Chapter 455

Three days after the turtleback wolf battle, two Ge tribe investigative Gu Masters, one old and one young, ride hump wolves on night patrol; the young one is new to scouting, sent to replace the old man’s partner, who died in that fight. The night is cold and the young man complains despite the old man’s advice on dressing to stay alert rather than warm. ^{ch. 455}

The old scout notices a distant light and has the young one press a Gu-grown ear to the ground to listen, but he hears only wind and teases the old man for being jumpy. The old man blames his nerves after the recent battle, while the young one takes comfort in Ge tribe leader’s protection and that of the Wolf King, Chang Shan Yin. ^{ch. 455}

A volley of bone spears kills the young scout on the spot. The old man rolls clear and reaches for a signal Gu, but is killed first, his throat cut and his head falling away from his body. Man tribe’s external elder Shi Wu leads the attackers out of the darkness, boasting to his flattering subordinates how easily the two died, and gloats that with his own tribe leader having sent out almost all of Man tribe’s elders this time, Ge tribe cannot escape what is coming: an attack by ten thousand night wolves. ^{ch. 455}

Though Ge tribe fled Hong Yan valley and beat back the turtleback wolves days earlier, Man tribe still intends to swallow them, and three days after that battle secretly drives a night wolf group toward camp while its elders hunt down Ge tribe’s scouts in the same conspiracy. The ten thousand-strong wolf group is spotted only a hundred li from camp, too close for real warning, and signal Gu burst into fireworks over a camp shocked awake into panic and confusion. ^{ch. 455}

Ge tribe leader pales at the news, first blaming the investigative Gu Masters, then suspecting a conspiracy behind how close the wolves came undetected, though he sets the thought aside for lack of time. With no time to build defenses and no clear picture of the wider threat, he orders every Gu Master to the main tent. The night wolves, thin and strong with black, furless skin, burst through the camp’s simple stakes and begin killing; a hundred wolf king kills a Gu Master instantly, and the wolves tear through tents to slaughter sleeping mortals as a warning of blood and death. The inner camp descends into panicked trampling that kills even more people than the wolves do, and Ge tribe leader watches in anguish as his hope of an organized counterattack collapses; only some elders and a few elite fighters reach the main tent, and he despairs that even the best outcome now leaves Ge tribe reduced to a minor tribe, blaming himself before his ancestors. ^{ch. 455}

Amid the tent’s panic Fang Yuan arrives, declaring there is still one way to save the tribe. He argues the camp is too far gone to simply defend and that only attacking can give them a chance, then reveals the rank four wolf enslavement Gu he had won and proposes that Ge tribe’s strongest fighters join him in a direct charge at the myriad wolf king behind the attack, so he can subdue it and turn the battle around. The plan stuns the tent into silence rather than open scorn only because it is Chang Shan Yin proposing it; one elder calls it madness, and the rest hesitate, since charging head-on into a wolf group’s momentum kills nine times in ten, and these comfortable rank three elders are being asked to risk their lives for the tribe’s survival. ^{ch. 455}