Chapter 539

Ma tribe answers Chang Biao with Xi Xue. She is a rank four peak stage ice path expert who wields rank five flying snow Gu, able to bury a stretch of thousands of steps under heavy snow and turn it to ice. Chang Biao judges the match hard even at full strength, and worse now while still injured; he dodges to stretch out the fight and is pressed into a losing position. Across the field, rank four Gu Masters keep falling, some to injury, some to retreat, some to death, the overall tally roughly even between both sides, and fewer and fewer of them are left to send out. ^{ch. 539}

Hei Lou Lan calls on Gu tribe leader Gu Guo Long, an earth path Gu Master whose stone mountains once nearly drove Hei Lou Lan to retreat. Hei tribe won only after Tai Bai Yun Sheng arrived. Gu tribe was folded into Hei tribe army as the defeated side. Gu Guo Long’s appearance is the first rank five expert of the day, and Ma Shang Feng answers at once with Cheng tribe leader Cheng Long, Cheng Hu’s own elder brother and a rank five transformation path expert. The two duel with stable, measured control on Gu Guo Long’s side against Cheng Long’s fierce, unhurried flight. After twenty exchanged moves, Hei Lou Lan sends Luo Bo Jun, once aligned with Liu Wen Wu and now risen among Hei tribe’s higher ranks since Liu tribe’s defeat, and Ma tribe answers him with a rank five expert of its own. ^{ch. 539}

Ma tribe is not thin on rank five strength either. Nu Er Tu once annexed Tao tribe before losing to Yang tribe, which was then attacked by Ye Lui tribe. Ma tribe finished the chain by defeating Ye Lui tribe itself, and from that single campaign took in Qi Lian tribe, Cheng tribe, Zhao tribe, Lui tribe, Tao tribe and Yang tribe. The same campaign brought it Jiang Bao Ya and Yang Po Ying, who together with Ma Zun give Ma tribe three enslavement path masters of its own. Rank five Gu Masters mostly hold real power, and their fights carry a calmer, more restrained edge than the killing intent between rank four duelists, since a dead tribe leader leaves his tribe leaderless and open to being swallowed by whichever side is stronger. Even under the constraints of the poison vow, tacit unwritten rules hold them back. ^{ch. 539}

Fang Yuan has shown only rank four peak stage cultivation. But as an enslavement master who can sway the whole battle, his position is special and higher than those rank five tribe leaders. Fang Yuan admires the design behind it all: Giant Sun Immortal Venerable built Eighty-Eight True Yang Building as an inheritance and at the same time set up the Imperial Court contest. The system lets Huang Jin tribes swallow rivals, grows a battle merit economy through goods and war reparations that also trade technology and skills, and forces Gu Masters to fight at the edge of life and death until only the strongest remain. The Immortal Venerable is long dead, but his design still governs northern plains, and Fang Yuan judges himself an ant beside him even as this same contest has driven his own strength up by leaps and bounds. ^{ch. 539}

He checks his aperture, filled mostly with new rank four Gu worms, one rank three, and two rank five worms, asura zombie Gu and earth overlord Gu. Inspired by the three brothers’ three heads six arms, he has condensed his own research into a new killer move, four arm earth king, which grows a second pair of arms from his sides and sharply raises his strength while active. It holds only briefly, gives full strength only while his feet touch ground, and falls to half strength in the air. He still means to test and refine it in battle. ^{ch. 539}

The sun climbs high with little warmth left in it, the coming blizzard disaster already dulling it, and battle intent on the field builds toward its peak. Hei tribe’s main tent thins as fighter after fighter is sent out. By the numbers, Hei tribe sits slightly behind. Hei Bai and Hei Cheng have backed Hei Lou Lan actively since the start, while Ma tribe has only now called in help from Xue Song Zi. Impatient, Hei Lou Lan snaps that Ma tribe’s army can take a beating, just as three beast groups burst from its camp at once. ^{ch. 539}

Ma Shang Feng, seeing his side ahead in the individual duels, presses the advantage, betting the beast groups’ combined strength can suppress Hei tribe army and turn the unfavorable situation around. Horses thunder from the left, rats swarm hissing from the right, and eagles rise from the center like a dark cloud: Horse King Ma Zun, Rat King Jiang Bao Ya and Eagle King Yang Po Ying, the three enslavement path masters, moving together. Hei Lou Lan calls on Fang Yuan, Wolf King, to answer them. Fang Yuan judges his own enslavement Gu worms only a little weaker than theirs, but in the two earlier rounds his wolf group, still not built up, was pushed back by their combined beast groups both times. This round is different: Hei tribe’s Gu Immortals have swelled his wolf group more than tenfold, and it has stayed hidden within the army, its presence masked from the enemy by Gu worms. ^{ch. 539}

Yang Po Ying challenges Fang Yuan directly to pin him in place, Rat King Jiang Bao Ya mocks him from the side, and silent Ma Zun simply charges. Hei Lou Lan grows anxious as the beast groups close and Wolf King still has not moved, urging him again and again to act. He worries whether Wolf King’s rank four peak stage primeval essence can sustain control over so enlarged a wolf group. Fang Yuan finally laughs and tells him the battle is already won, since the enemy has walked into its own destruction by throwing its beast groups at him. He calls Hei Lou Lan’s rise to Lord of Imperial Court a foregone conclusion. ^{ch. 539}

As he speaks, his cultivation climbs in full view. It slides from rank four peak stage through all four stages of rank five to rank five peak stage, breath concealment Gu no longer hiding his true level. Wolf King Chang Shan Yin is a genuine rank five peak stage enslavement path master, and the shock of it leaves Hei Lou Lan and the nearby guards dumbstruck. Fang Yuan rises into the sky on eagle rise Gu and gives a long howl, rank five amplify effect Gu and wolf howl Gu drowning out the three beast groups, and the hidden wolf group begins howling back in answer. ^{ch. 539}