“What the Hell was that!?” Xiahou Ren exclaimed in an exasperated tone. The white wolf must have hit him with a glancing blow, because he gripped his abdomen as he spoke.

“By the gods, they’re all dead,” Shao whispered, looking out at the dozen human corpses on the ground.

Every lower-realm Lianqi had died in agony. Some had been disemboweled by the wolves’ claws, and others had been decapitated by the divine beasts’ iron teeth. This was far worse than a simple 50% fatality rate. Nearly four out of five of the participants who decided to take the western path were already dead.

Shao could hear oaths and exclamations coming from the inner disciple who was standing on the pier leading up to the Cloud Ship, and he saw as Gao Min Long knelt beside the corpse of Gao Tan Linyu. There was a silver lining to the wolf pack’s attack, at least.

As he took a step back, Shao saw the white wolf’s destroyed midsection. In their effort to kill the wolf as fast as possible, Ren and Huxian perforated its abdomen and scattered the creature’s organs across the grass. Looking at the gore, Shao’s first reaction was not one of disgust. Rather, the primary sensation going through his body was hunger.

Eat the heart.

The white wolf’s heart had been severely lacerated by one of Ren’s knives. Apparently, the scholar knew to strike that organ to kill the beast as quickly as possible. Shao wondered if the heart’s damaged state would limit the power he could gain from it, but he instinctively knew it would be fine.

Shao grasped the semi-solid mass in his hand and pulled with enough force to tear the heart out of the connective tissue and major arteries holding it in place. Within seconds, he had consumed the heart, and that strange animalistic hunger abated.

Within seconds, Shao felt himself gain a small fraction of the white wolf. He recalled the technique used by the white wolf, and the knowledge of how to use the technique sat firmly within his mind. Shao decided to name it the Leap of the White Wolf, and he felt a compulsion to use it soon.

“Like that, my plan has gone down the drain. Damn it!” Clearly annoyed, Xiahou Ren grabbed his own scalp with bloodstained hands.

“They didn’t tell us this would happen,” Shao said thoughtfully. “Was this part of the Rite?”

“No way. They wouldn’t waste so many potential outer disciples for no reason. This must’ve been sabotage. Someone didn’t want us to reach the Southern Gate.”

“How are you sure? Couldn’t the divine beasts have come here because they wanted to eat a few humans?”

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“No, that’s impossible.”

Ren produced a scroll from his pocket and unfurled it to reveal a map of Shigong Temple contained within. Shao was shocked to see that the land held within the temple walls was actually far larger than Zhoushan City to the south. Shigong Temple was so large that it would easily take two days to circumnavigate its walls. Shao turned his attention to the Southern Gate, and he saw that the small piece of land they were standing on was penned in by the temple walls and the massive cliff face to the south. The isolated plateau they were standing on couldn’t have had an area of more than fifty acres.

“See that?” Ren said as he pointed at the area just south of the Southern Gate. “Those divine beasts couldn’t have gotten here without outside help. Someone inside of Shigong Temple must have used a ritual to summon them.”

Shao looked at the three-tailed fox that was sitting on the ground next to Ren like a well-behaved dog. “Summoned like that fox, right?”

“Exactly. Though, she’s technically a Huxian, a ‘fox god,’ not a fox.”

“That’s a god?” Shao said, incredibly skeptical. He could sense that the three-tailed fox was no stronger than Ren or him. There was no way it was any stronger than an upper-realm Lianqi.

“Not at all. That’s just what people call divine foxes, but that’s not important. Now that the lower-realm Lianqi are dead, we need to come up with a new plan. Like it or not, I think we need to work with Gao Long.”

“Isn’t he our enemy?”

“‘Enemies in fair weather are allies in a storm.’” Ren recited a quote that Shao did not recognize. To his annoyance, Shao was reminded of his brief lessons with Shen Jian.

“What does that mean?”

“Just go talk to Gao Long while I loot the other participants’ bodies.”

“Are you sure?” Shao asked, frowning. “My track record of diplomacy with members of the Gao Clan has been inauspicious, to say the least. Why don’t you talk to him?”

“Gao Long is a straightforward guy. He’ll respond to you much more positively than me. Go on, and you can consume the black wolf’s heart while you’re there.”

“Fine, but don’t blame me if I make things worse.”

With some uncertainty unsettling his pace, Shao began walking over to Gao Long who was standing on the pier leading up to the Cloud Ship. As he got within earshot of the Cloud Ship, he heard the voice of the inner disciple scream out in rage.

“Shit! Those damn dogs wrecked the Cloud Ship! As soon as I figure out who’s behind this, I’ll end their whole fucking bloodline!”

Shao might have chosen the wrong time to approach the Cloud Ship. Trying to be as respectful as possible in order to not catch the ire of the inner disciple, Shao said, “Excuse me, honorable inner disciple, is there anything I can do to help?”

“Are you a master sacred smith of the third realm or higher?”

“No.”

“Then fuck off.”

Deciding that this was his chance to disengage from the potentially dangerous conversation, Shao turned to Gao Long and said, “Uh, do you mind if I eat that wolf’s heart?”

“Excuse me?” Gao Long asked.

“I gain power whenever I eat a powerful divine beast’s heart. I was just thinking that, if you’re not using it… well…” Shao’s sentence ended awkwardly. He wasn’t comfortable speaking to the upper-realm Lianqi.

“Sure,” Gao Long said with a shrug. “I wasn’t planning on doing anything with the body, anyway.”

“Good, good.” Shao cleared his throat. “So, uh, about that honor debt. Do you still intend to attack Xiahou Ren and me?”

“No. Your conflict was with Gao Tan Linyu. Now that he’s dead, there’s no reason presently for us to fight.”

Shao let out an audible sigh of relief. With the help of a nine-star disciple of the Path of the Iron Tortoise, perhaps they had some hope to defeat Wei Fenhua.