Walking in the cycle of reincarnation

Chapter 39 The Killing Trap

The whistle swirled in the wind and snow, and the three people in the front and back caves responded in unison.

Outside the front cave, Batu and the burly man hunched their shoulders, each pulling out flint and tinder from their pockets, intending to light a fire.

Batu crouched down, his back bracing against the cold wind. He struck the flint with his flint, and a few sparks flew into the dry grass, but before they could ignite, they were extinguished by the wind and snow.

The burly man beside him, seeing this, tensed up and whispered:

"This nasty wind is really hard to deal with!"

Batu tried twice more, but the grass stem only emitted a wisp of smoke before falling silent.

The burly man looked at the increasingly fierce wind and snow, and a chill ran down his spine.

"Batu, do you think... perhaps the Eternal Heaven is protecting that white wolf? Are we offending the will of Heaven by doing this?"

Batu spat and cursed:

"Bullshit."

He breathed white puffs of air into his palm, then rubbed the flint together again, coldly saying without looking up:

"Do you think that those who hunted white wolf pelts in the past all met a miserable end? On the contrary, they all lived very comfortably."

The burly man was taken aback, clearly having never considered this possibility, and immediately blurted out:

Why?

"Because the skin is intact."

Batu grinned, revealing a mouthful of yellow teeth, his smile confident and arrogant:

"Those who obtain a complete white wolf pelt are all warriors tacitly approved by the Eternal Heaven. The wind and snow have always been trials sent down by the Eternal Heaven; those who can endure them will receive heavenly blessings, understand?"

The burly man felt a chill run down his spine, but upon closer examination, he realized there was some truth to what he was saying:

"so......"

"So a mere snowstorm scared you to death?"

Batu gritted his teeth and struck the flint and steel again.

......

Inside the cave, Zhang Nanfeng took in all the sounds and noises.

Although he didn't understand the language of the grasslands, the crisp sound of the flint and steel striking against each other was as piercing as steel needles.

He had assumed that the three adult men, armed with bows and knives, would charge straight into the cave, relying on their superior numbers. He never expected that they would try to force him to smoke.

Such caution... could it be that they intend to leave me with a complete corpse?

After a moment's thought, Zhang Nanfeng understood the other party's intentions.

If that's the case...

His gaze swept over the three cowering gray cubs, then turned to the heavily wounded, panting mother wolf, and a plan took shape in his mind.

Zhang Nanfeng opened his wolf-like mouth and let out a whimper, as if a young wolf was having its throat pierced by sharp teeth and was convulsing on the verge of death.

Before he could finish his first cry, he let out another, even more sorrowful and piercing than before, as if he were about to breathe his last.

......

Batu and the strong man were struggling with the flint when they heard this miserable cry, and they both froze.

The burly man's face turned deathly pale:

"Batu! That mother wolf...the mother wolf is biting her cubs!"

Everyone in Beiyuan knows that when a mother wolf is driven to the brink of despair and knows that her cubs cannot escape human hands, she will often bite them herself, preferring to kill them rather than let them fall into human hands and suffer humiliation and live a wretched life.

The moment the thought crossed his mind, Batu's five fingers trembled violently, and the flint fell to the ground.

"If the mother wolf kills the white wolf cub... and its skin is mangled... what's the point of offering sacrifices then!"

Batu's voice suddenly changed, unable to conceal his rage.

"The tattered white wolf pelt is not a blessing, it's a curse! It will curse your descendants for three generations, preventing them from ever recovering!"

The burly man completely lost his composure and asked anxiously:

"Then, what should we do?"

"Enter the cave! Enter immediately!"

Batu suddenly drew his curved knife from his waist, but the blade faced inward, as if afraid of damaging that precious white skin when he swung it.

"Blow the whistle! Have Hassen guard the back cave; don't rush in, just block it!"

The bone whistle pierced the wind and snow with a sharp sound. The two men, one in front and one behind, crouched down and crawled into the cave entrance.

The cave was dark and filled with a foul, fishy smell.

The mother wolf, riddled with arrows, lay on the ground, her eyes gleaming with ferocity as she fixed her gaze on the intruder.

It sheltered three gray-brown wolf cubs under its belly. The cubs trembled like leaves, but their fur was completely intact.

There are no white wolf cubs...

The moment the two had the idea, a fierce gust of wind suddenly swept over them.

Zhang Nanfeng burst out from the crevice in the rock at the top of the cave and rushed straight at the burly man standing at the front with a bulky figure.

Sharp teeth pierced the flesh, and blood gushed out like a fountain.

The burly man's eyes suddenly widened, his throat made a gurgling sound, and before he could even let out a half-scream, he fell backward.

Before the killing intent subsided, Zhang Nanfeng twisted his waist and swayed his body, sweeping his long tail horizontally.

The two-inch-long, sinewy tail lashed hard against Batu's ankle.

Batu let out a muffled groan, feeling his calves go numb and losing his balance. He fell forward, landing right in front of the mother wolf.

Although the mother wolf was seriously injured and on the verge of death, her survival instinct and fierceness in protecting her cubs remained.

Seeing the stranger rushing towards him, he mustered his last bit of strength to open a bloody gash and bite hard at Batu's neck.

Unfortunately, it was too badly injured and exhausted. Although it bit down hard, it failed to sever the trachea and only embedded itself between the skin and flesh, leaving Batu unable to break free for a while.

Batu was in so much pain that his whole body convulsed, and he managed to squeeze out muffled screams and cries for help.

He swung his curved knife wildly, cutting the mother wolf repeatedly, but she remained clenched in her teeth, refusing to open her mouth until her death.

"Hassen—! Hassen—!"

......

Hassen was pressed against the rock face, listening intently.

The sounds of bones cracking and muffled groans coming from the front cave were still unclear, but Batu's distorted and broken scream was clearly audible.

"Batu!"

He could no longer restrain himself, so he bent down and crawled into the back passage.

The cave was dimly lit, with only a faint light coming from the front. Hassen was in a hurry and rushed forward, completely unaware of his footing.

With each firm step, a piercing, stabbing pain exploded from the soles of my feet, shooting straight to the top of my head.

Zhang Nanfeng had already concealed several sharp pieces of animal bone under the dry grass.

Hassen roared in pain, leaned forward, and fell to his knees.

He hurriedly looked down and saw his knee resting on a broken bone. Right in front of him, a pair of heterochromatic wolf eyes were inches away.

Zhang Nanfeng gave him no chance to react.

He lunged forward and bit down on Hassen's neck vein, his sharp teeth cutting through gold and jade, tearing open the trachea and blood vessels.

Hot blood splattered all over his face, but he didn't even blink. His jaw was clenched tightly until the person beneath him stopped convulsing and no longer struggled.

The wolf den isolated the outside world from the howling; within its small area, only the mother wolf's heavy breathing and Batu's waning struggles could be heard.

A moment later, Zhang Nanfeng slowly loosened his jaw, letting Hassen's body slide down and fall into a pool of blood.

The mother wolf finally let go.

Batu's neck was a bloody mess, and he was already dead. The curved knife was deeply embedded in the mother wolf's belly, draining her of all her wolf blood.

The fierce light in the mother wolf's eyes dissipated, leaving only a gray and desolate look, yet she still strained to turn her head and gaze at the three trembling gray cubs.

Zhang Nanfeng remained silent.

He stepped forward slowly and nudged the mother wolf's cooling cheek with the tip of his nose.

The mother wolf's eyelids twitched a few times, but she ultimately failed to open them again.

The three bewildered wolf cubs seemed to sense something, whimpering as they approached and huddled beside their mother, rubbing against her hardening body repeatedly.

Zhang Nanfeng stood alone amidst the crimson carpet of the ground, his back shimmering with a ghostly glow of gold threads.

Outside the cave, the wind and snow were fierce, as if trying to bury all the bloodshed, joy and sorrow, life and death within this small space under the white snow.