And just as the beast king battlefield deep in the mountains fell into bitter struggle, the frontal battlefield on the other side presented an utterly different scene!
In complete contrast to Lin Zhen and the others, run ragged amid the beast tide, with Rank 4 Patriarch Lin Cang personally taking the field— the White Bone Alliance's advance, once unstoppable like a black tide, had been forcibly brought to a halt!
"Kill!"
A Rank 3 clan elder of the White Bone Alliance, relying on cultivation that was nothing to scoff at, had just led an elite unit in breaking through Black Blood Stockade's outer line and, his face full of savage laughter, was preparing to press the advantage further.
But the next instant.
A robust figure like an iron tower had already crashed into his field of vision.
Lin Cang!
Facing this Rank 3 clan elder, Lin Cang wasted not half a word.
He raised his hand.
Clenched his fist.
Within his aperture, Light Gold Primeval Essence surged forth!
Iron Bone Gu!
BAM—!!!
The two exchanged no more than a few rounds of blows.
Along with a muffled crack of bone that chilled the heart— that Rank 3 clan elder, who counted as a capable hand even within the White Bone Alliance, was struck full in the chest by one of Lin Cang's fists!
His protective methods shattered layer by layer.
His breastbone caved in.
The violent force shattered his heart outright!
Pffh!
Blood gushed wildly from his mouth and nose.
Thud.
That still-warm corpse was flung casually down by Lin Cang onto the muddy, blood-soaked earth.
Those White Bone Alliance Gu Masters around him, whose morale had been high and who had been preparing to follow the charge, immediately faltered.
That had been— a Rank 3 clan elder!
A few rounds.
Dead?
But.
Lin Cang gave them no time at all to digest their fear.
"Sons of Black Blood Stockade!"
"Kill with me!"
A violent bellow shook the entire battlefield!
Lin Cang held the very front alone, and leading the Black Blood Stockade Gu Masters behind him — clearly fewer in number than the enemy — he actually pressed brazenly forward in reverse, straight into the White Bone Alliance's grand army!
For a time, an exceedingly absurd scene appeared upon the battlefield.
The White Bone Alliance clearly held an absolute advantage in numbers, its grand army bearing down.
Yet under the leadership of Lin Cang, a genuine Rank 4 powerhouse, Black Blood Stockade forcibly drove the battle line forward instead!
A Rank 3 had been blasted dead on the spot.
Which of those Rank 1 and Rank 2 Gu Masters would truly dare stand in Lin Cang's path?
No one wanted to be the next.
The White Bone Alliance's offensive began to fall back step by step.
Fear.
Spread swiftly through the crowd.
And at the rear of the grand army.
The White Bone Alliance's supreme commander — Li Mang.
Still leaning on his Bone Spine Scepter, standing quietly atop a towering mound of earth.
Facing the ceaselessly retreating alliance line ahead, he had not moved from the start.
Nor had he ordered a withdrawal.
"Alliance Master! We can't hold!"
Those minor stockade patriarchs attached to the White Bone Alliance, long since terrified out of their wits by Lin Cang's ferocious might, had finally lost their composure entirely.
One, cold sweat covering his head, could not help but turn back and shout:
"Alliance Master!"
"Think of something, quickly!"
"That Lin Cang… Lin Cang has taken the field himself!"
However.
Li Mang was unusually calm.
So calm it was almost frightening.
Those eyes, sunken deep in their sockets, had from beginning to end fallen upon Lin Cang alone.
He was watching.
And waiting.
Until— Lin Cang took another step forward.
And another stretch of the alliance's line collapsed thunderously under his lead.
Li Mang's deep, dark eyes at last slowly narrowed.
Bit by bit, he straightened his hunched frame.
Tap.
The sharp base of the Bone Spine Scepter came down heavily upon the hard rock.
"All of you, step aside."
Li Mang's hoarse voice was not loud amid the chaotic battlefield.
Yet it entered clearly into the ears of every alliance higher-up around him.
Those beside him were all taken aback.
"Alliance Master?"
Li Mang did not look back.
He only gripped that Bone Spine Scepter and passed through those alliance Gu Masters who, out of fear, were gradually scattering to either side.
One step.
Another step.
Down from the mound.
Toward that stretch of battlefield long since soaked through with blood.
Lin Cang seemed to sense something as well.
With one fist he forced back the enemy before him, then slowly halted his continued advance.
He lifted his head.
Two old adversaries who had fought each other for decades in Black Wind Ridge.
Two rulers who held the highest authority over this land.
Their gazes, at last, in this moment, across a ground covered in severed limbs and mangled corpses and thick with the stench of blood— truly collided.
The sounds of slaughter all around seemed to recede into the distance in that single instant.
Li Mang slowly raised the Bone Spine Scepter in his hand.
Pointing it at Lin Cang from afar.
Upon that aged face, shaped like withered bone, a chillingly cold and cruel smile slowly stretched out.
"This old man said it before."
Li Mang's voice was hoarse.
"Lin Cang—"
"I will deal with you personally."
Lin Cang stood among the mangled, incomplete corpses strewn across the ground, and did not immediately make his move.
He watched that hunched old man who had stepped out from the crowd and was walking toward him step by step, and his brows knit ever so slightly.
His first reaction was not rage.
But a trace of doubt.
He naturally knew that Li Mang's cultivation remained at Rank 3 peak stage even now.
Moreover, he had just blasted a Rank 3 clan elder to death head-on in only a few rounds of exchange.
That chasm between Rank 4 and Rank 3, vast as a heavenly moat — there was no way that old fox Li Mang, who had contended with him for decades, could fail to see it clearly.
A Rank 3 peak stage.
On what grounds would he dare stand of his own will before a genuine Rank 4 powerhouse?
And even shamelessly declare that he would "deal with" him "personally"?
But this doubt lingered in Lin Cang's mind for only the briefest instant before it was utterly buried beneath a surge of towering fury!
Lin Cang's gaze swept slowly across his surroundings.
Upon this stretch of earth soaked through with blood and mud, the corpses of Black Blood Stockade's sons lay everywhere.
The beast tide running rampant these past days, the grievous casualties, the outlying resource points falling one after another…
Lives that had once been vibrant and young within the mountain stockade could now only become cold corpses, trampled by savage beasts.
And this old thing before him, leaning on the Bone Spine Scepter, was precisely the instigator of it all!
Lin Cang could not help but recall that clash between the younger generations, held at Black Blood Stockade not long ago.
Back then, how yielding, how weak Li Mang had made himself appear before him — in the end even leaving with a certain panicked air of fleeing in disarray.
At the time, for the sake of the larger picture, he had restrained himself and had not pursued Li Mang at any cost.
But looking at it now— that had been nothing more than an exceedingly venomous serpent temporarily retreating into its den.
Only to wait for its moment.
To aim at Black Blood Stockade's throat, and bite out this lethal mouthful!
"Back then…"
Lin Cang stared fixedly at Li Mang, and for the first time truly felt a regret carved into his very bones.
"Back then at Black Blood Stockade, even at any cost, I should have kept this old dog there!"
And this intense regret soon transformed into endless self-reproach.
As the head of a clan, for every son of the Lin Clan who fell here today, for every drop of blood shed, he, Lin Cang, bore a responsibility he could not shirk!
So now that this old dog had delivered himself before him of his own accord— within Lin Cang's heart, only a single thought remained.
Kill him!
Even grinding his bones to dust and scattering the ashes would hardly dispel the hatred in his heart!
...
On the other side.
Li Mang's eyes, sunken deep in their sockets, were likewise sizing up Lin Cang with exceeding care.
Did he not know the terrifying gap between himself and a genuine Rank 4 powerhouse?
Quite the opposite.
He saw it more clearly, and more profoundly, than those minor stockade patriarchs around him whose gall had been shattered by fright.
But he had not walked down from that towering mound today for the sake of some illusory fair duel.
White Bone Stockade had been suppressed by Black Blood Stockade all these years.
Especially after Lin Cang broke through to Rank 4, the balance of two hegemons standing side by side in Black Wind Ridge had already tilted completely.
If he did not stake everything today, then once that new A-grade aptitude, Lin Xingyuan, grew up; once Lin Mu, Lin Feng, and those other outstanding youths had tempered themselves a few more years; once Black Blood Stockade had thoroughly digested all these advantages…
White Bone Stockade's survival would only grow harder and harder from then on.
And in the end, it could only be reduced to Black Blood Stockade's vassal, or even become enslaved by it!
So Li Mang had no path of retreat left.
And what he had truly come down here to do today, at the risk of his own life, was likewise exceedingly clear.
Stall Lin Cang!
He had never once believed that with the trump cards in his hands, he could truly defeat a genuine, bona fide Rank 4 Gu Master.
But he did not need to win at all.
So long as he could pin Black Blood Stockade's sole Rank 4 down here, leaving him unable to break away, then the White Bone Alliance's vast numbers of Rank 3s and mid-tier combat strength could once again bring their absolute numerical advantage to bear!
Punch through the defensive line!
Storm into Black Blood Stockade!
And then, while the whole of Black Blood Stockade was turned upside down and thrown into utter chaos, he could seize the chance to continue investigating that earth-shaking secret he had thought of day and night, coveted for so long— the other fragment of the Black Bone King Inheritance!
And that youth whose suspicion grew ever greater, whose strength was exceedingly bizarre:
Lin Mu!