Shadow Crow
They cross the sunflower sea safely, and Ge Yao lets out a long breath as her fear finally settles. Only a few dozen grass soldiers remain, ringing them in a thin defensive line, and Ge Yao studies Fang Yuan with growing curiosity, wondering what kind of man enters poison grassland like this and why the name Chang Shan Yin feels so familiar. Only then does she notice she has been gripping his arm since the crossing, frightened by the ghost cries and faces, and she lets go at once, her face reddening. ch. 429
Fang Yuan admits he lacks the specialized Gu needed to catch a ghost cry Gu or a ghost face Gu, and lets the thought go. Judging the moment right, he takes out bright pearl Gu, a rank four storage Gu, and seals fixed immortal travel Gu inside it in deep slumber; an Immortal Gu’s aura is too overbearing for a mortal aperture to hold, and even sealed, it still leaks, only weaker now. ch. 429
Deeper in, the poison fog thickens until it blurs their sight, forcing frequent stops to purge the toxins from their bodies. Ge Yao warns that the grassland’s deepest reaches are forbidden ground; many who went exploring there never returned, some of them rank three peak stage experts and even rank four. Fang Yuan only says they are close. ch. 429
He soon uncovers a bowl-sized hole hidden under strange shrubs, the entrance to an earth spike rat colony; Ge Yao explains the rats live in the thousands and even the ten thousands, with steel-spike heads able to pierce a foot or a horse’s hoof, and that being surrounded here means no surviving, since their king could be a myriad beast king in its own right. Fang Yuan says his destination lies further on, grows pitch-black wings, and carries a screaming Ge Yao into the air before she can react. ch. 429
She asks what Gu lets him fly, guessing at a rank three eagle wings Gu, but he gives no answer, and warns her instead about three shadow crows now closing on them soundlessly. He cannot attack while carrying her, he tells her, so the fight depends on her spiral water arrow’s aim. Her first two shots miss and graze; Fang Yuan then wheels sharply, exposing a crow’s back to her, and her next shot kills it outright. The corpse barely reaches the ground before earth spike rats swarm up, and within moments only a pool of blood and a few small pieces of intestine remain. More shadow crows follow, and after firing more than ten arrows Ge Yao kills two of them; when she fumbles and drops a primeval stone, Fang Yuan snaps at her, calling her an idiot, and she apologizes in a sobbing tone. He softens his voice, telling her to focus since more crows are coming and he is relying on her, and she calms down. ch. 429
