searching the corpse turns up only fragments of two rank two Gu, acid Gu and poison needle Gu; the wolf king carries no defensive Gu at all, and nothing among the fragments serves as the wolf enslavement Gu Fang Yuan had hoped to find. ch. 426
Ge Yao, daughter of Ge tribe’s leader, takes him for a hero her ancestors sent from Longevity Heaven. Fang Yuan denies it while correcting her, naming Longevity Heaven as Giant Sun Immortal Venerable’s own residence rather than a place a mere Gu Master like himself could come from, and gives his name as Chang Shan Yin. When he then claims to be a northern plains native, she laughs him off for lacking the native accent, though she still promises her tribe will welcome her rescuer. ch. 426
He changes into black battle clothing drawn from his rank five moving perspective cup Gu, and Ge Yao stares at him, visibly taken. Her curiosity fixes next on the fixed immortal travel Gu at his shoulder; that she plainly does not recognize it eases his mind, and he brushes her off, heading deeper into the poison grassland alone. ch. 426
Ge Yao warns him that even at rank three peak stage his fists cannot handle a wolf pack this deep in the grassland, and chases after him anyway, offering to travel together. The offer is exactly what Fang Yuan wants. He cannot be certain of recovering her Gu worms simply by killing her, so he turns distant on purpose, drawing this exact offer out of her. ch. 426
