Sacred Mountain towered into the clouds and consisted of three peaks. The highest peak was even more majestic than the former main peak of Dragonspine Ridge. Due to the extremely high terrain, snow and ice capped the mountain all year round. The mountain’s steep terrain would turn people away, while courageous werewolves treated it as a training ground for the young in their tribe. When young werewolves entered adulthood, they would set off alone, carrying only three days of rations to scale the mountain. Only those who successfully crossed the mountain and brought a specific prey back from the eastern side would be acknowledged as being able to become independent. The highest peak of Sacred Mountain, the Sunburn Peak was the goal for the best of the young werewolves. The youngest werewolves who were the bravest—or sometimes the stupidest and boldest—would climb the summit with their bare hands and take a piece of mountain rock. It was a symbol of heroism. The mountain rock would then be inlaid in the tribe’s totem pole by the elders and become a lifetime of glory for the werewolf. It was said that hundreds of the best werewolves challenged the peak each year, but only less than 30% of them were successful. Under the unremitting efforts of these brave werewolves for thousands of years, the elevation of Sacred Mountain was now almost two metres lower than when the werewolves first migrated there.
In fact, it was also said that at one point, the werewolf tribal leaders had discussed on whether to control the enthusiasm of the young. The overzealous pups had been trying to dig the rocks from the top of Sacred Mountain all day, and they were quickly rounding off the top of the mountain.
Eighty percent of the werewolves on Planet Holletta lived near Sacred Mountain. The majestic mountain and surrounding vast lands were enough to accommodate the large number of werewolves, who formed a tribal society. Each tribe had its own leader, and all the leaders formed a tribal council, which became the ruling class of the werewolves. It was said that this social form had been in existence since the Ancient Magic Kingdom, perfectly fitting the tradition of the werewolves: it paid attention to both bloodline and unity. Therefore, the tribal state system had brought about stability for the werewolf society for thousands of years. They became an ancient nation that was comparable to the Kingdom of Holletta.
Uruk, who was sent by the werewolf tribal nation to liaise with Holletta, was one of such tribal chiefs. His tribe lived on the side of Sacred Mountain and built a large city there. His werewolf cavalry was not the most elite of the werewolf nation, but it was the largest. Therefore, Uruk could become the representative of mountain rangers of Sacred Mountain and assume the responsibility of the commander of this joint operation.
Well-equipped elite knights and magic soldiers departed from Hodeceus and divided into three teams to enter Sacred Mountains and join the werewolf soldiers waiting there. Next, they would enter Sacred Mountain under the guidance of werewolves, and the soldiers would divide into three teams got deep into the mountain separately. Hao Ren and Ophra team was travelling with the largest main forces. The werewolf-General Elson, and Cardinal Orben led the other two teams. As Big Beardy was an ascetic, so he was in the third team.
The Knights had quickly come to the rendezvous point, joining the werewolves. Lily stood on a boulder and took a deep breath. “Ahh—the air of my hometown…”
Nangong Sanba looked at Lily, whispering to Hao Ren. “Is she sure that Holletta is her hometown?”
“We couldn’t help it. There is no origin of werewolves other than The Plane of Dreams, and I’ve not found another case of transcendence of husky.” Hao Ren forced a smile. “So let’s just assume that Holletta is her home.”
Nangong Wuyue had shape-shifted into a snake. Her upper body rose to a height of nearly three metres, allowing her to have a better view of the situation ahead in the mountain road. “Uruk has said he would be waiting here ahead of time. Why is he not here yet?”
A werewolf aide-de-camp beside Ophra took said, “Chief Uruk is coming with his battle wolves. He should be here anytime.”
As soon as the voice of the werewolf aide-de-camp trailed off, Nangong Wuyue said with a loud voice up in the air. “Oh oh oh, see! That’s a werewolf cavalry!”
Dust billowing from a distant mountain trails. Then the sound of heavy footsteps was heard from within the dust. Dozens of black figures galloped from a distance. Uruk was leading a team of fully armed werewolf fighters come up before them. These warriors were all wearing rough black leather armour, with a huge cavalry sabre behind them, and an animal teeth necklace as an ornament and kill record on their necks. There was not any heavy armour. Their rides were the huge black wolves—a kind of savage beast with bone plate on the waist and several sizes bigger than Earth’s wolves. Because of their special body skeleton, these wolves were rideable.
Dozens of werewolf cavalry soldiers ran from afar and stopped at less than ten metres in front of the Knights. Each wolf had no extra moves, and all stopped in a straight-line formation. Their uniformity of movement was unimaginable given the fact that it was a group of untamed beasts. The werewolves lived with their war wolves all year round. The talent of the werewolves allowed them to communicate with these beasts with no difficulty. Therefore, they matched with each other and became the most powerful ground unit in the world. Seeing it for the first time today, they were sure enough…well, very neat.
Hao Ren was only a layman, he could only see that they were ‘very neat’.
The werewolf cavalry was in back attire, which looked like a camouflage in night combat. In reality, their black armours and black wolves had nothing to do with camouflage but were just their traditional battle outfit. Even when they went into the snow-capped mountain, they would still wearing this contrasting outfit. This had to do with the customs and practices of the werewolves. It was hard to explain it to outsiders.
Uruk came up to Ophra riding his battle wolf. “You can’t control the wolf. You can only go on foot in the mountains. To be honest, I don’t think it’s a good idea—the Knights are very powerful but as an infantry, I don’t think so.”
Ophra smiled indifferently. “Do you think that the knights I personally brought out could only riding on horseback? We had even knocked down the two hundred thousand barbarians in the swamp from the south. Let’s move. Hope your werewolf cavalry’s nose is as powerful as said in the legend to sniffing out the cults off the cracks in the rocks.”
Uruk smiled as if Ophra’s give-not-shit answer had impressed him. Before he ordered the forces to move on, Hao Ren asked hurriedly, “Everyone, check your protective crystals. Have you all put it on?”
Ophra turned and waved to the Knights. “All squadron commanders, check that all the soldiers have the protective crystals by raising up their hands, report if anyone loses it.”
Uruk also said to his cavalry. “Check your crystal! It’s a life-saving gadget!”
The soldiers raised their protective crystals before they set off. Hao Ren had brought the crystals out from Crapple Research Station, CARS. These crystals were piling up at CARS; thousands of pieces could be knocked off from any surfaces there. So Hao Ren had simply given one to each soldier. Ophra took out her own crystal and looked at it. “Unbelievable… such a small stone could suppress the mind control power of the brain monster. Even the mentally strongest cardinal we had sent failed to even reach the main peak.”
The wolf Uruk was riding had been staring at Hao Ren curiously since the beginning. Now it could not help but spurted and then murmured in a human language. “Wait a second. Are you be a hard man?”
Hao Ren was a little baffled by how the wolf addressed him. When he remembered the wolf that spoke, he was staggered. “… Alpha? The one on the steppe?”
The black wolf sized him and his entourage up, appearing surprised as well. “Oh, it’s really you. I was not so sure at first. It’s so difficult to differentiate you humans, I couldn’t even tell the gender of your people. Thanks to your smell, it hasn’t changed. Why did you come here?”
Hao Ren and his little buddies—who had previously met the alpha wolf—were all shocked. They had never thought to see the alpha wolf here. Lily sniffled and asked, “Oh, it’s really you. I have also wanted to ask you too—how did you come here? Aren’t you staying in the steppe?”
“That’s a long story…a gust of wind was blowing on the steppe, the seasons had changed, many animals had migrated, and wolves had to look for new dwelling place. Fortunately, with my great wisdom, I brought my fellow wolves and found a new home here…”
Everyone, from the generals to the soldiers, were all footed to the spot. Even Uruk was wide-eyed; he was experiencing in the awkward most situation in his life:
He as the commander was left out in the cold while everyone, including his ride was chatting with the others…