Chapter 441

Fang Yuan walks through a market packed with stalls. In one square, wooden cages hold captives from tribes that lost in battle. A fat man, a rank one Gu Master, offers a woman for three taels of primeval stone and drives off a mortal who protests the price. Fang Yuan notes that mortal slaves fetch a poor price. Variant humans sell much higher, and Gu Masters highest. ^{ch. 441}

The sight calls Ma Hong Yun to his mind, born a slave but blessed with heaven defying luck. In battle, when his tribe lost, he saved Ma tribe’s young tribe leader by pure luck, and for this huge merit he received the surname Ma and left slavery. As a poor hunter, he smashed a rock that tripped him and found a white silver relic Gu under it. He gave the Gu to the young tribe leader, who needed it, rewarded him handsomely and even gave him a chance to cultivate. He awakened B grade aptitude but had no useful Gu worms. Bullied, he was once thrown into a river. ^{ch. 441}

Drifting downstream, he saw Sheng tribe leader’s third daughter Sheng Ling Er bathing, so by Sheng tribe rules she had to become his wife. She supplied him with Gu worms and primeval stones, and by stealing her tribe’s precious Gu she lifted his aptitude to A grade. When this was exposed, her father, unwilling to see her wed a poor lad, secretly sent an expert to kill him. The expert argued with someone on the way and was killed. The couple held an important position in the tribe, but jealous Sheng tribesmen plotted against him, and he fled to poison grassland. About to be killed by poison beard wolves, he found Chang Shan Yin, saved him and became his loyal subject. ^{ch. 441}

By repeated luck he rose to lord of the imperial court. After Hei Lou Lan died, he held its overlord seat over a dozen times, for over a hundred years. He later obtained partial inheritances of Thieving Heaven Demon Venerable and Giant Sun Immortal Venerable, became a Gu Immortal and received a blessed land, then won overwhelming reputation resisting central continent’s army. Fang Yuan reckons Ma Hong Yun is now thirteen but does not know his true identity. Ma tribe belongs to the Huang Jin bloodline left by Giant Sun and has been absorbing many tribes to vie for the imperial court. Fang Yuan wonders whether Ma Hong Yun has already become a Ma tribe slave. ^{ch. 441}

Outside a gambling den, Fang Yuan thinks again of that lad with overwhelming luck, who was deceived into gambling with a lowest grade rock and obtained a rank five Gu. Fang Yuan walks on into the quiet central area, where his rank four initial stage aura draws reverence, curiosity or apprehension from the Gu Masters. At the Gu refinement area he buys the recipes for rank one to three wolf enslavement Gu, since rank four recipes stay with the few large tribes and rarely reach the market. In the largest shop, a rank three elderly shopkeeper sells him five rank three and thirty-eight rank two wolf enslavement Gu. Asked for defensive Gu, the shopkeeper, delighted at a huge client, lists ordinary ones and one rank four Gu. That one does not fit his enslavement path. ^{ch. 441}

Asked about flying Gu, the shopkeeper proudly offers what he calls the market’s only rank four flying cloud Gu, but Fang Yuan refuses it for poor maneuverability and average speed. He buys one rank three eagle wings Gu instead, which turns easily in the sky. He asks for bone bamboo Gu and ghost fire Gu to repair his rank five battle bone wheel, and the shop has many rank two ghost fire Gu but no rank one bone bamboo Gu. The shopkeeper explains that Man tribe’s new external tribe elder bought every bone bamboo Gu in the market, and no shop has any left. Fang Yuan’s gaze shines as he asks who this person is. ^{ch. 441}