Chapter 481

From a dark distance, close to ten surviving Bei tribe higher-ups watch Zheng tribe’s fall, and Bei tribe leader Bei Cao Chuan calls it finished. An elder marvels that Chang Shan Yin had a third myriad wolf king hidden the whole time, since it never appeared during the assault on Bei tribe. Some elders take comfort that Zheng tribe leader killed the night wolf myriad beast king before dying, leaving Chang Shan Yin only two, though the narration notes that replenishing a myriad wolf king is only a thought away for him through treasure yellow heaven. An elder calls Chang Shan Yin’s patience terrifying. ^{ch. 481}

An elder calls Chang Shan Yin crazy and cruel for pushing the wounded night wolf king to its death when he could have let it retreat. Bei Cao Chuan disagrees: forcing it to keep fighting let Ge tribe’s small force settle the battle quickly, since it could not have survived a drawn-out fight against a larger one. The elders mourn Zheng tribe leader, a rank four upper stage expert who exhausted his primeval essence in the fighting and was cut off by the night wolf king while trying to escape. His lightning spear corps is nearly wiped out, down to two or three survivors, and the double loss of leader and corps breaks what remains of Zheng tribe’s will to resist. ^{ch. 481}

Ge tribesmen pour through the camp in an unrestrained slaughter, and rank two Gu Masters who have burned through their primeval essence are chased down even by rank one pursuers. Watching their own camp’s fall reflected in Zheng tribe’s ruin, the remnant Bei tribesmen fall silent with clenched fists. Northern plains faces a disastrous blizzard every ten years that plunges the land into chaos, and only the great tribes with Gu Immortals and blessed lands are built to survive it undamaged; this battle is only its prelude. ^{ch. 481}

With their strength recovered, Bei tribe’s elders urge Bei Cao Chuan to retake their own camp, now defended by only rank one and rank two Gu Masters and a single rank three elder, but he refuses, warning that word of their return would reach Chang Shan Yin before they could escape safely with their people. He proposes leaving their captured tribesmen as captives instead, reasoning that feeding and guarding them will drain Ge tribe’s rations and manpower. When an elder suggests raiding Ge tribe’s undefended home camp outright, Bei Cao Chuan rejects it angrily: destroying Ge tribe’s rations could provoke them into killing the captives to cut costs or in anger if recognized. True revenge, he says, is not quick gratification; only killing Chang Shan Yin and removing Ge tribe’s source of power can turn the situation around, and the tribe must keep fighting. ^{ch. 481}

The elders’ respect for Bei Cao Chuan runs deep: as a sidelined, mocked younger son who hid his strength and quietly built power while his brothers feuded, he had once infiltrated a spirit rhino beast group about eighty thousand strong alone to steal a wild Gu worm the old tribe leader needed to survive a Gu backlash. He had buried himself in a maggot-ridden mud swamp for seven days and seven nights waiting for the spirit rhino myriad beast king’s occasional visit to roll and play there, silently endured having his leg crushed when the beast rolled over him, and stole the Gu from its body once it slept, then hopped back to the tribe on one leg to save his father. The feat revealed his hidden rank three peak stage cultivation, moved the old leader to tears, and won him the young tribe leader’s seat on the spot; he suppressed his siblings’ rival claims and grew into Bei tribe’s leader, trusted by every elder still, at about thirty years old. ^{ch. 481}

An elder reports Zheng tribe’s camp fully secured, with spoils reckoned at no less than eight million primeval stones plus thousands of Gu worms, a hundred of them rank three, and a Gu house secret room still being opened. The haul dwarfs what Bei tribe yielded, since Zheng tribe’s foundations ran deeper despite its losses. Asked for the next move, Fang Yuan answers without expression: Pei tribe. ^{ch. 481}