Huge Battle (1/4)
Frost covers the grassland on a colder northern plains morning. Two armies of hundreds of thousands face each other again, having rested and reorganized for over a dozen days since their first clash before Hei tribe and Liu tribe traded war letters. Mo Shi Kuang, impatient for his turn, charges out first, his white hair, black skin and panther like eyes daring anyone to face him. Hei tribe’s own higher ups still remember how many rank four Gu Masters he killed last time. ch. 531
Hei Lou Lan, more at ease than before, turns instead to two new arrivals, Gao Yang and Zhu Zai, demonic path’s twin demons, rank four peak stage fighters who once received Tai Bai Yun Sheng’s grace and swore to repay him. Not long ago, Tai Bai Yun Sheng used a letter Gu to call in that debt, and a few days ago, they sided with Hei tribe. Since the challenge rule allows only one fighter a side, Zhu Zai goes first. He absorbs Mo Shi Kuang’s initial charge in an explosive collision that sends him stumbling back and Mo Shi Kuang flying. Liu Wen Wu warns his man that Zhu Zai cultivates strength path. The injury only excites Mo Shi Kuang further, and the two trade blow for thunderous blow. ch. 531
Hei tribe’s camp is startled that a qi path fighter like Mo Shi Kuang holds his own against a strength path opponent. Sun Shi Han, watching closely, works out the trick: a translucent qi armor Gu that Mo Shi Kuang detonates with a qi explosion Gu at the same instant, faking a strength path blow. Gao Yang knows Zhu Zai’s fighting well. He sees his sworn brother already spending nearly everything he has while Mo Shi Kuang still fights at ease. After a dozen or so exchanges, Zhu Zai finally calls a beast phantom, a grand emperor boar the size of an elephant, and its first strike sends Mo Shi Kuang rolling. Pressing the advantage, Zhu Zai’s trump card triples the phantom to three grand emperor boars at once, their combined strength cracking the air with every punch. ch. 531
Mo Shi Kuang takes to the sky instead, easily dodging the boars’ reach. He rains down fist qi while Zhu Zai’s own answering punches gouge craters into the ground beneath him. Without long range attacks of his own, unlike Fang Yuan’s strength qi Gu, Zhu Zai starts losing ground to the airborne assault. Gao Yang moves to reinforce him, and Hei Lou Lan agrees at once. But Ouyang Bi Sang intercepts him midway, and Gao Yang’s cloud rope Gu binds him instead. ch. 531
The rope shakes and breaks before condensing again, showing signs of multiplying. Ouyang Bi Sang breaks free by transforming into an asura zombie, one of the five great flying zombie Gu, tripling his own strength to shatter the rope and block Gao Yang again. Gao Yang, reading the delay as cover for Mo Shi Kuang to finish Zhu Zai, spends his rank five treacherous cloud wave Gu instead, nearly halving his own primeval sea. The grey cloud wraps Ouyang Bi Sang and leaves him unable to tell direction, up from down, or east from west. ch. 531
Freed to act, Gao Yang finally reaches Zhu Zai. Together, working in practiced tandem, the two begin to press even the fearless Mo Shi Kuang back. But within twenty some exchanges, Ouyang Bi Sang breaks loose in his full asura transformation, six bronze like arms tearing through the grey cloud as his battle strength multiplies several times over. He joins Mo Shi Kuang against both men at once, forcing Gao Yang and Zhu Zai onto the defensive. Tai Bai Yun Sheng, unwilling to lose two fighters this valuable, urges Hei Lou Lan to act. Hei Lou Lan, still behind Liu tribe at the top ranks even with the twin demons added, orders the full army forward, echoing a tactic he had watched Fang Yuan use before. ch. 531
Liu Wen Wu answers with scorn, refusing to let a lost duel be salvaged by numbers, and sends his own army out to match it. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers on each side close the gap at a run. At a few hundred paces the Gu Masters open fire together, pill fire, icicles, bone spears and wind blades meeting light armor, bone shields and water barriers in a storm of color and light. Only a few, out of bad luck, die or are gravely hurt in that first exchange. Most fight on until the two armies collide like rushing rivers, and the field turns to blood and chaos. ch. 531
