Wolf King Acknowledges Its Master

The wolf pack retreated, leaving behind a shattered village.

Daylight illuminated the land by Falling Star Lake.

Broken walls and crumbling ruins, scattered wolf corpses, and blood-soaked earth... formed a silent, sorrowful tableau.

The surviving villagers emerged from their hiding places and the battlefield. There was no joy on their faces, only numb exhaustion and profound grief.

Crying—stifled, heart-rending crying—finally shattered the deathly silence and drifted through the village.

Women who had lost their families collapsed beside their loved ones' bodies, wailing their hearts out. The men, eyes red, silently carried away their companions' cold corpses. Children clung tightly to the adults, their eyes hollow. The hellish scenes of last night would be branded into their young souls for a long time.

Chen Qing stood at the entrance of the small courtyard, looking over the village with a heavy heart.

The Star Mark in his palm was calm as ever. The exhaustion brought on by last night's earth-shaking expenditure was rapidly fading under Starforce's nourishment. He subconsciously looked into the courtyard.

A Ning was curled up on a small stool beside the stove, wrapped in Uncle Po's old padded coat.

She was no longer crying. She merely hugged her knees and buried her face deep down, her tiny body curled into a ball as though she wanted to hide herself completely from the world.

Ever since that broken plea of "Don't kill" last night, she had not spoken a single word, sinking into her own world.

Uncle Po sighed and silently set up a large pot in the courtyard, boiling water.

He dug out every blue blade of grass he could find, all carrying a bitter medicinal fragrance, and tossed them into the pot in one go. The herbal scent spread through the air, carrying a strange calming effect.

"This Calming Heart Grass can soothe the soul and steady the spirit." Uncle Po's voice broke the courtyard's silence. He ladled out a bowl of dark-blue medicine and handed it to Chen Qing. "Give her some. She's been frightened; her soul's unsettled."

Chen Qing took the bowl, crouched beside A Ning, and brought the warm medicine to her lips. His voice was exceptionally soft. "A Ning, drink some medicine."

A Ning did not react at all. Her body even curled further inward.

Chen Qing sighed and set the bowl beside her feet. He did not know what had happened to A Ning, but at that moment, she was so lonely it made his heart ache. Yet there was nothing he could do.

He stood and said to Uncle Po, "Uncle, I'll go see if there's anything I can help with in the village."

Uncle Po nodded. His gaze swept over the curled-up A Ning before turning toward the village, and he let out a low sigh. "What a sin..."

Chen Qing stepped into the village and immediately felt a complicated atmosphere.

Whenever he passed by, the busy villagers would unconsciously stop what they were doing and look at him with complicated expressions.

There was gratitude—after all, he had descended like a God or Devil last night, driving back the wolves and saving many people. There was reverence—the terrifying crater carved by that beam of light was like a divine miracle, or perhaps a demonic one. That deep pit constantly reminded them that there was something abnormal about this man.

But more than anything, there was deeply buried unease and alienation. His power exceeded the scope of their understanding. While it brought hope for survival, it also brought fear of the unknown.

No one came forward to speak. There were only silent stares.

Chen Qing understood. He said nothing more and quietly joined in with the work.

He was immensely strong and easily moved aside collapsed roof beams. He could even use his subtle perception of auras to find a child buried beneath the rubble.

He took on the dirtiest, most exhausting work without a word, trying to dissolve that invisible barrier through his actions.

The work continued until the afternoon.

Most of the bodies had been gathered. The severely injured received simple treatment and were settled down, while the survivors began clearing the ruins, trying to restore a trace of life to their broken homes.

Once the grief eased slightly, hunger and exhaustion came crashing in like a tide. More than half the food had been ruined by the wolves last night, and their stores were running dangerously low.

"We have to enter the mountains." Blacksmith Li pressed a hand over his bandaged wound. "There are wild yams by Black Pine Forest, along with edible bark and grass roots. If we're lucky, we might even catch something small. We can't just sit here and wait to starve!"

The suggestion immediately won the support of several bold young men.

The terror of last night's wolf pack was still fresh in their minds, but hungry children were crying at home, and the elderly were waiting for a bite to eat. They picked up their remaining weapons—hoes and machetes—and prepared to enter Black Pine Forest in search of food.

Chen Qing frowned slightly.

He could sense that many beasts still lurked deep within Black Pine Forest. Though they were not as concentrated or violent as last night's wolf pack, they were still dangerous. "I'll go with you," he said.

His presence could at least deter some of the fiercer beasts.

The villagers looked at him, their expressions complicated, then finally nodded. With him there, their safety would indeed increase greatly, though he himself represented another kind of unease.

With Chen Qing in the lead, the group slowly headed toward the gloomy Black Pine Forest with a strange determination. Just as they were about to step into the shadows between the trees—

"Wuu..."

A low, weak whimper came from behind the bushes at the edge of the forest.

Everyone tensed at once, gripping their weapons and staring warily at the thicket.

But Chen Qing's heart stirred. That sound... seemed to belong to the giant wolf from last night. Its voice held a complicated emotion—pleading, reluctance?

He pushed through the crowd, signaling for them to stay alert while he slowly approached the bushes. As he drew nearer, a heavy stench of blood mixed with the smell of scorched fur reached him.

Chen Qing approached and pushed aside the dense branches and weeds.

The sight before them made everyone suck in a cold breath!

It was the enormous Alpha Wolf from last night, as large as a calf!

Now, it had none of last night's majesty or savagery. It lay amid bushes and a pool of blood, its enormous body covered in claw and bite wounds. Most horrifying of all was its left hind leg. The severed stump was a mangled mess of flesh and blood, pale bone exposed starkly beneath it!

Clearly, after the Wolf King had been injured last night, it had returned to the forest and endured another brutal battle. That it had managed to crawl here alive was already a miracle.

It was now weak to the extreme. It seemed not even to have the strength to lift its head, and only the faint rise and fall of its belly proved it was still alive.

When Chen Qing appeared within its field of vision, its body visibly shrank back. A threatening growl rumbled from its throat as it struggled to retreat, but the motion tugged at its wounds, making its entire body convulse in agony.

When the villagers recognized the demonic wolf that had brought them endless disaster, deep-seated hatred immediately burst from their eyes!

"It's it! That beast!"

"Kill it! Avenge our dead!"

"Chop off its head and offer it to the departed souls!"

Furious shouts erupted at once. Several red-eyed young men were about to charge forward.

"Wait!" Chen Qing stopped them in a deep voice. His gaze never left the dying Alpha Wolf. Just now, when the villagers' killing intent had erupted, he had clearly sensed that the wolf's gaze had passed over him, carrying a despairing sorrow, toward the direction behind him... the village?

What was it looking at? Or rather... who was it searching for?

An unbelievable thought flashed through Chen Qing's mind like lightning! He suddenly turned and looked toward the village entrance.

Under the old locust tree at the village entrance stood a tiny figure, though no one knew when she had appeared there. It was A Ning! She had slipped away from Uncle Po and run out.

Her little face was pale, but her large black-and-white eyes were fixed tightly on the dying giant wolf!

Amid the villagers' furious roars and Chen Qing's astonished gaze, A Ning began to walk. Her tiny figure passed through the crowd, ignoring the firewood choppers and wooden clubs aimed at the giant wolf. Step by step, she resolutely approached the blood-soaked thicket.

"A Ning!" Chen Qing called softly, afraid she would be hurt.

A Ning seemed not to hear him.

She reached the edge of the bushes and stopped less than three steps from the giant wolf.

The Alpha Wolf saw her too. When A Ning's figure was reflected in its dark-green pupils, a strange change occurred! The pain and fear in its eyes vanished! In their place came an incomprehensible fulfillment, almost devout in its reverence.

Its enormous head struggled to rise. Hoarse sounds came from its throat, and blood began pouring from its severed leg again from the effort.

It stared fixedly at A Ning—no, at her eyes—as though it needed to confirm some message within them.

A Ning stood quietly there, her small figure appearing so insignificant before the massive wolf. Slowly, she raised her right hand and gently stroked the Wolf King's head.

The Wolf King quietly closed its eyes, feeling A Ning's comfort. The two of them seemed to have formed some kind of connection, a connection like a bridge spanning time and space!

Before everyone's utterly horrified eyes, the giant wolf leader, whose ferocity had towered to the heavens and who had commanded the wolf pack to slaughter the village last night, struggled and used the last shred of its strength to lower its enormous, scarred head—slowly, obediently...

At last, its forehead lightly and incomparably devoutly touched A Ning's tiny mud-stained shoe tip!

It had found its master!

The edge of Black Pine Forest fell into deathly silence. Even the wind seemed to have stopped. Weapons clattered from the villagers' hands to the ground. Their mouths hung open as they stared at the unbelievable scene before them.

Chen Qing's pupils constricted sharply, and towering waves surged in his heart! He understood! A Ning's plea of "Don't kill" last night had not come from simple kindness, nor from fear of slaughter. Rather... this Wolf King, which had brought disaster upon them, actually belonged to her?!

But he himself had memories of a past life, so something like acknowledging a master did not seem worth making such a fuss over...

A Ning lowered her head and looked at the giant wolf lying at her feet. She extended her small hand without the slightest fear and gently, tremblingly placed it upon its huge, warm forehead.

By Falling Star Lake, the Wolf King bowed its head. Whether it was a promise or a pursuit, at this moment, amid blood and tears, it quietly awakened.