A Hair's Breadth from Death

On Douluo Continent, outside Heaven Dou City in the Heaven Dou Empire, a child of five or six crouched beside a crystal-clear stream, scooping up the clear water with his hands and bringing it to his mouth.

Suddenly, the child stopped drinking. His keen instincts sensed a trace of danger coming from behind him. He whirled around, his silver eyes sweeping the area, and spotted a black animal lurking in the bushes not far from the riverbank. It stared at him greedily, drool dripping from its mouth.

Its body was well-proportioned, its limbs long and slender, its muzzle pointed, its face elongated, its nose prominent, and its ears sharp and upright. The cold, hungry gaze in those green eyes told him everything: it was a wolf, and one that had been starving for a long time.

The child looked at the hungry wolf, panic flashing through his eyes, but he quickly calmed down. He drew a dagger and focused completely. The panic in his eyes turned into deep vigilance as his mind began weighing the advantages and disadvantages before him.

He could not run. He absolutely could not run. In an open forest, no human could ever outrun a wolf.

He was frail, while the wolf was enormous. Whether in strength or speed, it far surpassed him. In terms of physical condition, the wolf had the advantage.

The wolf had sharp teeth and claws, while he had a sharp dagger. In terms of equipment, they were evenly matched.

The wolf had extensive hunting experience. Though he had learned some self-defense techniques in his previous life, he could not compare to a wolf. When it came to experience, the wolf undoubtedly had the upper hand.

After considering everything, the child judged his odds against the wolf to be two in ten. Human intelligence accounted for one part, and the dagger in his hand another. In every other respect, he was thoroughly outmatched.

While the boy was thinking, so was the wolf. Its tactic was to cling close to its prey, slowly pressuring and chasing it, exhausting the prey as it fled in fear before delivering the final fatal blow with its sharp teeth.

"I can't run, so I can only fight. The terrain is important too. This stream isn't deep, and the bottom is muddy. It's hard for a person to move in it, much less a wolf." The boy stared at the hungry wolf before him. If the enemy did not move, neither would he. Man and wolf faced off beside the stream.

Time slowly passed. A cold glint appeared in the hungry wolf's eyes as it fixed its gaze on the boy and pounced.

As the hungry wolf sprang toward him, the boy took a large step backward into the stream. He widened the distance, weakening the force of its leap, then raised the dagger in his hand. When the wolf lunged before him, he thrust without hesitation.

A foul wind hit him head-on. The wolf's sharp fangs pierced through his clothes and sank into his left arm. Bright red blood flowed from his arm, staining his white clothes and dripping into the water, while the dagger in his hand drove straight into the wolf's abdomen.

Man and wolf landed together in the muddy water. The soft silt restricted the boy's movements, but it also hindered the hungry wolf. The wolf's bite on his left arm sent bone-deep pain through him. Likewise, the dagger had pierced the wolf's abdomen. Human blood and wolf blood stained the river red together.

Man and wolf rolled through the filthy water. With his left arm injured, the boy could barely raise it, but no matter what happened, he could not loosen his grip on the dagger in his right hand. It was now the wolf's only weakness.

The wolf gradually released its teeth from the boy's left arm, preparing to strike at a more fatal spot. The boy fixed his eyes on the wolf's neck, using his left arm to block its fangs as he fiercely twisted the dagger in his right hand. At the same time, he opened his mouth and bit down on the wolf's neck.

Awooo!

Feeling the pain in its abdomen and neck, the wolf howled and opened its jaws to bite the boy. Its sharp claws also raked toward him. But the boy clamped his teeth tightly around the wolf's neck, while the dagger in his hand stabbed again and again into its abdomen and waist.

Man and wolf rolled through the mud, blood flowing ceaselessly from both of them until it was impossible to tell which belonged to the human and which to the beast.

No one knew how much time had passed before the man and wolf in the river stopped rolling. The boy released his bite, pulled out the dagger, and staggered forward. But before he could leave the stream, blood loss sent a wave of dizziness through his mind. He lost consciousness and collapsed into the water.

Not far away, a carriage had stopped at some point. The curtain over its window was lifted, and Qian Renxue looked through it at the scene by the stream, a faintly contemplative look appearing in her eyes.

Outside the carriage, a voice spoke in surprise. "Truly unbelievable. He's only five or six years old, yet he managed to kill a hungry wolf. And he was ruthless enough, though his attacks had no form or order. It's obvious that he has no combat experience at all."

Hearing this, Qian Renxue nodded lightly. "She Long, go check his injuries and save him. He seems to be a natural talent."

A sharp glint flashed through Qian Renxue's eyes. When an ordinary child encountered a hungry wolf, their first reaction should have been to run, or be so terrified that they could not move. Yet this child not only had the courage to face a hungry wolf, but also the calm temperament to judge the terrain most favorable to himself in the shortest possible time.

From his performance just now, Qian Renxue was certain that this child was extraordinary. His plain clothes made it obvious that he was not the child of an aristocratic family. His combat skills and experience were crude beyond measure, so he could not possibly be a disciple of a sect or a member of a clan.

Whether aristocratic families, sects, or clans, they all trained their children in combat techniques and experience from an early age. Therefore, Qian Renxue concluded that this child was a commoner.

At five or six years old, commoner children should still have been carefree and playing. They could not possibly possess the courage to fight a hungry wolf, nor the calm disposition to quickly judge the terrain that favored them.

"Yes, Young Master!"

Outside the carriage, She Long answered. After several flickers, he appeared beside the stream and began examining the child's injuries.

The bones in his left arm were fractured. There were multiple broken bones throughout his body, and countless wounds from sharp claws covered him. Blood flowed as though it cost nothing, dyeing his white clothes completely red. Muddy water covered nearly his entire body, and even his silver hair had been stained black by the mud.

She Long placed a hand against the child's neck and could clearly feel a faint breath. But it was truly feeble, as though it might disappear the next moment.

A thread of Soul Power entered the child's body, protecting his heart meridian. Then She Long picked him up, and after a few flickers, returned to the carriage.