“So… are we settled now?” Xue Ji deftly avoided the Wolf King’s half-hearted resistance, her tone gentle.
Having obtained Fenrir’s heart, the Wolf King’s anger had already subsided—she could clearly sense the sincerity in Xue Ji’s actions. Now calmer, she quickly noticed something unusual about Xue Ji.
‘This human seems like two different people when her hair is white versus black. The white-haired version… isn’t so bad.’
The Wolf King stared at Xue Ji, her expression still slightly pouty, cheeks puffed up in lingering irritation.
“Put me down.”
Xue Ji obliged, setting the little one on the ground. The Wolf King wobbled unsteadily, her short legs unsure whether to step forward or back. Even as she nearly toppled over, she stubbornly clung to Fenrir’s heart. To regain balance, her right hand instinctively shot out—
“Hm?”
Xue Ji suddenly found herself with a small child latched onto her leg. The grip was tight, and the sensation… odd.
The Wolf King, meanwhile, caught a whiff of something pleasant—a faint, soothing fragrance. Curiosity piqued, she sniffed harder.
A small, overly inquisitive hand began patting around, making Xue Ji shift awkwardly. “Uh… is something wrong?”
“You smell nice.” The beast-eared little girl had now fully attached herself to Xue Ji, looking utterly entranced. She couldn’t understand why this human carried such an appealing scent.
“Probably just my soap. Can you let go now?” Xue Ji’s hand brushed against the girl’s fluffy ears, sending a ticklish shiver up her arm.
The Wolf King’s ears twitched. “Then apologize first!”
“Fine, fine. Just get down.” Xue Ji felt like she was coaxing a fussy niece at a family gathering.
Once the little wolf was back on solid ground, Xue Ji crouched to properly apologize—and took the opportunity to give those velvety ears an experimental rub. Not bad.
Scar-Eye watched the entire exchange in bewilderment.
‘What’s going on? Why is Big Sis acting so submissive toward this villain?’
After a moment of intense pondering, it had an epiphany.
‘Ah! She must be lulling the human into a false sense of security before delivering a fatal strike!’
Convinced it had cracked the code, Scar-Eye shot Xue Ji a look brimming with smug triumph.
Xue Ji, finding the dopey wolf’s expression hilarious, fished out a massive meaty bone from her storage space—leftover from an otherworldly striped rock goat. Tall, flavorful, but notoriously tough.
(She’d recently noticed items in her interdimensional storage no longer spoiled, as if time had frozen for them after her arrival in this world.)
Scar-Eye stared at the bone, torn between maintaining its vigilant stance and surrendering to instinct. The internal struggle lasted all of two seconds before it lunged for the prize, devouring the treat under its sister’s exasperated gaze.
“Wait, why am I stuck like this? Where are my claws?” The Wolf King frowned, flexing her now-hairless limbs. The lack of fur left her feeling unsettlingly exposed.
The Monarch Deer answered, “Your duel triggered this land’s shaping laws. It forced your transformation.”
“Can I change back? This human body is so weak.” She scowled at her slender hands and legs.
The Old Ape suddenly chimed in, voice dripping with faux sympathy: “Nope. And once shaped, you’ll be expelled from the secret realm. In a few days, you won’t even be able to return. Ah, such tragedy!”
The Wolf King’s eyes instantly welled up. She whirled toward the Monarch Deer—only to see it hesitate under the Old Ape’s frantic eye signals before staying silent.
Panic set in.
Banished from her home? Stripped of her mighty form?
Tears spilled over. With a loud “WAAAH—!”, she plopped onto her own drooping tail and began bawling.
“I don’t wanna leave! Don’t wanna goooo!”
Xue Ji, spotting the Old Ape’s poorly hidden grin, couldn’t suppress a chuckle. The sound made the little wolf instantly bristle. Still hiccuping from tears, she staggered over.
“Stupid human! Don’t laugh!” She weakly swatted at Xue Ji, her whole body trembling from suppressed sobs. A particularly violent hiccup sent Fenrir’s heart tumbling to the ground, forcing her to scoop it back up between gasps.
Pitiful? Yes.
Hilarious? Also yes.
Xue Ji laughed again—then held the flailing child at arm’s length by her forehead, rendering her attacks harmless.
After thirty minutes of coaxing (and the Old Ape finally fessing up), the exhausted Wolf King finally cried herself to sleep in Xue Ji’s arms.
…..
The Monarch Deer, silent until now, spoke gravely:
“Enough distractions. Human, bring the Wolf Lord and follow me.”
Scar-Eye immediately tensed. “ROAR! What are you plotting?!” Another chaotic scuffle ensued.
Xue Ji, watching the fur fly, decided these beasts were endlessly entertaining.
…
Guided by the Monarch Deer, Xue Ji carried the sleeping Wolf King deep into the forest—past glowing giant mushrooms, around a mountainous serpent skeleton, and finally to an ancient tree. Beneath it gaped a cavern pulsing with eerie light.
Xue Ji recognized the glow instantly: magical runes, though of a cultivation-world style.
Inside the cave, the light intensified, revealing a vast chamber. Stone figures—some towering twenty meters, others barely two—stood arranged in an ever-shifting Bagua formation.
The Monarch Deer halted. The Wolf King stirred sleepily but opted to stay nestled against Xue Ji (who now felt like a living pillow).
“In ancient times,” the deer intoned, “a great calamity scourged the land. Our ancestors’ master left behind prophecies and artifacts here, commanding our lineage to guard them until the foretold ones arrived.”
Xue Ji listened with a “yep, saw this coming” expression. The Wolf King, however, just looked confused and impatient.
Receiving zero reaction, the Monarch Deer’s solemn facade cracked. Was the prophecy wrong? Is this really the destined duo?
Its deep, mystical voice slipped into a much younger tone: “Ahem. Could you two at least pretend to care?”
“You’ve got a nice voice,” Xue Ji remarked, feeling trapped in an unskippable cutscene.
“Awooo! Hurry up! I need to get back!” The little wolf’s tail lashed as she eyed the heart-turned-ice-cube in Xue Ji’s hand.
“I’ll hold onto it for now, okay?”
Ears perking, the Wolf King schemed for half a second before nuzzling closer. “Deal!”
(Being young and newly crowned after her predecessor’s mysterious death, she’d never bothered learning the pack’s deeper secrets.)
Defeated, the Monarch Deer dropped the theatrics.
“Fine. Take the artifact and figure it out yourselves.”
“Who takes it?” Xue Ji asked.
“Both of you.”