Chapter 197: Yin Wolf Beast King, Dark Law Domain!

Under his leadership, the team quietly headed toward the front of the forest, soon discovering some scattered footprints again.

That hunter-origin Ghost-faced Army soldier crouched down to examine carefully, then stood and said: "This Yin Wolf Beast should weigh about eight hundred catties, its left foreleg is injured."

Based on the traces around the footprints, it can be judged that it was moving quickly; it must have discovered something.

Fang Xu nodded, his gaze looking toward the distant thicket.

At this moment he already sensed the Yin Wolf Beast's den.

This Ghost-faced Army soldier, lacking powerful soul power, could only judge these things by experience, which is already quite impressive.

Alright, tighten formation, prepare to meet the enemy.

While speaking, he directly issued an order to the Divine Servant Insect King within his body, commanding it to summon the other squads over.

The Yin Wolf Beast clan ahead is numerous; for our hundred-person team to easily eliminate them would be difficult.

Every Ghost-faced Army soldier is an indispensable resource; unless absolutely necessary, we should try to avoid letting them suffer casualties.

After receiving the Insect King's command, the squads from other directions quickly arrived nearby.

Based on his soul sense, Fang Xu marked the approximate location of the Yin Wolf Beast's den, then assigned task areas to the five squads.

Do you all understand?

Everyone nodded.

Remember, try not to let any Yin Wolf Beast escape.

Yin Wolf Beasts are extremely vengeful feral beasts; if they escape during this encirclement, endless harassment will follow.

These cunning fellows even ally with other feral beasts, making them very troublesome.

Everyone nodded again, then proceeded to the designated location to surround it.

On Fang Xu's side, that hunter-origin Ghost-faced Army soldier had already begun setting up traps.

No need for so much trouble; these things won't be used.

Fang Xu spoke.

At the same time, he also discovered a problem.

It seems my cultivation of the Ghost-faced Army has been going down a mistaken path all along.

These Ghost-faced Army soldiers from various lowly backgrounds each have their own areas of expertise.

Yet I tried to subject them to uniform standardized training, which undoubtedly buried their talents.

For example, this Ghost-faced Army soldier before us has extraordinary talent in archery and trap-making.

But now he can only set up traps with ordinary materials.

Such traps might work against ordinary beasts or weak feral beasts, but against a vicious creature like the Yin Wolf Beast they are almost useless.

It seems that when I have time, I still need to find a way to refine these Ghost-faced Army soldiers, enhancing their strength while not burying their strengths.

Keeping this in mind, Fang Xu led everyone toward the Yin Wolf Beast's den.

This is a low-lying valley; within the valley there remain some abandoned mine shafts, as if someone had once mined here.

The extensive mine shafts have now become the den of the Yin Wolf Beasts.

At this moment, the Yin Wolf Beasts are all gathered on the open ground before the many mine shafts, densely packed, numbering over ten thousand.

The hunter-origin Ghost-faced Army soldier's guess was correct.

At this moment, a Yin Wolf Beast with an injured left foreleg stands silently on a large boulder.

Its massive body, like a calf's, is covered in scales, and even a tiny horn appears on its head.

Seeing it, Fang Xu suddenly recalled the broken horn.

When he left the Ti Lan Mountain Ruins, he seemed to have forgotten to bring the Ren Xiang Clan with him.

"Young master, their strength is formidable."

Beside him, a Ghost-faced Army soldier spoke.

Fang Xu slightly nodded.

Indeed, the strength of this Yin Wolf Beast group is not weak; most of the Yin Wolf Beasts emit an aura that has reached the Martial Sovereign Realm.

Nearly one-third of the Yin Wolf Beasts possess the strength of a great demon.

As for the Beast King leading them and the few slightly smaller Yin Wolf Beasts beside it, in Fang Xu's perception they are all at the Dharma Appearance Realm.

In the past, facing such a terrifying Yin Wolf Beast clan, Fang Xu would not dare to approach.

But now it's different.

Having lived in the Stone Coffin World for thousands of years, relying on the scarce heavenly and earthly energy of that broken world, he forcibly raised his cultivation to the late Prime Martial Realm.

After emerging from the Stone Coffin World, he no longer has many reservations about experts of the Dharma Appearance Realm.

At this very moment, it is also a good opportunity to test exactly who is stronger between himself and a Dharma Appearance Realm expert.

"Attack."

With the command, Fang Xu's figure slowly rose.

Immediately, a huge sword light burst from his hand, thrusting toward the Yin Wolf Beast clan ahead.

After the sword light flew out, it split into two, then into four…

In the blink of an eye, the myriad sword lights directly enveloped the entire valley.

Ao—!

Among the dense Yin Wolf Beast herd, the Beast King, seeing this, let out a low, deep roar.

Next, some Yin Wolf Beasts in the herd immediately opened their mouths, spitting out one purple-black light ball after another toward the myriad sword lights in the sky.

These light balls flew from their mouths, exploding rapidly before the sword lights arrived.

The upper sky of the valley was quickly enveloped by a purple-black energy shield.

Countless sword lights struck the purple energy shield, all being absorbed.

Afterward, the energy carried on the sword gleam was almost completely absorbed by the purple-black light shield.

Fang Xu frowned slightly, looking curiously at that purple-black light shield.

He hadn't expected these Gloom Wolf Beasts to have such a method.

This purple-black energy shield looks ordinary, yet it seems to possess extremely strong toughness and the ability to assimilate any energy.

Fang Xu furrowed his brows, and the corners of his mouth involuntarily rose.

The sword gleam in his hand gradually faded, then turned into a long staff flashing with purple-gold light.

The staff's true form was the strange black iron long staff resembling an iron embryo that Yun Wan gave him from the Lift Blue Mountain Ruins.

However, over thousands of years in the Stone Coffin World, the black iron staff had been nurtured as a life-bound artifact in his aperture world, and now it has undergone a tremendous change.

This change is not only outward but also internal.

Without hesitation, the purple-gold staff has now transcended the so-called spiritual artifact category, reaching another height.

Grasping the staff, an odd aura appeared on Fang Xu's body surface.

The staff was slowly raised; the motion seemed gentle, and he gently struck down upon the purple-black energy shield!

When the staff touched the purple-black energy shield, terrifying power erupted instantly!

Lifting light as if heavy—this is another realm of the law of force.

Reaching this state is enough to prove that his application of the law of force has reached an extremely profound level.

Facing this light strike of the purple-gold staff, the energy shield maintained by tens of thousands of Gloom Wolf Beasts instantly underwent a terrifying change!

The tough energy shield cracked all over in an instant!

These cracks spread rapidly in all directions from the point of Fang Xu's strike!

Pfft!

At this moment, all the Gloom Wolf Beasts shuddered, spewing large mouthfuls of blood from their mouths!

Moreover, the aura of all the Gloom Wolf Beasts instantly weakened considerably.

Thus, this purple-black energy shield is closely related to them.

One strike shattered the purple-black energy shield, and the surrounding Ghost Face Army soldiers immediately launched an attack.

Five squads, each based on a hundred men, formed a battle formation.

Many people consider battle formation a type of formation art.

However, the oldest formation art actually evolved from battle formation.

The so-called formation originally was just battle formation, meant to serve warfare.

Later, however, some eminent persons of the Mystic Gate introduced the forces of heaven and earth into formation art, discarding the human factor in formations, making the way of formation more perfect and its power greater.

Fang Xu once received a battle formation, which Sha Tianrui transmitted to the Ghost Face Army.

The soldiers of the Ghost Face Army, with every ten persons as a unit, can form a simplified battle formation.

And ten such units can further form a battle formation.

Afterward, thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands……

Although a hundred-man battle formation is not as mighty as a thousand-man one, it can still deal with heavily wounded Gloom Wolf Beasts.

Moreover, the current strength of the Ghost Face Army soldiers has reached Martial Venerable.

Clatter!

Clatter!

……

All the Ghost Face Army soldiers began to arm themselves and transform.

Black-and-red armor instantly erupted from beneath the skin, covering the entire body.

A terrifying divine visage mask also appeared at that moment.

After armoring, all the Ghost Face Army soldiers were stunned.

Too strong!

Our current strength is too strong!

They didn't know what was happening.

In past training, these Ghost Face Army soldiers rarely armored themselves, merely training battle formations, killing techniques, and cultivation as ordinary cultivators.

But after fully armoring themselves, they suddenly discovered their strength far exceeded imagination.

What they didn't know was that, due to the Divine Servant Gu Worm, all Ghost Face Army soldiers and Fang Xu are one entity.

As Fang Xu's strength increases, the Divine Servant Gu Worm within them also grows stronger.

Since the Divine Servant Gu Worm is the core power of armoring, when it grows stronger, their strength after armoring naturally increases as well.

When Fang Xu left, his strength was only third-level Martial Venerable.

At that time, most of the Ghost Face Army soldiers' strength was Martial Master, with only a few reaching Martial Venerable.

Even so, a battle formation of a thousand Ghost Face Army soldiers could already contend with a seventh-level Martial Venerable expert.

Now Fang Xu is already in the late Primordial Martial Realm, his strength having increased by more than one major realm.

The Ghost Face Army soldiers' strength has also risen to the Martial Venerable realm, and a few talented ones have now reached high-level Martial Venerable.

After armoring again, the Primordial Martial Realm is naturally insufficient before them.

After a moment's daze, the soldiers of the five squads of the Ghost Face Army surged forward excitedly!

This feeling of surging power made them eager to test their strength.

Five squads, each with a hundred men, their breaths connected, like a single entity, charged straight into the valley.

Among the troops, Yun Wan and her companions were not acting together with the Ghost Face Army at this time.

Because the battle formation is complete, their joining would disrupt its coordination.

Several people each employed their means and began fighting those Spectral Wolf Beasts.

Fang Xu also set his sights on the Beast King in the valley's center and the few guards beside it.

These were several ferocious beasts whose strength had reached the Dharma Appearance Realm.

With the strength of Yun Wan and the others and the Ghost-Faced Army, they could not possibly deal with them.

I must hold them back, not let these few Dharma Appearance Realm ferocious beasts attack and slaughter the Ghost-Faced Army soldiers and Yun Wan and the others.

His body flickered, and Fang Xu directly arrived atop the Spectral Wolf Beast King's head.

The Beast King seemed to also understand the principle of matching soldiers against soldiers, generals against generals.

Immediately, it led several guards charging toward Fang Xu.

Fang Xu's figure flickered several times, leading the Beast King and the four guards into the forest outside the valley, where the two sides confronted each other.

In the Beast King's eyes flickered a hint of ferocity, its sharp fangs gleamed with cold light, and its icy pupils stared fixedly at Fang Xu before it.

Aoo—!

A mournful howl rang out, and the four guards beside it immediately lunged at Fang Xu!

Ferocious beasts of the Dharma Appearance Realm have, in a sense, already integrated a portion of the power of laws.

Although the beasts' wisdom is not as quick as humans' in comprehending the power of heavenly and earthly laws, they also have their own advantages.

First, their lifespans are very long; relying on their long lifespans, they can slowly temper and absorb the power of laws.

Integrating these powers of laws into their bodies, turning them into instinct.

Second, this power of laws integrated into the body can be transmitted via bloodline.

Some powerful ancient remnant species, ancient divine beasts, can control the power of laws right from birth.

For example, the Golden Crow Clan's Sun Golden Flame, the Phoenix Clan's Nirvana Fire, and the Dragon Clan's members who control lightning, yin-yang, and other powers of laws.

Although the Spectral Wolf Beast is not an ancient divine beast or an ancient remnant species, its race has also existed for a long time, and extraordinary beings have been born among them.

The predecessors of these Spectral Wolf Beasts have left many good things in their bloodline for their descendants.

After the four charging guards reached the Dharma Appearance Realm, they were already able to use the power of laws within their bodies.

Fang Xu clearly saw that the bodies of two of the Spectral Wolf Guards emitted the power of the Wind Law.

Another Spectral Wolf Guard's claws faintly seemed to tear space, appearing to be related to the Sharpness Law.

As for the last one, its figure faintly seemed to merge with space, as if it had mastered the Space Law.

However, the four Spectral Wolf Beasts' use of laws is quite crude.

Fang Xu's hand-held Purple Gold Long Staff swept horizontally, instantly driving back the four charging Spectral Wolf Guards!

One force breaks myriad laws!

His proficient use of the Power Law let Fang Xu not worry at all about the Spectral Wolf Guards' assault.

Seeing his guards driven back, the Beast King also abandoned his arrogance, choosing to join forces with his guards to launch an attack on Fang Xu.

As soon as it moved, countless black mists surged toward Fang Xu, enveloping him!

The black mist rapidly formed something like a domain that covered the surroundings.

Dark Law?

Feeling the pitch-black darkness all around where one cannot see their fingers, Fang Xu silently thought.

The Beast King seemed to intend to trap himself with the domain formed by the Dark Law.

Then, by holding the initiative of controlling the dark domain, he would let his four guards launch a sneak attack on him.

This is a rather good combined tactic.

Ordinary enemies, within the domain formed by the Dark Law, would lose their five senses, and even their soul power would be suppressed within their bodies.

The four Spectral Wolf Guards, however, could completely be unaffected by the Dark Law domain and strike at him.

But Fang Xu is no ordinary enemy.

The Beast King's Dark Law domain is very strong and hard to deal with.

But he is not without countermeasures.

Soul power suppressed?

That's unrealistic.

Although his current age appears young, he has lived for thousands of years in the Stone Coffin World.

Loneliness, solitude has been tempering his soul.

This also happens to combine with the Ascetic Path, making his soul unprecedentedly strong.

Moreover, when he was in the Martial Venerable Realm, he followed the Ancient Martial Arts.

Nine Layer Dao Foundation nurtures the spirit.

Now his soul sits atop the Nine Layer Dao Foundation; its strength is such that the Beast King's Dark Law domain cannot suppress it.

However, Fang Xu at this moment intends to go with the plan, seeing if he can use this opportunity to deal the enemy a sudden blow! (End of chapter)