Chapter 508: Challenging Wolf King Translator: ChibiGeneral Editor: ChibiGeneral The pioneer of soul path — the legendary Gu Master at the apex of rank nine peak stage, Spectral Soul Demon Venerable once said: "In this huge world, the best option for soul strengthening is Dang Hun mountain, and for soul refinement, the best choice is Luo Po valley. One mountain and one valley, with both, one can obtain great success in soul path and sweep every obstacle in this world!" Thus, Dang Hun mountain and Luo Po valley became known as the soul cultivator’s sacred lands. Fang Yuan was well aware of how huge a help these two sacred lands could provide since obtaining Dang Hun mountain. His thousand man soul was cultivated through the guts Gu on Dang Hun mountain. Guts Gu was the number one Gu in increasing the foundation of the soul; it had no side-effects and its efficiency was extremely high as well. Normal Gu Masters would usually require about twenty years to cultivate their soul to thousand man soul level. Some geniuses with the help of their clans or the guidance of their seniors could cut down this twenty years by half. But for Fang Yuan? He used the guts Gu on Dang Hun mountain to strengthen his soul to thousand man level in less than half a year. This was coupled with the fact that Dang Hun mountain was slowly dying from the Immortal Gu Gruel Mud’s corrosion. With Dang Hun mountain, the speed at which Fang Yuan was able to raise his soul to thousand man soul level was like charging to the sky with a rocket. But apart from strengthening soul, the cultivation of soul required tempering to purify it. In this aspect, Fang Yuan’s progress was much slower. Compared to the speed of soul strengthening, his soul tempering speed was as slow as a tortoise climbing. Fang Yuan was using wolf soul Gu to temper his soul, to transform his soul to wolfman soul. But none of the wolf soul Gu he was using were rank five, the most he used was rank four. Using a rank four wolf soul Gu to purify thousand man soul was like pouring a bottle of ink in a lake; the efficiency of dying the whole lake was way too low. Fang Yuan had been searching for rank five wolf soul Gu, but it was in vain. But even without rank five wolf soul Gu, there was still one method. That was to use second watch Gu or third watch Gu to increase the timeflow of his body, or enter the blessed land, to increase the speed of his cultivation. These methods could be used by others, but Fang Yuan could not. Fang Yuan’s first vital Gu Spring Autumn Cicada was slowly recovering with time. Before he becomes a Gu Immortal, this Gu would be like an executioner’s blade hovering above his neck. "My thousand man soul was accomplished using Dang Hun mountain, Luo Po valley is on par with Dang Hun mountain, if I could obtain it..." For a moment, Fang Yuan had an impulse to change to soul path. "If I can save Dang Hun mountain and obtain Luo Po Valley, with the huge foundation of two sacred lands of the soul path, cultivating soul path would truly be a wise choice, even having much more prospects than the blood path I cultivated in my past life!" But soon, Fang Yuan calmed down. "According to the directions given by space thought, Luo Po Valley is quite far away, the matter of importance right now is saving Dang Hun mountain, now is not the time to go to Luo Po Valley. The battle is approaching, I also cannot casually abandon my current strength path and enslavement path foundation." Fang Yuan was relying on enslavement path and strength path to become an influential figure in northern plains. But his current strength was still far from allowing him to roam unhindered and invincible in the mortal world. One shadow sword expert was able to obstruct him. Although he had second aperture, cultivated strength and enslavement path, had rank five peak stage cultivation, Fang Yuan was involved in the fight for the Imperial Court, he still appeared insignificant. This was a whirlpool of war that involved the whole northern plains; if one was just a bit careless, even a rank five Gu Master had the danger of dying. "My enslavement path cultivation has achieved some success and can influence the whole situation, but it is clear that my attack is strong but defense is weak. On strength path aspect, it is still not enough for defending myself. It will be trouble once people like Mo Shi Kuang and Bian Si Xuan get near to me. I have to be much more careful in this battle with Dong Fang tribe." Thinking of the imminent great battle, Fang Yuan did not have raging battle intent like others. It could be said that Cunning Gentleman was doing him a small favor, letting him stay behind the scenes and have more time to cultivate and increase his battle strength. In the following days, Fang Yuan nurtured his second aperture while trying to refine nauseous crying baby Gu. At the same time, he communicated with Little Hu Immortal to handle all kinds of matters in the blessed land. In Hu Immortal blessed land, Dang Hun mountain’s situation continued to worsen, the whole mountain was shrinking day by day. Little Hu Immortal disposed of large amounts of Gruel Mud from Dang Hun mountain every day to prolong Dang Hun mountain’s vitality as much as possible. Starry clouds covered the eastern part of the blessed land, the scale of starlight fireflies had expanded by three times of before, and there were even fifty to sixty more starlight firefly Gu than Little Hu Immortal’s initial assessment. Being able to get this many starlight firefly Gu in this short period of time was all thanks to air bubble fish. These air bubble fish were gradually showing their effects. Previously, Fang Yuan had frequently entered and exited Hu Immortal blessed land, using stargate Gu for a long time which caused the amount of starlight firefly Gu to dwindle. Now, starlight firefly Gu expanded in numbers once more, alleviating his pressure. At the western part of the blessed land, large numbers of pink rabbits were reproducing. Since Fang Yuan had transferred the wolf groups to northern plains, the pressure on the pink rabbits had decreased, thus their numbers was quickly expanding. After Little Hu Immortal reported these news, Fang Yuan immediately made her transfer large amounts of water wolves from the eastern lakes to the western parts to fill the gap in the food chain, but even so, the rabbits were still expanding wildly. To prevent a rabbit calamity, Little Hu Immortal had put up a large group of pink rabbits for sale in treasure yellow heaven, a few days ago. Fang Yuan was most concerned about the hairy men who were momentarily placed at the southern part of the blessed land. This was originally the rockmen’s home grounds, now there was a group of hairy men who suddenly appeared out of nowhere. The two sides fought for their territories causing several small scale conflicts. Under Fang Yuan’s instructions, Little Hu Immortal secretly helped the hairy men win against a stoneman tribe, and sold the stoneman captives to Immortal Crane Sect. Immortal Crane Sect kept on trying to make transactions for the guts Gu, but were always refused by Little Hu Immortal. Fang Zheng requested to see Fang Yuan several times as a negotiation representative, but was also refused. As for treasure yellow heaven, another batch of Gruel Mud was sold, gaining another remnant recipe of Immortal Gu Gruel Mud. The remnant recipes of Immortal Gu Fang Yuan had sold before was once again resold by Little Hu Immortal after a gap of some time, obtaining eleven immortal essence stones. When the same Gu recipe is sold multiple times in treasure yellow heaven and more Gu Immortals obtain it, its treasure light will decrease. Thus, this method could not be treated as a long term source of income. This was like a gold mine which was already mostly mined. The profits in the future would continue to decrease and not be worthy of too much expectations. After another three days of confrontation, Dong Fang Yu Liang personally wrote a war challenge and sent it to Hei Lou Lan. Hei Lou Lan was shocked and asked his subordinates: "Has the rear army of Dong Fang tribe arrived already?" Cunning Gentleman Sun Shi Han answered: "Their rear army is still five thousand li away, building the fifth defensive line." Hei Lou Lan gave a sinister smile: "Dong Fang tribe’s military strength was originally lower than ours and they still dare to split their forces!" Sun Shi Han also smiled: "Dong Fang Yu Liang is playing with fire. We might as well wait until our rear army converges, our military strength will greatly surpass theirs and at that time, we can crush through their whole army in one move." Baleful light flickered in Hei Lou Lan’s eyes. He had a personal grudge with Dong Fang Yu Liang; when he went adventuring to gain experience in his youth, he saw Dong Fang Qing Yu and drooled over her beauty, but he was taught a lesson by Dong Fang Yu Liang and had suffered quite a bit. He really wanted to take revenge, but he was not someone who was easily controlled by emotions. "Even a fool can see through this Dong Fang lad’s intention. He wants to battle but I won’t give him the chance. How long till my rear army arrives?" Hei Lou Lan asked. "Approximated three days." Wang tribe leader answered from the side. "Good. I will write a letter to Dong Fang Yu Liang to change the date to four days later!" Hei Lou Lan laughed loudly. Dong Fang Yu Liang received the letter and skimmed through it. Dong Fang alliance’s higher-ups were filled with fury. Hei Lou Lan had written nonsense, proclaiming he was giving three days of time to Dong Fang Yu Liang in magnanimity, and hoped Dong Fang Yu Liang would live up to this good intent and enjoy the last days of his life. The crowd shouted for war one after another, but Dong Fang Yu Liang calmly smiled: "Everyone, do not be impatient. This letter was already within my expectations. I have deduced many times over these days and have come up with a plan, please listen to the details..." Four days were gone in an instant. In this day of battle, it was a day of fine weather with blue sky spreading to the distant horizon. Knee-length grass grew lushly, the two sides moved in formation that reached hundred li, raising banners with tightly packed troops. A twin-headed hill sized rhino carried the main tent on its back. On the main tent was Hei Lou Lan, Fang Yuan, Hao Ji Liu, Wang tribe leader, Fang tribe leader, Ye tribe leader and other experts. Fang Yuan’s position was naturally at the topmost left side of the main seat. Cunning Gentleman Sun Shi Han was standing behind Hei Lou Lan with a loyal expression; he had already become Hei Lou Lan’s trusted aide. The wind whistled, causing the banners to flutter wildly. Fang Yuan looked into the distance from his seat, seeing the tight and disciplined formation of Dong Fang tribe with their main tent resting on a white cloud, floating in mid-air. One could vaguely see Dong Fang Yu Liang sitting on the central seat in the main tent with officials and fierce experts sitting on his left and right. Just from their disposition, they did not appear any weaker than Hei Lou Lan’s side. At this moment, Hei Lou Lan’s loud laughter rang in Fang Yuan’s ears: "Hahaha, this battle will signify the first step my Hei tribe takes towards the ownership of the Imperial court and ruling the northern plains. Everyone, who wants to go forward and make the first challenge?" His words had just landed when a group of Gu Masters rose one after another, shouting or vouching for themselves to request to be sent to battle. Hei Lou Lan’s gaze travelled through the group and landed on one of them: "Pan Ping, you shall go." Pan Ping was tall and buff, his hair was reddish-yellow, on his waist was a scimitar with gold edge and silver handle. He laughed heartily when chosen and just as he was about to agree, a loud shout came from the enemy: "Junior Tang Miao Ming has heard of the awespiring name of the grand Wolf King for a long time, I have specifically come to get a pointer or two." "Dong Fang Yu Liang has guts, he actually chose to challenge us first!" "That is little fox commander Tang Miao Ming, a rank four middle stage Gu Master, she actually directly challenged Lord Wolf King, they must be planning something." For a moment, everyone’s gaze landed on Fang Yuan, waiting for the Wolf King’s response.