Chapter 500

Twelve days later, the turtle jade wolf skin Gu dissipates into fluorescent particles, thoroughly destroyed, and Fang Yuan’s body is refined to its skin. Consumed as he expected, the Gu leaves imprints on his body, like bronze skin Gu and iron bone Gu. A dagger slash turns the skin jadish-green with faint turtle shell lines, hard like iron or jade yet flexible. He finds the rank five Gu’s defensive power truly remarkable and extremely practical, since it needs no active use and no primeval essence. Hei Lou Lan used it to entice him on first meeting, a huge investment in bystanders’ eyes. Fang Yuan reads that as sincerity. ^{ch. 500}

Having spent his five bought strength of ten jun Gu, Fang Yuan will draw more from Hei tribe’s inventory. Ten jun equal three hundred jin, and his body now holds sixty jun, one thousand eight hundred jin, while the skin lets it hold about a hundred jun. A rank seven Gu Immortal invented the jin and jun strength Gu recipes, easier and cheaper than beast strength Gu and widespread in the north. He abandons beast phantom Gu for them, to keep up and disguise his identity. They cannot solve strength path’s fundamental problem, since he can exert only a small portion of his sixty jun. ^{ch. 500}

All-out effort Gu, which frees the whole body’s strength, is the answer. Truly the core Gu of strength path, it will be his second aperture’s vital Gu. It is rank three, suppressed to rank two abroad, but he holds the rank four recipe and need only refine it in northern plains. The skin does not benefit enslavement path, which would have called for the rank five wolf totem Gu, which stores wolf packs in the skin. The impermanence bone Gu that further strengthened his soul does not benefit strength path. ^{ch. 500}

Spring Autumn Cicada is recovering and again threatens him with death, while his trips into Hu Immortal blessed land drain his starlight firefly Gu. Immortal Crane Sect covets the blessed land, Fixed Immortal Travel Gu draws a mysterious force’s attention, and the blessed land faces an earthly calamity. Recovering Fixed Immortal Travel and gruel mud Immortal Gu is unsolved, Dang Hun mountain’s death is a crisis, and he must pose as Chang Shan Yin flawlessly. Beset on all sides, he says this predicament lets him anticipate breaking free. He laughs coldly and leaves his secret room. ^{ch. 500}

Two rank three Gu Masters salute him as Lord Wolf King and report that Hei Lou Lan invites the other lords to a banquet on important business. Having refused every invitation to Hei Lou Lan’s earlier feasts, Fang Yuan now goes. The business is the blood oath, and after finding no issue in the contract he uses poison vow Gu with everyone else. He alone can escape it, since he possesses eating one’s words Gu, which a western desert chief will develop in two hundred years. He once used that Gu in Shang clan city to break a poison vow with Bai Ning Bing. With treasure yellow heaven he would merely refine that Gu again to remove his new vow. ^{ch. 500}

Hei Lou Lan holds the central seat in the main tent, with Fang Yuan first on his left. Wang tribe, Fang tribe and Ye tribe sit next. Hei Lou Lan calls the tradition of a large feast total bullshit and proposes collecting wild wolves instead of annexing weaker powers. Fang Yuan knows he has altered history, for he vaguely recalls that in his previous life Hei Lou Lan’s alliance beat Dong Fang tribe at huge cost. Fang Yuan judges that his night wolf emperor is what Hei Lou Lan has in mind, and counts a larger wolf group a great gain for himself. He agrees to do his part. ^{ch. 500}

No one objects. More wolves mean fewer casualties, and all understand that Hei Lou Lan relies heavily on Chang Shan Yin. The Wolf King’s rise in strength hardly worries them, as they do not know of eating one’s words Gu and completely trust poison vow Gu. Soon Gu Masters from tribes large and small dedicate themselves to expanding Fang Yuan’s wolf pack. ^{ch. 500}