Chapter 537

Snowy Mountain is the nest of northern plains’ demonic path Gu Immortals, with tens of Gu Immortals holding separate peaks. On one of them stands Xue Song Pavilion, a seven storey ice crystal tower ringed by green pine, and its owner Xue Song Zi looks down over ground that is his alone. He is tall and thin. He has snow-white hair that reaches the ground, a light blue gown, and deep blue eyes. He judges his snow pines and snow willows healthy, the willows planted two years ago already past ten thousand. His Gu worm production this year totals close to three hundred rank five Gu, and after keeping some back for research he still holds a surplus of ice path and water path Gu worms. He expects to sell that surplus for at least two to three immortal essence stones. ^{ch. 537}

His larger income is the six snowman tribes he raises on the peak. Snowmen are variant humans of the ice cold regions, white skinned with icy blue eyes and aqua blue hair, and their dead turn to ice sculpture. They rarely cry or laugh, and a snowman’s tear condenses to ice the instant it falls, a Gu refinement material other Gu Immortals prize. Xue Song Zi regards snowmen as the variant humans whose spirituality sits closest to that of humans, even as he trades them himself. Many Gu Immortals simply kill snowmen for their icy tears, and Xue Song Zi once did the same before he found that breeding and selling live snowmen was more profitable than harvesting the tears himself. A snowman can cry at most three times in a life, no more than sixty drops in total, and each time shortens its lifespan sharply and speeds its aging. Raising them costs little, and his own peak favors the growth of snow pines, snow trees and snowmen alike, so he has grown wealthy even by a Gu Immortal’s standard. ^{ch. 537}

Xue Song Zi has one lasting regret. Decades have passed since he reached rank six, and he still owns no Immortal Gu, since immortal essence stones alone cannot buy what exists as only a single copy each, tradeable only for another Immortal Gu. He is turning this over when a letter Gu breaks into his space carrying a request for aid from Ma tribe. He has courted Ma tribe before over its struggle for the Imperial Court and the Eighty-Eight True Yang Building, and reads the request as Ma tribe finally accepting his old terms. Xue Song Zi keeps four battle troops marked A, B, C and D, elite troops formed from experts of his six snowman tribes. He summons three snowman Gu Masters, Xue Wa, Xue Mi and Xue Ming, hands them Gu worms and battle troop D, and sends them out to fight for Ma tribe. ^{ch. 537}

Before they reach Ma tribe, Hei tribe’s Gu Immortals spot them. Hei Bai and Hei Cheng, Hei Lou Lan’s father, meet in Xiao Hun Blessed Land, where Hei Bai reports that Ma tribe’s tie to Snowy Mountain’s demonic path Gu Immortals is confirmed, just as Liu tribe elder Tan Bi Ya warned. Hei Cheng is unworried: demonic path Gu Immortals work alone, he judges, so Snowy Mountain will back Ma tribe with at most two to three of them. He orders Hei Bai to identify them and to buy five hundred thousand wolves, three hundred mutated wolves, two wolf emperors and a few thousand Gu worms for Hei Lou Lan, and to tell him to end the fight quickly. Supporting a whole army this long strains even wealthy Gu Immortals, most of the cost paid in immortal essence stones spent at treasure yellow heaven. The struggle for the Imperial Court can bankrupt a losing backer outright, while a backer whose side wins can obtain Immortal Gu from Eighty-Eight True Yang Building of his own. ^{ch. 537}

After ten days, Hei tribe and Ma tribe meet again, troops lined up in formation. Hei Lou Lan calls for a first challenger, and Water Demon Hao Ji Liu steps up. Hao Ji Liu submitted to Hei tribe at the heroes assembly. He has fought through every stage of the contest since, and if nothing unexpected changes that, Hei tribe means to make him an external elder once it claims the Imperial Court. Ma tribe answers with its rank four transformation path general Cheng Hu, and the two exchange more than ten rounds before Hao Ji Liu edges ahead. Cornered, Cheng Hu roars and transforms into the slant-eye tiger, and the tiger turns the fight around at once, forcing Hao Ji Liu into retreat and defense. ^{ch. 537}