Chapter 495

The water wolf den holds four thousand wolves. They attack together when Fang Yuan’s wolf group approaches. He activates wolf howl Gu and sends three groups of reinforcements, and the wild wolves lose completely. ^{ch. 495}

Far off, Chai Zhang gives up his tribe’s things to keep their lives, and refuses an elder who hopes to stay, since staying risks Chang Shan Yin’s slaughter. A small, weak tribe facing the ten year blizzard and the Imperial Court fight must cling to a stronger force. Chai tribe leaves crescent lake at once. ^{ch. 495}

Zhong tribe’s investigative Gu Master reports to Zhong Fei You that the Wolf King recruited three thousand of the four thousand wolves and lost only three hundred. Zhong Fei You downplays this, then turns ugly on hearing that Chang Shan Yin took all three black skin fat armor beetles carrying Chai tribe’s resources. Zhong Fei You has failed to get them and made an enemy of Chai tribe. The two tribes are in-laws, yet the Imperial Court competition makes survival the priority. Zhong Fei You sighs that Zhong tribe cannot match Chang Shan Yin alone, though three enslavement masters in northern plains are stronger. They will note the battle and take revenge after going to Lord Liu Wen Wu, and Zhong tribe sets off. ^{ch. 495}

After nine days, Fang Yuan leads the greatly enlarged wolf group back to Ge tribe camp. Ge Guang is shocked and delighted at Fang Yuan’s rank four peak stage aura, and Fang Yuan says his cultivation has recovered. Chang Shan Yin was rank four peak stage before a battle with Ha Tu Gu left him near death and hibernating. In truth Fang Yuan’s first aperture has reached rank five peak stage, and only breath concealment Gu holds the aura at rank four. His second aperture is unsuppressed and still rank three peak stage. Hiding both keeps a trump card and lets others accept his improvement slowly. ^{ch. 495}

Ge tribe took down Bei tribe and Zheng tribe, and its strength has greatly increased. Ge Guang says the biggest problem is the lack of slavery Gu. Slavery Gu controls people, but a Gu Master rarely controls more than five slaves, and normally only one slave Gu Master. Fang Yuan could get many, yet would expose too much, and Ge tribe is only a chess piece in his plans. ^{ch. 495}

Fang Yuan orders Ge Guang to feed the wolf group while he cultivates in seclusion. He leaves the resources from the wolf hunt for Ge tribe to use. The things on the three beetles remain his to be safeguarded. For days he cultivates, needing wolf soul Gu and jun strength Gu. ^{ch. 495}

To relax, Fang Yuan inspects the beetles’ items, which are very strange: grey-white stone slabs covered in ink lines. If real, they would be a huge deal, traced to Carefree Wisdom Heart, Ren Zu’s ninth daughter, who came to Qian Kun Crystal Wall to save wisdom Gu. Book mountain lay inside the wall, a floating mirror, where an ink waterfall fed a literature spring whose splashes formed words, the origin of the hundred clan writing system. After the wall broke into slabs, legends say, gathering them all restores it and reopens book mountain to Gu Masters. Generations have collected them, so fakes abound, and Daoist Countless Treasure, owner of treasure yellow heaven and treasure light Gu, history’s most authoritative appraiser Gu Immortal, identified them only seventy to eighty percent of the time. Thieving Heaven Demon Venerable made very convincing fakes. ^{ch. 495}

Fang Yuan never meant to restore book mountain, as even a rank nine Gu Venerable failed. He appraises the slabs for relaxation. In his previous life he sold and created fakes. Then a slab he judged fake, injected with his primeval essence, has its ink lines begin to move mystically. ^{ch. 495}