Autumn passed.
The caravan had long disappeared beyond Qing Mao Mountain. At first, people in the village still spoke of it. Some regretted not buying a Gu worm. Some cursed merchants for setting prices too high. Some young Gu Masters compared the strange goods they had seen.
After a few days, the excitement faded.
Missions continued.
Patrols continued.
Gu worms still had to be fed.
Fang Ming's uncle and aunt had left with the caravan. No one in the clan cared much. A Rank two C-grade Gu Master and a Rank one C-grade Gu Master following the caravan to trade outside was not worth many questions.
To the clan, they were ordinary.
Time continued to move.
Then winter arrived.
During this period, Fang Ming used the two Red Steel Relic Gu he had kept.
One pushed him from Rank two middle stage to upper stage.
The other pushed him from upper stage to peak stage.
The process saved months of bitter cultivation, but Fang Ming did not reveal it. In the eyes of others, he was still only advancing quickly because of A-grade aptitude and Chi branch support.
Rank two peak stage was only one step from Rank three.
But this step could not be crossed casually.
The first snow did not fall heavily. It came at night, thin and quiet. By morning, the roofs of the bamboo buildings were covered in pale white, and the mountain paths had turned slippery.
The village became colder.
But the cold was not the real problem.
Food became scarce in the mountains. Wild beasts began moving closer to the village. Hunters no longer dared to enter the deeper forests. Sometimes, a mortal woodcutter would go out in the morning and not return at night. Sometimes, a patrol team would find blood on the snow and drag back half a body.
At first, these were only small matters.
Then crippled lightning wolves began to appear near the warning zones.
Old wolves.
Injured wolves.
Wolves missing ears, tails, or eyes.
They had been driven out from larger packs. Alone, they were not too frightening. But wolves rarely remained alone. Once they gathered into small groups, even ordinary Rank two Gu Masters had to be careful.
The clan quickly issued more missions.
Clean up wolf traces.
Inspect mountain paths.
Protect hunters.
Kill crippled wolf packs near the village.
Chi Shan's group accepted one such mission.
The snow had stopped when they left the village.
Chi Shan walked in front. His tall body was like a moving wall, leaving deep footprints in the thin snow. Chi Chen followed behind him, his expression serious. Fang Ming walked slightly to the side,
There were two other team members with them.
The forest in winter was too quiet.
Chi Shan suddenly raised his hand.
The group stopped.
Ahead, several broken branches lay near the snow. There were paw prints around them, messy and overlapping. Some were deep, some shallow. A few drops of frozen blood stuck to the side of a stone.
Chi Chen crouched and looked carefully.
"Lightning wolves," he said. "Not many. Maybe five or six."
Chi Shan did not immediately answer.
He looked at Fang Ming. "What do you see?"
Fang Ming stepped forward.
He had seen similar records inside the Bookworm Gu. Wolf traces, hunting routes, claw marks, dung, broken grass, blood color. The clan library had many things that academy students rarely cared about.
He looked at the paw prints.
Then at the broken branches.
Then at the snow beside the stone.
"More than five," Fang Ming said.
Chi Chen frowned slightly. "The tracks here are only five or six."
"The rest did not pass here." Fang Ming pointed to the side. "They circled."
Chi Chen followed his finger.
At first glance, there was only snow and dried grass. But after looking for a while, one could see that some grass had been pressed down lightly. The mark was faint. If not searched for carefully, it would be ignored.
Chi Shan walked over and glanced once.
His eyes sank. "Eight or more."
The atmosphere changed.
Crippled wolves were not strong individually, but they were cunning. These wolves were already close to the village, yet they still knew how to circle and hide their number.
This was not good.
Chi Shan said, "Formation."
The group immediately adjusted.
Chi Shan stood in front. The two team members spread out to the sides. Chi Chen stood behind Chi Shan. Fang Ming remained slightly back, where he could attack with Moonglow Gu without blocking others.
They continued forward.
After walking for a while, the smell of blood became clearer.
Soon, they saw a dead deer lying beneath a tree. Half its body had been eaten. Its belly was torn open, and its frozen organs were scattered across the snow.
Chi Chen's face tightened. "Fresh."
Fang Ming's eyes moved.
The forest was still quiet.
Not the quiet of winter.
The quiet of something waiting.
He slowly raised his palm.
Moonlight gathered.
At almost the same moment, a wolf rushed out from behind a fallen tree.
Its left eye was blind, and one of its hind legs dragged slightly, but its speed was still fast. It did not charge at Chi Shan. It rushed toward the weaker side of the formation.
Toward Fang Ming.
Fang Ming fired.
The moonblade cut through the air and struck the wolf's shoulder.
Blood splashed.
The wolf rolled on the snow and let out a sharp howl.
Immediately, more howls answered.
Three lightning wolves rushed from the left. Two came from the right. Another appeared behind them, low to the ground, its fur almost blending into the snowy grass.
"Careful!" Chi Shan shouted.
His body moved first.
He stepped forward and punched.
Bang!
A wolf that had rushed too close was struck directly in the head. Its skull cracked, and its body flew back into the snow.
Chi Shan's strength was still frightening.
Chi Chen fired a moonblade. It struck a wolf's flank, cutting open flesh but not killing it. The wolf snarled and continued forward.
Fang Ming did not move too much.
He fired another moonblade.
Then another.
The blades from Moonglow Gu were larger and sharper than ordinary moonblades, but Fang Ming did not chase kills. He cut paths, forced wolves to dodge, and stopped them from surrounding the group.
He could have done more.
Rank two peak stage primeval essence filled his aperture. His current endurance was far beyond what others believed. If he wanted, he could maintain Iron Skin Gu and use Moonglow Gu much longer than before.
But he did not, using too much strength was unreasonable.
A wolf broke through from the side and snapped at his arm.
Fang Ming activated Iron Skin Gu.
A dull iron color spread across his skin.
The wolf's teeth bit down.
Clang.
Its teeth scraped across his forearm, leaving only a shallow white mark.
Fang Ming kicked it away and followed with a moonblade.
The wolf's neck opened.
Blood dyed the snow.
Chi Chen saw this from the corner of his eye. His expression changed slightly.
"Iron Skin Gu?"
"Bought from the caravan," Fang Ming replied.
There was no need to hide this.
Chi Chen said nothing more.
Another wolf lunged at him.
He hurriedly turned back to fight.
The battle did not last long.
There were nine crippled lightning wolves in total. Two died under Chi Shan's fists. Three were killed by Moonglow Gu's moonblades. One was pierced by another team member's Gu worm. The remaining three saw that the situation was bad and immediately retreated.
"They are running!" Chi Chen shouted.
Chi Shan did not chase at once.
"Do not scatter."
This was the right decision.
In the mountains, chasing wolves blindly was no different from offering one's life. Crippled wolves were weak, but a larger pack might be nearby. A Gu Master who left formation could become prey.
Fang Ming watched the fleeing shadows disappear between the trees.
He lowered his palm.
His breathing was steady, he immediately adjusted it, making it slightly heavier.
Chi Shan turned and looked at him.
Fang Ming also looked back.
For a moment, neither spoke.
Chi Shan nodded.
He did not ask, he was strict, not foolish he more or less understood why Fang Ming was feigning weakness, he was also in same predicament.
The group began collecting materials.
Wolf skin, teeth, claws, and eyes could all be exchanged for contribution points. Even crippled wolves had value. Their bodies were thin, and some fur was damaged, but quantity could make up for quality.
Chi Chen crouched beside one wolf corpse.
Its ribs showed clearly beneath the fur. Its stomach was almost empty.
"These wolves are starving," he said.
One of the older team members sighed. "It has started."
No one asked what had started.
Everyone knew.
Fang Ming wiped the blood from his hand and looked deeper into the forest.
This was only the beginning.
The real wolf tide had not yet arrived. These crippled wolves were just the foam at the front of the wave. Behind them would come healthy wolves, hundred beast kings, thousand beast kings, and the true pressure that forced the three clans to put aside their grudges.
When that time came, the village would need every bit of strength it could gather.
In peaceful times, Rank three was not only strength. It was status, authority, and a share of the clan's resources. If Fang Ming advanced too quickly, the elders would not only feel surprise. Some would feel threatened.
Another elder meant another hand reaching toward the same pool of benefits.
But during the wolf tide, things were different.
When wolves surrounded the village and Gu Masters died on missions, a new Rank three would no longer be seen first as someone dividing resources.
He would be seen as a wall.
A wall others wanted standing in front of them.
Chi Shan stood up. "Return."
The group carried the wolf materials and went back along the snowy path.
When they approached the village, several mortals looked at the bloodstained bags on their backs and stepped aside hurriedly. A child stared at the wolf claws hanging from Chi Shan's hand, then hid behind his mother.
Near the gate, a patrol Gu Master checked their mission token and quickly let them pass.
"Another wolf pack?" he asked.
"Crippled wolves," Chi Shan said.
The patrol Gu Master's expression did not relax.
Crippled wolves near the village meant healthy wolves were not far behind.
Fang Ming walked through the gate and looked back once.
Snow continued to fall over Qing Mao Mountain.
The wolf tide had not yet arrived.
But its shadow had already entered the village.