As the sound of beast hooves rang out, the three of them—Xia Hong included—hurriedly reined in their breathing.
To the west, a behemoth over two meters at the shoulder and more than four meters in length slowly crept closer toward the torch, step by step.
Its back was covered in thorns shaped like icicles, and two tusks stood upright.
Though its fierce eyes remained fixed on the torch, they shifted from time to time to survey the surroundings.
Its massive size caused every step it took to send snowflakes flying.
Hiding in the snow pit, Xia Hong's heart hammered in rhythm with its footsteps.
An adult Snow Mane—this thing has to weigh over a thousand pounds!
Compared to the juvenile from last time, this Snow Mane was noticeably a size larger.
Moreover, judging by these tentative footsteps, the intelligence of this adult Snow Mane was clearly much higher than the previous one's.
The Snow Mane walked slowly to the side of the torch.
Just like the last one, it first arched its snout and drew close to the torch, feeling the warmth radiating from the flames.
Within mere seconds, evidently experiencing the benefits of the torch, the Snow Mane's pupils suddenly dilated, and its movements grew brisk and relaxed.
What on earth is this system thing that it gave me?
It can heal Frost Beasts and make them stronger.
Watching this scene, Xia Hong felt a slight heaviness in his heart.
If a small torch can do this, what about the Small Bonfire back at the camp?
If Frost Beasts discovered that, they would probably plunge straight into madness.
Without strength, the Small Bonfire must not be exposed under any circumstances.
Xia Hong gave himself a reminder and continued watching.
The Snow Mane stood before the torch for over ten breaths, its movements growing increasingly excited as it even rested its chin right on the flames.
Not only did the fur on its chin avoid being burned, but it actually grew progressively glossier.
Xia Hong could even distinctly sense that the Snow Mane's aura was stronger than it had been right before approaching the torch.
Afraid of startling the intoxicated Snow Mane, Xia Hong did not dare turn to look at the east.
Yet, seeing no sign of the Frost Wolf for a long time, he began to harbor doubts in his heart.
Could that Frost Wolf be scared and not dare to come?
He had already tested it previously; the torch only burned for fifteen minutes.
By now, nearly a third of that time had already passed.
It seemed today's torch was going to waste.
Well, at least it was his first time; waste was to be expected.
However, the moment this thought popped into his head—
A ground-shaking rumble suddenly resounded from the snowfield.
Xia Hong turned his eyes to look toward the east, yet discovered nothing.
Yet the commotion in the snow was real.
What was going on?
Beside the torch, the Snow Mane clearly sensed this vibration as well; its gaze turned fierce, and its expression shifted from recent enjoyment to sheer brutality.
It stared fixedly in the direction the commotion came from, its pupils gradually turning red, while its two erect tusks exuded a heavy aura of violence.
Rip...
The sound of a sharp spike tearing through the air erupted abruptly.
Right beneath the Snow Mane's feet, a ring of spikes suddenly sprouted, shooting upward straight from the snowfield to pierce directly toward the Snow Mane's most vulnerable belly.
Clever as it was, the Snow Mane never expected spikes to emerge from beneath its feet. Although it reacted swiftly by dodging to one side, a meter-long wound was still slashed across its belly.
As the spike fully extended from beneath the accumulated snow, its master revealed its true form.
Seeing the familiar Frost Beast, Xia Hong's expression instantly stiffened.
That was no special Frost Beast; it was clearly the Frost Wolf he had seen before.
Of course, it was an adult.
The thing that had just extended from the snow to attack the Snow Mane was the ring of thorns around its neck.
Not only did this Frost Wolf know how to burrow beneath the snow, but it also knew how to creep closer silently and deliver a final, unexpected blow.
While Xia Hong was startled by the Frost Wolf's intelligence, the injured Snow Mane also moved.
Hiss, hiss...
Dark green blood trickled steadily from its belly. The Snow Mane steadied its stance and roared madly toward the location of the spikes, its shrill cry piercing the dark night and shaking loose quite a few icicles from the surrounding trees.
Its eyes filled with hatred as it fixed its gaze on the Frost Wolf's position, stamped its hind legs on the ground, gathered its strength, and lunged forward with its head lowered, moving at lightning speed and arriving almost instantly.
The Frost Wolf evidently knew the Snow Mane had flown into a rage and was unwilling to meet it in a head-on collision. Instead, it shrank back beneath the snow and sprinted straight toward the torch that had been knocked flying just moments ago.
Good grief, when a single strike fails, it immediately seizes the core objective.
How could Xia Hong fail to see that this Frost Wolf intended to snatch the torch and run?
He was not the only one who saw it.
The Snow Mane, currently in a state of unbridled fury, saw it too.
Compared to the wound on its belly, the Snow Mane seemed to place even greater importance on the torch.
Without the slightest hesitation, it rapidly changed direction, lowered its head deeply, and charged fiercely toward the torch.
Xia Hong initially thought it was lowering its head to build momentum.
Upon closer inspection, he realized that was not the case at all.
The Snow Mane drove its tusks directly into the snow on the ground, charging forward with the force of a thunderbolt while sweeping away all the accumulated snow in its path.
Combined with its charging momentum and the deliberate thrashing of its limbs, countless drifts were kicked up, leaving the ground immediately bare.
This was a deliberate attempt to keep the Frost Wolf from burrowing in the snow.
Before the Frost Wolf beneath the snow could even reach the torch, it was flicked into the air by the Snow Mane's tusks.
The Frost Wolf's body was not particularly large, but the violent force still sent it crashing waist-deep into a Crimson Frost Tree behind them.
Even so, the Frost Wolf swiftly rose to its feet, fixing its crimson gaze on the Snow Mane while baring a mouthful of fine tusks. Its ferocious nature climbed to its peak as its hind legs abruptly kicked off the ground, hurling it in a fierce pounce toward the Snow Mane.
The one thing the Snow Mane feared least was this kind of brute-force collision. Facing the pounce, it did not evade in the slightest, charging forward tit for tat.
However, the Frost Wolf's pounce was merely a feint. Upon reaching the Snow Mane, it abruptly flattened its body to slip past the beast's torso, opened its jaws lined with fine tusks, and clamped down fiercely onto its rear left leg.
Hiss, hiss...
The Frost Wolf's bite force was clearly no joke.
Overcome with pain, the Snow Mane threw its head back and let out a shrill, ear-piercing shriek, then jerked its head sideways in an attempt to bite the Frost Wolf. Failing to catch it with a bite, it tried shoving instead, hoping to force the Frost Wolf away from its body.
Yet the Frost Wolf, having once locked its jaws on the target, was hardly going to let go so easily.
Utilizing its agile frame to continuously dodge while refusing to loosen its grip in the least, it had the Snow Mane's rear left leg bleeding endlessly before long.
As it made a tearing motion with its jaws, even the white bone underneath became faintly visible.
The Snow Mane grew increasingly agonized. Finding that it could not shove the beast off, its pupils narrowed and it abruptly collapsed onto its side.
Following that came a period of frantic plowing. With a body weighing over a thousand pounds, coupled with the terrifying strength contained within its frame and the reinforcement of its will to survive, the Frost Wolf was battered until blood streamed continuously from its nose and mouth within just a few moments.
Yet even so, it still bit down stubbornly, refusing to let go.
The Snow Mane's impacts numbered in the hundreds, and they continued unabated.
Yet the Frost Wolf simply refused to let go.
Whether due to excessive blood loss or exhaustion, the frequency of the Snow Mane's impacts grew increasingly sluggish, and its force dwindled as well.
Until the flesh and blood of the hind left leg had been torn all the way from the calf up to the thigh, exposing nearly the complete bone structure of the leg—
That Snow Mane finally collapsed!
By this time, a radius of dozens of meters was an absolute mess.
Even over at Xia Hong's position, fifty meters away, the accumulated snow on the ground had been affected; had they not dug their snow pit quite far away, the three of them would likely have been shaken right out of it.
Shocked though he was, Xia Hong had seen it for a second time after all, and he managed to maintain a largely calm expression on his face.
Beside him, Xia Chuan and Yuan Cheng were gaping like fish, their two pairs of eyes visible above the snow filled with shock and dismay.
They had originally thought that after breaking through the Lumbering Realm, even if they couldn't hunt Frost Beasts, ensuring self-preservation should at least be unproblematic.
Now they realized how terribly mistaken they were.
However, the scene that unfolded next—
Left them even more utterly unable to believe their eyes.
Before you continue