"Give me the basket."
Dai Yuan's deep voice abruptly broke the silence between them as they approached the outer perimeter of Brightmoon City's gates.
"Ahhh!" Wang Linlin screamed in fright, startled by his sudden rumble directly behind her back. She stumbled blindly, staggering forward a few paces before regaining her balance.
"Huh… are you okay?" Dai Yuan asked, looking down at her wide, startled eyes.
"Yes… I am fine," Wang Linlin nodded rapidly, taking a breath to steady her racing heart. She looked up at him, her expression shifting to one of deep anxiety. "Ehh… Brother Yuan, wouldn't it be better if you just forgot about the Fullmoon Grapes for today?"
"Don't worry, I've got this," Dai Yuan affirmed, gently but firmly taking the woven harvesting basket from her hands.
"But—"
"No buts. Go back home. By evening, I will be back with your grapes," Dai Yuan cut her off with a sharp, reassuring gesture. "Besides, I need these monsters to hone my skills, and their materials will fetch a good price at the market."
Before she could offer another protest, Dai Yuan spun on his heel and bounded back toward the horizon. His speed was visibly greater than before, his newly forged Silver Bone cultivation allowing his legs to eat up the distance effortlessly.
Wang Linlin remained standing on the path, a heavily worried expression plastered across her face. She watched the bare-chested youth move further and further away until his towering silhouette completely vanished into the distant greenery of the Brightmoon Forest. With a heavy sigh, she turned back toward the city gates, walking sluggishly under the hot afternoon sun, her mind praying that he would change his mind and return safely.
Once he stepped beneath the cool canopy of the forest, Dai Yuan burst into a full sprint. He used this uninterrupted run to settle his breathing and adapt to the explosive new strength vibrating through his reinforced skeletal frame. Moving at peak velocity, it took him less than an hour to return to the rocky clearing beneath the mountain cliff. His burly figure wooshed through the undergrowth like a sudden gale.
"Whoa…"
Dai Yuan skidded to a violent halt, the dirt spraying from beneath his feet as a chilling sight met his eyes.
The clearing, which had been completely devoid of monsters after he cleared the first four wolves, was now entirely crawling with a massive swarm of white pelts.
"Shit…"
A cold numbness washed over him as he did a rapid head count. Despite most of them tracking as lower-ranked Tier 1 feral beasts, he could spot a terrifying number of larger, more mature specimens. The visible head count quickly surpassed forty, and more were still slinking out from the shadows of the cliff.
Standing at the very forefront of the pack was a slightly battered, blood-stained wolf. Dai Yuan recognized it instantly—the fifth wolf that had faked its death. The cunning creature had clearly fled straight back to the main den, reporting his assault to the entire pack.
"Yeah… look, brother wolves, it was just a slight misunderstanding between us," Dai Yuan said, raising his free hand slowly, his face tight with forced calmness. "You don't have to go ahead and start a racial war over a few scratches."
He retreated slowly, step by step, as the front line of wolves approached him with synchronized, guttural snarls.
AWOOOOO!!!
A thunderous chorus of wolf howls erupted simultaneously, shattering the quiet of the forest. The sheer volume of the sound made the surrounding air feel heavy, sending a cloud of dried leaves floating and scattering into the wind. The entire pack surged forward, launching into a ferocious chase the moment they saw Dai Yuan retreating.
Bang!!
While moving backward, Dai Yuan unleashed a sudden, driving strike with his iron rod. He timed the swing perfectly, catching the lead lunging beast squarely in the skull. Enhanced by his Rank 3 Shamanic Rune, his natural physical power completely eclipsed his official cultivation rank. The blunt force pulverized the wolf's head instantly, sending dark red matter splashing across the white coats of the surrounding beasts.
Despite securing an instant kill, Dai Yuan's expression remained grim. That brief pause to strike had cost him his momentum. In the blink of an eye, the wolves fanned out, completely encircling him in a tight, shifting perimeter. Dai Yuan rotated slowly at the center of the ring, his senses heightened to their absolute limits as his eyes darted through the crowd, looking for a weak point to break their formation.
Doing another swift headcount, a chill ran down his spine. The pack totaled a staggering fifty-nine wolves. Among them, twenty-nine were early Stage 1 beasts, twenty were mid-tier Stage 1s, and the remaining ten were massive, peak Stage 1 monsters. They snarled and growled in unison, waiting for the slightest signal to begin the slaughter.
AWOOOOO!!!
A sharp, furious roar signaled the attack. They lunged from all directions at once.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
The heavy sound of fists and iron colliding with flesh rang out through the trees. His low-stage Silver Bone realm showed its true might; Dai Yuan effortlessly punched the nearest jumping beasts away, his knuckles cracking bones and sending the wolves hurtling back into the charging ranks behind them.
"Ouch!!!!"
Dai Yuan roared in pain as a sudden set of claws tore a deep gash across his shoulder. This particular attacker was significantly faster than the others. Tracing the blur with his eyes before it could melt back into the dense pack, Dai Yuan noted its size—a powerful, mid-tier Stage 1 beast.
The scent of fresh blood dripping from his shoulder instantly stimulated the remaining pack into a frenzy, their attacking frequency visibly accelerating.
"I need to get back to the open clearing!" Dai Yuan muttered to himself, pivoting his body toward the direction of the giant Fullmoon Grape tree.
The current topography of the dense woods was putting him at a severe disadvantage. The massive oak and pine trees provided perfect cover for the wolves to ambush him from his blind spots, while the tight spacing didn't give him enough room to swing his 2.5-meter iron rod effectively.
While thinking of a way out, Dai Yaun never stopped swinging his rod. Some strikes landed cleanly, while others were dodged. Finding a brief window of separation, he locked his gaze forward. He channeled every ounce of his explosive strength into his right arm, gripping the rod tightly before unleashing a devastating forward swing. The iron cut through the air with a deafening woosh as he executed the opening stance of the Mountain Crushing Blow.
BOOOM!
A loud explosion echoed through the timberland as the heavy iron rod slammed violently into the forest floor. The sheer, unadulterated might behind the strike instantly pulverized three wolves caught in its path, reducing their limbs and bones to splinters without meeting any resistance. The shockwave carried enough residual force to fracture the solid earth beneath them, tearing a deep groove into the dirt.
Dai Yuan inhaled a sharp, ragged breath, clamping both hands onto the weapon to stabilize his grip against the violent recoil. The tremendous impact caused the iron rod to vibrate intensely, splitting the skin on the webbing of his hands and causing his arms to shake violently. Yet, his eyes glimmered with joy at the sudden, wide opening the blast had cleared through the pack.
"Ugh!"
Before he could capitalize on the opening and sprint through, a sharp, flaring pain erupted across his back. The blunt force caused him to groan deeply and stumble forward as a peak Stage 1 wolf landed a heavy, two-pawed strike squarely against his bare spine.
Ignoring the tearing pain, Dai Yuan didn't waste time turning around to retaliate. Using the forward momentum of his stumble, he broke into a frantic sprint through the gap his attack had created, launching himself toward the open plain beneath the cliffside tree. The wolf pack howled in unison, snapping at his heels as they pursued him into the bright afternoon light.
While dashing forward, Dai Yuan occasionally slung his rod backward with one hand. The weapon, which had once felt impossibly heavy, now felt like an extension of his own arm due to his elevated Silver Bone strength. Each blind, backward strike cracked cleanly against the skulls of the closest pursuers, dropping them instantly before their bodies were trampled by the horde behind them.
By the time Dai Yuan finally reached the wide clearing beneath the Fullmoon Grape tree, his forearms felt completely sour and exhausted from the relentless swinging. Reversing his grip from his left hand back to his right, he turned to face his pursuers, vigilantly evaluating the remaining force.
Their massive numbers had finally begun to dwindle, dropping from nearly sixty down to roughly thirty-five. Almost all of the casualties had been the weaker, early-stage beasts who couldn't survive a single hit from his fists or rod. Due to their crowded numbers and uncoordinated attacking pattern in the narrow forest trails, Dai Yuan had been able to systematically butcher his way through them.
Awoooooo!
The tense standoff between him and the remaining wolf pack continued until a loud, commanding howl sounded from behind the pack.