Chapter 595: Green vines blocking the round, Fang Yuan’s backstab
Translator: ChibiGeneral Editor: ChibiGeneral
Hei Lou Lan gazed ahead at the troops making slow progress in the dense jungle.
The intense battle had already lasted for over six hours.
This was the second round; the weather here was hot and damp, and the terrain was a vast ancient rainforest.
To cross this round, Gu Masters needed to traverse through the whole jungle and reach a stone palace at the other side.
However, this jungle could not be taken lightly.
There might not be any beasts in the jungle but it was full of green vines.
These green vines were coiled around tall trees and piled up on the damp ground. Every green vine had the thickness of a king-sized bowl and length of seventy to eighty feet in the minimum.
The common green vines among these were called green snake vines which had snake scales growing all over their surface. And when Gu Masters neared them, the vines would suddenly move and coil around the Gu Masters, constricting them to death.
In every one hundred paces of the rainforest, there were about a thousand green snake vines, filling the whole area.
The difficulty in progressing forward was thus extremely high.
The whole journey was filled with green snake vines attacking from all sides; some shot down from sky, some creeped through the ground and some ambushed from under the ground, causing the group to struggle and not be able to defend properly.
The group's progress was met with attacks from the green vines at all times, seemingly like they were among an ocean of green vines.
The green vine had powerful attacks and quick speed. Even more dangerous were the wood path Gu worms that lived on their bodies. It was precisely because of these Gu worms that the group had suffered huge casualties.
"Reporting, we have discovered a green snake vine king ahead. Currently, Lord Ye Lui Sang is already in a fight with it." After a while of moving forward, an investigative Gu Master returned from the front group to report to Hei Lou Lan.
Hei Lou Lan nodded, still continuing with his slow movement.
In every group of green snake vines, there was a green snake vine king which had the battle strength of a rank four Gu Master.
However, Ye Lui Sang was a rank five peak stage expert, the current tribe leader of the super force Ye Lui tribe, and the fire path he cultivated subdued wood path Gu worms completely. There was also the fire path support type Immortal Gu on him, taking care of a green snake vine king was a cinch.
Sure enough, after a while, the report of victory came from ahead: "Lord Ye Lui Sang has eliminated the green snake vine king and has now retreated from the front lines. Lord Chang Shan Yin has switched with him and is leading the wolf group to open the path."
"Okay." Hei Lou Lan lightly replied.
Wolves were good at offense and not at defense, and were not a good match for the vines. But Chang Shan Yin had defense specialized wolves like turtleback wolves. He also had vermillion fire wolves upon which lived fire path Gu worms. In this situation, they were a sharp weapon to cut open the path.
'Wolf King is truly powerful, he can even be said to have the number one battle strength. Especially when he also has the flying bear phantom Immortal Gu, a mere minor round cannot obstruct him.' Hei Lou Lan pondered while walking.
'Flying bear phantom Gu and flying bear strength Gu, if the two are paired up, that would be perfect. Hmph, I will first make Chang Shan Yin pour in his utmost effort for me and when the time is ripe, I must make him hand over that flying bear phantom Gu! As long as I become a Gu Immortal, wouldn't a mere Wolf King be mine to toy with?"
'This second round seemingly tests the Gu Master's strength in doing prolonged battles, but more than that, it is actually testing investigative ability. In this jungle, there are not only the green snake vine groups, but also green dragon vine groups. Green dragon vines are dozens of times more terrifying than green snake vines, they are mutated beings among plants! The path we took avoided these green dragon vines as much as possible. There are only one or two territories of green dragon vines in this path, and presumably there will be one or two tough battles, and that will be the greatest difficulty of this round."
Hei Lou Lan felt proud: 'We are getting closer to the finish line, at this speed, we will cross this round in an hour!"
He had just thought of this when suddenly a change occurred.
Swish swish….
The green snake vines around the group suddenly penetrated the air with terrifying speed, even producing sonic booms!
The offense of the vines had suddenly increased by dozens of times.
The previous battles were the ones where the Gu Masters fought with the green snake vines nearby while the vines outside the range stayed still.
But now, the green vines within a hundred li, no, a thousand li, were engaging in the battle, surging out crazily like a tsunami as they pounced towards the Gu Masters.
The Gu Masters were caught unprepared, immediately suffering heavy losses. Countless Gu Masters were killed within a few moments of time.
"How could this happen? The green snake vines are rioting all of a sudden!" The experts shouted in fright.
"Someone, save me quickly!" Surrounding Gu Masters were wantonly constricted and twisted apart by the green vine group.
"I command all troops to attack, hold them off no matter the consumption! If we can't hold them back, it will be our death!!" Hei Lou Lan shouted and rose to the air, attempting to control the situation.
Soon, a hundred or so green dragon vines rose to the sky, charging towards him.
Hei Lou Lan gave a shout of fury and used his dark path abilities, killing twenty to thirty green dragon vines instantly before moving towards the ground.
But the ground was also not safe, countless green snake vines and green dragon vines broke through the soil, trapping the entirety of the troops.
"How can this be? The scouting had been done properly, how could we encounter a green dragon vine group here?" The corners of Hei Lou Lan's eyes were threatening to tear as he could not make sense of this no matter what!
Green vines were strongly territorial. But as long as one does not encroach upon their territory, they would remain still and not take the initiative to attack.
These green vine groups, however, had completely gone crazy, pouncing upon the Gu Masters like they had killed their father.
Green vines possessed strong vitality and even if they were cut into five to six parts, these five to six parts could still attack before dying. Hei Lou Lan even saw many green dragon vines struggling free from their root systems, and flying out to attack.
'This, how is this possible? What the hell is happening?!' Hei Lou Lan could not make sense of it no matter how he thought. By cutting off their own roots, these green dragon vines were looking for their own death.
All living things possessed survival instinct.
How deep a hatred was it for them to erupt in such bitter suicidal attacks?
The large army was broken apart, each fighting for themselves while slowly starting to retreat bit by bit; in a moment, many youths lost their lives.
"Could it be this second round is actually a giant trap?! This is too strange, this is only the second round, how could its difficulty be so high?!" Hei Lou Lan was dumbstruck, a huge doubt rising in his heart.
This was indeed a huge trap.
But the one who laid this trap was not Eighty-Eight True Yang Building but the one in control of this floor - Fang Yuan.
He had been patient, ordering the green vines everywhere in this round to stealthily move here. He then accepted the command to participate in the front line and switched with others from time to time, intentionally lowering the speed of progress to stall for time.
When large numbers of green vines had gathered, Fang Yuan immediately ordered a surprise attack without any hesitation.
The Gu Masters suffered disastrous losses because of the ambush!
Fang Yuan was an enslavement path master; the green vines which had lower intelligence than beasts, coordinated together under his control, and disregarded their own lives to burst out with a hundred times their normal strength!
Especially for the experts like Hei Lou Lan, Ye Lui Sang and Tai Bai Yun Sheng, he had paid even more attention and mobilized green dragon vines which were comparable to mutated beasts, to obstruct them.
"Retreat, retreat quickly."
"There are green vines everywhere around us, if we continue on, the casualties will become even more severe!"
"Lord Hei tribe leader, my tribe leader requests to retreat!"
Several large tribes hurriedly sent their representatives.
Anyone could see they had landed into an ambush by the green vine groups. How could the green vines become so sinister? Right now, no one had the time to tackle this issue.
Hei Lou Lan fiercely gnashed his teeth, his face showed a struggling expression several times before he squeezed out a word: "Retreat!"
He also knew the situation was already out of control, the green vines were charging without fearing death and had already led the formation to turn chaotic. And the experts were not able to fight properly for the fear of hurting their own men.
If they suffered such serious casualties in the second round, then how could Hei Lou Lan have the power to seize the Immortal Gu in the last round?
Retreat was naturally a wise move, but it would depend on whether Fang Yuan would allow it.
He was in control of this floor, sealing the exit and entrance was only a small thing.
Soon, everyone made a terrifying discovery - they could not leave!
This discovery was huge blow on the morale.
The whole army seemed to be about to crumble apart.
At the crucial moment, Hei Lou Lan felt the situation going awry and stood up, his voice spreading everywhere: "All of you, persevere. I will use the killer move grey meltdown to forcibly cross this round. If we persevere, we will win, we will survive!!"
The despairing Gu Masters heard these words and felt like they were drowning men who had found a life saving straw.
The morale that had fallen to the bottom did not crumble in the end and instead stabilized.
Everyone again started fighting, opening a path and forming a tight and connected formation.
Under the heavy protection from all the troops, Hei Lou Lan led a group of refinement path Gu Masters to form a round formation and began to use the killer move grey meltdown.
"Lord, if we forcibly activate it, we will probably lose thirty percent of our men." An old refinement path Gu Master who was familiar with the inside information advised Hei Lou Lan with a pale face.
The killer move grey meltdown naturally had its limitations.
This killer move relied on the coordination of the inside and outside; this required the reward of the round to be Gu worms deliberately provided by either Hei tribe's Gu Immortals or Xue Song Zi.
But Eighty-Eight True Yang Building would not coordinate, it only chose the suitable Gu worms from those absorbed and refined them to form the rounds.
The first round's reward were Gu worms that came from Hei Bai. Thus, Hei Lou Lan could use the killer move grey meltdown to exploit Giant Sun's will still not having fully refined the Gu worms, to forcibly refine them. Like this, he would get the reward and pass the round.
But the second round's Gu worm reward was wild Gu. Hei Lou Lan was unable to connect with these wild Gu and the killer move grey meltdown could not be used.
The second round could only in accordance with this be completed by going through its requirement.
But the current situation was critical, Hei Lou Lan was left without a better option but to forcibly activate killer move grey meltdown to skip through the second round and connect to the Gu worm reward of the third round.
The third round's Gu worm reward came from Xue Song Zi. The Gu worm was only half-refined, thus still contained most of Xue Song Zi's will.
As Hei Lou Lan was working together with Xue Song Zi, Xue Song Zi's will approved him. He could thus use grey meltdown to connect to the third round's reward and refine it.
As such, the third round would be passed. And when the third round is crossed, the second round would have no foundation, collapsing apart. Because when Eighty-Eight True Yang Building condensed each floor, it would first form the hundredth round, then ninety-ninth round, ninety-eighth round….
However, if Hei Lou Lan did so, the killer move grey meltdown's power would increase by several times, far surpassing the amount these refinement path Gu Masters could bear.
Whether it was success or failure, a portion of the refinement path Gu Masters would not be able to bear it and die.
"Tens of refinement path Gu Masters dying is better than the whole army dying!" Hei Lou Lan gritted his teeth, his eyes filled with chilly and cruel light. The situation had forced him to choose the lesser of the two evils.
The old Gu Master did not say any more and retreated back to the formation.