Chapter 876

Hui Feng Zi and He Lang Zi watch Fang Yuan warily in his disguise as Xing Xiang Zi. With change form Immortal Gu obtained, vaguely familiar face has left him thin, tall and refined, once burly and zombie-green. He Lang Zi has never heard the name and feels something strange. Hui Feng Zi stays calm on the surface, alert to a hidden rank seven strength path Gu Immortal. ^{ch. 876}

Fang Yuan claims to be an insignificant Northern Plains lone cultivator, praising both men as famous figures he cannot compare to. Hui Feng Zi warns him to retreat rather than die here. Fang Yuan answers that a promise is a promise, so he must challenge them both. He is secretly delighted that neither shows suspicion of his identity, though they might only be probing; had they seen his zombie status, He Lang Zi would already have attacked, since even star path rank six sits below his own level. ^{ch. 876}

Both men are rank seven. They would already have used their investigative killer moves on him. Seeing a lower-ranked Xing Xiang Zi invite battle so readily, they think instead of the hidden strength path Gu Immortal who killed Xue Song Zi. Hui Feng Zi tells He Lang Zi to attack while he watches from the side, and He Lang Zi, still uneasy, nods and pounces at Fang Yuan. ^{ch. 876}

Fang Yuan answers with an immortal killer move. Starlight gathers into a spinning spiral, soon the size of two or three elephants, sucking inward: star cloud grindstone. It is Star Lord Wan Xiang’s defensive killer move, grinding long-range attacks and, against a close fighter, restricting and slowly crushing whoever enters it. A bright light engulfs He Lang Zi, and a wolf appears in his place: the fragrant sorcerer yin statue wolf, a rank seven desolate beast, furless, with green flames for eyes. Transformed, his speed triples and Fang Yuan’s own investigative move cannot track him. ^{ch. 876}

Speed decides a Gu Immortal fight, giving the faster side the initiative. In human form He Lang Zi’s strength was perhaps peak rank six, but transformed it surges. At a disadvantage, Fang Yuan stays calm. His three pairs of true solid bat wings, an unfinished strength path move, could match immortal-level speed if paired with iron crown eagle strength Immortal Gu. He does not use them, though: too unstable, still slower than the wolf, and it would expose him as a strength path Gu Immortal. He is testing his star path gains from Hu Immortal blessed land against two strong foes. ^{ch. 876}

The wolf closes at a speed Fang Yuan cannot sense, and he leaps into his own grindstone, which He Lang Zi had been avoiding. Its claws still graze his back as he dives in. The wound is only a graze, and his immortal zombie body’s great defense mends the flesh within moments. But the spilled blood changes color, revealing itself as immortal zombie blood, a flaw in vaguely familiar face that Fang Yuan notes and gathers into his sleeve. ^{ch. 876}

Standing inside the grindstone, he taunts He Lang Zi to fight him there, since the move crushes anything inside it but its caster. The wolf’s battle intent builds as if ready to pounce. Instead it turns and charges the cloud building, abandoning the duel: its true goal is to bring down the buildings and break the twelve wave cloud confusion Gu formation. If he stands still, the building falls; if he gives chase he risks danger, and he cannot match the wolf’s speed either way. ^{ch. 876}

Fang Yuan is left passive, and a Gu Immortal in battle proves far tougher than any desolate beast alone, but he is not anxious. Six ropes of condensed starlight, star snake rope, fly from the grindstone’s edge, coil around the wolf, and drag it into the grindstone. Fang Yuan invites him in to fight properly. Even Hui Feng Zi praises the coordination of two immortal killer moves working as one. ^{ch. 876}