Beside the stream in the canyon, Tang Hao casually killed a Shadow Gale Wolf, then narrowed his eyes.
"Brat, are you sure you got this right? We've searched for thousands of meters in every direction, and aside from the occasional lone wolf, there's no sign of a settlement anywhere."
He had managed to conceal the aura of a Titled Douluo along the way. At least on the outside, he looked like an ordinary person. He hadn't even used a Soul Skill once, so there was no way he could have alerted them.
"How would I know? You bought the information. Why couldn't you have been swindled?" Tang Yin rolled his eyes. But since they were hunting a Soul Ring for him, he could only look around and survey the area. His gaze fell on a surviving wolf pup, and he raised an eyebrow as an idea came to him.
"Why don't we try following this pup? It might lead us to where the wolf king is."
Tang Hao followed Tang Yin's gaze to the pup. His eyes flickered as he immediately understood the plan, but he disliked Tang Yin even more.
The boy was so young, yet already so calculating. Today he could use a little Soul Beast to find the wolf king. Who knew? In the future, he might pull the same trick and use someone else's child to threaten them.
"What's with that look?" Tang Yin was displeased when he saw Tang Hao looking at him strangely. They were already planning to kill the wolves. Why care what methods they used?
Hypocrite!
"How do you plan to make the pup lead us there?" Tang Hao rested the Clear Sky Hammer on his shoulder and kept his thoughts to himself.
"Any intelligent creature, after experiencing something terrifying, will instinctively run to the place it considers safest."
As he spoke, Tang Yin pointed at the pup, which was putting on a fierce act. His eyes narrowed slightly. "Let it feel a little of your killing intent."
Tang Hao's expression stiffened. Thinking back on what he had done over the years, he felt a trace of regret, but he didn't believe he was at fault.
Ah Yin was dead, and his heart had died with her. Aside from revenge, the only thing left to keep him going was sending Tang Sanmei to the Clear Sky Sect in his place.
With that thought, Tang Hao steeled himself and stopped dwelling on it. Instead, he released a trace of killing intent toward the pup.
"Awooo~"
The pup, which had been baring its teeth, instantly bristled at Tang Hao's sudden killing intent. It turned and fled into the depths of the forest without looking back. Its legs were so weak with fright that it stumbled all the way.
"After it!" A flicker crossed Tang Hao's eyes. Before Tang Yin could reply, he shot into the forest like an arrow.
I hope we find the wolf king. If not, we'll have to settle for a Wind-Chasing Bird.
Tang Yin sighed inwardly, then summoned his Sharp-Tailed Swift Martial Soul and chased after Tang Hao.
The two followed the pup from a distance of a hundred meters, trailing it through the primeval forest until it reached the edge of a grassy field five or six kilometers from the stream and stopped.
The grass stretched for thousands of meters and stood as high as an adult. The pup had disappeared after darting into it.
"So they were hiding here. No wonder we couldn't find any trace of the pack." Tang Hao gazed at the seemingly endless field and sighed inwardly.
"The wolf king is probably hiding in there. What are you going to do?" Tang Yin naturally didn't dare venture into the field recklessly, so he could only leave it to Tang Hao.
"Hmph. They're only Soul Beasts from the outskirts. Even the wolf king won't be more than a thousand years old."
"Today, I'll show you that no matter how vicious and cunning a wolf king is, in the face of absolute strength, every scheme and trick is exposed." As he spoke, Tang Hao glanced sidelong at Tang Yin, his words carrying an unmistakable implication.
As soon as Tang Hao finished speaking, his aura changed abruptly. His powerful Soul Power surged, and fierce winds curled around him.
"Chaotic Cloak!"
Tang Hao held the hammer in one hand and swung it. The Clear Sky Hammer was like a scythe through grass. With every swing, the force of his Soul Power flattened dozens of meters of grass around him. Now and then, a series of mournful howls rang out.
Those were clearly Shadow Gale Wolves caught in the sweep of Tang Hao's hammer.
"With skills like that, it's a shame you're not out harvesting rice!"
Watching Tang Hao's performance, Tang Yin grumbled inwardly. Still, from a distance, the sight was strangely satisfying.
"Awooo~"
After Tang Hao had flattened half the grassy field like a scythe through grass, a howl finally rang out from deep within it, far more piercing than the cries of the ordinary Shadow Gale Wolves they had encountered before.
Tang Yin could even sense the emotions of the one making the sound: fury, savagery, and a trace of confusion.
As the howl rang out, a gray-and-white Shadow Gale Wolf, a size larger than the ordinary members of the pack, slowly emerged from the dense grass.
With its appearance, dozens of wolves of varying sizes and ages—from ten to a hundred years old—came pouring out of the surrounding grass.
"Oh? You finally decided to show yourself?" Tang Hao planted the Clear Sky Hammer on the ground and rested both hands on its handle. He surveyed the pack he had forced out, then fixed his gaze on the giant wolf guarded at its center, his expression arrogant.
This was clearly the Shadow Gale Wolf King.
"Hrrr..." The wolf king bared its teeth and let out a deep, breathy growl. Yet its eyes glimmered with intelligence and reason.
The human before it hadn't revealed his Soul Rings, but the wolf king had an instinctive sensitivity to danger. It could sense the threat emanating from him.
"Awooo!" After locking eyes with Tang Hao, the wolf king stretched its neck and howled at the sky. At its call, dozens of Shadow Gale Wolves sprang into attack stances and charged at Tang Hao like arrows loosed from bows.
"Hmph. You overestimate yourselves." Tang Hao gave a cold snort. The pack hadn't fled at the sight of him. Instead, they dared to attack. Four Soul Rings—yellow, yellow, purple, purple—appeared around him. Then he plunged into the wolves like a wolf among sheep, each swing of his hammer easily taking one down.
Before his overwhelming strength, ten-year and hundred-year Soul Beasts made no difference!
Nearby, Tang Yin watched Tang Hao unleash his full might, arms folded across his chest as he waited silently for the inevitable outcome.
As Tang Hao tore through the pack, the wolf king watched from the sidelines. A look of humanlike terror appeared in its eyes, and it slowly backed away. But just as it was about to retreat into the grass, it stopped, then slowly came forward again.
Tang Yin saw all of it. He had been about to warn Tang Hao, but hadn't gotten the chance.
"So that's it!" Out of the corner of his eye, Tang Yin spotted a few wolves on the far side of the field, beyond the battlefield, sneaking away with more than a dozen pups.
There were still wolves and pups that hadn't escaped from the grass behind it. As their leader, the wolf king had nowhere left to retreat.
Tang Yin didn't care about that. The wolf king was what mattered to him.
In the middle of the battlefield, the wolf king was about to join the fight as the number of its pack dwindled beneath Tang Hao's hammer. Then its gaze suddenly met Tang Yin's from beyond the battlefield.
"Uh, it's coming for me!" Tang Yin's mouth twitched, but he wasn't panicked. The moment he met the wolf king's eyes, he had already summoned his Sharp-Tailed Swift Martial Soul and flown more than ten meters into the air.
The instant Tang Yin rose into the sky, the wolf king, which had been dozens of meters away, suddenly vanished. A few breaths later, a shadow flickered above the rock where Tang Yin had just been. The wolf king reappeared and struck, shattering the rock into pieces with one claw.
"It can conceal its aura and move at incredible speed? It really is the Shadow Gale Wolf King."
A Soul Master with a flying Soul Skill was almost impossible to kill in the early stages—as long as they weren't instantly killed in a sneak attack and didn't go looking for trouble.
Tang Yin looked at the wolf king, which was baring its teeth at him in fury after its failed ambush, and shook his head. Then his brows suddenly knitted together.
"No, that doesn't add up! Merely concealing its aura couldn't have produced that effect." Recalling how the wolf king had vanished moments earlier, Tang Yin's pupils contracted sharply.
Concealing one's aura and turning invisible were worlds apart.
"Could it have mutated?"
Tang Yin scrutinized the wolf king's appearance, then spotted something unusual.
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