Li Xiaoman looked at their surroundings and said, "Let's leave this place first."
The group continued forward. After crossing a small hill, they saw that Vile Water Region again, along with the battlefield left behind after Li Zhi ambushed the Five-Eyed Blackwater Buffalo.
By now, everyone could confirm that Li Zhi was not far ahead of them.
"Let's go. This isn't a place we can linger." Ye Fan spoke to the others.
However, before they had gone two kilometers, just as they reached the top of a small hill, everyone suddenly felt their bodies begin to heat up.
The aftereffects of their venture into the Barren Ancient Forbidden Zone had finally appeared.
Meanwhile, Li Zhi, who had already gone more than fifty kilometers deep into the Barren Ancient Forest, had run into trouble. He had been targeted by a pack of Netherworld Wolves.
Because the Barren Ancient Forest was close to the Forbidden Zone of Life, few people ever set foot there.
Instead, it provided some Primordial Ferocious Beasts with rare room to grow.
Although it could not nurture terrifying Great Yao, beasts comparable to Sea of Wheels Realm cultivators were everywhere.
As for those more powerful beasts that had already gained intelligence and transformed into demon beasts, their wisdom was naturally not low. They could sense the terrifying aura from the Forbidden Zone of Life and would often leave this Barren Ancient Forest near the Forbidden Zone on their own.
Even so, the Barren Ancient Forest was not a place just anyone could cross at will.
There were simply too many Primordial Ferocious Beasts inside.
And Li Zhi, unaware of this taboo, had become the reckless fool who dared to cross the Barren Ancient Forest right after opening his Bitter Sea.
As the saying went: Two fists could not defeat four hands, and even a fierce tiger feared a pack of wolves.
In a relatively flat area of the Barren Ancient Forest where the trees were not especially dense, the remains of hundreds of great trees lay scattered in disarray.
It seemed that a Fierce Beast had once fought here and destroyed the entire patch of forest.
The moment Li Zhi reached the area, he was targeted by a pack of Netherworld Wolves. Their eyes glowed green, their bodies were two meters long, and their fur faintly shimmered with bluish-purple light.
After spotting Li Zhi, the wolves split into two groups and quickly moved through the forest on his left and right, faintly forming an encirclement.
They seemed to want to surround and hunt Li Zhi in the clearing.
Hearing the movement, Li Zhi stopped and looked around. He bent his knees and arms, gripping a bone spike about a foot long in each hand, and assumed a stance ready to fight at any moment.
The bone spikes in his hands came from the nine sharp spines on the head of the Five-Eyed Blackwater Buffalo. Li Zhi had previously chopped them off with the Luoyang Shovel.
They needed no polishing to serve as the sharpest triangular spikes.
Compared with the Luoyang Shovel, a tool for production, Li Zhi was actually more skilled at using these bone spikes that resembled triangular spikes.
Killing weapons and production tools both possessed destructive power, but weapons were still much more efficient when it came to killing.
"Fwee-woo."
After observing the exact positions of the Netherworld Wolves, Li Zhi suddenly whistled provocatively at the three wolves closing in from directly ahead.
However, the Netherworld Wolves were far more intelligent than he had imagined.
They were not enraged by his whistle.
Instead, they continued slowly tightening the encirclement at their own pace.
Seeing this, Li Zhi knew that these Netherworld Wolves were different from ordinary wild wolves. He could no longer deal with them the way he would ordinary wolves.
Before they could truly tighten the encirclement, Li Zhi immediately sprinted toward the dense forest ahead.
"Awooo, awooo!"
As Li Zhi began moving quickly, a highly rhythmic chorus of wolf howls suddenly rang out from the perimeter of the encirclement.
There was actually a Wolf King directing them from outside.
Li Zhi had not noticed the Wolf King's whereabouts before.
Seeing that Li Zhi was about to escape, more than a dozen Netherworld Wolves immediately charged.
"Whoosh!"
"Whoosh!"
"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!" Li Zhi, who had been running swiftly, suddenly turned around and threw six bone spikes in succession at the six Netherworld Wolves relentlessly chasing him.
The six Netherworld Wolves, accelerating in a straight line, had no time to dodge before the flying spikes struck them head-on.
"Boom!" A violent collision suddenly sounded behind him.
Seeing this, Li Zhi immediately stopped, then turned around and ran back.
The other Netherworld Wolves seemed enraged by his actions. Howling, they leaped toward him.
Relying on his short stature, Li Zhi cleverly used the obstacles on the ground to evade the Netherworld Wolves' attacks.
Whenever he found an opening, he fired another spike at a Netherworld Wolf.
With ten thousand jin of Divine Power in one arm, reinforced by the power of his Bitter Sea, every bone spike Li Zhi fired was like an armor-piercing shell shot from a cannon. Carrying tremendous kinetic energy and devastating force, each one could instantly pierce a Netherworld Wolf straight through.
If he knew how to refine magic treasures, he could have refined the nine hard and sharp bone spikes into magic treasures. Then, when facing these Netherworld Wolves, he would have had a much easier time.
Even so, while dealing with the pack's attacks, Li Zhi displayed an extremely high level of combat skill.
He constantly shifted and maneuvered within a small area, dodging the Netherworld Wolves' sharp teeth.
Then, whenever he found an opportunity, he used a bone spike to end a Netherworld Wolf's life.
After using all nine bone spikes, only five Netherworld Wolves remained.
They also seemed somewhat frightened and no longer dared to charge Li Zhi.
Even though Li Zhi's hands were now completely empty.
Seeing that the Netherworld Wolves had grown fearful, Li Zhi no longer faced them with a magic treasure now that the danger of being surrounded had passed. Instead, he curled both hands into claws and assumed the eagle form of Xingyi Quan, preparing to fight the Netherworld Wolves in close combat.
He wanted to use this to test the current strength of his physical body.
Power flowed through both his hands, and his ten fingers seemed to transform into steel and iron bones in an instant.
His gaze was resolute, and he shouted loudly, "Kill!"
Then Li Zhi took the initiative, engaging the five Netherworld Wolves in a fierce melee.
"Awooooo!"
Every time his iron claws tore through a Netherworld Wolf's flesh, the wolf let out a howl.
Before long, wolf blood splattered all over Li Zhi.
The blood gave the little boyish-looking Li Zhi a touch of wild beauty.
Especially after his tiger-skin clothes were stained with wolf blood, that wildness was displayed to the fullest.
As the battle continued, blood energy seemed to rise from his gleaming bald head, faintly condensing into the shape of an eagle claw.
"Crack!"
When Li Zhi crushed the spine of the last Netherworld Wolf, the close-quarters battle ended with his complete victory.
The Wolf King, which had remained hidden in the darkness, seemed to have assessed Li Zhi's strength. It directly transformed into a streak of Mysterious Light and silently appeared twenty meters behind him.
Then, pushing off powerfully with all four limbs, it leaped up and pounced at Li Zhi from behind.
However, what the Wolf King never expected was that just as its gaping jaws were about to bite Li Zhi's neck, Li Zhi suddenly crouched down.
Then, at the spot where he had just been standing, a gigantic Black Hole suddenly appeared.
"Absorb!"
After rolling across the ground like a donkey to dodge the Wolf King's attack, Li Zhi decisively brought out the Snakeskin Cosmos Pouch.
He had no interest in fighting the Wolf King in close combat.
The opening of the Cosmic Bag rapidly expanded, releasing a tremendous suction force that directly pulled the three-meter-tall, six-meter-long Wolf King into the bag.
"Awo awo!"
The Wolf King struggled with all its strength. Even wisps of azure light rose from each strand of its fur as it resisted the immense suction released by the Cosmic Bag.
Unfortunately, reinforced by Li Zhi's power, which far surpassed that of Bitter Sea cultivators, the suction released by the Snakeskin Cosmos Pouch was practically like a magic treasure wielded by a Dao Palace Realm cultivator.
The Wolf King's struggle was futile, and it was ultimately taken into the Snakeskin Cosmos Pouch.
Li Zhi then retrieved the Cosmic Bag and tied its opening shut.
Afterward, the Snakeskin Cosmos Pouch shrank to the size of a palm and flew back into his hand.
"Trying to ambush me? You're still far too inexperienced." Li Zhi shook the Snakeskin Cosmos Pouch and said with a smile.
If he had not wanted to test the practical combat ability of the Xingyi Quan he had learned, Li Zhi would never have fought these Netherworld Wolves in a bloody battle.
Just as he had expected, the boxing techniques created by mortals were useless against beasts that had already cultivated demonic power.
The boxing techniques could not amplify his attack power at all.
Although it looked as if he had used the Eagle Claw Technique, what had truly played a role was the strength of his physical body and his own power.
Perhaps it was time to comprehensively upgrade this close-combat boxing technique.
Before you continue