Chapter 523

Northern plains’ weather turns cold as the ten year blizzard’s aura gathers. The struggle for Imperial Court spreads into open war across the grassland. ^{ch. 523}

At Mirror lake, Ma tribe and Song tribe cross into open battle behind three to four defense lines apiece; Ma tribe leader Ma Shang Feng judges his army the stronger side, though not an easy win. He sends Cheng Hu out first to stir morale, and while Cheng Hu’s duel runs, also sends out Fei Sheng, a wood path Gu Master newly taken in from the annexed Fei tribe and eager to prove his loyalty. Fei Sheng trades three moves with a Song tribe expert. Cheng Hu, a transformation path Gu Master from the once subjugated Cheng tribe, transforms into a striped tiger king the size of an elephant and kills Song tribe’s Su Yi, shattering his defense Gu with a tail strike before biting his head apart. Watching from the main tent, Ma Ying Jie takes Cheng Hu’s kill as a good omen for the day. ^{ch. 523}

On another front, Liu tribe’s relentless pressure breaks Luo tribe’s alliance leader Luo Bo Jun, still recovering from wounds Liu Wen Wu, Mo Shi Kuang and others inflicted earlier. Unable to hold a single defense line for more than three days running, he orders his own surrender. His officers, bound by poison vow from suggesting it themselves, are relieved to hear him say it. Liu Wen Wu, Mo Shi Kuang and their allies celebrate the win. They plan to annex the beaten army, take its captives, and press on stronger. ^{ch. 523}

At Meng Qiu, Nu Er Tu’s leopard group faces Jiang Bao Ya’s rat group, six hundred and fifty thousand strong. Nu Er Tu mocks the rats’ size over their quality. Jiang Bao Ya answers with a killer move he has never shown before, Rat Epidemic. Hundreds of thousands of rats self-detonate together, tearing through the leopards and filling the ground with yellow poison gas that leaves the survivors sickly and slow, while his own rats move through it unharmed. Jiang Bao Ya crows over the win, but Nu Er Tu answers with a killer move of his own, Leopard Dash, which increases the leopards’ battle strength by over two times and their speed by an astonishing eight times. The leopard group charges clear of the poison gas and surges forward like a tsunami. ^{ch. 523}

At Du Jiao, one Gu Master already stands victorious over a burned battlefield, playing fire in his hands and warning the surrounding Gu Masters to surrender or be turned to ash along with the grass. Within a few breaths, they kneel one after another. ^{ch. 523}

Across northern plains, one great battle after another concludes in Hei tribe’s wake. The defeated scatter, surrender, or flee to other banners, while the winners swallow the weak and grow rich on reparations. After resting at Cao Fu for over ten days and absorbing his new captives, Hei Lou Lan grows his army by sixty percent and marches again, this time against the weakly garrisoned Gu tribe at Guan Xi. ^{ch. 523}

Seven days later, Hei tribe crushes Gu tribe’s army in the first clash, and alliance leader Gu Guo Long abandons three defense lines without a fight to pull back to his main camp. Hei Lou Lan presses forward in triumph, only to find Gu Guo Long’s men have piled stones into an entire mountain, ringed with traps, and dug in on the high ground. Hei tribe’s assaults break against it again and again, leaving heaps of dead; Fang Yuan holds his wolf group back, doing only enough to look like effort, since the mountain’s trees and undergrowth scatter and pick off wolves anyway. Even stones mortal hands drop from that height strike with a rank one Gu’s force, and Gu tribe keeps piling the mountain higher as the siege drags on. Furious, and weighing retreat, Hei Lou Lan is ready to give up the assault when a stranger walks into camp bearing a letter and names himself Tai Bai Yun Sheng, come to lend a hand. Delighted, Hei Lou Lan seizes his hands in welcome. ^{ch. 523}