Shortly thereafter, the wolf tide increased in intensity.

By this point, the three clans had all come to a mutual consensus to work together to weather the upcoming storm. There would be three Thunder Crown Wolves that this wolf tide had- each with the strength of a Rank 4 Gu Master. It was only if they were split up against each clan head that the clans could survive.

Not only that, but there were numerous Hundred Beast Kings and Thousand Beast Kings as well, which had to be dealt with either the strongest of Rank 2 Gu Masters or the elders. Forgetting them, even ordinary Lightning Wolves could threaten mortals and Gu Masters in large numbers.

Contests were first held as shows of strength- neither of the Fang twins were at them. Fang Yuan was an elder now and did not participate in these kinds of things anymore, while Fang Zheng was so beyond doing anything that he didn’t show up either. In his previous life, Fang Yuan had been tasked with logistics during this time, but he would have to fight against the Thousand Beast Kings and perhaps even aide the Thunder Crown Wolf when the clan head assaulted him.

The clan did not favor elders without reason, after all.

‘Qing Shu is fated to die soon trying to save the village,’ Fang Yuan thought. Even if he wanted to, as Rank 3 he could do little to prevent that fate. It would be a different matter altogether if he was at Rank 3 Peak Stage with a full set of Rank 3 gu worms, or at Rank 4. Even in such a circumstance though, he would not senselessly risk his life for the sake of the village.

As part of the three village’s alliance, a merit board had been set up with the assistance of several information-type gu worms. Primeval stones were no longer being used as the main form of currency, instead, merit points were being handed out and exchanged. There were several ways to gain merit points, though the easiest was by killing Lightning Wolves.

Merit points could be exchanged for various prizes, with gu worms being the foremost among them.

To Fang Yuan, the majority of those gu worms were not useful. There were a few that he could use to advance the Moon Raiment Gu, with the best option being to turn it into the Moonlight Chainmail Gu, a Rank 3 defensive gu worm.

The easiest way to get the materials needed, of course, was by killing many Lightning Wolves. As a matter of fact, most of the daily quests he was getting were quests to kill Lightning Wolves around some of the mortal villages, or to save villagers from the same.

He would need to kill a few Hundred Beast Kings, or even one or two Thousand Beast Kings though, if he was planning on getting the materials for a Rank 3 refinement.

All around the village, there were multiple desperate fights going on between humans and wolves. Some of them were between mortals who used sticks, arrows, or whatever they could find to deal with the beasts- while others were with teams of Gu Masters against large foes.

It was not uncommon to see two groups from different clans fighting together- as was happening right now with a group from the Bai clan and one from the Xiong clan locked in a deadly battle that had turned against them when a Hundred Beast King Wolf had appeared out of seemingly nowhere.

“Darn it!”

“Don’t worry- one of our elders, Elder Bai Ning Bing has recently come out of closed door cultivation! We can rely on him to reinforce us!”

“Tch,” someone from the Xiong clan said. “Rather than relying on this Bai Ning Bing, we need to use our own strength! Who knows if he’ll even come here or not, there are fierce battles going on everywhere! Listen, I have a way to deal with this Hundred Beast King. I have a gu known as Plunder Gu which can steal gu worms from other creatures- and once this Hundred Beast King has lost its wild gu we’ll be able to deal with it!” In their base forms, Hundred Beast Kings weren’t that hard to deal with given they were just wild animals with low intelligence compared to humans, but if they had one or multiple wild gu worms it could completely change the flow of battle.

“Alright then!”

“But there is a weakness- my Plunder Gu needs time to work and has to be sustained by my primeval essence. I need some other people to hold him off while I prepare and finish this move.”

“Leave it to us!”

If the Plunder Gu was successful, they would live- if not, they would surely meet their ends at the teeth of this Hundred Beast King!

What they were unaware of was that the Bai Ning Bing they had been talking about was watching the scene from high up above a cliff.

‘Such a fight… so boring…’ he thought.

Bai Ning Bing had been born with one of the Ten Physiques- the Northern Dark Ice Soul Physique. Above A-grade talents there were the Ten Physiques, called so after Ren Zu’s ten children. Such people had massive reserves of primeval essence and could advance at an unbelievable rate. Unfortunately, nothing in life was without a downside- this great potential was tempered by the fact that their apertures were unstable. At some point, it would reach a pint where they would self-detonate and release a massive amount of energy into the surroundings.

The three villages were actually doomed to die from Bai Ning Bing’s detonation, or that was how it went back in Fang Yuan’s old life. Fang Yuan had been spared this fate as he had been sent away shortly after the wolf tide.

Bai Ning Bing knew his days were numbered, and had little to live for other than excitement. Those fighting down below him- perhaps if they made a good show, he would be able to have some fun?

The fact that there was a Bai clansmen down there did not move his heart in the slightest, even if he could save all of them with what amounted to a single flick of his wrist.

As it was, he had recently begun to resent his fellow Bai clansmen due to something that had happened a few months earlier.

A Few Months Ago

“I have a new idea as to how we can try to deal with the Gu Yue clan,” Bai Ning Bing had once opined at an elder’s meeting.

“Oh? Do tell us what you’ve thought of.”

“All warfare is based on deception,” Bai Ning Bing said. “So, we must therefore spread misinformation to the Gu Yue clan, preferably by leaking it, so that they are confused and rattled by what we’re doing.”

“What kind of information.”

“I propose that we spread the rumor that we’ve been seeding the water with chemicals that make the frogs gay,” Bai Ning Bing said, quite proud of his idea. “They’ll have no idea what to make of that rumor, whether they can prove or disprove it or not, and will waste valuable time trying to deal with this situation which isn’t even happening.”

“…”

“Is this some kind of elaborate joke?”

“What? No!” Bai Ning Bing retorted. “What would make you think that?”

“Why on earth would the Gu Yue clan fall for such an obvious lie?”

“Tch- you know what, I’ll try leaking the information myself and then you’ll all see how brilliant my idea is!”

Modern Day

Bai Ning Bing snorted- despite saying all of that during that time, it didn’t look like his disinformation tactic had yielded any results, even now after having exited closed door cultivation.

It was because of that he was in a bit of a foul mood.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep