Chapter 583

Wild Gu draw their power straight from the air. A fight therefore imposes no primeval essence limit on them. As a battle nears its end a wild Gu turns passive, sensing danger and fleeing its host on instinct. A wild beast king or desolate beast therefore hits hardest in a fight’s first half and grows weaker as it goes on. ^{ch. 583}

Hei Xiu Yi asks Fang Yuan to help the fox and eagle groups. Fang Yuan refuses: their agreed order has him strike first while the other two hold for fifteen minutes each, and they have not yet held even half that time. He privately reasons that entering early would only throw the wolf group into the flying bear phantom’s slaughter while it is still strong, and he would rather hold back and spare his own losses, indifferent to anyone else’s. Held back by Fang Yuan’s status, Hei Xiu Yi protests that Tang Miao Ming and Hei Qi Sheng are fighting for their lives while he watches from the side. Fang Yuan takes it as a challenge, and a monstrous arm grows from his back while his own arms stay folded, striking at Hei Xiu Yi. ^{ch. 583}

Hei Xiu Yi’s battle instincts save him: he reacts on reflex and raises three lines of defense Gu before the arm lands. He is a defensive Gu Master. Hei Lou Lan had once sent him to guard Fang Yuan, but during the fighting Hei Xiu Yi grew protective of his own safety and abandoned that duty. The arm smashes through all three defenses, crushes his ribs, sends him flying like a cannonball as he vomits blood, and drives him into a mound several hundred steps away, where he lies half buried and unconscious. Word spreads through the stunned crowd that Hei Xiu Yi provoked Wolf King and was struck down. Narration notes Hei Xiu Yi is one of three commanders of the Hei tribe’s black banner army, so striking him amounts to an open taunt against Hei Lou Lan. If Hei Lou Lan and Chang Shan Yin become open enemies, this battle would fail and the sacred palace would fall into political turmoil, narration adds. ^{ch. 583}

Hei Lou Lan arrives with a calm, still-water expression and asks Fang Yuan to explain himself; narration notes he usually calls him “Brother Shan Yin” but now uses “Wolf King,” a sign of his anger. Fang Yuan answers without fear, citing Hei Xiu Yi’s disrespect for seniority as his reason for punishing him, and closes with a veiled reminder of their friendship that reads as goodwill or as threat. Narration reads his closing line two ways: real friendship, or none at all. ^{ch. 583}

Inwardly, as Black Tyrant, Hei Lou Lan rages at Fang Yuan’s arrogance. He chooses to endure, since the group is at the crucial stage of killing the flying bear phantom and still needs a strength path Immortal Gu to become a Gu Immortal. Hei Lou Lan cultivates dark path on the surface, but his true cultivation is in the strength path, from the Great Strength True Martial Physique. He cannot use strength path methods openly, since that would speed the disaster of the ten extreme physiques. Killing the flying bear phantom would clear this floor and upgrade his owner token to a one-edge owner token, letting him inspect any round’s reward on any floor to find a strength path Immortal Gu. ^{ch. 583}

Hei Lou Lan instead laughs and praises Brother Shan Yin for teaching Hei Xiu Yi a lesson, publicly stepping back. Onlookers who know his temper are stunned that he backs down. Bystanders trade explanations: some say Wolf King is too strong to care about the powerful Hei tribe, forcing even Hei Lou Lan to yield, others say Hei Lou Lan is protecting the larger plan instead of stooping to Chang Shan Yin’s level. One voice predicts Chang Shan Yin will pay for beating Hei tribesmen eventually. ^{ch. 583}

The fighting resumes: eagle and fox fighters take heavy losses, Hei Qi Sheng bleeds from the nose in shame and Tang Miao Ming sways, pale and weak. Tai Bai Yun Sheng orders the two protected, and Hei Lou Lan comes forward himself, promising both a rich reward once the battle ends. Freed of its obstacle, the flying bear phantom charges forward, but Fang Yuan keeps his arms folded and says nothing, and his wolves retreat faster than anyone else on the field. Hei Lou Lan swears silent revenge but dares not force Fang Yuan in public. He orders the plan’s second step instead. ^{ch. 583}

White Fairy Xi Xue and Gu tribe leader Gu Guo Long fly in first: her signature rank five flying snow Gu blankets the field in snow, and his rank five Gu, called flying sand moving rock, throws up sand and stone. Snow and sand blind the flying bear phantom and slow it. On the third step, nearly ten more experts join: Bian Si Xuan, Hao Ji Liu, Pei Yan Fei, Gao Yang, Shu Zai, Dou E, Nie Ya Qing, Tao You and Lu Shuang. All are rank four peak or rank five fighters, and with investigative Gu active from the start they see clearly through the storm to strike. ^{ch. 583}

Pei Yan Fei’s swallow wings Gu, golden coat Gu and rainbow transformation Gu combine into the Golden Rainbow Strike, and he crashes down like lightning, tearing a wound from the bear’s left shoulder to its right waist. Nie Ya Qing follows, wielding iron hook silver slash Gu. His claw-shaped strikes rain across the bear’s eyes, nose and mouth, hitting its weak points again and again. Bian Si Xuan calls out overlapping shadow, and her Shadow Sword flies hundreds of steps to cut a ten-meter wound into the bear’s right leg. Ye Lui Sang raises both palms and grows a fireball skyward while the bear, sensing the danger, charges him. ^{ch. 583}

Dou E, Gu Guo Long and Tao You intercept it instead. Dou E, a transformation path Gu Master, becomes a giant crocodile and fires teeth that embed and explode in the bear’s flesh. Gu Guo Long’s Gu worms raise the ground into mounds that break open into rock-man statues, which stand and attack. Tao You, an earth path Gu Master, gathers earth energy and punches out meteors of it that crash onto the bear’s body. Under the barrage the bear’s assault on Ye Lui Sang slows, and he finally drives his finished fireball down onto it like a falling mountain. The blast deafens everyone nearby, opens a huge crater and blows the snow and sand to the field’s edge. ^{ch. 583}

When the dust settles the flying bear phantom is curled silent in a ball, its body flickering with five interchanging lights, black, white, red, yellow and azure, the mark of a rank five five element bear skin Gu. That Gu cuts damage from metal, wood, water, fire and earth path attacks. Even so, after two rounds of combined attacks the bear’s body is deeply wounded, cut open in places to the bone. ^{ch. 583}

Sun Shi Han warns the group not to forget the bear still holds grand chaotic dance Gu. That rank five Gu throws its user into a frenzy, sharply raising its strength and speed and letting its limbs twist freely, so that anyone caught carelessly risks being turned to paste in moments. Hei Lou Lan offers a heavy reward to whoever charges first, backed by Tai Bai Yun Sheng, and Hao Ji Liu volunteers and advances alone toward the bear. At three hundred steps the bear roars and fires an invisible bubble. The bubble swells to cover both Hao Ji Liu and the bear, then shrinks and vanishes, taking both of them with it. ^{ch. 583}