One vs Seven

His own bone wings, a rank four flying Gu their intelligence never reported, break their ground encirclement and answer their remaining ranged Gu from a range they cannot match. ^{ch. 361}

The seven answer close-range pressure with numbers: Tie Ruo Nan’s rattan shell grass soldiers grow into the thousands, a threat by sheer count rather than individual strength, and Tie Ba Xiu’s earth overlord Gu pushes his battle strength past what a normal rank four peak stage reaches, though he has no answer at range. Fang Yuan names the shape of their weakness himself: a team’s coordination is also its liability, since a member who loses it becomes the group’s biggest burden rather than an asset. By his own accounting, the fight goes his way because he holds his previous life’s knowledge of all seven Tie clansmen and had already exhausted their long range methods earlier in the same engagement. ^{ch. 362}

Six of the seven are killed, among them Tie Mu, Tie Xian Hua, Tie Dao Ku, Tie Ao Kai and Tie Ba Xiu, who dies protecting Tie Ruo Nan with iron cabinet Gu, sealing her unharmed while Fang Yuan’s finishing blow lands on him instead. Fang Yuan states the count himself to Tie clan’s four elders, who reach the fight at the foot of San Cha mountain too late to save Tie Ba Xiu: seven fought, six dead including him. ^{ch. 363}

Bai Ning Bing is freed as the elders abandon holding her captive to answer the fight, and Fang Yuan, his own primeval essence low against four Gu Masters at full strength, withdraws rather than press the engagement further. Both sides declare the enmity permanent in front of the gathered crowd, the elders swearing to capture him and Fang Yuan swearing to kill any Tie clansman he meets, and narration says his reputation soars across Southern Border. ^{ch. 364}