Chapter 588

Ma Ying Jie answers Hei Lou Lan’s summons at once. Ma tribe’s experts were almost completely annihilated in the decisive battle, and Ma Ying Jie, its young leader, was luckily rescued and rose to lead the tribe. Hei Lou Lan brought his army to warm pond valley, where Ma Ying Jie meant to recover, and forcibly annexed the tribe, which followed Hei tribe to Imperial Court blessed land. Ma Ying Jie feared being swallowed and even gave outsiders the Ma surname, yet the tribe was treated without discrimination and prospers on gains from Eighty-Eight True Yang Building, which Hei Lou Lan opened to the public. He is on tenterhooks all the same, and the sudden summons raises his unease to the extreme limit. ^{ch. 588}

Hei Lou Lan asks smilingly whether Ma tribe received help in this contest from Xue Song Zi, the demonic path immortal of Snowy Mountain blessed land. Ma Ying Jie is tongue-tied, since a tribe with Huang Jin bloodline joining privately with a demonic path Gu Immortal broke the rules Ancestor Giant Sun set. Hei Lou Lan laughs and says that if Ma Ying Jie cooperates obediently, glory and riches will come. Ma Ying Jie asks for an explanation and is struck dumb by the reply. ^{ch. 588}

In Ice Lake Palace on Snowy Mountain blessed land, Xue Song Zi presses Demon Lord Long Dan for help against Hei tribe, reminding him who lent immortal essence stones in his emergency. Hei tribe’s Gu Immortals have been hunting snowmen and selling them cheaply, and Xue Song Zi, who lives off selling snowmen, can barely hold a stalemate. Long Dan refuses, since helping would offend Hei tribe’s Gu Immortals and his treasure yellow heaven business has only somewhat recovered. He asks for Xue Song Zi’s hundred year lifespan Gu as the price of acting. Xue Song Zi points at him in anger, but when warned he lowers his finger and leaves. Long Dan resents the exorbitant interest Xue Song Zi once charged him. ^{ch. 588}

Back on his seventh branch peak, Xue Song Zi deeply regrets meddling in the Imperial Court contest, which cost him heavily and brought no gains. No demonic path Gu Immortal in Snowy Mountain blessed land will help him, and he admits that greed over wooden chicken Gu drew him in. Then a letter Gu he once gave Ma tribe arrives and shows that Hei Lou Lan wants to cooperate with him. He suspects another scheme with wooden chicken Gu as bait, but finds it interesting. ^{ch. 588}

After over half a month, Hei Lou Lan wakes calling Mother from the nightmare that has long fed the fire of revenge in his heart. In the letter he took great risk, telling his greatest secret and delivering crucial Gu worms as a pledge to win Xue Song Zi’s trust. Now the cooperation progresses very well, and with Xue Song Zi’s help he breaks through the rounds of the thirty-ninth floor smoothly. This betrays Hei tribe, whose Gu Immortals would absolutely not let him go, but Imperial Court blessed land prohibits their entry. He cannot turn back, yet the strength path Immortal Gu that could change the whole situation has not appeared. He can only wait. ^{ch. 588}

On the ninetieth round of the seventh floor, Chang Ji You kneels ashamed before Fang Yuan, whom he calls Lord Supreme Elder. He admits failing Fang Yuan’s trust by letting the killer get away to this day, and smashes his forehead on the ground until it bleeds. Ordered to stop kowtowing and stand, he obeys. Fang Yuan sighs softly and touches the wound, and a healing gu heals it without a scar. Chang Ji You trembles and weeps, for it is the first intimate act Fang Yuan, as Chang Shan Yin, has shown him since the supposed father and son met. ^{ch. 588}