Inside the king's tent, the atmosphere was suffocating. Almost everyone was injured, including Hei Lou Lan.
The usually proud and glamorous Gu Master experts now looked ragged and miserable.
"The Liu Clan's assault was too fierce. Liu Wenwu, Luo Bojun, and Nie Yaqing are all rank five experts. Mo Shikuang and Ouyang Bishan are at the peak of rank four, comparable to rank five combat strength. And there are fierce generals like Pei Yanfei and Chang Biao... Such a lineup is quite rare even when you look back at the previous ten royal court contests," sighed Beijunzi Sun Shihan.
Rank four Gu Masters were already rare, usually a leader of a small or medium force, or an elder of a large one.
Rank five was even rarer, requiring extremely high aptitude. Even super forces only had two or three publicly known rank five Gu Masters.
In truth, the current high-level lineup of the Hei Clan was already relatively strong.
Hei Lou Lan, Tai Bai Yun Sheng, and Gu Guolong were three rank five experts. There were also over twenty rank four experts, such as Chang Shan Yin, Tang Miaoming, Hao Ji Liu, Bian Sixuan, and Pan Ping.
However, there were differences in combat strength even between Gu Masters of the same rank. A Gu Master was a combat occupation where the individual surpassed the group. The power of a single person transcended the sum of the group. For instance, Fang Yuan alone could slaughter small to medium-sized tribes. In today's battle, Ouyang Bishan alone had killed five rank four Gu Masters and twelve rank three clan elders.
It wasn't that the Hei Clan was weak, but that the high-level combat strength of the Liu Clan's army this time was far too strong.
Especially after this first battle, a large number of high-rank Gu Masters were slaughtered by the Liu Clan. The rank four Gu Masters were almost halved, widening the existing gap even further.
How to counter the Liu Clan's huge advantage became a pressing problem for everyone.
"If given time, I could annex a few other armies and use Old Sir's prestige to recruit some experts. Then I might have the high-level combat strength to rival them," Hei Lou Lan sighed, secretly resenting Liu Wenwu for choosing this time to attack, leaving him no room to develop.
Tai Bai Yun Sheng immediately understood the deep meaning in Hei Lou Lan's words and spoke, "This old man once saved the lives of Gao Yang and Zhu Zai. They once said they would repay the debt. I can write a letter; perhaps it will summon them."
Everyone's spirits lifted.
Gao Yang and Zhu Zai were known as the Demon Duo in the Northern Plains. They coordinated perfectly and always acted together. Both were peak rank four Gu Masters, and they had once killed a rank five expert by working together across ranks!
Hei Lou Lan felt some pressure ease. "If I can get the help of Gao Yang and Zhu Zai, I might be able to slightly make up for the gap between the two armies. However, military affairs are a matter of life and death for everyone. We cannot pin our hopes entirely on the gratitude of others. As for today's battle, we owe it largely to the Wolf King taking action. He slaughtered a great number of low-rank Gu Masters, causing heavy casualties for the Liu Clan. If Liu Wenwu hadn't been wary of this, how could he have retreated so easily?"
Everyone turned their gaze to Fang Yuan, wanting to hear his opinion.
Fang Yuan's expression was calm. There wasn't a single scratch on him. Previously, he had been hiding in the army commanding the wolf pack, yet he had achieved the greatest military merit.
This kind of situation had long made the people in the king's tent envious and jealous. However, restrained by the overall situation, they did not dare to act on it.
After the battle, Fang Yuan had been digging through his memories, trying to find information on how Hei Lou Lan defeated Liu Wenwu. But despite his intense thinking, he came up with nothing.
Five hundred years of memories were far too vast and much was forgotten. To the current people, this was a huge problem, but five hundred years in his past life, it was just a tiny detail in the long river of history.
Noticing everyone's gaze, Fang Yuan raised his eyelids and said calmly, "The Liu Clan has enslavement path Gu Masters, but their strongest is Bei Caochuan. His Grass Soldier legion is irrelevant. Right now, both sides have a strong point. It's like two giants holding spears and jabbing at each other. The Liu Clan's army is strong in high-rank Gu Masters, while our side has the wolf pack to help, slaughtering a large number of low-rank Gu Masters. So, today's result was a mutual loss."
"The way to victory is nothing more than restraining the enemy's strengths while enhancing one's own. It's not impossible to restrain their expert Gu Masters. If I have an ace wolf pack in hand, I can definitely suppress them. But if we do this, I will have to control them with all my strength. The rank four Hidden Soul Beast Gu alone can't conceal my traces, and I will be caught up in their assault."
Fang Yuan's words made everyone's eyes light up.
"Ace wolf pack..." Hei Lou Lan bowed his head in thought.
Currently, the five great enslavement path masters of the Northern Plains were known as the Five Beast Kings. Among them, Horse King Ma Zun had a herd of heavenly horses. Eagle King Yang Poying had a flock of lightning eagles. Rat King Jiang Baoya had a swarm of drill mountain rats. The newly famous enslavement path master, Leopard King Nuertu, had a pack of tube-viewing leopards. Only the Wolf King Chang Shan Yin lacked such a group of mystical beasts.
Every adult mystical beast had combat strength equivalent to a rank four Gu Master. Once mystical beasts formed a group, their fighting strength was even more terrifying than an equal number of Gu Masters. This was because the beast pack, under the enslavement path master's command, was fearless of death. Gu Masters, on the other hand, all had their own thoughts. Even sworn alliances and deadly oaths could not make them sacrifice their lives without hesitation.
If he had a pack of mystical wolves, it would be very possible to kill a rank five expert.
After all, even a rank five Gu Master was ultimately a mortal, with limited primeval essence and energy.
However, building a group of mystical beasts took an extremely long time and required an enormous amount of energy and resources.
In such a short time, there was only one way to find a pack of mystical wolves for Fang Yuan: to seek the help of the Hei Clan's Gu Immortals.
Even though the people in the king's tent didn't know about Treasure Yellow Heaven, they understood the power of a Gu Immortal.