Just as the first wolf beast was about to be steamrolled by Du Xiao's huge mace, an incredible turn of events suddenly unfolded.
A burst of faint azure light suddenly radiated from that wolf beast's body, following which it shrank down to the same size as a normal azure wolf.
As such, the mace merely glanced past above its head, completely missing its target. A vicious light flashed through the azure wolf's eyes as its speed suddenly increased by twofold, allowing it to rapidly skirt around Du Xiao as it pounced toward the military official.
"That's a demonic wolf!"
The military official's expression changed drastically at the sight of the azure wolf's bizarre transformation, and he immediately drew his longsword without any hesitation.
White spiritual light then flashed from a spirit tool ring on his finger, and the longsword transformed into a swath of sword projections that shielded his body within.
It turned out that this seemingly nondescript military official was carrying a low-grade spirit tool with him.
In the face of the barrier of sword projections conjured up by the low-grade spirit tool, a hint of disdain flashed through the oncoming wolf beat's eyes. It merely raised its two front paws before swiping them rapidly through the air several times, upon which azure claw projections were sent hurtling toward the official from all directions.
As soon as the claws projections struck the barrier of sword projections, the latter was destroyed almost without any capacity for resistance amid a series of loud booms. In contrast, the azure claw projections were only slowed down minutely before continuing to descend toward the military official.
The military official unleashed a resilient swing of his sword in response, but he knew that his resistance would prove to be completely futile, and his face had already turned deathly pale in the face of impending death.
Right at this moment, a humanoid figure suddenly swayed beside him as another person rushed into the inescapable net of claw projections. The figure let loose a cold harrumph, and even though it wasn't very loud, the military official felt as if a bell were tolling directly beside his ear, completley jerking him out of his horror and despair.
The figure then raised a hand, and a swath of golden light met the oncoming claw projections.
An earthshattering boom erupted as all of the azure claw projections were shattered into nothingness by the golden light.
The military official was ecstatic upon seeing this, and only then did he catch a clear glimpse of his savior. It was none other than the other man who had been deployed to protect him, Han Li.
Han Li was currently in the process of slowly withdrawing a fist that was shimmering with golden light. At the same time, he was appraising the azure demonic wolf that was hovering in mid-air in a completely expressionless manner.
The demonic wolf had stopped itself cold in its tracks, and was staring at Han Li with a hint of bewilderment in its eyes. All of the azure hackles on its back had stood up on end, and it seemed to be extremely wary toward Han Li.
The demon beast was unable to ascertain Han Li's cultivation base, but its keen instincts told it that this human was extremely dangerous, seemingly capable of posing a threat to its life. As such, it was rather hesitant about how to proceed.
After missing with his attack and allowing the demonic wolf to skirt around him, Du Xiao was given a massive fright, and he hurriedly turned around before appraising the demonic wolf with a grim expression.
Thus, the demon beast was sandwiched between Han Li and Du Xiao while the other body refinement warriors from the Heavenly East Enterprise were also converging toward it, clearly trying to completely surround it.
The demonic wolf aimed a wary glance at Han Li before abruptly turning and pouncing toward Du Xiao as a streak of azure light.
Du Xiao was quite startled by this abrupt attack, and he reflexively lashed out with his mace.
However, the demonic wolf had no intention of engaging it in battle. It merely sprang up over his head before jumping down from the city wall and disappearing into the wolf pack again. Aside from the one that had been slain, all of the other mutated wolf beasts had also fled the scene.
Han Li remained standing on the spot, expressing no intention to give chase.
Even though he had lost all of his magic power, he still couldn't muster up any interest in pursuing such a pitifully weak low-grade demon beast.
The military official had just brushed shoulders with death, and he immediately extended genuine words of gratitude toward Han Li.
"Thank you for saving my life, Brother. If you hadn't stepped in, I'd be a dead man already."
Han Li merely sighed and waved a hand in response. "I may have saved you, but there are other demonic wolves appearing in other locations. The situation doesn't seem to bode well for us."
"How could this be? How could there be so many demonic wolves in this one pack?" The military official hurriedly scanned his gaze across the city wall, upon which his face paled once again.
The city wall that they were situated on had suddenly descended into complete turmoil, and thousands of azure wolves had already rushed onto the city wall. In the air above them, there were several glowing demonic wolves hovering in the air, overseeing the proceedings.
Not only was the military official plunged into despair upon seeing this, even the hearts of the normal soldiers and members of the Heavenly East Enterprise had completely sunk. Could it be that this city wall really was going to be breached by this wolf pack?
The same harrowing thought surfaced in everyone's hearts.
Just as all of the human troops on the city wall were about to be overwhelmed by the relentless torrent of oncoming azure wolves, the sound of a horn being blown suddenly rang out from atop the city wall, following which several hundred powerful body refinement warriors suddenly rushed out from behind them.
All of them wearing bone armor of different styles while wielding a diverse range of weapons, all of which were low-grade spirit tools!
As soon as they rushed onto the city wall, they tore through the torrent of azure wolves like tigers running through a herd of sheep. With each and every swing of their weapons, at least one azure wolf would be felled, and all of them were completely powerless to resist.
Even though the mutated wolf beasts were more troublesome to deal with, they were given special treatment as several body refinement warriors ganged up on them at once, and they were also being felled without being able to offer much resistance.
The demonic wolves hovering in the air flew into a thunderous rage upon seeing this, and they were just about to do something when a dozen or so body refinement warriors took the initiative, flying into the air to engage these demonic wolves in battle.
Right at this moment, another long wolf howl erupted from within the wolf pack at the foot of the city wall.
All of the demonic wolves hesitated momentarily upon hearing this howl before fleeing into the distance, refraining from engaging the body refinement warriors in battle.
All of the remaining normal azure wolves also began to retreat after hearing this loud howl, fighting to clamber down the city walls just as quickly as they had come.
The body refinement warriors continued to give chase, but most of the wolf beasts still managed to escape.
Thus, the entire wolf pack began to retreat, and the first day of battle drew to a conclusion. Both sides had suffered severe losses, but all in all, the human army had won the day. The azure wolf pack had suffered over 100,000 casualties while most of the human troops had survived the assault. The only downside was that they had expended a large number of arrows and defensive tools in the process. As such, it was difficult to say with conviction who had gained the upper hand following this opening exchange. At this point, seven moons had already surfaced over the night sky. The collective light from the seven moons shone down from above, illuminating the countless wolf carcass piled up at the foot of the city wall.
In the distance, the wolf pack was howling up at the moons. However, their howls were filled with grief and sorrow rather than ferocity and bloodlust.
The massive wolf pack slowly retreated into the distance under the cold moonlight before disappearing into the night.
Only then did the soldiers on the city wall heave a collective sigh of relief. All of them collapsed to the ground without even bothering to tend to their injuries, and some had already fallen asleep from excessive exhaustion.
Even the body refinement warriors were feeling quite exhausted after such an extended arduous battle, and they were also planning to take a rest."Don't lie down here; this is not the place to sleep. There will be other soldiers coming up to replace us soon. We've withstood the first assault, so we should be able to rest for a couple of days before the next wave of attacks. Once the next group of soldiers arrives to take our place, we can all return to our respective residence and take a good rest. For now, all of you have to get up and continue to stand on guard. We have to be prepared in case the wolf pack decides to suddenly turn around and launch another attack." The military official still didn't dare to let down his guard.
All of the soldiers and members of the Heavenly East Enterprise were ecstatic upon hearing that they'll be relieved of their duties soon, and all of them forced themselves to shrug off their exhaustion and get up again.
Han Li had barely done anything during the entire battle, so he naturally wasn't really tired. He was standing atop the city wall, seemingly in deep thought as he looked at the departing wolf pack.
Zhang Kui made his way over to Han Li with a smile as he said, "Brother Han, it's all thanks to you that we were able to force the demonic wolves away. Otherwise, today's battle could've ended very badly for us."
He was holding his Golden Luster Sword and his entire body was stained with blood, clearly having slain many azure wolves during the battle.
"I didn't do much. The wolf pack was going to retreat anyway," Han Li replied with a calm expression.
"That may be the case, but if it weren't for your intervention, we would've suffered far heavier losses before the wolf pack retreated. No one else would've been able to force back a demonic wolf so convincingly on their own had they been in your place. Even with this Golden Luster Sword, I would have, at most, a 30% chance of defeating a demonic wolf." A wry smile appeared on Zhang Kui's face as he produced an intricately crafted scabbard before carefully sheathing the Golden Luster Sword.
Han Li shot a glance at this spirit tool just as Zhang Kui was about to stow it away. He already knew that these so-called spirit tools were actually just special treasures designed by cultivators for body refinement warriors to use. The spirit tools didn't require the user to possess any magic power of their own, and dew upon energy from spirit stones instead.
Spirit tools were quite powerful, but using them required the expenditure of a large number of spirit stones. As such, not every body refinement warrior was able to use such tools.
However, even the most powerful spirit tools couldn't compare to a true treasure, so they weren't very appealing to high-grade body refinement warriors. They were of the opinion that the best weapon they could attain was a powerful physical body. In that aspect, the thought process of body refinement warriors was quite similar to that of demon beasts.
Just as Han Li was pondering these thoughts, Zhang Kui suddenly said something that sent a slight jolt running through his heart.
