War Wolf King

The Red Flame Wolf King's two fangs were like tempered daggers, glinting with a cold light.

Its savage gaze locked firmly onto Luo Siqing in midair. The next instant, something astonishing happened.

Its shoulder blades suddenly bulged, and a pair of crimson fleshy wings burst out from its body, unfurling in the wind.

As the wings beat, they stirred up a howling gale, whipping the scorching sand and stones from the ground into the air. In the blink of an eye, it was about to shoot skyward and pounce straight at Luo Siqing.

"Attack!"

Luo Siqing's cool, clear voice rang like ice beads falling onto a jade plate, carrying distinctly into everyone's ears.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh...

Hidden in the shadows, Lu Lin and the others released their bowstrings at the same time. Twelve Spirit-Breaking Arrows shot out from different directions, weaving into a deadly net of arrows.

Some went straight for the wolf king's crimson eyes, some aimed at the vital point of its throat, some targeted the membranes of its newly grown fleshy wings, and there were even devious arrows shooting toward its rear...

The Red Flame Wolf King was forced to halt its ascent and turn to deal with the arrows attacking from every side.

It let out a low, furious roar, and scorching flames abruptly surged up around its body. The temperature climbed sharply, and the surrounding grass and trees instantly withered, caught fire, and turned to flying ash.

Huff, huff...

The wolf king's wings beat violently. Flames spread outward in layers like ripples, forming a wall of fire.

Most of the arrows were struck by the flames. Their shafts instantly dimmed, then dropped weakly to the ground.

Only four arrows broke through the obstruction of fire, but by the time they neared the wolf king, they were already spent bolts from an exhausted crossbow, and it casually swatted them away with a sweep of its claws.

"Kill!"

Just then, a clear cry came from the air.

A blade-shaped magic artifact several meters long cleaved down from the sky. Icy light flowed along its body as it bore down with unstoppable momentum, heading straight for the wolf king's skull.

Luo Siqing had finally made her move. With the guards restraining it, she had been able to fully gather her power, and this strike was astonishingly strong.

The Red Flame Wolf King sensed the lethal danger. It raised its head and howled, and the flames around its body madly converged toward its head.

The next instant, a thick pillar of fire erupted from its mouth, shooting straight into the clouds and colliding violently with the blade-shaped magic artifact.

A demonic beast's strength depended not only on its cultivation level, but was also closely tied to the concentration of its bloodline.

This wolf king's bloodline was extraordinary, far surpassing that of an ordinary Red Flame Wolf. But in the end, it was only at the ninth layer of the first rank. Faced with Luo Siqing's long-charged strike, its hasty counterattack could not block it completely.

Boom!

Amid the deafening roar, the blade-shaped magic artifact advanced like splitting bamboo, tearing through the pillar of fire, its remaining force undiminished as it slashed toward the wolf king's head.

The wolf king was shocked and hurriedly raised its claws to meet it.

Several clangs rang out. The wolf king staggered backward, and two nails over a foot long, as hard as magic artifacts, snapped with the impact and shot away. A several-foot-long blade wound appeared on the top of its head, deep enough to reveal bone, blood pouring down.

Awoo!

Being injured instead completely ignited the wolf king's ferocity. It let out an enraged roar, the killing intent in its eyes almost congealing into substance.

Its wings beat violently, and it was about to soar into the sky again, swearing to tear apart the human cultivator who had wounded it.

Just then, another twelve arrows came whistling in from all around, accurately shooting toward its vital points.

The wolf king had no choice but to stop again and defend itself.

And this gave Luo Siqing precious time to gather power.

This was precisely the value of personal guards: by restraining the enemy, they created opportunities for their master to cast powerful spells.

A spell charged for a long time and one cast in haste were as different in power as heaven and earth.

Swish!

The enormous battle blade cleaved down once more. This strike was even stronger than the previous one, accurately tearing open a hideous wound in the wolf king's abdomen, almost injuring its internal organs.

Roar, roar, roar...

The wolf king flew into a towering rage. Its killing-intent-filled gaze swept the surroundings, then it suddenly pounced fiercely in one direction.

It had decided to deal with these annoying "ants" first, then focus on the cultivator in the sky.

"Fuck, why is it charging at me?" Lu Lin cursed inwardly, immediately using Spirit Cat Step to dodge nimbly between the tree trunks.

But he soon discovered that the wolf king's target was not him, but Lan Zhu.

Just now, Lan Zhu had been hiding in a large tree not far from him.

To the wolf king, only the arrows shot by four Body Tempering tenth-layer martial artists like Lan Zhu posed the greatest threat.

Lan Zhu reacted extremely quickly. The moment she discovered the wolf king was charging over, she immediately leaped up and darted rapidly through the forest.

Boom! Bang!

The wolf king charged into the forest and opened its mouth, spewing flames that filled the sky. In an instant, the entire mountain forest sank into a sea of fire, thick smoke billowing and heat waves pressing in.

"Evil beast, die!"

High in the sky, Luo Siqing's offensive descended once again. This time, aside from the blade-shaped magic artifact, she also sacrificed two first-rank superior talismans, Ice Sword Talismans.

The talismans burned, transforming into two ice-crystal longswords several meters long that attacked the Wolf King in a triangular formation with the blade-shaped artifact.

The Wolf King blocked with all its strength, but an ice sword still stabbed into its shoulder. Ice and fire clashed, hissing and spitting; the flames around the Wolf King instantly weakened, and its aura withered considerably.

Seizing the chance, another dozen-plus arrows tore through the air.

One of them shot precisely into the wound in the Wolf King's abdomen, piercing straight into its organs.

The Wolf King suffered a heavy blow. Its aura rapidly weakened, and after letting out several mournful cries, it turned to flee toward the depths of the mountain forest.

How could Luo Siqing allow it to escape?

The longsword artifact traced a graceful arc through the air, unleashing dozens of fierce blade gleams that fell over the Wolf King like the net of heaven and the mesh of earth.

Though the Wolf King struggled with all its might, it could not turn back the tide. In the end, its head was severed by a single slash, and it crashed to the ground, completely dead.

Once the Red Flame Wolf King died, there were no more great enemies in this area. Seeing this, the few remaining Red Flame Wolves scattered and fled in all directions.

Luo Siqing drifted down and led Lu Lin and the others through the smoke-and-fire-filled mountain forest to the depths of the mountain hollow.

Flames filled this place, and magma could even be seen slowly flowing across the ground.

At the center of the hollow, two enormous crimson rocks stood abruptly upright. Some dry bones were scattered over the rocks, clearly left behind after the Wolf King had fed.

This was the Red Flame Wolf King's lair.

Luo Siqing's body was like willow down as she lightly leaped onto the rock. With a sweep of her sleeve, force surged out and swept all the dry bones on the rock into the flames below.

"I will enter seclusion here and absorb the power of earthfire to break through to the ninth level of Qi Refining. Spread out around the area and guard me." Her gaze swept over everyone before finally landing on Lu Lin and Ma Cheng. "Lu Lin, Ma Cheng, those Red Flame Wolves' pelts and claws are quite valuable. Go collect them."

"Yes!"

Everyone accepted the order and dispersed.

Luo Siqing sat cross-legged on the rock. With a light lift of both hands, several formation flags flew out and landed precisely around the mountain hollow, vanishing from sight.

After arranging the protective formation, she closed her eyes and began circulating her cultivation method.

The power of the surrounding flames was drawn in, transforming into thin strands of red glow that gathered toward her. In an instant, it was as if a layer of gorgeous crimson cloud-robes had been draped over her body, dazzling with radiance.

Lu Lin and Ma Cheng traveled together, returning along the original route.

"Senior Brother Ma, how about we split up? It'll be more efficient," Lu Lin suggested.

"Fine!" Ma Cheng nodded in agreement.

After the two separated, Lu Lin moved quickly, arriving at the place where they had first fought the Red Flame Wolves.

Six wolf corpses lay there in a disorderly heap.

Lu Lin drew the Blood Demon Blade at his waist, but he did not skin the wolves right away. Instead, he accurately cut open a Red Flame Wolf's chest and dug out a crimson chunk of meat.

[Inferior spiritual energy discovered. Can be exchanged for two years of bitter cultivation. Exchange?]

It really worked!

Joy flashed through Lu Lin's eyes.

He remembered that back on Four Underworld Mountain, those Underworld Blood Beasts had also possessed milky-white chunks of meat that could be exchanged for cultivation time.

Later, after consulting materials, he had learned that demon beasts all had a piece of "essence meat" where spiritual energy gathered, and it was precisely the source of a first-rank demon beast's power.

It was said that once a demon beast advanced to the second rank and became a great demon comparable to a Foundation Establishment cultivator, this piece of meat would condense into a demon core, becoming an important material for refining spirit pills.

But the meat chunks of first-rank demon beasts contained too many impurities and were of little use to immortal cultivators, so they were usually ignored.

"Exchange!"

With a thought, the crimson chunk of meat rapidly "withered," finally turning into a handful of ash-like impurities that scattered onto the ground.

As for Lu Lin's cultivation time, it increased by two years.

Lu Lin sped up, extracting and converting the essence meat from the other five Red Flame Wolves. Only then did he begin carefully skinning the wolves and chopping off their claws.