Chapter 122: Between Life and Death
Black Old Ghost had run rampant for years, a veteran of countless battles. He’d faced sudden, life-threatening crises at least eight or ten times.
But today, as he glimpsed a slender, nimble shadow from the corner of his eye...
...while still in midair, he was overcome by the disorienting sensation of stepping on empty space.
His legs clamped together involuntarily, and an uncontrollable urge to urinate flooded his bladder.
His concentration wavered for an instant, and the pressure he had locked onto Tang Wen immediately dissipated.
*Hooo...*
As soon as he felt the suffocating pressure vanish, Tang Wen flung out several steel balls. One shot toward Black Old Ghost’s forehead, another at his throat, while the rest cut off his escape routes.
*RIP!*
The she-Wolf King’s sharp, steel-like claws ripped into his rear.
Blood sprayed everywhere!
An eviscerating strike from behind!
Tang Wen, a mere spectator, couldn’t help but clench his thighs.
He watched as the Wolf King’s sharp claws entered from Black Old Ghost’s back and pierced right through his front.
Black Old Ghost shrieked, his body convulsing, unable to dodge.
The steel balls followed, striking him squarely on the forehead and throat.
An ordinary person would have died instantly from a single steel ball.
But for him, it only made his eyes bulge out like a dead fish.
*SCHLICK!*
The wolf claw retracted.
Black Old Ghost’s body swayed.
Tang Wen breathed a sigh of relief. ’It’s in the bag!’
But unexpectedly, Black Old Ghost shrieked and, without a moment’s hesitation, turned and fled south!
Behind him, trailing from his ruined lower body, was a long "tail of blood"!
It was his intestines, spilling out.
"Holy shit! He can still run?"
Tang Wen fired off several Steel Plates in quick succession.
Black Old Ghost was already a spent force. The Steel Plates tore huge, gaping holes through his body.
Blood gushed out of him as if from a burst dam.
This time, his running body went completely out of control. His immense momentum carried him forward, carving a long, bloody trail across the wasteland.
Tang Wen and the two Wolf Kings approached his body.
A Wolf King glanced at the profusely bleeding Black Old Ghost and let out a low growl.
Its meaning was clear: the man was dead through and through.
Tang Wen shook his head. "You don’t understand how cunning humans can be."
With that, he casually lifted a millstone-sized boulder and viciously smashed it down!
*CRUNCH!*
The boulder landed squarely on his neck. The immense force cratered the ground beneath and snapped Black Old Ghost’s neck clean in two.
Seeing this, Tang Wen finally relaxed and said softly, "Now *that’s* what I call completely dead."
The two Wolf Kings exchanged a look and quietly took half a step back.
Tang Wen pointed toward the distant Black Mountain Battalion cavalry surrounding the three women and communicated with the two Wolf Kings.
At that moment, the three Female Martial Artists were also utterly exhausted, their lives hanging by a thread.
They stood back-to-back, completely encircled by the men of the Black Mountain Battalion.
However, their enemies were only surrounding them, not launching a full-scale attack. They were merely harassing them, clearly intending to capture the three women alive.
Apparently, after the three women had shouted they were from Sanlian City and revealed their identities, the men from the Black Mountain Battalion had believed them to some degree.
Female Martial Artists were a rare sight among the major powers in the vicinity.
Generally, women were at a relative disadvantage when it came to Martial Arts.
Unless they came from a wealthy and powerful family, they were unlikely to receive substantial training.
"I can’t believe we sisters would fall in a place like this! To die at the hands of animals like these!" The leading woman aimed her pistol forward, her resentful voice tinged with helplessness.
The three women held their guns, trying to deter the men surrounding them.
But they knew all too well that they had run out of bullets in their backpacks.
The only use for the bullets left in their guns was to give themselves a dignified end.
"Heh heh! You three bitches! Do you have any bullets left for those Hidden Weapons of yours?"
"Die? Little ladies, nobody wants you to die!"
"Just put down your weapons. How could we bear to let you die? We’ll make you feel so good you’ll think you’ve gone to heaven..."
Another wave of lecherous laughter followed.
The Female Martial Artist ground her teeth in hatred. "This place may be thousands of miles from Sanlian City, but word will eventually get back! When it does, not a single one of you animals will escape!"
"Hmph! You think I’m scared of that?"
"That’s right! We’ll take you, Miss Bai, and by the time your people find you, you’ll have probably borne a dozen children for us! And what then? Is Sanlian City going to kill me, their son-in-law?"
"Bwahahahaha!"
The three from the Black Mountain Battalion continued to hurl insults.
They wanted to provoke the three women.
Out in the wilds, angry prey was always the easiest to handle.
"Wolves! Wolves! Commanders, there are wolves catching up to us!"
"What’s there to be afraid of? Just kill them!"
"It’s not just any wolves, they’re Sand Wolves! Aaargh—"
The voice ended in a bloodcurdling scream.
The two Wolf Kings charged into the Black Mountain Battalion’s ranks like a whirlwind.
It was truly like wolves among sheep.
A powerful wind swept up, and the Martial Artists and Martial Disciples trying to flee felt an immense suction pulling them back.
They whipped their horses wildly, but they couldn’t escape.
It was a massacre.
"Serves them right!"
"It’s karma!"
"Your retribution is here!"
A flash of cruel satisfaction appeared in the Female Martial Artists’ eyes.
To them, it was better to die in the jaws of a wolf—better to be taken down with their enemies—than to fall into the hands of the Black Mountain Battalion and live in disgrace.
"You bitches! Shut up!"
"How can they be Wolf Kings?"
"Extraordinary Wolf Kings?!"
"A misunderstanding! Honored Wolf Kings! We’re from the Black Mountain Camp! Our master is the Black Mountain King! The Black Mountain King!"
In a wilderness where humans and Exotic Beasts coexisted, it was common practice to announce one’s allegiance when facing an Extraordinary being like a Wolf King.
Normally, an Extraordinary Exotic Beast would show some deference upon hearing the Black Mountain King’s name.
They were intelligent enough to understand what the name "Black Mountain King" represented.
After all, the primary imperative for the Exotic Beast Clans was survival, not fighting humans to the death.
This time, however, the name "Black Mountain King" had no effect.
The two Wolf Kings only attacked faster, leaving the Martial Artists and Martial Disciples utterly unable to fight back.
"Something’s wrong!"
"Run!"
"Everyone, scatter!"
The three Black Mountain Martial Artists yelled.
Facing two Extraordinary beings, it wasn’t just them; even their General would have had to flee for his life.
*BANG!*
A gunshot rang out. One of the Female Martial Artists had fired a sneak attack, but unfortunately, her target dodged it.
"You’re courting death!"
"Don’t act on emotion! Run!"
In the blink of an eye, dozens of cavalrymen had been eliminated.
The three from the Black Mountain Battalion tried to flee, but they were no match for the speed of the two Wolf Kings.
The Wolf Kings moved to the front and rear, trapping them along with the three Female Martial Artists.
"Serves you right!"
"Today is the day you die!"
Even though they themselves were also trapped, just another piece of meat for the wolves’ maws, after being hunted without reason for days, seeing the ground littered with the corpses of the Black Mountain Battalion, the three women felt a deep sense of satisfaction.
"The Wolf Kings won’t spare you either!"
"If the six of us charge out together, we might have a chance of survival."
The Female Martial Artists had accepted their fate, but the three Black Mountain Martial Artists had no wish to die. They forced a smile, trying to get the three women on their side.
The three women were so weak; when the time came to run, the men would surely be faster.
If all six of them ran, the women would just be sacrificial pawns.
*AWOOOO!*
Whatever the three women were about to say was cut off by the Wolf King’s howl.
Not far to the north, a figure riding a Sand Wolf was approaching at high speed.
"Excellent! It’s the... wait, no! It looks like Tang Wen... How could it be him?!"
"Where’s the General?"
The three men looked at each other in stunned disbelief. They couldn’t understand how a General could have failed in his mission to kill Tang Wen.
In their moment of stunned silence, a Wolf King lunged. Caught completely off guard, the three men screamed as its claws snapped their legs.
The Female Martial Artists were both overjoyed and terrified.
’The Black Mountain Bandits deserved to die!’
’But are we going to be eaten by the wolves, too?’
They looked helplessly in the direction Tang Wen was coming from, their exhausted bodies starting to tremble.
"It’s that young man who called out to help us earlier!"
"He’s with the wolves."
"Could he be a Wolf Slave?"
When humans and Exotic Beasts lived together, humans usually held a lower status. In such cases, they were known as Beast Slaves.
This young man was merely a Martial Artist. How could he possibly command two Extraordinary Wolf Kings?
Even a genius Beastmaster from Sanlian City couldn’t achieve that.
"Don’t be ridiculous!"
The three women’s eyes were full of caution. ’We haven’t run into another bad apple, have we?’
Since leaving Sanlian City, their journey had been plagued by one disaster after another.
After days of constant fighting, they had exhausted all their trump cards and were now so weak that a gust of wind could blow them over.
Although the Wolf Kings hadn’t attacked them, whether they lived or died today depended on the man arriving on wolfback.