Published: February 12, 2025
Ye Zhongming stopped, and Xia Bai stepped forward, standing beside him. Her wings extended behind her, lifting her about a meter off the ground.
Two ice birds circled above their heads, exuding a chill. The two of them, along with the two beasts, all looked ahead.
What was once merely a pile of ruins now had a majestic, snow-white giant wolf slowly ascending to its peak, looking down on the four lifeforms opposite them.
This mutated wolf was massive, standing over three meters tall, with sturdy limbs and hard black claws resting casually on the ruins, piercing through the thick layer of ice with ease.
Its tail was thick and swung behind it. If it weren't for the magic crystal on its forehead, aside from its gigantic size, one might mistake it for an unmutated tundra wolf.
However, that magic crystal made Ye Zhongming, the top individual in the national district, tense up, ready to defend at any moment.
The crystal was silver, harmonizing with its body color.
Ninth level!
A ninth-level mutated wolf!
Ye Zhongming recognized it; it had to be the ice field snow wolf king, ranked sixth on the mutated life rankings in the national district.
It had come to Black Dragon City!
It was easy to infer that the unusual happenings here were orchestrated by this snow wolf king.
Ye Zhongming quickly guessed the purpose of this mutated lifeform.
Given the snow wolf king's current level, it could indeed command the mutated lifeforms here to obey it. However, it likely had little interest in the evolvers present. While it could eat an eight-star evolver, it wouldn't be worth the effort for other ranks—it wouldn’t even be enough to satisfy its hunger.
But killing an eight-star evolver was no simple task. At this level, most evolvers lived in well-fortified camps, and generally surrounded by numerous guards. Even if it managed to kill one, the energy gained might not be sufficient to justify the effort. Moreover, human eight-star evolvers were all elite among elites, each having one or two life-saving tricks and means; even a ninth-level lifeform couldn’t guarantee to catch an eight-star evolver who desperately wanted to escape.
For ninth-level lifeforms, absorbing energy from the world and consuming special items was necessary for their continued evolution.
So generally speaking, ninth-level lifeforms had little interest in attacking human cities unless they were in dire need of energy.
In the previous life, several incidents of ninth-level lifeforms slaughtering cities occurred either because humans had angered them or they were injured and needed energy for recovery.
It was likely the same for these ninth-level lifeforms now.
But why was this snow wolf king mobilizing mutated lifeforms to attack the city? Or at least, why was it stirring up chaos in Black Dragon City? Its intent was not merely to eat one or two eight-star evolvers; it was likely interested in the energy source of the four dragon heads within the city walls.
As for whether it could eat an eight-star evolver, that was just an afterthought.
Ye Zhongming realized that he might just be a "dessert" that had accidentally wandered in.
The snow wolf king settled its massive body atop the ruins, its wolf eyes darting between Ye Zhongming, Xia Bai, and the pair of ice birds as if searching for its next target.
It made no move, and Ye Zhongming offered no response, leading to a brief standoff.
"Human, you are quite different," the snow wolf king suddenly crouched down, seemingly tired, and began to speak in human language.
Ye Zhongming was not surprised; one standard for ninth-level lifeforms was understanding human language. While not all ninth-level lifeforms had this ability, most could master it.
"You’re not panicking, nor are you begging for mercy," the wolf king continued.
Ye Zhongming smiled.
The human and wolf exchanged words, their gazes locked on each other, and it was easy to imagine that should an opportunity arise, they would strike without hesitation.
When the snow wolf king remarked that Ye Zhongming was different, was it mere politeness? No, the snow wolf king merely found Ye Zhongming difficult to deal with or perhaps thought that taking on four eight-level lifeforms together would be somewhat tricky.