Wind Wolf King
Riding the hump wolf away from poison grassland, Fang Yuan checks his aperture and finds around ten Gu worms left in it, all but the Spring Autumn Cicada and the Moving Perspective Cup Gu native to northern plains. He had already sent every Gu worm and primeval stone from southern border and central continent on to Hu Immortal blessed land, keeping nothing back. The cup, a rank five Gu suppressed to rank four in northern plains, can only hold rank four Gu now, so he cannot use it to move Fixed Immortal Travel to the blessed land the way he wishes he could. An Immortal Gu’s aura lasts about a month, and if nothing goes wrong in that time, the one he buried will stay safe. ch. 437
He means to subdue a thousand beast wolf king this stretch and grow his pack past two thousand wolves before he meets northern plains Gu Masters, since numbers alone can cow most small players. He owns only one rank three and one rank two Wolf Enslavement Gu and has to spend them carefully, planning to move under Chang Shan Yin’s name with enslavement as his priority. He lacks the recipes for rank three and rank four Wolf Enslavement Gu; rank three can enslave a thousand beast wolf king, rank four a myriad beast wolf king or a mutated beast. Without them, his pack tops out at a few thousand wolves, not enough to draw real attention. ch. 437
The hump wolf’s pace triples the journey’s speed, and two days on, Fang Yuan reaches the edge of poison grassland. Sunlight breaks through the dark clouds in pillars over green mounds, blue and purple and yellow flowers, and a small river that catches the light like a silver necklace. The poison beard wolves grow restless in the sun. Fang Yuan does not care; the pack is only temporary. He looks back at poison grassland, still buried in its dark clouds and purple grass, and vows he will return once Hu Immortal blessed land’s own darkening eastern half is dealt with. ch. 437
As he mutters this, the formless restriction that has weighed on him since he entered northern plains suddenly eases, and Fang Yuan feels the land grow closer. His cultivation climbs from rank three peak to rank four initial stage, and he laughs aloud with the joy of it. He shouts a greeting to northern plains. The poison beard wolf pack follows him onward. ch. 437
Elsewhere, over a hill, dozens of Gu Masters have been fighting more than a thousand wind wolves for fifteen minutes. Ge Guang, the group’s young leader, beheads one wolf and shatters his sabre doing it, and only a Gu Master’s spiral water arrow, shot from behind him, saves him from a second wolf’s jaws a moment later. Retreating to reform, he calls up a fresh blade from his Sabre Gu and cuts another wolf down, though it does little to turn the fight. His men, out of primeval essence and surrounded, press him to break east; one shouts in panic that there are at least over three thousand wolves upon them. ch. 437
Ge Guang refuses; the weak looking eastern line hides a trap the wind wolf king has set with standing puddles, so he orders the group to break west instead and leaves the party’s slaves on the mound to buy time with their lives. During the retreat, a Gu Master with no essence left throws his body into a three leaf wind blade meant for the group and is cut in two, weakening it to two leaves before it still reaches Ge Guang. Blocking it costs him his second sabre and drops him from the hump wolf, coughing blood, and the breakout collapses as wolves close the gap again. ch. 437
The wind wolves part for a young wind wolf king, warhorse sized, dark green furred, with eyes like emeralds and an unhurried, almost noble gait. Behind it, the slaves left on the hill are already dead, and more wolves are moving in on what remains of the group. Someone urges Ge Guang to retreat, but he shakes free and rallies the men instead, shouting that he still has his hands, his legs and his teeth, and that they are Ge tribe’s brave sons. The words steady them into a will to fight to the death. ch. 437
The wind wolf king, still walking at ease, suddenly turns its head east. A large pack of dark purple poison beard wolves is closing on the battlefield fast. ch. 437
