The Wolf King remained silent for a while. “If Zhang Buzhou wasn’t powerful, how could my father have died in his hands? How could I have fallen into such a state, bearing the burden of this humiliation every day?”
“Great Chief, lying low today is for your rise to power tomorrow.” The werewolf elder repeated a word of ancient wisdom that had been passed down through the tribe.
The Wolf King replied, “I know. You go and deal with Gary’s case first.”
The werewolf elder didn’t leave immediately. Apparently a bit hesitant, he said, “Great Chief, our movements in recent days have attracted the attention of those from the other side. They might come and sound us out. You must be cautious.”
The Wolf King sneered, “No doubt, they have designs on my position. But Zhang Buzhou has always been merciless and only looks at profit. Since I took this position, the submitted taxes and resources have more than doubled. As long as we pay our duties, no one should even think about getting my seat. Besides, do they think they can do well in my position with their meager abilities? A group of idiots who can’t even govern their own area well… it’s the same whatever position they are in.”
The werewolf elder felt relieved upon seeing the Wolf King so confident and duly went on his way down the mountain.
After the Xue Brothers left, Qianye’s life became peaceful once more. However, his contest against the mysterious sea entity didn’t go so well—he had only managed one victory a day for several days straight, causing the Black Grove to reach further and further toward the beach. Fortunately, the mist would stop at the river and not cross over no matter how much it surged and rolled.
Qianye reflected on the results and finally tipped the scales back in his favor, winning two rounds this night. Only then did he manage to breathe a sigh of relief.
Because he had been cultivating all this time, the unexchanged materials had piled up into a small mountain. He thought about it and realized that it was time to pay his taxes again. Additionally, there had been no movements after Iron Bear’s death, so he went to town to see how things were going.
Loading a small sack of golden threaded snails and two logs, Qianye boarded the old car and drove toward the small town.
With the continued expansion of the Black Grove, the road toward the small town was now mostly through the forest. After Xue Ding threw the blood-stained soil into the forest, the natives there completely vanished and never appeared again. Passing through the Black Grove was like traversing a land of death; it was devoid of all vitality.
The truck moved slowly, but it was stable, reliable, and never malfunctioned. After bumping along for an hour, Qianye finally left the forest and arrived in the periphery of the small town.
The moment he left the Black Forest, Qianye could smell the stench of blood in the air. Frowning, he sniffed the air and found that the blood was mostly from humans. There was a small number of other races mixed in, but there was almost no werewolf scent at all. The stench was fairly intense, meaning that at least dozens of people have died here.
Qianye jumped down from the truck and went over to the small town.
Everything looked normal from outside of the town apart from the fact that the guards were gone. Gazing inside, one could see that the streets were empty without so much as a human shadow. In the blink of an eye, this simple yet lively place had turned into a ghost town.
Qianye stopped after entering the small town. He touched the gates and found a layer of dark purple substance on his hands. He immediately knew that this was dried blood.
Looking down, there was a puddle of dark liquid not far from his feet. It looked like sewage but was, in fact, blood that had mixed in with the dirt.
Just as calm, Qianye walked deeper into the small town.
This was the main road leading into town, lined with stores left and right. Now, however, their doors were closed, and the atmosphere was suffused with deathly silence.
Qianye pushed open one of the doors and looked inside. There was no one there and the goods were in a mess—someone had apparently gone through everything. He broke into a deep frown as an intense rotten stench assaulted the senses.
“Bang!” At this moment, one of the nearby racks nearby burst open and a dark figure pounced over.
Qianye leaned backward and easily dodged the attack. This black wolf was much larger in build compared to its peers, clearly one of the wargs raised by werewolves. The creature hadn’t even reached its target when Qianye grabbed it by the waist and snapped its spine.
The warg rolled about, crying in agony. Qianye looked around the store indifferently and left after confirming there was nothing noteworthy here.
The warg’s pained howls echoed through town, eliciting numerous reactions. House windows shattered throughout the town as the wargs hiding in them appeared in quick succession. A number of them caught sight of Qianye and immediately charged over with great ferocity.
There were still bits of human flesh and clothes in their teeth, and the stench of human blood hung deeply around them. All of this filled Qianye with an instinctive loathing for these creatures.
Several of the pouncing wargs flew past Qianye, missing their target entirely. The moment they landed on the ground, their limbs flew off from their bodies in a gush of fresh blood. The creatures rolled about in pain, their howls filling the entire town.
The remaining wargs in the area were intimidated by the cries of their peers. They lowered their bodies with their tails between their legs and didn’t dare charge forth for the moment. However, they couldn’t sense any danger from Qianye, and this made them quite hesitant about their next course of action. They had no idea whether or not they should pounce forward and tear this human apart.
The animals might be hesitant, but Qianye had no intention of letting them go. Beams of sword intent flew out with each shake of East Peak, sending the pack into complete disarray. In the blink of an eye, all of the wargs had lost their limbs without exception.
“You’re courting death!” A furious roar rang out from the town center as a young werewolf charged out. Eyes bloodshot upon seeing the miserable wargs, he pounced at Qianye with great ferocity.
The latter sighed lightly, murmuring to himself, “There really aren’t a lot of werewolves as cute as William.”
The young werewolf’s vision blurred. He fell limp in front of Qianye, overwhelmed by the pain coming from all over his body. Yet, he couldn’t feel his limbs at all, and only after looking down did he realize that his arms and legs had been cut off. He let out a long, mournful howl in his terror and pain.
Qianye picked up the young werewolf and walked on, arriving at the plaza in the blink of an eye.
The entire square had turned into a pool of blood. There were hundreds of wooden poles around the area, each running through a human whose blood flowed down the pillar and into the sanguineous pond.
The impaled victims were all residents of the small town, many of whom Qianye knew. There were a few unfamiliar faces, too, likely unfortunate peddlers and traders who happened to be here during the massacre.
It had been a good while since the mass murder, and most of the people on the stakes had perished. Only a few stronger ones were left hanging on their last breath, but most of their legs were a mess of flesh and blood. There were even some with only white bones remaining—even an idiot could see where the flesh had gone after seeing the pack of wargs.
Just as humans enjoyed the meat of fierce beasts, the flesh of humans with high origin power was a delicacy to these wargs.
Qianye tossed the limbless young werewolf into the pool of blood, eliciting yet another cry of misery from him.
The doors to what used to be Iron Bear’s residence flew open as numerous werewolves charged out in quick succession. The leader, a valiant middle-aged lycanthrope, let out a low growl and stared at Qianye with bloodshot eyes.
However, he soon realized that he couldn’t gauge Qianye’s strength at all. How could a human capable of cutting off a werewolf knight’s limbs have no origin power at all? At the thought of this, he quickly suppressed his fury and shouted, “Who are you? You actually dared to injure a knight under the Wolf King’s direct command. Do you not know who the master of this region is?”
Qianye did not reply to the question. “Are you the ones who killed the people here?”
The middle-aged werewolf replied, “The Wolf King’s son, Gary, died in this region. According to the rules, all humans living here will be buried together with him.”
“Rules? Whose rules?”
“The Wolf King’s rules! What, do you want to oppose the Wolf King? Brat, you must be tired of living. I’ll give you a quick death if you chop off your arms and legs now. Otherwise, I’ll impale you to the wooden stakes and have the wargs chew at you for a couple of days before letting you die!”
"The Wolf King’s rule, is it?” Qianye’s words hadn’t even trailed off when the werewolves felt a sudden pressure descend upon them, almost as though there was a large rock pressing down upon them. The weakest among them couldn’t stand straight and fell kneeling onto the ground. The middle-aged werewolf was also stunned for a good while before he managed to circulate his power and recover his mobility.
By that time, however, Qianye had already flashed past him, around the plaza, and returned to where he was standing before.
The middle-aged werewolf felt a sudden pain in his chest, following which, a wave of weakness swept across his entire body. He looked down and found that East Peak had pierced through his chest at one point and shattered his heart. He simply couldn’t grasp Qianye’s movements, so much so that he didn’t even know when the blade had entered his body.
Qianye looked into his eyes and said word by word, “The Wolf King’s rules don't apply to my place.”
The middle-aged werewolf said ferociously, “Just you wait, the Wolf King won’t ever let you go. It will be the end for you once his personal guard arrives.”
Qianye sent the werewolf flying with a shake of his hand, landing him squarely on one of the sharp stakes. Werewolves had a fairly strong vitality and would remain alive several days even without an intact heart. This advantage, however, would now become the source of his suffering.
The other werewolves had long since collapsed. The middle-aged man himself was merely a third-rank viscount, so there was no way his subordinates could take even a single blow. Qianye especially left a survivor, from whom he learned about the entire matter in general.
The Wolf King had somehow found out about Gary’s death and, in his anger, had dispatched his personal guard to search this area. The people in town thus became the target of the Wolf King’s anger. It wasn’t just this settlement, though. There were two more such towns within a hundred kilometers that would fall to the same fate.
After killing all the residents of the town, the Wolf King’s guard left to continue their search for Gary’s remains. Naturally, there was only one outcome for the humans they encountered along the way.
This viscount remained to guard the town with a handful of subordinates and see if there were any fish that had escaped the net. What came in the end, though, was a man-eating shark.
