Cave, Demon Wolves

Cao Ling clutched the wound on his upper arm and looked at Xue Yong.

"Deputy Chief Xue, what should we do? Spend the night on Green Ox Mountain?"

Xue Yong first steadied his breathing before saying weakly, "Help me up first. Find somewhere safe and make do for the night."

Cao Ling could not help asking, "What exactly is there on Green Ox Mountain at night?"

Xue Yong glanced at him.

"Stop asking. Once we find a place, I'll explain it all to you. Luckily, we're still on the outskirts of Green Ox Mountain. If we had gone into the deep mountains, we might already be dead."

Cao Ling asked no more. Lu Hao stepped forward as well, and he and Cao Ling supported Xue Yong between them as they prepared to leave.

As they passed Zhou Yuan and Chang Kun's corpses, Xue Yong said to the two of them, "Find a place to lay their bodies to rest. Leave everything else here."

Lu Hao had Cao Ling support Xue Yong onward first. He dragged Zhou Yuan and Chang Kun's bodies beneath a large tree as thick as a man's waist, then gathered some branches and leaves to cover them.

He then swiftly searched the several corpses, finding over a dozen banknotes in total. Lu Hao folded a corner on the banknotes he had found on Zhou Yuan and Chang Kun, intending to deliver them to their families after leaving Green Ox Mountain. He also found several small porcelain bottles.

He stuffed all the banknotes and porcelain bottles into his clothes, hurried a few steps, and caught up with Cao Ling and Xue Yong.

The night was pitch-black. Lu Hao recalled the half-map of Green Ox Mountain he had obtained from Chen Xuan and took it from his clothes.

He took out a firestarter and was just about to strike a flame when Xue Yong suddenly looked at him. "Lu Hao, what are you doing?" Xue Yong barked in a low voice.

"I want to look at the map of Green Ox Mountain and see where we are."

"Put that fire out, now. You must never light a fire in the mountains at night. The firelight will draw high-level Demon Beasts."

Lu Hao looked at Xue Yong. "But if we stumble around the mountains in the dark, we won't even know which way we're going. Wouldn't that make us more likely to run into Demon Beasts?"

He paused. "How about we take off our clothes and block the firelight? Once we locate ourselves and find the nearest cave, we won't need to light another fire."

Xue Yong pondered for a moment, then nodded. "That's the only way!"

The three of them removed their outer garments, pressing their heads together in a circle and draping the clothes from their heads down over their backs.

Lu Hao spread the map on the ground and lit the firestarter. By the faint glow, it took roughly the time to drink half a cup of tea to determine their location.

Lu Hao pointed to a spot at the foot of the mountain. "We're here right now."

He then moved his finger to a spot marked in red cinnabar. "This marks a Demon Wolf cave. It says Lower Bright Force, and it's quite close to where we are. We might as well spend the night in this cave."

Xue Yong looked at the two of them. Both he and Cao Ling were injured and had little fighting strength left. But Lu Hao was Upper-Grade Bright Force, and his combat strength alone was at least equal to two or three Martial Artists of the same level. If the cave only contained Lower Bright Force Demon Beasts, there should be no danger.

Lu Hao extinguished the firestarter, and the three of them put their clothes back on.

Lu Hao and Cao Ling supported Xue Yong once more and headed toward the Demon Wolf cave.

The luxuriant branches overhead blocked most of the moonlight. Only a few faint beams filtered through the leaves and scattered across the ground.

From time to time, the three stepped on dead branches and rotting leaves. Whenever dry leaves crunched beneath their feet or a branch snapped, Cao Ling would look around in terror, afraid that Demon Beasts or something even more frightening might come darting out.

After roughly half an hour, they felt their way to the cave marked on the map.

From a distance, the mountain wind carried over a foul, fishy stench. The three hesitated outside the cave for a moment. Xue Yong looked around again, then nodded at the two of them.

"Let's go in. It should be much safer inside than outside!"

The three of them felt their way into the cave, only to find utter darkness within.

Lu Hao raised his eyes and abruptly saw a pair of green dots light up in the darkness, followed by a second pair, then a third... There were roughly a dozen such pairs.

"Demon Wolves!" Xue Yong cried urgently. Perhaps he had exerted himself too much and pulled at the wound on his chest; as soon as he spoke, he broke into a violent coughing fit.

As Xue Yong's words fell, the dozen pairs of eyes in the darkness began to move, lunging fiercely out of the shadows.

Lu Hao stood at the front. Seeing the Demon Wolves pounce, he sidestepped and evaded them, then swung a backhand chop that struck a Demon Wolf squarely across the neck. The Demon Wolf let out an "Awoo!" and collapsed, unable to rise again.

These Demon Wolves were all at Lower Bright Force, while Lu Hao was now Upper-Grade Bright Force. When he unleashed both fists at full strength, he wielded the force of four oxen—four thousand jin. Lower Bright Force Demon Wolves could not withstand that.

The instant he struck the Demon Wolf, a frigid force of Blood Baleful Intent surged into his body through his palm. A faint wisp of black Blood Baleful Intent drifted between his dantian and Blood Essence. Yet after the Blood Baleful Intent within this Demon Wolf was absorbed by Lu Hao, its corpse did not shrivel as human Martial Artists did after their Blood Baleful Intent was absorbed.

At that moment, another Demon Wolf charged at him.

Lu Hao infused his hand chop with the Blood Baleful Intent in his body and unleashed a Blood Saber Slash at the Demon Wolf's neck.

The Blood Baleful Intent bored through his hand chop and into the Demon Wolf's body. In an instant, the heavy blow bearing the force of four oxen cleaved into the Demon Wolf's neck, while the frigid Blood Baleful Intent exploded through its meridians with a thunderous crash. The Demon Wolf also let out an "Awoo!" and fell dead.

Every hand chop Lu Hao threw killed a Demon Wolf.

Just as he was killing with growing fervor, a much larger Demon Wolf rushed at him. Lu Hao chopped its skull with a hand strike, but the Demon Wolf merely staggered back a few steps, shook its head, and steadied itself.

"Careful, that's the alpha wolf! Strike its waist and belly! Wolves have heads of bronze, backs of iron, and waists of tofu—the waist and belly are its weak points!" Xue Yong leaned against the cave wall, clutching the wound on his chest as he shouted softly. Once he finished, he coughed violently again.

Before his words had even faded, the alpha wolf pounced again.

Lu Hao shifted aside, dodging the alpha wolf's attack. The moment it landed, Lu Hao borrowed the force of his waist and hips, circulated his Blood Baleful Intent, and unleashed Golden Saber Throat-Ripper, stabbing toward the alpha wolf's waist and belly.

Pfft!

His fingertips sank a finger's depth into the wolf's abdomen, and a frigid stream of Blood Baleful Intent several times denser than before rapidly poured into Lu Hao's body through his fingertips.

The Demon Wolf let out a miserable howl. Its huge body crashed to the ground, its limbs twitched a few times, and then it went still.

Seeing this, the remaining seven or eight Demon Wolves spun around and bolted toward the cave entrance.

Lu Hao immediately pursued them. By the time he reached the entrance, the pack had already run far away and swiftly vanished into the darkness.

At that moment, Xue Yong endured the pain in his chest and cried out urgently, "Lu Hao, don't chase them! There are countless Demon Beasts in the mountains at night. It's dangerous outside—come back!"

Lu Hao looked once more in the direction the wolf pack had fled, then returned to the cave.

Lu Hao came before Xue Yong and Cao Ling. Cao Ling helped Xue Yong sit down, letting him lean his back against the cave wall.

After taking a few breaths, Xue Yong looked at the two of them. "Those Demon Wolves—who knows whether they've fled for good, or gone to find stronger Demon Beasts to take revenge."