“Keep it occupied, Chief Lu,” Ji Ya said as he stepped back to keep away from the wolf soul’s assault range.
Next, he took out a gem-like object with a reddish-yellow hue, and pricked it with the tip of his sword.
“Done.”
The process took him a few seconds, after which he reappeared at the cave entrance.
It seemed the short absence had taken quite a toll on Lu Zhishen, who had just been knocked away by the bloody soul’s subsequent tackling attack. It had been the case since the soul was already at Extraordinary Rank-3. A top-notch human champion like Lu Zhishen could barely keep up with it.
Ji Ye saw the damaged soul reforming again and yelled, “You want this? Here you go!”
Fizz!
He thrusted forward with his sword; the blade slowly lost its color, unloading all the blood stored inside against the enemy.
“…!”
Without faltering, the soul pounced at the incoming blood and devoured it. Meanwhile, its moist, misty form gained size and began showing an even stronger aura than before.
However, the growth only lasted for two seconds before it came to a complete halt.
The bloody presence exploded. And this time, it did not come back.
The dissipated soul left several puffs of red air behind, together with a white flash that suggested a generated item, which soon ended up on the ground as an item sphere.
“There we have it.” Ji Ye smiled with an as-a-matter-of-fact expression. “That was the Mandrill’s blood which is supposed to fend off filth and evil spirits. Rest in peace.”
When Ji Ye got his hands on this special blood, he suspected that some kind of ghosts or spirits would soon show up around the Twin Dragon Mount. This was why he always took the blood with him.
He saw how the wolf’s soul could absorb blood just then and came up with a new idea, which was to use the special property of his Black Serpent Sword to remotely inject the sacred blood into his adversaries. Luckily for him, that deceased soul was a strength-craving wraith which did not preserve the wit of an alpha wolf. The possibility of a trap never crossed its rotting mind. It immediately consumed the fresh blood being delivered by Ji Ye.
When an evil presence ate something holy, the result was obvious.
[Killed the Soul of a Steelback Blue Wolf. EXP gained: 79. Honor gained: 2.]
A message confirmed the kill for him.
Rather, this message should be the death sentence of the second enemy, but not the first one. This had told Ji Ye that he should not rely on those death messages too much because something else might come up to surprise him.
The wolf’s soul was no more, though the bloody air left behind didn’t fully vanish. It soon became a pillar of smoke that dove back into the wolf corpse on the floor.
Precisely speaking, it entered an item which was hidden under the body.
The Steelback Blue Alpha Wolf was as big as cattle so its body had kept a good number of things covered under it, such as bones of various shapes. On top of the bone pile, there was a patch of antique-looking wolf skin with a strange picture recently etched on it; it looked like an ancient totem after absorbing the bloody air.
[Totem Wolf Skin]
[Level: Special]
[Rarity: Superior]
[A treasure scavenged from the Tomb of Thousand Wolves by the Steelback Blue Alpha Wolf, who later used it as a way to pass down its strength to its descendants. Contains massive soul power.]
“Tomb of Thousand Wolves? Seems like our friend is not a common beast after all.”
Now that Ji Ye thought about it, all bosses and minor bosses around the settlement had some kind of big background. It was a good thing that the “theme” of the settlement was Water Margin andnot Journey to the West. Otherwise, he’d have some serious trouble fending off all the mythological monsters.
Also, the wolf seemed a bit different from the other Quasi-Commanders because it actually had a group of underlings under its command. Furthermore, despite its lowest level, it produced an Extraordinary Rank-3 Blood Specter Wolf! If not for the fact that he had used the Black Serpent Sword to drain a large portion of the Steelback Blue Alpha Wolf’s health, this “Wolf Soul” might have been even stronger. Perhaps even Lu Zhishen and him could not stop it.
It was clear that the source of that abnormal strength came from the wolf skin, or the “legacy treasure” of all Steelback Blue Wolves.
“Passing down strength, huh?” Ji Ye muttered as he tried putting a hand on it.
The touch was cold, but it didn’t feel dangerous otherwise.
He picked it up and tried examining it from different directions, but without finding anything else. The “totem” might be some kind of message only wolves could understand, though there was no way he knew how to read it.
All things said, he had other ways for discovering an item’s secrets.
He put the skin away and looked at another item sphere nearby, which was slightly tainted by some of the soul’s bloody aura.
[Wolf’s End]
[Level: Extraordinary Rank-2]
[Rarity: Superior]
[Constructed out of the hardest 99,999 hairs taken from the body of a Steelback Blue Alpha Wolf. This concealed weapon holds the murderous might of a fallen wolf king. Beware, do not use it against targets within 30 meters.]
“*Whistle* Looks good!”
He checked the small black orb that pulsed with a red glimmer and suddenly got the feeling that he had just obtained a legendary concealed weapon illustrated in classical stories.
When fighting against the Blue Wolf, he had learned up-close that the creature’s fur was just as deadly as real needles. Something that got showered with them unprepared would not live.
Besides, this thing might be able to harm spiritual enemies according to the description.
He wondered if any fools would actually use such a dangerous weapon at a close range, and risk hurting themselves.
Apart from the deadly weapon, the wolf had also dropped a defensive item for him.
[Alpha Wolf Body Armor]
[Level: Extraordinary Rank-1]
[Rarity: Common]
[An armor fashioned using the leftover materials from a Steelback Blue Alpha Wolf, after most of its better parts have been removed for other purposes. As a result, the armor is less reliable.]
The armor seemed to have been weaved out of the hard fur strands using a special technique, turning it into a close-fitting garment that could be worn directly against a person’s skin. Judging from the hardness of the fur, typical Extraordinary weapons would not easily penetrate it.
Thankfully, whoever made this armor had perfectly trimmed all the stray wolf hairs and made sure they would not spring up to harm the user. Otherwise, they would constantly worry about becoming a hedgehog during a battle.
“Oi, master!” Lu Zhishen called out, after rummaging through the bone pile, “I’ve found a special resource we can use!”
[Wolfsbane]
[Level: Extraordinary Rank-1]
[Rarity: Common]
[Precious herb native in the lairs of wolves which only grows where the soul energy is rich. Useful for treating soul-related injuries. However, this one has degraded effects due to transplantation.]
It appeared as a three-leaf plant that thrived on a patch of blackened dirt, which was probably a special soil caused by all the wolf bones, just like the place where the Red Pip tree was growing.
A healing item was definitely valuable in their case right then, especially when there were souls and ghosts roaming about.
Again, Ji Ye didn’t pick the herb as such an action would cause it to expire really fast.
After blocking off the cave entrance, he found his team and headed back to the settlement with all the rewards they had collected.
