Chapter 73: The Wolf Pack

The Spirit of the Xuanyuan Sword still hadn’t mentioned one thing—namely, that this guy’s already abnormally strong physique played a huge role in this struggle. Otherwise, how could an ordinary person survive? How could that snake-blood have any effect? The influx of snake blood should have killed them instantly.
The bone-chilling cold spread throughout his body, constantly stimulating Rod’s every nerve and cell. Severe pain pounded his nerves and mind! If not for the Spirit of the Xuanyuan Sword telling him it was fine, Rod would surely have thought he was dying.
“Hmph, this guy is quite lucky to get another chance at training!” Feeling Rod’s current condition within his body, the Spirit of the Xuanyuan Sword muttered gloomily. Indeed, even in such a life-or-death situation, Rod still managed to seize such an opportunity. Now, with that icy cold stimulating his nerves and every cell, every function of his body was fighting desperately. In effect, his body was being trained and strengthened once again, and its strength after recovery would surely be a level higher than before.
Not intervening to help Rod, the Spirit knew that this level of suffering wouldn’t pose a life threat to him. Besides, it was a chance for training. If he intervened, it would be a waste of this opportunity. More importantly, this damned master always engaged in such risky actions, hovering on the edge of life and death. Could that really lead to anything good? At least he hated it. So, suffering some pain and lessons would be fine—just to see if he’d dare act recklessly again.
“Cough, cough, cough…” After what seemed like an eternity, the cold and pain throughout his body gradually subsided. During this ordeal, he didn’t know how many times he lost consciousness or woke up. Time itself seemed meaningless. Finally, things improved, but his dry throat made him cough uncontrollably.
“Rod, Rod is awake! He’s not dead! Hahaha, he’s fine! Come and take a look!”
Cheers came from his ears, followed by several footsteps approaching quickly.
“Rod, are you okay? How are you?” Concerned voices whispered anxiously in his ears.
“Water! Give me some water!” After enduring so much pain, his body was weak, his face pale, and he didn’t even have the strength to speak. All he wanted was water—his greatest need at the moment.

“No, over here. Hurry, drink some!” He quickly took out one of his water sacs and held it to Rod’s mouth, feeding him a few sips. After that, everyone stared intently at Rod. Their expressions were somewhat strange, as if they were looking at a monster. This guy was really abnormal—having killed an adult Red-Scaled Snake with skills barely at the Bronze Warrior level. That was one thing, but what was more astonishing was that, despite being injured in the fight and having drunk a large amount of highly poisonous snake blood, he seemed fine. He was indeed a bit abnormal.

“Huff… Damn it, I almost died, you bastard!” After drinking water and breathing heavily several times, it was clear that Rod’s complexion had changed significantly—he was no longer as pale, and his eyes now held a hint of vitality.

Looking around, they found themselves inside a cave. The cave was about three meters wide and seven or eight meters deep. The dim light from torches illuminated the space. It was unexpected to find such a spacious cave in this forest. It was obvious from the surroundings that someone had lived here before, as there were some dusty, old household items.

Unnoticed by him even himself, in this dim environment, he could see every tiny detail clearly and effortlessly—something he thought he couldn’t do before.

“You’re really lucky, kid. You scared us half to death just now. But it’s good that you’re fine now. Rest well. We’ll stay here for a day today and set off again tomorrow. There’s no rush. Even if we leave tomorrow, we can still reach Blackstone City before dark.”

Bit took the water sac from Rod and sighed. Yes, as long as Rod could recover, everything would be fine, right?

After giving some instructions, Bit took Ada to stand guard at the cave entrance to prevent any magical beasts from attacking, while Rod lay quietly on the ground resting. Chelly was preparing lunch. As for Lucia and her maid, they sat quietly aside, saying nothing, very silent. However, Lucia’s gaze kept drifting toward Rod from time to time, with a hint of confusion.

With nothing much to do, he decided to focus on training. He had used up almost all his combat energy today. His body was now empty, with only a faint trace of combat energy moving within his dantian. Other than that, there seemed to be nothing else.

Closing his eyes, he lay quietly on the ground, merging with his spiritual consciousness. He drew the surrounding fire elements toward himself, absorbing them in large quantities—without hesitation, greedily. Once those fire elements entered his body, they underwent refinement and purification, turning into combat energy that resided within his dantian!

At the same time, as he absorbed the elements, he circulated the combat energy through his meridians over and over. With each cycle, he felt it growing stronger. After countless rounds, the combat energy finally reached a full capacity!

When the combat energy in his body reached its optimal state, Rod’s expression changed dramatically—only to be replaced by a wide smile. He had improved! If he had been at the beginner level of a Bronze Warrior before, he was now at least at the intermediate level. The obvious improvement in his strength proved this.

“Hey, kid, why are you grinning like that? Hurry up and eat. Everyone needs to rest. Seriously!” A harsh voice came from beside him, making Rod quickly regain his composure.

Opening his eyes, he saw Bit crouched in front of him, looking at him.

“You really are something, continuing to train even in such a situation. I admire that. Do you know you’ve been training all afternoon? Do you even realize what time it is? Damn it, hurry up and eat! I still have duty to attend!” Bit said irritably, rolling his eyes at Rod.

Using the food as a distraction, he glanced out of the cave entrance—everything was pitch black. It was indeed night. Looking at Chelly and the others who had fallen asleep, he realized it was not only dark but also deep into the night.

Bit and Ada stood like two war gods, guarding the cave entrance tightly to protect those inside.

He tried moving his body slightly, and instant pain struck. But fortunately, it wasn’t serious. After adjusting to movement, the pain gradually subsided, and his body seemed fine. The area on his arm that he thought might be fractured or dislocated was also unharmed—probably just dislocated. Bit must have fixed it while he was unconscious.

Otherwise, he wasn’t injured at all. Though today’s battle had been fierce, to be honest, he had suffered almost no injuries. The only danger had been being entangled by the Red-Clad Snake and drinking its poisonous blood.

“Augh…” A loud roar came through, instantly alerting Bit and Ada.

Inside the cave, Rod also heard these roars and frowned, quickly heading toward the cave entrance.
Ahow… more roars followed, one after another, growing more frequent and clearer!
“Bad news, it’s a wolf pack!” Suddenly, Bit’s expression changed drastically as he exclaimed in alarm.
There are many types of wolf monsters, but all of them are detested and feared by mercenaries and adventurers. No one wants to provoke them, no one wants to encounter these vile creatures.
A series of swishing sounds came. Although it was pitch black, Rod found he could clearly see every plant and tree in the distance. A figure rushed swiftly toward them, followed by two, three… until a whole group. Soon, these creatures were right in front of them. The leading wolf let out another long howl.
“Heavens! Silver Moon Wolves! And a Silver Moon Wolf King!” After seeing clearly what was happening, Aida couldn’t help but exclaim in shock.
Silver Moon Wolves might be the most terrifying type. It wasn’t that they were extremely strong—on the contrary, they were only of medium strength. They were mostly high-level monsters. What made people fear and hate them was their tenacious fighting spirit and their tendency to persist relentlessly. As long as one of them remained alive, the attack wouldn’t end. They were also extremely bloodthirsty, infamous throughout the land. More importantly, every time the Silver Moon Wolves attacked, their numbers were never less than fifty! They were large-scale social animals.
“Hurry and call Cheri here. Let’s see if we can hold out through the night. By dawn, they should retreat on their own. If they don’t, we’ll have to break through! Also, prepare plenty of firewood—bring out anything that can be burned!
Damn it, how could such a large group of Silver Moon Wolves appear here? What are they doing here? Bastards! And there’s even a Wolf King.”
While complaining, Bit quickly made arrangements based on his years of experience.
“Aida, start a fire quickly. Wolf packs fear the light of fire. Hopefully, it will make them retreat!” he said to Aida. Fire—yes, starting a fire might be more effective than anything else. As long as the wolf pack didn’t attack, they could smile secretly. Unless they were stupid enough to attack first and provoke the wolves.