After being counter-ambushed by Ning Xuan, the numerical advantage they once held over her team had been cut in half. With such an inauspicious start, Zhou Yi realized it would be difficult to gain any ground that night and immediately ordered a retreat.

But now that they were here, how could Ning Xuan possibly let them leave?

After a little over ten minutes of close-quarters combat, everyone on Zhou Yi’s side was wounded. Three were dead, seven were severely injured, and only three people, including Zhou Yi himself, could still stand.

"Stop! The Golden Scale Beasts were our prey to begin with! We, the Wind Wolf Mercenary Corps, paid a great price to find this place. What right do you have to just swoop in and reap the benefits?" Zhou Yi watched the valley before them glitter with a golden sheen under the firelight, knowing his earlier judgment had been correct. This had to be the nest of that pack of Golden Scale Beasts.

His eyes filled with greed as he stared at the valley, deep and dark in the night.

Golden Scale Beasts were a type of Exotic Beast that relied on Golden Scale Stone Ore Veins to grow and develop. That this particular vein could sustain seven of them proved it wasn’t just some scattered Golden Scale Stone deposit, but a highly concentrated, resource-rich ore vein.

The Wind Wolf Mercenary Corps had gotten their first clue about the Golden Scale Beasts three years ago. In the intervening years, they had painstakingly figured out some of the beasts’ patterns of activity. They had planned to leverage the Alchemist competition, paying a great price to insert a large team, certain they could find the Golden Scale Beasts’ nest in one fell swoop.

They had found Spirit Medicine Valley relatively early, back when its entrance wasn’t as perilous as it is now. Based on their prior clues, they quickly locked onto the Golden Scale Beasts’ movements. Their initial plan was to observe and tail the beasts, but after three days, they had already lost the trail several times. On the final attempt, one of their members accidentally gave away their position, inciting a siege from the Golden Scale Beasts.

Their team of 30, split into three groups, engaged the seven Golden Scale Beasts using rotating assault tactics. The goal was to preserve their own Combat Power as much as possible while draining the beasts’ stamina. But who could have predicted that after a full day and night of fighting, their own teammates would be the ones to break? Casualties started to mount, yet they still couldn’t take down the seven Golden Scale Beasts.

In fact, if Ning Xuan and her group hadn’t suddenly appeared, who knows how many more of their men would have died in that battle during the day.

Ning Xuan remained unmoved by Zhou Yi’s shouts. In the middle of his speech, he took another blow and could barely stay on his feet. Fear finally crept onto his face. "I told you to stop! The Wind Wolf Mercenary Corps is one of the top three Mercenary Corps in the Federation! We’re incredibly powerful and always avenge our grudges! Besides, you did us a favor during the day. We came over tonight to tell you we can share this ore vein. Why don’t we negotiate how to divide it?" The name of the Wind Wolf Mercenary Corps carried significant weight. In Zhou Yi’s mind, this small team of opportunists, despite having some skill, was surely no match for a major organization like his.

’Once they hear my promise,’ he thought, ’they’ll jump at the chance to back down gracefully. After all, I just announced who we are. The Wind Wolf Mercenary Corps is famous—they must be terrified of us hunting them down in revenge.’ 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

Ning Xuan scoffed, rubbing her sleepy eyes. She waved a hand at Lin Mo. "Finish them off. It’s still early enough before dawn that we can get some sleep."

"Yes," Lin Mo answered, once again leading the charge.

Zhou Yi and his remaining men defended themselves clumsily, shouting in panicked rage, "Hey! Do you have any idea of the consequences of crossing us? If you don’t stop now, you won’t get a chance to beg for mercy when our main force gets here!"

"Do you think no one will know if you kill us? I’m telling you, I’ve already recorded your faces! If anything happens to us, you can’t escape! The Wind Wolf Mercenary Corps will hunt you to the ends of the earth!"

While desperately trying to escape, Zhou Yi kept an eye on the area outside the valley. Before launching the attack, he had sent a message to another squad. They would head over immediately upon receiving it. They weren’t far away; logically, they should be arriving any second.

’As long as I can hold on until our reinforcements arrive,’ he thought, ’we can turn the tables and kill them all.’

The remaining members of Zhou Yi’s team were covering his retreat. Just as the last of them fell and Lin Mo’s sword was slashing toward Zhou Yi’s throat, a giant white wolf suddenly leaped out from nowhere. It swiped a claw at Lin Mo, forcing him to abandon the attack.

The white wolf swiftly grabbed Zhou Yi, leaped into the void, and vanished.

As Ning Xuan watched this unfold, her formerly languid expression instantly sharpened. "That Spirit Controller I saved during the day, the one who was on the verge of transformation—wasn’t his Companion Spirit a white wolf?" She recalled the first subject to test her newly developed Life-taking Soul Chasing medicine: the snow-white wolf paws, ears, and the fur on his back and stomach had been strikingly similar to this wolf.

"I doubt it," Leng Yue replied instinctively. "This white wolf is incredibly strong. If the guy from this afternoon had this kind of power, how could he have ended up in that state?"

This white wolf possesses the talent for either teleportation or tearing through space, and any creature with such an ability is bound to be extremely powerful.

"Could it be that Contractor’s medicine made him stronger? Maybe he had a Breakthrough or awakened a new Bloodline Talent," Lin Mo mused, also finding the white wolf strangely familiar.

Everyone else turned to look at Lin Mo.

Lin Mo chuckled. "There’s a reason for my guess. A few days ago, Contractor used the Dragon Saliva Clearing Miasma Potion on me. I felt it not only cleared the miasma but also purified my very bloodline. Since Contractor’s new medicine is an enhanced version of that potion, its effects must be even greater. Paired with her Golden Needle Secret Technique, it’s highly likely to boost the user’s power."

"And if the person taking it had a high ’corruption level’ beforehand," Lin Mo added, turning to Ning Xuan, "it’s very likely they would have an immediate Breakthrough after using the medicine."

Outside the valley, in a temporary camp roughly three thousand meters to the north, the giant white wolf set Zhou Yi down in a central clearing. Then, with a flicker, its body shifted, and it transformed into Min Wu.

Zhou Yi stared, his eyes wide with shock, as Min Wu instantly shifted form. "You... How did you do that?"

Min Wu frowned but didn’t reply. In truth, he didn’t know how to answer the question himself.

Zhou Yi had taken a cut to his shoulder blade, and his entire back was streaked with blood. The wound was already showing signs of Miasma Poison, but since it hadn’t completely numbed his nerves yet, the pain was excruciating. When Min Wu remained silent, Zhou Yi turned his head to look at Tang Xue.

"Zhou Yi, you took so many men, and in just over ten minutes, they were completely wiped out." Tang Xue sighed helplessly, her hair hanging loose as she sat by the campfire.