It was fine as long as it just looked difficult—or rather, extremely difficult for a human.
After Ghost shifted into her wolf form and leaped up, her body's innate instincts activated spontaneously, allowing her to master the art of rock climbing with effortless ease.
She was getting cocky! She was one smart wolf!!
Ghost bounded right behind the giant wolf up the snowy mountain cliffs. Everywhere she looked was a world of pristine white snow, with mist swirling lazily around the summit.
Looking back, the path they had come from resembled a green oil painting of varying shades. A cluster of tiny black dots crawled slowly across a vast, light-green plain...
The sharp, clear cry of an eagle pierced the sky, echoing endlessly through the mountains. Under the brush of nature, everything before her pulsed with infinite vitality.
How vast this world truly was!
Climbing mountains was thrilling for a moment, and climbing them endlessly kept the thrill alive... The only problem was that the thrill was inevitably followed by a sore back and aching waist.
Whether it was because she had transmigrated into a new body, by the time they reached their destination—a cave near the peak of the snowy mountain—Ghost felt as though her four legs no longer belonged to her.
All she wanted to do was play dead...
Seeing Ghost swaying on her feet, about to collapse like a lazy dog, the giant wolf circled around behind her, opened its jaw filled with sharp teeth, and feigned a bite.
Ghost darted forward like lightning, tightly tucking her tail against her hind legs.
"We're almost there," the giant wolf said, speaking human words.
The entrance to the cave was hidden beneath a tilted, overhanging boulder, easily overlooked if one wasn't looking carefully.
The terrain sloped downward all the way. The cave walls were coated with a layer of transparent ice of indeterminate thickness, while the ceiling was studded with crystal-clear icicles of all shapes and sizes.
The sharp tips of the ice could practically serve as lethal weapons, densely clustered right above their heads.
In the silent, hollow cavern, only the sound of dripping water echoed.
The further down they went, the higher the temperature rose. However, the path grew increasingly narrow and rugged. The cave contained numerous forks—gloomy and deep—whose destinations were entirely unknown.
Faintly, Ghost heard the screams and pleas of human beings.
The space suddenly opened up, and she saw a pool of steaming crimson spring water.
At the edge of the pool knelt two battered humans covered in blood, looking like wild savages.
They didn't dare make a single movement because not far away lay two other massive wolves of comparable size.
One of the men had his ear torn off. The blood had long since congealed, leaving only a horrific wound and a tiny remnant of ear cartilage, while intermittent weeping escaped his lips.
The other man was in even worse shape: his entire right arm had been ripped off at the wrist, and his face was as pale as paper. He stared fixedly at the giant wolf to his right, his eyes brimming with venomous hatred...
Beneath them, small trickles of blood slowly seeped into the spring water, dissolving into wisps of red threads.
The massive black wolf waded through the crimson spring water with a splashing sound. In the center of the pool sat a raised natural rock platform. He flopped straight onto it and comfortably rolled around.
Ghost's head was full of question marks, completely failing to make sense of the current situation.
The yellowish-white giant wolf walked over and affectionately licked the Black Wolf's face and neck. Their foreheads pressed together, looking as intimate as human lovers.
This must be the Black Wolf's mate, which meant this transforming wolf-man should be the alpha of the pack.
The massive black wolf suddenly spoke in human language, his deep voice carrying:
"White, these two filthy humans are yours."
"Rip them to shreds."
The two savages had not yet recovered from the shock of hearing a wolf speak, and upon hearing those words, they began to wail and beg for mercy frantically.
Ghost was dumbfounded. For a moment, she suspected she had misheard. "Why? I won't do it, they're so filthy..."
As soon as the words left her mouth, they didn't come out as a howl at all, but rather as a crisp, clear, adorable young girl's voice!!
That little voice sounded so pretty she could die!! But why could she suddenly speak? Could it be because of this strange cave?
"Solve your own grudges yourself; that is the rule of the Great Snow Mountain."
Perhaps Ghost's words had offered a glimmer of hope. The two savages wept and shouted again, tears and snot streaming down their faces, mingling with the black mud and blood on their bodies...
Their frantic appearance terrified Ghost, causing her to retreat step after step.
They were just too filthy!! She refused to let them taint her pure, beautiful white fur.
A soft female voice sounded: "White is still young and needs more tempering."
"Perhaps it is time to let her leave the pack. Your sister ought not to be so cowardly."
The Black Wolf remained silent, deep in thought.
The gentle female wolf nuzzled her mate, stood up, and slowly opened her blood-red jaws...
Ghost saw bloody red shreds of meat still caught between her sharp teeth. She violently averted her gaze, not daring to look any longer.
Accompanied by two shrill screams, hot blood splattered all over her head and face.
The heads went rolling off to the side with a series of dull thuds...
She had never known that a human could spray such a massive volume of blood, completely dyeing her snow-white fur a bloody crimson.
Her entire field of vision was thoroughly swallowed by a sea of red...
All sounds gradually faded and vanished from her ears, leaving absolute silence... She heard only a final parting farewell.
"White, farewell."
The wolf pack followed the Black Wolf couple and left one after another...
Ghost stood like a wooden statue, having no idea how long she had sat beside the spring. When she finally came to her senses, she discovered that the bloodstains on her body had been thoroughly soaked clean.
The temperature of the pool water was wonderfully comfortable... Had she not been reminded by a burning hunger in her stomach, she would have loved to just soak there and never get out.
This was Black Wolf's territory; she needed to leave quickly.
A lone wolf driven out of the pack would be killed by the Wolf King or the Wolf Queen if it didn't leave.
The two human corpses and heads were long gone, and bloody drag marks were visible on the ground. Food was hard to come by in the Great Snow Mountain, so one could easily guess what had become of the corpses...
Even if they could turn into humans, at their core they were still just a pack of beasts.
Ghost's mind felt numb, and her emotions were entirely out of sorts. The sense of novelty, excitement, and joy she had felt all the way when she first transmigrated into this world had completely vanished.
Only fear remained—fear of her current situation and her future.
What was even more terrifying was that when the humans were being torn apart, the bloodthirsty impulses deep within her heart had begun to stir, and saliva had unconsciously secreted in her wolf's mouth.
Suppressing the terror in her heart, Ghost chanted mutely over and over to herself: *I am human... I am human.*
Yes, I am human. My name is Ghost, and I come from the 21st century.
I love watching shows, I love spicy mapo tofu, I love sleeping in...
I am not a wolf, I am not White... My name is Ghost.
A long, drawn-out wolf howl suddenly rang through the air—a warning directed at Ghost.
It was time for her to go.
She needed to head to human territory; she wanted to be a human.
Ghost retraced her steps along the path she had come, guessing that human settlements were mostly located on plains and hills.
She thought of returning first to the place where she had been injured to investigate.
On the other hand, she kept feeling that the two savages who had died in the wolf cave looked vaguely familiar.
Surely not? If things really turned out the way she suspected...
Then she would probably have no choice but to hide in the mountain forests and never come out again.
Because in this world, wherever there were humans, not a single place was safe...
*Rumble, rumble, rumble, rumble...*
...Better go find some food first.
In the forest clearing where she had held a picnic with the Black Wolf, Ghost luckily found a stream teeming with fish.
The current was swift, and Ghost didn't dare venture in deep.
Unlike native wolves, she was all show and no substance, possessing zero wilderness hunting experience. For a moment, fish leaped in the water while she stared from the bank, her stomach rumbling with hunger like a beating drum.
Ghost chased the fish along the bank and discovered a narrow stream opening where the terrain sloped downward. Countless fish were jumping high up at this gap before falling back down.
However, she didn't dare approach because squatting right there in this natural cafeteria was a brown bear...
Strictly speaking, the bear wasn't extraordinarily massive, but Ghost was a coward. She couldn't even beat the Pomeranian back home! Let alone a wild grizzly bear!!
When the bear saw Ghost, it grew vigilant as well. It lifted its paws off the ground and stood on its hind legs, striking a threatening pose.
Ghost refused to show weakness; baring her teeth and emitting a low growl, she simultaneously inched backward by a tiny step...
The two parties maintained a cautious standoff from a distance, each weighing whether victory was certain. After lingering in a stalemate for a moment, they both decided to mind their own business.
Watching those plump, fat fish willingly jump right into the bear's mouth, Ghost was consumed by extreme envy, jealousy, and hatred...
She was so mad! So hungry... You fat bear, just how much are you going to eat...
Ghost couldn't help letting out a aggrieved whimper.
The bear seemed to have heard her... It paused its sinful eating, turned its head, and looked at Ghost crouching on the bank.
Bear: O.o
Ghost: QAQ
*Rumble, rumble, rrrrumble...*
The brown bear lowered its head, raised a massive paw, and brought it down heavily...
*Slap!* A plump, fat fish landed on the bank.
Her eyes turned red with hunger, Ghost bit down hard into it, weeping tears of heartbreak in her heart.
—I'm sorry, I truly am a disgrace to the wolf race.
—Brother Bear, from now on you are my big bro.
—Ah~ this fish is so sweet.