Millennial Soul Beast, Mutated Shadow Gale Wolf King

By the small river in the canyon, Tang Hao struck a Shadow Gale Wolf dead with a casual blow, his brow furrowing slightly afterward.

"You brat, are you sure you didn't get it wrong? We've searched every inch of this area for thousands of meters. Aside from the occasional stray wolf, where is there any sign of a pack?"

Throughout this journey, he had been careful to conceal his aura as a Title Douluo. To all appearances, he was merely an ordinary man; he hadn't even used a single soul skill along the way, so it was impossible for him to have alerted them.

"How would I know? You were the one who bought the intel; why isn't it you who got scammed?" Tang Yin rolled his eyes. However, since this was for his own soul ring, he could only scan the surrounding environment. His gaze landed on a surviving wolf pup, and he raised an eyebrow, an idea forming in his mind.

"Why don't we try following this pup? It might lead us to the location of the Wolf King."

Tang Hao followed Tang Yin's gaze to the pup, his heart stirring as he immediately grasped the plan. Yet, he found himself feeling increasingly displeased with Tang Yin.

To be so calculating at such a young age—if he could use a small soul beast to find a Wolf King today, who was to say he wouldn't use someone else's child to threaten them in the future?

"What's with that look?" Seeing the strange expression on Tang Hao's face, Tang Yin felt annoyed. They were already planning to kill the creatures, so why care about the methods used?

Hypocrite!

"What way do you have to make the pup lead the way for us?" Tang Hao asked, resting his Clear Sky Hammer on his shoulder without voicing his inner thoughts.

"Any sentient creature, after experiencing extreme terror, will subconsciously flee toward the place it considers safest."

As Tang Yin spoke, he pointed at the pup, which was putting on a fierce display, his eyes narrowing slightly: "Release a bit of your killing intent toward it!"

Tang Hao's expression faltered. Recalling his own actions over the years, he felt a twinge of regret, though he did not believe he was at fault.

Ah Yin was dead, and his heart had died with her. Now, aside from revenge, all that sustained him was ensuring Tang Sanmei would take his place at the Clear Sky Sect.

Thinking of this, Tang Hao steeled himself, stopped dwelling on these thoughts, and released a sliver of killing intent toward the pup.

"Awoo~"

The pup, which had been acting fierce, had its fur stand on end the moment it felt Tang Hao's sudden killing intent. It turned and scrambled toward the depths of the dense forest without looking back, stumbling and falling along the way out of sheer terror.

"Follow it!" Tang Hao's expression flashed, and without waiting for Tang Yin's response, he charged into the forest like a sharp blade.

"I hope we can find the Wolf King. If it really doesn't work out, I'll have to settle for a Wind-Chasing Bird!"

Tang Yin sighed inwardly, then unfurled his Sharp-Tailed Swift martial soul and gave chase in the direction Tang Hao had vanished.

Afterward, the two trailed the pup from a distance of a hundred meters, following it through the primeval forest until they stopped at the edge of a grassy field five or six kilometers away from the small river.

This field of tall grass, reaching the height of an adult, spanned several thousand meters, and the pup had vanished the moment it dove into it.

"I never expected them to hide here. No wonder I couldn't find any traces of the pack," Tang Hao sighed inwardly as he looked at the seemingly boundless field of grass.

"It seems there's a high probability the Wolf King is hiding here. What do you intend to do?" Tang Yin naturally dared not rush into the grass blindly, so he could only look to Tang Hao.

"Hmph, mere peripheral soul beasts. Even the Wolf King won't exceed a thousand years."

"Today, I will show you that while a Wolf King may be fierce and cunning, in the face of absolute strength, no scheme or trickery can remain hidden." As he spoke, Tang Hao glanced sideways at Tang Yin, his words carrying a pointed meaning.

Once Tang Hao finished speaking, the aura around him shifted abruptly. As his thick soul power circulated, it even caused gusts of wind to swirl around his body.

"Chaotic Cloak!"

Tang Hao held the hammer with one hand, and it began to move like a lawnmower. With every swing, the accompanying ripples of soul power leveled the grass for dozens of meters around him, occasionally punctuated by shrill, miserable howls.

Clearly, these were the Shadow Gale Wolves that had been caught in the crossfire of Tang Hao's path.

"It's a pity he doesn't go harvest rice with these skills!"

Watching Tang Hao's performance, Tang Yin muttered to himself, though the scene was actually quite cathartic to watch from afar.

"Awoo~"

After Tang Hao had mowed down nearly half the field, a howl finally erupted from the depths of the grass—one far more piercing to the eardrums than the cries of the ordinary Shadow Gale Wolves they had encountered earlier.

Tang Yin could even sense the emotions of the creature behind the howl: fury, brutality, and a hint of confusion.

Accompanying the howl, a Shadow Gale Wolf with gray and white fur, significantly larger than the average wolf, slowly emerged from the dense grass.

With the appearance of this wolf, dozens of others, ranging from ten to a hundred years in age, darted out from the surrounding grass one after another.

"Oh? You've finally decided to come out?" Tang Hao planted his Clear Sky Hammer on the ground, rested his hands on the handle, and surveyed the pack he had forced into the open. Finally, he fixed his gaze on the giant wolf protected at the center, his expression arrogant.

Clearly, this was the Shadow Gale Wolf King.

"Heh-heh~" The Wolf King bared its teeth, emitting a heavy huffing sound from its throat, yet its eyes glinted with wisdom and rationality.

Although the human before it had not revealed any soul rings, the wolf, possessing an innate and keen sense for danger, could feel the lethal aura radiating from him.

"Awoo~" After locking eyes with Tang Hao, the Wolf King stretched its neck and howled at the sky. At its command, the dozens of Shadow Gale Wolves instantly entered an attack stance, charging toward Tang Hao like arrows released from a bow.

"Hmph, overestimating yourselves." Seeing that the pack hadn't fled but instead dared to attack him, Tang Hao let out a cold snort. Four soul rings—yellow, yellow, purple, purple—appeared around him, and he waded into the pack like a wolf among sheep, easily taking down a wolf with every swing of his hammer.

In the face of his immense power, there was no difference between a ten-year and a hundred-year soul beast!

Tang Yin, watching Tang Hao's display of might from nearby, simply crossed his arms and waited silently for the inevitable conclusion.

As Tang Hao continued his rampage, the Wolf King, also observing the battle, displayed a human-like look of terror. It began to retreat slowly, but just as it was about to slip back into the grass, its footsteps faltered, and it slowly walked back out.

Tang Yin noticed all of this, but the warning he meant to give Tang Hao died on his lips.

"So that's how it is!" Tang Yin's peripheral vision caught sight of several wolves on the other side of the field, away from the battlefield, secretly fleeing with over a dozen pups.

With his kin still in the grass and unable to escape in time, the Wolf King, as their leader, had nowhere left to retreat.

Tang Yin didn't care about that; in the end, his focus remained solely on the Wolf King.

At the center of the battlefield, as the number of wolves dwindled under the strikes of Tang Hao's hammer, the Shadow Gale Wolf King prepared to enter the fray itself, only for its gaze to suddenly lock with that of Tang Yin, who was watching from the sidelines.

"Uh, it's coming for me!" Tang Yin's mouth twitched, but he remained calm; the moment their eyes met, he activated his Sharp-Tailed Swift martial soul and soared over ten meters into the air.

The instant Tang Yin took flight, the Shadow Gale Wolf King, which had been dozens of meters away, suddenly vanished. Within a few breaths, a dark shadow flickered above the rock where Tang Yin had just been standing, and the Wolf King materialized, shattering the stone into pieces with a single swipe of its claw.

"Stealth combined with extreme speed? It really is a Shadow Gale Wolf King."

In the early stages, as long as a Spirit Master with a flight-type spirit ability wasn't killed instantly by a sneak attack, they were nearly impossible to kill unless they were actively seeking death.

Tang Yin shook his head as he watched the Wolf King, which was baring its teeth at him in frustration after its failed ambush, but his brow suddenly furrowed.

Wait! Simple stealth shouldn't be able to achieve an effect like that. Tang Yin's pupils constricted as he recalled the way the Wolf King's entire figure had vanished.

The difference between concealing one's aura and true invisibility was worlds apart.

"Could it have mutated?"

Tang Yin scrutinized the Wolf King's appearance with suspicion, and soon, he discovered a clue.