Chapter 573

Fang Yuan fiddles with the earth chief zombie Gu in a garden pavilion. Refined through Mo Yao’s improved recipe and the flesh of an earth chief myriad beast king’s corpse, it looks like a bright yellow earthworm the size of an infant’s forearm. He has not used it, because the recipe was modified. Despite their compromise, Mo Yao is a righteous path fairy of Spirit Affinity House and a refinement path grandmaster, so he keeps his guard up. During the refinement she spoke only three sentences, yet they were crucial guides; though his refinement path attainment has reached the master realm, he feels young like a child beside her. Mo Yao is moved in turn, since a double master in enslavement path and refinement path at his age is rare even in her memory, and she senses his deep background. ^{ch. 573}

A servant announces the leaders of Ge tribe and Chang tribe. Ge Guang and Chang Ji You, both rank four Gu Masters, kneel and kowtow with extremely respectful and fearful expressions. Without letting them rise, Fang Yuan asks whether they have cleaned up the battlefield as ordered, then cuts off Ge Guang’s report on the spoils to ask how many Gu Masters were arrested. Ge Guang signals Chang Ji You to answer; everyone knows him as Chang Shan Yin’s own son, and Fang Yuan made him Chang tribe leader. With fanatical worship he reports that, despite the public announcement, many Gu Masters sneaked in to steal beast corpses or wild Gu, and that together they arrested over one hundred and eighty, now in prison. Fang Yuan declines his offer to hunt down the many who slipped away, since the battlefield is vast, and orders the captives brought. ^{ch. 573}

The two escort close to two hundred captives into a large hall, and Fang Yuan sends everyone out to guard the door, letting no outsider within a hundred steps. A young Hei tribesman shouts that Hei Lou Lan is his older cousin. Fang Yuan snaps his fingers and activates a Gu, and the young man’s head bursts. The captives, mostly rank one or rank two, panic and kneel, begging forgiveness, and he kills the most mournful beggar with a wave of his hand. He warns that he will kill anyone who makes more noise, and the hall falls silent. ^{ch. 573}

Fang Yuan asks Mo Yao’s will how to experiment, and at her instructions he arranges the Gu worms of six arm heavenly zombie king around the hall and pours primeval essence into them. Their light links into a pale yellow Gu house covering the hall and the captives. Mo Yao explains that a Gu house and six arm heavenly zombie king are both killer moves with the same essence, so every killer move can turn into a Gu house. A killer move is an assembly of Gu worms stacking their single abilities. Fang Yuan grasps that a Gu house is a solidified killer move, like Eighty-Eight True Yang Building or Water Pavilion, and wonders why a move that takes effect on one person cannot take effect on many as a Gu house. ^{ch. 573}

The captives cry out as golden scales grow rapidly on their skin, and they fall to the ground in pain and itching. Monstrous arms of different colors and thicknesses then grow from their backs. Fang Yuan ignores how unsightly they look but feels the dangerous aura they release, very happy and apprehensive. He thinks Mo Yao’s understanding of killer moves is extremely profound, and wonders if others lack it because most Gu Masters, Gu Immortals included, cannot casually turn killer moves into Gu houses. The refinement path grandmaster realm is truly terrifying, he thinks. ^{ch. 573}