Chapter 456

Ge tribe leader’s hesitation is not fear of death. He is old, his cultivation stagnant, and he has already stopped caring about that. He weighs instead whether to use Fang Yuan’s method at all, reasoning that Ge tribe’s era may be over without the tribe being destroyed, since as long as the Gu Masters and elders survive, mortals lost can simply be replenished by snatching more. Retreating now would mean seeking refuge with Man tribe, who mean to devour Ge tribe and may well be behind this very attack, but Fang Yuan’s charge risks the higher-ups themselves, and failure would leave the mortals as nothing but prey. ^{ch. 456}

Ge Guang speaks up in support of uncle Chang’s plan as the only way to save the tribe, shaken to see the elders’ hesitation and fear for the first time. Fang Yuan privately gloats: the attack that first shocked him now delights him as a rare chance to subdue another myriad beast king and perhaps double his strength again. He needs Ge tribe’s numbers to pull it off, and the frontline risk means little to him personally, since a rank three eagle wings Gu lets him flee if things go wrong; he judges it wasteful to let the tribe simply fall apart without wringing more use from it first. ^{ch. 456}

Fang Yuan then addresses the tent directly, challenging their hesitation as cowardice, invoking the screams of tribesmen, parents, friends, wives and children, dying under night wolf claws, and warning that a fallen Ge tribe leaves them all homeless. He claims he has come to feel the tribe’s warmth as his own despite being an outsider, and calls on their ancestors, their warrior blood, and their sabres to answer this moment. His voice carries even to the Gu Masters outside the tent, and the elders watch him, visibly shaken. The narration frames a true hero not merely as one strong enough to turn the tide, but as one who steps forward at the moment of death to lend others courage. ^{ch. 456}

Moved to trembling, Ge Guang draws his sabre Gu and raises it, declaring that Ge tribe’s warriors and sabres remain and that he will follow the Wolf King into hell itself. Several hot-tempered elders, Ge De among them, answer by volunteering for the vanguard, and the fervor spreads through the tent as even reluctant elders join in rather than carry the lifelong shame of cowardice among northern plainsmen. ^{ch. 456}

Ge tribe leader, old and unwilling to risk himself, had privately favored retreat, and silently doubts the plan: the number of night wolves in the dark is unknown, Man tribe may have hidden forces nearby, Fang Yuan might fail to subdue the myriad wolf king, and it might simply flee instead of fighting. But the elders’ fervor leaves his hesitation with nowhere to go, so he yields, bows deeply to Fang Yuan as a true hero, and commits the tribe to follow his wolves into the charge. Fang Yuan reads Ge tribe leader’s intent as using the wolves to shield the human fighters, and judges a small sacrifice worth it for the myriad wolf king. ^{ch. 456}

Seeing only a modest force of wolf kings gathered as they set out, Ge tribe leader asks where the rest of Fang Yuan’s wolf army is. Privately, Fang Yuan reasons that wolves and men are equal living things and that humans are no more noble than wolves, since worth comes only from strength, and without strength even the noblest lady is worth nothing at all; he sees no reason to sacrifice his loyal wolves for these tribesmen, especially now that a great wolf horde has made Ge tribe far less useful to him than before. Aloud, he claims warmly that the ranch’s destruction scattered his wolves and that reinforcements are being gathered, then cuts off further questions and leads the charge before Ge tribe leader can press him. ^{ch. 456}

The group, two rank four Gu Masters, seventeen rank three, and a great number of rank two elites, breaks out of camp toward the myriad wolf king. Ge Guang follows close behind Fang Yuan until his furious father pulls him back, reminding him of his duty as young tribe leader. Outside the camp, the Gu Masters at the formation’s edge unleash wind blades, water dragons, stone fists and golden cones against the surrounding night wolves as they fight their way forward. Understanding Fang Yuan’s aim, the myriad wolf king sends twelve thousand-rank wolf kings and dozens of hundred-rank ones from every side to meet them, and the advance stalls as many rank two elites die. One elder, his essence spent, self-detonates against a thousand-rank wolf king that bites him, killing it and becoming the battle’s first dead elder, and Ge tribe leader’s heart breaks as he watches the tribe’s foundation begin to crumble. ^{ch. 456}