Chapter 945

Fairy Li Shan is about to turn to Fang Yuan’s matter, but Blazing Heaven Demoness says to wait, since she is expecting someone else. A new voice answers from nowhere. ^{ch. 945}

Everyone turns to find Old Ancestor Xue Hu among them, revealed only by his voice. He looks like an ordinary old farmer. He is Northern Plains’s number one demonic path Gu Immortal and controls Snowy Mountain, and some crown him the strongest rank eight after the battle of rank eights. ^{ch. 945}

Only Blazing Heaven Demoness stays calm, asking how his harvest went. With Hei tribe’s elders busy chasing Hei Cheng, their base at Iron Eagle blessed land was left relatively unguarded, and Xue Hu slipped in and left with great gains. Fang Yuan realizes the two rank eights, despite their proclaimed war, had secretly cooperated so Xue Hu could draw the elders away and let Blazing Heaven Demoness escape. He raises his opinion of her, judging her wits the fearsome part. ^{ch. 945}

Xue Hu, Northern Plains’s strongest fighter, was willing to be used, since he badly needs Gu refinement material. He has used several of the immortal zombies but returns the rest, including the still-sleeping Blazing Glory Lightning Brilliance immortal zombie. Its Immortal Gu he could not extract. An unknown immortal killer move keeps it asleep, and forcing the issue would trigger self-detonation in both the zombie and the Immortal Gu inside its aperture. ^{ch. 945}

Blazing Heaven Demoness collects the zombies and declares that, since Xue Hu kept his word, Zombie Alliance will cease targeting Snowy Mountain. Xue Hu notes her time path injury still plagues her, and with the elders now home, reaching Hei Fan’s inheritance to cure it will be hard; he offers to help when she attacks Iron Eagle blessed land. She agrees, looking forward to working with him again. ^{ch. 945}

Xue Hu leaves without once looking at Hei Cheng’s headless corpse. Fang Yuan feels no surprise, since benefit moves Gu Immortals more than reputation does, and cooperation between rank eights is common rather than rare. ^{ch. 945}

Both sides came out ahead: Blazing Heaven Demoness recovered the zombies, while Xue Hu plundered Hei tribe’s base for more than he gave back. Their heated war had cost either side little, since both knew their limits. Hei tribe alone bears the loss from it all. ^{ch. 945}

With Xue Hu gone, Blazing Heaven Demoness turns to Fang Yuan, calling him by that name rather than Xing Xiang Zi, unsettling him. He answers only that he is listening, confident and unmoved. ^{ch. 945}

She, Fairy Li Shan, and Hei Lou Lan had secretly planned this whole scenario. It was meant to let Hei Lou Lan kill Hei Cheng, to scheme against Hei tribe and settle their war with Snowy Mountain, and to force Fang Yuan to submit as well. He is slipping their control instead. ^{ch. 945}

Fairy Li Shan warns that his life is on the line today. Fang Yuan shrugs it off, asking mockingly whether the great Fang Yuan would fear death, since it is only death at worst. ^{ch. 945}

He has doubted their aims ever since the relationship among them was exposed. Knowing his true identity, Blazing Heaven Demoness could have killed this bottom tier rank six immortal zombie outright, yet she funded his star thought Immortal Gu instead, and staged this whole confrontation besides. Fang Yuan sees the truth beneath their united front: the three are not actually united at all. ^{ch. 945}

The realization gives him confidence to negotiate from strength. He keeps some focus on Spring Autumn Cicada, an unreliable trump card whose every use risks failure, not yet needed. ^{ch. 945}

Blazing Heaven Demoness’s frown tightens, since Fang Yuan’s attitude tells her he has already seen through to her true motive: self strength Immortal Gu, already refined by him and destroyable with a single thought. She fears he might destroy it out of spite, the way she once destroyed the fragment world of the immemorial nine heavens rather than let anyone else have it when she could not obtain it. Immortal Gu are hard to take by force. That fear is why she went to such trouble staging this situation. ^{ch. 945}