The ravine ended not with a gradual slope, but with a sudden, jagged maw that spat us out onto a limestone ridge overlooking the Hei Tribe's rear lines.
I pulled on the reins of my Steel-Back Wolf King, bringing the beast to a silent halt. Behind me, 1,200 wolves froze in unison, their breathing suppressed by the weight of my soul pressure.
Below us lay the logistical heart of the enemy army.
It was a sprawling, organized collection of white yurts, arranged in a precise grid that spoke of the Hei Tribe's military discipline. A perimeter of sharpened wooden spikes, reinforced with Iron Vine Gu, ringed the encampment. Inside, the activity was deceptively peaceful.
I saw carts piled high with Black Iron Fodder—a specialized food for their war mounts and some gu. I saw crates glowing with the faint, rhythmic pulse of primeval stones, fuel for their Gu Masters. I saw triage tents where low-ranked healing Gu Masters waited with bored expressions, anticipating the wounded that had not yet arrived.
Guarding this crucial artery was a reserve unit of Fifty Hei Elites.
They were relaxed. Too relaxed. They leaned on their spears, passing wineskins back and forth, their eyes fixed on the distant columns of black smoke rising from the main battlefield five miles to the north. They were laughing, pointing at the carnage, confident that the war was a spectacle happening on a stage they weren't part of. They believed their front line was an impenetrable shield.
They didn't know the dagger was already pressed against their kidneys.
I poured Red Steel essence into my right eye"Activate Rank 2 Unlucky Gambling Eye Gu.". The physical world—the snow, the canvas tents, the wooden spikes—faded into a translucent sketch. In its place, the metaphysical landscape of Luck erupted into color.
The aura over the camp was tranquil. A steady, thick stream of red and green Light flowed through the tents, representing logistical stability and the smooth transfer of resources. It was the aura of a healthy, unthreatened organism.as it meathey had rank 2 gu masters stationed here.
But as I watched, the edge of that light began to curdle.
A massive, suffocating Black Cloud—the collective aura of my wolf pack—bled into their vision from the ridgeline. It moved like oil in water, staining their white luck with the grey streaks of impending ruin. The connection lines between the guards and their future snapped, replaced by the jagged symbols of sudden death.
"They are complacent," Yue Yin whispered, appearing beside me like a phantom. Her dagger was already in hand, the blade darkened to prevent reflection.
"They are arrogant," I corrected, my voice cold. "They have forgotten the anatomy of war. A body dies just as fast if you stab the kidneys as it does if you stab the heart. And we are the dagger stabbing it."
I raised my hand.
The Rank 2 Battle Disk Gu hummed in my chest, warm and vibrating. A spectral, wire-frame map projected into my mind's eye, overlaying the real world. I marked the targets with mental tags.
"Wind Wolves. Elevation 30 degrees. Target the soft structures—yurts and flesh."
"Steel-Backs. Wedge Formation. Target the main gate. You are the hammer."
"Lightning Wolves. Flank left. Wait for the panic. Cut off the retreat."
I felt the intent settle over the pack. The wolves tensed, their muscles coiling like springs.
I dropped my hand.
"Execute."
The Ambush
Whoosh. Whoosh. Whoosh.
The sound was not like arrows. It was like the tearing of a giant silk sheet, a high-pitched hiss that set teeth on edge.
Three hundred beast king Wind Wolves using their wild gu wind blade, positioned on the high jagged ridges, unleashed a synchronized volley.
Hundreds of translucent, crescent-shaped Wind Blades rained down on the unsuspecting camp. They were invisible against the grey sky until they struck.
Riiiip.
The result was catastrophic.
The Hei guards didn't even have time to channel their essence. The wind blades sheared through the heavy canvas of the yurts as if it were paper. Tent poles shattered. The leather armor of the sentries offered no resistance; I watched men split in half mid-laugh, their upper bodies sliding off their lower bodies before they even registered the pain.
Crates of fodder detonated, sending shards of wood and compressed grass flying like shrapnel.
"Ambush! REAR AMBUSH!"
The scream finally tore through the camp, a shrill cry of terror that shattered the calm. But it was immediately swallowed by a deeper, darker sound.
The thunder of paws.
I rode my Steel-Back Wolf King down the slope, the Thousand Beast King Cloak snapping behind me like black wings. Behind me, the heavy infantry of the pack surged forward, a landslide of grey fur and iron skin.
"Crush them!"
The Steel-Backs slammed into the confused defenders.
The wooden barricade, meant to stop human infantry, splintered under the impact of the Beast Kings. It wasn't a battle; it was a kinetic event. Wolves weighing four hundred pounds, with backs as hard as steel, hit men weighing two hundred pounds.
Bones snapped. Bodies were trampled into the bloody mud.
The surviving Hei Elites scrambled backward, trying to form a defensive line amidst the ruins of their camp. They were elites for a reason; their discipline held for a fraction of a second.
"Form up! Protect the supplies!"
A Rank 2 Hei Captain stepped forward. He was a burly man with a scar across his eye, his face twisted in a mask of shock and rage. He raised his hands, and a ball of orange flame erupted in his palms.
Rank 2 Fire Pellet Gu.
"Hold the line! It's just beasts! Burn them!"
He launched a volley of fireballs at the lead wolves. The heat washed over the battlefield, singing the fur of the front rank.
"Water Shells, rotate," I commanded mentally, my face impassive.
The formation shifted instantly. It was fluid, unnatural.
My Water Shell Wolf hundred beast King leaped over the heads of the Steel-Backs, landing squarely in the path of the fire. It activated the rank 2 water shell wild gu on him Its carapace glowed with a brilliant blue light, generating a spherical hydro-barrier.
Hiss.
The fireballs slammed into the water shield and evaporated instantly, turning into a cloud of harmless white steam.
The Hei Captain froze, his eyes widening. He had expected mindless beasts that feared fire. He was looking at a tactical counter.
"A mixed pack?" he stammered, backing away. "Controlled this well?"
"Too slow," I whispered.
From the swirling smoke on his left, a blur of motion appeared.
A Lightning Frenzy Wolf materialized from the flank. It didn't growl. It didn't bite. It simply discharged.using the rank 1 Lightning electric charge gu
Zap.
A blue arc of high-voltage electricity leaped from the wolf's fur and slammed into the Captain's chest armor. The metal conducted the charge instantly.
The Captain seized up, his muscles locking in a rictus of paralysis. The second Fire Pellet in his hand fizzled out.
Before he could recover, before he could even scream, my Steel-Back Wolf King was upon him.
It lunged, jaws gaping.
Crunch.
The bite snapped his neck with a wet, final sound. The Captain went limp, dropping to the snow like a puppet with cut strings.
I rode past his falling body, projecting my voice with a rank one wolf howl Sound Path Gu i obtained from a wolf while enslaving it to ensure every surviving enemy heard me.
"The Captain is dead!" My voice echoed off the canyon walls, cold and absolute. "Surrender and die quickly! Resist and die slowly! The choice is yours!"
The morale of the Hei Elites, already fractured by the ambush, shattered completely. They looked at their dead leader, then at the circle of growling wolves closing in.
They dropped their spears.
It wasn't a battle anymore. It was a cleanup operation.
"Burn it all," I ordered, turning my wolf away from the carnage. "The supplies. The tents. The food. I want a fire big enough for the main army to see from five miles away."
I watched as my wolves knocked over the braziers, setting the fodder alight. The large number of Primeval Stones were looted, tossed into Yue Yin's storage Gu. Everything else—every scrap of food, every spare uniform—was fed to the flames.
Thick, oily black smoke began to spiral up into the grey sky, a beacon of disaster.
"This is not just destruction," I murmured to myself, watching the inferno reflect in my golden eyes. "This is an invitation."
I tapped the Battle Disk, zooming out the spectral map to check the main battlefield.
"The patient is bleeding out," I diagnosed. "Now, we wait for the immune response."
I looked toward the horizon, where the roar of the distant battle still rumbled.
"Come to me, Hei Ziyu."
A battle of the geniuses of two tribes was on the way