"Clan leader!"
"I'll leave it to all of you, clan elders!"
"You have to win…"
Countless eyes locked onto them.
Rallying cries and shouts echoed from deep within every clansman's heart.
This was the decisive battle.
If they lost here, the whole clan would be at risk of annihilation. If they held their ground, they would survive the worst wave of the wolf tide.
This fight would determine the Gu Yue clan's survival.
None of the elders retreated. Drenched in blood, they pressed forward. Though they hadn't lost anyone yet, every elder bore wounds.
They crushed the wolves in their way until they reached the Thunder Crown Wolf and charged straight at it.
Therapy Light Gu.
Suddenly, a middle-aged female elder raised both hands. A warm, pure white light burst forth.
The glow washed over the clan leader first, then spread to the other elders.
This Rank three healing Gu had an area effect that instantly stopped bleeding. Light wounds healed completely, while heavy injuries were halved.
"Continue fighting!" Gu Yue Bo roared loudly.
Five clan elders raised their arms at the signal and launched moonblades into the sky.
Then, one of them let out a roar as his body swelled three times in size, transforming into a white-furred giant ape.
The ape leapt to the front and cupped its hands.
Gu Yue Bo stepped onto its palms, and with a deep growl, the ape used all its strength to hurl him high into the air.
Moon-invite Gu.
Gu Yue Bo spread his left hand, releasing a swirling purple moonlight.
The moonblades fired by the elders were absorbed into this glow.
"SLASH!"
His eyes flashed, and he chopped down with both palms.
A booming gust and peal of thunder erupted as a purple moonblade larger than a carriage shot at the Thunder Crown Wolf.
Though it looked slow, it struck in an instant.
The Thunder Crown Wolf howled as a layer of thunder-light armor covered it.
Bam!
A massive explosion shook the battlefield. Blue lightning clashed against purple moonlight, forcing everyone to shield their eyes as shockwaves hurled nearby lightning wolves into the air.
When the glow faded, the Gu Masters were locked in battle with the Thunder Crown Wolf.
The clan elders moved with practiced coordination.
An old master with white hair rained needle-like projectiles from his head.
Nearby, a female Gu Master exhaled twisting flames, spewing waves of orange fire at both flanks.
Three others fought up close—one transformed into a white ape, another hardened his body into steel, while the last unleashed endless Puppet Gu, creating vine-armored grass soldiers and wooden servants with red spears to distract the beast.
Healing Gu Masters stood at the perimeter, casting Therapy Light Gu as needed. Defensive Gu Masters guarded them closely.
The Thunder Crown Wolf was badly wounded. Its right forelimb had a deep gash bleeding nonstop, the result of the purple moonblade's blow.
It roared furiously, caught in the Gu Masters' relentless trap. Though it tried to retaliate, it had little room to maneuver.
The Gu Masters swarmed it like fleas, darting in and out as they maintained their formation.
But their advantage was short-lived. The wolf slowly adapted, and its wounds began to close.
Clearly, it had a healing Gu. This turned the fight into a drawn-out war of attrition.
While wild Gu could draw essence straight from the air, Gu Masters were limited to their apertures' reserves.
After fifteen minutes, the Thunder Crown Wolf threw back its head and let out a piercing howl. Lightning flooded over its body, and its speed doubled.
One elder, still in white ape form, couldn't evade in time. With a savage bite, the wolf tore his skull apart.
The beast smashed through the line, sweeping its tail in arcs of crackling blue current that forced the Gu Masters to retreat again and again.
In this crisis, clan leader Gu Yue Bo held firm.
As a Rank four expert, he anchored the defense, unleashing fierce attacks and steadying the group.
Rocks shattered and shadows vanished as the battle raged, no ordinary lightning wolf daring to approach.
The fighting grew more desperate. Though the Thunder Crown Wolf's wounds deepened, exposing bone, the Gu Masters suffered heavily—six elders had already died.
If the rest of the village's elders hadn't rushed to reinforce them, their formation would have collapsed long before.
"Everyone, stand strong, holding is the key to victory!" Gu Yue Bo killed until his eyes were red, and his voice was hoarse as he gave his all to arouse morale.
But at that instant, the thunder crown wolf suddenly lost control, its entire body glowing with a brilliant red light.
Rank four Berserk Gu!
All of the thunder crown wolf's attributes—strength, speed, agility—instantly surged to twice their usual level.
Boom!
With a powerful sweep of its right claw, it pulverized a clan elder into a mass of flesh.
A flick of its tail unleashed a gust of wind and sent an electric net flying out, engulfing a patch of grass and wooden puppets, reducing everything to blackened charcoal.
"I can't keep up, my puppets are already used up!" The elder cried out, frightened.
With the situation rapidly changing for the worse, the terror of the myriad beast king was fully unleashed, leaving everyone in despair.
Gu Yue Bo's eyebrows were locked tight, and it seemed like he was about to break his teeth from gritting, when he suddenly yelled, "Trap it, use the Iron Chain Snake!"
As the clan elders heard this, they were awed in their hearts.
Early during the start of the wolf tide, they had already displayed countless of battle tactics; this was a method that must only be used when there was no other choice!
"Wind Snare Gu!" An elder cried out, and from his nostrils came a green breeze, wrapping around the thunder crown wolf's claws.
"Swamp Gu!" Another elder roared and crouched down, bringing his two hands down and slamming on the ground. Instantly, the earth below the thunder crown wolf turned into mud.
With these simultaneous strikes, the thunder crown wolf's movements briefly slowed.
Seizing this chance, the other elders all extended their hands, releasing waves of black shadows from their sleeves and pant legs.
Each shadow was about the size of a fist in thickness and stretched nearly two meters long. Upon closer look, one could see that they were actually snake Gu.
These snakes resembled iron chains, their entire bodies a dark, ominous black. Rows of metal rings linked together segment by segment, while only the snake heads retained a natural shape.
As they shot forward, the snakes slithered rapidly along the ground, clambering onto the thunder crown wolf's body.
In an instant, their heads and tails latched together, weaving into a metal net that rooted into the earth and pinned the thunder crown wolf where it stood.
But this restraint was only temporary. As the thunder crown wolf thrashed with growing fury, the iron chains began snapping one after another. Within five or six minutes, all of the metallic snakes would break apart completely, leaving the thunder crown wolf free once more.
"Chi Guang, Suo Ping, stay here and stop the wolf pack from attacking the metal chains. The rest of you, fall back to the village with me!" Gu Yue Bo shouted. He actually had chosen to retreat.
However the other clan elders did not show any surprised expressions; they had already known the clan leader's intention.
They hurried back to the village, and immediately a clan elder came up towards them and said, "Lord clan leader, everything has been prepared!"
Gu Yue Bo gave a nod and ordered the group to head to the clan pavilion.
In the plaza outside, nearly a hundred Gu Masters were already seated on the ground.
Most of them were gravely wounded and unable to keep fighting any time soon. Their faces all showed a calm acceptance of death. Those still able to stand were engaged in combat on the front lines.
At this point in the battle, the clan had exhausted every possible resource. In desperation, even ordinary mortals had been called to action. Every single life was used to form a wall of flesh, buying precious time for the Gu Masters to recover and reorganize.
Gu Yue Bo and the other elders entered the ancestral halls within the pavilion.
Kneeling beneath the memorial tablets of their forebears, they pressed their heads to the floor.
Under the memorial tablets of their ancestors, they all sank to their knees on the floor."To the great ancestor above me, we descendants are greatly ashamed! The wolf tide is turbulent, and the village has fallen into the situation of life and death. We beseech our great ancestor to come and give us a hand!" When Gu Yue Bo finished speaking in a low voice, the ancestral hall fell into deep silence.
Drip drop.
Blood from the elders' hastily bandaged wounds leaked onto the floor in dark droplets.
None of them dared to breathe too loudly. They held their breath, tense with hope and dread.
Long ago, when the first clan leader felt the end of his life approaching, he left the village behind. Before departing, he left a final testament, declaring that should the clan ever face annihilation, they could pray before his memorial tablet. Then, Gu worms would descend from the heavens to deliver them from catastrophe.
Over the generations, whenever the Gu Yue clan had confronted great disasters, they had survived by relying on this method.
This was the clan's ultimate trump card!