Chapter 544: Entrapping a Gu Immortal?
Translator: ChibiGeneral Editor: ChibiGeneral
When Ma Ying Jie finally woke up, his first sight was Fei Cai’s joyous smiling face.
Fei Cai shouted: “Young tribe leader, you are finally awake!”
The simple and honest voice warmed Ma Ying Jie’s heart. He struggled to sit upright, but the intense pain caused him to grimace and froth started to bubble from his mouth, he was barely able to ask: “Where is this place?”
Fei Cai scratched his head, and said in shame: “I also don’t know where this is, but we should have escaped the battlefield.”
“Battlefield?” Ma Ying Jie suddenly started and immediately asked, “The battle, what happened?”
“We lost, lord young tribe leader. Many people escaped and even more people surrendered.” Fei Cai answered.
Ma Ying Jie’s face turned pale white and his body shook, almost fainting down, but luckily Fei Cai was supporting his back.
Zhao Lian Yun stood at the side, looking at this formerly radiant Ma tribe young tribe leader who had now fallen into such a miserable state; it left a bad taste in her mouth.
‘Sigh, this Ma Ying Jie is young and promising, it is a pity he ran into Wolf King Chang Shan Yin. It was not that you didn’t try hard enough, but that the enemy was too much of a monster…’
Ma Ying Jie closed his eyes, two streams of tears quietly falling down.
After a while, he opened his reddened eyes and looked at Fei Cai and Zhao Lian Yun, asking in a hoarse voice: “Did you guys save me?”
Fei Cai and Zhao Lian Yun nodded.
“Young tribe leader, what do we do now?” Fei Cai asked.
Ma Ying Jie said with a gloomy expression: “We will return! This battle is our Ma tribe’s defeat, but we still have some tribesmen remaining behind in warm pond valley.”
Back then, before heroes assembly, Ma tribe schemed and brought about internal disorder in Fei tribe, before swallowing Fei tribe and occupying warm pond valley.
Ma tribe’s higher-ups, to be prepared for the unexpected, left behind the old, weak, sick and crippled behind at warm pond valley.
If Ma tribe won, they would take these people back. But if Ma tribe lost, these people would be the seeds to continue the tribe’s bloodline!
“Return to warm pond valley? But we don’t have water and also don’t have any rations. To travel such a long distance…” Zhao Lian Yun’s brows furrowed into a knot.
“Heh, little girl, as long as I am here, there will be sufficient water and food. You guys don’t need to worry.” Ma Ying Jie replied.
The three started their journey, coming across many Ma tribesmen who had fled; Ma Ying Jie took all of them in.
“Lord young tribe leader, I had not thought that I, Ma You Liang, would still live to see you!” When Ma You Liang saw Ma Ying Jie, he immediately said this in a sobbing voice.
He was Ma tribe’s rank three elder and was lying on a stretcher now; he had lost an arm and his right leg was fractured, his injuries were severe.
When Ma Ying Jie saw Ma You Liang, tears involuntarily welled up in his eyes: “Elder Ma You Liang, it really is good to see you!”
Although he had taken in many tribesmen along the way, most of them were mortals, while Ma You Liang might be heavily injured and also crippled, but he was still a Gu Master.
Ma tribe had been utterly defeated in this battle.
Before the battle, they had been a large tribe whose foundations were deep enough to charge to super tribe level. But after the battle, Ma tribe was completely reduced to a small tribe, falling down from the pinnacle of their power.
To the current Ma tribe, every Gu Master was a very precious strength and hope of the tribe!
“Lord young tribe leader, old tribe leader died in the battlefield.” Ma You Liang cried bitterly as he told this grievous news to Ma Ying Jie.
Ma Ying Jie’s body shook intensely, and despite having already made mental preparations, his heart was still filled with endless sadness and sorrow after hearing this news.
He gritted his teeth, his whole body seemingly having turned into an iron statue.
After a while of silence, he slowly wiped away his tears and spoke: “From today onwards, I am Ma tribe leader! Elder Ma You Liang, you need to pull yourself together. Our Ma tribe might have lost, but we are not exterminated. Back then, Ancestor Giant Sun set the rule that Huang Jin family’s bloodline could not be exterminated. Ma tribe has already paid a disastrous price for the battle, now even Hei tribe cannot eradicate us. We will return to warm pond valley and climb up from this loss. I believe our Ma tribe’s radiance won’t disperse like this!”
Ma You Liang dazedly looked at the young tribe leader in front of him, and in his blurred vision, he seemed to be looking at Ma Shang Feng and Ma Zun’s silhouettes. He stopped sobbing as hope rose up in his heart again.
He then answered with a very deep voice: “Lord tribe leader, I also believe so!”
————-
Winner takes all.
While Ma Ying Jie was miserably fleeing, it was a scene of celebratory feasts in the many tents of Hei tribe’s alliance army with plentiful food and people crowding around the warm bonfire.
“We have won, we were victorious!”
“Ma tribe’s ambition was too big, they actually wanted to become a super tribe. This ambition was the cause of their destruction.”
“Congratulations to Lord Hei Lou Lan for becoming the Lord of Imperial Court!”
“Esteemed Lord Wolf King, please allow me to propose a toast to you.”
The main tent was also a scene of festivity. Besides the fine wine and food, there were also beautiful and passionate northern plains’ women dancing gracefully to their heart’s content.
The ones present in the main tent were the higher-ups of Hei tribe’s alliance army and were all experts. The cultivations of these people were at least rank four, one could say they were the most radiant heroes of this generation of northern plains.
Hei Lou Lan was sitting on the main seat, and to the first seat on his left was Fang Yuan.
Before, because of Tai Bai Yun Sheng’s arrival as well as successive joining of several rank five tribe elders, Fang Yuan’s position had been pushed to the back.
But after the third battle with Ma tribe, Fang Yuan revealed his rank five peak stage cultivation and with his strength alone, battled the enemy’s three enslavement masters, and beheaded Cheng Long, Wu Ye and other famous experts.
One could say Fang Yuan was at least seventy percent of the reason Hei tribe could win against Ma tribe decisively.
Everyone in Hei tribe was shocked at Wolf King’s terrifying battle strength and that very night, they readjusted the seat rankings in the main tent.
No one opposed this.
Experts proposed toasts to Fang Yuan one after another, Fang Yuan did not refuse anyone, but only took a sip every time. This was completely not a demeanour of a grand northern plains’ warrior, but right now, this instead formed an arrogant and aloof aura on Fang Yuan.
The main tent was filled with a joyful atmosphere.
The Gu Master who proposed the toast just before was Sole Blade General Pan Ping. He used his sole blade Gu and luckily managed to take Ma tribe leader Ma Shang Feng’s head in the battle. Thus, his position was only inferior to Fang Yuan in the battle merit board now, being ranked at second.
Seeing Fang Yuan taking a sip in response to his toast, Pan Ping gratefully stepped to the side.
Northern plains natives admire warriors, a terrifying performance like Fang Yuan’s was extremely rare even when considering all the Imperial Court contests.
Flying master and enslavement path master, two master level halos shone on his body. His enslavement path and strength path dual cultivation would give an extreme headache to all his enemies.
Seeing Pan Ping becoming satisfied and overwhelmed, and retreating in deference, the surrounding gazes showed respect, worship or fear. Fang Yuan calmly placed down the wine cup and sighed inwardly: “Unknowingly, I have already reached this stage.”
Riding on the great wave known as the Imperial Court contest, Fang Yuan’s individual battle strength rapidly inflated. Now, he was already at the summit of the mortal world.
He had reached the peak of the mortals.
Advancing further would be the realm of immortals!
In the battle before, he slaughtered famed experts, rampaging all around with no one being able to obstruct him; very few rank five peak stage Gu Masters could display such performance. Hei Lou Lan’s light was completely seized by Fang Yuan.
Despite there being great flaws in cultivating both enslavement and strength path, despite four arm earth king killer move being newly created and not yet perfected, they were already enough as a cornerstone to allow Fang Yuan to stand proud in the mortal world.
In three kings blessed land, Fang Yuan used the blessed land’s power to kill rank four and rank five Gu Master experts.
And now, he was able to do it with his own strength. Even if Tie clan’s previous clan leader Tie Mu Bai resurrected, Fang Yuan had the confidence of killing him.
In a short period of time, Fang Yuan’s battle strength had truly increased at a sharply flying speed. This accomplishment that others would find it almost impossible to achieve their whole life, was established on five hundred years of his former life’s experience, Hu Immortal blessed land, painstaking efforts and strategies as a base.
‘But it is still not enough, far from enough! What can being the peak of the mortal world be considered as? As long as one is not a Gu Immortal, they will simply be chess pieces. Not mentioning the goal of eternal life, just looking at my current goal, I have yet to save Dang Hun mountain.’
Fang Yuan’s gaze turned solemn as the flames of ambition burned in his heart.
He glanced at Tai Bai Yun Sheng who was at the side.
To save Dang Hun mountain, he required Tai Bai Yun Sheng’s Immortal Gu — Landscape As Before.
This was his most important target for this trip to northern plains. Even Eighty-Eight True Yang Building was secondary.
In his plan, if Dang Hun mountain could not be saved, then Eighty-Eight True Yang Building’s inheritance could only barely fill his losses.
However, it was a very troublesome thing to take away other’s Gu worms.
A Gu worm’s survival could be decided on simply a thought from its master.
For example, Fang Yuan only needed a thought and even his Immortal Gu, Spring Autumn Cicada, would easily self-destruct.
Precisely because of this, when Gu Masters battled to death, they would often get next to nothing in terms of Gu worms from the corpse.
And Tai Bai Yun Sheng’s situation was even more troublesome!
Immortal Gu Landscape As Before had yet to be born; it was an Immortal Gu created by Tai Bai Yun Sheng after he became a Gu Immortal, and by using river as before and mountain as before as the main materials.
Hence, there were two courses of actions Fang Yuan could take.
First was to capture Tai Bai Yun Sheng and use soul path Gu worms to soul search and plunder the recipe of Landscape As Before from his mind, then refine it by himself.
This plan was too risky.
First of all, Fang Yuan might not be able to capture Tai Bai Yun Sheng alive. Capturing alive and killing were two completely different concepts. Especially when Tai Bai Yun Sheng was very powerful and was a time path Gu Master; the failure of the plan would have huge consequences.
Secondly, even if Fang Yuan was able to capture Tai Bai Yun Sheng alive, does it mean he could get the river as before and mountain as before Gu? In case Tai Bai Yun Sheng made these two Gu self-destruct, all of Fang Yuan’s efforts would go to waste.
Finally, it was still unknown if the current Tai Bai Yun Sheng had the Gu recipe for Landscape As Before in his mind.
The possibility of a mortal being able to come up with an Immortal Gu recipe was extremely small. Especially when Tai Bai Yun Sheng was not a refinement path master.
According to the vague rumors in Fang Yuan’s previous life, when Tai Bai Yun Sheng became a Gu Immortal, heaven and earth reacted, Dao marks attracted each other and his inspiration exploded, making the two rank five Gu spontaneously merge together to form rank six Immortal Gu Landscape As Before.
If it really was so, then the Gu recipe for Landscape As Before simply did not exist and its refinement process could not be duplicated.
The first course of action could not be adopted, then what about the second?
In truth, it was not any better than the first!
After Tai Bai Yun Sheng entered Imperial Court blessed land, he would advance to Gu Immortal realm. The second plan was to wait for him to become a Gu Immortal and possess the Immortal Gu, then deal with him!
The meaning of this was that Fang Yuan, as a mortal, would be entrapping a Gu Immortal!