Moon Overhead, Bright and Full

The moon shone high in the sky.

In a stretch of mountain forest, dots of Green Light flickered among the grass. Seven wild wolves lay cautiously in wait, slowly closing in on their prey. Nearby, a giant python was wrapped around a wild deer, and the two were still locked in a stalemate.

The experienced alpha wolf watched. The moment both the python and the deer had exhausted the last of their strength would be the time to pounce.

Suddenly, the alpha wolf's ears twitched slightly, as if it had sensed some danger. It lowered its body even more, and the wolves behind it tacitly dropped flat as well.

The giant python wrapped around the deer seemed to sense something too. Its tongue flickered in and out as if probing the air. Then its body, which had been tightly coiled around the deer, loosened, and it abandoned the hunt altogether, slithering toward another patch of grass. The deer, having narrowly escaped death, also seemed to have been startled by something. Without pausing even for a breath, it hurried away.

The alpha wolf struggled inwardly. By rights, they should have swarmed the half-dead deer and devoured it. Yet it sensed the pressure of facing a ferocious beast. That pressure kept it from moving even an inch, and it could only watch helplessly as the limping deer departed.

Suddenly, where the python and deer had been fighting, ripples like waves surfaced in space. Wisps of deathly aura seeped out amid the undulations.

The alpha wolf sensed that aura and whimpered at once before turning and fleeing. The other wild wolves followed close behind, desperate to escape this dangerous place.

The spatial fluctuations grew more and more frequent, seemingly forming a ripple-like gate that kept expanding outward. Within that gate, Netherworld Death Qi