"Poison-whiskers!" The Gu Masters quickly spotted the Poison-whisker pack and looked up in alarm.
"That's strange — don't Poison-whisker wolves only roam the Rotting Poison Grasslands? How did they end up out here?" The Gu Masters were bewildered.
"There must be a Gu Master driving them!" Ge Guang clenched his fists, watching the rapidly approaching pack. The light of hope bloomed once more in his formerly despairing eyes.
"Young master is wise — look over there, someone really is coming!" After a few breaths, a Gu Master pointed into the distance and shouted.
Under the group's eager gaze, Fang Yuan appeared on the horizon, riding atop a Camel Wolf.
"We're saved!" Everyone cheered.
"Maybe not..." Ge Guang narrowed his eyes, maintaining his clarity. "The Poison-whisker wolves number fewer than a thousand — it's still hard to say. It depends on this person's wolf-taming art."
His words reminded the other Gu Masters, and worry crept back in.
"The newcomer must be a Slave Path Gu Master, but he doesn't have that many Poison-whiskers."
"This isn't good. Poison-whisker wolves are weakened under sunlight — they're actually slightly inferior to Wind wolves."
"This is bad. This Slave Path Gu Master doesn't even have a single Thousand Beast King. He only has a few Hundred Beast Kings. How can they possibly stop the Wind Wolf King's charge?!"
Ge Guang suddenly spoke up: "It's fine. As long as this Gu Master concentrates the Poison-whiskers into one formation and charges straight through, piercing the encirclement, there's still a chance he could save us."
This greatly eased the group's worries. But just as their flames of hope were newly kindled, Fang Yuan gave a mental command, and the entire Poison-whisker pack scattered like a bucket of water thrown onto the ground, spreading in every direction.
"This… this… this!" Many Gu Masters were struck dumb.
"It's over — he's throwing away his life!" Some simply closed their eyes.
"What an idiot, wasting the chance like that." Others stomped their feet in fury.
They were utterly disappointed, cursing bitterly. Some even came to resent Fang Yuan himself.
Ge Guang's face turned pale. When you have a chance to survive, who wants to die? Fang Yuan's appearance had given everyone hope — and then it was this very person who personally snuffed it out.
The Wind Wolf King let out a howl, and the entire Wind wolf pack launched its counterattack.
Just as the two wolf packs were about to clash, Fang Yuan suddenly let out a long, piercing cry.
He was human, yet at that moment he emitted the howl of a wolf.
It was a desolate, primal sound, like a bonfire flickering in the night wind.
The wolf howl blanketed an area of eight hundred paces. Every Poison-whisker wolf within range, upon hearing it, went berserk — their combat strength suddenly exploding to double!
"Oh — that's a Fourth Transformation Wolf Howl Gu! It can cause a wolf pack's strength to surge. It's an extremely rare Gu. The newcomer is actually a Fourth Transformation Gu Master!"
Fang Yuan's wolf howl struck like thunder from a clear sky, and the faces of the assembled Gu Masters changed dramatically one after another.
In many pairs of despairing eyes, the light of hope blazed anew.
Fourth Transformation and Third Transformation — those were two entirely different concepts.
Third Transformation was the rank of Elder. Fourth Transformation was Patriarch.
Even Ge Guang was only at the High Stage of the Third Transformation.
Once they realized Fang Yuan's cultivation level, no one dared curse anymore. The Gu Masters of the Northern Plains were brave and fierce, but they were not lawless. Deep in their bones, they held reverence for the strong and humility before power.
The Poison-whisker wolves had originally been weaker than the Wind wolves. But with their combat strength suddenly doubled, they now surpassed the Wind wolves in power.
After barely a moment of fighting, the Wind wolf pack was driven into retreat. The battlefield was littered with Wind wolf corpses. It often took ten Wind wolves to bring down a single Poison-whisker.
"What extraordinary wolf-taming art!" The lopsided casualty ratio made the Ge family Gu Masters' eyes bulge out of their heads.
"Unimaginable! This is the level of a Beast Mastery Grandmaster — who on earth is this person?" Many looked at Fang Yuan as though gazing upon a monster.
"I've never heard of such an expert hiding in these parts!" Naturally, the group was both astonished and delighted.
Fang Yuan's dominance forced the Wind wolf pack to concentrate all their attention on the Poison-whisker wolves. They surrounded the Ge family Gu Masters without attacking, giving these people a desperately needed reprieve from the brink of death.
"The Wind Wolf King is moving out!" Ge Guang suddenly spoke, and a single sentence set everyone's hearts racing once more.
The Wind Wolf King possessed considerable intelligence. It howled twice, and a large force of elites quickly gathered at its side.
Soon, with the Wind Wolf King at its head, this elite force pierced into the formation like an arrow, driving straight toward the center and charging ferociously at Fang Yuan.
The greatest fear of a Slave Path Gu Master was a decapitation tactic, and this Wind Wolf King was a Thousand Beast King at that — now charging in with the finest warriors of the wolf pack, it was virtually unstoppable. And among Fang Yuan's forces, he had only a few Hundred Beast King-level Poison-whisker Wolf Kings.