Chapter 525: Rapid Changes and Fierce Experts
Translator: ChibiGeneral Editor: ChibiGeneral
Northern plains calendar, middle of June.
It should have been summer, but the aura of ten year blizzard had already thickened. The sky would often be gloomy and cold wind blew with increasing condensed frost aura.
And the struggle for Imperial Court that covered northern plains was advancing forward like a wildfire.
At Mirror lake, Ma tribe army and Song tribe had started their battle. Ma tribe"s dominance was huge and they broke through two of Song tribe"s defense lines in a row.
Song tribe alliance leader Song Qing Yin led the army to counterattack and ambushed Ma tribe, causing them to give up a defense line.
But soon after, Ma tribe"s enslavement master Ma Zun moved and mobilized his trump card pegasus group, surrounding and killing Song Qing Yin in the air. Song tribe army became a headless dragon, and after an internal discord caused by Ma tribe secretly, they finally crumbled apart.
Ma tribe annexed most of the tribes while some remnants managed to escape to all directions.
In this battle, one of the few flying masters of northern plains, rank five initial stage Water Fairy Song Qing Yin died and became a stepping stone for enslavement path master Ma Zun"s fame.
The strength Ma Zun displayed shocked the people. Faintly, people were already calling him northern plains" number one enslavement path master.
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Meng Qiu.
Nu Er Tu"s battle with Jiang Bao Ya.
Nu Er Tu was originally not an enslavement path Gu Master and had switched to it midway. But the leopard group he led was unexpectedly able to overpower and defeat the veteran enslavement path master Jiang Bao Ya.
Just because of this battle achievement, Nu Er Tu rose to the ranks of enslavement path masters of northern plains; and together with Jiang Bao Ya, Yang Po Ying, Ma Zun and Chang Shan Yin, were called five beast kings.
However, although Nu Er Tu managed to become famous, the price he had to pay was very high.
Jiang Bao Ya"s counterattack had inflicted disastrous damaged to Nu Er Tu"s troops. Despite annexing the remnants of the enemy after the battle along with the war reparations, Nu Er Tu"s army"s momentum was hindered.
Rat King Jiang Bao Ya managed to escape with his life and gathered the remnant army. His original rat group of over six hundred thousand, now had less than three hundred thousand left.
But even as a defeated general, many large forces still showed interest towards him and over ten forces had already sent him an invitation letter.
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Du Jiao.
Ye Lui Sang was empowered by the Immortal Gu and with his formidable rank five peak stage fire path strength, he suppressed all the heroes and swept through the last obstacle, succeeding in dominating Du Jiao region.
However, just as Ye Lui army was spreading towards all directions like an unstoppable wildfire, they were pincer attacked by alliance of seven armies.
Each of the seven armies had at least over a hundred thousand troops. Although none were super tribes, they had famous Gu Master experts.
The alliance of seven armies created an aggressive momentum. Ye Lui army who had just gotten a head start and were about to continue with great momentum, fell into a perilous situation.
At the same time, Hei tribe army was also confronted by a great enemy and did not have any time to relax.
Liu tribe, Liu Wen Wu personally led his army and was pressing closer to Hei tribe every pa.s.sing day!
Previously, Gu Guo Long had seeked helped from Liu Wen Wu; Liu Wen Wu was quite excited at reading the letter, knowing this was a rare opportunity. As long as Gu Guo Long"s side could hold on, Liu tribe army could pincer attack Hei tribe from behind and gain the upper hand, causing Hei tribe to land in a pa.s.sive situation.
But the result was that the situation changed way too fast. Liu tribe army was just halfway on their way when they heard the report of Gu tribe"s defeat and submitting to Hei tribe. And the crucial character that made this possible was Tai Bai Yun Sheng.
Liu Wen Wu was shocked at this report.
A legendary character like Tai Bai Yun Sheng had actually taken the initiative to come out and help Hei Lou Lan. Obtaining this person was like adding a huge army to Hei Lou Lan"s forces.
Liu Wen Wu soon realized this was the behind-the-scenes move of Hei tribe"s Gu Immortal.
According to the rule Ancestor Giant Sun set, Gu Immortals could provide some help to mortals in the struggle for Imperial Court. Naturally, this type of help had its restrictions, at least the Gu Immortals absolutely could not move personally.
Whether it was the Immortal Gu on Ye Lui Sang or Tai Bai Yun Sheng who a.s.sisted Hei Lou Lan after receiving the letter, they were both Gu Immortals" p.a.w.n pieces.
Liu Wen Wu naturally also had the privilege to request help from the Gu Immortal supporting him.
Hei Lou Lan obtained Tai Bai Yun Sheng"s a.s.sistance who in Liu Wen Wu"s opinion was much more terrifying than Wolf King Chang Shan Yin!
Tai Bai Yun Sheng"s reputation was extremely high, whether it was righteous path or demonic path, many had received his grace. If just a small portion of these people had the heart to repay grat.i.tude, the force they could gather would be very terrifying.
Besides, once Hei tribe expanded, those scattered demonic Gu Masters who had been watching from the sidelines would see the hopes of entering the Imperial Court in Hei tribe, and would side with them of their own initiative.
And Tai Bai Yun Sheng"s existence would cause them to be even more inclined to choose Hei Lou Lan.
With this, Hei tribe would continue to be stronger. And as time pa.s.sed, they would throw all the other compet.i.tors behind.
"Hei Lou Lan defeated Dong Fang Yu Liang and obtained a super tribe"s war reparations, this by itself is a great profit. By contrast, we might have defeated several allied armies, but they were all an alliance of large tribes, so the war reparations we received are lower than Hei tribe"s. Now, Hei tribe has Tai Bai Yun Sheng, a living signboard with him, if we give him time to expand, it will be very difficult to deal with him later."
Liu Wen Wu contemplated for a while before resolutely sending a command. Liu tribe army continued along their original plan, pus.h.i.+ng on towards Hei tribe.
Hei Lou Lan laughed heartily at this news: "Come, come!".
He then sent the command to set up defense lines around the area.
After constructing the first defense line properly, the large army slowly moved towards Liu tribe army. At every thousand li of distance, they would stop and garrison for several days to construct another defense line.
Twelve days later, Hei tribe army moved on from their fourth defense line and travelled five hundred li before coming face to face with Liu tribe army.
The two army parted a way for the experts challenging stage.
Hei tribe"s expert Hao Ji Liu charged forward, not giving precedence to others.
Liu Wen Wu saw this and sent Pei Yan Fei.
Hao Ji Liu was at rank four upper stage and Pei Yan Fei was also the same. The two exchanged twenty moves, the situation was still neck and neck.
Hao Ji Liu"s offense surged higher and higher, causing people"s hearts to shake. While Pei Yan Fei used sharp and precise attacks, moving back and forth within the attacks, and sweeping everything before him.
As the battle continued on, both of their primeval essence were running low.
Gu Masters were not good at prolonged battled and once their primeval essence was exhausted, their battle strength would sharply fall.
"This cannot go on!" The two had similar thoughts at the same time.
Waterfall Gu!
Hao Ji Liu took the lead and pushed forward his palms; a giant waterfall fell from the air and crashed towards Pei Yan Fei with a rumbling sound.
Pei Yan Fei did not face it head on, instead using his movement Gu to soar to the sky, evading the waterfall.
Rank four golden coat Gu!
Rank four swallow wings Gu!
Rank four rainbow transformation Gu!
Killer move — Golden Rainbow Strike!
Pei Yan Fei staked it all, using his signature killer move.
At that instant, he turned into a golden rainbow and made an arc through the air as fast as lightning, cutting open the waterfall before bursting through Hao Ji Liu!
However, Hao Ji Liu turned into water after being burst; it was not his real body.
Water image Gu!
Hao Ji Liu had fought for a long time and already had the intel on Pei Yan Fei, and knew Pei Yan Fei did not have powerful detective Gu. Thus, when he sent the waterfall, he took the advantage of the giant current blocking Pei Yan Fei"s line of sight to quietly use his water image Gu while his real body hid inside the waterfall. His actions were extremely secretive and most of the Gu Masters from both sides had been deceived.
Pei Yan Fei burst through the water image and immediately had warning signals going off in his heart. Without holding back, he transferred all his remaining primeval essence into his swallow wings Gu.
The two pairs of swallow wings on his back rapidly flapped and took him away from the battlefield.
Hao Ji Liu stood on the spot, his whole body soaked in water. Even though he won the battle, he was not happy. The enemy"s killer move had astonis.h.i.+ng power, this time he used water image Gu to deceive him, but what about the next time?
"Big brother, let me go out!" Pei Yan Fei returned in defeat, causing Mo s.h.i.+ Kuang to fume with anger and impatiently requested to be sent to battle.
Liu Wen Wu had a smile on his face, but he did not agree.
"Third brother, no need to fret. You came forward in the previous battle, it is my turn now." An extremely tall and thin Gu Master with robust and s.h.i.+ny bald head stood out and patted Mo s.h.i.+ Kuang"s shoulder.
"Second brother!" Mo s.h.i.+ Kuang helplessly shouted.
This person"s name was Ouyang Bi Sang, a demonic Gu Master. In their early years, by chance encounter, he met Liu Wen Wu and Mo s.h.i.+ Kuang in an inheritance site. The three combined their strength to tackle the obstacles and obtained the inheritance, and because they felt affinity with each other, they became sworn brothers.
"I am Ouyang Bi Sang, who wants to come spar with me?" Ouyang Bi Sang slowly walked towards the front of the troops and shouted in a soft voice.
Soon after, he looked at Hao Ji Liu: "If Water Demon wants to fight with me, you might as well get some rest first to recover your primeval essence."
Water Demon snickered but did not agree to the provocation: "No need to hurry, there will be many chances later on."
After saying that, he returned to the camp.
With the struggle for Imperial Court advancing to this stage, the intel on experts of every forces was widely spread.
Ouyang Bi Sang was Mo s.h.i.+ Kuang"s second brother, just this status alone made him someone who could not be underestimated. His performance was extremely glorious during the several large battles before.
He was a transformation path expert and the Gu Masters of this path possessed at least one killer move. With a cultivation of rank four peak stage, he was same as Mo s.h.i.+ Kuang, possessing the battle strength comparable to a rank five Gu Master!
During his first battle, he had killed the enemy side"s rank five alliance leader. A dazzling battle achievement like crossing realms to fight was something many people would look up to their whole lives.
Facing such an expert, Water Demon Hao Ji Liu might have small chance at victory even if he was at his peak stage. Let alone now, when his energy was already exhausted in the battle with Pei Yan Fei. A Gu Master"s state did not just depend on the amount of primeval essence in their aperture.
Seeing Ouyang Bi Sang coming forward, Hei Lou Lan felt a slight headache.
In contrast to Liu Wen Wu, he currently found that he lacked fierce generals beside him.
After taking in Gu tribe army, Hei tribe army now had three rank five Gu Masters - Hei Lou Lan, Tai Bai Yun Sheng and the just recently subdued Gu Guo Long.
Hei Lou Lan could not easily move because of his status as the alliance leader. Tai Bai Yun Sheng was a healing Gu Master and was not good at fighting. Gu Guo Long was a rank five earth path Gu Master but the other was at rank four peak stage; it would not conform to the rule of battle if he was sent out, and they would only be sneered upon.
He then looked at his rank four Gu Masters - Wolf King Chang Shan Yin, Water Demon Hao Ji Liu, Shadow Sword Expert Bian Si Xuan, Little Fox Commander Tang Miao Ming and Sole Blade Pan Ping.
Chang Shan Yin and Tang Miao Ming were enslavement path Gu Masters, so they could be excluded. Water Demon Hao Ji Liu had already went up, so Hei Lou Lan only had two choices left.
His gaze moved between Pan Ping and Bian Si Xuan.
Pan Ping knew he was not Ouyang Bi Sang"s match by just relying on his trump card, so he looked uncomfortable. While Bian Si Xuan"s face was covered with a black veil, revealing her cold and clear gaze.
Hei Lou Lan turned around towards Bian Si Xuan: "For this challenge, I will have to trouble Shadow Sword Expert to make a move."
"I can only ensure that I won"t lose my life, but I can"t guarantee a victory." Bian Si Xuan coldly replied.
Hei Lou Lan gave a hollow laugh, although he was alliance leader and Bian Si Xuan had taken the poison vow, Hei Lou Lan could not forcibly make Bian Si Xuan fight to the death.