C956 Cang Lang Howls
"What did you see?" Mo Baichuan whispered, his voice low.
"The initial form of the primordial spirit's condensation," Feng Pu replied, shaking his head vigorously as if to obliterate a persistent thought. "It must be an illusion! The Soulforge Matrix's wall enveloped him, the Soulforge Pool amplified his Lunar Spirit, and it shattered my Eye of Terra, planting an unreal notion in my mind."
Mo Baichuan was visibly startled.
Awooo!
A desolate wolf's howl pierced the stillness of the night, echoing for thousands of miles. Every cultivator within the realms of the Crimson Sun Empire and the Silvermoon Empire, all steadfast in their practices, heard the cry. The sound caused a subtle ache in their ears, and they could discern the fierceness and piercing quality of the howl.
Beneath the night sky, devoid of stars, only a bright crescent moon hung aloft. Below the gleaming moon, a colossal silver-gray wolf bellowed at the luminous crescent. Rings of silver light, like ripples on a lake's surface, spread outward in every direction. The ripples shimmered with specks of silver light, each carrying different essences: sanctity, destruction, bloodlust, and more.
Amidst its howling, the Grey Wolf King revealed a mace, forged from its own teeth, hidden within the thick fur of its neck. It transformed into a bolt of silver lightning, striking the wall. The mace expanded boundlessly, swallowing all the silver light emanating from the wolf in an instant. The brilliance of the mace's silver glow was so intense that it was blinding.
The crescent moon's radiance was absorbed by the mace, causing it to dim and nearly vanish from the night sky.
With a thunderous impact, the mace, larger than the mountains of the Silvermoon Empire, crashed into the Soulforge Matrix's wall. A vast section of the wall, spanning over ten acres, was breached as if the world itself was fracturing.
Awooo!
As the Grey Wolf King let out another howl, the enormous mace plummeted into the forbidden area, gouging out a massive crater. At last, the scene within the forbidden area was laid bare for those outside to glimpse.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
A bolt of silver-gray lightning and a multitude of figures seized the opportunity, darting through the breach. As more individuals from the Devil Palace, Shadow's Keep, Ruby Hand, and Skyblight Cult sought to delve deeper, the opening carved by the mace was quickly filled with swirling black magic power.
On the other side of the barrier, Yu Yuan's true form settled upon the Crucible of Evil, casting a faint smile towards the outside.
"Something's not right!"
The Peacock Queen's delicate brows knit together in concern. With a shudder, a myriad of iridescent feathers returned from the barrier's surface to fan out behind her. "Cao Jiaze's seven Marks of the Celestials couldn't even breach the barrier. The Grey Wolf King broke through far too easily. I suspect..."
"Do you suspect, like with Tang Zheng, that he was deliberately allowed inside?" The Golden Elephant God's expression darkened.
Their exchange sent waves of alarm through the cultivators of the Devil Palace and Shadow's Keep.
Regrettably, the barrier had resumed its initial appearance, obscuring their view of the events within. They could only observe Yu Yuan, who stood at the heart of the barrier, wielding the Crucible of Evil.
At the forefront of the Dragon Slaying Stage, within the internal realm.
The Grey Wolf King, a ninth-level archdemon, had just stepped into the forbidden area and transformed into a tall man with shoulder-length silver-gray hair and a slightly elongated face.
The Grey Wolf King exuded a wild and untamed air, his matching silver eyes intense and piercing.
His massive mace, forged from his own sharp teeth, lay in a crater ahead, shimmering with a silver-white metallic sheen.
Above the mace, a stone statue with two faces yet indistinct features hovered in the sky.
The Grey Wolf King's slender fingers, tipped with nails sharp as silver knives, touched his brow as his cold, moon-like eyes stared intently at the statue, his expression turning increasingly somber.
"It's this accursed thing..."
He alone understood that when he struck the Soulforge Matrix, his bloodline felt as though it had been influenced by some external evil energy, causing him to spiral into confusion for a time. He was lost in a sea of greedy illusions, lured by the beckoning moons.
His bloodline, his Ash Wolf Demon Body, had long thrived on the essence of moonlight, with many of his innate abilities and mystiques linked to the moon.
The abundant moon energy within each moon was irresistible, compelling him to consume and assimilate it.
And then, in a daze, he had shot like a silver-gray bolt of lightning into the breach created by his mace.
Watching him enter, other archdemons from Shadow's Keep, along with a few impetuous souls, followed suit.
"Grey Wolf King, I feel like you've duped me!"
Dusk Raven, gaunt as ever, realized something was amiss the moment he saw Grey Wolf King in human form. Without missing a beat, he launched into a tirade, "Damn it, you decide to kick the bucket without a word, dragging us all down with you!"
Besides Dusk Raven, there were two eighth-level archdemons from Shadow's Keep and four Solar Spirit cultivators from the Devil Palace.
The enigmatic Dark Herald was also there, piloting the Silver Rainbow Shuttle straight through the breach.
After Dusk Raven finished his rant, noticing that Grey Wolf King offered no comeback, he followed his gaze into the distance.
He immediately spotted Tang Zheng's Divine Visage, once as formidable as a Flame Deity, now shattered by the combined assault of Quero from the Silverscale Tribe and Adler.
The patchwork demonform armor of Adler and Quero's silver scales continued to ravage the eight pillars of flame that Tang Zheng had painstakingly refined.
Tang Zheng had forged these pillars from the volcanoes within the fiery realms of the extraterrestrial Domain.
These pillars could become his eight avatars or be arrayed into a grand fire formation, maximizing the potency of his Solar Flame Mantra.
But now, his Divine Visage lay fractured, the pillars of flame he'd nurtured over a millennium broken and strewn about.
One could only imagine the severity of Mr. Tang's injuries.
Dusk Raven, initially keen to keep up his curses, fell silent upon seeing Tang Zheng's dire state. His eyes darted about, searching for a way to alleviate the situation, even if only temporarily.
"Yu, Yu Yuan!"
Yu Yuan, within the dark green wall, turned with a sly grin to face him.
"Yu, for your sake, the three upper sects and Zhu Zhenlin from the Devil Palace have all agreed. Just open the wall, and we'll let bygones be bygones!" Dusk Raven blustered, "Shadow's Keep has always treated you right! Grey Wolf King, myself, and these guys!"
He gestured to the other two archdemons from Shadow's Keep, "Don't bite the hand that feeds you!"
"Dusk Raven!"
The Grey Wolf King's roar, laced with fury, cut through the air, his silver eyes ablaze with savagery and a lust for slaughter. "You little fool, I admit I've been careless and not cautious enough! But now that I'm here, I fear nothing! I'm eager to see if those ninth-level experts of the Otherkin are even worthy of trying to kill me!"
"You should have died long ago," Yu Yuan stated somberly.
No sooner had his words settled than figures from various factions converged on the scene. Beru of the Starborn, Mia of the Shadowkin, Sansom of the enchantresses, and the Ghost King Tian Zang, each accompanied by their eighth-level warriors, hastened to join the fray upon hearing the news.
"Grey Wolf King!"
"This vile and brutal beast deserves death in both the Extraterrestrial Star River and the Everlands!"
It wasn't just the Otherkin's champions who held this sentiment; Shi Yuxuan of the Sacred Hands and Qi Yunhong, who had defected from the Thunder Sect, shared a gleeful look at the prospect.
The Shadow's Keep's infamy for wickedness was well-known.
The Grey Wolf King's origins lay in the Godsblight Marsh, where he flouted the rules and was subsequently banished.
He then roamed the mountains and lakes of Aetherius, leaving a trail of devastation in his wake. Countless women, families, and weaker cultivators fell victim to his merciless rampages.
The Shadow's Keep had specifically tasked Green Willow with his execution.
Yet, despite being grievously wounded by Green Willow on three occasions, he managed to escape each time. Ironically, this led to his recruitment into the Shadow's Keep as one of its generals.
The Shadow's Keep then aided him in breaking through his bloodline constraints and frequently sent him on covert missions to hunt down archdemons that emerged from the Godsblight Marsh.
It seemed the Shadow's Keep sought to provoke the Untamed through his actions.
Throughout this time, the Grey Wolf King's malevolence remained unchanged, as he continued his indiscriminate slaughter across Aetherius.
His acceptance into the Shadow's Keep meant that cultivators from the various empires dared not oppose them, turning a blind eye to his atrocities.
In his past life as the God of Medicine, Hong Qi, Yu Yuan had had his own unpleasant encounters with this grey menace.
Now, with a kill order in his heart, he wished for Tang Zheng to meet his end first in the Land of Quiescence. As for the Grey Wolf King, Yu Yuan hoped he would be the first to fall.
...
