Bei Village's Guardian Spirit

"Want to kill our guardian spirit? You sure dare to dream!" Bei Liqing's face darkened. Bei Feng, their genius, had been crippled, and the clan's precious artifact had been seized. It was a crushing blow to Bei Village. "If it dares come, we dare kill it!" Shi Yunfeng's expression was frigid. He was truly enraged.

Night had long fallen. The mountain forest was cold and shadowy, the stench of blood assailing their nostrils.

"Woo..." Beasts howled across the wilderness. A chilling presence spread through the air, making their hair stand on end. It sounded like evil ghosts weeping and wailing, enough to make one shudder.

Bang

Seeing the people of Bei Village rushing toward them, Little Dot kicked Bei Feng into the air, sending him flying before the people of Stone Village.

"Though he's crippled, keeping him alive will only leave trouble behind. One sword stroke and it's done!" Er Meng's father said fiercely. Without another word, he swung his greatsword. With a puff, Bei Feng's head was cleaved off, blood spraying several feet high.

"Ah, Feng'er!" Bei Liqing cried out, clutching his chest as pain made him cough up blood. That was his own grandson, yet he had been beheaded before his very eyes.

"We already spared him once. If things have come to this today, he has only himself to blame," Shi Linhu said coldly.

Shi Feijiao grabbed the bloody head and threw it over. "Take it back and bury it."

"Guardian spirit, descend already!" Bei Liqing's hair was disheveled. His face flushed crimson, then turned livid, his expression terrifying. None of his earlier composure remained.

The people of Stone Village gathered together, constantly on guard against that guardian spirit, afraid it might suddenly appear and begin a slaughter. The people of Bei Village also withdrew to one side. They had suffered heavy losses this time and now waited cautiously for their guardian spirit to descend.

The trees were dense, and the forest was pitch-dark. Beast roars rose and fell as the yin chill grew heavier, yet no powerful creature ever charged out.

The people of Stone Village surrounded the Azure-Scaled Eagle and protected it in their midst. Clan Chief Shi Yunfeng exhausted every means at his disposal, using up all the medicinal powders he had prepared over the years. In the end, he even dug out some horn blood, red as jade, from the ancient remnant species and fed it to the fierce bird.

Whoosh

A cold arrow shot toward them, accurate and vicious, aimed straight at the Azure-Scaled Eagle's eye. Its cold gleam was startling. This arrow could only have been fired by a fierce man capable of exerting five or six thousand jin with a pull of both arms. It was terrifying. The people of Bei Village feared the Azure-Scaled Eagle would be healed; if that happened, it would be a calamity for them. Thus, they interfered and launched an ambush.

Clang

Shi Linhu swung his broadsword and struck the arrow shaft, knocking it away. With a whoosh, the iron arrow plunged deep into a boulder, scattering sparks.

"Yah!"

Little Dot's brows rose as he charged forward. Bei Village had intercepted and attacked them today, leaving the Azure-Scaled Eagle on the verge of death. He hated these people to the bone. The Silver Moon swept out, transforming into a dazzling stream of light as it surged forward.

It was like a river of stars across the nine heavens, like white waves rolling over a vast sea. It rumbled thunderously, shaking the entire mountain region!

Puff, puff...

Miserable screams came from ahead. Four or five people staggered backward on the spot, blood spraying as ghastly wounds opened across them. Another three or four lost their arms, their faces pale and drenched in cold sweat from the pain.

Little Dot moved with astonishing speed. He sprang up like a young Pixiu, rubbing the string of crystalline white beast fangs around his wrist. Runes flickered as he gave a sharp cry.

Whoosh, whoosh...

The beast-fang bracelet blazed with light. Beautiful patterns emerged over every fang, brilliant and dazzling. They detached from the string, scattering as they flew ahead.

It was a gorgeous rain of light, but its destructive power was shocking, leaving no time to react. The gleaming white beast fangs pierced through many bodies.

Blood blossoms bloomed one after another. Bones snapped and organs tore apart. The people of Bei Village cried out in terror, utterly unable to withstand the precious artifact's assault.

"What is going on? Guardian spirit, you should have arrived by now! Why haven't you appeared? Hurry and save your clansmen!" Bei Liqing roared in alarm, terror filling his heart. At this rate, every person from Bei Village would be buried here. "Retreat!"

The dazzling precious artifact was incomparably more powerful in Little Dot's hands than it had ever been in Bei Feng's. He understood Bone Script, and once he activated it, the artifact's might was no longer what it had been before.

The people of Bei Village collapsed. Even without their clan chief's order to retreat, they would not have remained here. They fled for their lives, yet their guardian spirit still did not appear.

"Little Dot, don't chase them!" Clan Chief Shi Yunfeng feared something might happen to him.

"Wow, this beast-fang bracelet is really powerful." Shi Hao scratched his head dazedly, greatly surprised. The forty-two beast fangs flew back and turned into a gleaming white bracelet around his wrist.

"We need to leave quickly as well. Bei Village's guardian spirit is suspicious by nature. I said I would kill it, so perhaps it was wary of me and thus did not show itself," Shi Yunfeng murmured.

The old clan chief was bluffing, yet it seemed to have had some effect, leaving the people of Stone Village speechless.

Over a hundred people sprang into action. They carried the Azure-Scaled Eagle, supported the wounded, and hoisted those gravely injured and near death onto their backs as they fled swiftly. They were all men raised in the Great Wilderness; as long as someone still had a breath left, perhaps they could be saved. Shi Linhu led this group.

Another group, led by Shi Feijiao, was responsible for carrying and guarding the Suanni. They looked both excited and tense as they carried the crimson treasure horn and the Demon Ape's arm. These were genuine supreme treasures.

Shrubs covered the mountains, and ancient trees towered overhead. Though the group ran quickly, they still encountered many obstacles.

"Woo..." Low howls sounded, rising and falling all around them.

Stone Village was getting closer and closer; they could almost see it. Yet pairs upon pairs of emerald-green eyes appeared in the dark forest, like ghostly flames.

"Heavens, such enormous wolves!"

The people of Stone Village were horrified. They had been surrounded. A pack of gigantic wolves with black backs and white bellies had emerged. Every one was as large as a house, their bloody maws open wide. Their fangs were over half a foot long, snowy white and chilling, made all the more ferocious by their scarlet tongues.

There were not merely one or two, but a full forty or fifty. A pack of savage giant beasts had surrounded them, posing a far greater threat than the people of Bei Village.

"Damn it, Bei Village's guardian spirit truly is suspicious and cunning by nature. It actually gathered such a pack of mutated giant wolves!"

Each wolf was as enormous as an elephant. Spotting even one during an ordinary hunt was rare enough, but forty or fifty had come at once. It was simply a disaster.

In the dark mountain forest, every pair of emerald-green eyes was as large as a small bowl, sinister and icy, brimming with violent malice. No one knew how many fierce beasts they had slaughtered.

"Awooo!" A wolf howl rang out like a clap of thunder, mournful and eerie. A massive figure lunged forward, and a scream immediately came from the rear of the Stone Village group.

Half a villager's body was drenched in blood. One arm, together with his shoulder, had been torn away by a single swipe of a giant wolf's claw. He had suffered a dreadful wound.

Puff

At the crucial moment, Shi Linhu hurled an iron spear. It pierced the giant wolf's hide, blood flowing as it was wounded. Only then did it halt its slaughter, sparing that villager from being torn apart.

Wolves as huge as elephants were terrifying. A few could still be dealt with, but forty or fifty had arrived all at once. More than a hundred people could not hold them back.

"Awooo..."

The giant wolves howled, shaking great swathes of leaves from the mountain trees. Their baleful aura surged.

"Ah..."

Two more screams rang out from different directions. Several giant wolves attacked at once. Their sharp claws could topple a great tree with a casual sweep. Though everyone was on high alert, two villagers were still disemboweled, their intestines spilling out.

"Hurry, bandage them!" Shi Feijiao shouted.

The mountain forest was dim. Though these giant wolves were fierce and powerful, holding an absolute advantage, they still did not attack head-on, instead launching ambushes.

This time, over a dozen giant wolves moved at once, pouncing from the shadows toward the villagers.

Whoosh

Little Dot moved. He raised his wrist, and runes intertwined, taking form before him. The forty-two gleaming white beast fangs shone brilliantly, transforming into daggers, arrows of light, and more as they flew forward.

Puff, puff...

Several giant wolves charging at the front had their eyes pierced blind or their skulls punched through. Blood poured out as they cried miserably and rolled over the ground.

Even such colossal creatures could not withstand a precious artifact. Once struck, they would either be grievously wounded or killed.

"You evil wolves, retreat at once!" Little Dot shouted.

He sent out two Silver Moons and leaped forward. With two puffs, he split two particularly robust giant wolves alive, cleaving them from the brow all the way to the gap between their legs. Both became two halves, blood gushing forth.

The remaining giant wolves became cautious and did not dare attack rashly.

"If it truly comes to it, use one ancestral artifact first. Keep one in reserve, so at a critical moment we can ambush that guardian spirit. Don't let it learn of them all and prepare against them!" Shi Yunfeng murmured.

Pairs of emerald-green eyes filled the surroundings. Giant wolves circled them, white vapor billowing from their nostrils, jagged fangs bared within their bloody maws. Their fierce aura sent chills through everyone's bodies.

"You are all dead. Today, your entire village is destined for extermination!" Bei Liqing appeared again. His face was grim, his eyes like those of a venomous snake. He sat astride a giant wolf that was silver-white from head to tail.

The people of Bei Village had come again. Many young and strong men climbed onto the giant wolves' backs, each holding a bow and arrow. Hatred filled them, and their gazes were cold as they stared this way.

The people of Stone Village sucked in a cold breath. With the giant wolves working alongside them, Bei Village's strength was terrifying. This was not power a single village should possess.

"Our clan's guardian spirit has arrived. None of you will live!" Bei Shan, the leader of Bei Village's hunting party, shouted.

"Isn't it just an old Bei? It has lived so long that its teeth have probably fallen out. I reckon it can barely walk anymore. What use could it possibly be?" Shi Yunfeng sneered, deliberately belittling it.

Bei Village's guardian spirit was a Bei, and the clan had taken its surname from it.

Dozens of giant wolves roared and howled mournfully, making the murderous aura here even heavier. They could pounce at any moment.

"None of you will survive!" Bei Liqing said icily.

"Aren't you afraid of breaking the Great Wilderness's rules and being attacked by every village and clan?" Shi Yunfeng said coldly.

"After killing you and taking your women and children, we'll say our two villages merged into one. If our clan's guardian spirit breaks through, who would dare say another word?" Bei Shan, leader of Bei Village's hunting party, said with a cold laugh.

Forty or fifty giant wolves launched probing attacks, pouncing over from time to time. The people of Stone Village defended while Little Dot was responsible for attacking. After several strikes, he had killed eight giant wolves in succession. Their enormous corpses lay scattered about, filling the mountain forest with the stench of blood.

A full hour passed, yet Bei Village's guardian spirit never appeared. Only the giant wolves attacked, while Bei Shan and the others fired cold arrows from the shadows.

More people from Stone Village were injured, their bodies torn open by wolf claws as large as winnowing baskets.

"So the nature of a Bei truly is suspicious. We can't worry about so much anymore. Bring forth the ancestral artifact and break through!" Shi Yunfeng ordered.

Dragging things out would do them no good. No one knew what schemes that cunning Bei was turning over in its mind. It would be better to return to Stone Village as soon as possible, where the Old Willow Tree protected them.

"Clan Chief, if the ancestral artifact is exposed, won't that bring enormous trouble?" Shi Feijiao asked.

"Keeping ourselves alive is what matters first. Afterward, we'll find a way to slaughter every person from Bei Village who knows about it. Since they are heartless and have driven us to this point, don't blame us for being ruthless!" Shi Yunfeng said coldly, revealing such a terrifying expression for the first time.

They lifted the Azure-Scaled Eagle and carefully protected it in the center. It would become a great force for their future revenge, perhaps capable of resisting the opposing guardian spirit.

The group quickly began to break through. Shi Linhu took out an arm bone and was about to bring it forth. This was the village's ancestral artifact, possessing incomparable power.

Suddenly, before he could act, the distant mountain forest erupted as though a flash flood had burst forth. Beast roars rang out without end, deafening as they surged toward this place.

"A beast tide! Damn it, that old Bei has driven a herd of giant beasts down from the mountain range to crash into us. How ruthless and cunning!" Shi Yunfeng's expression changed.

Shi Linhu also shouted, "That damned old Bei is truly vicious! It wants to trample us to death with a beast tide. Everyone, be on your guard!"

It was not only their side that changed expression; even the people of Bei Village did so. Their guardian spirit was so vicious that even they would suffer the terrible impact. Not everyone had climbed onto wolfback—half of them were still standing on the ground.

"Hurry, get on the wolves' backs!" Bei Liqing shouted.

However, it was already too late. The rumbling had reached them. Even the giant wolves grew uneasy, leaping away and rapidly fleeing aside.

"Awooo..."

A howl sounded, like a mountain ghost weeping, indescribably chilling. Above the beast tide, a strange creature spread its wings and flew over.

It was only a little over two meters long. Its yellowish-brown fur gleamed with oil, but it looked very old, wrinkles covering its wolf-like face. This was a rare Bei; even among countless wolf packs, one might never appear.

Its front legs were very short, making it nearly unable to walk by itself. Ordinarily, it had to lie on a giant wolf's back. Fortunately, its bloodline was powerful enough that it had grown a pair of wings and could fly.

Clearly, this old Bei was terrifying. Primitive runes flickered faintly over its body. It was an immensely powerful fierce beast!