14: Chapter 14 Zhang Qiang the Wolf

Tribe 14 remained completely unaware of the entire process.

Qi Yun retrieved his four throwing knives and carefully wiped the blood off them with leaves.

Like a ghost in the darkness, he merged back into the jungle.

Just then, two staggering figures walked out of the thatched hut.

They walked, grumbling and cursing, toward a bush not far from where Qi Yun was lurking, clearly needing to relieve themselves.

"Damn it, I drank too much of that river water tonight... so much pee."

"Hurry up. Once we're done, let's go back and take a nap. Brother Qiang said there's more work to do in the middle of the night."

The two of them, completely off guard, once again gave Qi Yun an opportunity.

The moment they finished and turned around...

A cold light flashed!

Qi Yun's figure ghosted out of the shadows behind them.

The Blade of Space precisely sliced across their carotid arteries and throats.

...

Inside the thatched hut, "Pointy-Mouth" looked at the two who hadn't returned yet and, noting the unusual silence outside, felt a vague sense of unease.

He turned to look at Zhang Qiang, who was resting with his eyes closed, and whispered, "Brother Qiang, it's too quiet outside. The two guys who went out to relieve themselves still haven't returned."

"Quiet?" Zhang Qiang paused, listening intently, but could barely hear any other sounds outside the hut.

Logically, even if those four sentries were doing their jobs, there should have been some noise occasionally.

"You, go check the southeast sentry post and see what the hell he's doing!"

Zhang Qiang pointed at one of his subordinates near the door who seemed relatively sober.

"Yes, Brother Qiang."

The subordinate took a torch and walked toward the southeast.

Zhang Qiang also stood up and walked to the door; the laziness and impatience on his face vanished, replaced by a beast-like vigilance.

The footsteps faded into the distance as time ticked by.

The subordinate disappeared like a stone thrown into the ocean; he did not return, gave no signal, and not even the sound of footsteps echoed back.

The southeast sentry post was only thirty or forty meters from the hut; he should have been able to crawl back and forth by now!

Zhang Qiang's face turned completely grim, and the veins on his forehead began to throb.

"Grab your weapons! Everyone! Follow me out! There's something out there!"

The group filed out of the dilapidated thatched hut.

Under Pointy-Mouth's instruction, several men grouped together to check the sentry locations.

Soon, reports came back one after another.

"No one at the northeast!"

"No one at the southwest! There seems to be blood on the ground?"

"We found our man's corpse in the bushes."

The last person to return spoke with a trembling voice.

Humiliation! Unprecedented humiliation!

His Tribe, including himself, had twenty men who could fight and kill!

They should have been the overlords of this island, walking sideways and striking fear into everyone!

Yet now, seven of them had been silently taken down like chickens by a rat.

"Who is it?! Get out here! You cowardly rat hiding in the shadows!"

Zhang Qiang roared, his voice echoing through the silent night forest.

No one responded; the darkness seemed to silently mock his incompetence.

"Damn it... you forced my hand..."

Zhang Qiang let out a low, almost beastly whimper from deep in his throat.

"Raaaargh!"

Zhang Qiang threw his head back and let out a strange, inhuman sound, a mix of a pained howl and a roar.

His bones made a teeth-gritting cracking sound, his body expanded and grew taller at a speed visible to the naked eye, and his skin was quickly covered by a layer of coarse, dense bristles, somewhere between grey and black.

In just a few breaths, the human leader Zhang Qiang had vanished.

In his place stood a terrifying monster, half-man and half-wolf, exuding an overwhelming aura of ferocity!

Zhang Qiang's rare combat class ability was fully unleashed!

His strength, speed, defense, sense of smell, and hearing were all massively boosted to a beast-like level.

At the same time, it came with a strong bloodlust and berserk will, causing his rationality to drop significantly.

His combat instincts and ferocity were elevated to the extreme.

"Hrr... hrr..."

The wolf-transformed Zhang Qiang lowered his head, his eerie green slit pupils sweeping over his subordinates, who were trembling with fear and barely able to hold their weapons.

A threatening low growl rumbled in his throat.

Then, he suddenly lifted his head, his slit pupils scanning like searchlights, locking firmly onto the darkness in a certain direction outside the jungle!

His extremely keen sense of smell after the transformation caught that faint trace of human scent, which was completely different from anyone else in the camp, mixed with the smell of fresh blood!

"Found. You."

From the throat of the wolf-transformed Zhang Qiang came muffled, human words filled with brutal killing intent.

"Roar!!"

He didn't waste any more words, or perhaps his remaining rationality was no longer enough to support complex commands.

He let out a deafening wolf howl and charged toward Qi Yun in the darkness.

Seeing the terrifying half-man, half-wolf monster charging straight at him with shocking speed, the stench and violent killing intent arrived first.

Qi Yun's pupils constricted, and alarm bells rang in his heart.

"This is bad! His sense of smell and dynamic vision are too strong after the transformation."

"His straight-line sprinting speed is faster than I expected! Without the Space Imprint, I'll be caught very soon!"

As these thoughts raced through his mind, Zhang Qiang was already within ten meters, the cruelty in those eerie green slit pupils clearly visible.

"Whoosh!"

Qi Yun didn't hesitate; he raised his right hand and threw a knife marked with a Space Imprint, but not at Zhang Qiang.

Instead, he threw it at the trunk of a large tree about twenty meters away to his side and back!

The moment the knife embedded into the tree trunk, Qi Yun's figure suddenly blurred and vanished from where he stood!

Instant teleportation!

"Roar?!"

Zhang Qiang tore through the afterimage Qi Yun left behind with a swipe of his claw, missing his target, and let out a growl of shock and anger from his wolf maw.

He slammed to a halt, his thick limbs carving furrows into the ground, his slit pupils scanning rapidly.

He instantly locked onto Qi Yun, whose figure had just solidified beside the large tree twenty meters away!

"Don't think you can escape!"

The muffled roar sounded again. Zhang Qiang kicked off the ground with all fours, charging again with an even more violent posture, crushing every obstacle in his path.

Qi Yun's feet hadn't even touched the ground, but his gaze swept across the battlefield like lightning.

Zhang Qiang's remaining twelve subordinates, under Pointy-Mouth's shouting, were panic-strickenly flanking from both sides, trying to coordinate with their wolf-transformed leader.

They couldn't be allowed to surround him!

Qi Yun's eyes turned cold. Just before Zhang Qiang lunged for the second time, he threw another knife with his left hand, this time targeting a minion to his front right.

At the same time, he locked his mind onto another, previously placed and undiscovered Space Imprint on the edge of the thatched hut. "Shift!"

His figure flickered and vanished again, reappearing at the edge of the thatched hut. The knife thrown by his left hand precisely embedded itself in the minion's throat.

"Took one out."

Qi Yun counted silently, rolling forward with the momentum of his teleportation, just barely dodging another tearing claw attack from Zhang Qiang.

The wolf claw grazed his back, carving deep cracks into the ground. Qi Yun then hurried to teleport to the knife that had killed the minion.

"Roar!!"

Missing repeatedly made Zhang Qiang furious; he suddenly stood on his hind legs.

His scarlet slit pupils swept over the subordinates who were too afraid to get too close but were blocking some of his paths; the agitation and desire for destruction in his beast nature surged. "Get out of the way! Useless trash!"

He roared muffledly, and actually swiped a claw at a subordinate who was standing in his path and couldn't dodge in time!

"Brother Qiang, no!" The scream was cut short as the subordinate was torn in two at the waist, blood and entrails splattering everywhere.

"Another one dead."

Qi Yun calmly processed the information while throwing another knife. This time, it was aimed at a target to his left holding a wooden spear, who was frozen in fear.

The moment the knife pierced through the eye, he activated the imprint he had placed earlier in the bushes on the other side of the camp. "Shift!"

His figure flickered and appeared behind the bushes, just as the minion killed by the knife fell to the ground. "Third one."

The killing and teleporting were completed in an instant. Qi Yun tried to create distance, but Zhang Qiang's tracking ability after the transformation was extremely strong. He adjusted his direction almost the moment Qi Yun appeared and roared as he lunged again, his speed even faster than before!

Qi Yun kept using the pre-placed or newly thrown knife imprints to teleport. He was elusive in the forest outside the thatched hut, like a ghost teasing a tiger. "Pfft!" "Ugh!" Screams rang out from time to time as Zhang Qiang knocked his subordinates who were in his way half-dead.

But the pressure on Qi Yun was also growing. In his extreme rage, some kind of beastly instinct seemed to have been awakened in Zhang Qiang.

He was capturing the patterns of Qi Yun's teleportation and the faint spatial fluctuations more and more accurately, nearly intercepting him several times the moment Qi Yun completed the teleportation.

Once again, Qi Yun just appeared after teleporting from an imprint point thirty meters away, and Zhang Qiang actually turned and lunged in advance, as if predicting it!

It was too close; there was no time to teleport again! "I have to risk it!"

A fierce look flashed in Qi Yun's eyes. Instead of retreating, he advanced, turning his body slightly and pouring all his newly upgraded Lv4 strength into his right arm.

The slightly illusory Blade of Space solidified a bit more, and he delivered a sharp, straight thrust toward Zhang Qiang's lunging chest!

"Clang!!!" A piercing, ear-splitting sound like metal clashing exploded!

The Blade of Space struck Zhang Qiang's chest, covered in dense bristles, but it felt like stabbing into the toughest old cowhide mixed with steel!

"What?!" Qi Yun's heart shook violently. This charged attack couldn't even break his defense?!

"Roar!!" Zhang Qiang, feeling the pain, became even more furious and took the opportunity to swipe his claw viciously at Qi Yun's face!

The claw wind was sharp and unavoidable!

Qi Yun's pupils constricted rapidly, and he exerted all his mental energy to connect with the nearest knife imprint! "Shift!"

At the critical moment when the wolf claw was about to crush his skull, his figure faded again.

However, Zhang Qiang's claw was too fast and too fierce, and the tip ultimately grazed Qi Yun's left shoulder as he hurriedly dodged! Blood sprayed!

Three wounds, deep enough to see bone, were slashed from Qi Yun's left shoulder to his collarbone, and intense pain followed.

But he finally managed to teleport away at the last second, appearing under another tree twenty meters away, stumbling, his face turning pale instantly.

"Hrr... hrr..." Zhang Qiang's claw hit empty air, blasting a large crater into the ground where Qi Yun had been standing.

He shook the blood off his claws, cruelty and triumph intertwined in his eerie green slit pupils.

Just then, Zhang Qiang's beastly instinct seemed to have finally grasped that fleeting key!

His gaze suddenly shifted toward the area near where Qi Yun had just appeared. A throwing knife was nailed to the tree trunk, trembling slightly.

On it remained the same fluctuation that he hated, similar to when Qi Yun teleported.

He looked at the places where Qi Yun had appeared earlier; did they all have these little things? "It's this!" The muffled roar carried a rage of sudden realization.

He no longer rushed to lunge at Qi Yun, but instead turned sharply and pounced on the tree trunk with the knife, his giant claws sweeping across!

"Crack!" The tree trunk snapped, the knife on it was knocked off and twisted, and the Space Imprint on it fluctuated violently before completely dissipating.

Qi Yun's heart sank! He had discovered it! The subsequent pursuit turned into a nightmare.

Every time Qi Yun was forced to teleport to escape, Zhang Qiang would first search for and destroy the nearby knife used as a coordinate after missing his attack!

It became impossible for Qi Yun to even retrieve his knives.

One, two, three, four. Four of the five throwing knives Qi Yun carried were destroyed by Zhang Qiang.

The several imprint points he had pre-placed were also quickly destroyed by Zhang Qiang with overwhelming force.

The coordinate points where Qi Yun could safely teleport decreased sharply, and his range of movement was significantly compressed.

The wounds on his body bled continuously due to constant vigorous movement, and his stamina and mental energy were being depleted at a high rate.

But Zhang Qiang didn't give Qi Yun a single moment to catch his breath.

He charged at Qi Yun immediately, and there were no other locations left to teleport to.

A desperate situation. He couldn't break the defense, the coordinates were destroyed, and he was out of stamina.

Qi Yun's brain worked at high speed, but he couldn't deduce any possibility of victory.

The absolute strength, defense, and beastly instinct of the wolf-transformed Zhang Qiang were like an insurmountable mountain.

Was he really going to die here? No! There was still a chance!

His gaze swept across the battlefield. On the ground lay corpses scattered everywhere, and some of them hadn't completely breathed their last!

Experience points! He was still a little short of leveling up!

Lv5, if it unlocked a new ability, that might be the turning point!

And the only thing that could let him instantly get close to these "experience packs" was that weak, almost forgotten imprint left on Xiao Er initially!

Xiao Er was currently lying among the corpses, playing dead.

Gamble it! A flash of resolute fierceness crossed Qi Yun's eyes. He concentrated all his mental energy on that weak imprint, communicating, locating! "Shift!"

The moment the teleportation was complete, he endured the intense pain, the Blade of Space flashed in his hand, and he precisely sliced across the throats of the two nearest critically wounded and dying enemies on the ground!

[Killed Lv1 enemy, experience +50]

[Killed Lv1 enemy, experience +50]

[Congratulations, you have leveled up to Lv5! All attributes significantly increased!]

[Unlocked new skill: Space Slash (Basic)!]

Power like a surging tide instantly swept through his entire body!

More importantly, a brand new, deeper, and more tyrannical spatial power condensed in his palm.

All of this happened in a flash of lightning.

"Roar!!" Although Zhang Qiang didn't understand what had happened, his beastly instinct made him feel a fatal threat!

He didn't hesitate, abandoned all thought, and lunged at the highest speed of his life toward Qi Yun, who had just finished leveling up and had his back to him!

This is it! Facing the suffocating shadow of death lunging at him, there was no more panic or despair in his eyes, only killing intent sharp to the extreme.

He didn't dodge, he didn't block; he just slowly raised his right hand and drew an arc in the air. Space Slash!

There was no deafening explosion, no dazzling collision, only a faint "crack" sound, as if glass were shattering.

Time seemed to be infinitely stretched and frozen at this moment. A straight, smooth silver line appeared from the center of Zhang Qiang's forehead, vertical and downward.

It pierced through Zhang Qiang's entire wolf-transformed body, neatly dividing it into two halves.

The leader of Tribe 14, Zhang Qiang, was instantly killed by this understated slash!

A deathly silence blanketed the blood-soaked forest.

The remaining three members of Tribe 14, including Pointy-Mouth and Xiao Er, looked at Qi Yun as if they were looking at a god of death.

They all fled in panic into the forest.

Qi Yun swayed into the Tribe 14 thatched hut.

Ten girls were huddled in the corner.

"You are free." Qi Yun said indifferently, then walked toward the road home.

The hunt was over.