Chapter 459

Ge tribe’s dwindling provisions send its Gu Masters out to hunt the grassland’s wild animals, even as the dead wolves that Fang Yuan sheds are already being turned into dried meat for the tribe. The whole tribe moves out on hump wolves, big stomach horses, curved-horn bulls and towering lizard house Gu, and Fang Yuan rides one of the lizard house Gu with his eyes closed, resting his mind. Since absorbing tens of thousands of wolves, the burden on his soul has grown so heavy that he needs at least four hours of sleep a day and regular spells of closed-eyed rest besides. ^{ch. 459}

Surveying his aperture, he finds his vital Gu, the rank six Spring Autumn Cicada, hibernating at its center, with wolf smoke Gu drifting above the sea as a wolf-shaped cloud, the cracked rank five battle bone wheel and the snow wash Gu floating on its surface, and cuttlefish-shaped hints and clues Gu swimming through it. At the bottom lie many rank two, a few rank three, and no rank four wolf enslavement Gu, alongside two of the five Strength of ten Jun Gu he bought, having already used the other three, and the rank four wolf swallow Gu. He also carries the rank five moving perspective cup Gu, useful only at rank four strength in northern plains; wolf care Gu as a second pupil in his left eye; wolf howl Gu in his throat; ghost fire Gu under his tongue; azure wolf skin Gu tattooed on his chest; rank three eagle wings Gu tattooed on his back; two rank four wolf sprint Gu on his feet; and Fixed Immortal Travel, still buried in the poison grassland. His bone bamboo Gu and wolf soul Gu are already spent. ^{ch. 459}

Fang Yuan judges that inheriting Chang Shan Yin’s Gu and commanding tens of thousands of wolves counts as only small success in enslavement path, since it leaves him badly exposed to any Gu Master who thinks to target him directly, unlike a mindless wolf group; the real Chang Shan Yin once destroyed Ha Tu Gu’s bandits with a thousand-man soul, several myriad wolf kings, hundreds of thousands of wolves and an elite pack of mutated white-eye wolves, a strength Fang Yuan puts his own at not even twenty percent of. He has also stalled: his soul needs guts Gu to strengthen further, unavailable while he is stuck in northern plains and Dang Hun Mountain lies dying, and his strength has hit its ceiling after three Strength of ten Jun Gu raised it by thirty jun. Feeding the ever-growing wolf group is its own drain, which is why he has already cut its numbers back. ^{ch. 459}

He weighs storing the wolves in a blessed land, but Hu Immortal blessed land’s hole earth Gu only reaches within central continent, and stargate Gu, though it spans all five regions, needs rare ancient and immemorial-era materials, has a refinement success rate that might not even reach one in a hundred, and can only be charged by starlight let into a blessed land that has no sun or stars of its own, which would open the door for blue charm lightning shadow to force its way into an already weakened Dang Hun Mountain. With no path to stargate Gu, Fang Yuan resolves to look to Lang Ya blessed land instead, and reckons the march to crescent lake at about seven more days. ^{ch. 459}

That night, dark clouds bearing a chilling aura sweep in over crescent lake and stop at its center. Rank six Gu Immortal Gui Wang, ugly and cackling, announces they have arrived, and rank six Gu Immortal Loner Hong Yu, youthful in appearance, asks whether Lang Ya blessed land is truly hidden here. Gui Wang answers that he personally investigated and there is no mistake, that its earthly calamity is close by his calculations, and proposes they watch and strike together once it comes. ^{ch. 459}