Chapter 34: Something Is Very Wrong!
Translator: Panda_Penn Editor: Chrissy
Thanks to the bravery of Lu Li and the fight of Patriarch Hong, Liu Yi and a group of warriors at the peak of Xuan Wu Realm, even though tides of wolves came from inside the valley, none of them could make it through the defense line.
The bodies of wolves had formed a mountain inside the valley which actually made a natural line of defense, slowing the speed of the running of the wolves. It was much easier to defend now.
Of course, the casualty on Liu Yi side was pretty bad as well. There were only less than 30 left out of the 40 or 50 men. Apart from Liu Yi who had treasured goods protecting her all over her body and Lu Li, everyone was wounded including Patriarch Hong who had a rich battle experience.
Fortunately, the situation outside was stabilized completely. Half of the wolves were killed. The Wolf King was badly injured because of the attacks from Patriarch Cai and the Xuan Wu Realm warriors and could die at any minute now.
“There were some defense lines over in the front of the valley, and all the powerful warriors of families were all gathered there. How could the Wolf King get here in the first place?”
While attacking viciously, Patriarch Cai glanced over to the other side of the valley with doubt. There were several lines of defense on the Frigid Cloud Mountain. They were the one at the outermost part. All their responsibility was to clean up the Xuan Beasts of the lowest rank; otherwise, he would not be the only warrior in the Spirit Realm to take control of the whole situation.
For the first few lines of defense, there were powerful warriors and were responsible for killing powerful Xuan Beasts. They had been stationed here for a long time, and it was not the first time for them to encounter a Wolf King of the second rank. Naturally, Patriarch Cai was concerned that the lines of defense on the other side were... broken through?
“Howl, howl~~” “Howl!”
Right at that moment, there came two loud howls from inside the valley. The howling noise echoed in the valley and lasted for a long time. On hearing the howling, Patriarch Cai trembled with terror and screamed in fear, “Lady, run now, there come another two Wolf Kings!”
Immediately!
All warriors of the Liu Family were frightened. One Wolf King almost sent all of them to death, and now there were another two? Who could defend against them? They would all have the battle field as their burial ground if they did not flee.
“Something is wrong. Something is very wrong!”
Liu Yi and Patriarch looked at each other and anger filled their hearts. There were several lines of defense on the other side of the valley with many powerful warriors on guard. Even if the lines were really broken, there should be some warning. Yet, from the appearance of the first Wolf King to these two, there was not a single piece of message.
There could be only two explanations. Either all the powerful warriors at the lines of defense all died, or—someone deliberately let three Wolf Kings through.
“Fall back!”
Whichever reason it was, there was no other option for Liu Yi. The only thing left for them was to escape, the faster the better.
“Retreat…”
Lu Li did not even hesitate. Actually, he had killed more than 100 Iron Spur Wolves, and by that account, he already finished his quest. He would only be welcoming death if he did not run now.
“Rustle, rustle!”
Patriarch Hong, together with three other warriors at the peak of the Xuan Wu Realm guarded Liu Yi and rushed out of the valley. Lu Li followed them in close proximity. Under the protection of people of power and influence, one can be profited. The Escorts by Liu Yi’s side would be the most powerful. Maybe Patriarch Cai would come to protect her, so the safest place was near her side.
Escorts of the Liu Family on the outside of the valley fled into different directions. Liu Yi, Lu Li and others had just made it out of the valley when two large Wolf Kings rushed out with a large group of Iron Spur Wolves.
“Lady, you go first. I will cover your retreat!”
Patriarch Cai shouted and smashed the first Wolf King away and charged toward the second with no fear. He knew clearly that if he did not stall the two Wolf Kings, none of the warriors of the Liu Family would be able to flee.
“Patriarch Cai, take care!”
Liu Yi shouted in sadness and ran towards the mountain on the left with Patriarch Hong and the rest. Actually, the mountain trail was on the south and not the left. The left side would be very difficult for the journey. However, if they had chosen the mountain trail on the south, they would die a much faster death. How could they ever run faster than the Iron Spur Wolf King?
Just as they had thought!
The wolf pack ran on in a straight line toward the south. The warriors of the Liu Family on that trail were quickly overwhelmed by the wolves. Sounds of miserable scream came one after another. It was a dim night so people could not see clearly. Lady Yi and the rest, to be frank, dared not to look at the scene and just disappeared into the mountains.
What Liu Yi chose was right. It was a difficult trail but a safer one as well. For the Iron Spur Wolves, all humans were alike, so naturally, the animals would not try to purse the guys on a much difficult track and forego the easier one.
All of seven or eight the warriors apart from Liu Yi were in misery because of the thistles and toxic thorns, and they could not see clearly under the dim night. Yet no one dared to stop. There were so many wolves and more were coming. Soon, the wolves would spread out over an area of more than 30 square miles. Plus, they were still bleeding. The wolf pack could trace by the blood and hunt the men down.
“Blood?”
Patriarch Hong just remembered and quickly distribute the healing pellets for people to stop their bleeding. He looked at Lu Li in the back and gave him two as well.
Lu Li had just taken two healing pellets. The old wounds had begun to scab, but then he got some fresh wounds. Yet, he only swallowed one after he got the healing pellets from Patriarch Hong.
After a moment, he secretly took a look at the animal tooth pendant hidden in his clothes. As he expected, there was a feeble white light. His wounds healed quickly. After running on for another mile or two, the new wounds started to scab as well.
“Try to find a cave nearby and we can go hid in it. At night, there is no way for us to outrun the wolves.”
After they moved on another mile or two, Patriarch Hong said in a low voice. Lady Yi gave it some thoughts and agreed. Wolves’ eyesight would not be impaired at night, and their sense of smell was so developed that if they did not find a place to hide, the wolves would catch up.
The group of people instantly scattered around and tried to locate a cave nearby. Not long afterwards, a shout of a warrior came from the southwest side, “Here!”
People ran toward that sound and found a cave. It was narrow, dark and deep. Nobody knew where it led to.
“I will go and explore first. You find a boulder to block the entrance.”
Patriarch Hong was a seasoned man with rich experience. He went inside the cave alone with his trusty sword. The rest were all trying to find a boulder nearby. Lu Li found one on the left so big that three men were needed to encircle it. Attaching the Heaven Kylin Sword to his back, Lu Li held the boulder up and rushed toward the entrance.
“The boulder is good enough.”
The boulder brought by Lu Li was big enough to block the cave. Liu Yi nodded in acknowledgement. Everyone now was waiting outside the cave to hear from Patriarch Hong.
“Howl, howl~~”
Before Patriarch Hong came out of the cave, there came waves of wolves howling from afar and the sounds were getting closer. Obviously, the wolves were making their toward Lu Li’s direction.
“Let’s go inside. Lu Li, block the cave!”
Liu Yi sensed things were wrong and had to ask everyone to go inside the cave against her will. Lu Li dragged the boulder to use it to block the cave. Then, he wielded his Heaven Kylin Sword to cut off some gravel. In this way, the entrance was completely blocked.
“Whew, whew…”
People sat down at the entrance and started panting. Because the entrance was blocked off, there was no light inside. It was so dark that it was frightening.
“Boom, boom, boom!”
Suddenly, some heavy sound came from inside the cave. Everyone was startled and hurried inside. Only, they found Patriarch Hong run backwards and shout to them from a distance, “There are Xuan Beasts inside. Stone Rat. Now we are in serious trouble…”
Squeak, squeak~~
Noises came from deep inside the cave. It was so dark inside for them to see the monsters clearly. All they could tell were the weird noises and the heavy sound of running.
“Release your Xuan Energy!”
One of the warriors of the Liu Family shouted, and people followed his words. With the help of the feeble light of the Xuan Energy they mobilized, people looked into the distance and only got more frustrated. There were big rats inside the cave everywhere, and they were swarming toward them like the wolves.
These big rats were grey and white in color. Every one of them was as big as a human head. The tusks in the rats’ mouths had some cold glare bouncing off from them. Nobody could see how deep the cave was, nor could anyone tell how many rats there were.
Stone Rats!
This kind of Xuan Beasts was of the lowest rank. They attacked only with their tusks, yet they had powerful defensive abilities. Their grey and white fur was slick, so the rats were hard to be attacked.
In the average days, it was not much trouble. The Stone Rats were not fast movers, so people could avoid them at ease. But now, there were wolves outside. There was no way for the warriors to go. If there were too many Stone Rats or one Rat King, it would mean so much trouble…