Chapter 385: The Great Adventure of the Northern Wolf: The Journey South and the Boundary of the Northern God

Regarding the final challenge set by the Wolf King, although it did not know the deeper meaning behind it, it knew that this was not an easy task to accomplish.

Hunting and killing a human is not too difficult for an adult Northern Wolf, because apart from some hunters who specifically roam the country roads, other humans truly have no ability to resist their attacks.

The only problem is that while attacking and biting a human to death is not hard, bringing a living human to the Han Leng Dong Ku where the Wolf King resides is not easy.

Especially since it can only rely on itself, a single Northern Wolf, to complete this task.

Will that human enter the Forest according to its demands? What will it and the human eat? How can it ensure the human doesn't run away? What about drinking water on the road? If it encounters other fierce beasts on the way, should it fight for the human's life?

After proudly delivering the massive bear head to the entrance of the cave where the Wolf King lived, it was deeply troubled by these difficult questions on the way back to the wolf den where it huddled.

After returning to the wolf den, other companions who had followed to watch the battle brought over the arm of a Da Hei Xiong; the thick bear fur had already been torn off for it, ready for it to enjoy directly.

The fresh, bloody scent stimulated it, and after driving away a few naughty cubs who wanted to lick the bear arm, it pounced on it, enjoying the fruits of the hunt it had created all by itself.

The next day, while it was still cool before the scorching sun of midsummer had risen, it called over the companions who had gone out hunting the night before, and through a series of woo-woo and woof-woof exchanges and howls, it told its companions about the problem that had been bothering it since yesterday.

Although everyone was very exhausted from hunting all night, and the forever energetic cubs were making a racket in the nest, the challenger's request still needed to be taken seriously; after all, the other party's performance yesterday had already conquered them all.

After a round of low-barking communication, the Northern Wolves sitting around the pond in the center of the wolf den offered many ideas, but most were immature and simple, making it shake its head and reject them one after another.

It was not until an old wolf, who had survived many human slaughters involving metal protection, woo-wooed about an incident from several years ago.

At the edge of the north side of the Forest, near a place with huge Fa Guang Shitou, there grew some vines that also glowed. Several years ago, it had been sent out by the Wolf King to scout and roam the north; once, unable to find a water source to quench its thirst, it had to risk going near the Fa Guang Shitou, which were often guarded by powerful humans, to find water.

As it turned out, there was no water there at the time, so it had to gnaw on the tender buds of the Luminous Vine to quench its thirst.

Unexpectedly, after swallowing the Luminous Vine, it did not feel hungry, thirsty, or sleepy for more than ten sunrises and sunsets, and it was full of vigorous energy. Therefore, it had completed the task assigned by the Wolf King very well that time.

Telling this experience now was the old wolf's way of seeing if it could help the bravest and wisest warrior in their wolf den.

Upon hearing this news, it was overjoyed and couldn't help but howl woo-woo, which led the surrounding cubs to join in the woo-woo clamor.

Having a foundational method, it began to make some other preparations.

After giving instructions to its companions, it ran out like the wind, first going to the outside of the Han Leng Dong Ku where the Wolf King resided, and then starting from there, it set off all the way toward the south of the Forest.

It was not only familiarizing itself with this route for driving the human later, but also memorizing some dangerous areas along this route, so that when it drove the human, it would have to let the weak human avoid these places.

Naturally, there were no fierce animals in the large area near the cave where the Wolf King resided, and there was not a single Monster in the Northern Wolves' understanding, for after all, in this vast Forest, besides the Wolf King, who else would dare to claim to be king or hegemon?

Although it did not know why the Wolf King always stayed in that cold cave, every year during the coldest time of winter, their Northern Wolf King would come out of the cave, leading all the Northern Wolves to gallop through the Forest, hunting all animals on a large scale, or resisting the female metal humans who had become increasingly dangerous and annoying in recent years.

After running for a long time and finally leaving the area of the Wolf King's deterrence, it discovered many dangerous areas and dens of fierce animals along the way.

For example, that mud pond was the territory of a family of wild boars; although they occasionally hunted some piglets from the wild boar herd, the pair of massive tusks belonging to the Liege of the other party were not something they could handle.

The other party's size was more than three times its own, and its weight was more than ten times that of an average Northern Wolf. In the Forest, apart from the towering trees, no tree could withstand that guy's rampage for half a day.

Further south was a stretch of Fruit Tree, where a group of flower-faced monkeys lived all day in the Fruit Tree; their tempers were very irritable and annoying. Even if the Northern Wolves just approached the range of the Fruit Tree, they would be pelted and driven away by those guys using the fruit pits they had accumulated after eating. Abominable! Once it obtained the miraculous power bestowed by the Wolf King, it would definitely make you pay.

The sweet fruit flesh was also something the Northern Wolves liked, or rather, all the animals in the Forest liked those fruits. Unfortunately, those flower-faced monkeys were very stingy; they wouldn't even let them eat the rotten fruit that fell to the ground in autumn, and sometimes they would even squat on the Fruit Tree and urinate to drive away the Northern Wolves picking up the fruit.

Generally, only those thick-skinned wild boars without dignity didn't care about the teasing and insults of the flower-faced monkeys; even the Da Hei Xiong, who held a high status in the Forest, rarely came to this place where the Fruit Tree grew in patches because they could not accept the insults of the flower-faced monkeys.

However, these monkeys also had natural enemies, which were the lynxes and leopards that never ate sweet fruit.

These ambushers, who moved without a sound, loved to eat sleeping little flower-faced monkeys the most, and they were nocturnal; those flower-faced monkeys would rest at night, just naturally being countered.

Amidst the mocking laughter of the flower-faced monkeys, it bypassed that patch of Fruit Tree and continued to run south.

After bypassing a few suspicious piles of weeds, it avoided an area of trees connected by spider webs.

These were all dangerous areas, especially in midsummer; Northern Wolves alone knew to avoid these areas that looked suspicious at a glance. After more than two days, it finally arrived at the edge of the Da Sen Lin after finding a route that would not encounter danger.

In front was a wide Shitou Tong Dao paved with stones of all sizes; at the end of the left side of its line of sight, there was a tall, airtight nest built by humans. Opposite was another, smaller forest, compared to the Da Sen Lin behind it.

To the right was the distant place where this stone-covered path led. It had never been there, but it had heard Northern Wolves living on the west side of the Forest say that it connected to a Da He with turbulent water, but unlike here, there were many humans coming and going on the other side of the river there, and one could often encounter some very dangerous guys.

There were also some dangerous Monster in the Da He. They specifically ate four-legged creatures like them that came to the water's edge to drink; humans were rarely attacked by those Monster in the water.

After consideration, it did not think it could avoid being attacked by the river Monster that specifically hunted them, swim across the Da He to reach the other side, and capture a human. And it could not guarantee that it could bring a person back across the river, then walk for a long time on the stone-covered path, and then enter the Forest that was dangerous for humans.

After much deliberation, it went straight through the Shitou Tong Dao and entered the smaller forest to the south.

Here, it bypassed some strange Mushroom circles, and amidst the pestering of some strange, incomprehensible sounds, it quickly passed through the forest of strange mist.

This wouldn't work; it knew it could quickly leave this strange place, but it couldn't do this later while carrying a human.

So it repeatedly traversed the Mushroom circle areas that could stir up mist, accurately finding the influence boundary of the other party. It finally heard a burst of incomprehensible, exasperated sounds, vigilantly urinated to leave marks in these places, and then continued south.

On the way, it keenly discovered some giant moose with huge horns on their heads, knowing that an enemy of this size could not be its opponent, so it carefully avoided them.

Continuing to run, in the quiet Forest of midsummer, it also saw a human house with long white hands and feet that was stuffing tree trunks from which branches had been removed into a large door, swallowing them for nourishment. Out of vigilance, it carefully lay in the distance and observed the thing for a while; although it seemed to have been discovered by that huge, strange thing, which even waved to greet it in a friendly human way, the Northern Wolf cautiously crawled on the ground, rubbing bit by bit, and left the thing's line of sight.

It did not chase after it.

Regardless of the human house, it finally walked out of this Forest, which seemed small but was quite strange.

Arriving at an open area, the terrain here was gradually lowering, and a river from the Da Hu in the north was rumbling all the way down. In the river, some stubborn, silver-backed, red-bellied slender big fish were jumping upstream against the river.

It found some exhausted big fish resting against the stones in the water by the river, and swung its furry, powerful paw to slap a big fish that had no strength onto the riverbank.

As a Northern Wolf that often went to swim in the Da Hu not far from the wolf den, its fishing level was not inferior to those Da Hei Xiong.

The big fish's belly was full of fish roe with a strong fishy smell; the Da Hei Xiong might like it, but it was not very satisfied, so it only gnawed on the other white, tender fish meat of the big fish.

After eating its fill, it continued to run south along the river.

Along this way, there were many undulating hills of various sizes; these places with lush shrubs, vegetation, and flowers had a lot of rabbits and mice, and at the same time, many colorful, slender Poisonous Snake were also present. It carefully avoided those guys; it was full and would not waste effort hunting those silly long-legged rabbits.

Sometimes, it would specifically run to the high points of some hills, trying to observe the surrounding terrain and dangerous areas from a high vantage point.

It was lucky enough to meet some Northern Wolf companions from the southern Forest; these guys who lived far away from the Wolf King were very impolite when they saw it, but after it revealed in its specifically loud roar that it was burdened with the challenge given to it by the Wolf King, these guys finally quieted down.

It told these guys about the challenge it had yet to complete, only to be ridiculed by them. They actually thought that attacking humans, something they would spontaneously do when they became adults, was considered a challenge by the Wolf King, and it really had no difficulty.

Regarding this, it had to carefully tell these arrogant and proud guys that attacking and killing a human was indeed easy, but the truly difficult part was grabbing a living human out of a human nest, and then having to drive or carry them all the way north, bringing them to the Wolf King alive to count as completion.

This immediately left those arrogant guys speechless, and they could only open their mouths, panting with their tongues hanging out.

They asked it if it could complete it itself, and it held its head high and walked away with long strides.

After leaving its kin, the terrain changed again very quickly, from undulating hilly mountains to flat grassland and wheat fields.

Standing on high ground and looking into the distance, it could already see a nest formed by a large group of humans gathered together at the intersection of two rivers in the distance. Many humans who went out came in and out from there, coming and going between the fields and the ground.

And further away, on the sparkling, wide river surface, things made of wood by humans that could float on the water were coming and going between various parts of the riverbank.

The houses where Humans live and hide are somewhat different from the ones it has seen in the Forest, appearing a bit smaller. However, it does not find this strange; after all, it has heard from other companions that Humans are also divided into different Tiers, but unlike them, the strong and powerful fellows do not necessarily live in tall houses, but rather obtain them using some troublesome little metal pieces they carry.

Furthermore, what is interesting is that Humans mostly gather in groups of a few, digging the ground together, enjoying food together, and even breeding in the same house. The cubs they give birth to are not raised together either, but are raised by whoever gave birth to them.

This makes the Northland Wolves feel a bit strange; this way, many cubs will die prematurely due to insufficient food, greatly affecting the survival of the population.

Regarding this, the Wolf King explained to them that because there are too many Humans, their strong ones do not care much about the survival or death of the cubs.

Although everyone does not know if this is the case, since the Wolf King said this is the reason, then it must be so.

It hid in the bushes at the edge of the Human fields, carefully concealing itself to secretly observe the Humans. It discovered that Humans often have disputes because of those fields, sometimes fighting with other fellows until they are bruised and bleeding. At this time, Humans riding horses that look delicious will soon come out from the Human nests to reprimand and punish the disputing Humans.

Sometimes they will lock some Humans outside the thick and tall Wooden Wall of the nest using wood.

It watched for a long time and felt that those Humans locked outside the nest with no one to care for them could be safely targeted by it.

After thinking for a long time, it quietly retreated and then set off to return to the Da Sen Lin.

The return path did not need to follow a north-south straight line; it kept following a river of unknown name upstream. After walking for many days, it arrived at the edge of a Da Hu that borders the Da Sen Lin.

With a splash, it jumped into the lake water, and the scorching summer finally drifted away under the nourishment of the cool lake water.

Paddling happily with its four legs, it swam leisurely northward along the edge of the lake. Interestingly, in the Da He to the west, there are Monsters that do not attack Humans but specifically attack animals, while in this Da Hu, there lives a group of clever big fish that specifically attack Humans but never attack their Forest animals.

These big fish have hard skulls and especially like to flip over the wooden boats of Humans living by the lake, then continuously bump the fallen Humans until they are injured or unconscious.

This is very interesting, and the Wolf King also said that this might be retribution for Humans catching lake fish.

After arriving on the lake shore, it shook its body and then scratched itself to shake off some parasites that had drowned. After basking in the big sun for a while, it dried its fur and then ran with a nimble figure into the Forest near the lake shore.

It first returned to its own wolf den, rubbed its body against everyone, then rested for two days, and shared what it saw along the way with its companions.

Afterwards, having rested completely, it officially set off.

Heading north, it passed through the entire Da Sen Lin, carefully avoiding some fierce animals and Monsters along the way. Sometimes, it would quickly pass through dangerous areas or areas where animals feel uncomfortable.

For example, in the very center of the Forest, there is a tall and abrupt Rock Mountain. Animals do not like to come to this place; the wind is strong, and no plants grow on the entire Rock Mountain.

It glanced at the Rock Mountain protruding from the Forest and walked past it quickly.

Some spacious areas in the Forest are very dangerous because there are some huge flying eagles in the sky. Those flying eagles can grab the largest animals, ignore the animals' resistance, fly to a certain height, and then drop the animals to their deaths, before grabbing the corpses and flying away to eat them.

Moreover, even some Monsters and fierce animals will be attacked by them. Those flying eagles have magical thunder on their claws; as long as they are touched by the claws, except for a few Monsters, all life will be killed or stunned by the thunder.

Fortunately, the number of these flying eagles is very small, and the Da Sen Lin is merely one of their hunting grounds in the autumn.

After many days of running, it passed through the Beibu of the Da Sen Lin and arrived at the boundary of the Forest.

Although it is called a boundary, the Forest actually extends a bit further, but here there are some protruding tall hills, and on the top of every hill, there stand some huge Fa Guang Shitou that glow regardless of day or night.

It seems this has nothing to do with the animals, but even if animals pass between these Fa Guang Shitou, crossing an invisible boundary they virtually connect.

In the mind of every animal that passes through, there will be a clear voice telling them that they have officially crossed this boundary and walked out of the area controlled by Human gods.

Animals entering and exiting have no other influence, but any life from outside the boundary entering inside will have its strength greatly diminished. This point is well known to the animals living in the boundary area.

Our Northland Wolf also learned of this situation from the old wolves, so it is absolutely impossible for it to cross the boundary established by the Fa Guang Shitou on this trip.

Carefully arriving in this area, it secretly sized up the huge Fa Guang Shitou on the top of the distant hill; somehow, it found itself prostrate on the ground. When it came to its senses, it hurriedly shook its head to clear its mind.

It secretly observed the surrounding sky; if there were huge eagle-headed Monsters flapping their wings in the sky, it would have to hide. Because on the backs of those tamed Monsters, there are definitely very powerful and dangerous Humans.

Confirming that there was nothing in the sky except the sun, it ran quickly toward the hill closest to it.

At the bottom of the hill, there is a Shi Ban Dao Lu built by Humans, and it naturally used this road to run upward.

Along the way, there were many things left by Humans beside the stone slabs, with many messy claw marks drawn on them, which it could not understand.

Arriving beside the huge Fa Guang Shitou on the top of the hill, it easily saw many thick vines on the ground beside the Fa Guang Shitou that also emitted light during the day.

The Northland Wolf licked its mouth and teeth, found a tender sprout of a vine, bit it, tore it off, and swallowed it into its stomach in a few bites. After a short while, just as the old wolves in the wolf den had said, the hunger and fatigue from the journey disappeared.

It was full of energy and just wanted to howl wantonly, but immediately realized the situation here and hurriedly closed its mouth.

Finding another tender sprout of a vine, it carefully bit off a section of the vine, held it under its tongue, and then quickly left the place, running toward the south.