Chapter 96: Wolf King

Under the Wolf King's command, the other wolves instantly regained their fighting spirit, and their counterattack became organized, employing the same tactics they used for hunting.

Even though Baifeng and his men held Knives, the wolf pack still tried to flank them to bite.

However, when several wolves swarmed one person, the result was that after struggling to bite someone despite their injuries, what entered their mouths was actually hard bamboo, and the person was not injured in the slightest. Just as they were about to let go to bite elsewhere, they were struck on the neck by a Knife and collapsed to the ground, twitching.

More Soldiers descended onto the battlefield; now there were more humans than wolves, not to mention the disparity in size and strength between humans and wolves. The wolf pack collapsed like a mountain, and no matter how the Wolf King commanded, it had no effect.

Seeing the wolves being cut down one by one, the Wolf King had no choice but to abandon the den and the injured pack members, calling out to the surviving wolves to flee the area.

The wolves began to run, not stopping in the slightest. Baifeng and his men had only killed more than half of the wolves, and dozens had escaped. Baifeng's thought was to not leave a single one; even having killed so many now did not vent his anger, let alone the fact that the Wolf King was still alive.

The look in the Wolf King's eyes toward Baifeng was even more malicious than last year, which made Baifeng very unhappy, so he had Xiong shoot the Wolf King dead with an Arrow. Knowing they had ranged Weapons and still standing there without moving, did it really think it could dodge like it did that Winter last year?

Without needing Baifeng to say it, Xiong also intended to kill that Wolf King. Now was the perfect moment; he nocked an Arrow and it flew out with a whistle. The Wolf King had sharp eyes and sensed something wrong the moment Xiong drew the bow, turning to run, but it was too late. The Arrow Xiong shot knocked the Wolf King down from the high ground.

Baifeng saw it very clearly; that Arrow had definitely pierced through the Wolf King. Even if it wasn't dead now, it wouldn't live much longer. Seeing the Wolf King fall, the wolf pack stopped listening to the Wolf King's orders and began to flee in all directions in a panic, two or three at a time.

Wolves run faster than humans, especially on this kind of mountain, so Baifeng only let the Soldiers chase them out and shoot with Arrows. If they were out of attack range and couldn't be caught, then they shouldn't chase anymore. Now that the Wolf King was dead, these wolves were no longer a threat.

However, even though the Wolf King had been shot, Baifeng was still not at ease and wanted to go over to check. If this Wolf King had some kind of protagonist halo, that would be troublesome.

Leading a few Soldiers, he climbed up the hillside and searched carefully, but apart from a pool of blood, Baifeng really didn't find the Wolf King's corpse. It couldn't really be that cliché, Baifeng thought.

But he followed the trail of blood and saw a larger pool of blood below the slope. The Wolf King must have rested here for a while. In any case, it had definitely been hit, and with its injuries, even if it didn't die, it wouldn't get far.

He pushed aside the Grass and sure enough found a trail of blood, as if it had been dragged along by something. Could it be other wolves?

Baifeng jogged to catch up, but before he had even run fifty meters, he saw the hiding Wolf King. It was panting heavily, its body almost unable to move. Seeing Baifeng approach, it struggled to move, but did not successfully move forward.

The Wolf King only revealed half its body. Although its body was covered in blood, wolves are cunning; what if other wolves were hiding here? Moreover, the tracks on the road looked like it had been dragged.

Having a few Soldiers watch the surroundings, Baifeng aimed his Arrow and fired several shots at the Grass where the Wolf King was hiding, but there was no reaction. Instead, the Wolf King seemed to have been hit again, letting out a groan.

Baifeng walked up and directly raised his Knife to decapitate the Wolf King. The blood loss was severe; not much blood flowed out from the neck.

Dragging out the Wolf King's body, Baifeng had thought it was hit in the lower abdomen, but it turned out an Arrow had pierced through its thigh, and the other thigh had also been stabbed. No wonder it had lasted so long without dying.

That trail of blood must have been caused by the Wolf King crawling with its front paws and dragging its own body, not by other wolves dragging it. One has to say, the tenacity of this wolf shocked Baifeng, or perhaps it just had a sufficiently strong will to survive.

But now the Wolf King was dead, and the other wolves were no longer a threat. The wolf infestation near the tribe was considered resolved. The wolves hunted this time would barely make up for the losses of the cattle herd.

Baifeng carried the Wolf King's head, and the Soldiers carried the wolf body, returning to the battlefield. Now it was time to clean up the spoils of war.

The tribesmen who had pursued them returned. Nearly thirty had escaped; they had only caught up to six. The others ran too fast for them to catch, and the range of the bows was not enough.

They piled all the wolves together by size and counted them. Excluding a few Xiaolang, there were eighty-four wolves. This pack was truly too prolific. The wolf cubs were of no use; their pelts were too small to make anything, but the tribesmen still chose to bring them along, as they could at least boil a few pots of meat soup.

As for whether killing this wolf pack would cause the ecology of this place to lose balance, Baifeng felt it was absolutely fine. Not to mention that the creatures were so abundant now, it was only a few dozen wolves missing. If the territory became empty, other wolf packs would come; he just hoped the packs that came later would be sensible.

And since so many wolves had run away, it was just right. The Baifeng tribe was also a hunter that could replace the wolf pack. In their hunting grounds, they could no longer find prey as abundant as before. It was perfect that these two places could be rotated; the fierce beasts here had also been cleared out, making it relatively safe.

The wolves were killed, and the wolf den had to be checked to see if anything could be dug out, or if there was a hidden wolf to be found.

For safety's sake, he first lit tree leaves and damp wood at the cave entrance to smoke the smoke inside, to see if he could smoke out any hidden wolves.

After lighting it and fanning the smoke, Baifeng and his men were all choked. The smoke slowly entered the cave, and before long, they heard wolves squeaking, like puppies acting spoiled.

Soon a large wolf couldn't hold on and ran out. The Soldier guarding the cave entrance was quick-witted and fast-handed, striking the wolf's spine with a Knife, and the wolf kicked its legs, waiting for death to arrive.

Another few minutes passed, and no more wolves appeared, nor could any movement be heard, so they withdrew the smoke. Once the smoke in the cave dissipated, they went in to check if there were any good things.

Using pine branches as a Torch, fortunately, the cave entrance was large enough that an adult man could enter by crouching, but the space inside was even larger, and one could walk standing up without any problem.

However, just after entering, Baifeng was choked into a retch. It wasn't the smoke, but the smell of the wolf den—a sour, foul odor, the smell of the freshly burned smoke, and another indescribable scent that made Baifeng's stomach churn.

But since they were already inside, there was no reason to leave just like that, and the cave wasn't very large. Baifeng had already seen something on the ground.

Looking closer, there were many Xiaolang on the ground. A rough count showed over a dozen, many of which looked like they had just been born and hadn't even opened their eyes.

Baifeng told them to take these Xiaolang out, gently, and not to think about killing them, even if they were alive.

Baifeng endured the discomfort and circled around again. Confirming there was nothing else, he prepared to leave. The oxygen in the cave was no longer sufficient, and the Torch was not burning brightly.

However, as he turned, his gaze caught something on the ground reflecting light. He squatted down and pushed it aside; it was actually a piece of metal, a full egg-sized, and there were a few smaller ones.

In any case, it was golden under the firelight, and it felt very heavy when held. Baifeng estimated this was gold; Bronze was not this heavy.

He quickly scrambled out of the cave entrance and threw away the Torch. Baifeng ran to a distance and took a few deep breaths of fresh, unpolluted air. He had circled the wolf den, and not only was his stomach churning, but his head had started to spin.

Outside, the light was good. Baifeng took out the two pieces of metal he had picked up and looked at them carefully again, confirming they were indeed gold, because there were tooth marks on them bitten by wolves; only gold was this soft.

This must be dog-head... wolf-head gold.