The Lord of Void and Real

He wasn’t sure whether it was due to exhaustion or the relief of returning the jade pillow object to its original place, but he slept particularly well for the night.

Upon waking, he felt refreshed and full of energy. After washing up, he headed to the Jade Emperor Hall to cultivate, his condition excellent throughout the day.

The only drawback was that he had trouble falling asleep that night for some unknown reason.

However, on the third day, after another good night’s sleep, he finally managed to put his anxieties to rest.

Several days later, it was nightfall.

Shen Luo lit an oil lamp and sat at his desk, flipping through the “Zhang Heavenly Master’s Demon-Subduing Chronicle”. Next to his hand were a stack of Xuan paper and a small hard-tipped awl.

The previous nightmares seemed to have departed from him now.

But the life-saving wonder of the talismans in the book had made a deep impression on Shen Luo. So, since the day before yesterday, he had taken to copying the talismans from the book onto the white paper each night.

Among them, the one he focused on the most was the “Small Thunder Talisman”, an offensive type talisman that he valued most.

He hadn’t practiced this talisman much before, as he hadn’t had the demon-subduing book for very long. But the act of drawing talismans and practicing calligraphy had some similarities, so constant practice never hurt.

However, drawing talismans relied on integrating Qi into God’s Power, so if one merely sought to achieve a physical likeness, it wouldn’t be too challenging. But if one wanted to capture some semblance of the divine charm, it would be quite draining.

After drawing over a dozen talismans, Shen Luo began to feel fatigued.

Rubbing his slightly aching brow, he packed away his brush and ink. Not long after lying down, he felt waves of drowsiness washing over him, and his consciousness sank abruptly.

…

After an unknown amount of time, when Shen Luo was in a half-awake, half-asleep state, a mournful howl suddenly rang out beside his ear, and a strong smell of blood filled his nostrils.

A chill ran through his heart, and he abruptly opened his eyes, only to find a face covered in fresh blood. It was staring back at him with wide, horrified eyes, and was almost pressed up against his own face.

“Ah…”

With a shout of fright, Shen Luo shoved his hands forward, pushing off the corpse that was pressed up against him.

Before he could figure out what was happening, a nauseating smell of blood suddenly assailed him from above.

Shen Luo’s pupils dilated as he saw a huge gray wolf’s head lunging towards him, its mouth wide open, ready to bite into his neck. Strands of bloody flesh hung from its jagged fangs.

His mind was greatly shaken and his thoughts blanked out. Operating on instinct alone, he twisted his body and rolled to one side, the foul smell of the wolf’s mouth brushing past his nose.

Immediately after, he felt a sharp pain in his legs. The large body of the gray wolf, having pounced on him, was now pinning him down.

He had seen wolf carcasses brought in by hunters in Chunhua County. They were a size bigger than the largest hunting dogs in the city. But the wolf that was on top of him was one-third larger than those carcasses.

Forcing himself to remain calm, Shen Luo had no time to think about what was happening, he could only struggle to break free from the weight of the wolf.

However, the gray wolf was extremely heavy. In his panic, Shen Luo was unable to shake it off. Instead, the wolf managed to stand up after violently dragging its body back.

Before Shen Luo had the chance to make his escape, he felt another nauseating smell of blood, and the gray wolf turned its head around to bite at his neck again.

Shen Luo, who had managed to calm down, was quicker this time. He rolled to avoid the wolf’s jaws, wrapped his arms around the wolf’s neck, and scrambled onto its back.

But the Gray Wolf didn’t give him a chance, its body pushed downwards, causing both of them to fall to the ground.

Shen Luo was heavily pressed under the wolf this time. However, his hands didn’t let go, desperately strangling the wolf’s neck. He strained his shoulders upwards, seemingly attempting to snap the wolf’s neck.

The Gray Wolf naturally didn’t just surrender. It abruptly stood up again, violently swinging its head side to side, trying to shake Shen Luo off.

Shen Luo knew that once shaken off, he would have no chance of avoiding its lethal jaws. As his hands remained firm, his legs also clung to the wolf’s abdomen. He was dangling from the wolf’s body like a monkey.

The Gray Wolf continuously growled lowly, its body leaping up, repeatedly smashing into the nearby walls, endeavoring to throw Shen Luo off.

Now that Shen Luo had finally found points of leverage with both his hands and legs, he was unwilling to let go.

He also released a beast-like growl from his mouth, his arms’ veins bulging as if about to burst. Now he was using all his strength to strangle the Gray Wolf.

The Gray Wolf struggled violently, slamming its body, with Shen Luo still clinging onto it, onto the ground repeatedly.

Shen Luo gritted his teeth, burying his head into the wolf’s neck, making up his mind that even if he were to die, he must not let go.

As he continued to apply more force, the Gray Wolf was severely choked. It exhaled more than it could inhale, and its breath gradually became heavier. From its nostrils came constant “huffing and puffing” sounds.

A moment later, the Wolf’s steps gradually became weak, and it collapsed against a nearby wall.

Shen Luo’s forehead and cheeks were soaked with sweat. Not knowing whether the Gray Wolf was dead, his hand gripping the wolf’s neck remained firm. His left hand tightly held onto his right arm, causing dark purple bruises to emerge on his arm. It was not until the Gray Wolf in his arms ceased to tremble entirely that he slowly released his hands and crawled out from under the wolf’s body.

The Gray Wolf was indeed dead. Its crimson tongue hung out from its mouth, with large patches of bloody foam spilling out.

Having narrowly escaped death, Shen Luo was somewhat dazed. His heart pounded furiously in his chest. It was only at this moment that he finally had a chance to look around and try to figure out what was happening.

But after one look, his face became even more grave.

At this moment, he was standing at the edge of a broken city wall. On the city’s pathway were numerous young and middle-aged men armed with weapons, fighting a fierce battle with dozens of huge Gray Wolves.

The clothing and weapons of these young and middle-aged men varied. Some wore crude armor made of iron, some wielded finely made iron spears, while others fought bare-chested with bronze hammers in their hands, forming groups of three or five to fight a single wolf.

“Is this another dream?” Shen Luo thought blankly.

With this thought, he felt a severe pain in his thigh, and when he looked down, he discovered that his leg had been wounded during his fight with the Gray Wolf, and that half of his trousers had been stained red with blood.

Shen Luo grimaced in pain, just as he was about to find something to bind the wound, a gust of rancid wind blew from his side and another Gray Wolf rushed out ferociously, and crashed heavily into him.

Shen Luo was caught off guard and felt a sharp pain in his waist. His body was flung out like a ragged sack, and he tumbled off from the nearby broken wall, plummeting towards the city’s outskirts.

On his descent, Shen Luo saw that outside the city walls was a massive cluster of wolves. They lined up and advanced from across the moat, not only filling the river channel, but also densely piled up to attack the city, covering the entire outer wall of the city.

Among these wolves, sprinkled here and there were Black Wolves that were twice the size of the average Gray Wolves. With tusks like hooks and eyes radiating a ferocious glow, they truly lived up to the name of fierce beasts.

Before he could see more, his body crashed heavily into the pack of wolves.

The Gray Wolves surrounding him, which had been vying to climb to the top of the city, immediately turned around and rushed over, ferociously tearing at him.

Shen Luo had no chance of struggling. His legs, arms, shoulders, and neck were all fiercely bitten by the foul-smelling wolf mouths.

All he felt was an intense pain throughout his body. His vision blurred, and once again, he plunged into endless darkness.