Ye Chen

Amidst the snow-covered mountain forest, a youth leaned against a withered tree, his head bowed as he focused intently on the movements of his hands.

A hundred meters behind him, at the edge of the snowy expanse, five white shadows trampled through the snow, darting toward the youth with rapid speed.

They were cloaked in grayish-white fur and bared sharp fangs; while their intelligence was low, they possessed agile bodies, were incredibly united, and harbored a deep sense of vengeance. They did not even fear ordinary people armed with guns. Their true identity was that of the Snow Wolf, a fierce monster notorious in this mountain forest.

The youth leaning against the tree was the target of the Snow Wolves' hunt, as well as the object of their revenge.

The youth was named Ye Chen, seventeen years old, one hundred and eighty centimeters tall, with a sturdy build, refined features, and clear eyes. He had thick, jet-black curly hair and wore a thick, warm wolf-skin coat.

He had grown up in this world where snow fell eternally. The reason he appeared in the mountains today was to hunt the wolf pack, thereby honing his combat skills.

A native born and bred, this was Ye Chen's identity.

Ever since he was five, the youth had been living a life of training filled with slaughter under the supervision of his teacher.

At this very moment, the corpses of five Snow Wolves lay at Ye Chen's feet.

Three of them had died from bullet holes in their abdomens or backs, while the remaining two had perished from blade marks across their throats.

The five beasts, with their gruesome expressions, were silently bleeding, staining the pristine white snow a jarring red.

However, Ye Chen had no thoughts regarding these corpses; he did not even spare them a glance. He had long since grown accustomed to these daily elements of his training.

Ye Chen's right hand was currently holding a Silver Revolver with its cylinder swung out, while his left hand was unhurriedly loading brass-colored bullets into the chambers one by one.

When the three Snow Wolves behind him closed the distance to within thirty meters, Ye Chen, having finished loading, finally left the cover of the tree. His gaze swept quickly over the five furious avengers in front of him, and then he raised the muzzle. His left hand repeatedly pressed the hammer, and his right hand repeatedly pulled the trigger, firing the bullets in the cylinder at the three leading Snow Wolves without hesitation.

These three beasts received exactly two bullets each.

Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang!

As the sound of gunfire erupted in the silent snowy forest, two Snow Wolves tumbled down in response, but the one in the middle managed to narrowly dodge two revolver rounds, leading its remaining two companions in a mad dash toward Ye Chen.

"Tsk."

Ye Chen frowned subconsciously at his lapse in marksmanship, then quickly holstered the revolver and drew the long blade from his waist.

It was a slender straight blade, its surface stained with faint blood, silently radiating the chill of slaughter.

The remaining three Snow Wolves skillfully surrounded Ye Chen, seeking a flaw to strike him down in one blow.

Seeing this, Ye Chen remained unhurried. His right hand pressed tightly against the tsuba, his left hand gripped the end of the hilt, and he held the long blade steady in a standard stance. Then, a strange light flickered over his legs, and his entire body became as fast as an afterimage. In the blink of an eye, he brushed past the nearest Snow Wolf.

Swish!

A sharp blade light traced a smooth curve through the air, cleanly slicing across the beast's throat before it could even react.

The next second, wolf blood splattered, and head and body were separated.

Immediately after, the remaining two Snow Wolves, seeing their companion fall, pounced toward Ye Chen's back in a grief-stricken rage, attempting to knock him to the ground and tear out his throat.

However, the youth's limbs glowed with that strange light once again at this moment, causing both his strength and agility to be significantly enhanced.

Ye Chen pivoted his feet, dragging a sharp arc through the white snow like a spinning top. He not only bypassed the pounce of the two beasts in one go but also quickly slid into the position between them. Then, his left hand swung the blade, cleanly slicing the back of the left Snow Wolf's neck, while his right hand threw a punch that sent the entire right Snow Wolf flying five meters away.

Slash!

The Snow Wolf struck by the blade bled on the spot and died instantly.

Thud!

The Snow Wolf sent flying by the punch landed in the snow in the distance, rolled around in a daze, and then immediately stood up, turned, and fled.

Ye Chen watched the fleeing figure, initially intending to let it go.

However, a peculiar hunting instinct took control of Ye Chen's hands at this moment, causing him to methodically load the bronze-colored bullets back into the Silver Revolver.

Bang!

As the sound of gunfire echoed through the snowy forest once more, the last Snow Wolf finally breathed its last, completely falling at Ye Chen's hands.

"Ten Snow Wolves, all taken care of without the teacher's help. This Auling Power is truly useful."

As Ye Chen scanned the wolf corpses on the snow, he clenched his fists, feeling the surging power within him, and couldn't help but sigh softly.

To hunt ten Snow Wolves that were hunting in a pack alone, armed with only a six-shot revolver and a slender straight blade—without the protection of this strange energy, such a feat would be extremely difficult even for an adult male with full physical strength, let alone a seventeen-year-old youth like Ye Chen.

If it were a month ago, Ye Chen would have been knocked down by the pack due to his sluggish movements after hunting at most the fifth Snow Wolf.

And whenever that happened, several golden lights would shoot down from the dome above the clouds as usual, crossing kilometers of high altitude to pierce straight through the brainstems of these Snow Wolves, thereby saving Ye Chen's life.

With his perception of the Auling aura becoming increasingly keen over this past month, Ye Chen's control over the Auling energy had also become much more proficient.

This was an energy obtained from sensing a certain call from the depths of his soul. Ye Chen did not know its specific principles, but he knew well that once it was present, his strength, agility, and perception would grow explosively, ultimately making his movements as swift as lightning and his strength as mighty as thunder, allowing him to hunt packs of wolves with ease. Auling energy was truly a wonderful and terrifying existence.

A biting cold wind blew against his face, interrupting Ye Chen's dazed thoughts.

He shivered, and not intending to waste any more time in this snowy forest, he took out a curved blade specifically for skinning and used a set of skillful cutting techniques to harvest the fur and meat of his prey.

After bagging it all, Ye Chen quickly headed down the mountain, attempting to return as soon as possible to the old church on the side of another distant Snow Mountain, which was also the home he had lived in for all these years.

However, just as Ye Chen was carrying the meat and fur, not even a hundred steps away, a series of vibrations sounded from behind him.

Rum-rum-rum—

Hearing this, Ye Chen's expression changed. He turned his gaze back, only to see that the peak of the Snow Mountain he was currently on had already stirred up a white, misty wave, rushing directly toward him.

Oh no, an avalanche!

Ye Chen gasped inwardly and immediately began searching the surroundings for a hiding spot, such as a large boulder. However, after looking around, he could only find a patch of withered woods, and with no other choice, he had to hide behind a relatively sturdy old tree.

When the avalanche arrived, the old tree was crushed to pieces without surprise. Ye Chen felt the world spinning, and his vision immediately plunged into darkness.

It is unknown how much time had passed when Ye Chen opened his eyes, only to find himself lying at the edge of a cliff on the Snow Mountain, with only half a meter separating him from the drop.

At this moment, a strange circle of light was flickering around Ye Chen, acting like a solid barrier that firmly protected him between the heavy snow and the cliff.

"In the end, I still couldn't avoid needing the teacher's help."

Ye Chen let out a deep sigh and cast a grateful gaze toward the Old Church in the distant mountains. He then quickly stood up straight, brushed off the snowflakes, and was about to leave, but after his gaze inadvertently swept toward the foot of the mountain, his expression suddenly froze.

"Hm?"

He let out a sound of surprise and hurriedly leaned his head over the edge of the cliff.

Below him lay a pitch-black Abyss. In Ye Chen's previous understanding, this Abyss in the mountain region was supposed to be submerged only at the foot of the mountain. Yet, upon this inadvertent glance today, he was shocked to discover that this "Abyss" had already risen to the mountainside, surging upward incessantly like the rising tide!

"When did it reach this height?"

Ye Chen muttered to himself, leaning his head out further.

Following this action, he discovered that on the surface of the cliff face, the topmost layer of the Abyss was teeming with countless black shadows wriggling about. They looked like thousands of newborn maggots, or perhaps thousands of twisted tentacles, impatiently climbing over this peak to pour into his own world.

And once Ye Chen's gaze landed on them, these maggot-like black shadows even twisted their bodies, making gestures that resembled waving at him.

At the same time, countless blurred voices enveloped Ye Chen's ears, as if inviting him to come down and "play" with them for a while.

Just for a little while.

Immediately after, the pitch-black tide surged into Ye Chen's mind.

His consciousness, as if pulled by some force, was dragged into a bottomless deep sea.

"Ah!?"

Ye Chen couldn't help but exclaim, turning his head to look around, only to see that the surroundings were filled with dark seawater.

Yet, deep within that darkness, countless eyeballs were vaguely visible, staring fixedly at him as if coveting a delicious meal, filling the deep sea with an atmosphere of greed and fanaticism.

Where is this?

Trapped in the darkness, terrified and pale, Ye Chen kept repeating this question in his bewildered mind.

However, before he could react, a powerful pulling force latched onto the boy's legs.

Ye Chen looked down abruptly and saw countless tentacles spiraling out from the sea abyss below without him even noticing. They wrapped around his lower body and immediately dragged him toward the bottomless abyss.

"Ugh--!"

Ye Chen struggled with all his might, intending to pull out his revolver and long blade to fight these inexplicable tentacles to the death, but the next second, the snowy mountain forest scene suddenly returned to his vision, replacing the darkness.

"Huh?"

The boy hesitated, turning his head to observe his surroundings, and then he saw the familiar rolling Snow Mountain and sparse Pine Forest.

At this very moment, Ye Chen was still standing on the edge of the cliff.

No deep sea, no tentacles; everything seemed to be nothing more than his imagination.

The boy had inexplicably fallen into a hallucination and just as inexplicably returned to clarity; the situation was truly mind-boggling.

"What on earth is going on?"

Confused, Ye Chen could not endure the curiosity in his heart and leaned over to look at the Abyss at the bottom of the cliff once more.

However, the darkness there was as calm as water, silently absorbing the light shining down from the sky, offering the boy no response at all.

(The author is here to provide a warning for readers who haven't read this book before.)

(1. This book is not an isekai; the protagonist is native to this world. It is not Western fantasy, though the world's technology tree will gradually catch up to modern society in the later stages.)

(2. From the middle stage onward, this book leans toward an ensemble cast; the world does not revolve around the protagonist.)

(3. This book is not cold-blooded. The protagonist holds a chaotic good alignment—treating kindness with kindness and evil with evil, saving lives and taking lives alike.)

(4. The combat portions of this book are not mindless skill-spamming. Individual plot points have constant twists and may appear somewhat long-winded. Additionally, the proportion of daily life in the early and middle stages is currently low, though the author is currently updating the main text while taking time to fix previous plot issues, improving the story's pacing as much as possible.)

(If the above points are deal-breakers for you, the author has now saved you a lot of time and energy. If you cannot accept them, please move on. Thank you!)