Chapter 86

In the thick miasma, seven or eight unusually sturdy pitch-black monstrous wolves lunged out, their eerie green eyes flashing with a man-eating ferocity in the dim light.

Their claws seemed wrapped in a thin layer of black vapor; the stone they had inadvertently scratched earlier emitted a faint "hiss" and wispy green smoke, clearly highly corrosive.

"Mutant Shadow Wolves! Their attacks are corrosive—be careful!" Wang Zhize reacted first, shouting a warning; his long sword was already drawn, its light flashing as he met the lead Shadow Wolf lunging forward.

Wang Shan's heart sank; the Mercenary Guild's intel was indeed incomplete, the mutant Shadow Wolves' eeriness far exceeded expectations.

He unleashed the full power of his Refining Body Stage Eight Midphase cultivation, his palms flying as the Pishan Palm's fierce force kept striking out, trying to drive back the wolf pack.

Yet these Shadow Wolves were not only astonishingly fast, their coordination was flawless, fearlessly lunging from all angles.

"Pfft!" A Wang Family member failed to dodge; a wolf claw slashed his arm, his clothes instantly corroded into a large hole, the wound's flesh quickly blackened and gave off a burnt stench; he cried out in pain, his face turning ashen.

"Damn it!" Wang Shan shouted angrily, backhand slapping the ambushing Shadow Wolf away, only to see it roll on the ground once and then lunge at him again ferociously.

The other clan members also fell into fierce combat, blades and wolf howls intertwining, the situation instantly becoming perilous.

Wang Yong and Wang Fang stood back-to-back, straining to fend off the two Shadow Wolves' pincer attack, Wang Fang's shoulder already showing blood.

"System Prompt: Detected unknown corrosive energy; this energy can rapidly erode flesh and accelerate Spiritual Power consumption. Regular pills have limited suppressing effect against this energy."

The cold System Prompt tone rang in Wang Shan's mind.

Wang Shan's heart tightened; indeed, it was troublesome!

He glanced at the injured clan member who had taken a Healing Pill; although the black aura at the wound eased slightly, the recovery speed was far slower than the corrosion's spread, and his Spiritual Power was rapidly draining.

If this continued, even if they managed to kill all the Shadow Wolves, they would likely lose more than half their numbers, possibly facing total annihilation.

Pressure came crashing down like a mountain.

At that moment, a flash of inspiration struck Wang Shan's mind; he recalled the 【Spiritual Blood Branches】 he had planted not long ago in the system space.

Its description mentioned it could quickly restore qi and blood and Spiritual Power; perhaps it would work wonders against this strange corrosive energy?

"All injured clan members, take this immediately!" Wang Shan made a swift decision, grabbing a handful of dark-red 【Spiritual Blood Branches】 from his storage bag, without time to explain, he directly distributed them to the several injured and also quickly shoved a piece into his own mouth.

The 【Spiritual Blood Branches】 dissolved upon contact, a warm and pure energy swiftly flowing through his limbs and bones.

Wang Shan felt his consumed Spiritual Power recovering at an astonishing speed; what delighted him further was that the faint black aura clinging to him from his earlier palm clash with the Shadow Wolves gradually dissipated under the wash of this warm energy.

"Effective!" Wang Shan's spirits lifted greatly.

Almost simultaneously, several clan members who had taken the 【Spiritual Blood Branches】 also cried out in delighted surprise.

One could see the black aura at their wounds retreating as if encountering its nemesis; the originally gruesome injuries began to heal at a visible pace, and their listless spirits revived.

"Clan Leader... what... what kind of divine medicine is this?"

One clan member with the most severe arm injury, now watching his arm rapidly recover, his voice trembling slightly; previously he had even thought this arm would be ruined.

The other uninjured clan members, seeing this, all showed expressions of shock and ecstasy.

The effect of these 【Spiritual Blood Branches】 was practically miraculous; the formerly oppressive, despairing atmosphere vanished in an instant.

"No more talk, first deal with these beasts!" Wang Shan barked lowly, his eyes blazing with sharp light.

With the 【Spiritual Blood Branches】 as their backing, they now had the means for prolonged combat!

"Don't engage them head-on to waste energy! Zhize, Zhitao, you lead people to harass from the sides, attacking from afar with talismans and magic artifacts! Yong and Fang, you guard the two wings; everyone else, follow my orders, alternate attacks, conserve stamina!"

The Wang Family's tactics shifted instantly. Earlier, because they feared the Shadow Wolves' corrosive attacks and worried about insufficient Spiritual Power, they had fought somewhat hesitantly.

Now, with rear worries greatly reduced, their offense instantly became agile and tricky.

Wang Shan no longer sought a one-hit kill; instead, relying on combat experience far surpassing that of the Shadow Wolves, he focused on mobile fighting, continually draining their stamina.

Wang Zhize and the others occasionally hurled 【Fireball Talisman】 and 【Golden Blade Talisman】; though they could not inflict fatal wounds on the thick-skinned mutant Shadow Wolves, they still threw the beasts' formations into disarray, preventing effective organization of their attacks.

In a short time, the battlefield situation reversed; the Wang Family members grew braver with each fight, gradually gaining the upper hand.

Several weaker Shadow Wolves, under continuous drain and talisman bombardment, succumbed one after another.

"Aooo—!"

At that moment, an even more high-pitched howl, filled with a violent aura, came from deep within the miasma.

Next, a wolf nearly twice the size of the others emerged, its fur black and glossy like silk, its eyes blood-red, stepping out slowly.

Its appearance caused the previously slightly eased Shadow Wolf pack to become as if injected with adrenaline, going berserk again, their attacks far more fierce than before—by several times over!

This Shadow Wolf King's aura was so strong it vaguely rivaled a cultivator at the ninth level of Body Refining!

"Chief wolf!" Wang Shan's pupils contracted, alarm bells ringing in his mind, "To capture the bandits, capture their leader first—we must slay it!"

He knew very well that if they did not quickly deal with this Shadow Wolf King, under its command they would be drained to death here.

Wang Shan let out a low roar, pushed off with his feet, and shot toward the Shadow Wolf King like an arrow.

Seeing Wang Shan charge, the Shadow Wolf King's crimson pupils flashed a hint of disdain; it let out a low growl, not retreating but advancing, its massive body turning into a black bolt of lightning that surged toward Wang Shan.

Its speed was so great it produced repeated sonic booms!

"So fast!" Wang Shan's heart jolted; the Shadow Wolf King's speed exceeded his expectations by one-third.

He dared not delay, alternating between the Pishan Palm and a strange palm technique derived from the Black Fiend Claw; palm winds howled as he became entangled in combat with the Shadow Wolf King.

The Shadow Wolf King was not only astonishingly fast; its form was also extremely strange, able in battle to briefly merge with the surrounding shadows, making it hard to track.

Several of Wang Shan's determined attacks fell short due to its uncanny ability to appear and disappear.

"System Scan!" Wang Shan's thought moved, the system's built-in scanning function instantly locked onto the Shadow Wolf King.

Although it could not perform wide-area detection like the Second-rank Environment Scan Talisman, it could still barely manage to lock onto a target at short range.

Each time the Shadow Wolf King attempted to conceal itself, its approximate direction would give Wang Shan an advance warning in his mind.

"Beast, die!"

Seizing the moment when the Shadow Wolf King emerged from its hidden form, Wang Shan's eyes flashed with a fierce gleam; his already-charged Pishan Palm, bearing the force of a thousand jin, slammed hard into the beast's waist and abdomen vital point.

"Boom!" A muffled sound rang out; the Shadow Wolf King emitted a shrill wail, its massive body flying sideways like a broken-line kite, slamming hard into the nearby stone wall and gouging a shallow pit in the hard rock.

It struggled a few times, trying to rise again, but Wang Shan's furious strike was so fierce it had already gravely wounded its internal organs.

Finally, the Shadow Wolf King unwillingly let out several mournful howls, its head lolled to one side, and fell completely silent.

With the Shadow Wolf King dead, the remaining mutant Shadow Wolves scattered like birds and beasts, emitting frightened whimpers as they fled in panic into the deeper miasma, vanishing in an instant.

Hah— Wang Shan exhaled a long breath of foul air, his tense nerves finally relaxing.

He looked at the clansmen, tallying losses, and couldn't help but frown. Although they had finally repelled the wolf pack, two clansmen were severely injured, barely clinging to life thanks to the Spirit Blood Branch, and needed immediate, more effective treatment.

The Second-Tier Healing Pills he had brought were already exhausted in the earlier battle.

"Quick, gather the Shadow Wolf's materials, especially the Spirit Cores!" Wang Shan commanded in a low voice, his gaze falling on the corpse of the dead Shadow Wolf King.

The clansmen swiftly sprang into action, with Wang Zhize personally going to dissect the corpse of the Shadow Wolf King.

Moments later, he approached holding a fist-sized, pitch-black Spirit Core that faintly emitted a strange energy fluctuation: "Clan Leader, this mutated Shadow Wolf's Spirit Core seems somewhat unusual."

Wang Shan took the Spirit Core, feeling its icy coldness and clearly sensing the special energy within.

The System Prompt sounded promptly: "Detected mutant beast core containing special condensed energy, eligible for recycling. This energy resonates vaguely with part of the description in the 【Ten Thousand Beasts Method】 fragment."

Related to the Ten Thousand Beasts Method? Wang Shan's heart stirred, and he immediately threw this Shadow Wolf King's Spirit Core, along with several ordinary mutated Shadow Wolf Spirit Cores, into the system for recycling.

"Recycling mutated Shadow Wolf King Spirit Core (Second-Grade Initial Quality) yields 650 Spirit Plant Points."

"Recycling seven mutated Shadow Wolf Spirit Cores (First-Grade Late Quality) yields a total of 350 Spirit Plant Points."

System Prompt: "Beasts in this region, affected by an unknown force, have undergone benign mutation, making their Spirit Cores and materials slightly more valuable than ordinary beasts of the same tier."

In an instant, a full 1000 Spirit Plant Points were credited! Adding the remaining 75 points after purchasing medicinal pills earlier, Wang Shan's Spirit Plant Points total in the system reached 1075!

This unexpected joy lifted Wang Shan's spirits—truly a case of sleepiness meeting a pillow!

He hesitated not, immediately ordering the system: "Purchase the formula for the Three-Tier Healing Pill! Also buy the basic materials needed to craft three Three-Tier Healing Pills!"

The formula for the Three-Tier Healing Pill requires 300 Spirit Plant Points, and the three batches of materials cost another 450 points, nearly half of the points just credited.

But Wang Shan didn't care; saving lives came first.

Fortunately, Wang Shan had previously stocked the main medicinal herb needed for the Three-Tier Healing Pill; with all materials now ready, he immediately set up a furnace on the spot to begin alchemy.

With the system's assistance and his ever-improving alchemy skills, before long three pills exuding a rich medicinal aroma and of top quality—Three-Tier Healing Pills—were successfully produced.

After administering the pills to the two severely injured clansmen, their ashen, paper-white complexions visibly flushed, and their breathing stabilized considerably.

Wang Shan gazed at the remaining Three-Tier Healing Pill in his hand, then at the deep, rolling miasma within the valley, a glint of determination flashing in his eyes.

Although this Hundred Beast Valley is perilous, these mutated beasts are practically moving Spirit Plant Point repositories!

He seemed to have found a shortcut in this perilous place to quickly accumulate resources and bolster the clan's strength.