Chapter 538

Cheng Hu’s tiger roar Gu sends out a sound wave that shatters Hao Ji Liu’s water current into a burst of rain. His killer move pairs tiger roar with tiger claw for sharp offense. It adds tiger skin for defense, tiger tooth for penetration and tiger tail as a whip fast limb. This is the full set of Gu a transformation path Gu Master gathers to transform and gain a sharp rise in battle strength. Even after transforming, a Gu Master still needs long training to use an unfamiliar body well, the same as learning to fly. ^{ch. 538}

The fight settles into deadlock. Cheng Hu holds the advantage but cannot finish Hao Ji Liu, who has enough battle experience to know that killer moves burn primeval essence fast and plans to counter once Cheng Hu’s runs out and he reverts to human form. Ma Shang Feng’s heart sinks watching this, since Ma tribe has already lost twice and the tribes that submitted to it are wavering, and Cheng Hu’s fate now bears on the whole army’s morale rather than on himself alone. Ma Shang Feng calls up Fei Sheng Cheng for the second battle to soften the damage if Cheng Hu falls. ^{ch. 538}

Fei Sheng Cheng was once ostracised inside Fei tribe and could not rise there. Ma tribe planted him as an insider and used him to strike Fei tribe during its own internal strife, taking the tribe while it was weak. Under Ma tribe he has since won accomplishments and been highly regarded. ^{ch. 538}

In Hei tribe’s main tent, Sun Shi Han reports that Fei Sheng Cheng has killed eight rank four experts since the Imperial Court contest began, and once fought three experts of the same realm alone using numbness Gu. Numbness Gu is a rare rank four Gu valued like a rank five, which paralyzes a Gu Master briefly on a hit, deadly enough in an intense battle even for its short duration. Sun Shi Han names the fight as the one against Ye Lui tribe, where Ye Lui Sang lost and was chased nearly to becoming a vagabond, and tribes that had submitted to him, Qi Lian tribe among them, went over to Ma tribe instead. Ye Lui Sang’s expression turns cold at the memory. ^{ch. 538}

Sole Blade Pan Ping volunteers to face Fei Sheng Cheng, and Hei Lou Lan accepts. Pan Ping was killed by Liu tribe’s three brothers’ combined killer move and revived afterward by Tai Bai Yun Sheng’s man as before Gu, along with Gao Yang and Zhu Zai. The revival could not restore Pan Ping’s lost Gu worms, and only sole blade Gu, which lives in his scimitar rather than in his body, survived the blast; Gao Yang’s rank five treacherous cloud wave Gu was destroyed outright. Rank five man as before Gu can only target human bodies, not Gu worms. Pan Ping drew on his own unused battle merits to replenish his Gu worms, while Gao Yang and Zhu Zai borrowed against theirs, and in the battles since the two earned back what they owed and more. In the Imperial Court contest, Fei Sheng Cheng earned battle merits and exchanged them for numbness Gu, pairing it with his existing Gu worms to sharply raise his battle strength. Pan Ping and Fei Sheng Cheng trade insults and then blows, evenly matched, each wary of the other’s signature weapon, Pan Ping of numbness Gu and Fei Sheng Cheng of sole blade Gu. ^{ch. 538}

Ma tribe sends six more fierce generals against the deadlock, and Hei Lou Lan answers with Pei Yan Fei, Gao Yang, Zhu Zai and others. Cheng Hu finally loses to Hao Ji Liu, who lacks the strength left to chase him down, and Ma tribe evens the score in the third duel that follows. More than thirty battle rings open between the two armies, around seventy rank four Gu Masters fighting at once. Northern plains holds billions of people, mostly mortals, but only several hundred rank four Gu Masters and fewer than fifty rank five Gu Masters exist within it. So a scene this large is rare. Not counting their Gu Immortals, both Hei tribe and Ma tribe’s armies now scale well past a super tribe’s own. Fang Yuan alone stays calm, having witnessed larger battles in his previous life during the chaotic war of the five regions. ^{ch. 538}

Fang Yuan is Ge and Chang tribe’s supreme elder, with both tribes under his control. Ge Guang, now Ge tribe’s leader, was originally rank three and has advanced to rank four not long ago after surviving many battles. He asks to join the fighting himself, and Fang Yuan orders him to stand down as a tribe leader with no business risking himself. He then calls for Chang Biao, who is still unrecovered from his last battle. ^{ch. 538}

Fang Yuan sends him out anyway. Chang Biao obeys on the surface, but since joining the Hei alliance army, rages inwardly that Chang Shan Yin uses him like a beast of burden in every major battle. He vows privately that if he could have harmed his lord more than ten years before, he would still find a way to send him to the underworld one day. He drags his injured body onto the battlefield. ^{ch. 538}