Chapter 72: Guardian's Trial

"What's going on?" Chen Hao shouted loudly, while the ground began to shake violently.

"Look over there!" Wang Tingwan widened her eyes and shouted, pointing at the center of the cave with her finger, at the statue of a person and a wolf; because it was too far away, they couldn't tell which one had made the sound.

"Awoo!" A mournful cry rang out, then the two statues in the center slowly rose up, all the way to the top of the cave, and then the statues began to slowly reveal their true form—a huge wolf with a fierce gaze and sharp teeth! The giant wolf slowly shook off the layer that Feng Yan's group had taken for a statue, and its body also gradually fully revealed itself.

It was a gigantic wolf, its whole body silver-gray! Its huge, sharp teeth looked extremely sharp, as if a light bite could shred its prey to pieces.

"Awoo!" The gray giant wolf howled at the sky again, its sound incredibly mournful yet filling people's hearts with immense fear.

"Looks pretty cool." Chen Hao looked up at the howling wolf, unable to help exclaiming.

Yang Xin raised the crossbow in his hand, aimed at the wolf's head, preparing to deliver a fatal blow.

Wang Tingwan lightly pressed down on Yang Xin's crossbow, at the same time signaling him not to act, firmly shaking her head; Yang Xin slowly lowered his crossbow, feeling unwilling inside, and seeing Wang Tingwan wearing Feng Yan's clothes only made him feel a pang of jealousy.

Feng Yan held the Black Sword in one hand and pinched the severed crow's head in the other; the crow's head was about the size of a human head, Feng Yan gripped the crow's scalp behind it, and the crow's head kept dripping blood, drop by drop, onto the ground.

Drip, drip...

Hearing the sound, Chen Hao looked toward Feng Yan holding the crow's head, which was still dripping blood, and asked Feng Yan: "No, Feng Yan, why are you still holding that crow's head?"

Feng Yan tossed the crow's head aside, then replied: "Really? You must have mistaken it."

Chen Hao was speechless; the crow's head Feng Yan threw to the ground made a thud, then rolled around a few times, and finally the crow's head seemed to have regained life, suddenly letting out a mournful cry.

"Ah!"

That sound was incredibly piercing, making several people feel extremely annoyed inside; they covered their ears, and the gray giant wolf seemed to notice them as well, letting out another howl!

"Awoo!"

This time the sound was louder than the previous two combined, making their ears feel like they would burst; they tried their best to cover their ears, keeping the sound out, gritting their teeth, hoping it would end soon.

Several people crouched on the ground, hoping the sound would end quickly, but for some reason it felt extremely long; they waited slowly for it to finish while trying to use their own means to interrupt the gray giant wolf's roar.

Chen Hao finally couldn't take it anymore; he stood up, took out that small piece of metal, and threw it straight at the gray giant wolf!

Whoosh— the metal looked like it was about to hit the gray giant wolf, but the wolf lunged straight at Chen Hao instead!

"How could this be!" Chen Hao widened his eyes, and before he could finish speaking, he saw the gray giant wolf already knocked away by a black iron rod!

"Clang!" The black iron rod struck the wolf's belly, then squarely shattered a rune.

"Ding." The rune fell completely to the ground, slowly disappearing; the blue light grew a bit dimmer. Looking at that dim light, Chen Hao, Feng Yan, Wang Tingwan, and Yang Xin all understood: these four runes were something like a barrier.

"There are still two." Feng Guan looked over and said to Chen Hao.

Chen Hao walked up to the black iron rod, preparing to pick it up, but found he couldn't lift it no matter what; Chen Hao didn't believe this evil, rolled up his sleeves, ready to try again, but discovered the gray giant wolf had already risen, its terrifying green eyes fixed firmly on the four of them.

"Scatter!" Yang Xin shouted.

As soon as his voice fell, the four scattered in different directions; it first looked at the four's direction, then chased after Chen Hao!

"Again me!" Chen Hao shouted, somewhat sadly saying, "Why is it always me who's unlucky, why not Feng Yan?"

Feng Yan heard Chen Hao's words, first silently cursing him a hundred eighty times in his heart, then shouted at Chen Hao: "It's because you're good-looking; if you were a bit uglier, if you looked like me, I guess it wouldn't chase you."

The gray giant wolf was extremely fast; Chen Hao kept running, not daring to look back, running like that, he completely didn't hear Feng Yan's voice or warnings; the wolf extended its claw and lightly kicked Chen Hao, sending him straight into the wall.

"Bang!"

A huge bang accompanied a puff of smoke; Chen Hao coughed up several mouthfuls of blood, then wiped the blood from his mouth with his sleeve, then turned his head and saw that it was exactly the metal he had just thrown out; Chen Hao pulled the metal out with great effort, then looked at the wolf's position—it wasn't chasing him anymore, which let Chen Hao truly breathe a sigh of relief; then he looked at the positions of the remaining two runes, one to the south, one to the north, which put him in a dilemma, both fairly far from him, what to do? Chen Hao felt it was troublesome, sinking into thought.

"Right! Yang Xin!" Chen Hao thought of a method and shouted at Yang Xin, "Use your crossbow to shoot the remaining two runes! Quick!"

"Huh? Are you calling me?" Yang Xin felt strange.

"Hurry up!" Chen Hao shouted again, and at the same time yelled at Feng Yan, "You take care of the other one!"

Feng Yan nodded, indicating he understood; Feng Yan gripped the Black Sword and swung a sword aura at one of the runes.

"Bang!" A loud boom came; the whole cave was almost devoid of light, visibility extremely poor.

"So, this is the last one!" Yang Xin shot an arrow from his crossbow at the last rune; the arrow whistled, then flew straight at the last rune until it hit the target, emitting a crisp sound.

"Ding......"

"Is it over?" Several people had this doubt; looking at the darkness all around, the gray giant wolf also lost its ability to move; just as they thought everything was over, the ground emitted a dim blue light.

That blue light initially flickered faintly, then the crow's head was slowly drawn to the concept, and the light gradually revealed a pattern—a heptagram magic circle!