Chapter 540

Fang Yuan flies up and tells Yang Po Ying, Jiang Bao Ya and Ma Zun that all three die today. Jiang Bao Ya calls it shameless talk and Yang Po Ying answers that the words only sharpen his battle intent, until the wolf group breaks into view: wave after wave of wolves, seemingly without end. Jiang Bao Ya’s own battle intent vanishes. He guesses the number at five hundred thousand, then eight hundred thousand, then settles on at least a million. His own rat group, down from a peak of six hundred thousand to under two hundred thousand after battles he has not yet replenished, turns and runs at his order. Selfish by nature, he flees at once with his rats. ^{ch. 540}

An enslavement path Gu Master’s strength rests on three things: the size of the beast group, how well its Gu worms work together, and the strength of the handler’s own soul. Fang Yuan’s soul, built up through Dang Hun Mountain, matches the three enemy masters. His enslavement Gu worms trail theirs by only a little. But his wolf group now numbers one million five hundred and sixty thousand, against a combined two hundred thousand rats, a hundred and eighty thousand eagles and three hundred and sixty thousand horses, no more than seven hundred and forty thousand between all three. Mismatched beast groups do not simply add their strength together when massed, either: unless a handler uses three hearts combination soul, different beast groups impede each other and cause more trouble than good. ^{ch. 540}

The wolves have been hiding in ground crevices, behind concealing Gu worms and inside carriages, and now they all show themselves at once. Yang Po Ying, Jiang Bao Ya and Ma Zun planned a three-way pincer to catch Fang Yuan while he looked alone, but the sheer size of his wolf group turns Hei tribe’s apparent weakness into its greatest strength instead. Ma Zun’s guards urge him to retreat, but a horse group cannot turn as quickly as rats, and Fang Yuan has timed his reveal for exactly this moment. Still, Ma Zun is a skilled handler: he steers the horses into an arc past Hei tribe’s army, trying to break clear. Fang Yuan will not let him go so easily. Ma Zun’s own mutated beast group, a pegasus troop, cannot match the mutated wolves chasing him, and most of his horses are the ordinary terror claw horse breed. His mutated wolf group splits and pincers the horses, and a mass of ordinary wolves closes in behind to surround them, a piece of control Hei Lou Lan calls master level work as his own worry finally eases. ^{ch. 540}

Rat King Jiang Bao Ya’s flight does not save him from the wolves either. A sea of mutated wolves chases him down while ordinary wolves swallow up the slower rats trailing behind. Fang Yuan stops paying him any attention and turns to the sky, since the wolf group, bound to the ground, cannot touch the eagles, leaving Yang Po Ying’s group, weaker than the horses, in the safest position of the three. ^{ch. 540}

Yang Po Ying weighs using his eagles to draw Fang Yuan’s attention. But Fang Yuan moves first, sending hundreds of thousands of wolves charging straight at Ma tribe’s main tent instead. Fang Yuan reasons aloud that even a wolf group beaten one on one by the eagles still wins by attrition if it burns through the enemy’s numbers and primeval essence. Yang Po Ying, chilled by the logic, holds Wolf King back with his own eagles rather than contesting the charge. Ma Shang Feng scrambles a defensive line from his remaining enslavement masters, but with mutated wolves at the front it breaks as thin as paper. He calls up Xue Wa and the other rank five snowmen to show their true forms as a dedicated troop, and Ma tribe’s morale steadies enough to fight on. ^{ch. 540}

The two armies collide in full. Beast groups and humans tangle together across every path of cultivation. Hei Lou Lan’s personal guards, Ye Lui Sang, Hao Ji Liu, Bian Si Xuan and Pan Ping ring Fang Yuan and hold off the eagle group’s attacks. Fang Yuan uses wolf care Gu to see past his own blind spot and keeps the wolf group slaughtering horses, rats and people alike. ^{ch. 540}

Yang Po Ying, sweating, orders Wu Ye, Green Bat, to go pin down the experts guarding Wolf King, and reminds him their hidden assassin Wu Ming is still in play. Wu Ye is the last of northern plains’ three original flying masters left in the field, since Dong Po Kong has returned to his own blessed land and Song Qing Yin has already died in battle. As Wu Ye and other fliers rush out, pressure on Hei Lou Lan’s side sharpens. He warns his men to stay wary of Wu Ming, Qi Lian tribe leader’s godson and a rank five dark path Gu Master. Wu Ming’s assassinations broke a seven army alliance for Ye Lui Sang and have since claimed a number of rank five Gu Masters along with more rank four ones, a reputation that has already outgrown Shadow Sword Expert Bian Si Xuan’s own. Wu Ming has not shown himself yet. ^{ch. 540}

Both sides now grasp that killing Wolf King would collapse the wolf group and flip the battle. Gu Masters on all sides begin charging toward him. Ma Shang Feng fights on while shouting an offer: five million battle merits, the rank of Ma tribe’s supreme elder, and Ma tribe’s resources for life to whoever brings down Chang Shan Yin. ^{ch. 540}