Chapter 588

Ma Ying Jie hurries to answer Hei Lou Lan’s summons. As Hei tribe’s greatest rival, Ma tribe suffered disastrous losses in their decisive battle and saw its experts nearly wiped out, though the young Ma Ying Jie survived and rose to lead what remained. His plan had been to hole up in warm pond valley and recover, but Hei Lou Lan brought an army there and forcibly annexed Ma tribe, leaving it no choice but to follow Hei tribe to Imperial Court blessed land. Expecting Hei Lou Lan to erase Ma tribe’s name entirely, Ma Ying Jie worked hard to preserve it, even taking in outsiders and giving them the surname Ma. That erasure never came: Ma tribe received no harsh treatment, and gains from Hei Lou Lan’s public opening of Eighty-Eight True Yang Building let the tribe recover and its forces prosper. Ma Ying Jie has stayed uneasy all the same. ^{ch. 588}

The sudden summons only deepens that unease, and Hei Lou Lan greets him with a smile, asking how Ma tribe has been. Ma Ying Jie, on guard, thanks him for his magnanimity and says Ma tribe has recovered some of its vitality after being nearly finished. Hei Lou Lan then asks, amiably, whether Ma tribe received help this contest from Snowy Mountain blessed land’s demonic path immortal Xue Song Zi. Ma Ying Jie goes tongue-tied, breaking into cold sweat. Ma tribe carries the Huang Jin bloodline, and privately allying with a demonic path Gu Immortal breaks the rule Ancestor Giant Sun set. Ma Ying Jie fears Hei Lou Lan is about to settle the score, feeling that one careless sentence from him could finish the tribe he has spent everything reviving. ^{ch. 588}

Hei Lou Lan laughs and tells him not to worry, promising glory and riches if he cooperates obediently. Ma Ying Jie, teeth gritted, asks him to explain. With no better option, he lowers his head to the pressure, and Hei Lou Lan’s next words leave him shocked and frozen like a statue. ^{ch. 588}

The scene shifts to Snowy Mountain blessed land, where a negotiation is ending inside the Ice Lake Palace on the mountain’s fifth branch peak. Xue Song Zi, worried, reminds Demon Lord Long Dan that he once lent him immortal essence stones and settled his debt in an emergency. He asks, impatiently, whether Long Dan is petty enough to keep making excuses now that Xue Song Zi needs help with troubles of his own. Long Dan sips his tea and stays calm. He says he still remembers their old friendship, but helping this time would mean offending Hei tribe’s Gu Immortals, which his recently recovering business at treasure yellow heaven cannot afford. ^{ch. 588}

Xue Song Zi built his wealth selling snowmen, but Hei tribe’s Gu Immortals have spent recent months hunting snowmen themselves and selling them cheaply, breaking the established prices and terms of the snowman slave trade. Fighting this unconventional attack on his revenue draws him into a wide confrontation, and though he has riches, he is only a lone force against a super force that has run this business for thousands of years. He can barely hold Hei tribe to a stalemate. Unable to bear the pressure alone any longer, he starts asking the surrounding Gu Immortals for help. ^{ch. 588}

Xue Song Zi’s frustration grows at Long Dan’s calm, and he demands to know what it would take to make him act. Long Dan says he knows Xue Song Zi holds a hundred year lifespan Gu, and that handing it over would buy his full effort in return. Xue Song Zi stands and calls the request shameless. Long Dan warns him, gloomily, not to be impulsive or point a finger at him again, since it will only make him angry. Knowing he is no match for Long Dan, Xue Song Zi lowers his finger, snorts, and leaves with a flick of his sleeve. Long Dan lets him go and watches him leave darkly, still resenting Xue Song Zi’s arrogance from when Xue Song Zi once lent him immortal essence stones at an exorbitant rate of interest. ^{ch. 588}

Xue Song Zi returns to his seventh branch peak looking ashen, then sits alone and finally sighs once his expression relaxes. He regrets ever meddling in the Imperial Court contest. He reasons that winner takes all, that his large investment in the contest brought him nothing, and that Hei tribe’s pressure now threatens the very trade his status rests on. He tells himself that the righteous path stays united while the demonic path stays divided, since Snowy Mountain blessed land holds many demonic path Gu Immortals yet not one will help him, while several forces back Hei tribe’s Gu Immortals against him. He admits his years of savings are now spent, blames his own greed over wooden chicken Gu for provoking Hei tribe further, and resolves to reflect on the lesson. ^{ch. 588}

As he ponders this, a letter Gu crosses space and appears before him, and he recognizes it as the one he once gave to Ma tribe to reach him. Reading it with his mind, he is astonished to find that Hei Lou Lan wants to cooperate with him. He scoffs, suspecting wooden chicken Gu is bait. Then he reconsiders whether Hei Lou Lan is serious after all, and decides the offer is interesting enough to laugh over. ^{ch. 588}

Over half a month later, Hei Lou Lan wakes suddenly on his bed calling for his mother, panting and soaked in cold sweat. The same old nightmare has struck him again. It has tormented him since long ago, feeding the fire of revenge in his heart every time it returns. His body is obese like a black bear, his triangular eyes flicker with sharp light, and only his face still shows the night’s exhaustion. By the time he pushes open the window, that exhaustion is hidden behind a savage, tyrannical air. ^{ch. 588}

Gazing up at Eighty-Eight True Yang Building, he thinks over the cooperation he bought with Xue Song Zi by risking his greatest secret and a pledge of crucial Gu worms. The thirty-ninth floor has stood formed for some time now, and Xue Song Zi’s help has let Hei Lou Lan clear its rounds smoothly, though the act itself is a betrayal of Hei tribe, who will never forgive it if discovered. He doubts he can hide it for long. He knows he is safe only inside Imperial Court blessed land, which bars Gu Immortals from entering, so he can only push forward while he waits for the strength path Immortal Gu that could change everything. ^{ch. 588}

Inside Eighty-Eight True Yang Building’s seventh floor, at its ninetieth round, Chang Ji You kneels before Fang Yuan, addressing him as Lord Supreme Elder with a face full of shame. Fang Yuan, tone indifferent, asks if he knows why he was summoned, and Chang Ji You confesses his incompetence at letting the killer escape for so long, striking his forehead against the ground until it bleeds. Fang Yuan tells him to stop kneeling and answer. Chang Ji You stands with his head bowed, blood running down his cheeks, and Fang Yuan sighs, touches the wound, and heals it with a white light until no scar remains. Chang Ji You trembles and weeps at the gesture; since the two met as father and son, this is the first such intimacy Chang Shan Yin has shown his son Chang Ji You. ^{ch. 588}