All Heavens Strategy Game

A strong smell of blood and herbs mingled in the cold air.

Su Dalu lay on the earthen bed, his eyelids twitched a few times, and finally he opened them with difficulty.

His eyes were unfocused, filled with lingering fear. When he saw Su Ming, Su Dashun, and Su Laonian gathered around the kang (a heated brick bed), he let out a hoarse gasp.

"Wolves...so many wolves...a pack of wolves!!" His voice was hoarse and cracked, like a broken bellows being pulled.

"What are you doing in the mountains in the dead of winter? What kind of wolves? How many are there?" Su Dashun pressed down on his shoulder as he tried to get up, and asked in a deep voice, his brows furrowed.

Su Dalu gasped for breath, his chest heaving like a bellows, and said haltingly, "I... I was thinking that now that the snow has stopped, I'd like to go check out the traps we set before..."

His eyes were filled with terror, as if he were back in that horrific scene: "Not long after I went up the mountain, from a distance I saw... saw a group of gray shadows, surrounding something and gnawing on half a deer carcass... I hid behind a tree and peeked out... My God..."

His whole body began to tremble uncontrollably:

"A dozen or so! At least a dozen gray wolves!"

"They were all plump and strong, with green eyes, and the biggest one in the middle... the biggest one in the middle... silver-gray... its size... it was almost ten feet long! Like a water buffalo!"

"Ten feet long?!" Old Su gasped, exclaiming in shock, "That...that's probably a wolf king that's already grown powerful!"

beside,

Su Ming's heart stirred.

Is it the wolf king?

I never expected that Su Dalv would see it. No wonder he was so scared.

Even Su Ming felt lingering fear when he thought of that giant wolf, which was over three meters long, and its intelligent and alert eyes.

That day, he was almost ambushed and killed by two wolves sent by the wolf king. This wolf king was quite intelligent.

When wild beasts possess such intelligence, that is truly terrifying!

"Did you see clearly? How far is the wolf king from our village?" Su Ming asked in a deep voice, this was the question he cared about most.

"I...I know! It's in that sheltered mountain hollow on the southern slope of Xiaochong Mountain!" Su Dalu's voice trembled. "It's so close...only about two or three li away. I reckon I can reach the village entrance in less than the time it takes for an incense stick to burn!"

"I... I was terrified. I ran back as fast as I could, but I slipped and tumbled down that steep slope... I barely made it back to the village before I collapsed. I don't remember anything after that..."

The room fell into a deathly silence.

Wolf Plague!

Moreover, the wolf pack had already approached to such a dangerous distance!

This is very close to the village!

Su Dashun slammed his fist heavily on the edge of the kang (a heated brick bed), making a dull thud: "This once-in-a-century snowfall has either froze all the creatures in the deep mountains to death or forced them to hide. These beasts have been driven out of their wits by hunger!"

"The little bit of food on Little Chongshan Mountain isn't enough to fill their stomachs! Judging from their location, their next move will probably be to come down the mountain and wreak havoc on people and livestock!"

Panic surged like an icy tide.

It instantly overwhelmed everyone present.

"So many wolves...we can't go to Little Chong Mountain anymore!" a woman said fearfully.

"Easy for you to say!" a man immediately retorted, his voice trembling with a hint of bravado. "Not going? The whole family will starve! Where will we get firewood? We'll have to dig up some wild vegetables and tubers to survive before spring, won't we?"

"My snares... I was hoping to catch something to trade for salt..." an old hunter said with a regretful expression.

Relying on mountains to eat mountains, relying on water to draft water.

Xiaochongshan is a treasure trove that the people of Sishui Village have relied on for generations, but it is also a dangerous place.

Now that the treasure trove has been occupied by wolves, it has cut off not only extra income, but also the most basic source of survival supplies.

They even had to constantly worry about wolves coming down from the mountains to harm people.

"What's the panic!"

Su Dashun suddenly stood up straight, his beard and hair bristling, and calmly said, "The wolves are still in the mountains, they haven't entered the village yet. Who knows, they might leave for the distant mountains in the spring. What's the rush?"

He took a deep breath and announced, "Listen carefully, from today onwards, no household is allowed to enter the mountains alone!"

"When gathering firewood or digging for vegetables, you must go in groups of five or more, bring a machete and a hoe, and you are only allowed to stay on the outermost edge of the foot of the mountain. If you hear anything amiss, run back as fast as you can."

"Immediately set up barricades and dig traps at the village entrance and several key intersections to prevent those beasts from coming into the village to harm people. It would be best to have a few more people keep watch at night, and if anything happens, notify everyone by banging gongs and drums."

This is the most helpless, but also the safest, solution.

The villagers looked at each other, sighing, but they knew this was the only way out at the moment, so they could only agree and disperse with heavy hearts, each going home to reinforce their doors and windows and give instructions to their families.

I just hope those beasts will really go back to the deep mountains and forests in the spring!

Soon,

Only Su Ming, Su Dashun, Su Laonian, and Su Dalu, who was still in shock, remained in the room.

A stifling silence pervaded the air.

Su Laonian silently changed Su Dalu's dressing.

Suddenly, Su Dalu struggled to sit up, wincing as the pain aggravated his wounds. He glanced at Su Dashun and Su Ming, his eyes darting around, and said:

"Village Chief... Sanlang... Uncle Lao Nian..."

"Can we...can we..."

He lowered his voice and said:

"Find a way... to kill that wolf king?!"

"Are you crazy!" Old Su was so frightened that his hand trembled, and the medicine jar almost fell to the ground. "Big Donkey, have you lost your mind? You're still thinking of killing the wolf king? You can't even dream of doing something like that!"

"That's the wolf king! The wolf king with more than a dozen vicious wolves!"

"Are our worthless lives even enough to fill their teeth?"

"When I was young, I saw an old wolf king from afar. I'll never forget the look in his eyes. If an ordinary person got close, tsk tsk... their legs would cramp up, they couldn't even stand up straight. That's not how you die!"

Su Ming's heart stirred.

He knew Su Dalu's temperament well. He was always very careful when going up and down the mountain to set traps, and he would almost tie a rope around his waist before daring to go deep into the forest. He was definitely not a reckless person.

There must be a reason why he suddenly came up with such a crazy idea.

"Uncle Donkey," Su Ming began, his voice calm yet carrying a reassuring quality, "Don't rush, tell me slowly, did you... see something else?"

Just now, he clearly caught a fleeting, strange look in Su Dalu's eyes, a look that was different from pure fear.

Su Dalu was stunned for a moment, seemingly not expecting Su Ming to ask such a question. He felt as if he had been seen through, which made him shudder involuntarily.

He took a few breaths, his eyes darting around, then lowered his voice, as if afraid of being overheard: "Before I rolled down the hillside, I think I saw that the wolf king had a slight limp in its left hind leg!"

"There's a bloody hole in my leg...it looks like...like I was stabbed by the fangs of some huge thing!"

"It looks like a wild boar's tusk..."

"Wild boar tusks?" Su Dashun frowned. "What kind of wild boar could hurt such a big wolf king? Could it be the king of boars in the mountains? You must be seeing things."

"My donkey has excellent eyesight; it couldn't possibly be wrong," Ma Xiuying interjected from the side. "Uncle Dashun, you can't believe it. Deep in the Dachong Mountains, the old forests are so dense and impenetrable, what kind of monsters aren't there? Who knows, maybe there really is some powerful wild boar king that drove this pack of wolves out of their den!"

Su Dashun shook his head, clearly not believing it: "No matter how big a wild boar is, can it drive more than a dozen wolves, plus a wolf king, away from their home? I think it's because there's really no food left in the mountains, and they were so hungry that they had no choice but to run away."

Su Laonian was also surprised to hear the news of the wolf king's injury, but his attitude remained firm:

"Even if it's crippled and barely clinging to life, I, Su Laonian, will never touch its bad luck!"

"Anything with the word 'king' in its name is never simple!"

"You look like this from that distance, imagine how terrifying you are up close! Just that menacing aura alone would scare you to death!"

"Lame? That beast will be fully recovered in a month or two! By then, every single person who tries to cause it trouble will be stuffed into its belly!"

"We can't risk our lives for that one inexplicable event! Absolutely not!"

Su Laoyan clearly had no interest in the Wolf King.

Even if the wolf king were truly lame, he wouldn't have the guts.

Su Dalu was stunned by Su Laonian's rapid-fire words, and his sudden fierceness instantly dissipated. He lay back down sheepishly, his face drained of color, and muttered:

"Uncle Nian, you're right. I was confused. That thing was too big...too scary..."

now,

He recalled that the giant silver-gray wolf's seemingly casual glance in the direction of his hiding place.

Cold and devoid of emotion, as if looking at a stone.

He couldn't help but shiver violently, and dared not have any further improper thoughts.

Seeing that Su Dalu's emotions had stabilized and that his injuries were just some superficial wounds, which looked terrible but would actually heal with rest, Su Ming and the others gave Ma Xiuying a few more instructions to take good care of him before getting up and leaving.

Stepping out of the low, earthen house,

A cold wind, carrying snowflakes, swept towards my face.

When Su Dashun saw that Su Ming remained silent with a slight frown, as if he was thinking about something, his heart skipped a beat.

He knew all too well the boy's courage and ability, and was afraid that if he heard the news of the wolf king's injury, he might have some inappropriate thoughts.

"Sanlang, you wouldn't happen to have feelings for the Wolf King, would you?"

"You're absolutely forbidden from having any such wicked thoughts!"

"Didn't you hear me? That's not something you should touch!"

"Stay home and practice your skills. The wolf king is not an easy prey to hunt. Most hunters who go there never come back!"

Su Ming snapped out of his reverie, looked at the genuine worry in the old village chief's eyes, felt a warmth in his heart, and nodded.

"Village chief, don't worry, I'm not stupid. Not to mention the wolf king, those dozen or so vicious wolves are beyond my ability to handle. I won't go and die."

Su Dashun carefully examined his face and, seeing that he was indeed not fanatical or impulsive, felt slightly relieved and patted his shoulder forcefully:

"Good that you know! Come on, let's go see how the barricades at the village entrance are doing."

At the village entrance, a bustling scene unfolded.

Dozens of able-bodied villagers, under the command of Su Yuanbao and others, were driving thick, sharpened wooden stakes deep into the frozen ground, securing them in a crisscross pattern to create a simple yet sturdy chevaux-de-frise, blocking the main road leading into the mountains.

Others carefully dug traps in the nearby snow-covered areas where they could pass, covering them with branches and snow for camouflage.

Su Dashun carefully inspected the sturdiness of the barricades and gave a few instructions to the villagers in charge of guarding them, asking them to keep their eyes open and to sound the gong immediately if anything unusual happened.

Afterwards, he made a special trip to check on several households at the entrance of the village.

These households are closest to the foot of the mountain, and their courtyards are the most rudimentary. If wolves were to enter the village, these households would be the first to be affected, including Su Ming's family, his neighbor Aunt Shitou, and several other households.

"Yuanbao, you need to reinforce your courtyard wall. It would be best to build it higher with stones so that wolves can't climb over it," Su Dashun said, pointing to the adobe wall of Su Ming's house.

"Okay, Uncle Village Chief, I'll go move the stones right away," Su Yuanbao replied honestly.

Su Dashun then looked at the neighboring courtyard.

That was Aunt Stone's family. She was a woman with a hard life. Her husband had been forced to work on the river embankment for many years and never came back. Her eldest son drowned two years ago while fishing in the river. Her daughter-in-law abandoned her grandson and ran away. Now she was the only one raising her young grandson, "Little Stone," and life was extremely difficult.

Her family's courtyard wall was low and dilapidated.

It's too difficult for a woman to manage her yard properly!

"Hey, Mr. Shi," Su Dashun called out, "Your yard is too unsafe. Why don't you have Yuanbao help you reinforce it?"

Aunt Stone peeked out of the house; she was a woman with a face full of wrinkles, looking much older than her actual age.

She rubbed her apron, a look of gratitude mixed with embarrassment on her face: "Oh, thank you for thinking of me, Village Chief... No, no need to trouble yourself, Yuanbao and the others are quite busy too... I, I can handle it myself, it's not good to keep bothering everyone..."

Her voice trailed off, and her eyes darted away.

It wasn't that she didn't want to, but that she dared not and was unwilling.

I'm afraid of owing favors, afraid of causing trouble for others, and even more afraid that I won't be able to repay them.

In this world, the debts of gratitude are the hardest to repay.

She felt embarrassed when Su Yuanbao had tried to exchange meat for her own dried mushrooms and some wild vegetables and seasonings several times before, so she had no face to waste his time and effort.

Su Yuanbao, being kind-hearted, chimed in, "Auntie Shitou, it's no trouble at all. I can just move a few more stones! If that wolf really comes down the mountain, your yard won't be able to hold it off!"

"Really, no need, really no need..." Aunt Stone waved her hands repeatedly, hurriedly retreating back into the house and closing the door.

Su Dashun sighed, knowing that the woman was stubborn, and could not force her any further. He could only shake his head and say to Su Yuanbao, "Then you should focus on your own business first. When you have time, please help out and keep an eye on things."

After inspecting the area, Su Dashun gave Su Yuanbao and the villagers on patrol a few more instructions before he and Su Ming went home.

Back in my own low but warm mud-brick house

Su Ming bolted the door shut and tightened the latch.

Inside the room, the jar of deer blood wine sat quietly in the corner, emitting a faint medicinal fragrance.

He sat cross-legged on the kang (a heated brick bed), but did not immediately begin his cultivation.

Su Dalu's words were like a seed that quietly sprouted in his heart.

The wolf king is injured... by what appears to be a wild boar's tusk...

This news truly stirred something within him.

The temptation of a wounded wolf king, whose strength may be greatly reduced, is too great.

If the wolf king can be hunted down, not to mention its own value, simply eliminating this major threat would bring lasting peace to Sishui Village and even the surrounding villages.

In the future, when Su Ming goes hunting in the mountains, he won't have to worry about being targeted by these wolves!

However, Su Laonian's warning also echoed in his ears.

Even a starved camel is bigger than a horse, let alone a wolf king that has grown into a force to be reckoned with.

Even with a limp, its strength and cunning are far beyond what ordinary hunters can handle.

Moreover, it was guarded by more than a dozen vicious wolves.

With my current strength, I might be able to barely deal with an ordinary wolf, but against a pack of wolves, especially one led by a wolf alpha, I would definitely be doomed.

Unless... his Xingyi ability breaks through to the next level, perhaps there will still be a slight possibility of maneuvering.

But now? Going there would be suicide!

Moreover, even if I break through, at most I can only fight the Wolf King one-on-one. The Wolf King is guarded by more than a dozen wild wolves, so I have no chance of winning at all.

This is an unsolvable problem.

The initial excitement upon hearing that the wolf king was injured has now been completely extinguished after a calm analysis.

It's not about strength, it's about not having enough strength!

The most important thing right now is to digest the deer blood wine and improve myself.

Su Ming calmed his mind, took out a small cup of medicinal wine, tilted his head back and drank it, and began to guide the surging medicinal power to temper his muscles and bones and nourish his internal energy.

It's too early to say anything now. We should wait ten days to half a month to digest the deer blood wine and improve our strength before making any further decisions!

We have enough cultivation resources and plenty of food at home, so there's no need to take any risks.

……

As night deepened, a cold wind howled.

Most families in Sishui Village had gone to bed early, and the village was deathly quiet. Only the torches guarding the village entrance flickered in the wind, illuminating the menacing shadows of the barricades on the snow.

However, the ancestral hall in the center of the village radiated a faint but firm light, unlike anything seen before.

Inside the ancestral hall, the atmosphere was so solemn it was almost oppressive.

Village chief Su Dashun sat at the head of the table with a blank expression, flanked by several white-haired elders, each with a solemn look on their faces.

Below, there stood more than twenty men, mostly between thirty-five and forty-five years old, their faces etched with the marks of a life of hardship, yet their eyes held an unusually complex expression.

They have several things in common:

Firstly, he has already married and had children, thus continuing the family line.

Secondly, the family's situation was extremely bad; they were practically living hand to mouth.

Thirdly, there are other young and able-bodied people in the family who can look after the house, so there are no worries about the future.

In the center of the ancestral hall, on the offering table in front of the ancestral tablets, there were no incense or candles, only a worn bamboo tube.

Inside the bamboo tube was a pair of smooth bamboo skewers.

A life-or-death oath.