253 - Winter Wolves

Li Yun couldn't see or sense the wolves, but the low and threatening growls could be heard. Every time they growled, Li Yun could see their names appearing in bright red. However, as soon as they quieted down, the name disappeared along with their traces.

He counted nine different sounds from different directions, but there could be more behind them. Suddenly, a large fuzzy wrecking ball-like creature rammed itself into him. Li Yun bent his legs and sidestepped to the right. The creature missed but whipped itself around before it landed on the compacted snow and never let its eyes stray away from the prey.

"It's gauging my ability," Li Yun thought. His head spun in all directions as the movement of the wolves circled around him. "Why didn't I bring a bigger weapon?" 

In a typical dream, he could wear whatever he want. But the environment of the compass was similar to the woods. The cloth and items he wore were the same as the ones he had worn in the hospital. He pulled out a utility knife hidden in his boots, but he regretted not carrying two. 

As soon as he pulled out the knife from its sheath, the wolves' eyed each other as though they were reassessing his danger level. Li Yun sprang out and attacked one of the wolves with the bright red name. The wolf was caught off guard and took a moment slower to react. It didn't think Li Yun would attack first but as the blood dripped out from its front limb, time seemed to stop as it knew that its life was coming to an end. A follow-up kick into its stomach was the last thing it remembered as the body flew several meters back and into the cold mountain wall.

The other wolves scrambled to think of a backup plan while two decided to charge toward Li Yun. Li Yun slashed his knife, and the two wolves quickly backed away. As much as they wanted to fight, they were also afraid of sharp objects. Much to their dismay, they felt something happening inside their body. They were too distracted to realize that there were poisonous needles embedded in them.

A loud roar rumbled through the mountain with murderous intent. It came from the far back, but the deep red name appeared for the first time.

Alpha Winter Wolf

The wolves heard the command and backed away, forming a large circle. The giant wolf jumped inside the circle. Despite its towering size of 10 meters, there wasn't much vibration from its movement as its feet landed on the ground without denting the snow.

"It has motion lightness ability?" Li Yun thought. 

Li Yun's lightness ability was based on adjusting and balancing out his weight. It was relatively easy as his weight in the dream world could be adjusted. In the compass, the weights fluctuated in a strange manner, so Li Yun always had to readjust his weight.

"I hope it's as prideful as the Earth's counterpart," Li Yun knew little about wolves, but hopefully they were prideful enough to battle one on one.

The giant wolf stood tall before Li Yun, blocking the wind and snow with its sheer size. Without the blowing snow, Li Yun could see the entire expanse of the beast. If the flying glasshopper bladed wings were scary, everything about the Alpha was threatening. The yellow stained fangs curved and tapered into a sharp point. Although it had been dulled down over time, a single snap of the jaw could tear around a minivan. 

Before Li Yun could analyze its body, the Alpha dashed toward him with its jaw wide open. Right before reaching Li Yun, the jaw snapped. Li Yun sidestepped out of the way, but its tail slammed into Li Yun. The brunt of the blow felt like two Fatty Fang pounding on him.

His body flew back to the ground and the momentum streaked a single line into the snow. It broke his fall, but he was almost buried under four feet of snow. Without a moment to breath in between, the Alpha dashed toward the imprint of Li Yun's body.

The claws of the Alpha slammed toward the shallow snow pit. The Alpha growled in displeasure as the prey had escaped by burrowing into the snow. The Alpha sniffled around the tunnel area. It picked up the trace and jumped back up to the surface. It was more adapted to the snow, but the wind was making it difficult to locate where the prey was going.

Suddenly, a sound could be heard. The Alpha quickly ran in front of the source of the sound. Its jaw dug underneath the snow to devour the snow and whatever was underneath its surface. It didn't expect to be stabbed in the back.

Li Yun had jumped back to the surface and hooked to the side near the spleen and lung. The thick coat of its fur made it difficult for Li Yun to penetrate completely through, but he hoped the poison was enough to stop it.

The Alpha reacted violently, twisting around its rear to knock Li Yun to the side. The knife was still embedded within its fur. The Alpha continued the rampage to thrash about, but it wasn't attacking as much as twisting about in an attempt to remove the knife. The Alpha howled in agony and then growled at Li Yun for causing the pain. If it was going to die, it wanted to get its revenge. The Alpha twisted one last time toward Li Yun and charged.

"It would be nice if I can use that sword," Li Yun felt the feeling of dread from the incoming impact.

At that moment, the iron sword reappeared in his hand. It wasn't the best weapon, but it had a much longer range than the knife. Li Yun timed the moment to avoid the charge and spun the sword around to slam the side by the Alpha's ear.

The Alpha remained standing on its four feet but wobbled from the impact. It moved up to balance itself, but it had suffered from a ruptured eardrum. As its steps slowed, it fell to the ground.

Alpha Wolves Defeated

Receive Alpha's Tooth Necklace.

Like the other artifacts, it disappeared once within Li Yun's reach. Based on the reappearance of the sword, there was a way to retrieve it. There were three things he remembered thinking about, the image of the sword, the name of the sword, and the location where he wanted to return on his body. He visualized the Alpha's Tooth Necklace over his neck, and it reappeared as he thought about it.

Alpha's Tooth Necklace- Increase strength +2

Li Yun looked around snowy surrounding still covered in white out conditions. He saw through his limited view the rest of the wolves slowly backing away. However, he was stuck. There wasn't any landmark to the next location. 

"Could it be the red lantern flower?" Li Yun thought to himself as he summoned the flower into his left hand.

Red Lantern Flower: Lights up the way.

A red glow appeared around him and the blizzard began to thin out. Up ahead, there was an ice pavilion surrounded by a lake and a peach orchard. It wasn't too far away, but Li Yun wasn't sure if it had appeared after he used the Red Lantern Flower or if it had always been there. Li Yun approached the pavilion slowly as there seems to be someone sitting inside, a beautiful woman dressed in a white gown.

"Who are you? The divine farmer?" She asked in an ancient language.

"I guess you can say that," it was his title, but he wondered if there was a label above his head for the woman to recognize it. "Who are you?"

A label appeared above her, "Divine Protector of the West," in yellow.

"You humans have given me the name, Queen Mother," she replied. "We grant people the powers to navigate into the Spirit Realm."

"So are there really immortals?"

"It would depend on your definition of immortals. The souls of many warriors sent over to the Spirit Realm; they are immortal in the sense that their souls are reborn. However, they might never get the opportunity to return to their home realm."

"I see, so the process is more like reincarnating into another world?"

"Yes, the souls can travel freely, but not the physical body."

"Have there been cases of people returning?" asked Li Yun.

"Yes, some have returned to their original body," said the Queen Mother. "But those are the ones who died prematurely in the Spirit Realm and cycled back to Earth through reincarnation."

Li Yun scratched the back of his head, something didn't sound right. "You say that you have the ability to grant powers, but it sounds more like sentencing them to death."

"We are sending them on a mission to save the Earth."