"Gang Leader."
"Gang Leader."
As Fang Dizhang stepped into the dark corner of the encampment, beggars approached one after another to bow in greeting.
Fang Dizhang naturally looked the part himself — his clothes were ragged, stained with filth and reeking of stench.
The Human Path Ten Sons had assembled a great army and pushed deep into the newly appeared Beast Roar murals, serving as the vanguard. At regular intervals they constructed sturdy encampments, and large numbers of logistical personnel flooded in behind them, providing the Human Path Ten Sons' army with abundant supplies.
Fang Dizhang had been secretly shadowing them, coordinating the Beggar Gang to seek out opportunities.
"How are things at the moment?" Fang Dizhang asked.
"On the vanguard army's side, we've had our brothers from various gangs following along the whole time."
"Gang Leader, things are going great. We've collected a lot of wild beast corpses — there are all kinds of valuable pelts. We're going to make a fortune!"
"Though because of that, we've run into conflicts with some merchant caravans and escort agencies."
Fang Dizhang furrowed his brow. "How are our casualties?"
The Beggar Gang he had established was developing rapidly. Its members were not only the Human Path Gu worms he had personally unleashed, but also many beggars who had originally been in Divine Emperor City.
When he heard the casualty figures, his brow furrowed even deeper.
"The Beggar Gang may be easy to expand, and the Beggar Gu is the cheapest Human Path Gu worm there is, but its combat strength is far too low. Against merchants, escort guards, and the like, we're at a disadvantage. Only by uniting together and gaining a numerical advantage can we avoid getting the short end of the stick."
Fang Dizhang sighed inwardly. The Beggar Gang looked massive in scale, but its actual strength was nothing impressive. If he wanted to use it as a blade against the Human Path Ten Sons in the future, it wouldn't be reliable at all.
Fang Dizhang had entered the tenth encampment, but by now the Human Path Ten Sons had already advanced further ahead and were constructing the twelfth.
"For now, all I can do is hope for the beast tide. The deeper one goes into the Beast Roar murals, the more powerful the wild beasts become."
Fang Dizhang's only hope lay in the Human Path Ten Sons being scattered by the beast tide and routed in their retreat.
Not merely routed — badly defeated, gravely wounded. Only then would there be an opening for Fang Dizhang to exploit.
"There's no other way. My strength is feeble, and the only thing I have to show for myself is the Beggar Gang. The Human Path Ten Sons are all Gu Masters — they possess True Essence. That means their Human Path Gu worms can only be sustained for a limited time. But I've borrowed Shen Shang's Immortal Essence, which is essentially limitless True Essence, so I've been able to keep these Beggar Gu going indefinitely."
As this thought crossed Fang Dizhang's mind, his vision suddenly went black, and a wave of weakness surged up from the deepest recesses of his body.
He quickly pulled out a Human Will Gu and held it before his nose and mouth, taking a deep, forceful inhalation.
A stream of human will was drawn into his body, fusing with the will that was already there.
Fang Dizhang's current body was transformed from a Beggar Gu — it had no soul, only a single thread of will. And will was inherently difficult to sustain, especially whenever he engaged in deep thought, which would rapidly drain his reserves.
Fortunately, within Divine Emperor City's mural world, the Human Will Gu had already been developed.
The human will produced by the Human Will Gu could be transformed into any form of human willpower. With this aid, Fang Dizhang's will had been able to persist and remain active all this time.
At that very moment, in the deepest reaches of the Beast Roar mural.
A will hovered in midair, vivid and lifelike.
He wore a white robe with a blue headband, his demeanor gentle, a smile on his face — none other than Yuan Lian's will!
And at his feet, Mao Liqiu lay curled up on the ground, its entire body contracted and bound tight by an invisible, crushing force, unable to move.
Beyond that, a powerful force was ceaselessly draining the Dao marks from Mao Liqiu's body.
"Damned Yuan Lian, if you've got the guts, let your Grandpa Mao out and fight me fair and square!" Mao Liqiu roared.
Yuan Lian's will gave a slight shake of his head. "Mao Liqiu, you still refuse to accept defeat? You're in a hopeless situation. Unless Giant Sun Immortal Venerable were to resurrect and come save you, your death is certain."
"And deep down, you know perfectly well that's an impossibility. Your only chance at survival is to surrender."
"Otherwise, the longer this drags on, the weaker you'll become. Until... you cease to exist."
Yuan Lian's will spoke words of persuasion, his tone unhurried, his expression mild.
But Mao Liqiu only roared in fury: "Then come and take them! Grandpa Mao doesn't want them anymore — take all my Dao marks!!"
Yuan Lian's will was stunned.
In the next instant, Mao Liqiu not only completely dropped its defenses but actively encouraged the process, cooperating with the external suction force to frantically shed its own Dao marks.
In a blaze of piercing, mysterious light, countless Dao marks — strand after strand, thread after thread — radiated outward in every direction, pouring into the Beast Roar mural.
Some Dao marks fell to the ground and transformed into enormous beasts of various shapes. Others flew into the air, condensing into clusters that formed savage birds of prey, blotting out the sky.
The mural world was extraordinarily wondrous — it could absorb external Dao marks, using them as ink to draw all manner of birds and beasts.
But under Mao Liqiu's full cooperation, the number of wild beasts being drawn exploded, rapidly surpassing the safety threshold.
"This is bad." Yuan Lian's expression shifted. He had not expected Mao Liqiu to be so reckless.
Suppressed within the mural world, it lacked offensive capability but still retained its power of defense. If it committed fully to defense, it could hold out for a very long time. That was precisely why Yuan Lian's will had come to negotiate its surrender.
For Mao Liqiu, the most rational course of action would have been to endure stubbornly, letting the mural world gradually erode its strength and buying as much time as possible.
Just as Qi Jue the Demon Immortal had done — suppressed within Divine Emperor City, he could not break free on his own, but he could place his hopes in the future.
Who could predict what the future might bring?
Yet Mao Liqiu chose the most irrational response imaginable, defying every one of Yuan Lian's calculations.
An unprecedentedly violent beast tide rapidly took shape, stampeding across a hundred li of terrain before crashing toward the Human Path Ten Sons' army with devastating force!
The Human Path Ten Sons took one look, and every single one of them went pale.