Chapter 390: The Wolf Den — The Frenzied Wolves and the Merciless Slaughter

Knight Lanisha's silent Assassin Sword Technique went unnoticed by both Jier and the strange Northland Wolf. Jier kept his eyes tightly shut, striving not to let the scorching hot air burn them; injuries to his body could be healed with Divine Art, but if a person's eyes were damaged, they would be very difficult to heal.

After he swiped that Northland Wolf away with his axe, he stood frozen in place, attempting to judge where the Northland Wolf had gone by sound.

But he only heard a dull "thud," like a Long Sword wrapped in cloth striking stone.

Immediately after, although his armor and clothing were burning all over, he still sensed that the high heat released by that Northland Wolf had vanished.

"Hiss, cough." He had just wanted to open his mouth to ask the Hunters behind him what was wrong, but a violent pain from inside his body—from his lungs and the trachea in his neck—prevented him from uttering a single word.

He immediately realized that when he was fighting with his weapon earlier, the act of breathing and making noise had drawn the high-temperature air into his respiratory system. At this moment, not only was his skin burned, but his internal body was burned as well.

Just as he raised his axe in vigilance, a massive force arrived, pushing him down onto the ground.

Jier had just wanted to swing his axe toward his front when the axe in his hand was grabbed and lifted, snatched away from him, and placed beside him.

"It's me! Don't move, you're on fire all over. Let us use snow to cool you down." Knight Lanisha's voice came, followed by the sound of running, and the Hunters he had been protecting behind him quickly approached.

"Don't just stand there, extinguish the fire and cool down Xiao Ji'er. He did a really good job just now!" Knight Lanisha instructed the Hunters.

The young Hunters hurriedly stuck their bows and arrows into the snow, the surface of which had been baked by the high heat, and then quickly used their hands to shovel snow, covering Jier, who was obediently staying still on the ground.

"Jier, the Knight said you did a good job just now. Really, you were so heroic!"

"Indeed, to be able to directly take down such a formidable-looking Monster, you're really not bad."

"The sword strike Knight Lanisha used to kill the strange wolf at the end was truly amazing; I didn't even see it clearly, and in an instant, the Knight had pierced through that guy's head."

"Yes, yes, yes, whoosh, in the blink of an eye, the Knight flew over from the horse and skewered the strange wolf."

As they spoke excitedly, they moved quickly, tossing large amounts of snow from around Jier onto his entire body as he lay on the ground.

Opening his eyes, Jier immediately felt the scorching temperature of his entire body through his eyes, beyond just his skin. Although falling snow was landing on him, his whole body remained very hot.

Breathing painfully and with great effort, the cold air drawn into his lungs brought a sensation of icy relief, though his respiratory tract still hurt very much.

Jier flipped open the Faceplate on his face, breathing deeply, and pressed his face against the falling snowflakes.

Still feeling that the cold wasn't enough, he grabbed a handful of snow from beside him with his Glove, but before he could put it to his face, the ice and snow in his hand quickly melted into a puddle of water.

"Hoo." He gave up, lying quietly on the ground, receiving snowflakes on his face while closing his eyes, attempting to communicate with the Agricultural God Sixth-Rank Protection Badge hanging on his chest, hoping it could mobilize the power within his body to slightly heal his painfully aching respiratory tract.

Seeing Jier lift his Faceplate and open his eyes without any issues, Knight Lanisha pointed at the three old Hunters and made a gesture to follow.

Then the three old Hunters immediately ran forward, following her to launch another attack on the Northland Wolves.

Although that Northland Wolf capable of releasing high heat was killed within a few rounds, dealing a severe blow to the morale of the Northland Wolves, the presence of a large number of chaotic wolf pups in the back meant that, aside from one or two pregnant female wolves being arranged to lead the strongest and fiercest pups in retreat, the other Northland Wolves did not withdraw; instead, after their leader was killed by the Humans, they still bravely charged at the Humans.

Knight Lanisha lifted her Faceplate to blow a whistle, then lowered it again, holding her Armor-piercing Rapier as she walked toward the Northland Wolves. The three old Hunters following closely behind her felt reassured and were the first to launch an attack on the large number of charging Northland Wolves.

The three old Hunters kept drawing their bows and releasing arrows, each shot aimed at the somewhat densely packed Northland Wolves. With companions on both sides, those Northland Wolves had almost no room to dodge and could only watch helplessly as the Arrows flew in and pierced their bodies.

Knight Lanisha stood motionless, meeting all the incoming Northland Wolves head-on.

With her body lunging half a step forward, her left hand punched a Northland Wolf in the head, sending it flying, while her right hand swept the Armor-piercing Rapier with full force—making the sturdy Armor-piercing Rapier do work it wasn't meant for. The hard, solid blade struck a Northland Wolf, then carried it in a semi-circle, consecutively knocking four other Northland Wolves flying along with it.

Immediately following this, Knight Lanisha kicked, sending a Northland Wolf that was pouncing through the air flying, then slammed her raised leg heavily onto the ground, using the recoil to bend her other leg and break the waist of another Northland Wolf attempting to leap over her.

She then turned and punched the tail of an arrow stuck in a Northland Wolf; the armor on the back of her hand drove the arrow shaft entirely into the wolf's body. The Northland Wolf vomited blood and bared its fangs in a ferocious display, but was immediately shot twice in the mouth by the old Hunters, piercing its brain and killing it instantly.

The Northland Wolves were very tenacious; knowing that running away would only result in being hunted down one by one by this female Human, they fought quite crazily, completely ignoring the fact that they couldn't bite through even a fraction of the steel armor on Knight Lanisha.

They only wanted to stall for time so the pups could run as far as possible, and in this battle where they were destined to die, they displayed the most ferocious and tenacious side of the Northland Wolves.

Seeing the intense fighting not far ahead, the four young Hunters immediately stopped shoveling snow for Jier, pulled up their bows, stood in a row, and while walking forward, continuously fired arrows at the Northland Wolves.

Jier wiped his face with his thick, snow-covered Glove, and besides getting black ash from the glove all over his face, he noticed the Hunters were no longer shoveling snow for him.

Turning his head to look, he realized everyone had already joined the intense battle and couldn't spare any attention for him.

Seeing Knight Lanisha holding an overwhelming advantage, he immediately became excited; although there were many Northland Wolves, at this moment, we Humans were clearly in the upper hand.

Because although the Northland Wolves were attacking crazily, they couldn't get past Knight Lanisha's position to attack the three old Hunters.

Even though they were only three to five meters away from the old Hunters.

Jier watched with envy, ignoring the stinging pain in his throat, grabbed the Two-handed Axe that had been placed upright beside him, used it to prop himself up, shouldered the axe, and charged forward with large strides.

The Northland Wolves became increasingly frantic; some of the slower pups were also stirred to ferocity by the fighting posture of the adult wolves, and a large group of them followed, joining the battle.

Although these little ones were hesitant and slow in their movements, their numbers were several times that of the adult wolves, so as soon as they joined, they brought great pressure to Knight Lanisha's defensive line.

"Just in time, all listen to my command, kill them all, leave none alive!" Knight Lanisha was caught up in the thrill of the kill and simply threw the Armor-piercing Rapier in her hand, piercing through a Northland Wolf and pinning it to a large tree behind it.

She emptied her hands, clenched her gloves—which were covered in thick Metal Armor Plates—and used them directly as a Cavalryman's Armor-Piercing Round Hammer, punching the heads and faces of the crazy Northland Wolves as they rushed over, one punch after another.

Her feet were not idle either; she inserted the tips of her metal boots into the snow and mud that had been packed hard on the ground, then kicked up with force, sending a large amount of frozen, hard mud flying out like arrows, striking the Northland Wolves of all sizes and causing them to howl.

With the shooting support of the four young Hunters who had run over quickly, the old Hunters also immediately retreated from the perilous close-quarters combat.

Following closely behind the young Hunters was Jier, running with large strides. Jier didn't even lower his Faceplate, let out a strange roar from his throat, leaped past the young and old Hunters, and brought his Two-handed Heavy Axe down, splitting a charging pup in two from head to tail.

Blood, bodily fluids, and Viscera splattered, staining the white ground red and making all the living beings present even more frantic.

They pounced and tore as if they didn't care about their lives; Jier ignored the Northland Wolves biting his body, raised his axe again, pushed it horizontally forward, shattering the mouth of a Northland Wolf that was biting toward his face, and taking away half of its jaw and sharp teeth.

Just then, Knight Lanisha's warhorse galloped over.

The warhorse, covered in metal horse armor just like the Knight, was tall, sturdy, and heavy, trampling pups and colliding with adult wolves as it charged straight through. It didn't care at all about the small Northland Wolves trying to bite and pounce on it along the way.

After crashing through the large group of Northland Wolves, the warhorse listened to the whistle command blown by Knight Lanisha, first running to the Knight's side so the female Knight could grab a long Wooden box from the horse's back with one hand, then running again to knock away the Northland Wolves blocking the path, and finally running to Jier's side to brush off the Northland Wolves entangled around him.

Not only that, it kept raising its legs and hooves, trampling to death or injuring the Northland Wolves nearby that had been shot by the Hunters.

"Th-thanks." Jier wanted to thank the warhorse, but because of the pain in his throat, he uttered this strange-sounding word.

The tall warhorse turned its ears in confusion, glanced at the disheveled Jier with its large eyes, and then continued to gallop and trample on the battlefield.

Knight Lanisha took a deep breath, unfastened the Lock on the Wooden box taken from the horse's back, and opened it, ignoring the seven or eight Northland Wolves surrounding, biting, and tearing at her. She gripped the thick Long Sword inside, chuckled, and then used her strength to spin her body, throwing the Northland Wolves all over her body to the surrounding area.

Immediately after, she kicked the ground and flew across the surface at high speed; the exceptionally heavy Long Sword in her hand carried away the Northland Wolves she decapitated. Relying on her own high speed, she didn't even swing the heavy Long Sword, but simply stabbed or swept it, instantly disemboweling and slaughtering the Northland Wolves around her from all directions.

She ignored the pups charging at her, simply kicking them away while running, and used the Long Sword only to attack the adult Northland Wolves that had been injured but not killed by her empty-handed strikes earlier.

Her killing efficiency was astonishing; in just the time it took for the Hunters to fire three rounds of arrows, all the adult Northland Wolves around her had been killed.

A whistle sounded, she jumped in place, and when she landed, she landed exactly on the warhorse that had just galloped beneath her.

Riding on the horse, she turned her head and shouted to the Hunters: "You kill all the Northland Wolves nearby! I will run a circle around this place to intercept any guys trying to escape."

"Yes, my lady." The Hunters replied in unison.

Afterwards, relying on Jier as the meat shield charging at the front while they provided shooting support from the rear, it only took them a short while to slaughter the few remaining Northland Wolves here.

After waiting for a while, Knight Lanisha returned, riding a warhorse whose barding was covered in blood. In her hand, she no longer held that unremarkable yet terrifyingly powerful thick Long Sword, but rather the Metal Spear she had previously thrown to rescue Jier.

In this cold weather, fresh blood that had yet to freeze was still dripping from the tip of that Metal Spear.

Looking at the blood splattered on the warhorse's barding, it was not hard to guess how Knight Lanisha had used the Long Spear to kill the Northland Wolves one by one as they flew past her while she steered the warhorse.

The ground was covered in the corpses of Northland Wolves, and the white ice and snow were stained red with blood everywhere. On the quiet battlefield, everyone, including Jier, sat in a circle in a clearing that had been slightly less affected by the fighting.

The Hunters were helping each other, rubbing the muscles in their arms used for drawing bows. During the battle just now, no one had the time to think too much, but now that the battle was won, they were each rubbing their arms with pained expressions.

Jier had suffered no injuries other than burns; he simply gestured at his throat while using his left hand, having taken off his Glove, to take out the Glowing Badge from inside his armor at his chest, rubbing it continuously in his hand.

"Are you alright?" several young Hunters asked Jier while rubbing their sore arms.

Jier coughed twice, finding that his throat still hurt and his windpipe was painful, making him unable to speak, so he could only nod to express his meaning.

"Are you alright?"

Jier nodded. He managed to control his throat, which felt like it was on fire, and said something super strangely: "S-seeds, s-seeds."

After saying this, he opened his mouth to let the young Hunters look at the condition of his throat.

The young men took turns looking at Jier's throat and all said that the redness and swelling looked much better than before—at least much better than when Jier was coughing up blood right after the battle ended.

Hearing his companions' reply, Jier continued to rub the Agricultural God Badge with his left hand, closing his eyes to communicate with the object with his heart, barely managing to guide the power of this thing to linger on his throat.

"What's wrong with Jier?" Knight Lanisha asked about Jier's condition after stabbing her Long Spear into the ground, burying the butt of the spear entirely into the soil, and jumping off her warhorse to see that the Hunters were doing fine.

"Reporting to you, my lady, Jier inhaled several mouthfuls of scalding air while fighting that Northland Wolf that was radiating flames all over its body. His throat and windpipe were burned," an old Hunter who had been keeping an eye on Jier's injuries replied.

Knight Lanisha slapped her Helmet, making a 'bang' sound: "Oh, damn it, hiss. Why did I forget to tell you all to hold your breath just now?"

"The situation was so urgent just now, we couldn't worry about that, please don't worry. Jier has a treasure that can heal injuries; it looks like it should be able to heal the wounds he just sustained. It's a pity that the thing seems to only work for him, and has no effect on others," the old Hunter said, looking at the Agricultural God Badge with quite a bit of regret.

Knight Lanisha nodded and said: "Ah, actually, it's not that it's impossible. It's just that this is a badge of the Agricultural God Church; if you aren't in the Agricultural God system, it has no effect. Even if it barely works, the effect is very slight."

She added: "None of you farm, you usually rely on hunting for a living, and you believe in other gods, so naturally it won't work."

A young Hunter scratched his forehead: "Doesn't Jier also not farm? At least I've never heard him talk about farming or tending to crops. He uses it quite happily, though."

After Jier heard this, he lightly punched the guy, pursed his lips, and couldn't speak.

Knight Lanisha dragged over two adult Northland Wolf corpses, stacked them in a cross shape, then sat on the corpses and opened her Helmet's Faceplate, saying: "Idiot, this thing is something the Agricultural God Church bestowed upon Jier, so naturally it is definitely something he can use himself. Even if Jier himself does not believe in the Agricultural God."

Jier nodded hurriedly.

The female Knight rolled her eyes: "Don't nod. Even so, in my eyes, Jier, your whole body is filled with the Divine Power of the Agricultural God." She scanned the other Hunters: "Although the Agricultural God's Divine Power on Jier isn't much, it's at least about the same as an Apprentice Herdsman. And even though he was using this Divine Power continuously before, the Divine Power on his body still didn't run out."

Jier shrugged, and seeing everyone looking at him, he barely managed to say a word with his mouth: "S-seeds."

Everyone rolled their eyes: "Seeds?"

"Idiot, it's seeds!"

"I heard it, it's seeds."

Knight Lanisha narrowed her eyes: "It seems the Church likes you very much. That's right, in the autumn, they almost messed up, causing Kendall City to almost lose at least thirty percent of its grain harvest."

She muttered: "Although they found a way to fool everyone in the end. Tsk, a bunch of guys who never rely on their own abilities."

Everyone rested for a long time until Jier could barely speak and indicated that his throat was a bit itchy. Only then, after the sky had darkened, did they light Torches for illumination, bit by bit gathering the Northland Wolf corpses together, then digging a large pit, and while skinning the frozen-stiff Northland Wolf corpses, they threw the skinned wolf carcasses into the large pit.

"After you're all done, remember to chop wood and throw the firewood into the pit to burn them all. This isn't the wilderness; the killed corpses will be devoured and digested, meat and bone alike, by other hungry wild beasts. This is a wolf den; no animals, fierce beasts, or Monsters in the Forest dare to come here to look for food. So, to avoid these corpses bringing disaster, we must burn them all."

Knight Lanisha instructed.

Everyone indicated they understood; they all understood the reason for doing this. Jier even managed to tell the Hunters about how, when he was suppressing Bandits a while ago, he encountered a filthy Shikeng that not only had moving Human corpses but also possessed filthy power that corroded weapons and equipment.

Thus, before leaving this place, they not only simply searched the Northland Wolf den and found several majestic animal horns, but also chopped down two large trees, piled all the firewood from the two trees onto the large pit, lit a fire, and left this place carrying a large number of Wolf Skins.

Tying four or five wolf tails together in a knot, then using a rope to wrap around the middle and tie it tight, a single rope could string all the Wolf Skins together. Finally, they tied the rope to Knight Lanisha's warhorse, Knight Lanisha dismounted and walked, and everyone barely managed to bring these Wolf Skins back to the Yanshi Shan Judian.