Chapter 579: Deputy Elder
Translator: ChibiGeneral Editor: ChibiGeneral
In the evening, Ma Ying Jie took Ma Hong Yun to Chang tribe's banquet.
When the banquet ended, Chang Biao urged Ma Ying Jie to stay and have a talk in the study while letting Chang Li entertain Ma Hong Yun.
"I wonder what insights might Ma tribe leader have in six arm heavenly zombie king?" After some discussion, Chang Biao changed the subject to the killer move.
Ma Ying Jie, however, had not tested the killer move, speaking frankly: "I am an enslavement path master and have no affiliation to strength path. I was quite disappointed for the reward in passing the eighty-ninth round to be this killer move. I plan to sell this killer move, thus haven't tested it. What happened?"
Chang Biao was stupefied, glancing at Pan Ping next to him.
The two had not expected this situation, but it was actually reasonable.
Ma Ying Jie was different from them, he had a concrete and comprehensive enslavement path inheritance. His master Ma Zun relied on this inheritance to make a name and be a ruler of a region.
This inheritance contained a killer move as well. And besides it, Ma Ying Jie still had the powerful killer move from Snowy Mountain's Gu Immortal — Dragon Horse Spirit.
He had yet to master these killer moves, why would he go cultivate a killer move of another path?
He had been cultivating enslavement path since his youth, and as long as he cultivated it properly, he could become a ruler of a region and revitalize his tribe. Cultivating side paths would instead divide his energy.
Since ancient times, Gu Masters prioritized one path, and very few cultivated two paths. Dividing energy and continually moving back and forth will only result in achieving nothing on both ends.
Fang Yuan could dually cultivate paths because of the accumulation of his previous life's experiences.
Ma Ying Jie also had to manage the tribe's affairs and had no extra energy to cultivate some strength path killer move.
"I won't conceal it from you, I and brother Pan Ping have been testing this killer move. Its might is astonishing and overwhelming. We might as well speak the truth to Ma tribe leader." As he said this, Chang Biao paused, considering his words while somewhat hesitating.
He looked at Ma Ying Jie with a sincere gaze and shockingly said: "I would like to request Ma tribe leader to keep this killer move a secret and not spread it to others. Spreading it outside means the reward for clearing the round will be received by others."
Chang Biao intentionally spoke evasively, Ma Ying Jie was smart as he suddenly understood everything.
"So it was like this! Chang Biao was once Chang tribe's leader, now he is only a great elder and the tribe leader is his adopted son Chang Ji You, and the true decision maker is Wolf King Chang Shan Yin. Chang Biao obtained this killer move and wants to keep it a secret. This is a normal practice of Gu Masters. But there is a problem, if Chang Shan Yin learns of this and asks him for it, he will definitely have to hand it over."
Ma Ying Jie observed Pan and Chang's expressions and intonations, and knew six arm heavenly zombie king was absolutely an extraordinary killer move.
Humans were selfish, who would be willing to hand such a valuable treasure for no purpose? Ma Ying Jie understood this point.
Seeing Ma Ying Jie's gaze flicker, Chang Biao continued: "I have already talked with the others, Ma tribe leader can rest at ease. We still need Ma tribe leader's strength for the coming round. Hehehe."
Ma Ying Jie's expression turned solemn: "Lord Chang Biao exaggerates, my ability is limited, it is my fortune to be able to cooperate with all the experts, making it a win-win situation. I am okay with this matter being done like Lord Chang Biao says."
Hearing Ma Ying Jie's answer, Chang Biao and Pan Ping both smiled.
"Sigh, what lord, Ma tribe leader can just call me by my name." Pan Ping saw the chance, and immediately tried to pull their relation closer.
Pan and Chang wanted to pull Ma Ying Jie to their faction while Ma Ying Jie also wanted to rely on Chang tribe and Hei tribe's help to grow his tribe. The three went out of their way to curry favor with each other, addressing each other as brothers.
The three discussed in the study till late at night, getting along with each other.
It was near midnight, the three separated after setting Ma Hong Yun and Chang Li's engagement.
"Brother Chang's plan is excellent. With this connection by marriage, Ma Ying Jie will be tied with brother Chang, and when we deal with the Wolf King later on, he would have to help out." After closing the door, Pan Ping laughed heartily.
Chang Biao, however, slightly shook his head: "Ma Ying Jie is not someone easy to fool, he knows when to bow and submit, and at the the time of danger, he will definitely make a quick decision. It is still not the time to recruit him now, but as long as we continue to be on good terms with him and let people know of our close relation, and put in some resources to support that Ma Hong Yun, we will be able to increase our control over Ma tribe. And when we declare war against Chang Shan Yin in the future, as long as Chang Shan Yin recognizes Ma tribe as an enemy, Ma Ying Jie will have no choice but to get on our boat to protect his tribe!"
At night in Imperial Court blessed land, the bright and warm silver light shone on the ground.
In a carriage, Ma Ying Jie and Ma Hong Yun were sitting opposite each other.
"Hong Yun, you truly are a lucky guy, actually getting the interest of miss Chang Li. Hehehe, I have already come to a decision with lord Chang Biao; the first day of the next month will be a day of celebration for you and Chang Li." Ma Ying Jie said with a smile on his face.
"Ah?" Ma Hong Yun had not expected this news at all, and was not able to react for a while.
"I have seen your loyalty, good, this is your reward." Ma Ying Jie patted Ma Hong Yun's shoulder while sighing with emotion as he took out three red steel relic Gu from his aperture.
"This..." Ma Hong Yun was astonished, and dazedly received the three red steel relic Gu.
"You will be getting married with lady Chang Li, if you don't have power and status, wouldn't it weaken my Ma tribe's name? You can advance to rank two peak stage with these three red steel relic Gu; it should not be a problem for you to advance to rank three with your aptitude. I will now appoint you as a deputy elder and your duty will be to handle the miscellaneous affairs of the tribe." Ma Ying Jie proclaimed.
"Ah?" Ma Hong Yun's eyes opened wide, looking at Ma tribe leader with a stupefied expression.
To him, this surprise was really too heavy and too sudden.
Ma Ying Jie intentionally looked solemn: "You are still not kneeling and thanking me?"
Ma Hong Yun's mind was in a mess, but his body subconsciously kneeled down on the ground: "Thank you lord for promoting me!"
"Yes, work well." Ma Ying Jie encouraged with a few sentences, his thoughts, however were on a different matter, "Six arm heavenly zombie king, this killer move seems to be really powerful. Since it is regarded with such importance by Pan and Chang, and also does not need too much attainment in strength path cultivation, how about I give it a try as well?"
Eighty-Eight True Yang Building, central control room.
"Ink transformation!" Fang Yuan's gaze flashed with a sharp light as he softly shouted and pressed down his hands.
Immediately, all kinds of Gu worms sprinkled down like rain from air, rapidly mixing with each other as they fell down.
When they landed on the sand table, they had already turned into drops of inky liquid.
The inky liquid quickly accumulated and covered the surface of the whole sand table once again before soon finding a flaw; the liquid then turned into a whirlpool and converged together.
Mo Yao's will in Fang Yuan's mind satisfiedly commented at this sight: "Good, you have now become skilled at the refinement technique I taught you - shower. With this method, you can quicken Gu refinement process by at least thirty percent and raise the quality by twenty percent. There is nothing more I can teach you about this method now. You only need to remember the essence of shower lies in speed. But you cannot just go fast, you need to pour all your concentration during the whole process. Thus, this method cannot be used too often. If you use it over the limit, you will feel dazed and dizzy in the minor case, causing the Gu refinement to fail, and in the serious case, your soul can be injured, you can suffer memory loss and you might become demented."
Gu refinement had dangers and was not any safer than an intense battle.
Fang Yuan already knew this; he listened to Mo Yao's guidance while methodically throwing the owner token into the ink whirlpool.
In a flash, the ink liquid was depleted completely and the owner token slowly flew up before landing on Fang Yuan's palm.
Fang Yuan observed the owner token which now already possessed five edges.
This meant ink transformation had already been carried out five times.
Strange, Fang Yuan was scarce on immortal essence stones and should have only been able to use ink transformation once more, how could he use it for three extra times beyond that?
After Fang Yuan got the one-edge owner token, his authority was raised and he could learn the contents of rewards for every round of a single floor of Eighty-Eight True Yang Building through the one-edge owner token.
Fang Yuan did not hesitate and choose one floor on the spot.
This floor was the seventh floor.
One-edge owner token could allow the Gu Master to control one floor of Eighty-Eight True Yang Building.
The seventh floor had already been broken through to the eighty-ninth round by the collective efforts of Gu Masters. So why did Fang Yuan choose this floor instead of others?
It was because the reward for this eighty-ninth round was five immortal essence stones!
Fang Yuan secretly used the owner token to take control of this floor. Chang Biao, Pan Ping, Ma Ying Jie and others passed the round, and Fang Yuan was able to secretly take the five immortal essence stones, sending a downgraded version of six arm heavenly zombie king into everyone's aperture as the reward.
The genuine six arm heavenly zombie king used borrow strength Gu as its core, the six great flying zombie Gu as the backbone and many other Gu worms as support. Through modification by Fang Yuan and Mo Yao's will, the downgraded killer move used overlord Gu as its core, which greatly reduced its strength.
Although the other flying zombie Gu were not changed, the old earth chief zombie Gu was used instead of Mo Yao's modified Gu.
More importantly, the support Gu worms were also modified and some Gu worms like intention Gu were added to secretly gather the information on the use of six arm heavenly zombie king by Chang Biao, Pan Ping and others.
With this, it not only gave others no reason to doubt the reward being tampered with, it also made them test the killer move in place of Fang Yuan to find any insufficient areas.
"Half a month has gone by since the reward of the killer move was distributed. It is time to catch the fish in a net. What do you think?" Fang Yuan used a consulting tone to ask Mo Yao's will.
Mo Yao mumbled: "It has neither been too long nor too short, we can first take away two sets and see the results."
Fang Yuan grasped the five-edges owner token, and with a shift of his mind, he found two familiar figures in the ninetieth round of the seventh floor.
They were none other than Chang Biao and Pan Ping.
The two were currently running quickly.
Pan Ping shouted to Chang Biao while running: "It has already been seven days since we came here. Even if the time flow here is faster than Imperial Court blessed land, according to our speed, we should have already travelled an immeasurable distance but we have not been able to see anything other than walls."
The running Chang Biao nodded, his clothes fluttering in the wind: "In this place, we cannot fly to the sky nor can we escape under the ground, we can only move in these passageways along the walls. The passageways here spread in all directions, we have travelled so long but haven't encountered a single monster. Clearly, this round tests the Gu Master's scouting and movement ability. This round should be an extremely large maze."
The two guessed correctly, this ninetieth round was precisely a maze.
And just as Chang Biao guessed, it tested the Gu Master's scouting and movement ability.
But Fang Yuan had taken control of this seventh floor now and after he discovered these two, everything was going to be different.