Sacrificial Offering: Eye of Zheng

The wolf pack moved.

A short, piercing howl snapped like a taut string being torn apart. The Xie Wolves surrounding them pounced at once, their crimson heads dragging streaks of scarlet afterimages through the dim forest.

Seven or eight Tidal Surge Realm bodies rode on a stench-laden wind, lunging at Biao and Lin Yi from different directions.

Biao sidestepped and blocked himself directly in front of Lin Yi.

His right fist shot out, smashing squarely into the face of the foremost Xie Wolf. The beast let out a muffled grunt and flew backward, crashing into another wolf behind it and disrupting its charge.

But more wolves had already circled around from both sides.

Gritting his teeth, Lin Yi raised his leg and kicked away a Xie Wolf that had bitten for his left leg.

But he was too weak. The kick only knocked the wolf slightly off course. It rolled once upon landing, then rose again, its crimson eyes fixed on him.

While beating back the wolves before him, Biao kept stealing glances toward Lin Yi from the corner of his eye.

Every time a Xie Wolf turned and lunged at Lin Yi, he had to endure the attacks before him head-on to free up a hand to protect him.

One Xie Wolf's fangs bit through the flesh of his shoulder. Another's claws plowed three bloody furrows across his back, deep enough to expose bone. Yet he did not even furrow his brow. He smashed his elbow backward, shattering the jaw of the wolf clamped onto his shoulder, then spun and kicked away the beast that had clawed his back.

But there were too many wolves.

They surged forward wave after wave like a tide. The moment one wave was beaten back, another filled the gap.

Biao had to hold back most of the frontal assault by himself while also dividing his attention to save Lin Yi behind and beside him.

His breathing grew heavier and heavier. The speed of his punches visibly slowed, and the wounds on his body began to spread from flesh wounds into deeper injuries.

Lin Yi watched Biao's back in front of him. That iron-tower-like body had been soaked in so much blood that its original skin color could no longer be seen. Fresh claw marks and fang holes covered his shoulders, back, and legs, blood dripping from his pant legs to the ground drop by drop.

With every drop, Lin Yi's heart sank with it.

"Brother Biao..." His voice was so hoarse that it was nearly nothing but breath. "Leave me alone. Break out on your own."

Biao did not turn around. He did not even pause.

He punched away the fastest Xie Wolf lunging at him, then sharply rammed aside another wolf trying to bite Lin Yi from the flank, the entire sequence flowing in one breath.

Then he cursed, "What the fuck are you talking about?!"

His voice was hoarse, but every word carried blazing fury.

"How long did you carry me while running just now? You didn't fucking abandon me, and now you want me to leave?!"

He sent another wolf flying, then turned his head with a rough breath to glance at Lin Yi.

His blood-smeared face held a pair of eyes bright as red-hot coals. "If we leave, we leave together. If we die, we die together."

Lin Yi's throat tightened, and he said nothing more.

Gritting his teeth, he raised his arm and used his last shred of strength to drive an elbow into a Xie Wolf trying to ambush Biao from the side.

The two of them held on for another dozen or so breaths.

Biao's movements grew slower and slower.

His right fist could no longer send Xie Wolves flying with a single blow as it had at the beginning. Most of the time, he could only barely knock them aside and force them back.

Lin Yi was no better. His legs had begun to weaken, and patches of black swam before his eyes.

The two went from fighting shoulder to shoulder to supporting each other. Biao used his still-intact right hand to grip Lin Yi's arm and hold him up, while Lin Yi clutched Biao's arm to keep him from falling.

But the wolves surrounding them remained.

Although four Xie Wolf Corpses already lay on the ground, the rest still watched them like tigers eyeing prey, forming an even tighter circle. Their crimson wolf eyes gleamed with bloodthirst.

Those beasts were hunters too. They could smell their prey weakening. They waited for the moment when the two of them could no longer remain standing.

Awooo—

A howl deeper and longer than every previous wolf cry came from behind the pack.

As though receiving an order, the Xie Wolves surrounding them retreated to either side in unison, opening a passage three feet wide.

From the shadows of that passage, a giant wolf a full size larger than an ordinary Xie Wolf slowly emerged.

Its fur was darker, gray to the point of nearly iron-black. The tuft of crimson fur atop its head looked as though it had been soaked in blood over and over again.

Its limbs were far thicker than those of ordinary Xie Wolves, and its aura stood an entire level above the wolves around it. The pressure of the Mountain-Sinking Realm carried the composure and seasoned cunning unique to a leader.

The Xie Wolf King stood three zhang away from them. Its crimson eyes slowly swept over Biao's right fist, then over Lin Yi's hands, which could no longer even clench into fists.

A low rumble rose from its throat. Then its body slowly lowered, the muscles in its hind legs tightening like bowstrings.

It was going to act personally.

Lin Yi and Biao exchanged a look.

Lin Yi saw calm in Biao's eyes—the calm of a hunter accepting his fate at the final moment.

Lin Yi's hand trembled slightly, but he still gripped Biao's arm and pulled him half an inch closer to his side.

Just as the Xie Wolf King's hind leg muscles were about to spring loose—

A savage, slaughtering, crushingly heavy ferocious aura descended from the heavens!

It came without warning, like an invisible mountain suddenly pressing down from thin air.

The air around Lin Yi and Biao instantly congealed. Even breathing became thick and viscous.

The nearest Xie Wolves seemed to have all strength drained from them in that instant. Whimpering, they collapsed to the ground, tails tucked between their legs as they trembled.

That aura carried the oppressive force of ancient primordial times, more terrifying than any Ferocious Beast Lin Yi had ever seen.

The Inkshadow Leopard with Dragonlike Blood-Qi was like a little loach before a deep-sea whale in the face of that aura. They were not on the same level at all.

"Wretched beasts—get the hell out!"

An old, weighty roar came from the forest.

Lin Yi jerked his head around and saw a stooped figure striding toward them. The village chief moved more than twice as fast as usual, his gray-white hair flying wildly in the wind, his face taut with a killing intent Lin Yi had never seen before.

In the village chief's right hand rested an object the size of a fist. It was dark green all over, its surface covered with dense, ancient patterns. It resembled a half-transparent stone eyeball, tightly shut.

The Eye of Zheng.

At that moment, the eyeball hovered above the village chief's palm, emitting a dim, vicious green light.

The aura that made the entire Xie Wolf pack shudder was erupting from that fist-sized eyeball.

Behind the village chief, Mang rushed out of the forest with ten Hunting Team members. Each held a weapon, their faces anxious and furious.

Under the pressure of the Eye of Zheng, the Xie Wolf King's limbs involuntarily sagged half an inch, but it still stubbornly forced itself not to collapse.

Its crimson wolf eyes were now filled with wariness. It was wary not only of the pressure itself, but even more of the suppression that seemed to come from the depths of its bloodline.

Zheng was an Ancient Exotic Beast. Its aura possessed an innate power to suppress the bloodlines of low-level Ferocious Beasts. That suppression unsettled the Xie Wolf King even more than the mere pressure of a powerful being.

Its ears flattened farther back. Several gurgling rumbles rolled through its throat before it suddenly raised its head and let out a short, piercing howl.

Awooo—!

The wolf pack retreated like a receding tide.

Those crimson figures scattered into the depths of the forest in an instant, not even having time to drag away their fallen companions' Corpses.

The Xie Wolf King was the last to turn away. It looked back at Lin Yi once—that gaze carried a predator's vicious malice and grudge—then its body too melted into the shadows.

The forest abruptly fell quiet. Only heavy breathing and the rustle of leaves in the wind remained.

The village chief put away the Eye of Zheng. The dark green glow on the eyeball slowly faded, and it once again became an ordinary-looking stone bead.

He hurried forward, and his aged eyes tightened sharply when he saw the state Lin Yi and Biao were in.

"Quick—save them!" the village chief shouted urgently.

Mang rushed to the front and caught the swaying Lin Yi in one arm.

The other Hunting Team members surged forward as well. Some supported Biao by the shoulders, some examined their wounds, and some tore strips from their own clothes to bind the areas bleeding most heavily.

"I'm sorry..." Mang's voice was thick with guilt. "We came too late."

Biao was supported by two people, half his face smeared over with blood. Yet the corner of his mouth tugged into a smile, and his voice was as weak as a passing gust of wind. "...Just in time."

After saying those four words, his eyelids shut completely. His still-bleeding right hand slipped from the shoulder of the tribesman supporting him, and his entire weight fell onto the people at either side.

Lin Yi was also forcing himself to hold onto his final sliver of consciousness.

He raised a hand and pointed tremblingly in one direction—the direction where the Inkshadow Leopard's Corpse lay.

"There..." His lips moved, but only a single word came out.

Then darkness fell over his vision. His raised arm dropped limply, and his entire body tipped backward, only for Mang to catch him steadily.

His whole body had already sunk completely into unconscious darkness.

Holding Lin Yi's limp body, Mang looked down at the claw marks and bloodstains covering him, his lips pressed into a hard line. He raised a hand and waved it toward the tribesmen behind him.

"Bring them all back."

The group silently and swiftly carried Lin Yi and Biao onto makeshift stretchers woven from tree trunks and vines. Someone picked up the corpses of the four Xie Wolves.

Mang headed toward the direction Lin Yi had indicated. When he arrived, he found the Inkshadow Leopard's Corpse. His voice was full of disbelief. "This is an Inkshadow Leopard. You two really did it."

The village chief walked at the very back of the group, the Eye of Zheng already tucked back into his clothes.

He watched as Mang carried back the Inkshadow Leopard's Corpse.

"They actually killed the Inkshadow Leopard." The village chief's voice was filled with shock. The other Hunting Team members heard him as well.

They looked at Lin Yi and Biao lying on the stretchers with admiration in their eyes.

"Whatever it is, we'll talk after we get back," the village chief said quietly.

The stretchers were lifted steadily, and they hurried along the path they had come from toward the tribe.