Hunting as Usual, Trouble at Stone Village

"This feeling is wonderful!" Bai Yixin was utterly immersed in the sensation of growing stronger bit by bit.

Every inch of Bai Yixin's flesh and blood contained a glimmering point of light, like a deity. These were manifestations of divine Runes, which continuously drew in the wonders of heaven and earth and brought them into his body.

And within his meridians, a stream of energy slowly grew thicker, circulating ceaselessly along a certain path and nourishing the flesh, bones, and sinews it passed through.

"Roar, roar—!"

The roars of beasts came from the nearby woods. Dense footsteps closed in around Bai Yixin. Though the soft steps were well concealed by the swaying leaves, the wind carried a warning to him.

"Wolf stink..." It was the eleventh day of his usual all-out hunting. Bai Yixin had been grinding away all morning and was just about to take a break, eat lunch, then get back to hunting for experience and proficiency. He hadn't expected some shortsighted fools to begrudge him even that little bit of time.

"Greed only brings death!" Bai Yixin glanced at the prey piled up beside him like a small hill and sneered. Yet his eyes gleamed with anticipation, as if he were delighted that such a fine opportunity had come knocking.

The mountain slopes were overgrown with shrubs, and ancient trees towered into the sky.

"Woo... woo..." Low howls sounded, rising and falling, suddenly echoing all around Bai Yixin's campsite.

Behind the surrounding trees, pair after pair of emerald eyes appeared. Bai Yixin was surrounded.

A pack of giant wolves with black backs and white bellies emerged. Each was as big as a house, its gaping maw lined with fangs over half a foot long. Their teeth were snowy white and bone-chilling, and their scarlet tongues made them look all the more savage.

There weren't just one or two of them. A full thirty or forty ferocious giant beasts had closed in.

Wolves this huge were each comparable in size to an elephant on Earth. It was rare to see even three or five while hunting, yet this time thirty or forty had shown up all at once. It was practically a... feast!

Each pair of emerald eyes was as big as a small bowl, sinister and icy, brimming with viciousness. No one knew how many ferocious beasts these wolves had killed.

"Awooo..."

The pack howled. Leaves shook loose from the trees across the mountainside, and a fearsome aura surged through the air.

A wolf's howl cracked like thunder, carrying a chilling, mournful edge. A huge figure charged at Bai Yixin, reeking of blood and musk, the wind howling in its wake.

"Just what I wanted!" Bai Yixin licked his lips and sprang into the air. In a single leap, he crossed more than thirty meters, passing the charging giant wolf without slowing before rushing toward the others. He held his right arm like a blade and swept Sword Qi at the pack.

The Sword Qi Bai Yixin unleashed was a streak of silvery moonlight, a radiant Half-Moon. The essence of heaven and earth surged around it. It rose as though from a vast sea, carrying boundless divine might as it slashed toward the wolves.

The giant wolf he had passed hadn't escaped unscathed, either. It landed and tried to turn back to attack, but before it could do anything, a streak of blood appeared through the fur at its neck.

The giant wolf took one step, and a massive lump fell from its neck. The smell of blood spread in an instant.

The Half-Moon Sword Qi tore through the air. With two sharp bursts, it cleaved two especially robust giant wolves in half, slicing from their heads all the way to their hind legs. Blood gushed from their severed bodies.

Even after cutting down the two wolves, the Sword Qi still had power to spare. Trees and rocks along its path cracked again and again, shattering one after another.

The remaining giant wolves grew cautious, no longer daring to attack recklessly. They hadn't expected to run into such a tough opponent.

Seeing their companions' gruesome fate didn't make the giant wolves retreat. Their eyes remained fixed greedily on the mountain of meat behind Bai Yixin, their emerald gazes chilling to behold.

Pairs of emerald eyes ringed the area. The giant wolves surrounded him, their breath steaming from their nostrils. Their gaping maws revealed savage fangs, and their ferocious aura sent a chill through the air.

"If this had happened earlier, I might've had to put in a bit more effort. But now? Heh. Come at me all at once!"

Bai Yixin swept his gaze over the pack, which watched him like a tiger eyeing its prey, and gave his body a light shake. Runes blazed at once, shining through his body. Divine Radiance enveloped him, making him look crystalline and unusually fair.

With a soft cry, a Silver Moon appeared before Bai Yixin. His gaze shifted slightly, and the moon instantly blazed with divine light. A fierce bird burst from within, its shadow swelling in an instant until it was like a cloud stretching across the sky. Its fearsome aura was astonishing.

With a boom, the enormous demonic bird—whether the Heaven-Swallowing Sparrow or the Azure Sky Roc—swooped down. Its enormous claws, shrouded in mist, seized two giant wolves. Then, with a thump, it drove one claw into their skulls, piercing them clean through.

At the same time, Bai Yixin shot into the pack like a bolt of lightning. In the blink of an eye, he reached a giant wolf, his right leg whipping toward its skull like lightning, swift and fierce!

The crash sent sand and stones flying across the ground, while dust billowed into the sky.

The giant wolf was kicked off the ground and sent flying through the air. It soared more than ten meters before crashing down with a thud.

One after another, the wolves fell. Bai Yixin had no fixed moves apart from his swordsmanship. The rest came from the combat instincts he had learned while fighting wild beasts. Like fierce beasts and birds of prey, every strike was a simple, direct, primitive act of killing.

On one side, the demonic bird conjured by the Silver Moon Precious Technique slaughtered the wolves. On the other, Bai Yixin broke bones and crushed skulls with every punch. Before long, the pack of giant wolves that had brought death upon themselves was wiped out.

Looking at the mountain of meat, now half again as tall, Bai Yixin smiled with satisfaction.

"Phew~~ Looks like today's haul might double!"

"But I'd better head back first. This much blood qi could attract a ferocious beast I can't handle." Bai Yixin summoned a small dark cloud and used it to wash himself off. Then he stored the mountain of prey in the backpack that came with the Game Panel and set off for the village.

It was worth noting that this so-called backpack was more like a tiny, empty world. There was nothing inside—not even a sun or Spiritual Energy, only an unknown source of light and an endless void. It seemed to have no boundaries, so its capacity was impossible to determine.

"Boom!"

A blazing mass of lightning appeared in the direction of Stone Village. It was bolt after bolt of black lightning.

Almost as soon as the lightning appeared, a wolf's howl rang through heaven and earth, like a divine wolf howling at the moon. Golden Light also appeared in the direction of Stone Village, dazzling and dyeing the sky gold.

And it still wasn't over. Vast swathes of misty purple qi emerged, covering the sky and blotting out the sun. They gathered into heavy clouds, which formed a colossal purple giant, towering up to the heavens. It raised its foot, poised to stamp out something.

"Gasp—!"

Bai Yixin's expression changed, and he sped up.

If he wasn't mistaken, those people who had taken a beating in Stone Village not long ago had come seeking revenge.

Bai Yixin wasn't worried that anything would happen to Stone Village. After all, it had a powerful protector like the Willow Deity. But he'd never seen the Willow Deity act on this scale before. He couldn't afford to miss it!