Fang Yuan soared into the sky.
"Yang Poying, Jiang Baoya, Ma Zun—today is the day you lose your heads." His voice was calm, yet vast and resonant, reaching the ears of ten thousand.
Ma Zun: "..."
Jiang Baoya sneered. "Hmph, what empty bluster!"
"So it's the peak of the Fifth Transformation. Chang Shanyin, you've hidden yourself well." Yang Poying's expression grew solemn, flames blazing in his eyes. "But that only stokes my fighting spirit all the more! A battle like this—now that's what makes life interesting!"
Yet the very next moment, when the wolf packs surged forth in droves, his battle intent froze solid.
Many.
So many.
Too many!
A staggering sea of wolves poured out like the tide of an ocean—first one wave, then a second, then a third… as if stretching from earth to sky, endless and inexhaustible, boundless in their grandeur!
Ma Zun's composure cracked!
The eagle flock's momentum faltered. Yang Poying's face went rigid.
"An army of wolves this size—gods above, five hundred thousand? Eight hundred thousand? No, at least one million!" Jiang Baoya's face drained of all color, his battle intent plummeting to rock bottom. "Retreat! My rat swarm, at its peak, was only six hundred thousand. After so many battles, I couldn't replenish in time—now I have fewer than two hundred thousand! This is my last reserve; I can't afford to lose it. Retreat, retreat, retreat—I must pull back!"
Jiang Baoya was a Demonic Path cultivator, driven by the deepest self-interest. He immediately wheeled around and led his rat swarm in a rapid withdrawal.
Three factors determined the combat strength of an Enslavement Path Gu Master. First was the scale of the beast swarm in their command. Second was the搭配 of Enslavement Path Gu insects. Third was the depth of one's soul.
Fang Yuan's soul depth, bolstered by the aid of the Soul-Shaking Mountain, was on the same level as these three Enslavement Path masters.
His Enslavement Path Gu insects, while weaker than the trio's, were only slightly inferior.
But the wolf swarm in his command was a staggering one million five hundred and sixty thousand strong!
By contrast, the three had suffered massive beast swarm losses from the successive battles—especially the previous two engagements. The rat swarm numbered only two hundred thousand, the eagle flock one hundred and eighty thousand, and the horse herd, the largest of the three, had three hundred and sixty thousand. Combined, they totaled a mere seven hundred and forty thousand!
Seven hundred and forty thousand—less than half of one million five hundred and sixty thousand!
But could different beast swarms simply be added together?
As has been established before—no, they could not!
When different species of beast swarms were mixed together, unless one possessed means such as the Three Hearts Soul Fusion, the result was nothing but internal chaos.
The massive wolf packs surged forward.先前，some had hidden in underground caverns, others had their tracks concealed by Gu insects, and still more had been sheltered inside wagon carriages. Now they all revealed themselves at once!
Even the taciturn Ma Zun couldn't help but cry out in alarm: "How are there so many wolves?!"
The three had originally attacked from three directions, joining forces to overwhelm Fang Yuan alone. But with wolves beyond counting, what had been the Black family's weakness had suddenly transformed into an iron wall!
The Gu Master guards around Ma Zun were all shouting: "Lord Ma Zun, we must retreat! The enemy's forces are too great—we cannot fight head-on!"
Ma Zun was not one for hot-headed decisions. He immediately drove his horse herd forward, wheeling them around to retreat.
But horse herds and rat swarms were different. Rats were mostly small in body, making them easy to redirect. A horse herd at full charge, however, was far harder to halt.
Fang Yuan had deliberately held back earlier, waiting for the horse herd and rat swarm to charge to the very edge of the Black family's army before unleashing his wolves—a truly sinister stratagem.
But Ma Zun was an Enslavement Path master, after all, with astonishing expertise. He knew the state of his horse herd like the back of his hand. With careful manipulation, the herd carved an arc across the earth, grazing the flank of the Black family's army as they angled outward, attempting to break through the encirclement.
But would Fang Yuan ever let such a fat prize slip from his jaws?
Ma Zun was an Enslavement Path master—so was he.
With a thought, the mutant wolf packs roared forth and gave chase.
"Mutant wolves—this many?!" The guard Gu Masters around Ma Zun glanced back and saw their faces go white.
Ma Zun possessed his own mutant beast swarm—Sky Horses—but their numbers were far inferior to the mutant wolves pursuing them.
The majority of his herd consisted of ordinary horses, such as Terror Claw Horses. How could these horses outrun mutant wolves?
Ma Zun repeatedly adjusted the horse herd's direction, attempting to shake off the wolves.
But the mutant wolf packs suddenly split into two divisions, flanking from left and right, and at last cut off the horse herd's escape.
Then, a sea of ordinary wolves crashed in, surrounding the horse herd on all sides.
"An interception worthy of a master—magnificent!" Seeing this, Hei Loulan was overjoyed and finally set aside all his worries about Chang Shanyin.
Meanwhile, on the other front, the Rat King was fleeing in desperation. Behind him, a mutant wolf pack likewise led a vast horde of wolves in relentless pursuit, gnawing at the rats that failed to escape in time—like a colossal beast trampling and crushing, devouring the rat swarm mouthful by mouthful.
Fang Yuan glanced at the scene, then paid the Rat King no further attention, fixing his gaze on the sky ahead.
The wolf packs trod the earth, while the eagle flock soared through the heavens. To directly engage the eagle flock was beyond the wolves' capabilities.