The Strange Wolf Bandits

At the center of the valley, the battle was unfolding in the bloodiest way imaginable.

Wolf bandits, savage creatures halfway between humans and wolves, had always been known for their fearlessness in the face of death.

But the way this pack of wolf bandits was fighting today could no longer be explained by the words "fearless in the face of death" alone.

Every wolf bandit's eyes were an unnatural shade of scarlet. White foam hung from their mouths, the muscles across their bodies bulged to an impossible degree, and blue-black veins crawled over their exposed skin like earthworms.

They let out low growls that seemed to be wrenched from the very depths of their chests. The sounds didn't seem like threats so much as an outlet for pain pushed to its breaking point.

The leader of the pack was a monstrous beast nearly eight feet tall. Its gray-white mane stood on end, and its scarlet, vertical-pupiled eyes held not a trace of reason—only pure, undisguised bloodlust.

Its strength was roughly equivalent to that of a Soul Emperor. Under normal circumstances, it wouldn't stand a chance against a Soul Saint. Yet it was locked in combat with the strongest person on this expedition, Riels, a level seventy-three Soul Saint. It showed no sign of falling behind; instead, it attacked at every turn, fighting as though it meant to trade its life for his.

Riels's Martial Soul was the Earth-Splitting Violent Bear, and his style was fierce and overbearing. Every punch he threw carried a halo of ochre Soul Power, and the ground cracked apart wherever his fists passed.

His Seventh Soul Ring was already glowing. With his Martial Soul Avatar empowering him, he had transformed into a three-meter-tall bear-shaped apparition. One swipe of its paw could crush a slab of bluestone the size of a millstone into powder.

By all rights, a disparity in strength this great should have meant that the wolf bandit leader couldn't last even the time it took to burn a stick of incense.

But the wolf bandit leader had endured.

That paw had landed squarely on its chest. The crisp crack of breaking bones rang out, and its chest visibly caved in. The force sent its entire body flying more than ten meters, where it crashed into a pile of rubble and kicked up a cloud of dust.

Riels hadn't even had time to catch his breath when a more ferocious howl came from the rubble. The wolf bandit leader shot out of the dust, and the collapsed section of its chest was healing at a visible speed. New flesh twisted and writhed, as though countless worms were crawling beneath its skin.

"What the hell is this thing?" Riels's pupils contracted. He had spent half his life at war, from battles between Soul Masters to campaigns against Evil Soul Masters. He had seen all kinds of things, but the speed at which this creature recovered from its injuries was beyond anything he knew about wolf bandits.

The wolf bandit leader gave him no time to think. It charged on all fours, moving so fast it left a blur behind, and snapped at Riels's throat.

Riels twisted aside. The wolf bandit leader's fangs scraped across his pauldron, leaving a deep set of tooth marks in the hard armor formed from his Soul Bone.

At the same time, the wolf bandit leader swept its claws across him. Five streaks of blood flashed into view as it tore five deep wounds beneath Riels's ribs, each one reaching the bone.

A beast at Soul Emperor level had wounded a Soul Saint with his Martial Soul Avatar active.

"Bishop Riels is hurt."

Hu Liena's voice tightened abruptly. She grabbed Yan, who was about to charge out, and said urgently, "Don't be reckless. If you go out there now, you'll only get yourself killed."

"So we're just supposed to watch that beast wear the bishop down?"

Flames seemed to burn in Yan's eyes. His Martial Soul was the Flame Lord, and he had always had a fiery temper. Now that he had seen their strongest fighter injured, the fury in his chest was nearly burning through his skull.

"Idiot."

Xie Yue spoke coldly, his tone as detached as if he were stating a fact.

"If you charge in, Bishop Riels will have to split his attention to protect you. We three Soul Elders are no match for this level of battle. Our greatest contribution isn't to fight to the death, but to stay out of the way."

Yan's clenched fists creaked as his knuckles ground together, but he didn't argue.

Xie Yue was right. All three of them were exceptionally talented, but the gulf in Soul Power Level remained. A wolf bandit leader at Soul Emperor level, along with a pack of frenzied wolf bandit underlings, was far beyond what three Soul Elders could face head-on.

The problem was, they couldn't retreat even if they wanted to.

The wolf bandits had blocked both exits from the valley.

The original plan had been to make Riels the centerpiece of a frontal assault, with four Soul Emperors guarding the flanks and the other Soul Masters forming a formation to seal off the escape routes. They would surround the pack in the valley and wipe them out in one fell swoop.

But the situation had completely turned around. The wolf bandits weren't afraid to die. Two of the four Soul Emperors were already wounded, three Soul Ancestors had fallen, and five Soul Elder-level team members had been scattered. Their formation had long since fallen apart.

Riels was tied down by the wolf bandit leader, while the other wolf bandit underlings were devouring Spirit Hall's encirclement at an astonishing pace.

"Something's wrong."

Hu Liena suddenly spoke. Her voice dropped, weighted with a rare gravity. "Look at their eyes."

Xie Yue and Yan followed her gaze at the same time.

Every wolf bandit's eyes on the battlefield glowed with that unnatural scarlet light. But on closer inspection, the glow wasn't steady. It pulsed like a heartbeat, bright and dim, bright and dim, all in perfect unison.

As though something were synchronizing control of their minds.

"Puppets? No, puppets wouldn't have such strong independent fighting instincts."

Hu Liena shook her head, then her pupils suddenly contracted.

"It's a drug. Something is stimulating their central nervous systems, making them lose their sense of pain while pushing their Soul Power circulation to its absolute limit. If this continues, they'll exhaust themselves to death—but before that happens, their combat strength will multiply several times over."

"That's why they're willing to trade blows with Bishop Riels." Xie Yue narrowed his eyes.

"This is a suicidal fighting style."

"The question is, who drugged them?"

Hu Liena's gaze passed over the chaotic battlefield and settled on the deepest part of the valley, where shadows shrouded the area.

Wolf bandits were pack animals, and their lair was there. Yet the darkness held no movement at all. It was as quiet as a tomb.

"We can't worry about that now."

Yan sprang to his feet. The phantom of the Flame Lord appeared behind him, and his third Soul Ring lit up. "Bishop Riels is about to lose. I'm going to help him."

This time, Hu Liena didn't stop him.

She could see clearly that the situation at the center of the battlefield had worsened to a dangerous breaking point.

Riels had managed to hold on until now thanks to the deep reserves of a Soul Saint's Soul Power, but the wolf bandit leader's attacks grew more relentless with every wave. And three more wolf bandits at Soul King level had circled around the flank, savagely tearing at Bishop Riels's defenses.

If this went on, there was a real chance that this level seventy-three Soul Saint would fall here.

"Brother, go with Yan. Target those three Soul King-level wolf bandits. You don't have to kill them—just keep them occupied."

Hu Liena issued her orders quickly, her voice calm in a way that seemed impossible for a girl in her teens.

"I'm going to find the source."