Chapter 383: Shallow Valley Wolf Den — Impending Battle and Three Tests

After the group determined the direction where the Northern Wolves might exist, they originally intended to set off to investigate, but considering the time, including the time to walk back from now, they had to reach the agreed-upon meeting point.

Both were important; after consideration by Knight Lanisha, the group decided to return first. After all, without directly conflicting with the Northern Wolves here, these Northern Wolves would not move.

Therefore, they could completely return, gather more manpower, and come again.

Thus, after leaving sufficiently conspicuous marks on the surrounding tree trunks, the group walked back quickly. On the return journey, the female knight requested that the hunters leave sufficiently conspicuous marks to facilitate their finding the way again next time.

More than a day later, they arrived at the agreed-upon forest clearing ahead of the carriage team.

Resting briefly beside the snow-covered tracks left by the carriage when it moved previously, they waited there for the carriage.

Around the afternoon of that day, the neighing of horses and the sound of a carriage traveling through the snow came from the south side.

"Yo! Everyone arrived early. We are a bit late this time." After the carriage approached, one of the two old hunters driving the carriage said in greeting.

"Was the journey smooth?" Knight Lanisha sat up from the ground, then swung onto her horse in one motion, and asked while sitting on the warhorse's back.

Jier and the others hurried over to pass the items originally carried on his horse into the carriage; the two young hunters even opened a gap from the rear of the carriage, braced their hands on the rear partition of the carriage's cargo hold, and flipped inside all at once.

"There were some. The villagers guarding the supply point said that there have always been shadows of Northern Wolves nearby recently. At first, they only heard wolf howls from afar at night, but later, as time passed, they could also see traces of animal activity in the forest during the day," an old hunter threw a piece of food to the female knight and Jier each, then continued.

Jier caught the thing the old hunter threw to him and took a look; it turned out to be a soft, red Pickled Radish. It looked and smelled like it might not be good, but when Jier took a bite, a sour and appetizing flavor bloomed in his mouth.

This sour taste not only immediately revived his appetite, which had been diminishing due to eating and sleeping poorly in the forest recently, but also stimulated his brain with the sourness, making him feel refreshed.

While riding his horse beside the carriage, he listened to the old hunters' chatter, and at the same time, *crunch, crunch*, like a rabbit, he used his sharp teeth to cut and chew the Pickled Radish.

"Recently, those Northern Wolves even came to the bottom of the watchtower at night, howling loudly at the villagers inside the watchtower at close range. Not only did it make it hard for them to sleep, but it also made many villagers quite nervous. They told me they were reminded of the years when the Northern Wolves were at their worst, surrounding the village day and night."

Knight Lanisha narrowed her eyes: "Those Northern Wolves were testing at first, and later, seeing that the villagers guarding the watchtower had no ability to come out and attack them, they became increasingly brazen."

Another old hunter patted the bow and Arrow on his body at this time: "So, after we arrived, we thought we could ambush those arrogant Northern Wolves."

Jier asked: "So what did you do?"

A young hunter sitting in the carriage cabin, near the driver's seat, took over the conversation and said: "It was daytime when we arrived at the Jiedian. We confirmed that we hadn't been discovered by the Northern Wolves when we went over, so everyone discussed it and immediately came out to remove some of the carriage tracks near the watchtower Jiedian."

"We also set up several bonfires in the snow around the watchtower that could be ignited remotely, all poured with Lamp Oil and Grease. At night, we waited until the Northern Wolves rushed to the vicinity of the watchtower to howl and bark, and then we all fired Rockets from the third floor of the watchtower. First, we lit the bonfires prepared during the day to illuminate the snow around the watchtower. Then everyone shot arrows together at the bewildered Northern Wolves."

The young hunter waved his arm: "The wolf cubs ran away with their tails between their legs on the spot. When we took stock the next morning, we found that a total of two adult Northern Wolves and seven half-grown Northern Wolves had been shot dead. I didn't expect them to bring even the wolf pups out; this immediately made them afraid to harass the watchtower again."

"Hmph, they must have thought that the people in the watchtower had no offensive capability, so they brought the wolf pups out of the wolf den," Jier thought so.

Afterward, the group did not encounter any setbacks on the way to the Rock Mountain Jiedian. Although they discovered some snow footprints and traces of strange animals, Knight Lanisha did not want to create extra complications or find more trouble, so the group returned to the new Jiedian all the way.

Everyone rested briefly, then organized the supplies they were carrying. They still left another old hunter who had not been feeling well recently in the safe Jiedian, and the others walked behind Knight Lanisha's warhorse, no longer heading south and then turning east, but walking in a straight line directly to the southeast.

After walking for more than two days in the flat, snow-covered forest, the sharp-eyed old hunters discovered the marks that Knight Lanisha had previously let the young hunters leave on the tree trunks along the way.

It is not that the animal Monsters in the forest do not leave some marks on tree trunks; for example, Da Hei Xiong will use their claws to scratch the tree trunks to mark their territory. Some mountain leopards that rest in trees will also scratch off the bark at the lower part of the tree trunks where they live, using the dead large trees to mark their residence and remind surrounding animals not to disturb them. There are many varieties.

But no matter how exaggerated, animals will not use sharp blades to directly cut words of the common language on tree trunks, nor will they mark arrows to indicate direction.

It was good to find these traces; the group followed the traces all the way and soon found the place where the large-scale footprints of Northern Wolves had been discovered initially.

"Being able to find so many footprints here means that either their nest is very close to here and they don't need to carefully cover their location, or this is their main gathering point for coming and going from the north and south," an old hunter expressed his view after checking the traces on the ground.

Another old hunter also checked after him, pointing to several places and saying: "These few places were left recently. I estimate they should be traces left today. Very fresh, no damage on the footprints."

Knight Lanisha finally gave the order: "Regardless of whether it is close to their nest, we must judge it as if their nest is nearby! Everyone take out your weapons and prepare for battle."

"Yes, Knight," the group replied in a low voice.

The hunters checked the condition of their bows and the firmness of the Bowstring again. At the same time, they moved the quivers on their backs to their right waists and opened the mouth of one quiver, keeping the Arrows in the quiver in a state where they could be taken at any time. Not only that, experienced hunters also held the bow in their left hand and the shaft of an Arrow in their right hand, ready for battle at any time.

Jier kept the axe on his back in a state where it could be taken at any time. At the same time, he equipped the Shield behind his left shoulder on his left hand, leaving his right hand free, ready to draw his Long Sword to fight at any time.

Knight Lanisha lowered her body to lean against the warhorse's head, leaned close to the warhorse's ear, and whispered something to the warhorse.

Of course, one did not know what the female knight said, but afterward, her warhorse no longer snorted or neighed, its hooves did not move restlessly, and it became quiet overall.

As Knight Lanisha picked up her Steel Long Spear from the side of the Muan and swung it forward in the air, the team quietly dispersed slightly and moved forward.

Knight Lanisha rode in the front, with the young hunters spaced several meters apart on both sides. Behind the young hunters were the three old hunters, and at the very back, Jier acted as the rear guard to prevent the Northern Wolves from launching a sneak attack from behind.

The old hunters checked the traces of the Northern Wolves on the ground at any time and whispered the direction of advance. In this way, everyone didn't talk much and walked quietly for about two hours, until a sound came from behind a tree.

Knight Lanisha was riding on the horse, so she had the best view, and her eyesight was far superior to that of ordinary people.

"There," she said only one word, then pointed her spear in the direction where the sound was discovered.

Then, immediately, a young hunter nocked an arrow and drew his bow, aimed slightly, and shot an arrow in the direction indicated by the knight.

With a *whoosh*, the Arrow pierced the air.

It shot into the trunk of that large tree with a *thud*. The animal hiding behind the tree trunk was startled, immediately knew it had been discovered, and thus darted out from the snow on the ground, fleeing continuously in one direction, while running, it also made short, sharp howls of "woo-woo" in its mouth.

"Don't shoot it dead! Try to keep up!" As soon as Knight Lanisha finished speaking, the three old hunters who received the order adjusted the angles of their bows and arrows slightly for a moment, and then released their arrows.

The arrows of two people grazed the back and tail of the fleeing Northern Wolf; one took away a small piece of fur from its back, and one directly hit the tail bone in its fluffy tail. But the third old hunter released his arrow last.

The Northern Wolf that was hit in the tail rolled on the ground. After getting up in a sorry state, it instinctively wanted to bite the human's metal teeth that hit its tail, but it immediately realized that it should not stop.

Indeed, just as it paused, an arrow flew over at high speed, directly piercing into its hind leg.

"Woo-woo-woo-woo." This Northern Wolf was even carried by the force of the arrow to roll on the ground again.

"Don't shoot it dead," Knight Lanisha glanced at the old hunter behind her.

The old hunter who released his arrow last shrugged: "Don't worry, wounding one of its legs, with our old arms and legs, we can keep up."

"Stop joking, keep up quickly. Remember to maintain the formation."

While speaking, the Northern Wolf with an arrow in its hind leg had already endured the pain and continued to run by hopping on three legs.

The team barely managed to keep up. That Northern Wolf was truly familiar with the surrounding situation and kept trying to hide behind a certain tree so that the pursuing hunters could not find it.

But Knight Lanisha had been staring at that guy from her horse. She was actually very experienced in dealing with these Northern Wolves; she herself often wounded one Northern Wolf, then specifically let it howl to gather other Northern Wolves over, and then wiped them all out.

In the previous years, when she couldn't organize the hunters, that was how she did it. Although it seemed faster and more efficient than leading hunters, in those years, every winter, she had to wander alone in the forest for many days to encounter one Northern Wolf.

The inexperienced Knight Lanisha was more curious and would randomly break into some burrows or small Shandong, often having to fight with many Monsters and fierce beasts entrenched in the caves before she could retreat in a sorry state.

The taste of that can be imagined.

Although the clumsy method was useful, the efficiency was too low, and it was very embarrassing. Later, after consulting Knight Kela and Kendall Baron, she realized that she should find people familiar with the forest to guide her.

The group quietly followed not far behind the fleeing Northern Wolf. After passing through a dense forest belt, many footprints of Northern Wolves appeared on the surrounding ground.

An old Hunter checked the footprints on the ground: "My Lord, these are the footprints of wolf pups. That's right, this must be the place where they have settled the underage wolf pups."

Jier looked around and discovered that this was a gentle, shallow valley, high on the sides and low in the middle, with the entire shallow valley surrounded by a circle of relatively dense trees. This place was decent; he deduced that those wolf pups were most likely living in the middle of this area.

Knight Lanisha tugged on the warhorse's Jiansheng, causing the warhorse to rear its front hooves and neigh loudly: "Make some noise, tell those animals that we are here!" After speaking, she struck her fist hard against the armor on her chest, producing a thumping sound.

With a *clang*, Jier drew his hunting sword, struck the white-light-wrapped Long Sword against the Shield in his left hand, and produced a loud *bang-bang-bang* sound. Interestingly, both his Shield and Long Sword were of a very sturdy type; when the two collided, neither showed any visible tremor or vibration.

The Hunters, led by the old Hunter, shouted in unison: "Hu! He! Hu! He!"

The rhythmic shouting still had a certain momentum to it.

"You all advance slowly, forward! I will charge in first." As soon as the words fell, Knight Lanisha squeezed the horse's belly, and her metal Boot and the horse armor on the horse's belly also produced a loud collision. Upon receiving the command, the warhorse's four hooves flew up and fell rapidly, accelerating to the front in an instant.

As for the Hunters, the old Hunter signaled everyone to gather together; the three of them stayed in the center, followed by four young Hunters, and on the outermost perimeter was Jier, who could move and defend like a satellite.

Although everyone was shouting loudly, they were still very cautious overall. They did not directly follow closely behind Knight Lanisha, but instead relied on the few trees in this shallow valley as cover and walked over slowly.

The place here was quite large, but there were not many obstacles. So, after walking a few steps, everyone saw the area in the middle of the shallow valley.

Unexpectedly, there was a small frozen puddle there, and the ground all around had been cleared of snow. The ground was not empty; in some flat areas, dried grass had been carried over by the Northland Wolves.

At this moment, the entire middle of the shallow valley was filled with wolf pups running in all directions. They were like headless flies, running and yelping in the area without any order, wanting to hide behind tree trunks, wanting to run to the outer edge of the shallow valley, wanting to support the adult wolves from behind, and wanting to directly unleash their might to pounce on the metal guy on the metal Monster.

The adult wolves, led by a Northland Wolf with a slightly different coat color, attempted to resist Knight Lanisha. They all recognized Knight Lanisha, this hateful Human, and instinctively wanted to run because they knew they were no match. But the area was full of panicked wolf pups, and having been assigned the task by the Wolf King to care for and raise these future companions, they had to obey the Wolf King's orders even if it meant losing their lives.

Therefore, even though they knew they were no match for the Human Knight Lanisha, these adult Northland Wolves had to fight to the death. They split off one Northland Wolf to divert the brainless, scurrying wolf pups, preparing to let those wolf pups find the Wolf King for shelter while they held off the Human.

Although it was a desperate delay, the Northland Wolves did not think they were without a chance to fight. Their small leader had obtained a magical ability from the Wolf King this year, and perhaps it could defeat this female Human wrapped in metal.

"Heh." Knight Lanisha rode on her horse, her gaze surveying the entire field, naturally seeing their intentions from the Northland Wolves' actions. These cunning and intelligent animals were actually attempting to resist her?

She naturally also saw that strange Northland Wolf small leader, which was a circle larger than the surrounding Northland Wolves and had fur that was red overall with cyan tips.

"Let me see what you're capable of!" She muttered, pulled the Jiansheng to turn the warhorse, and after turning away from the wolf den, she kicked the horse's belly again and accelerated toward the strange Northland Wolf opposite.

She leaned low, tilted her body out to the right side of the Muan, held the end of the Steel Long Spear with both hands, and aimed the slender, sharp spear tip at the rapidly approaching strange Northland Wolf from afar.

On the opposite side, the strange Northland Wolf with red fur also knew the opponent's power; it dared not be careless and directly shook its head to draw upon the ability hidden within its body.

This was something it had obtained after competing against other Northland Wolf brothers and sisters during the summer and completing the three challenges proposed by the Wolf King, which allowed it to drink its fill of the blood given by the Wolf King and gain the ability.

At that time, in the scorching summer, it participated in the selection called by the Wolf King along with more than ten other brave Northland Wolves. The great Wolf King needed several of the most excellent subordinates to serve as the main force to resist that fierce female Human in the winter.

The first step was to participate in a melee in an open space; only after defeating all other Northland Wolves in the melee would one be qualified to accept the subsequent tests of the Wolf King.

Relying on its tall stature, weight, and cunning wisdom, it did not rush into the center of the melee at the beginning, but waited until everyone was exhausted from fighting before rushing in, knocking over the guys blocking its way left and right, pouncing on and biting the guys tangled together, turning around to slap away the insidious guys trying to sneak attack, and finally, defeating the other Northland Wolf that could fight it head-on.

It became the winner of this melee.

Afterward, the Wolf King summoned it, and it cautiously and humbly arrived at the frozen cave where the Wolf King lived. In the deepest part of the cave, it saw the white Wolf King, which was over five meters long with a tail three meters long.

The Wolf King was riding an unfertilized female wolf; after finishing quickly, it drove the female wolf out of the cave and then stared fixedly at this winner of the melee.

It trembled with fear, stretched out its four limbs, and lay flat on the cold ground to show its submission and pride. It was a Warrior, and lying like this was the most acceptable etiquette allowed by its dignity. It could not be like those ordinary Northland Wolves without pride and dignity, exposing its soft belly to show submission.

It seemed that this action of its was recognized by the great Wolf King. The Wolf King let out a pleasant, low, meaningless roar, and then extended a white-furred front paw as huge as itself.

As it watched with eyes wide open in desperation, the Wolf King's claw split open naturally, a drop of boiling blood flowed out along the wound that opened and healed, then flowed along the tens-of-centimeters-long sharp claw, and finally gathered at the tip of the sharp claw.

It breathed heavily, and with a flash of inspiration, it opened its mouth and raised its head.

Amidst the Wolf King baring its mouth full of sharp teeth, that drop of rolling, boiling blood fell into its mouth.

Soon, the magical effect appeared.

The minor injuries it had just sustained in the melee healed rapidly, and its physical state reached a level even better than before it participated in the melee.

The Wolf King then spoke slowly, using a voice that sounded like whimpering but was actually huge in volume, to tell this winner the three tests. After accepting and completing the tests, it would obtain even greater power and become one of the Northland Wolf leaders under the Wolf King.

The three tests were:

Provoke a nest of poisonous bees in the Forest and survive the poisonous bees' attack; this was a test of the will to endure.

Defeat a Da Hei Xiong in the Forest alone, and after winning, tear off the bear's head to show everyone; this was a test of the courage to fight.

Go south to the Human territory, ambush and sneak attack, and bring a Human back to the Wolf King alive; this was a test of cunning wisdom.

It did not understand the meaning, but after bravely letting out a "woo," it retreated confidently.