The old man stared at Shen Youying for a long time, but couldn't find any flaws in her face. In the end, he shook his head, sighed, and left.

Shen Youying's bodyguard noticed that after he circled around, he carried a bowl of milk skin into the tent.

After listening to the guard's report, Shen Youying pondered for a moment and said, "Keep a close eye on them. The people hiding in the tent are cautious, and they might make a move."

As night fell, the old man indeed sneaked out of the tent.

On a summer night, it was already late on the grassland. The merchants and people in the tribe had been asleep for a long time. All around was quiet, except for the low bleating of the cattle and sheep in the enclosure.

The old man walked around all the tents to make sure everyone had rested before stopping in front of Shen Youying's tent.

The lights in Shen Youying's tent had long been turned off, but she did not go to sleep immediately. Based on the information gathered by her scouts, she guessed that the person in the tent would make a move today, so she endured her sleepiness and waited for him to come to her.

After waiting until midnight, it finally moved.

Seeing the old man's figure faintly projected onto the tent, Shen Youying held her breath, waiting for his next move.

But after waiting for a while, the old man ultimately did nothing. He turned around and crawled back into the tent diagonally opposite.

Shen Youying and the guards who had been lying in ambush exchanged a glance, pondered for a moment, and whispered, "Keep a close eye on them. If there is any news, immediately send a message to the Prince."

The guard nodded and groped his way out of the tent in the dark.

Meanwhile, the old man returned to his tent and reported to the person sitting in the shadows, "Everyone in the tribe has gone to sleep. I'll go into the mountains to investigate. That woman has many guards. If we forcibly abduct her, it might cause too much noise and alert others. Moreover, that man seems to be of high status. If he's not our enemy, it wouldn't be a good thing to offend him for no reason."

The person in the shadows seemed to agree with what he said. After a moment's thought, he nodded and waved his hand, saying, "Go ahead."

After discussing it with him, the old man slipped out of the tent like a shadow, silently left the tribe along the shadows in the corner of the wall, mounted his horse, and galloped towards Ximen Mountain.

Behind him, his guards followed at a distance.

*

Two flowers bloom, each representing a different branch.

While Shen Youying's side was rife with all sorts of strange and dangerous things, Xue Shen's side was much simpler. The greatest dangers were the steep and narrow mountain paths and the wild beasts lurking in the mountains.

It is unknown who pioneered this road. The map that Xue Shen found happened to record it. However, as one goes deeper into the mountains following the route on the map, one will find that the road becomes steeper and more dangerous the further one goes, making it almost impossible to walk.

If Xue Shen and the guards he selected hadn't all been skilled in martial arts, an ordinary person would never have been able to walk through this narrow path alive.

The group expended a great deal of effort but only managed to travel a short distance. Fortunately, before nightfall, they found a recessed cave in the cliff face they were traversing, a perfect place for them to rest and spend the most dangerous night.

Xue Shen kept watch with the guards for the first half of the night, and only went to sleep when the shift changed in the second half.

He had just fallen asleep when he was awakened by a rustling sound. Looking up, he saw a faint, eerie green light flickering deep within the cave.

Xue Shen held his breath and looked at the others, only to see that the guards had all been woken up.

However, there was just too much green light, and everyone held their breath, not daring to make any rash moves.

The fire beside them was still burning, though its flames were dim as no more firewood was being added. But even in that faint light, tiny green glimmers could be seen—not insects, nor ghosts, but pairs of beast eyes.

—It's a pack of wolves.

Although he didn't know where these wolves had come from to get into the cave, Xue Shen's first reaction upon seeing them was that there were probably other paths inside the cave.

Xue Shen slowly pressed his hand on the sword at his waist, winked at the others, and mouthed, "Kill them, but leave a few alive."

The others understood his meaning, drew their swords, and charged towards the wolf pack.

As soon as they moved, the wolf pack, which had been observing the situation, also sprang into action. Both sides let out long howls and bared their sharp teeth as they attacked.

This wolf pack was quite large, numbering about twenty or thirty, with the wolf king being particularly strong and tall, almost as tall as a person when standing upright.

While the others dealt with the ordinary wolf pack, Xue Shen drew his sword and faced the wolf king.

The wolf king was enormous. It pounced on Xue Shen with its front paws on the ground and howling. Xue Shen dodged, but instead of escaping, he seized the opportunity to grab the wolf king's fur and leap onto its back.

The wolf king noticed someone on its back and let out another shriek, trying to shake Xue Shen off.

Xue Shen squeezed his legs together to steady himself, drew a gleaming dagger from the leg wrappings on his calves, gripped the hilt with both hands, and plunged it into the wolf king's nape with all his might. The wolf king cried out in pain, howling and struggling even more fiercely, but Xue Shen had once tamed the wildest horses. No matter how the wolf king struggled and thrashed, he kept his legs tightly clamped, firmly mounted on the wolf king's back, and plunged the dagger into the wolf king's vital neck again and again.

After repeating this process more than ten times, the wolf king gradually collapsed due to excessive blood loss.

The massive body crashed to the ground with a thud. Xue Shen jumped down before the wolf king fell, looked at the wolf pack that had been mostly killed, and said in a deep voice, "If they want to run, follow the rest of the pack."

The cave is located on a steep cliff, and wolves shouldn't be here, but since they are, there must be other undiscovered passages. If we follow the wolves, we might be able to enter the mountain.

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