Chapter 587

A month passes across the Northern Plains, where a blizzard disaster the region suffers every ten years buries the grassland in snow and flings loose tornadoes across it. Living beings lament, and the surviving humans and animals struggle for their lives at a few sheltered places, fighting frigid weather and snow monsters at once. The blizzard is a warm spring wind to snowmen. Hunting through the storm, snowmen become host to large numbers of wild snow path, ice path and water path Gu worms. Snowman tribes that Gu Masters normally hunt, beat down and sell are instead growing and expanding their forces rapidly. ^{ch. 587}

Two dark figures land on a cliff above the valley: Hei tribe’s two Gu Immortals, Hei Bai and Hei Cheng, giving off immortal aura strong enough that the storm cannot even stir their clothes. Below them sit tens of thousands of packed ice houses, and a group of heroic snowman warriors has just returned from a hunt with a great harvest. Hei Bai, a rank six wood path Gu Immortal, frowns. ^{ch. 587}

He calls this the seventh tribe of such scale the two have found in three days, since the snowmen are using the blizzard to grow rapidly. Snowmen carry men in their name but are variant humans. The narration holds that those of another race hold different motives. When the storm ends, the plains’ tribes will develop again and clash in force with these swollen snowman numbers. Hei Cheng claps Hei Bai’s shoulder and calls the snowmen their wealth, worth trading to other Gu Immortals for immortal essence stones and worth using to needle Xue Song Zi. Hei Bai smiles back, saying wooden chicken Gu would already be his if not for Xue Song Zi, who meddled in the last Imperial Court contest, and that hunting and selling snowmen at treasure yellow heaven these days is partly meant to spite him. ^{ch. 587}

His smile fades: Hei Lou Lan has been inside Imperial Court long enough that Eighty-Eight True Yang Building should already hold over twenty floors, yet no trace of wooden chicken Gu has appeared. Hei Cheng reassures him that the building holds eighty-eight floors in total, so this is not much progress, and that Hei Lou Lan is meticulous about the larger picture despite his temper. Hei Lou Lan has not broken contact since entering. With his one-edge owner token, Hei Lou Lan will sense any new floor’s Gu the moment it forms, and Hei tribe will receive the news. ^{ch. 587}

As a super force, Hei tribe has its own ways of sending messages in and out of Imperial Court, though not matching Fairy Mo Yao’s skill at exploiting the same flaws. Hei Bai worries that a day outside equals over twenty days inside Imperial Court blessed land, so Hei Lou Lan’s notice may come late and leave little room to help. Hei Cheng tells him worrying only makes it worse, that Hei Lou Lan can clear three or four floors on his own strength, and that they should deal with the snowmen first. Hei Bai’s worry eases, and he nods. ^{ch. 587}

The two dive into the valley, and Hei Cheng’s laughter alone shakes the world, stops the drifting clouds, and crushes countless ice buildings to powder. The snowman tribe suffers heavy losses at once, and the warriors cry that an enemy has come and rally to defend their homes and families. Floating in midair, Hei Bai watches the massing snowmen with an apathetic gaze and calls their resistance an overestimation of their own strength. He waves his sleeve, and a black mass of Gu pours out, growing from hundreds to thousands to tens of thousands until several hundred thousand hang over the valley like dark clouds. Since a Gu Immortal’s bead of immortal essence is effectively unlimited, one Immortal can control huge numbers of mortal Gu without running short, and the sight freezes the snowmen’s fighting spirit in terror. Hei Bai points, and the swarm descends. Mournful sounds echo through the valley without end. ^{ch. 587}

A dozen or so days later, in Imperial Court blessed land, Hei Lou Lan sets down a letter Gu, sneering. The letter comes from a Hei tribe Gu Immortal and again urges him to hurry the search for wooden chicken Gu. Imperial Court blessed land once had no way to send messages in or out, but even Giant Sun Immortal Venerable’s arrangement could not resist time’s erosion forever, and a few flaws opened over the years. Hei tribe and Liu tribe have polished ways to use those flaws. ^{ch. 587}

Hei Lou Lan repeats to himself that only a Gu Immortal can face a Gu Immortal, since advancing to immortal raises a Gu Master’s physique and grants immortal essence no mortal can withstand. He murmurs “Strength path Immortal Gu” and walks to the window, looking up at the newest floor of Eighty-Eight True Yang Building condensing atop the sacred palace. It is the thirty-eighth floor. Having watched this happen many times before, Hei Lou Lan feels none of his first excitement, but his esteem for Old Ancestor Giant Sun has grown to near reverence. ^{ch. 587}

He thinks that only Eighty-Eight True Yang Building and Old Ancestor Giant Sun’s power can give him his revenge, then takes out his owner token, still a one-edge owner token after all this time. Hei Lou Lan judges his own strength against past contest winners as neither bad nor especially good, enough by his own estimate to cross three or four floors. He wants strength path Immortal Gu for himself but also carries Hei tribe’s duty to retrieve wooden chicken Gu, so his two clearance quotas are already spent. So he holds back and prioritizes recovery. He also keeps Eighty-Eight True Yang Building open to the public, so Gu Masters outside Hei tribe grow grateful toward him. Many inside Hei tribe are dissatisfied by this but stay silent, fearing Black Tyrant’s fierce reputation. ^{ch. 587}

Hei Lou Lan calls for his messenger, and his trusted aide Hei Shu kneels before him and asks for instruction. Asked for the recent situation, Hei Shu reports that Chang tribe’s Gu Masters keep being killed and vanishing, that Chang tribe leader Chang Ji You has personally searched for the killers without success, and that the attacks are only growing worse. Hei Lou Lan asks who has such nerve. ^{ch. 587}

Hei Shu admits, ashamed, that the matter is still under investigation. Hei Lou Lan says there is no need to hurry, taking quiet satisfaction that Chang Shan Yin’s sinister and cruel conduct is finally bringing its own consequences. A few months earlier, Chang Shan Yin wiped out the earth chief beast group and had Chang tribe’s Gu Masters capture many other Gu Masters, then killed every one of them. Public anger followed, but fear of Wolf King’s reputation kept anyone from acting on it. Hei Lou Lan remembers that among the Gu Masters Fang Yuan captured for experiments were some with ties to him personally, and that Wolf King killed them without showing him any regard, a grudge he has quietly kept ever since. ^{ch. 587}

Hei Shu agrees that his own view matches, and explains that Chang Ji You is Wolf King’s son, appointed tribe leader on Wolf King’s word alone, too young yet to settle his own tribesmen. Chang tribe’s true affairs rest with Chang Ji You’s adopted father, Chang Biao. Hei Shu reports that the deaths of Chang Biao and Pan Ping while roaming the seventh floor’s ninetieth round have since become known, stirring unrest inside Chang tribe that Chang Ji You is struggling to contain. The avenger has used the opening to keep killing Chang tribe’s Gu Masters, and Hei Shu suspects they may be drawing extra strength from Eighty-Eight True Yang Building’s rewards. Hei Lou Lan nods, since Hei Shu’s reading matches his own. He orders a swift investigation, judging the killer brave for taking revenge in spite of Wolf King’s fierceness and skilled for evading capture this long, and instructs that this person be brought into Hei tribe, the only place that can protect their life. ^{ch. 587}

Asked about Chang Shan Yin’s own movements, Hei Shu reports that Wolf King entered Eighty-Eight True Yang Building the day Chang Biao’s corpse reached Chang tribe and has not come out since. People sent to inquire believe he went to the seventh floor’s ninetieth maze round. Wolf howls have been heard there ever since he went in. Hei Lou Lan frowns, since the deaths of Chang Biao, Pan Ping and Water Demon Hao Ji Liu were not outcomes he wanted, though he accepts them now that they have happened. He expects that once Wolf King leaves the tower and learns of Chang tribe’s losses, his rage could turn the whole sacred palace upside down while he hunts the killer. Hei Lou Lan wants Wolf King to draw even more public anger, but worries that Wolf King might also strike at innocents and weaken the forces Chang tribe needs to clear the floors. He must prevent that, but does not yet know how. ^{ch. 587}

While he sits thinking, with Hei Shu waiting patiently, an amazed look crosses Hei Lou Lan’s face and his gaze sharpens on Eighty-Eight True Yang Building. The thirty-ninth floor is slowly condensing. Though the floor has not yet formed, his one-edge owner token lets him sense the Gu worms inside it, and he realizes that wooden chicken Gu has finally appeared. Calming himself, Hei Lou Lan turns to Hei Shu and orders him to summon Ma Ying Jie at once. ^{ch. 587}