Chapter 514

Dong Fang Yu Liang’s slaughter of three elite troops tips the battle toward his own side. Dong Fang alliance army’s morale surges as it drives Hei tribe back. But Dong Fang Yu Liang himself is uneasy: Seven Star Light will not hold forever, and it has yet to force Hei Lou Lan or Chang Shan Yin into the open. He splits the star cloud in two. One half goes at the black banner elite troop guarding Hei tribe’s mid army, the other at Ge tribe. ^{ch. 514}

Black banner’s commanders order every Gu worm activated at once. Their troop’s Battle Thought Gu, paired with each soldier’s own firm willpower, lets them resist the star cloud where the other elite troops could not, though only half of Dong Fang Yu Liang’s strength is aimed at them. Ge tribe has no such defense. Screams rise from their corner as they are cut down. Fang Yuan watches through Wolf Care Gu and does not move to help; Ge tribe is only a chess piece to him. Dong Fang Yu Liang keeps waiting for the losses to force Fang Yuan into the open and expose his soul fluctuations, but the wait goes unrewarded, and such cold and heartless restraint leaves Dong Fang Yu Liang chilled. ^{ch. 514}

Hei Lou Lan sees black banner start to strain and steps in himself, clashing with Dong Fang Yu Liang in the air through many exchanges with neither gaining the upper hand. Tied up dueling Hei Lou Lan, Dong Fang Yu Liang can no longer feed the half of the star cloud attacking black banner; it loses its push and dissipates after a last spell of damage, and the wider battlefield settles back into deadlock. A handful of the rank four duels have already ended in death or injury. Wind Demon and Water Demon are still trading blows. Bian Si Xuan and Dong Po Kong keep ranging across the field, still unable to find Fang Yuan. ^{ch. 514}

In Ni Yu Blessed Land, the Gu Immortals Tan Bi Ya and Dong Fang Chang Fan watch the battle in a smoke image over tea. Tan Bi Ya credits Dong Fang Chang Fan’s guidance for the stalemate. Dong Fang Chang Fan waves this off, says he gave the young man only a few sentences, and admits he has promised to heal Dong Fang Yu Liang’s sick sister and groom him as a successor if he takes the Imperial Court. Tan Bi Ya rates his odds low. She points to the favored Ye Lui Sang, secretly armed with an Immortal Gu by Supreme Elder Ye Lui Lai, and to Hei Lou Lan, whose father Hei Cheng backs him openly, having fathered him through his twenty-seventh concubine. ^{ch. 514}

Dong Fang Chang Fan denies backing Dong Fang Yu Liang the same way. Instead he tells her, as a deduction only she has heard, that Snowy Mountain Blessed Land’s demonic path Gu Immortals are secretly propping up Ma tribe, coveting Giant Sun Immortal Venerable’s inheritance at Eighty-Eight True Yang Building. Tan Bi Ya, who secretly backs Liu Wen Wu for Liu tribe, believes most of the warning at once. She rushes off to alert others. The exchange is itself a scheme against her, working because her own stake in the outcome leaves her easy to plot against. His true aim for Dong Fang Yu Liang is simpler: win or lose, the young man’s need to save his sister will bind him to Dong Fang Chang Fan regardless. ^{ch. 514}

The smoke image then shows Dong Fang Yu Liang giving way at last, ordering a disciplined retreat toward the defense line the army built before the battle. At that moment the wolf group howls and reforms, hurling itself at the retreating army in a charge that does not fear death, driven by Fang Yuan using eighty percent of his master level enslavement attainment. Dong Fang army, already spent, breaks apart under the assault. The soul fluctuations needed to command wolves at that scale finally give Fang Yuan away, standing openly now on the twin-headed rhino’s back. ^{ch. 514}

Dong Fang Yu Liang recognizes the pattern. This is only Fang Yuan’s second move of the whole battle, and both times he struck at the moment of greatest effect, this one landing exactly when Dong Fang army has almost nothing left to spend. Wolves are easily replaced from the wide numbers running Northern Plains. Every Gu Master Dong Fang tribe loses is not, which is why the trade favors Fang Yuan even though his own wolf group has also suffered severe losses. ^{ch. 514}