Chapter 532

The two armies crash fully together, and the huge influx of fighters interrupts even the ongoing duels of Gao Yang, Zhu Zai, Mo Shi Kuang and Ouyang Bi Sang. Water Demon Hao Ji Liu blasts a current through the Gu Masters ahead of him with waterfall Gu, careless of who is allied to him. A great tornado shreds the field before dispersing to reveal rank four expert Chang Biao, who locks eyes with Hao Ji Liu and fights him at once. Elsewhere, golden lightning cuts down a line of Hei tribe Gu Masters and reveals Pei Yan Fei, who shouts a vow of revenge against Chang Shan Yin before a masked Bian Si Xuan, the Shadow Sword Expert, ambushes him from behind with sword shadows. He turns on her instead. Ouyang Bi Sang and Mo Shi Kuang cut off Gao Yang and Zhu Zai as the pair try to disengage, forcing them back into the fight. ^{ch. 532}

The battlefield settles into rings: large rings of rank four and five experts, smaller rings of rank three fighters outside them, and low rank Gu Masters grouped in teams beyond that. Hei Lou Lan and Liu Wen Wu direct their armies from their main tents, dispatching elite troops to stabilize or press an advantage. Casualties mount, some frozen, some charred, some torn apart, some poisoned. Both commanders break into a cold sweat at the scale of the losses. As primeval essence runs low on both sides the killing slows and the battle settles into a stalemate, each army capable of tipping the balance from a small enough advantage. ^{ch. 532}

Hei Lou Lan transmits to Fang Yuan, who is hidden somewhere on the field with a location even Hei Lou Lan does not know, telling him it is time to use the rank five lurking soul coat Gu with the mutated wolf group. Fang Yuan does not answer, but sends the wolves sprinting in two directions. Liu tribe Gu Masters give chase and their formation loosens. Over eight hundred mutated beasts, white-eyes wolves, blood forest wolves, frenzy wolves and shark fin wolves, then drive as one arrow straight at Liu tribe’s main camp. ^{ch. 532}

Liu Wen Wu is unfazed and calls on Bei Cao Chuan, who warns he can only sustain the effort for seven minutes before activating a Gu that spreads a growth aura over a hundred li, making the grass tower over a man’s height within moments. Further activations advance the resulting rank two puppets, first into rank three rattan shell grass soldiers, then partly into rank four grass sword elite soldiers, until a thousand grass soldiers block the wolves’ charge. Fang Yuan senses he is fighting an enslavement path master. Bei Cao Chuan is weeping as he commands the army: Bei tribe’s elder Bei Cao Sheng sacrificed himself and, through a Gu worm Liu Wen Wu provided, entrusted his soul to Bei Cao Chuan, who now carries two souls. He briefly wields an enslavement master’s strength on top of his own rank four ability and a Bei tribe leader’s resources. The cost is a soul that will grow impure and lapse in memory unless nursed back with specialized soul path Gu. ^{ch. 532}

With the wolves stalled, Liu Wen Wu laughs that Hei Lou Lan is bound to lose. Hei Lou Lan, out of options, commits the black banner troops. They are elite fighters reinforced with battle will Gu who can fight at a hundred and twenty percent of their normal strength. Liu Wen Wu reads their curve toward his central camp as a bid to pierce past the grass army and answers with his own trump card, the grand white troops, foot soldiers who unleash one of their three killer moves. A pillar of white light descends and redeploys them in a tight formation with mobility that outmatches even the mounted black banner. ^{ch. 532}