Chapter 543

Fang Yuan’s display breaks Ma tribe’s will to fight. Rat King Jiang Bao Ya flees the field outright, accepting the poison vow’s backlash rather than keep fighting, and in blind panic counts off Fang Yuan’s kills this contest: Eagle King, Horse King, Cheng Long, Cheng Hu and Wu Ye. Ma tribe leader Ma Shang Feng calls him back in vain, then coughs blood and faints as his army routs around him. Hei Lou Lan orders a ruthless hunt, and merit-hungry Hei tribe soldiers pursue the fleeing survivors. In the ring, Hei Lou Lan, having been attacked from every side, is himself gasping under injuries with his primeval essence heavily depleted. He came close enough to breaking his own seal and revealing his true martial physique that he counts avoiding it a stroke of luck. ^{ch. 543}

Fang Yuan does not join the hunt. Heavy internal bleeding has weakened his soul to five hundred man soul, and his two bronze arms have quietly vanished, a much harsher backlash from Four Arm Earth King than he had planned for. He traces the cause to the killer move’s rank five earth overlord Gu core: the backlash lightens the longer its user stays on the ground, and he spent the whole battle flying instead. He resolves to favor flying over charging crash Gu going forward and to rework the killer move around that choice. Assassin Wu Ming watches from a distance for a chance to strike him down, but Fang Yuan gives him no opening, and Wu Ming eventually retreats. ^{ch. 543}

Ma Shang Feng wakes and tries to hold a defense line reinforced by Tai Bai Yun Sheng’s mountain as before Gu. Hei tribe breaks through anyway, and Pan Ping’s sole blade Gu takes Ma Shang Feng’s head in the chaos. With their leader dead, Ma tribesmen lose the will to fight. Tao tribe, Yang tribe and Qi Lian tribe surrender in turn. ^{ch. 543}

Away from the battle, servant Fei Cai drives a breaking carriage to save himself and Zhao Lian Yun. Zhao Lian Yun’s own father died fighting on Ma tribe’s side. The carriage collapses on the open grassland, and the two are found by an injured Ma Ying Jie riding past on horseback. ^{ch. 543}

Watching from outside the battle, Gu Immortals Hei Bai and Hei Cheng credit the win to Hei Lou Lan and to Fairy Tan Bi Ya’s tip on Ma tribe’s secret ties to Snowy Mountain. Snowy Mountain’s Gu Immortal Xue Song Zi backed Ma tribe, and Hei Bai names him as the reason wooden chicken Gu escaped his grasp in an earlier rivalry between the two. Both name Chang Shan Yin as the standout of the whole Imperial Court contest. Hei Bai reports his own investigation of Chang Shan Yin: a man of Chang tribe already so famous that even Gu Immortals had heard of him, who then vanished for over ten years in what Hei Bai judges a fortuitous encounter. Fang Yuan can hide his injuries from the surrounding people but not from Gu Immortals. This is why Hei Cheng calls him a Gu Immortal seed and plans to draw him into Hei tribe as a future external supreme elder if he proves loyal. Hei Bai also praises Tai Bai Yun Sheng, though Hei Cheng judges him too old for the same offer. ^{ch. 543}