The little deer only thrashed about in the water a few times before exhausting its strength, clearly unable to swim. Perhaps sensing the approach of death, it let out a piteous cry that wrung the hearts of those who heard it. In just a moment, the river water swallowed the plum-blossom deer's head, and it sank to the bottom, never to be seen again.
Seeing the plum-blossom deer fall into the water, Li Zhuo's initial astonishment gave way entirely to pity. Overcome by a sudden surge of compassion, he made to leap into the water to rescue the little deer.
Li Qiu grabbed the impulsive Li Zhuo by the collar and yanked him aside, his eyes fixed on the opposite bank as he frowned in deep bewilderment.
Li Zhuo protested, refusing to let the matter drop: "I'm a strong swimmer, it's fine! Big Brother, I'll go save it."
Li Qiu slowly turned his head, and Li Zhuo met a gaze that was both solemn and perplexed.
Looking at Li Zhuo with a vacant expression, Li Qiu muttered to himself, "Who among you has ever seen a deer willingly jump into a river? The opposite bank is so vast—when it burst out of the woods, it didn't flee upstream or downstream. That can only mean it encountered an enemy, and that enemy completely cut off all its routes of retreat."
With that, he closed his eyes, cutting off thought, sight, sound, and movement, gathering his qi into his dantian...
Li Zhuo, Wang Suo, Zheng Shude, and the others instantly understood the gravity of the situation. If things were as Li Qiu said, it meant that the number of enemies capable of cutting off all retreats across such a wide riverbank must be immense.
Li Qiu abruptly snapped his eyes open, making no attempt to conceal the shock in his gaze.
Regaining his composure in a single breath, Li Qiu said to the others, "This is bad. I finally understand why we could never find whatever was tracking us."
No sooner had the words left his mouth than the four of them heard a long, piercing howl from across the river. The cry soared into the sky like a coiling dragon, sending the birds in the woods into a frantic flight that blotted out the sun within moments. The slightly reddish sky darkened instantly, as if the end of the world had arrived.
None of them had ever witnessed such a shocking spectacle! Aside from Li Qiu, who kept his wits about him, the other three stood frozen, staring blankly at the sky with their jaws hanging open. Only Li Zhuo muttered, "Is this 'the falling clouds and the lone wild duck fly together, the autumn water and the long sky are of one hue'? Truly staggering."
"It's wolves..." Wang Suo said, his face drained of all color, utterly pale.
As he spoke, the howling abruptly stopped. While the four of them wondered why the cry had started and ended so suddenly, grey wolves came bounding out of the opposite woods in a ceaseless stream. Yipping and howling as they ran, they filled over half of the wide riverbank opposite, and it took a full quarter of an hour for the flood to cease. From this side of the river, the four of them made a rough count—there were over three hundred!
At this point, Li Qiu didn't need to explain anything; Li Zhuo and the others finally understood why no matter how much they expanded their search radius, they could never find the hidden enemy, nor shake the lingering sensation of being watched...
The reason was truly simple—so simple that it left all four of them simultaneously wanting to laugh and cry.
On the other side of the river, their opponents had been silently tracking them for five days, yet it had never once crossed their minds that the enemy was right across the water, while they foolishly searched upstream and downstream, climbing tall trees to keep watch...
They had fancied their precautions foolproof, but now, they had to admit they were still far too green.
The pack of grey wolves stirred, slowly parting from the center to clear a path. Orderly as a trained army, they moved with disciplined precision.
Suddenly, the grey wolves dropped uniformly to the ground, bowing low as if in worship.
From the cleared path emerged a cyan wolf as robust as a young calf. Its expression was haughty, yet it did not hold its head high, keeping its gaze lowered as it strode forward.
Behind it came another wolf. At the sight of this new arrival, the grey wolves pressed their bodies and heads even lower to the earth.
Realizing this must be the leader of the wolves, the four men looked on closely. It was a white wolf, ordinary in size, but with a hazy, unfocused gaze. Slung across its back was a fox—strikingly white as well. Flanking and trailing this white wolf were four cyan wolves, guarding it front, back, left, and right.
Recovering from his initial shock, Li Zhuo stared at the dense mass of grey wolves and clicked his tongue. "Good grief, have every last wolf in Tianzhu Mountain come out?"
Then, spotting the white wolf and the four cyan wolves in the center, he sighed, "I've never seen a wolf leader before, but I've finally laid eyes on one now. Truly imposing."
The White Wolf Leader raised its head and glanced across the river at Li Qiu and his companions, its eyes still hazy, before letting out a low growl. Hearing the rumble, the grey wolves rose to their feet. Fixing their gazes on the four men, their expressions grew gradually vicious as they bared their fangs and emitted a low, continuous snarl.
The chorus of growls sent a faint wave of pressure washing over Li Qiu and the others. Their hearts clenched, their minds seized by a sudden, overwhelming urge to flee.
Li Qiu was the first to snap out of it, a fire igniting in his chest. Today, he was finally laying eyes on the culprit behind his deviation into a cultivation barrier—truly, when sworn enemies meet, their eyes turn red with hatred. His teeth ground together audibly.
Seeing Li Zhuo and the others still standing there in a daze, Li Qiu let out a thunderous roar. Jolted by the shout, the others finally snapped back to their senses, each breaking out in a cold sweat as they realized they had felt as though they were under some kind of spell.
Knowing the White Wolf Leader's roar carried some strange sorcery, Li Qiu warned the others to be careful. *No wonder I couldn't sense these grey wolves—they were right across the river! How careless of me,* he thought. *Yet this pack came straight for us while remaining on the opposite bank; how on earth do they plan to cross such a wide river?*
Recovering from his daze and realizing he had fallen victim to some "evil arts," Li Zhuo felt a surge of intense anger. Seeing hundreds of wolves gathered across the water—formidable as their momentum was, they couldn't cross the river and posed no immediate threat—he snapped open his folding fan with a sharp *snap*, pointed it at the opposite bank, and cursed, "Listen up, you mangy wolf pups! Your granddaddy's name is Li Zhuo. You beasts couldn't beat us, so you resort to some crooked tricks—truly animals! If you've got any other tricks besides your sorcery, bring 'em out! Granddaddy's waiting right here. Hah, what's wrong? Lost your nerve? Can't even cross the river? Do you want me to teach you how to dog-paddle? Ha... ha... ha..."
Wang Suo and Zheng Shude had been terrified and shaken, but hearing Li Zhuo's cursing made them feel immensely gratified and a good deal more secure. After all, wolves couldn't swim. This stretch of river was dozens of yards wide, with the narrowest part still spanning ten yards. Let's see how the pack managed to cross that!
The White Wolf Leader kept its eyes hazy, staring at the slowly flowing river before it. At that moment, the white fox on its back let out a few squeaks, and upon hearing a low growl from the White Wolf Leader, a single grey wolf stepped out from the pack.
The grey wolf trotted along the riverbank until it reached the narrowest section of the river. Then, turning away from the bank, it trotted backward for about fifty paces before halting. Turning to face Li Qiu's side, it broke into a full sprint toward the water, moving with the speed of a gale. When it neared the edge, its hind legs pushed off with all their might, launching it into the air as it leaped across the river. But it cleared only five yards; after flailing its legs uselessly in mid-air for a moment, it plunged straight into the water, struggled twice, and sank beneath the surface...
Li Zhuo watched in utter bewilderment, completely failing to grasp what the wolves across the river were up to. Fortunately, he was easygoing by nature; when something defied his understanding, he simply let it go. Laughing heartily, he shouted, "Wolf pups, are you scared out of your wits? Kneel and kowtow a few loud ones to your granddaddy, and I'll teach you how to dog-paddle so you don't have to jump in and commit suicide!"
Li Qiu, however, sensed that things were far from normal. When the abnormal occurred, monsters were afoot. He was certain the wolf pack was executing some kind of plan, though he couldn't fathom what conspiracy lay behind the suicidal stunt of the wolf just now...
Leaving Li Qiu and his companions to their bewilderment, we turn to the opposite bank.
Watching the first grey wolf plunge into the water after clearing a mere five yards, the White Wolf Leader paced back and forth along that stretch of the riverbank before letting out another low growl.
At the sound, two grey wolves stepped out from the pack—one large, one small. Without hesitation, they trotted to the same spot, paced backward fifty paces, and then charged forward. One large, one small, running in tandem with the smaller in front and the larger behind, separated by about half a wolf's length, they poured on their speed and sprinted toward Li Qiu's side.
Reaching the edge of the riverbank, both wolves leaped simultaneously—it was an exact repetition of what had happened before, without the slightest difference.
As the two grey wolves crossed the five-yard mark in mid-air, their momentum waned and their bodies began to plummet. It looked as though both would plunge into the river and drown. But then, an astonishing sight unfolded.
The smaller wolf in front was sinking faster, while the larger one lagged slightly behind, creating a stacked vertical formation. At that exact moment, the larger wolf above extended its four paws downward, stepping squarely onto the back of the smaller wolf. With an instantaneous push and spring off its companion, it launched itself into the air once more.
This single bound cleared another five yards or so, the grey wolf's body tracing a fierce arc through the air.
Then, with a heavy splash, the larger wolf crashed into the water. However, the full ten-yard span had already been crossed; the spot where it landed was right at the water's edge, where the river was too shallow to drown it. Struggling for a moment, it hauled itself up from the river and let out a long, lingering howl toward the opposite bank: "Awooooo——"
Li Zhuo stood completely dumbstruck, paralyzed by astonishment.
Li Qiu had long since grasped the cause and effect: the White Wolf Leader had first sent a single grey wolf to test-jump and determine the maximum distance a wolf could clear, and then employed the method of 'Antelope Crossing a Ravine' to bridge the river and reach this side. A brilliant strategy indeed.
Yet even if this trick succeeded, the wolf pack would lose at least half its combat strength.
On the other hand, if the White Wolf Leader was willing to sacrifice half its pack just to cross the river and settle scores with him... heaven only knew when he had crossed such a monumental path with this beast, driving a pack of wolves to resort to self-mutilation simply to hunt him down.
Before Li Qiu and the others could react, the wolves across the river were already putting the method into practice. One grey wolf after another plunged into the river and drowned; one grey wolf after another crossed the water and reached the opposite bank.
In mere moments, the entire pack had crossed. Out of the three hundred-odd wolves, a hundred and fifty or sixty remained. The White Wolf Leader, the white fox, and the four cyan wolves had all crossed as well.
Surrounding the White Wolf Leader, the pack of wolves closed in to encircle Li Qiu and his three companions completely.
Pity poor Li Qiu, lamenting his bitter fate. How was it that just a moment ago they were facing the wolves across a safe barrier of water, and in the blink of an eye, they were forced into a desperate, last-ditch stand with their backs to the river?