The daemon wolf immediately stiffened, and all of its hairs stood on end as if it had frozen up within Li Qingshan’s gaze.
Li Qingshan said, “Hey, there’s a strange daemon wolf over there.”
“That’s perfectly normal. This is a world that belongs to wolves.” Gu Yanying continued forwards without even looking back.
“The Wolf God is technically your uncle, right? Shouldn’t we pay him a visit given that we’re in his territory?”
Li Qingshan understood what was going on. The Heavenly Frost Wolf King of the Ten Daemon Kings, who also stood beside the Guardian Hawk God as the second boss of the Hawkwolf Guard, watched over the Frost province.
“Have you ever seen a hunter with a hawk and wolf that are friends?”
“Fair enough. Compared to the Dragon province, this place sure is bleak. No matter how close you are with your master, dogs are probably still not as favoured as hawks!”
Li Qingshan stopped paying attention to the daemon wolf, following Gu Yanying into the depths of the valley.
The daemon wolf quivered and gasped for air. What a terrifying gaze. It’s basically no different from the wolf king’s. No, I need to report this to the wolf king immediately! He turned around and bounded away, vanishing into the wind and snow.
“That would be wrong. This uncle wolf of mine proactively asked to be stationed in the Frost province. Not only is he the Daemon King here, but he’s also the provincial governor, or in the words of the Frost province, the great chieftain.”
“The human cultivators of the Frost province actually accept this? Where’d the original great chieftain go?”
“He was killed when Great Xia was founded. The Frost province is sparsely populated, and the mortals here are all nomads. Their method of cultivation is rather… erm, ancient as well! You should have seen quite a similar situation in the Mist province. Tribes completely outnumber sects. Every now and then, a tribe manages to unite the Frost province and become the great chieftain, but they’ve never truly developed into a kingdom.”
Li Qingshan had a very deep impression of tribes like the Bone-eating shaman. By “ancient”, she was referring to primitive. The boundary between humans and daemons was extremely blurred. Perhaps sometimes, humans resembled daemons even more than daemons. In short, strength came before everything else. Accepting a wolf as their great chieftain made perfect sense then.
“Sure enough, it really is a world that belongs to wolves. The reason why this place has become a forbidden area is probably related to the Wolf God too, right?”
“That’s correct. Don’t you feel a little sleepy?” Gu Yanying asked suddenly.
“Sleepy?” Li Qingshan was mildly surprised. He had almost forgotten what sleepiness felt like, but with Gu Yanying’s reminder, he really did feel a little drowsy. It was like the lingering lethargy of a summer afternoon.
Looking out, it was only a hazy white, nothing particularly surprising. Suddenly, he let out an interjection of surprise and opened his mouth, blowing out hard. The wind and snow receded, sweeping away the thick snow. It was actually littered with white bones down below, piling up in the entire valley.
Li Qingshan was not the same kid from the past anymore, so a sight like this was nothing impressive to him. He said in doubt, “Sleepiness killed them?”
“All creatures that enter this valley will be overcome with irrepressible sleepiness and enter a slumber. Afterwards, they won’t ever be able to wake up again. Of course, what kills them is not the sleepiness, but the hunger and the cold. The further you travel, the heavier the sleepiness will become. Eventually, even people with cultivations like us struggle to withstand it.”
“Drowsiness that even Daemon Kings can’t withstand. How interesting.”
When Li Qingshan first thought of a forbidden area, he either imagined a place filled with mechanical traps, or a place filled with venomous insects and beasts, but he never expected that it would just make people fall asleep. It made sense when he thought a little more about it. Mechanical traps were mostly the handiwork of the school of Mohism, while insects and beasts were closely tied to daemons. He had seen plenty of both, and they were nowhere near enough to comprise a “forbidden area”.
“Just what forces are at work?”
Every single power would always have an origin. If they could find the origin and then control such a great power, now that would be impressive.
“That’s my objective of coming here!”
Gu Yanying ignored the piles of bones beneath her feet and gazed into the depths of the valley.
She had investigated this a long time ago. The power definitely did not come from some formation or special arrangement of the terrain. Something was definitely hiding in there, and it probably was not something living, which was why it could constantly give off such a great and mysterious power.
What she wanted to do was grasp this power, make the Featherfolk King fall asleep, and then pluck the feather.
“That has always been one of your objectives!”
“Yeah, so just help me out!” Gu Yanying smiled gracefully.
“Then how are you going to contend against the sleepiness?”
“The Hot Wind hell! Pain always leaves people sober! Before I underwent the third heavenly tribulation, I had already made an attempt. In the beginning, I just wanted to test this place out, but I never expected the sleepiness to pile up so quickly. I almost died in there, but fortunately, the hot winds came into effect at the right time, which allowed me to escape.”
“Is it really that impressive? Why don’t I give it a try instead? We can split whatever is inside in half between us.” Li Qingshan was rather eager to give it a go.
“Alright. We’ll share whatever we obtain, but the most dangerous part of this forbidden area is not inside the valley, but outside.”
“Wolves watch the land.”
Li Qingshan recalled the saying he had heard when he first joined the Hawkwolf Guard. As the master of the Frost province, even if the wolf king could not obtain the mysterious power within the forbidden area, he would never allow anyone else to obtain it. The reason why Gu Yanying could get out of here alive last time was not just through the Hot Wind hell, but also because of her identity as the daughter of the Hawk God. If it had been someone else, they probably would have died in the mouths of wolves the moment they left the valley.
“Then why didn’t you let me butcher that wolf daemon?”
“The end result is no different. Instead, the wolf king will realise even sooner, and when he fights, he’ll fight relentlessly too. That’s probably a descendant of his.”
“Alright. I’ll stand guard here. You can go!”
Gu Yanying sucked in a deep breath, and hot winds rose up around her, turning the snow into rain. She gradually levitated, connecting with the Hot Wind hell as much as she could and drawing the winds of hell into her body.
The hot winds filled his face, and Li Qingshan felt like they were scraping against his bones, making him furrow his brows. This was not even the direct impact. He could basically imagine how much pain Gu Yanying was in as she resided in the centre of all this, but within the twisted air, there was only determination on her face, or even a strange smile.
“What a deviant of a woman!” Li Qingshan murmured.
“What did you say?” Gu Yanying suddenly opened her eyes.
“Nothing.”
“If that uncle wolf of mine comes, what do you plan on doing?”
“Have him invite me to a drink.” Li Qingshan shrugged.
“The spirits of the Frost province are renowned throughout the world.” Gu Yanying hesitated. “If I fall asleep, pull me back.”
Li Qingshan was rather surprised. He glanced at her deeply and smiled. “Don’t worry!”
Gu Yanying flew into the depths of the valley slowly so that she could gradually adjust to the sleepiness. However, the drowsiness continued to grow heavier, and it did so without any malice at all. It was as if she had returned to a very, very young age, back when she could fall asleep very easily.
The figure of a half-human, half-bird appeared in her head, but that was not the elegance or nobility of featherfolk. It had a sharp hawk’s beak on its face, its hands were a pair of twisted talons, and it was littered with grey feathers. However, it just happened to be in human form. The voice it produced was sharp and hoarse.
“Monster” was the most appropriate label it deserved.
“Daddy, they all called me a monster!”
“That’s because you are a monster.”
