Having It

Having already witnessed Snow Mane play dead, Xia Hong certainly was not going to let his guard down.

Playing dead was not a simple task.

Even in his past life, for an ordinary person to play dead was basically impossible.

Simply closing one's eyes and lying on the ground was not called playing dead; that was called acting in a movie.

To truly play dead generally required three steps.

First, one had to stop breathing and keep the body completely still; this was the foundation.

Second, one had to know how to control the internal organs. A person might be still, but blood vessels and pulses would still be moving; controlling the internal organs caused the heart to stop supplying blood, the stomach and intestines to cease movement, and the pulses all over the body to pause accordingly.

The final step was to hold one's breath.

The holding of breath here did not mean simply not breathing, but rather stopping the emission of one's aura.

After a normal creature died, its body would rapidly decay, subsequently producing a very foul odor commonly known as corpse aura.

Naturally, it was impossible to fake a corpse aura, but at least one had to lock in the aura of a living person on oneself so as to deceive the opponent.

Xia Hong had not observed Snow Mane at close range, but judging from the cunning and cautious nature of the Frost Wolf, to be able to fool them, frost beasts like Snow Mane must have possessed an extremely strong talent in this aspect of playing dead.

The last time, were those people from Big Stone Camp not cautious?

Which humans of the Lumbering Realm were not fighting for survival at the limits? If they could be fooled by ordinary playing dead techniques, they would have died countless times over.

Just as Xia Hong had guessed, Snow Mane was indeed playing dead.

The very moment the Frost Wolf relaxed its jaws, Snow Mane's two stiff and motionless pupils suddenly rotated, two heavy streams of air blew out from its nostrils, and its face turned even more ferocious.

Although only bare bone remained of its left hind limb, Snow Mane was still able to use it to prop up its body, then executed a rollover toward the Frost Wolf, crushing down abruptly with the overwhelming momentum of Mount Tai crashing.

Realizing it had been tricked, the Frost Wolf instinctively opened its jaws, wanting to continue biting and grappling, but it was already too late as Snow Mane gave it no more chance, using its back to crush down upon it.

Snow Mane's back was covered entirely in barbs.

The outcome for the Frost Wolf, opening its mouth like that, could be imagined.

Several barbs stabbed straight into its mouth, sinking deep into the flesh by god knows how much, and the Frost Wolf emitted a painful roar as dark green blood continually spilled from the corners of its mouth.

The Frost Wolf struggled and wrigghed on the ground, wanting to break free, but Snow Mane rolled and ground continuously in the direction of its writhing, giving it no chance at all.

Until the Frost Wolf's head was twisted all the way around to its tail.

Being large in size certainly had its benefits, but during such a life-and-death struggle, any single factor could become the key that influenced victory or defeat.

Snow Mane's size was overly large, so it only used half its body to suppress the Frost Wolf. As the Frost Wolf twisted around to its tail, its head finally found a chance to catch a breath.

The Frost Wolf abruptly jerked its head and locked its jaws onto the area just beneath Snow Mane's tail, right on that spot of the left hind limb that had already been mostly torn away.

This solid bite caused Snow Mane to instantly run out of strength.

The Frost Wolf rapidly wriggled out from under its body, and then, in a single bound, bolted toward the depths of the dense forest.

It actually ran away without even looking back.

The ultimate victor of this battle was the adult Snow Mane.

Last time, the winner had been the Frost Wolf; this time, the winner was Snow Mane.

It seemed that, being fellow low-level frost beasts, Snow Mane and the Frost Wolf did not have a very large gap in strength, only that their combat styles each had their own emphasis.

Snow Mane was bulky, possessed strong impact force, and had very high skill in playing dead.

Meanwhile, the Frost Wolf was adept at utilizing terrain, liked to catch opponents unawares, possessed great speed and an agile figure, and most crucially, it knew to run when it could not win.

Xia Hong watched the Frost Wolf completely disappear into the dense forest, then shifted his gaze, placing it upon Snow Mane as it limped toward the small torch, revealing a trace of hesitation.

Yet the hesitation lasted only for a moment.

Xia Hong swiftly swept his gaze around in a circle, pointed at two of the trees, and spoke to Yuan Cheng and Xia Chuan:

"Do you see those two trees? Once I engage Snow Mane in combat, each of you climb one and stay up in the branches. Until I call for you, you must not move under any circumstances!"

Having finished his instructions, Xia Hong stood up swiftly from the snow, drew the stone axe from his waist, and ran at top speed toward Snow Mane.

He had to be fast; Snow Mane was about to reach the side of the torch.

That torch could heal Snow Mane's injuries and would also make it grow stronger.

In the snowy winter forest, scents were not all that easy to distinguish.

In this utterly silent jungle, sound was the greatest sharp weapon for all creatures to identify enemies and their environment.

Although they were fifty meters apart, the very moment Xia Chuan spoke, Snow Mane had already noticed, yet it seemed to instinctively feel that the little bug over there posed no threat, so it continued to edge closer to the torch.

Pity that the injury to its left hind limb was far too heavy, causing it to walk far, far too slowly.

Slowly to the point that Xia Hong had already arrived at its back, and Snow Mane, sensing danger, could only turn its head to glare fiercely at Xia Hong.

This was his first time facing a frost beast head-on, and an adult Snow Mane at that.

Even though he knew clearly that the opponent had just undergone a life-and-death struggle and its strength was seven or eight tenths gone, Xia Hong still felt somewhat nervous inside.

Calm down, calm down.

No matter what, it was still just a beast.

Xia Hong took a few deep breaths to calm himself down, then met Snow Mane's eyes directly, a fierce expression gradually emerging on his face as well.

The little bug before its eyes actually dared to lock gazes with it, and Snow Mane was evidently provoked by Xia Hong's action. Its pupils turned crimson, and it lunged fiercely toward Xia Hong.

Pity that due to the excessively severe injury to its left hind leg, its speed was far too slow.

Xia Hong's gaze narrowed slightly. Facing the charging Snow Mane, he did not choose to dodge, but instead placed the stone axe in his mouth, biting down hard upon it, and then spread his arms wide horizontally.

He had actually grabbed Snow Mane's two gigantic, long tusks with absolute precision.

Even though Snow Mane's strength had been greatly diminished due to the severe injuries, this fierce impact still knocked Xia Hong stumbling back five or six meters.

Thud...

Had he not forcibly changed his direction, digging his heels into a tree behind him and discharging the majority of the momentum, he likely would have been driven even further back.

Sixty-four hundred catties of force, and it still couldn't block it! The impact force of an adult Snow Mane at its peak is probably over ten thousand catties. No wonder, no wonder one has to reach the Earth Excavation Realm to hunt them!

Trench back or not, Xia Hong's hands still gripped Snow Mane's tusks with a death-like hold.

Snow Mane reared its head back and opened its blood-red maw wide at the Xia Hong before it.

Seeing this scene, Xia Hong's pupils abruptly constricted. He swiftly released his right hand, grabbed the stone axe he had been biting in his mouth, and then flung his body to the left, utilizing the momentum of Snow Mane's left tusk as it whipped its head.

Swish...

A five-to-six-meter-long, razor-sharp tongue resembling an ice awl suddenly shot forth from Snow Mane's mouth, and Xia Hong's sideways lean allowed him to just barely dodge it as that terrifying long tongue pierced straight through the large tree behind him.

This was not the end of it. Missing its strike, Snow Mane's tongue suddenly softened, and the portion that had pierced through the tree abruptly went limp before curving around and lashing toward Xia Hong's neck.

The image of that man with the great saber from Big Stone Camp, whose head had flown high into the air after being ensnared by Snow Mane's tongue, was still fresh in Xia Hong's mind. Naturally, he would not let Snow Mane succeed.

In fact, the moment he caught the stone axe and dodged the long tongue, Xia Hong had already reacted.

The instant Snow Mane's tongue pierced through the tree, Xia Hong released his left hand as well.

With both hands gripping the stone axe, his legs—which were already braced against the trunk of the large tree—kicked off fiercely once more, and his body instantly leaped high into the air, slashing down abruptly toward Snow Mane's tongue.

Screeech...

Compared to the arrows and sabers of Big Stone Camp, a stone axe was certainly not sharp enough.

However, it depended on where one chose to hack.

The tongue was basically one of the most fragile parts of any creature's body, and Snow Mane was no exception.

One could tell from the painful roar Snow Mane emitted after its tongue was severed.

Strike while the iron is hot.

With the tongue severed, the section behind the tree naturally lost its function.

Free of any worries behind him, Xia Hong swung the stone axe in a frenzied hacking motion toward Snow Mane's wide-open maw. The terrifying force drove Snow Mane stumbling wildly backward, yet because of its leg injury, not only did it retreat slowly, but its retreat was chaotic.

It was simply swaying from side to side, relying entirely on instinct to dodge.

Meanwhile, Xia Hong roared toward the tree:

"Get down and hack its right hind limb, fast..."

Two figures leaped down from the tree, hurtling toward Snow Mane's rear.

The cold gleam of the stone axe flashed across Xia Hong's eyes, wide-open from exertion.

I've got it!