Perfecting the Killer Move
Wolf howls echo out and a large group of turtleback wolves appears ahead, and Pan Ping slows and shouts in surprise, asking how there could be a wolf group here. Chang Biao’s expression sinks, since his connection to Fang Yuan has made the wolf the animal he now hates most. He has not even considered that Fang Yuan might be controlling this round, and says in a gloomy voice that their priority was to probe, and that since there is now a new change, they should see what happens after killing these wolves. Pan Ping agrees, and the two cooperate and start killing the wolves. ch. 580
At first the two hold the upper hand, close to a slaughter, since ordinary turtleback wolves are no match for them. But soon other kinds of wolves keep appearing: vermillion wolves, water wolves, wind wolves, and even mutated groups such as frenzy wolves and white-eyes wolves. The two gradually find this harder to endure, wondering aloud how there could be so many wolf groups and whether this round also tests a Gu Master’s ability to fight. Large numbers of thousand wolf kings enter the battle along with myriad wolf kings, and Pan Ping and Chang Biao’s expressions turn grim. Pan Ping sighs that this round is too hard. Chang Biao answers that in Eighty-Eight True Yang Building the difficulty rises with each round passed, with the ninetieth to hundredth rounds being the hardest. ch. 580
After a while longer, the two cannot keep fighting, and Chang Biao states heavily that their probe has found this round holds not only a maze but wolf groups as well. Pan Ping notes that with walls on both sides and the terrain narrow, the crowd already restricts them, and asks what else they can do. Chang Biao says they should talk after retreating. Neither has the Giant Sun bloodline, so they had used guest tokens to enter Eighty-Eight True Yang Building, and because guest tokens are precious, entering costs them a great deal of resources each time. ch. 580
Already thinking of retreat, Pan Ping glares at the wolf groups with hatred and vows to trample the Wolf King and disgrace him one day, an epithet the chapter says means Fang Yuan. His laughter suddenly stops, replaced by shock and fear. Chang Biao, at his side, also discovers a serious problem: they cannot leave. The two had entered and left through their guest tokens many times before and were well used to doing so. But this floor is now under Fang Yuan’s control, and his five-edge owner token is far more powerful than a guest token, leaving the two trapped like birds in a cage. ch. 580
Pan Ping panics, shouting that he has only thirty percent of his primeval essence left and asking what they should do. Chang Biao, grim, shouts at him to stay calm, since his own condition is a little better with fifty percent primeval essence remaining. But even a full reserve would eventually run out against these endless wolf groups. Chang Biao reasons that it is very rare not to be able to leave the tower, that this strange round may be testing a Gu Master’s courage, and that they must not act like cowards. Hearing this, Pan Ping calms a little, recalling that history records strange rounds that test a Gu Master’s mind, where the more cowardly the Gu Master becomes, the stronger the monster they must face. ch. 580
Pan and Chang steady themselves and try to break through the wolf groups’ encirclement. But Fang Yuan is in control of this round and knows every corner of the maze. He directs the wolf groups with total ease, so that no matter how the two try to break through, wolf groups always circle around and cut off their path. With no alternative, Pan Ping spends almost all his primeval essence to activate six arm heavenly zombie king. He turns into an eight armed zombie, his battle strength rising explosively enough to send out surging waves, and the wolves suffer severe losses with none able to resist him. ch. 580
Chang Biao follows behind him to preserve his own primeval essence, saving a good deal of strength this way. The good situation does not last, and Pan Ping’s essence is soon exhausted. Chang Biao moves quickly to save him, urging him to rest and recover with primeval stones while he protects him, and Chang Biao too activates six arm heavenly zombie king to shield Pan Ping. With this mutual help, the two stabilize their situation. ch. 580
Seven or eight days pass this way, until Chang Biao and Pan Ping’s primeval essence is completely exhausted and they can no longer carry on. Pan Ping roars at the sky, asking if he is going to die here. Chang Biao, who has lost his earlier composure, shouts and roars that there must be a way out. Just at this moment of despair, the two suddenly spot a large pile of primeval stones in a corner ahead, and they cry out in disbelief at such a mountain of stones. ch. 580
Finding a way out of death’s door, the two are elated and summon all their bravery to fight their way through, and their situation stabilizes again as they use the stones to recover their primeval essence. Chang Biao shouts with wild joy that he now understands this round tests a Gu Master’s endurance, and Pan Ping agrees that this must be so. The two are too happy to notice the strange changes happening to their bodies. As they use six arm heavenly zombie king more and more often, irrecoverable zombie speckles begin growing on them. ch. 580
Pan Ping says this hill of stones is enough to last two or three months and pounces on it, crying tears of joy. Chang Biao tells him to use the time to recover, since there should be other stone hills to find, and that they can drink wolf blood and eat wolf meat to persevere and perhaps pass this round. Pan Ping agrees, imagining the reward, and says this round is nearly an absolute death ground, so passing it should carry a great reward. Chang Biao, still fending off the wolves, sighs that he now understands why they can enter but not leave, since an easy exit would not test a Gu Master at all. It is a pity that neither of them knows this pile of primeval stones was placed there on purpose by their great enemy Fang Yuan. His goal is to make them rely on the move and continue his experiment. ch. 580
Even if the two had refused to use the killer move, Fang Yuan would have kept the wolf groups attacking until they had no choice but to use it anyway, so his worry on this point turns out unnecessary. As they keep using the move, the two grow dependent on it and use their own methods less and less. By the time their zombie speckles grow dense enough to seriously affect them, they finally realize what is happening. But it is already too late. ch. 580
Refusing to accept his death, Pan Ping vows he will not let the Wolf King go even as a ghost. Pan Ping dies first, and before dying he curses Fang Yuan. Several days later, Chang Biao also dies from exhaustion in the fighting. He dies full of grievance, murmuring near the end and asking where the exit could possibly be. He carries too many worries to let go of. ch. 580
The Wolf Killing Alliance had only just been set up, and the scheme to force Ma Ying Jie into it had only just begun, but what left him most unreconciled was his own son, Chang Ji You. Chang Biao was, in truth, a pitiful man: to protect his reputation, he had never dared admit the boy was his own, and could only hear Chang Ji You call him godfather. Even so he had not felt secure, and to cover it further he had adopted several orphans as sons and daughters, Chang Li among them. He had made painstaking efforts and laid low his whole life, planning so much, yet nothing had come to fruition as he faced death. He was unreconciled and full of regret, with nothing he could do. As his life’s light faded, his last intense thought burst out as a sorrowful and regretful longing to have once heard his son call him father. ch. 580
Appearing beside Chang Biao’s corpse out of thin air, Fang Yuan reports a tally of two thousand three hundred and eleven activations of the killer move. Exhaustion is what killed Chang Biao on the surface, but Fang Yuan names the true cause as the zombie energy that had built up inside his body. He smiles slightly, since the experiment has reached its intended purpose, though he has also found a problem. Even used within its limit each time, the killer move builds up zombie energy in the body with repeated use, until the buildup itself proves fatal to the Gu Master. Both Pan Ping and Chang Biao died from this same cause. ch. 580
Fang Yuan takes the Gu worms from the two corpses and stores them in his pouch, since his control of this round made it impossible for either man to detonate his own Gu worms even if he had wanted to. Chang Biao’s wind path Gu worms are all of excellent quality, and Pan Ping’s are not ordinary either, though at Fang Yuan’s current level of scope and resources they are worth barely more than nothing. Only the sole blade Gu holds any collection value. Fang Yuan studies it for a moment. ch. 580
Several days later, Fang Yuan sits in a study grasping an east window Gu. With his eyes closed, he turns the wisdom path Gu’s lessons over in thought, recalling that hostile intent Gu condenses hostile intent, fierce and encroaching like fire but lacking flexibility and unable to persist for long. Sharp intent Gu condenses sharp intent, sharp like swords and spears, yet it can be subdued by soft tactics and is difficult to restore once broken. Reckless intent Gu condenses reckless intent, which respects no taboo and spreads unchecked, but is hard to control and can easily injure its own Gu Master. ch. 580
Fang Yuan bought this east window Gu from treasure yellow heaven, and it records a fairly intact wisdom path inheritance, paid for with all his small savings of immortal essence stones. It is worth the cost, since reading it brings him real insight. The inheritance records fourteen wisdom path Gu worms, six of which touch on the aspect of intent: hostile intent Gu, sharp intent Gu, reckless intent Gu, changing intent Gu, cold intent Gu and chaotic intent Gu. Hostile, sharp and reckless intent are the three that shape will, and each carries its own strengths and weaknesses. Wisdom path is the most mysterious of the Gu Master paths, broad and profound, originating with Star Constellation Immortal Venerable in the Remote Antiquity Era, cultivated by very few Gu Masters, yet still passed down and never declining. ch. 580
Fang Yuan wonders which of these three, hostile, sharp or reckless intent, might classify Mo Yao’s will, since he is studying these wills to guard against the enormous hidden danger she poses in his mind. He judges hostile intent to burn with a fire’s fierceness, sharp intent to carry a spear’s edge, and reckless intent to stay flamboyant and hard to rein in. Mo Yao’s will resembles none of them: it lies as hidden and indistinct as the deep sea, and every clash with it has left him striking as though into cotton, unable to bring out his own strength. Fang Yuan carefully weighs it and concludes that her will does not belong to any of the three. The inheritance he holds is only a corner of wisdom path, and many more wisdom path Gu worms must exist beyond it. He tells himself he must keep gathering information on wisdom path. He cannot yet move easily against Mo Yao’s will, since he does not know wisdom path well enough to know her trump cards. ch. 580
Fang Yuan reasons that knowing himself and knowing his enemy lets a man go unscathed through a hundred battles. For now he will bear with the uncertainty, let her wear herself down with continuous thinking, and use her at the same time to help explore True Yang Building. Just then, Mo Yao’s will appears in his mind, her figure indistinct. In a weak tone and with an exhausted air, she reports that six arm heavenly zombie king is now truly perfected, with no unsuitable factors left. Fang Yuan privately thinks she must have worn herself down from all this recent thinking, and feels inwardly pleased. As he studies the modified killer move, his hidden happiness turns to exultation. ch. 580
