Walking in the cycle of reincarnation

Chapter 48: Warmth

Seeing the fox-man fall to the ground, twitching a few times before becoming still, Zhang Nanfeng finally relaxed his tense limbs.

He had already decided that if the poisonous wind failed to kill him, he would immediately get up and pursue it again to eliminate it completely. Fortunately, the fox-man did not give him that chance.

That last bite was one of the few remaining transformations among the myriad poisons, called "Marrow Invasion".

This poison will slowly seep into the bone marrow, causing the victim to die a slow death.

However, Zhang Nanfeng used an extremely large amount.

......

Wanyan Yue remained seated in the snow, her hands gripping the short dagger tightly.

She remained silent, incredulously shifting between the two corpses.

The former had his eye socket ripped open by her own hand and died on the spot. The latter died mysteriously from vomiting blood. The two corpses lay across the snowfield, bloodstains spreading and turning the surrounding snow dark red.

Zhang Nanfeng lay hidden behind the rock, his wolf-like eyes narrowed, seeing everything clearly.

The gold thread tied to the girl's back, which had faded to gray due to the impending death, slowly turned back to its gilded color as the killing intent dissipated, and even became brighter than before, like a burning gold thread.

Zhang Nanfeng slowly raised his forelimbs and shook off the snowflakes covering his white fur.

He was determined to show himself.

He wanted to walk up to the girl and see for himself what changes the golden thread would undergo after he appeared.

Wanyan Yue sat upright beside the pool of blood, still shaken.

She finally shifted her gaze from the corpse, slowly turned her head, and looked towards the direction of the Tuotuo tribe in the distance.

There, the wind and snow were like a curtain, the world was one color, and nothing could be seen. But in her eyes, there was an unyielding darkness, as if some obsession, some past, had sunk into that vastness.

A tear slid down her cheek, but before it could freeze, it was swept away by the cold wind.

Behind me, I suddenly heard the soft sound of footsteps on the snow.

Wanyan Yue's mind suddenly sharpened, and her whole body tensed up again.

She clenched her fists, gripped the short dagger tightly, whirled around, and turned her head sharply, simultaneously raising her sleeve to wipe away the wetness from the corner of her eyes.

From behind the rocks, where the wind and snow swirled, a figure slowly emerged.

It is a white wolf.

It is pure white, without a single blemish, like a clump of fresh snow walking by, or a piece of ice crystal cut from the heavens.

A golden line ran down its back, piercing through its neck and cascading to the tip of its tail. It shimmered and flowed in the dim light of the sky, adding a touch of nobility to the otherwise desolate northern plains.

Most striking were those wolf eyes, deep and unfathomable, with two points of divine light hidden within. At first glance, they did not resemble the eyes of a beast, but rather those of an old immortal cloaked in wolf's skin, looking down upon the human world from the ancient, cold night.

Wanyan Yue was utterly shocked.

She opened her mouth, and a single word trembled from her throat:

"white......"

Before he could finish speaking, he fell straight forward like a kite with a broken string, and collapsed unconscious in the snow.

Zhang Nanfeng stood there, stunned.

He looked down at his claws, then turned to look at the golden threads on his back that were faintly visible in the snow, his heart filled with confusion.

He believed that his appearance was so extraordinary, with his body entirely white and gold lines running through his back, that it was clearly an auspicious sign, so how could it frighten people into fainting?

But then I looked at the girl's deathly pale face.

His lips were covered in scabs, his eyes were dark and swollen, and the wounds from the wooden shackles on his wrists were still bleeding. He looked utterly lifeless, as if all his energy had been drained away.

He got it.

It turns out she didn't faint from fright, but from sheer exhaustion.

Without further hesitation, Zhang Nanfeng strode closer. He circled the unconscious girl, his nose twitching as he sniffed her thoroughly from head to toe.

He tried to find something strange about this girl, something that could lead to that unfathomable thread of gilded destiny.

But after a closer look and sniffing, he was left with nothing but disappointment.

The girl before him was nothing but miserable.

There was no fragrance, no radiance, no supernatural power or energy within him, and not even a trace of the aura a martial artist should possess.

She was just an ordinary girl from the Northern Plains, fallen into such a state of destitution and wretchedness.

As he pondered, the girl's lips turned purplish-blue, and her breathing weakened. The golden thread tied to her back began to fade slowly, as if it might disappear at any moment.

Zhang Nanfeng was startled.

He used all his supernatural powers to pull this girl back from the brink of death; how could he let her freeze to death in this icy wasteland?

Zhang Nanfeng immediately turned and rushed to the side of the pig-man's corpse. He opened his mouth, grabbed the sheepskin coat on the pig-man's body, and used his claws and teeth to roughly tear it off.

As he peeled, he cursed inwardly.

That beast is fucking disgusting.

The stench of mutton, the sourness of sweat, and that foul, half-human, half-beast odor mingled together, almost making him vomit up the rabbit meat he had just swallowed.

But the situation is urgent, and there's no time to worry about anything else.

Zhang Nanfeng, carrying the smelly fur coat in his mouth, quickly ran back to the young woman's side and wrapped her up completely, head to toe.

The moment Wanyan Yue was wrapped up, her brows furrowed, her nose twitched, and she let out a very soft murmur in her sleep.

She seemed disgusted by the pig's stench, or perhaps she was freezing and suddenly felt a bit of warmth, so she instinctively shrank further into her fur coat.

The wind and snow suddenly intensified.

Large snowflakes were scattered all over the sky, and the north wind howled like a beast across the snowfield.

Zhang Nanfeng looked up at the sky, knowing he couldn't delay any longer. If the pursuers caught up with them, or if the girl froze to death in the snow, all his previous rescue efforts would be in vain.

He bent down, grabbed a corner of the fur coat, and dragged Wanyan Yue up, coat and all, before turning and speeding toward the depths of the mountain ridge.

To be on the safe side, Zhang Nanfeng did not take her back to his gourd-shaped cave dwelling. Instead, he went around to the other side of the ridge and dragged her to a shallow cave that he had discovered by chance earlier.

The cave wasn't deep, but it was well hidden. The entrance was concealed by weathered rocks and withered pines, and it was only two or three miles away, making it a perfect place to take refuge.

Dragging along, Wanyan Yue was jostled inside her fur coat, but remained unconscious.

By the time they entered the cave, it was completely dark.

Zhang Nanfeng dragged her to the deepest part of the cave, to a sheltered hollow, before she finally let go.

He turned to leave the cave, covering the entrance with snow and dry branches to block the cold air from flowing in.

Just then, Wanyan Yue suddenly murmured.

Her eyes remained closed, her face as white as paper, her lips moved slightly, her voice soft, yet echoing faintly within the cave:

"Father..."

"I will avenge you... I will kill them all... I will slaughter the entire Toqto'a tribe... leaving not a single one alive..."

Zhang Nanfeng paused.

He didn't understand what the girl was saying. To him, Kitahara's words were nothing but chaotic syllables.

But from that initially low and hoarse tone, which gradually turned into a gnashing of teeth, he heard something exactly like the one Meng Jinchuan used in his previous life when he held a knife and stabbed him in the back one stab after another in the rainy night.

That was hatred.

It is a hatred that would rather be shattered to pieces than let the enemy's flesh and blood be torn from their throat.

Zhang Nanfeng remained silent for a moment, composed himself, and turned to go and seal the cave entrance.