YM778.TV Chapter 27 – The Moment Between Life and Death (2)
Qinghan murmured with a muffled voice, as he was on high alert, while jumping among the trees.
-Whoosh! Whoosh! -
Suddenly, several fire red shadows appeared nearby. As he saw them, Qinghan quickly leaned against a thick branch, holding his breath. He didn’t make any movements, until the wolves had all ran far past him him. Letting out a sigh of relieve, Qinghan realized that cold perspiration was spilling on the surface of his forehead.
Turning around, it seemed that a fight was imminent. Roars and howls erupted in an endless stream.
“Damn it! Again?”
Qinghan hurriedly lay prostrate to avoid the attention of the approaching fire wolves. As soon as the fire wolves had passed, he began to twist his body carefully and jumped to another tree.
On his way, Qinghan moved stealthily at the speed of ten kilometers per hour. However, the further he went, the more fire wolves he encountered. Plus, the infuriated roaring became even fiercer, while the loud thuds of falling trees as well as the heavy footsteps of the giant thorn dragon were also becoming more and more frequent.
“Great! They’re finally fighting with each other! Wait… Why do I have the feeling that that bastard dragon is still closely following me?” Occasionally, Qinghan would look over his shoulders to observe what was happening to the dragon and the wolves. Right now, he was confident that the fight was actually going on, as the green smoke, which represented the remnant of the fireballs spit by the fire wolves, was rising in great amounts. Nevertheless… Why were the booming footsteps getting closer and closer?
“Does it mean that the fire wolves failed to besiege the dragon?”
Qinghan couldn’t imagine what would happen to him, if his hypothesis was correct. As far as safety was concerned, he had to speed up and run away as fast as possible. Of course, he had to do this quietly and make sure that he wouldn’t be spotted by the fire wolves.
In the rear part of Fire Wolf Hill, as Qinghan had predicted, the giant horn dragon escaped from the attacks from the roughly thirty fire wolves, which attempted to block the dragon from entering their territory. As a tyrant within the territory of the inside region of the mountain range, the giant horn dragon was overbearing, who couldn’t be bothered about some fire wolves at all.
Doubts slowly emerged in its giant head, as the dragon sniffed hysterically to find the smell of Little Black, yet he failed. Since it had no idea where Little Black had gone, he was determined to tear up Qinghan instead, to vent its disappointment.
The arrogance of the giant thorn dragon led to an outbreak of fury among the fire wolves, who also had a superiority complex. The dragon ignored the warnings released by the fire wolves at the beginning, therefore, it received an overwhelming amount of fireballs from the fire wolves.
However, despite the countless number of fireballs flying towards it, the dragon didn’t even try the slightest to dodge them. After all, the giant green scales on its back served as a protective armor.
- Boom! Boom! -
The fireballs kept ceaselessly shooting in the direction of the giant thorn dragon and they fell, one after the other, on its green-scaled back. Little sparks of flames scattered everywhere until only green smoke was left, which was the result of the remnants of the fireballs colliding with the damp weeds on the ground.
“Grr…”
Actually, the fireballs didn’t pose much of a threat to the giant thorn dragon, except for the fact that its green scales had turned ashen black. Now, fully provoked by the fire wolves, the dragon went on a rampage and decided to teach these fire wolves a good lesson. By raising its head upward, it howled even more wildly, as its eyes were sparkling with a ferocious red glow.
Soon afterwards, three nearby fire wolves were instantly thrown away by the dragon’s thorny tail, while two others were flattened under the pressure of its front claws. Given the formidable power of the dragon, the fire wolves fled in all directions. However, the giant thorn dragon didn’t show any sign of chasing after them, as it was fully focussed on following in the direction of Qinghan.
The corpses of the fire wolves scattered around the hill and some of them were still oozing blood from their wounds. Despite all the disadvantages of the current situation, the fire wolves wandered around, howling toward the sky to call for their fellow fire wolves as well as their leader to join the battle. Occasionally, they would even shoot out one or two fireballs towards the dragon.
……
“Your Majesty, we’d better stop here!”
On the other side of the Fire Wolf Hill, Niu Jin spoke with a trembling voice, as he heard the ongoing howls of the fire wolves.
“I just want to have one thing confirmed. Is our target on this hill?” Xue Yi replied indifferently.
“Yes, the target is still on the hill, but… There is something terrible going on there…” Niu Jin answered in an unstable tone, as he was looking panic-stricken. As a regular Wild City dweller, he had entered into the mountain range many times, yet he had never been frightened like this. His instincts told him, that Fire Wolf Hill must be an exceptionally perilous place.
“You, stop here! we’ll continue!” Xue Yi ordered Niu Yi, as he seemed absolutely confident.
The five figures soon disappeared into the forest. For them, even if the Fire Wolf Hill was a place riddled with pointed swords, or covered in burning flames, they would still have the courage to trudge into that area, no matter what…
……
- Boom! Boom! -
The giant thorn dragon roared with an even louder voice, showing no sign of exhaustion. Its feet stomped on the ground with loud thuds, creating one small earthquake after the other. At the same time, Qinghan rubbed away the sweat on his forehead, and licked his almost dehydrated lips. Yet, he undauntedly kept on jumping through the trees, hoping to get rid of the dragon.
“Owooooo!”
Not far away, an ear-piercing wolf sound emerged from the hill, after which the rest of the wolves followed.
“The King of the Fire Wolves!”
Qinghan bounced to a tall tree, and curled himself in a position where only his pair of eyes could be found. He chuckled to himself, when he recognized that extraordinary howl.
Within the next few minutes, a bunch of red fire wolves dashed out from the inner part of the hill. Among them, a large-sized wolf with extraordinary speed distinguished itself from the rest. Qinghan only saw a big streak of red color pass beneath him, before it had quickly vanished.
“Owooo! Owooo!”
The number of fire wolves had almost tripled from the previous thirty. The sound of their successive howls as well as the thuds of falling trees echoed in the air.
“Now or never, I have to run away immediately!”
Noticing that almost all the fire wolves were running towards the dragon, Qinghan jumped off the tree. And without any hesitation, he spurted to the other side of the hill, at the speed of a lion.
- Whir! Whir! -
Qinghan had ran a thousand meters within the time of a single breath. Turning backwards, he happily found that he was far away from the battle scene. This was really the moment between life and death! If Little Black had changed back to its original shape earlier, or if the King of Fire Wolf Hill hadn’t appeared, then he would’ve probably been long eaten as a snack by the dragon…
Although his heart was still fluttering with fear, Qinghan was excited at the same time. Perhaps, in his body, he might have inherited the adventurous cells from his father after all.
Suddenly, he noticed five men in the near distance!
“Huntsmen?”
“Fuck! It really isn’t my lucky day. I just got rid of that damn dragon and now I’m falling into the hands of some huntsmen...”
Qinghan stepped backwards, as he was racking his brain to think out an escape strategy.
“Hey, bros, run, please run! The fire wolves are in a battle now…” Qinghan screamed out with a fretful expression.
However, these five men were unbelievably calm, despite the fact that Qinghan had warned them of the dangers ahead.
“They don’t fear the fire wolves? Oh… I have to change my plan...” Qinghan thought to himself, before he took his bag off from his shoulders, and threw it on the ground.
“B… Brothers, all my belongings are here. Please let me go.” Qinghan stammered.
However, to his great surprise, the five men didn’t behave like huntsmen at all. They didn’t pick up his bag, but rather, took out a piece of paper and carefully compared the portrait with him.
“Capture him!”
The five men were the subordinates of young lord Xue Wuhen. After Xue Yi had announced his instructions, the other four quickly formed a fan-shaped formation, in order to prevent Qinghan from running away.
“Shit! They purposefully came for me, but I didn’t offend anyone in Wild City. What shall I do now? It seems, all five of them are in higher realms of cultivation... I’m doomed! Fuck it! Let’s die together!” Observing the chill in the eyes of the five men, Qinghan was suddenly determined to return to the fierce battle between the fire wolves and the giant thorn dragon.