Stop, Now!

Run!

The thought screamed in Jiang Bai's mind.

He wanted to back away slowly, put some distance between them, and give himself a chance to turn and run.

But the giant wolf clearly had no intention of giving him time for that performance.

It simply watched him with those eerie green eyes, as if amused by a mouse that had already been driven into a corner.

Jiang Bai's palms were slick with sweat, and the clothes on his back were already soaked with cold sweat.

He took one step, then another...

He had barely moved three meters.

The giant wolf, as large as a hill, moved.

Without even taking a running start, it kicked hard off the ground with its powerful hind legs. Its massive body became a streak of gray-black lightning as it lunged at Jiang Bai.

A foul-smelling gale hit him in the face.

Jiang Bai's pupils contracted. His survival instinct overwhelmed all fear, and he turned and ran without a second thought.

But it was no use.

How could the short legs of his six-year-old body, churning as they ran, possibly outrun a prehistoric beast the size of a car?

The rush of wind behind him drew closer, and the nauseating stench was almost upon the back of his neck.

I'm dead.

Jiang Bai's heart went cold.

Yet at that moment between life and death, a cool sensation that had lingered in his mind since he came to this world suddenly became incomparably clear.

Before, he had always thought it was an aftereffect of transmigration, an illusion.

But now, under this deadly threat, the cool sensation swept through every corner of his brain like a flood bursting through a dam.

Time seemed to slow down at that moment.

He could clearly sense the giant wolf's bulging muscles behind him and predict that it would raise its sharp claws in the next second and pin him to the ground.

Without the slightest hesitation, Jiang Bai chose to trust this strange sensation that had come out of nowhere.

The instant the giant wolf's claws were about to touch his back, Jiang Bai threw himself to the left, tumbling sideways in an utterly undignified face-first sprawl.

"Pfft!"

A powerful gust swept past his scalp.

With a thunderous crash, the giant wolf's paw, powerful enough to shatter rock, slammed into the spot where he had just been, leaving a shallow crater.

I dodged it!

Jiang Bai had no time to celebrate. His survival instinct drove him to scramble to his feet on all fours.

But the giant beast reacted faster than he did.

Its attack having missed, the giant wolf seemed enraged. It let out a deafening roar and clawed at the ground with its powerful limbs, kicking up a cloud of dust.

Without the slightest hesitation, its scarlet eyes locked onto Jiang Bai, less than five meters away. Its massive body sank slightly, and it charged again, even more ferociously than before.

For the giant beast, crossing five meters took less than the blink of an eye.

It's over.

There's really no dodging it this time.

Jiang Bai sat slumped on the ground, the wolf's gaping maw drawing ever closer in his eyes, along with its fangs, sharp enough to tear anything apart.

The shadow of death enveloped him once again.

Perhaps extreme fear had awakened his potential, or perhaps the cool sensation had finally undergone some kind of transformation.

At that moment, Jiang Bai's mind was clearer than ever before.

He didn't know what it was, but he had a vague feeling that he could do something.

As if... he could make the behemoth before him stop.

Once the thought appeared, it spread like wild weeds, instantly occupying his entire mind.

I have to live!

Jiang Bai's eyes widened. All his focus, all his will, and all his desire to live converged on a single point.

Facing the shadow of death rushing toward him, he summoned all his strength and let out his first furious roar since coming to this world.

"Stop, now!"

It was as though his words had become law.

The streak of gray-black lightning, capable of tearing anything apart, froze in midair without warning.

The giant wolf remained in its lunging pose, its sharp claws less than ten centimeters from Jiang Bai's cheek. Even the breeze stirred up by its claw tips as they moved at high speed had tousled his hair.

But it had stopped, like a statue turned to stone in an instant, except that the savage red light in its eyes remained fixed on him.

At that moment, it was as if time had been paused for it alone.

Jiang Bai sat slumped on the ground, gasping for breath, his eyes full of shock at having survived.

But he knew this wasn't a case of his words becoming law.

The instant he shouted those words, an indescribably immense power had erupted from the depths of his brain, becoming an invisible giant hand that forcibly restrained the behemoth.

It was a power similar to telekinesis, but far more overbearing and direct.

To be precise, the source of this power was his brain.

His magic seemed to be connected to his brain.

However, his joy at escaping death had lasted less than a second when a tearing agony exploded from the depths of his mind.

Forcibly "pausing" a giant beast half the size of a car was far too great a burden on his six-year-old body, especially his brain, which had only just awakened its power.

His head felt as though it had been stuffed into a blender running at high speed, every nerve crying out under the strain.

The scene before him began to blur. His nose grew warm, and two streams of blood trickled uncontrollably from his nostrils.

No!

I'm almost at my limit!

Jiang Bai gritted his teeth. He could feel the invisible power restraining the giant wolf rapidly weakening.

Once he could no longer hold on, the consequences would be unthinkable.

He had to eliminate this threat completely before he lost consciousness!

There was no time to think, nor could he think in time.

Jiang Bai gathered his last shred of conscious will and all his remaining mental power into a single, utterly pure, primal thought.

Crush it!

Like an invisible command, the thought pierced through the barrier of space and acted precisely upon the trapped giant wolf.

There was no earth-shattering explosion, not even the slightest extraneous sound.

In Jiang Bai's vision, the giant wolf's enormous head suddenly caved inward and twisted like a tomato crushed by an immense invisible force. Finally, with a soft "pfft," it became an indescribable mass of minced flesh.

Its massive headless body continued forward under its own momentum and crashed heavily to the ground in front of Jiang Bai, kicking up a cloud of dust.

With all that done, the string stretched to its limit in Jiang Bai's mind finally snapped.

The world before him plunged into complete darkness. His body went limp, and he fell backward, losing consciousness entirely.