Entering True Yang Building, Fang Yuan feels a strong pressure that soon lifts, and he finds himself beside Hei Lou Lan on an island in a lake ringed by foggy mountain shadows. In his hand the guest token melts into cold liquid metal and drains away, since each one only works once. Hei Lou Lan says this is the 54th round. He points to a second island across the water. ch. 557
On it stands a group of water snake lions, bright blue and smooth-furred, with webbed frog-like feet and tails that are separate hissing snakes. A wordless flood of information tells Fang Yuan to use the hedgehog fish around his own island to break the lions’ defense and take their ground. He spots the hedgehog fish’s shadows moving in the water around him. Hei tribe elders arrive and explain that both beasts are medieval-era wilds now found only deep in the Eastern Sea. ch. 557
One elder calls the round unfair, since a single lion can match five or six fish while the fish only outnumber the lions about two to one. Hei Lou Lan tells him not to worry, calling it practice. Fang Yuan is used to enslaving wolves, not fish, and hedgehog fish are nearly extinct in Northern Plains. Hei Lou Lan has failed eight or nine times already, his best result killing only thirty percent of the lions. ch. 557
Fang Yuan judges the task nearly guaranteed, yet the round is elaborate, since Giant Sun Immortal Venerable built True Yang Building to reward descendants and split every round into low, middle and high grade passes. A low grade pass only sends the Gu Master onward, a middle grade doubles the reward and adds information about the next round, and a high grade doubles that again and sends the Gu Master into a treasure room within it. The treasure room holds countless treasures, including true immortal inheritances left by Giant Sun Immortal Venerable, but nothing can be taken without exchanging an equal item first. Hei Lou Lan only needs a low grade pass, but Fang Yuan wants a high grade pass so he can enter the treasure room alone and use methods he has already prepared. He does not know the conditions for middle or high grade. He decides to try anyway. ch. 557
Hei Lou Lan waves an owner token, different from the guest token and a mark of the status he received on first entering Imperial Court blessed land. Dozens of fish enslavement Gu, rank one to three, appear in ripples of light. Fang Yuan refines them with ease while an invisible force freezes everyone else in place, unable to help. Only Hei Lou Lan can still speak, and he warns that Fang Yuan has just fifteen minutes. ch. 557
With a casual wave Fang Yuan enslaves the whole fish group at once, and not one enslavement fails, unlike Hei Qi Sheng’s method of enslaving them one by one under real risk of a soul backlash. The fish swim to the island as though they had always belonged to him, and the watching Gu Masters are stunned. The lions rouse and some slide into the water to defend. ch. 557
Instead of attacking, the fish only circle the area, and the watching crowd guesses Fang Yuan is getting familiar with the fish’s habits. Hei Lou Lan grows anxious as time runs down and urges him twice to hurry, but Fang Yuan answers only that there is no rush. The lions relax at the lack of attack, and more of them climb onto the island, until even the old lion king lies down to sleep. The watching crowd loses hope. ch. 557
Just as time is about to run out, Fang Yuan suddenly orders the fish to attack from every side, and the surprised lions lose thirty percent of their number in an instant. The lion king roars and leads the survivors into the water to retaliate. Fang Yuan pulls his fish back, and the chasing lions fall into chaos over a hidden whirlpool. The elders realize Fang Yuan had used the fish’s earlier circling to scout the terrain, not merely to grow familiar with the fish. ch. 557
The lions’ larger bodies are dragged by the whirlpool’s current while the smaller fish barely feel it, and the fish turn to attack. Fighting like a coordinated troop, the fish scatter and gather at will, striking and retreating until the lion group is destroyed within a dozen breaths. Hei Lou Lan laughs and claps, praising Wolf King. Fang Yuan then receives word of a high grade evaluation and vanishes on the spot. The Hei tribesmen are stunned, but only Hei Lou Lan understands what just happened. ch. 557
