Chapter 517

Fang Yuan weighs how to raise his strength path Gu to rank five. He judges his enslavement path Gu, nearly all rank four and inherited from Chang Shan Yin, too hard to raise to rank five in a short time, so he decides to prioritize gathering Gu recipes instead, as a contingency. He decides against refining his Southern Border strength Gu directly, since a failed refinement destroys them and forces him to gather the materials all over again. Buying finished Gu is simply safer. ^{ch. 517}

Hei tribe’s exchange list offers only one rank five Gu, though plenty at rank four; there is no charging crash Gu at all, so he settles for two pairs of rank three horizontal charge Gu and vertical crash Gu, intending to fuse them himself. He also buys the only self-reliance Gu on Hei tribe’s list, a rank two copy lower than the one he already owns; if there is truly no other way, he reasons, he can try refining it upward. Strength qi Gu is already extinct in mortal markets. His own copy came from reverse refining a rank four atmosphere Gu, a route no longer worth pursuing now that rank three strength qi Gu offers him little at rank five cultivation. He briefly worries that losing strength qi Gu leaves strength path without long ranged attacks. Then he catches himself: his enslavement path already fills that gap, and his two cultivated paths can shield each other’s weaknesses, enslavement Gu Masters’ vulnerability to beheading tactics included. ^{ch. 517}

He then spends battle merits on space path Gu and large quantities of refinement materials. These are preparations for entering Luo Po Valley, which Thieving Heaven Demon Venerable sealed so that only a rank five open door Gu admits an owner, with a rank five close door Gu needed afterward to seal the passage again. The Hei tribe Gu Master handling his exchange privately wonders why he wants so many space and refinement goods. She does not ask. These purchases already cut his battle merits by over half and drop him from first place on the battle merit list. ^{ch. 517}

Before he leaves, the same Gu Master hands him a recipe that Hei Lou Lan set aside for him: lurking soul coat Gu, which covers a wearer’s soul fluctuations and would let Fang Yuan mobilize his wolf group at full strength while still hidden. The recipe runs from rank one to rank five. It costs the last of his battle merits. He borrows five hundred thousand more, a debt Hei Lou Lan permits because Fang Yuan can raise the whole army’s strength alone. His name falls to the very bottom of the battle merit list, now negative, and other Gu Masters in the fifteen large tents are visibly startled by the reversal. He posts assignments for capturing wolves, gathering souls and processing skins to fund the Gu’s refinement, and interest in them runs high. ^{ch. 517}

Over the following days Fang Yuan cultivates his strength path. His body, aided by turtle jade wolf skin Gu, soon breaks the hundred jun strength barrier, and he receives ten thousand rank one lurking soul coat Gu, still far short of rank five. After a week of rest, Hei tribe’s army advances on Dong Fang tribe’s defense line. Dong Fang Yu Liang’s tall walls and repeated stratagems slow the assault, but cannot close the gap opened in the first battle. His five defense lines fall one after another. His forces end up surrounded at the last line, in the central zone of Cao Fu. Hei Lou Lan, standing atop his twin headed rhino, calls out from the field, telling Dong Fang Yu Liang his defeat is already settled and offering to let him keep the army’s chief military advisor position if he surrenders. ^{ch. 517}