Chapter 585

This time the battle space lasts far longer than before, half a day, before it disperses. The hill-sized flying bear phantom appears again before the assembled Gu Masters, its snow-white fur running with a dazzling halo and its battle intent fully restored. Its wounds are gone. Flying bear carries a rank five healing Gu, already known to the group, which explains the recovery. Its opponent, the blood forest wolf pulled into the battle space with it, is reduced to a pile of white bones. Even Pei Yan Fei, his battle intent raging, feels uncertain whether the group can still fight it. ^{ch. 585}

Tai Bai Yun Sheng explains that however badly hurt the flying bear phantom is, entering the battle space through its battle space Gu restores it to full strength within half a day, and during that time the group can only watch. Battle space Gu may be a wild Gu outside the flying bear’s control, but a wild Gu senses danger sharply and will pull any threatening target into the battle space to protect its host. Wolf groups fight at close range, which makes them the easiest targets for it to pull in. The room falls quiet at the realization. Only the Gu Masters themselves can still attack. Sending Gu Masters instead is no better, since anyone pulled into the battle space will fight with everything to survive. The only way to break the battle space before the flying bear heals is for whoever is pulled in to kill themselves at once. ^{ch. 585}

No one is willing to do that. Even Tai Bai Yun Sheng could not save such a person, as Water Demon Hao Ji Liu’s bloody tragedy already showed. Someone laments that the group has gathered many capable fighters yet stands helpless against one flying bear phantom. The flying bear settles low to the ground, watching everyone warily while it only growls. Someone notes the real problem: they have no one skilled in restriction path or qi path who could bind the battle space Gu. ^{ch. 585}

Ye Lui Sang, tribe leader of another super force, bluntly suggests that the Hei tribe leader change strategy. Hei Lou Lan only snorts and says nothing back. ^{ch. 585}

He reasons privately that the only way left to beat the battle space Gu is to let the flying bear pull him in and kill it there with his strength path killer move, a secret technique of Hei tribe. His surface dark path cultivation cannot handle the flying bear alone. But his strength path abilities, amplified by his Great Strength True Martial Physique, could kill it without much difficulty. Using that move would break the seal of Immortal Gu Dark Limit and hasten the disaster of his ten extreme physique. ^{ch. 585}

His remaining time is already short. Using the move would shorten it further, while he still has a hundred rounds left to clear and a strength path Immortal Gu still to find. Without crossing this round he gets no one-edge owner token and no way to learn where a strength path Immortal Gu is, and both changing strategy and asking his tribe for help cost time he may not have. He weighs the worst case: killing the flying bear, earning the token, and still finding no strength path Immortal Gu inside Eighty-Eight True Yang Building. Hei Lou Lan hesitates, caught between his own death and a path he cannot see clearly. ^{ch. 585}

Fang Yuan then speaks up, declaring the battle space not difficult to break, and the room recognizes Wolf King’s voice at once. Hei Lou Lan asks whether he has found another method. Fang Yuan smiles and offers a three-step plan in exchange for the fifty percent reward he was promised. First, exhaust the flying bear with ranged attacks; second, send in a death warrior who must kill himself the moment the battle space pulls him in; third, finish the beast with more ranged fire before it can recover. ^{ch. 585}

Reactions split: some praise the plan, some marvel they had not thought of it themselves, and some mutter privately at its cruelty. Everyone agrees, whatever they think of it, that the plan will work. In the Northern Plains, where fighting is constant, every tribe keeps death warriors, differing only in how many and how skilled. Hei tribe, a super force, has trained many, and its death warriors are elites. ^{ch. 585}

Tai Bai Yun Sheng frowns slightly, disturbed by the plan. Dying in battle and being ordered to throw one’s life away are different things: the first is a soldier’s honor, the second is the powerful spending others’ lives for their own gain. Carrying out this plan would ruin Hei Lou Lan’s standing in the righteous path entirely, where reputation matters more than anywhere else. The chapter contrasts the two paths directly: bad reputation limits advancement in the righteous path, while the demonic path cares only for strength, which is why it holds both the plague-like Hao Ji Liu and the life-saving Tai Bai Yun Sheng. ^{ch. 585}

Because of this, Sun Shi Han says nothing against the plan. He knows any objection from him would look wrong, especially since he already thought of the same method earlier and kept quiet out of fear for his position as an external elder of Hei tribe. Sun Shi Han privately judges only the sinister Wolf King could say such a thing without misgiving, and he watches Fang Yuan with a mix of hatred and fear. The chapter notes what Sun Shi Han does not know: to a dying Hei Lou Lan, reputation is worth little. ^{ch. 585}

Once he hears the plan, Hei Lou Lan decides at once to use it. In public he still performs hesitation, sighing and wearing a mournful, merciful expression before he speaks. He tells the group they are forced into this, and promises the fallen will receive grand burials as his own brothers, with their families cared for and compensated. Everyone recognizes the display for what it is but says nothing, since this is simply how the righteous path plays the game. Hei Lou Lan then summons Hei tribe’s death warriors, rank two fighters raised from childhood on loyalty to the tribe. Rank three death warriors exist but are rare, since reaching rank three usually frees a fighter from that role, and only a super force keeps any of rank three or rank four, and even then sparingly. As Hei tribe’s leader, Hei Lou Lan can send them to die and they cannot refuse him, the way subjects cannot refuse an emperor who wants them dead. ^{ch. 585}

The fight then goes as planned. More than ten death warriors die before the flying bear phantom finally collapses, breathing its last. But when the group moves to finish it, no one can budge, and the group realizes Eighty-Eight True Yang Building itself is holding them still. The crowd shouts and rages at being stopped one strike short of the kill. Only Fang Yuan stays calm, since his six-edge owner token already tells him the round is over. Hei Lou Lan feels it too and finds an edge forming on his own, once-round owner token, along with a strong sense that he now holds this floor. ^{ch. 585}

Hei Lou Lan silently realizes they never needed to kill the flying bear, only to beat it near death, though he keeps a mournful face in public. He announces the round passed, mourns his tribe’s dead, and claims he would have used puppets or wild Gu in the death warriors’ place if the battle space had not cut the two sides off from each other. The crowd reacts with shock and excitement at having passed. Tai Bai Yun Sheng, who has entered Eighty-Eight True Yang Building seeking a lifespan Gu, asks what the round’s reward is, since lifespan Gu only appears at the ninetieth round or later. Hei Lou Lan answers by pointing at the dying flying bear phantom itself. ^{ch. 585}

Only Fang Yuan already knows the reward in advance. His six-edge owner token lets him read every floor’s prize ahead of time, and he already knew this floor held a rank six phantom path Immortal Gu called flying bear phantom Gu. The dying flying bear turns into a shrinking ball of white light that flies to Hei Lou Lan and is easily absorbed, since he holds the token the reward belongs to and the Building’s own power aids the refining. Fang Yuan’s own six-edge token works differently: exploitation created it, and it can only claim a floor’s reward once he controls that floor himself. It could still contest Hei Lou Lan’s token, but doing so risks waking Giant Sun’s will, which could cost Fang Yuan dearly or even kill him. ^{ch. 585}

Flying bear phantom Gu looks dim and weak, nearly dead as it stands. Hei Lou Lan cannot look away, realizing only now that he is holding an actual Immortal Gu. A flat but determined voice then asks him to hand the Immortal Gu over. Hei Lou Lan does not need to look to know the speaker is Wolf King Chang Shan Yin. ^{ch. 585}