Chapter 595

On the second round, Hei Lou Lan watches his troops creep through a vast ancient rainforest, where crossing means reaching a stone palace on the far side. The intense battle has already lasted over six hours. The jungle is full of green vines, and green snake vines coil around Gu Masters and constrict them to death. Wood path Gu worms living on them cause huge casualties, and the difficulty of advancing is extremely high. ^{ch. 595}

Ye Lui Sang kills a green snake vine king with ease, since his fire path completely subdues wood path Gu worms. Chang Shan Yin takes over from him and leads the wolf group to open the path. Hei Lou Lan thinks the Wolf King truly powerful, especially with the flying bear phantom Immortal Gu. He plans to make Chang Shan Yin pour in his effort first and later hand that Gu over. The path avoids the far deadlier green dragon vines as much as possible, leaving presumably one or two tough battles as the round’s greatest difficulty. Proud, he expects to finish the round in an hour. ^{ch. 595}

Then the green snake vines surge with sonic booms, their offense dozens of times greater, and vines within a thousand li join the attack. Countless Gu Masters die within moments. Hei Lou Lan orders all troops to hold them off and kills twenty to thirty of a hundred or so charging green dragon vines. More vines break through the soil and trap the entirety of the troops. Green vines stay still unless their territory is encroached, yet these have completely gone crazy, and he cannot explain it. The army is broken apart and retreats bit by bit, and many youths lose their lives. ^{ch. 595}

Hei Lou Lan suspects a huge trap, and it is, but Eighty-Eight True Yang Building did not lay it: Fang Yuan, who controls this floor, did. Fang Yuan patiently ordered the green vines everywhere to move here stealthily, joined the front line, and slowed progress to stall for time. When enough had gathered, he ordered a surprise attack. As an enslavement path master, he makes the vines fight with a hundred times their normal strength. He sends green dragon vines to obstruct experts like Hei Lou Lan, Ye Lui Sang and Tai Bai Yun Sheng. ^{ch. 595}

Several large tribes send representatives asking to retreat, and Hei Lou Lan, gnashing his teeth, orders the retreat. But Fang Yuan seals the exit and entrance, and everyone discovers they cannot leave, a huge blow to morale. Hei Lou Lan announces that he will use the killer move grey meltdown to forcibly cross the round. Morale stabilizes instead of crumbling. He leads refinement path Gu Masters into a round formation. An old refinement path Gu Master warns they will probably lose thirty percent of their men. ^{ch. 595}

Grey meltdown relies on the reward Gu being deliberately provided by Hei tribe’s Gu Immortals or Xue Song Zi. The first round’s reward Gu worms came from Hei Bai, so grey meltdown could exploit Giant Sun’s will not having fully refined them. The second round’s reward is wild Gu that Hei Lou Lan cannot connect with. With no better option, he forcibly activates grey meltdown to skip the second round and connect to the third round’s reward from Xue Song Zi. That Gu is half-refined and still holds most of Xue Song Zi’s will, which approves him because he works with Xue Song Zi. Crossing the third round would collapse the second, since the building forms rounds from the hundredth downward. ^{ch. 595}

The move’s power would increase several times, far beyond what the refinement path Gu Masters can bear, so a portion of them would die whether it succeeds or fails. Hei Lou Lan chooses the lesser evil, since tens of them dying is better than the whole army dying. The old Gu Master says no more and retreats to the formation. ^{ch. 595}