Crouching next to the still body of Storm and gently running his fingers through her silver fur, Zhu Feng kept remembering his moments with this loyal beast.

In front of general Laoci's men she fearlessly tried to protect him, in Obsidian city Storm dared to enter the city guard's encirclement to defend him.

Storm was his friend and even as he feels her body goes cold with his own hand Feng still couldn't believe she's dead, looking around him in dazed disbelief, Zhu Feng saw Night, Thunder, Joy and Harmony.

All of the wolves were standing with lowered necks and ears, Harmony's eyes had tears in them and Night was baring his teeth.

Thunder was unusually quiet and Joy was frozen stiff in place and her breathing was faster than normal.

Something nudging on his thigh grabbed Feng's attention and he looked downwards at the two newborn puppies, after their bodies were wiped clean from the fluids that covered them their fur's original color appeared to be greyish on the degree between off-white and faded silver.

"AWOOO...."

Night's mournful howl startled Feng and everyone in the hall, once he turned his head out of reflex he blocked with his arm to protect the puppies.

And Feng's arms wound around the object or thing that turned out to be Night himself!

"Easy! I know, I know. Easy now easy, calm down now. Let's go somewhere else, that's it."

The men were shocked by what happened, even Night's brothers and sister were restless.

Xi Qiqiang, strong Niu, Li Canglai, Fu Liwei and many others who were in the hall, they hurried to protect the two ignorant puppies from their obviously emotional big brother.

Feng felt Night's claws scratching at his chest, ribs from the left-side, groin and thighs when he hugged the angry wolf to his chest and hurried outside, while the three other grieving wolves followed after him.

"Make sure they feed from their mother one last time before we bury her."

After shouting that he closed the hall doors behind him.

*****

After his mother's death Night went out a lot and reports mentioned that he would venture deep into the west, hunters mentioned seeing him in the outermost belt of beast mountains.

And indeed he would return covered in wounds and his previous air of savagery increased after each journey, just in the first month after Storm passed away he made three journeys and Feng was starting to seriously worry about his safety.

Village citizens started to fear him or getting close to him when he walked the streets, not to mention that his own siblings would be wary around him.

The black wolf would visit the caged snow wolf and snarl at him after each of these dangerous journeys, that thing never stopped happening.

Only Feng was brave enough to get close and would personally apply the medicine on Night's accumulating wounds while scolding him for being careless, he would always approach wearing nothing to protect himself other than normal clothes and sometimes he would take little Fang or even Meili with him so that they would get acquainted with the strongest of the four wolves.

Night was always edgy and easily provoked but never cared when little Fang pulled at his fur or when the naughty Meili marked him with her pee, Feng always had a special place in his heart and he always respected the strong.

*****

"He's changed so much in a month it is really breaking my heart, he used to be so energetic and full of life. I remember how he would challenge everything around him, my bedroom would be left messy if he entered it while I'm gone. As if there's a miniature hurricane that happened inside, I always knew it was him but he was seriously too cute for me to be angry with him. Now look at him poor guy covered in wounds everywhere, such a sorry sight."

Bo Biyu said after taking Fang back into her arms from Feng who just paid a visit to Night, her eyes were open and full of tears.

"Who could've known that if Storm mated with another it would end her life, it's partly my fault but I have to live with my mistakes. Let's just give him time to calm his anger before getting him to meet Wind and Rain."

Feng patted Biyu's face and helped her remove some of the snow from her hair then pulled the hoodie of his son back up and led them back to the manor.

While crunching snow under his feet the events of that night replayed in Feng's head.

*****

"AWOOO'OOO'OOO...."

Sitting cross legged next to the quad wolves up at the platform which is elevated by a kilometer or so above level ground in this territory and getting baptized in cutting wind and falling snow, Zhu Feng kept hugging them all to give them his support while listening to their howls get carried away by the whistling wind.

Then he joined them by cupping his hands at his mouth and hollering this strange farewell to his friend which just passed away.

The quad wolves were puzzled in the beginning by what he was doing then later joined him, it seems like he sucks at howling too but that didn't trouble Zhu Feng at all and he kept at it until his voice turned hoarse.

Meanwhile inside the manor.

The people released a sigh of relief when Feng took the wolves away to ease the tension in the air.

"Holy shit! What the fuck just happened?"

Xi Qiqiang wiped out sweat off of his forehead and spoke in disbelief.

"Night seemed angry at his mother's death and tried to attack the young puppies, that's what happened."

Ba Tusai spoke while rolling his eyes because they all clearly saw it with their eyes, if it wasn't for Zhu Feng's nice block then these two puppies would certainly be goners.

"Ya, no shit genius. he meant, since when animals are this emotional? And! since when was Night that scary when he's angry? When I heard that howl before he lunged at the small pups I almost pissed my pants! Even now I'm feeling like my legs are extremely stiff and my skin tingling with goosebumps whenever I remember, don't even ask how could Zhu Feng move fast enough to block and protect them. Fuck. I thought we had closed the gap between us a little, it seems like it only widened instead. I need a drink."

Fu Liwei kept glaring at his shaking hand as he spoke and kept clinching and unfolding it in attempt to make that feeling go away, finally he shouted a curse at the ceiling then walked away.

"I apologize for my colleague's rudeness m'ladies, I'll make sure he's punished for it."

Li Canglai bowed towards Baroness Lanfen and mistress Biyu as he spoke on behalf of the frowning and blackened face Ba Tusai who almost dragged Fu Liwei back.

"N.... not at all captain, I understand. We all felt it."

Zhu Lanfen spoke while squeezing Bo Biyu's hand.

"Niu. The pups drank their fill and are sleeping now, gently place them in their basket and leave then near the warmth of the fireplace but not too close. You there, yes you! Bring a glass and gently squeeze Storm's udders to drain the rest of the milk out."

Ba Tusai started giving orders to his men and servants.

"That's enough I guess you got it all out, If these two wake up then feed it to them. Niu, come and carry Storm's body and follow me to the cemetery, we need to finish before Lord Feng return-"

"Please let me touch her before you do."

Every one was looking towards Bo Biyu who suddenly interjected, from the very beginning she never said anything.

Yet everyone understood that for her Storm could be even more precious than she's for Zhu Feng, after all the incident that left her bedridden for almost a year had a hero which is Storm herself.

"Of course m'lady."

Lanfen led her towards the body and Biyu kneeled on both knees next to Storm and kept feeling her body from head to tail, under the watch of Zhu Feng's guard their Lord's woman kept muttering her sorries while crying.

Then Bo Biyu's eyes opened up and everyone saw a scene which both scared and shocked them, one eye completely black and the other completely white were the colors of Biyu's eyes.

Then they saw an imaginary apparition of Storm on top of Biyu's head and howling towards a moon that was completely red and surrounded by two circles one white inside one black circle!

As if Storm's mouth was spouting a legendary sword at the strange moon, that blood moon cracked like glass and fell piece by piece then vanished into thin air midway to the apparition's head.

But that wasn't the moon of the image, it was a screen covering the moon in that strange image and once it broke Biyu's eyes experienced a change.

Earlier each eye had a separate color, however, after that blood image of the moon was gone Biyu's eye colors got mixed in a swirling whirlpool of black and white while the hidden moon of the image which was half black and half white started to experience the same yin-yang shape before Storm's apparition vanished along with the moon.

"I.... I can see...."

"Sister!...."

Then Biyu's eyes returned to normal and she discovered that she was able to see again before she fainted on top of storm and didn't wake up for two days afterwards.

Just when Feng's worries were starting to eat away at his patience, since last time she fainted for almost a year nobody blamed him for his anxiousness.

Then Bo Biyu woke up and besides being slighty shaken up and weak she was alright, her eyesight was back to normal and for Feng that was great news.

*****

"M'lord, there's visitors in the manor's main hall and requesting a meeting, one young girl and her butler they go by the names Yin Meirong and Song Yunru."

"Hrrmmm. They came all the way just to visit me! Alright captain Fu, let's go meet our guests. Come-on girl you're becoming lazy lately."

Zhu Feng was in the garden keeping Night's company with Joy and reading some of the reports on the statistics of the village's income in the late few months when Fu Liwei arrived and notified him of the names of the guests with his usual careless tune of speech, the man could be seen as an insolent and rude person by the foreign eye but his loyalty to Feng's family was unquestionable.

Stolen novel; please report.

Closing the thick and expertly detailed log and handing it to the official who brought it in the first place and patting his shoulder encouragingly with a smile, Zhu Feng spoke and walked towards the main hall but noticed that Joy was yawning and looking at her sleeping brother's unfinished meal.

Hearing Feng's call she lazily got up and left after giving the meat on the plate one final unwilling gaze.

"You know that if you stole his food he might beat you up, right?"

"Snort...."

Hearing Feng's words made Joy snort while squinting her eyes then licked her teeth as if saying : "Only if he finds out." Which made Feng smile wider.

Entering the main hall, Feng saw a stunningly beautiful white haired young looking woman in black dress which was dark as Night's fur, just one look took his breath away and Fu Liwei who stood behind him was gawking like a fool.

Simply because this goddess in human flesh just changed her looks from before! When he led them here before calling for Zhu Feng she looked beautiful but nothing in comparison to the Baroness for example, yet now he felt blood rushing to his head and Liwei felt like his nose was about to burst a geyser of blood.

Behind the seating goddess was a neat clothed elder with goatee style beard and tall physique and straightened spine which felt like a spear facing the sky, his blue robe didn't have crease on it and his combed hair was parfect but these dangerously piercing eyes could strike traumatic fear with but a gaze.

"Seniors welcome to my humble manor, do excuse Feng's crude village and it's mundanity. Please let me know if I can be of service."

Zhu Feng was quick to regain his bearing and bowed down to these two whom he couldn't afford to offend, if being humble would help him evade some trouble then Zhu Feng wouldn't hesitate to grovel so that his children wouldn't come to harm.

What he said meant that he already noticed the untouched courtesy gift of fresh drinks, sweets, fruits and appetizers on the table ahead of the white haired woman who didn't even bother to stand up when he entered.

That's why he got straight into the main topic, such fellows doesn't seem to be caring to go round and round in circles with him.

"I want your women."

But the answer he got from the mouth of the woman made him raise an eyebrow in befuddlement.

"Call Biyu and Lanfen."

Still he acted like he didn't get the full meaning of her words and turned towards Fu Liwei who was still in slight daze and told him to go.

"Aaand your children."

This time Zhu Feng was feeling his chest heat up with anger and his gaze hardened like steel when he looked at the beauty who placed one leg on top of the other and gave him a smirk, she slowly plucked one of the fruits from a basket and choose a bear shaped pink candy and stuffed them both in her mouth one after another then wiped the juice off the corner of her lips with a finger very seductively and licked it.

"And your wolves, and your robe, and your wealth, and your manor, and your men, and your lands, and your titles. Oh! almost forgot that one, it's very important you know! And your life."

Counting once on each finger then acting exaggeratedly at the end, Yin Meirong gave him a haughty look at the end.

She was looking down on him with contempt.

"Woof...."

Joy felt her friend's tension and barked at these two strangers even though she felt like they're stronger than Feng, that's something you don't see often around here.

"Stay out of this Joy. These two are not here to bully you, now go play with little Fang."

Feng made Joy leave because if things went south he doesn't want her to be some kind of collateral damage.

"How noble of you, but you wouldn't be able to save anyone that's being targeted by me."

Lazily Meirong said that while leaning her body to the side and resting her cheek on her right fist.

"Oh I can feel it in my gut, you two can topple this area in a heartbeat and flip it upside down."

Zhu Feng said that and waited in silence.

"Why are you not asking?"

"It's not in me to seek the mercy of those who seek my agony."

"Hrrrrmm. Why not run and seek life? You can always get your revenge later, maybe if the heavens will it."

"I want to see it for myself, if you're really here to cause harm and sorrow. I mean. Plus I'm a realistic person, my chances of actually escaping any of you is one in a quadrillion as of me escaping from you two together is the previous statistics result multiplied by another thousand. That too is my gut feeling, I'll enjoy watching whatever that's coming next. Your move senior, this junior is lacking and helpless to do anything but to watch."

Song Yunru's eyes glowed when he heard Feng's answer and smiled inwardly yet he didn't interrupt his young mistress's fun.

"Then I won't take your live, maybe I'll make you my slave or servant."

"Maybe you'll today and feel like killing me tomorrow, maybe you'll today and wake up tomorrow to find me dead naturally and peacefully in my sleep. Who knows what is hidden behind the thick curtains of fate, do what you want senior."

"Hrrrrmm. Maybe I'll start torturing you just to enjoy your screams-"

"Maybe you'll be able to hear me scream, maybe you wouldn't be able to break my Will. In the end it's just one broken mortal, end of the story. Congratulations on your success, only problem would be that there's god knows how many more before you get rid of my kind. Best of luck."

This time Song Yunru saw his young mistress's eyelid twitching very minutely and he knew that she was feeling like she's losing this debate on the Dao of Fate which this young man has clearly got enlightened in, honestly he was stunned by the very breadth of mind this kid has cultivated in such a young age.

With age comes wisdom it was widely acknowledged by everyone and little Meirong is almost four centuries old, yet here she's in a loss of words to reply!

"Then if you want to watch I'll make you watch as I torture your loved ones, if you try to close your eyes then I'll stitch your eyelids to your skin. If you look away then I'll.... Do something to prevent that too."

This time Yin Meirong sounded like she's proud of herself for thinking like that.

"I can cry to make my vision blurry, or gouge them out all-together. But I'll watch, that would help fuel my hunger for revenge if I happened to get the opportunity. If not? then it will help my soul grow stronger and more venomous, maybe it would succeed in plaguing you for the rest of your life. Yet all that might still fail, nothing is certain."

"Evil Daoists can use such souls to grow stronger, you're a no fun glib-tongued little brat. I wouldn't dare trap such a soul just to annoy me forever, such foul souls should be cleansed and scattered for good."

"Senior Meirong still haven't given me the reasons for such a sudden visit, this junior is confused and waiting for guidance and orders."

Zhu Feng was losing his patience and grew tired of this woman's game, he helped her before indirectly and doesn't know what kind of person she is.

If she was here to cause havock then she better get started, if worse came to worst then he would die.

It's not like that didn't happen to him before, considering that what happened back on earth and him being strangely transferred here in this world was the death of blain old Zhu Feng who got picked on by almost everyone he knew.

"Tsk, you're no fun at all. But you're lucky that I'm not your enemy, just that attitude of yours can get you killed by people of my status. Despite your polite words you're not covering your intentions at all, even though you're a noble you're not acting like one. Your king would be grateful that we're paying him a visit and here you are trading tit for tat with me! You're rude and I don't like it."

"Then I apologize senior. But my family and loved ones are my soft spot, seeing someone of great power juggle them in front of me like toys would still make me pissed off at my own helplessness first before being mad at fate for bringing him in my path. Finally I would be wishing to drink his blood and eat his flesh for what he made me experience."

"Ewww."

Song Yunru's mouth stretched slightly on end when he saw Feng's words affecting his young mistress's appetite, she has been pushing this youngster too far in his opinion.

Especially since they're here to ask a favor from the young man.

"Ehm...."

"I'm here because my friend just gave birth and I was congratulating her.... Baozhai told me all about your circumstances when I asked her about the one largly responsible for my recovery, honestly I was considering my dept to you being repaid after my two gifts and wasn't planning on seeing you at all. The gravity boots and the marrow washing pill are more than enough for a single use of your treasure robe, however, she mentioned your wedding gifts and I'm interested in two things."

Hearing her grandpa Song's cough made Yin Meirong frown slightly, she really wanted to tease this annoying junior some more.

Finally Yin Meirong started giving the reasons of her visit, the more he listened the more he felt like a mountain was being gradually removed from his chest and inwardly he was breathing a sigh of relief.

"Senior can demand whatever she wants from me as long as it isn't my family then I'm okay."

"Heh, worry not then. I heard that you was gifted a pure blooded demonic beast a snow wolf, that one I have a use for it. I heard about what happened to your wife in Obsidian city and here too, how that moon wolf's mother saved your wife before and once it died your wife was able to open her eyes again. You should be very grateful for your luck you know, that was some kind of blood spell that aimed to refine your woman's Yin and Yang Qi by separating them and concentrating all that energy in her blood. The more you two do the act the more energy your wife would be taking from your lifespan and storing inside her body, thankfully for you moon wolves are extremely sensitive to blood Dao despite being rarely able to ascend to the demonic beast grade and very weak. Your beast companion must've interrupted that ceremony in a critical stage which backlashed on the caster and stopped the spell from fully completing or your wife wouldn't be able to remember anything when she wakes up and she wouldn't slumber for long at most she would be sleep for a day or so, unfortunately you did a grave mistake by letting that savior of your wife mate with a wolf from another species."

Feng smiled when he heard Yin Meirong speak about Snow, the tension between him and Night was mentioned a lot by people who saw it happen.

Clearly Night was dreaming of the time he could tear apart the white wolf, if that woman is asking for it then she would be doing him a favor actually.

Then when Meirong started speaking about the incident that made Feng despair for a while, he listened carefully while carving every piece and detail of new information into his mind.

It was paramount to learn from your previous mistakes or you should go jump a cliff or something to save yourself the agony of life, however what he heard about Storm's species and their abilities made him feel like slapping himself for what he did.

"I.... I See, it was my fault indeed. Night should be angry at me instead of Snow but maybe it's better that way, may I ask how Snow can be useful to you senior?"

"Probably you noticed my unique hair color, that's my special physique which has very high compatibility with your demonic beast. Snow wolves aren't physically strong like their cousins the frost wolves but their Qi force is stronger in the elemental aspect of Qi usage in attacks, you look lost and I understand how hard it would be for a mortal like you to understand topics of cultivators. Anyway, you probably noticed how strange it is for a strong and pure blooded beast to be helpless against a cage that wasn't that sturdy right? Well I'm guessing it's Qi has been sealed before it was brought to you as a gift because if that wolf's Qi wasn't sealed then anyone getting close to it's cage would be sprouting blood snow from their bodies. Do you see the picture fully now?"

"Then why was it given to me in the first place?"

"Maybe they thought you could tame it, maybe it's previous owner got sick of trying and lost hope. Or maybe.... Heh, maybe someone wanted you to do it before he swoops in and claim it back."

"If they failed what makes you think that you can senior? And what's the second thing that you need from me?"

"Humph, I'm not telling you anything anymore about Snow, tsk tsk tsk, at least you gave it a good name. The second thing I'm here for is the indestructible steel ores, we're in need for some of those ores currently and it would take some precious time to find another source. Now, don't get greedy ideas because these ores are indeed rare but not that hard to find. It's just that you lucked out and became the nearest source to me and the easiest one for me to contact."

𝘋𝘶𝘬𝘦 𝘑𝘪𝘯, 𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘭𝘦𝘧𝘵.

𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘣𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘣𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘔𝘦𝘪𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘨 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘥.

"With pleasure senior, tell me if there's anything else I can aid you by doing."

After calculating his gains and losses and processing all the new knowledge he learned in this meeting made Zhu Feng smile inside because just the information he earned was more valuable than a beast that kept eating his food and some rocks hidden in his vault and left to collect dust.

The only nagging worry was that Duke Jin who gave him Snow in the first place, was he really scheming something?

Still, Zhu Feng kept smiling widely after accepting Meirong's requests and his offer to help was only a distraction while his true aim was to try and collect more information, frankly if he can keep her in his manor and interrogate her then Feng wouldn't hesitate to do it.

After all his ignorance of this world was still one of his greatest worries, so far his mental map of it didn't go beyond the map that he took from Qiqiang on the day they met.

The big fella didn't mention it once after working for Feng and it made Feng uneasy for a while, but after he confronted the muscle-head about it he was told by the bald giant that he took it from the mist bandits treasury when he was unloading some loot.

He didn't even care to give it a good look before keeping it! Then the map was forgotten in his saddle by the lazy idiot who didn't feel like checking it's details.

Even Zhu Feng was feeling sorry for the dumb gorilla.

"Only these two matters for now, what about you, Don't you have anything or wish to ask from me? You do know that we're trading right now, right?"

"I never said otherwise senior, last time your generous gift made half the villagers in my domain beg on their knees while crying honest tears for me to take a bath while the other half were coincidentally on their knees too but puking their guts out instead. I do wonder how many days it would take my servants to wash the stink off of my inner armor this time, I smelled so bad they refused to give me an invitation to the party they threw to celebrate their success afterwards."

"Bfffftt.... Hahahaha."

*****

"Should we go in? It looks like they're speaking yet I can't hear anything."

"I think we should wait. That's senior Yin, the maiden with white hair is the benefactor who helped master back in the day."

"You two can come in now."

Bo Biyu and Zhu Lanfen who were standing on the doors of the main hall trying to eavesdrop on the conversation, suddenly heard a whisper next to their ears and coming from someone standing behind their back.

"Ah! H.... how?"

When they turned to look at the one who startled them, they were shocked to find the same neat elder who stood behind maiden Yin.

Turning to check if there's two of the same man they found him gone from behind the maiden's seat! Despite them previously looking at him before he suddenly vanished and appeared behind them they still couldn't see him move.

The two women shrunk their necks and nodded to the scary elder with a goatee before following him inside like little ducklings following their papa duck.