Icefield Wolf

Early the next morning, Amon opened his eyes in the tent and felt a heavy weight on his chest, as though something were pressing down on him.

Seeing Yan Jin drooling beside him, with her restless thigh draped over his body, the corner of his mouth twitched.

He moved Yan Jin's leg aside, then pinched her cheeks and pulled her awake.

Yan Jin's face was full of confusion when she woke up. She instinctively rubbed the corner of her mouth with the back of her hand. "Is it time to eat?"

"I seriously wonder how you managed to survive in a place like West Street until now." Amon's cool voice woke Yan Jin up completely.

She smiled sheepishly. "I was too excited yesterday, so I didn't fall asleep until very late."

"Go pack up the tent. We're heading into the mountains."

"Okay."

After Yan Jin left the tent, a translucent insect with twelve segments and starry colors transformed into a glimmer of light and entered Amon's body.

It was one of his Worm of Time clones, which had kept watch through the night.

After packing up, Amon and Yan Jin each carried a tent on their backs as the three of them headed into the mountains.

Glen explained their objective. "A mercenary group discovered a group of slimes beside a lake atop one of the mountains. One of them was different—a fiery red one. I went to confirm it myself earlier. It really is a Flame Slime, but its age is unclear."

Breathing in the fresh mountain air scented with grass and trees, Amon nodded. "It's difficult to determine a slime's age from its appearance alone. Only after fighting it can we make a rough estimate based on its attacks."

As they walked, Glen suddenly slowed down.

Yan Jin turned her head and looked around. She, too, sensed something unusual.

Amon kept the Soul Power circulating through his body, ready to solidify it into a shield to protect himself at any moment.

A figure suddenly burst out from the dense brush and pounced at Yan Jin, the smallest of the three.

Glen merely glanced at it and deliberately pretended not to notice. It was only an ordinary beast, nothing to worry about. He wanted to see what this genius, in whom Ma Wen had placed such high hopes, could do.

Yan Jin froze for a moment, then decisively rolled to the side and dodged the pounce.

But the attacker refused to let up and continued pursuing her.

"Haah..." She let out a sharp cry as a huge mass of magma erupted from her hand. Heat waves billowed outward, and the terrifying temperature instantly melted through the attacker's head.

It was a leopard. Half its head had been burned away, and it fell weakly to the ground. Its corpse twitched twice before going still.

No blood splattered. The wound had turned to char in an instant, its blood evaporated, and the scent of roasted meat filled the air.

"Tch, that scared me. Just a big cat." Yan Jin casually kicked the leopard's corpse.

Glen's gaze sharpened. The destructive power she displayed was astonishing. Even an ordinary beast was not something a person without a Spirit Ring could dispatch so casually, yet Yan Jin had done so cleanly and decisively.

Amon was equally impressed. Her combat talent was even better than he had expected. The ruthlessness she displayed in a life-or-death fight far surpassed what she had shown while sparring with him.

"Beautiful!" Amon applauded in praise.

The journey ahead was far from smooth. Mosquitoes, venomous snakes, and wild beasts kept appearing to attack them.

Relying on her Martial Soul, Yan Jin burned every source of danger that came near her to ashes.

Amon either condensed his Soul Power into shields or used the tent stakes to block them one by one.

As for Glen, almost no insects or snakes targeted him. Like a ghost, he remained hidden among the trees.

Seeing Yan Jin begin to pant from mental strain and Soul Power depletion, he turned back and said, "Do you not prepare before entering a forest?"

"That was my mistake." Amon spoke with a hint of apology. He truly lacked experience in this area.

"Exhausting your Soul Power in the Xilin Mountain Range is extremely dangerous. We came here to hunt Soul Beasts. If you travel like this, you'll only end up becoming food for Soul Beasts." He handed Amon a packet of white powder.

"Rub it on yourselves. It gives off a smell that insects and snakes dislike, making them instinctively avoid you. Normally, you'd need more than just this type of Insect Repellent Powder. Because of the nature of my Martial Soul, this is the only kind I prepared. You still need to remain highly vigilant, but it'll be much easier than before."

"Thank you." Amon accepted the powder.

He and Yan Jin sprinkled the powder over themselves, and the effects were obvious. The insects rarely came to bother them after that.

After a difficult stretch of travel, exhaustion was clearly visible on Yan Jin's face. She gritted her teeth and did not fall behind.

"Let's rest for a while." Glen spoke when they reached a rock wall.

Yan Jin plopped down on a stone and let out a soft breath. "How much farther is it?"

"We've only covered half the distance. At this pace, we probably won't make it back before dark," Glen said coldly.

"Wasn't that within our expectations? Didn't we bring these precisely to prepare for that possibility?" Amon pointed at the tents on the ground.

Glen shrugged. "I just wanted to remind you that the forest is even more dangerous at night."

"Awoo..." A wolf's howl rang out.

Several enormous wolves with snow-white fur surrounded them, their dark green eyes filled with savagery and greed.

"These are... Icefield Wolves?" Amon adjusted his Monocle.

Icefield Wolves were Soul Beasts that generally traveled in small family groups of five or six.

Yan Jin's little face turned somewhat pale. She felt that the wolves were targeting her; their greedy gazes had never left her.

The wolf pack continuously made threatening gestures as they gradually tightened their encirclement, hoping to throw their prey into disarray before attacking the weakest among them.

Amon clicked his tongue softly. "Can you handle them?"

"They were nothing but fools less than a hundred years old." Glen snorted disdainfully. He erupted with the aura of a Soul Elder, Soul Power surging as the black robe behind him fluttered loudly. "If they had any intelligence, they should be running now."

Glen's sudden burst of Soul Power made the wolf pack hesitate, but they still did not give up.

At the lead wolf's howl, the pack launched a coordinated attack from different directions.

Their roles were clearly divided: three surrounded Glen, two held Amon back, while the remaining two pounced on Yan Jin. Those last two were the true focus; the others were merely feints. From the very beginning, they had only intended to hunt her.

Amon raised his right hand, extending his index finger and thumb. With two muffled bangs, Air Bullets pierced through the wolves' eyes and exploded inside their heads. They fell without even having time to scream.

Instead of retreating, Yan Jin advanced. She summoned her Martial Soul and instantly punched through one Icefield Wolf's chest. Then she kicked the other in the head, using the recoil to pull away.

She stomped hard with her right foot and closed in on the surviving wolf. Under the Icefield Wolf's terrified gaze, she viciously stuffed a huge mass of magma into its mouth.

A pair of cat ears grew atop Glen's head, and layers of shadow surged across his body. His Second Soul Skill lit up as he suddenly accelerated, shooting forward like a sharp sword. His clawed hand slit one wolf's throat, while his long tail sent another flying.

The last Wolf King twisted around in panic and fled without looking back. The wolf struck by Glen's tail whimpered as it followed after it.

Amon noticed that even in battle, Glen moved without a sound, his presence abnormally faint. If Amon had not kept watch on him the entire time, he might have overlooked him completely.

Combined with the traits that appeared during his Martial Soul Possession, Amon concluded that his Martial Soul was a Shadow Leopard, an ambush-type Soul Beast that concealed itself in shadows while hunting.

Glen did not pursue them. Protecting the others was more important. Just as he turned to rescue Yan Jin, he saw four wolf corpses lying on the ground and awkwardly realized that he had the fewest kills.

These two brats' combat strength is absurd. No wonder Lady Ma Wen was willing to invest in them... he muttered inwardly.

Assessing Amon and Yan Jin's potential was also one of his tasks on this journey.

By his original estimate, it would have been impressive enough if Yan Jin could hold out for a while against two Icefield Wolves. Yet unexpectedly, the ones who failed to hold out were the Icefield Wolves.

As for Amon, a genuine Soul Master, Glen had not thought he would lose to Icefield Wolves. Still, the fact that he had dealt with them so quickly and silently was equally beyond expectations.

He had focused on his own opponents and on Yan Jin, so he had not seen how Amon made his move at all.

After a long silence, he said somewhat awkwardly, "These weren't our target. There was no need to kill them. Soul Beasts are treasures nature has bestowed upon humanity. Unless necessary, we must not slaughter them indiscriminately."

The scent of blood would attract other Soul Beasts, so the three did not linger and found another place to rest.