Bidding farewell to the enthusiastic sheriff, Xia De rode his horse around Luther Lake, hoping to find that mysterious lake.
He still remembered the hint Professor Drake had given him, so he tried his best to forget the purpose of his trip, but the more he tried, the more thoughts about the Lake Goddess echoed in his mind.
This resulted in Xia De not encountering the Lake Goddess, or even talking black snakes, rabbits, or ravens that afternoon.
However, as the sun sank westward and the evening glow appeared in the sky, Xia De was riding his horse, wondering if he should return to the City now, but he quickly noticed a pack of wolves, hunting in early winter, had appeared behind him at some point, seemingly wanting to kill Xia De and his reddish-brown horse for provisions.
Xia De, who was already in a bad mood, naturally wouldn't let them off easily.
So, after calming his startled mount, he dismounted and rushed towards the wolf pack, wielding Night Watchman.
Thus, under the strong sunset by Luther Lake, the sword-wielding knight began to fight the wolf pack.
This wasn't a large wolf pack, only eight or nine wild wolves in total.
They boldly attacked Xia De at first, but as Xia De swung his sword, splitting the wolves that lunged from both sides in half, then kicked the alpha wolf that charged from the front to death, and finally lifted the broken-tailed wolf that attacked from behind, slamming it to the ground into a pulp, the remaining wild wolves immediately scattered and fled.
“Why do these wolves still dare to attack me when I’m clearly carrying a sword and a gun?”
Xia De was puzzled.
“Perhaps they were too far from you and didn't have time to observe closely before you acted,” she replied softly in the wind.
At the same time, Xia De, with the thought of eliminating pests for the local area, chased the scattered wolf pack into the withered forest by the lake, where only bare branches remained.
This area was a local logging site, but in this season, it looked more like a wasteland.
The wild wolves, pursued by Xia De, fled into the forest in a panic, but as several silver Moonlights swept across the ground through the gaps in the withered trees, the last of the wild wolves were also split in half, leaving only the fastest one to burrow deeper into the forest.
“Why did you come to provoke me?”
Xia De, holding his sword, glanced back at his horse grazing on wild grass by the lake, then chased after the fleeing wolf, vowing to kill it before returning home.
Four-legged wolves are generally faster than two-legged humans, especially in a forest with sprawling branches.
But for Xia De, no matter how fast the opponent ran, it wasn't a problem.
He didn't even need the power of Miracle and spells.
He quickly cut a path through the forest and caught up with the wolf, relying only on his strong physical fitness and the silver sword in his hand, which could cut through almost anything.
The latter was greatly frightened by the commotion behind it.
After the Moonlight flying from behind cut down the large tree in front of it, its hindquarters were crushed by the tree.
It then howled, watching helplessly as the human behind it approached.
“Seriously, why did you come to provoke me?”
Xia De asked again.
If it wasn't getting late and he wanted to go home early, he would even have wanted to put the fish training ring on its paw and ask why he was targeted.
Ignoring the wild wolf, he raised his sword, intending to kill it.
But after thinking about it, he stepped back two paces and took out the revolver from his waist, the one MI6 had provided him.
Speaking of which, since he got this gun, Xia De had probably fired it less than five times.
Seeing that the wolf could no longer resist, he took out the gun, ready to test his aim, since the bullets could be reimbursed—
Bang!
A shot rang out, startling countless birds in the forest to fly towards the evening glow.
But the wolf was still alive; only a bullet hole had blasted into the wood pressing it down, and because the tree was dry, bark and wood fibers flew everywhere.
Before the wolf, which had successfully survived to the end, could recover from its fright, the second gunshot, echoing in the early winter evening glow, rang out again, successfully hitting its head.
“My marksmanship is still very accurate.”
Xia De, satisfied, blew on the muzzle, then put the gun back into its holster on his waist.
He then rummaged in his pocket for some cloth, intending to turn the wolf pack's corpses into souvenirs to take back to Tobesk, but after taking two steps on the muddy ground, he suddenly stopped.
He hadn't actually gone too deep into the forest, and the trees on the edge of the logging site were unusually sparse due to autumn logging.
There were no leaves on the branches, and the setting sun could directly illuminate the ground, allowing him to see most of the sky and clouds dyed red when he looked up.
But at this moment, Xia De suddenly felt the surrounding visibility gradually decreasing, and the already somewhat bone-chilling wind through the forest became even colder.
The Night Watchman in his hand suddenly vibrated rapidly; it sensed the evil earlier than Xia De.
“What is approaching?”
He no longer paid attention to the wolf corpse pressed under the tree but stood in the forest, sword in hand, looking around.
“Outsider, you have touched the whisper element.”
“whisper element?”
Listening carefully, he indeed noticed a faint, almost imperceptible whisper element had appeared in his ears at some point.
The evening glow dyed Xia De's shoulders red, but the murmurs of women wailing, crying, and screaming sent a chill down Xia De's spine.
The sunset this evening was so intense, yet the atmosphere at this moment was completely out of place with it.
Looking at the surrounding light, he felt dizzy due to the appearance of a sage-level relic.
Xia De tried to maintain his composure, carefully turning around in place to observe every detail of his surroundings, until he had turned halfway, and upon turning his head, a pale-faced woman with disheveled hair peeked out from behind a withered tree trunk not far away, gazing at him with black eyes.
Xia De was startled; this was the woman he had seen in Professor Drake's cursed photograph.
“sage-level relic Swamp Witch? She actually appeared so close to the City?”
The humanoid relic extended her head and equally pale shoulders, as if she had been hiding behind the tree, peeking at the man in front of her since just now.
And Xia De only met her gaze for a moment when he saw countless specters with tragic deaths, emerging from behind the dense trees in the brightly lit forest under the setting sun, rushing towards him.
“Illusion, do not move.”
The voice in his ear made Xia De's consciousness clearer.
He gritted his teeth and stood still, and the specters indeed passed through his body like phantoms, then disappeared into the light of the setting sun.
But then, the dark shadows of the withered trees standing in the sunset actually began to writhe like tentacles.
Subsequently, the black shadows crawled along the ground towards Xia De like snakes; this was probably a scene that would only appear in horror stories.
“Still an illusion, do not move.”
Xia De trusted her judgment and still did not move.
The writhing shadows indeed disappeared into the light of the setting sun after reaching Xia De's feet.
But the abnormal phenomena around him still did not disappear.
Xia De heard rustling sounds behind him, but he was now fully focused on the movements of the woman peeking out from behind the tree, not daring to move at all.
Fortunately, her vision was not affected by her eyes.
“The wolf you shot dead has crawled out from under the tree.”
“Also an illusion?”
“No, this time it's real.”
Xia De was startled and instinctively blinked.
The blink lasted no more than half a second, but in the blink of an eye, it was as if the painting in front of him had been pulled away and replaced with another one; the woman peeking out from behind the tree had actually disappeared.
“What?”
He immediately turned around and looked behind him, and sure enough, he saw the wolf, which was already dead, crawling out from under the tree, limping and staring at Xia De, but it didn't attack him; instead, it turned and walked deeper into the forest.
“Has the whisper element nearby changed?”
“The whisper element is strongest on that wolf.”
“It really is a living corpse manipulated by the Swamp Witch... But why did the Swamp Witch's main body leave? Isn't she malicious towards all males?”
The limping wolf walked a distance deeper into the forest, then suddenly stopped and turned to look at Xia De.
Xia De looked around and behind him suspiciously, somewhat disbelieving.
“It wants me to follow it? I'd be crazy to follow it.”
Although he thought this, Xia De did not immediately turn and leave but recalled the characteristics of the sage-level relic Swamp Witch.
“She will guide kind-hearted women who are lost in the swamp to the direction of exit, and may even protect them.
But for impure-hearted women and any males, she will cast a curse that corrupts the soul.”
Xia De was sure he hadn't been cursed, and that wolf really seemed to be guiding him in a certain direction.
But the problem was, Xia De was not a “kind-hearted woman,” and if he wanted to leave the forest, the direction he would take was not the direction the wolf was currently going.
“How strange, I didn't encounter any talking animals, but instead encountered such a strange thing.”
The main body of the Swamp Witch had undoubtedly left, but since the wolf manipulated by her still existed, it meant that the terrifying humanoid relic was still watching Xia De.
The living corpse wolf, which had stopped there looking at Xia De, did not wait indefinitely and soon continued to walk deeper into the logging site.
Xia De thought for a moment and said to the wolf, “Please wait for me, I'll bring my horse over, and then I'll follow you.”
To ensure the relic and the wolf understood, he specifically used carson rick.
After speaking, he returned to the path by the lake without looking back and found his horse, which was lowering its head to eat wild grass.
The latter obediently followed Xia De, who was holding the reins, back into the forest.
After passing the corpses of the wild wolves, he saw the large tree chopped down by a Moonlight Slash again, as well as the waiting wolf not far away.
“I was thinking that if you didn't wait for me, I would leave here and go home for dinner.
But since you're still here...”
This time, without hesitation, Xia De led his horse and followed.
The wolf, which had been squatting like a dog, also stood up and slowly walked deeper into the forest.
