"So, you finally come out of hiding, senior brother," came the transmitted voice of Lord Sky Crane as he drew near. "And here I thought I would need to kill a few more of your clansmen before you decided to come out like the cockroach you are."
"Ah, Junior Brother," first gen Gu Yue said. "While I had stolen many things from you, the one thing I was unable to steal was your life. That was one of the few regrets I had before leaving the Central Continent. How wonderful that you've come so that such a mistake can be rectified and I can finally put you six feet underground, right where you belong."
"So you admit it," Lord Sky Crane called out, almost crying indignantly, losing the demeanor of an old monster he had carried earlier and instead both sounding and appearing like a toddler accusing another of stealing his favorite toy. "You are a thief!"
"Am I a thief?" first gen Gu Yue asked, seemingly equally flustered. "Or was heaven itself a thief when it stole anything I could have accomplished and gave it to an unworthy person such as yourself? If you continue to let jealousy overwhelm you, junior brother, you might end up turning an unsightly green completely!"
"Hmph," Lord Sky Crane scoffed. "Don't let my turning a different color concern you. Look at you. There's no need for me to call you a demon; it is obvious to anyone with eyes to see what you have become. A stain upon the world itself; to call you a hollow shell of a Righteous Path Gu Master would be an insult to hollow shells!"
The two of them continued to bicker as below, Fang Yuan began putting his own plans in motion.
"Fang Zheng!" he yelled, finding his brother without even having to use the Doting Mother and Traveling Son Gu. Fang Zheng handed him the Blood Cherry Wheel.
"What's going on, elder brother?" Fang Zheng asked.
"We're being attacked," Fang Yuan answered. "Get yourself to safety." He paused as he saw an icy flash approach Gu Yue village. The cranes were slaughtering everyone they could find, and to make sure they missed no one, they were moving in a concentric fashion up towards the mountain.
If he sent Fang Zheng somewhere else when Bai Ning Bing detonated, Fang Zheng might be caught in the blast. He changed his mind. "Stay close by me!"
A Myriad Beast King landed near them, its beak dripping with blood and its eyes radiating murderous intent.
Mortal Killer Move: Bond Between Clansmen!
The hopes and aspirations of the Gu Clansmen who were currently being hunted like deer before a pack of lions - their will to survive, their desperation - all gathered with the help of Integration Gu before forming the basis of the mortal killer move, which greatly increased Fang Yuan's powers as well as their own.
Unlike last time, Fang Yuan had far more human path dao marks now. He also had the benefit of this killer move.
'I have over 500 human path dao marks,' Fang Yuan thought. 'That alone is over a fifty percent boost to this move's power.'
On top of which, there was the simple fact that the Human Path seemed to just be completely broken when it came to buffing others.
However, Fang Yuan was not done yet. This was only one of the tricks up his sleeve.
Mortal Killer Move - Blood is Thicker Than Water!
This was a combination Blood Path and Human Path killer moves, which allowed him to further buff himself based on the number of blood relatives he currently had. There was a reason, after all, that Lord Sky Crane had chosen to kill as many of the Gu Yue clansmen as possible before going for the head of the snake. Human Path also excelled in buffing one so long as they had the support of others it seemed - meaning that they synergized quite well in this scenario.
A single Crimson Moonblade decapitated the Myriad Beast King, ending its life right then and there. A silvery light began to surround many of the other Gu Yue Clan members, protecting them from the jabs of the cranes and also increasing the power of their strikes.
'Very soon, I'll have more dao marks than most Rank 6 Gu Immortals,' Fang Yuan thought. The idea of a mortal having more dao marks than an immortal was ludicrous; then again, the idea of a Rank One Gu Master having a Rank Six Gu as their Vital Gu was equally ludicrous. 'I am probably the only person in history who can make such a claim.'
Lord Sky Crane noted that his army was very quickly losing. With all of the boosts that Fang Yuan had managed to accumulate, along with his dao marks, he could now fight on the level of an ordinary Rank 5 Gu Master just by himself. This was an incredibly feat in and of itself, but the rest of the villagers were also packing quite a punch now.
Fang Yuan decapitated two more myriad beast kings and several thousand beast kings, allowing the Gu Yue members to gather in the square for safety.
Lord Sky Crane was not having a good time. The Blood River Python was engaging his Ironbeak Flying Crane King, meaning that it could not aide him or the rest of his army.
He glared at Fang Yuan, but had no time to spare from his struggle with first gen Gu Yue. But despite this advantage, as time went on, first gen Gu Yue began to become suppressed. The downside of not being able to replenish one's own primeval essence was catching up to him. Fang Yuan had also excluded him from receiving any boosts from his mortal killer moves. He landed in the square and shouted, "I am your ancestor! Give me primeval stones! I need to recover my primeval essence!" He looked around for the bag that Fang Yuan had shown him, but it was nowhere in the square.
"Ancestor, I have it," Fang Yuan said, taking out the bag. "Everyone! This is indeed our first generation ancestor, the one who had founded our village! Lord Ancestor, I had been afraid it might get stolen in the middle of the fighting, so I had kept it safe with myself."
"Good work, good work," first gen Gu Yue said. "As expected of the one who has been entrusted to lead the clan. Everyone, help me and we will rid ourselves of this menace who has descended upon us."
"Idiots!" Lord Sky Crane cried from above. "Don't you see that you are only hastening your own demise? You're practically signing your own death warrant there, junior!"
Naturally, as he had spent most of the day killing Gu Yue clansmen, they were not going to listen to him.
"He's only trying to sow seeds of discord between us!"
"If he's saying that we don't need to give ancestor our primeval stones, we should give him even more!"
"Lord Fang Yuan, you can take some of my primeval stones too!"
"Give everything so our ancestor can save us!"
"He was probably the one who was the source of that sudden burst of strength we all felt a while earlier!"
"That's right, my wounds also miraculously healed themselves!"
"First gen ancestor must've had some kind of secret that let him accomplish such a miracle."
"Don't forget, the real enemy is that person atop that giant crane!"
"Remember your fallen comrades and prepare to aide ancestor!"