Chapter 515

Dong Fang army breaks and runs, abandoning its dead. Hei tribe presses a cruel massacre on the retreat. Dong Fang Yu Liang throws rank four experts into the gap to buy time, but Hei Lou Lan pins him down again, and Hei tribe’s own rank four experts hold the line. Fang Yuan, seeing his side already winning, calls the wolf group back rather than press further. This wins him open praise from the black banner commander at his side, who sees him handing away easy battle credit. Fang Yuan says nothing of Hei Xiu Yi abandoning him earlier, or that only the Water Image Gu kept him alive; the grudge is not worth internal friction against Hei Lou Lan’s own trusted general. ^{ch. 515}

The retreat costs Dong Fang army dearly. Twenty percent die in the first clash and fifty percent more in the chase, leaving only thirty percent, injured and battered, to reach the first defense line. Two of the rank four experts covering the retreat die doing so. The pursuing Hei tribe fares little better. Dong Fang tribe’s feather arrow elite troop shoots them back from atop the walls, costing them hundreds before three charges are all repelled, and three more rank four experts fall to Dong Fang Yu Liang’s prepared traps. ^{ch. 515}

In the main tent, Cunning Gentleman Sun Shi Han argues for pulling back to regroup rather than grind against a fortified line with primeval essence running low. Fang Yuan disagrees. Drawing on what he knows of Dong Fang Yu Liang from his previous life, he insists any delay only lets the man scheme further, and guarantees he can break the defense line within a quarter of an hour. Sun Shi Han sneers at the boast. ^{ch. 515}

Hei Lou Lan is curious enough to let him try. Wave after wave of wolves die under the wall, two hundred and eighty thousand in a short span, as Fang Yuan varies the assault through Wolf Howl Gu against the feather arrow troop and the rank four defenders rushing to plug every gap. The main tent watches Fang Yuan’s expressionless ruthlessness with growing unease. Watching the same wolf tide from his own side, Dong Fang Yu Liang grows heavy at such ruthlessness, wondering whether the Wolf King means to spare no one. Just as promised, the line breaks after a quarter hour. ^{ch. 515}

Dong Fang Yu Liang leaves a crippled rearguard to cover the escape to the second line. Fang Yuan withdraws his own exhausted wolves rather than chase, which further wins him goodwill in the camp. Hei Lou Lan, himself wounded, sends Hao Ji Liu, Pan Ping, the Wang tribe leader and others in pursuit, warning them Dong Fang Yu Liang will have more traps waiting. He is right. Buried Charred Thunder Potato Gu detonate in a chain across the broken line, joined by rank three Muffled Thunder Potato Gu and a few rank four Thunderclap Potato Gu, killing dozens outright and scattering the rest before they can catch the fleeing Dong Fang remnant. Hei Lou Lan realizes the delay he granted before the battle, at Sun Shi Han’s urging, gave Dong Fang Yu Liang exactly the time he needed to bury so many charges. He settles for calling the day’s gains a huge victory regardless. ^{ch. 515}

Fang Yuan skips the postwar cleanup and returns to his Large Lizard House Gu to cultivate. His standing from the battle is now high enough that even Sun Shi Han says nothing against him. Dong Fang Yu Liang, briefed that the Wolf King escaped the blast unhurt, now rates Chang Shan Yin as a greater threat than Hei Lou Lan himself, cunning and vicious and indifferent to Ge tribe’s survival. He is calm rather than arrogant despite standing only at rank four peak stage. In Ni Yu Blessed Land, watching the same smoke image, Dong Fang Chang Fan judges Dong Fang Yu Liang’s hopes for the Imperial Court now very slim short of a major mistake from Hei Lou Lan. He is pleased all the same, since Dong Fang Yu Liang protected the tribe’s own feather arrow troop from any losses at all. The narration adds that the struggle for the Imperial Court is itself an arrangement Giant Sun Immortal Venerable set in place, meant in part to preserve his bloodline while weakening the other tribes. ^{ch. 515}