No sooner had the barrier sprung into place than the first wolves sprinted out of the forest. Rather than the deep crimson fur of the Blood Moon Mist Wolves, however, the lead wolves possessed the brighter red coats of more ordinary Red Mist Wolves. Forced by their Wolf King into the lead position, the smaller wolves snarled in fury as they lunged toward the young cultivators.
At the back of the pack, the Wolf King watched eagerly as the weakest members of his pack rushed towards the cultivators that had come to hunt him this night. Without the Blessing of the Blood Moon, these feeble wolves would have to prove themselves to their king if they wanted to receive his favor and any further blessings. If they fought well, the wolf king might take them as mates to expand his true pack but at the moment, they were still untested.
If the Red Mist Wolves died fighting the cultivators, the Wolf King would have his proof that they weren't worthy to bear his offspring. If they died well enough, however, they might still have a place in his pack in the life after this one. With a cruel gleam in its eyes, the Wolf King watched eagerly as the first wolves clashed with the cultivators.
"BLEED AND DIE!" Xiong Dahuo shouted, surrendering himself to the surging bloodlust and swinging his nine-ringed saber in a powerful two-handed chop. Hot blood splattered across his face and the sound of crunching bone filled the air as his blade cleaved through the chest of the lead wolf, stopping only when his saber bound in the beast's thick spine.
Two other wolves surrendered to the pull of the tide, rushing along with the pull to lunge at Zhang Buyan's faintly glowing golden form. Without moving his feet from where he stood, Zhang Buyan rotated to sweep aside the first lunging wolf with his forearm, suffering only minor scratches as its claws failed to penetrate deeply through his golden energy.
The second wolf, however, couldn't even accomplish that much as the burly Brawler brought down a gold-shrouded hammer fist on the crown of the beast's skull. Bone crunched and its body went limp as the weight of Zhang Buyan's fist caved in its skull.
The other three wolves resisted the pull of Zhang Buyan's tide, following their noses to race toward the smoking incense within the barrier protecting Wu Ling and the Scholars.
Jin Wuya's heart thundered in her chest as she faced the murderous bloodlust of the rushing wolves. For a moment, her mind went blank and her world shrank until the snarling jaws and blood-red eyes of the lunging wolf were all she could see.
With a flash of white, Yue darted in front of the dazed Brawler, summoning a shield of ice that deflected the lunging wolf away from her and sent it crashing into the first layer of the Five Fold Barrier formation.
"Sister Jin!" Wu Ling shouted, throwing out a talisman at the wolf Yue had deflected. As the paper passed through the barrier, the word 'Fire' ignited, pulling additional power from the Five Elements Augmentation formation to turn itself into an arrow of flame that exploded against the side of the dazed wolf, burning away fur in an instant and searing its flesh like a hot brand. "Finish it!"
Snapping out of her daze, Jin Wuya sprang forward, the golden flames surrounding her fists glowing brighter as she fed them with her anger and humiliation at being intimidated by the snarling spirit beast. Bones cracked with the impact of her fist and she followed up instantly with a talon strike to the beast's face.
The move turned out to be a horrible mistake as the pain-enraged wolf's jaws snapped down on her hand, shaking its head and tearing at the flesh of her fingers. Pain exploded in Jin Wuya's mind, white-hot and blinding. Blood flowed along with the drool of the snarling wolf, mixing into a toxin that flooded into the flesh of her hand and began to work its way up her arm.
A moment later, an arc of light from Su Xiang's blade separated the beast's head from its body before it could rake the vulnerable young woman with its powerful paws or release its grip to lunge again at her head or next. While it took less than a breath of time for Su Xiang' to come to the young woman's rescue, the face of the snarling wolf had already seared itself into the deepest part of her heart along with the burning, ragged pain from her injured hand.
Another Red Mist Wolf lay dead at Su Xiang's feet while the final one clawed at the Five Fold Barrier, destroying the first layer and working desperately to claw through the second to reach the person wreathed in the scent of the powerful incense.
Before Su Xiang could make a move to eliminate the Red Mist Wolf clawing at the barrier or drag Jin Wuya to the safety of Yu Jinqi's healing arts, a fearsome howl split the night as the Wolf King issued its commands to the strongest members of its pack.
The aura covering the fallen red mist wolves condensed, becoming a powerful set of jaws that bit deeply into the essence of the slain wolves, tearing their spirits from their bodies. The energy torn from the defeated wolves flowed back to their king, only to be feasted upon by the mighty wolf before it channeled the energy taken from the fallen wolves into the chosen members of its true pack.
An aura of blood enveloped the clearing as the deep crimson-furred wolves stalked out of the forest, each one eying the young cultivators with gleaming red eyes that weren't only deeply murderous but frightfully… intelligent.
Behind them, the Wolf King leaped on top of a boulder unleashing an even louder howl and spreading his aura across all five of the wolves it considered to be its true pack. Now that the weaklings had revealed the strengths of their prey, the Wolf King was ready to transform its pack into true hunters!