Misty Rain of the Old Times

The black bear's carcass was quite large, but the wolf pack was numerous, and it was quickly devoured. Living in this dangerous area, they had instinctively learned to be cautious under the cruel laws of nature, and the whole process was almost completely silent.

In the pitch-black night, the firelight on the tree where Chen Xuan was standing seemed extremely conspicuous, and he was quickly spotted by a pack of wolves with gleaming green eyes, as if they had smelled the aroma of food.

At the wolf king's low command, the pack actually surrounded the tree where he was, but the cautious wolf king himself shrank into the darkness in the distance and directed the operation.

'A beast is a beast, not very intelligent. They don't realize that I wouldn't dare come here without some skill. I guess I just look too harmless. Over a hundred meters above the ground, you think you could fly up here?'

Chen Xuan watched the wolf pack below with great interest. To his surprise, the wolves actually rushed toward the treetop where he was, but instead of flying, they used the large trees in the forest to bounce.

The wolf pack was quite large, but their movements were exceptionally agile and nimble. While using the trees for leverage wasn't quite like walking on flat ground, they gradually approached him with each leap. Occasionally, some would fall, but none of them were injured.

Wolves are now climbing trees to hunt for food; are they forced into this situation by life?

Watching the wolf pack leap and approach from the trees, the scene was rather spectacular. Chen Xuan ate some roasted meat in one hand and silently pulled out the dog-beating stick with the other, the stick he had traded a piece of candy for from the kid.

This stick was only about a meter long, and in front of the wolves, whose smallest size was nearly ten feet, it looked like a toothpick.

But this small stick caused the wolf pack a lot of trouble. When the first wolf rushed up and pounced on him, he hit it on the head with the stick. With a howl, the wolf was swung down and fell to the ground from a height of more than 100 meters. It almost couldn't get up.

As the first wolf attacked, more and more pounced on him. He was in a playful mood and didn't go all out. He swung his stick so fast that it left afterimages as he whipped the wolves down, just like playing whack-a-mole.

Falling from such a height, even the most agile wolves would inevitably suffer injuries, further fueling their ferocity—wolves are known for holding grudges.

After several attempts, the wolves not only failed to harm Chen Xuan, but nearly a third of them were crippled, some even unable to get up, with bumps on their foreheads. As a result, they became somewhat afraid to come up again. Even if they held a grudge, they would instinctively not allow themselves to suffer losses.

Gradually, the wolf king, which had been hiding in the back, finally couldn't hold back any longer. It figured that Chen Xuan, its prey, was only relying on the terrain advantage and couldn't actually do anything to them. That stick really had no killing power.

With a low growl, it leaped into the air, jumping a full twenty feet high. Using all its strength, it nimbly used the tree branches to leap and swoop, and after two or three leaps, it pounced on Chen Xuan.

Its massive size created a gust of wind as it moved, causing the trees to shake violently. With its ferocious maw wide open, Chen Xuan's size looked barely enough to fill a tooth gap.

"You're really pushing your luck," Chen Xuan chuckled inwardly. He flashed above the wolf king's head and swung his hand with a powerful slap. The two were completely disproportionate in size, yet the wolf king's massive body was sent flying by his gentle slap. It crashed into a tree that would take several people to encircle, then slammed to the ground with a thud, making the ground seem to tremble.

Woo~!

It landed, flipped itself up, let out a low growl, shook its body and found itself unharmed; it was just too tough.

It stared intently at Chen Xuan, who had landed lightly on the treehouse, its gaze fixed on him. It seemed somewhat afraid, but even more so, it felt resentful and angry.

Then Chen Xuan saw it slightly crouch down, its throat suddenly bulging out, becoming several times larger than a toad, and a hazy blue light flickering in its ferocious mouth.

The next moment, it opened its mouth wide at Chen Xuan, and a crescent-shaped cyan beam, three zhang wide, shot out as fast as lightning. Instantly, a strong wind arose, and the branches of trees that passed through the beam were directly cut off with smooth cuts.

'Oh, it's actually a wolf king with a special bloodline. It's a beast in itself. The power of this attack is no weaker than the sword or blade aura unleashed by a cultivator at the Innate Realm. With the support of the wolf pack, even an ordinary Innate Realm expert would likely perish facing it.'

The thought flashed through Chen Xuan's mind, and he raised his hand to shatter the lightning-fast attack. The shockwave shattered many of the surrounding tree branches, but did not affect the treehouse behind him.

Before the seemingly frightened wolf king could launch a second attack, Chen Xuan appeared above his head in a flash and slammed down again. With just one strike, the wolf king's neck, which had been bulging slightly, let out a whimper as if it had caught a gasp, and a burst of swirling blue light erupted out, sending sand and stones flying in front of it.

"You can climb trees? Who taught you that? What a big mouth! If you ruin my treehouse, can you afford to pay for it?"

He patted the dog's head and scolded it, but his hands didn't stop moving. With another big slap, the huge wolf king's limbs went limp and it collapsed to the ground with a thud. With another big slap, half of its body buried in the ground, and all that could be left was a fearful whimper. It was trembling like a leaf, and blood was seeping from its mouth.

After three powerful blows, the wolf king's eyes cleared. Chen Xuan, unsure if this would leave a lasting trauma, flicked his toe and kicked it away like a football, sending it crashing through several trees before clapping his hands and saying, "Get lost. It's so boring tonight. You've given me some amusement, so I won't kill you."

A hundred meters away, the wolf king rolled to his feet amidst the crashing of a large tree, blood dripping from his mouth. With his tail between his legs, he whimpered and called to the pack before running away. Soon, the pack disappeared into the night.

Chen Xuan eased his grip; it wasn't actually seriously injured, otherwise it would have been reduced to ashes. It shouldn't have affected production. Having learned its lesson, it's likely they'll avoid humans altogether in the future. Before this, they probably never realized how terrifying seemingly harmless humans could be.

After driving away the wolves, Chen Xuan returned to the treehouse. He truly had no intention of killing them. After all, he wasn't a hunter who came specifically to hunt. He found dealing with the prey troublesome enough. Giving them a lesson would be enough to make them run away.

This interruption made him feel much better. He figured that a large area around him was the habitat of wolves, so he was undisturbed by any other creatures for the rest of the night.

After all, the wolf king is a beast with cultivation comparable to that of an innate being, a hegemon in a certain area, so it's normal for it to have its own territory.

The next morning, Chen Xuan did some activities, roasted a pheasant for breakfast, ate some familiar fruits, and then continued his journey to find white sandalwood.

He traveled through the fog, and after about a hundred miles, he should have left the Wolf King's territory. He smelled a strong stench of blood, as well as the acrid smell of burnt flesh.

Looking in the direction of the bloody smell, he didn't sense any danger, but he could vaguely see a fire in that direction through the thick fog.

Since it was on the way anyway, he decided to head in that direction to take a look.

He arrived almost silently at the source of the bloody smell, stood on a large tree, and scanned the area. He saw that the surrounding area, within a radius of about a hundred feet, was a mess, with signs of a brief battle. The plants were burning, but the fire was slowly dying down. The misty swamp was damp, so the probability of it starting a wildfire was low.

Chen Xuan immediately identified the source of the fire as a strange beast, the Mountain Lord.

It was nearly ten zhang long, a truly enormous and terrifying creature. Its entire body was covered in fiery red fur, which was as smooth as flowing water or as if flames were rising.

Beneath its massive body, sharp claws trampled the corpse of a chimpanzee, which was also enormous, measuring five or six zhang long when lying on the ground. However, it was already dead, being torn apart and devoured by the terrifying maw of the fiery red tiger. As it devoured it, crimson flames occasionally burst forth from its mouth, burning the chimpanzee's corpse until it was half-cooked before swallowing it whole.

They even know to eat cooked food, though it's only half-cooked.

The Crimson Flame Tiger can be engulfed in crimson flames, yet it is immune to them. Most flames in the world cannot harm it, and the temperature of the flames it emits is extremely high, enough to melt gold and iron.

As tigers are the king of beasts, this strange beast is a dominant force in its class.

Wherever it goes, it is considered a mobile natural disaster, burning wherever it goes. It is considered an omen of misfortune by the world. Its occasional appearances are often accompanied by severe droughts. There are rumors of this creature appearing during the severe drought in Rongguo.

As a catastrophic beast that can set fires almost wherever it goes, perhaps only the Misty Swamp, with its humid environment where clothes can be wrung out in a short time, can somewhat suppress its characteristics and prevent it from causing a fire.

In addition, it has another characteristic: it likes high-temperature environments and is either located in scorching deserts or volcanoes, or it is highly likely to be located in areas containing a precious mineral, copper ore!

Information about the Crimson Flame Tiger flashed through Chen Xuan's mind, and his eyes lit up. The medicinal herbs he had encountered on the road were not bad, but they were just so-so. Fire Copper was the real treasure. Didn't he see how outrageous the price offered by the Zheng Family Chamber of Commerce was?

As a dominant force among exotic beasts, the Crimson Flame Tiger has a very high potential. Exotic beasts need to awaken their bloodline time and time again to improve and grow. In Chen Xuan's understanding, it is equivalent to unlocking the gene lock, just like human martial arts breakthroughs. It depends on one's luck and talent. In the end, the bloodline is there, and growth is relatively easier than human martial arts.

The Crimson Flame Tiger before them was entirely fiery red, and its danger level was only at the Innate level, but it was still among the top of the Innate level.

If its fiery red fur begins to faintly turn blue, and its crimson flames further transform into blue flames, its danger level will be comparable to that of a Grandmaster. Even Chen Xuan would have to be careful. However, for all things in the world, including humans, that step is not so easy to break through. A single step is like a divine punishment.

The Crimson Flame Tiger's potential is far beyond the Grandmaster level. When silver fur begins to appear on its head, the flames evolve into silver for the third time, making it as dangerous as a human undergoing tribulation. Moreover, unlike humans, it does not face the threat of the three tribulations of heaven, earth, and man. That is truly terrifying.

'What a mighty cat! Its danger level is only at the innate level; it poses no threat to me whatsoever. After it's full, I'll follow it to see if there's any fire copper ore in its lair. If there is, we'll have a continuous supply of fire copper, which is useful for many crafting and artifact making processes. Besides, such a mighty cat shouldn't be left unpetred. After confirming whether there's fire copper ore in its lair, I'll 'discuss' with it and see if riding it around would be wonderful!'

Faced with the possibility of a valuable mineral like copper ore, Chen Xuan couldn't afford to delay his search for white cloudwood. It would be a shame to refuse a gift from heaven.

Compared to the small amount of fire copper needed to make the array flags, if the quantity is large enough, coupled with the cold stones already in hand, Chen Xuan's long-term plan for a pill furnace will be fulfilled.

...(End of chapter)