The little girl watched as a man several times taller than her stood in front of her. He was like a giant stone statue to her, and exuded a powerful aura.

The aura was oppressive to the wolves, and yet to the girl it felt safe.

"Enough." Lin Mu uttered before his hands moved like hammers.

~CRACK~CRACK~CRACK~

All the wolves that had jumped at the little girl were knocked back. Those that were hit straight on died instantly, having their heads smashed apart.

Lin Mu's eyes glared at the rest of the wolves from the slits in his rocky helmet. While his gaze was oppressive to the wolves, it was not enough to fully intimidate them. ~HOWL~

An authoritative howl was heard from the back forcing the wolves in the front to move. They growled at Lin Mu before lunging at him.

~THUD~THUD~THUD~

Three wolves had currently crashed into him, and felt their bones break from the mere impact.

~GROWL~

But then a growl was heard from the back, as the wolves tried to pounce on the girl from Lin Mu's blind spot.

~SHING~

Unfortunately for the wolves, Lin Mu was observing everything within a kilometer radius with his immortal sense. There was no move that the wolves could make that he would not know.

Afternoon Pine flew through the air and severed the heads of all wolves that tried to attack the girl from the back. ~SHING~SHING~SHING~

The double edged sword tore through flesh and bone like it was tofu and ended the lives of tens of wolves in one go. While on the other hand, Lin Mu used his fists, raining down blows on the rest.

In just five seconds, all the wolves that were within ten meters of him were killed and the area was cleared out.

Lin Mu could not move from the place, as it would mean leaving the little girl unprotected. While he could protect her from afar too, he did not want to take the chance of any mistakes.

Especially because he found the behavior of the wolves strange.

'Branch Horned Wolves do not act like this. Why are they ganging up on a single child like this? They are better at estimating their foes, only a single wolf would have been enough.' Lin Mu thought to himself.

Branch Horned Wolves were a relatively common beast in the Evergreen Pillars Forest and Lin Mu had hunted several of them before. Little Shrubby had done the same as they were plentiful in the forest and were a decent source of meat.

While they did move around in packs, these were limited just a hundred or less. A pack like the one targeting the little girl was highly unusual.

'Theres thousands of them gathering together to take down someone who isn't even an immortal. They only do this when taking down a prey several times stronger than them. Does this mean they thought of the girl as a big enough threat?' Lin Mu wondered.

He also saw the wolf corpses that were there when he had arrived. They had evidently been killed by a defensive tool that the little girl had and might have contributed to the reason why such a large pack was hunting her now.

"B-Big Brother…" The Little Girl spoke lightly from the back.

"Don't worry, I'll get rid of them." Lin Mu said confidently before calling out. "DO IT LITTLE SHRUBBY!" ~ROAR~

A thundering roar was heard from the back of the army of wolves before a massive fire tornado appeared. Little Shrubby's entire body was overflowing with flames that could melt steel.

He ran through the Branch Horned Wolves, ripping through their flesh while also burning everything that was in his path. At his full size, Little Shrubby could crush them with just one of his legs.

~WHOOSH~

As Little Shrubby continued to run circles around them, an isolated area soon formed. At the center of the circle stood Lin Mu and he was also clearing out the rest of the wolves that were left in the circle.

But this didn't mean the onslaught of the wolves had ended. There were still more wolves joining in from the back, but Little Shrubby was managing to keep them away for now.

~SHUA~

Lin Mu's immortal sense expanded once there were no wolves around him. He scanned the number of wolves that were left, and his expression darked.

"How are there still more coming?" Lin Mu muttered in confusion.

Around three kilometers of area was filled with the Branch Horned Wolves now and more seem to be joining the fray. Not just that, but Lin Mu could feel stronger Immortal Qi fluctuations too.

"Fourth tribulation stage Branch Horned Wolves… the leaders of the packs." Lin Mu understood. 'This'll get complex if they fight directly. They will be able to command the other wolves much better that way.' If Lin Mu was alone, he wouldn't care at all. Ten times the number of wolves could come and he would have no issues fighting all of them. But the current situation was different where he was protecting someone.

And since the girl was not even an immortal, even the slightest attack could kill her. is the owner.

This was also why he hadn't used any of his stronger skills earlier, since they were quite destructive to the area around him. If the girl was an immortal, she would be able to avoid the damage, but at the current state even a stray gust of wind could kill her.

Lin Mu had to be careful not to use Magma Fury, or even transform the armor as the heat from it will also harm the girl.

He could not afford to lose focus and knew the best way to proceed was to never let the wolves organize and get closer.

"Xiao Yin, Xiao Yang!" Lin Mu extended his hands, and called the twins out.

~HISS~

The two shot from his hands and turned into black and white ribbons that quickly reached the outer boundary of the wolves.