Before anyone could say another word, a large gray wolf lunged out of the undergrowth and jumped at Xiahou Ren. The sixty-jin iron staff in Shao’s hands flew forward and struck the wolf at the height of its arc. A sensation similar to the one he felt when he destroyed Gao Sun Fang’s skull reverberated through Yang Shao’s body, and the leaping wolf exploded into a cloud of scattered viscera.

Out of his peripheral vision, Shao saw as a dozen wolves simultaneously descended upon the fifteen lower-realm Lianqi standing near the Cloud Ship. One wolf had already clamped its jaws around a cultivator’s neck, and two of the other cultivators had taken minor wounds to their sides. Blood spewed from the struck Lianqi’s neck as he fell to the ground screaming.

Another wolf had struck at Gao Long and grabbed his forearm between its powerful jaws, though the wolf’s bite did not seem to draw any blood. Almost casually, Gao Long swung his arm, and the wolf smashed against a tree with enough force to rupture it like a gore-filled balloon.

Realizing in an instant that the pack of wolves were a far greater threat to him than any cultivator present, Xiahou Ren acted quickly.

“Bigger problems,” Ren said through grit teeth as he released Gao Linyu’s neck. Ren used his shoulder to strike Gao Linyu, pushing him back several paces but leaving him relatively unharmed.

Shao struck another wolf with an ascending strike of his iron staff, splitting the surprised canid in twain and sending shattered bone shards into the air. He had no time to appreciate his handiwork, however, as another divine wolf leaped at his throat within seconds. Their animalistic adversaries were not content to wait in a line and fight the cultivators one at a time. The pack moved in tandem, and defending against one wolf only opened oneself to attack from another angle.

The wolf’s teeth got within a hand-span of Shao’s neck, but he was just barely able to defend himself with his staff. Frenzied jaw clamped against Shao’s staff, and the unmistakable sound of metal-against-metal assaulted his ears. Hearing that sound, there was no doubt in Shao’s mind that the wolves’ teeth were as hard as iron.

Shao pushed the raging wolf away as he pulled his free hand back. With devastating force, Shao struck the wolf’s midsection with a Crashing Star, and its body was instantaneously reduced to ragged meat that flew in a low arc and splashed against the ground several dozen paces away.

Something clicked for Shao as he used Crashing Star with one hand holding the iron staff. The technique should have been impossible while he was holding the staff, but he used it just as easily. He realized that most of the Crashing Star technique was actually unnecessary. As long as he had a firm stance on the ground and enough space to fully commit to the punch, Shao knew he could unleash a variation of the technique.

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“Distant cloud, tranquil water, unseen world.” Frantically, Xiahou Ren chanted these words as he used both hands to form an esoteric handseal.

The hairs on the back of Shao’s neck stood up on end as he felt a distortion in the surrounding ki. Like on the Cloud Ship, mist began to rise around him and Ren, causing the nearby wolves to fall back a few paces.

When the mist cleared, a large brown fox with three tails sprouting out of its rear stood at Xiahou Ren’s knee. Shao quickly realized that Ren had somehow used ki to summon the strange creature, and he had a hunch that the three-tailed fox was a divine beast as well. It should have been impossible, Shao thought. An upper-realm Lianqi should have been unable to manipulate ki in such a way.

“Defend us, Huxian,” Ren commanded the divine fox standing beside him. Shao was not sure if “Huxian” was the creature’s name or if that was the name for that type of divine beast.

Finding their resolve, the wolves surged forward like a single-minded entity. One of the wolves was snatched out of the air by the three-tailed fox’s counterattack, and the wolf’s throat was torn out a moment later. The fox only managed to kill one of the pouncing wolves, leaving six more for Ren and Shao to deal with.

One wolf’s skull was crushed as Shao swung his iron staff with one hand, and another was speared in the neck by Bolin’s steel dagger. Shao only had two hands, however, and the third wolf was able to strike at his undefended leg. Pain shot through his body as the wolf’s iron teeth sunk into the flesh of Shao’s lower leg.

Acting mostly on impulse, Shao skewered the wolf with his staff and felt as it sank deep into the dirt underneath. He quietly swore at himself for making the same mistake that he made when fighting the demonic cultivators. With his knife in one wolf’s neck and his staff in another’s abdomen, he found himself completely unarmed.

Shao turned to see how Xiahou Ren was faring against the wolves and saw as the scholar snapped a wolf’s neck with his bare hands. With that final wolf dead, Ren and Shao were no longer in any immediate danger, though both cultivators had been mildly wounded during the encounter. Ren was bleeding from a bite mark on his wrist, and one of the legs of Shao’s trousers was starting to stain red.

Gingerly, Shao placed some pressure on his injured leg. Though he felt a dull pain where the divine wolf had bitten him, his leg was still fully operational. The wound hurt, but Shao could tell that his muscle had not been damaged.

“We need to kill the pack leaders!” Xiahou Ren shouted as he scanned the horde of wolves that still remained. “That should cause them to…”

Ren wasn’t able to reach the end of his sentence as a white blur of movement filled the air, and, an instant later, a gargantuan white wolf stood a few paces in front of the two Lianqi. The creature’s shoulder came up to Shao’s neck, and it moved with the speed of a pouncing leopard.

Not leaving Shao enough time to respond or retreat, the white wolf lurched forward and brought its massive jaws toward Shao’s throat.