Swallowed Star: Lord of the Wolf

Outside Xuanhu City, to the northeast.

The terrain is treacherous, backed by the vast and desolate "Ancient Wilderness Plain" stretching for hundreds of millions of miles. The environment here is harsh, with miasma and underground evil energy intertwined, forming a natural treacherous place. Resources are scarce and the population is sparse.

Only the wilderness tribes, who have lived here for generations and are accustomed to the harsh environment, are like tenacious moss, scattered in some relatively stable areas deep in the wilderness, struggling to survive.

At this moment, a boy of fifteen or sixteen was fleeing for his life through a rugged, black stone forest. He was lean, his skin a bronze color from years of wind and sun, covered with tiny scratches. His simple animal skin clothing was torn in several places by thorns and sharp rocks, revealing his strong muscles and bleeding wounds.

He was breathing heavily, each breath carrying the metallic, bloody smell of rust, his chest heaving violently like a broken bellows.

Not far behind him came a chilling roar, like the scraping of metal.

A giant lizard, over three zhang long, covered in dark brown, hard bone armor, with its four claws gleaming with a cold blue light, was chasing after its prey. The beast's scarlet vertical pupils were fixed on the tiny creature in front of it, and the saliva dripping from its mouth was highly corrosive, scorching the ground and sending up hissing white smoke.

"Damn it! Why can't I shake him off!" 'Jing's heart sank to the bottom. He just wanted to go deep into this abandoned mine area to find some "Black Fiend Stones" of slightly better quality to exchange for cultivation resources.

Unexpectedly, he was so unlucky. The abandoned mine, which had always been quite safe, was now home to an adult bone lizard that had just built its nest. This bone lizard was a whole realm stronger than him. He was able to escape for so long thanks to his movement techniques and familiarity with the Black Stone Forest environment.

As if it had eyes in the back, it dodged an attack, but the bloody wind brought by the bone lizard's pounce almost sent him flying. Sharp bone claws grazed his back, leaving a burning pain.

"I can't die here, my mother and sister are still waiting for me!" A fierce will to survive burst forth in his shocked eyes, and he bit his lower lip deeply. He suddenly spun around, his body sliding close to a huge cone-shaped stone pillar beside him.

Boom!

The bone lizard couldn't stop in time, and its massive body slammed into the stone pillar, sending shards of stone flying. But after only a slight stumble, it shook its head and chased after it even more ferociously.

Jing used his familiarity with the terrain to dash left and right through the crevices of the stone forest, encountering numerous dangers.

The sounds of tearing animal hides, the roars of bone lizards, and the cracking of rocks mingled together. His divine power was rapidly fading, his vision began to blur, and his legs felt like lead.

"There's a crack ahead... there's a crack ahead!" In a startled glance, he saw a narrow crevice between two huge black rocks ahead, just big enough for one person to squeeze through sideways.

The hope of survival was ignited in an instant!

He used his last bit of strength and rushed towards the crack like an arrow released from a bow!

The bone lizard wasn't stupid; it clearly realized his intentions. It let out a deafening roar, its speed suddenly increasing. It opened its blood-red maw filled with fangs, and a foul-smelling breath with strong corrosive and paralyzing effects gushed out, instantly enveloping Jing's back.

Chi Chi Chi!
Startled, he only had time to pull his shield behind him, but unfortunately, he couldn't completely block it in such a hurry. He immediately felt as if a scorching hot iron had been pressed hard against his back, and the excruciating pain, accompanied by a strong sense of numbness, instantly spread throughout his body.

He groaned, his vision went black, and he lost his balance, but the immense inertia still propelled him forward.

Pfft!
He practically tumbled as he crashed into the narrow crevice, his body scraping against the rough rock as he plummeted downwards, leaving more wounds. After an unknown amount of time, he finally landed heavily on the relatively soft sandy ground inside the cave, kicking up a cloud of dust.

Outside the cave entrance, the bone lizard's enormous head angrily slammed against the narrow crevice, producing a dull thud as gravel rained down.

But it dared not go down; there was an aura of fear within it.

After lingering for a long time, finally, after a reluctant growl, the huge figure of the bone lizard slowly withdrew from the dim light of the crevice. The heavy footsteps, accompanied by suppressed hisses, gradually faded away and eventually disappeared into the wind of the wasteland.

……

The bone lizard...didn't chase after us?
A sense of absurd relief rose within him amidst the shock, but the intense pain and numbness in his body immediately pulled him back to reality.

He must save himself!
Otherwise, even if they weren't eaten by the ferocious beasts, they would die here from their injuries and the spread of the toxins.

He struggled, using his still-movable arm to prop himself up. Each movement aggravated the horrific wound on his back, causing him excruciating pain that made his vision blur and cold sweat instantly soaked through the tattered animal hide. He tried to summon the last remaining divine power within him, even a trace, just to temporarily suppress the poison and give him the ability to find a way out or... or wait for rescue.

However, when he tried to concentrate—

A vast, cold, and deathly pressure, like that of a sleeping ancient behemoth, suddenly entered his mind.

The pressure was immense.

So pure.

If the aura of the Bone-Eating Lizard is a raging flame, then this oppressive force is an eternal ice that freezes the soul, an endless abyss that buries gods and demons.

It was silent, yet it instantly filled every inch of the cave, so heavy it seemed to crush his soul into powder.

His body stiffened instantly in shock!

Even breathing stopped!
The wisp of divine power that had just been gathered instantly dissipated!
An irresistible fear, originating from the deepest recesses of his being, coiled around his heart like a cold, venomous snake, gripping it tightly. His blood seemed to freeze and solidify in that instant.

With difficulty, inch by inch, like a rusty puppet, he turned his stiff neck, his eyes filled with endless fear, towards the darkness at the deepest part of the cave from which the oppressive aura emanated.

Just as those eyes, which had instinctively adapted to the dim light in the darkness, finally saw the scene in the darkness clearly.

boom--! ! !
His mind went blank.

Fear, like the most violent thunder, instantly shattered all his consciousness, his thoughts froze completely, and his soul trembled and screamed!
That's not darkness at all!
It was a... a terrifying behemoth, as large as a mountain range, that almost filled the entire depths of the cave.

Its form is indescribable. Its main body resembles a giant earthworm magnified 100,000 times. However, what covers its entire body is not soft segments, but rather huge, thick, dark golden scales that shimmer with a cold metallic light. Each scale is as large as a millstone, with sharp edges like knives, and is naturally engraved with complex and twisted strange runes that seem to contain the pulse of the earth and the folds of space.

Its massive body, like a frozen, winding metal mountain, cast a despairing shadow deep within the cave.

What is most chilling is its head, which is not a blunt, rounded shape like an earthworm, but rather resembles that of a legendary earth-dwelling dragon. Its enormous, ferocious maw, like a tunnel boring machine's drill bit, is wide open, revealing spirally arranged, gleaming, sharp teeth that seem capable of easily crushing even the hardest divine metal.

Above the mouthparts, where the eyes should be, there are only two bottomless, dark holes that seem to lead to an endless abyss!
This terrifying earthworm, beyond description, simply sat there silently, deathly still, but the terrifying life force emanating from its enormous body, belonging to the level of a Void True God, was like an invisible millstone, crushing the tiny soul.

Faced with such an existence, he felt smaller than a speck of dust. Compared to it, the previous Bone-Eating Lizard was like an ant looking up at the stars.

“Void…Void True God…” His lips moved unconsciously in shock, but no sound came out. Only the tribe’s chief had this kind of strength. Now he had broken into its lair.
He was completely overwhelmed by endless fear.

He understood, he understood completely.

Why are the Bone-Eating Lizards afraid to come in?

I actually... stumbled into the lair of such a being, and even fell right in front of it! I'm doomed!

Dead!
There was no room for error!

His eyes, gleaming with shock, lost all light, leaving only pure despair and blankness. He even gave up struggling, gave up thinking, and like a lamb to the slaughter, he lay stiffly limp on the cold mud, his eyes tightly closed, waiting for that terrifying maw to devour him, or for the other party to simply roll over unconsciously and crush him into mincemeat.

Time seemed to stretch on endlessly amidst the extreme fear.

One second...two seconds...three seconds...

The expected excruciating pain and annihilation did not occur.

Only the cold, deathly stillness and the oppressive aura of an ancient iceberg deep within the cave continued to shroud everything, unchanged and without any sign of life.

Deathly silence.

Only his own heavy, blood-tinged breathing and the pounding of his heart in his chest, sounding almost like it was about to explode, were clearly audible in the deathly silent cave.

He waited for what felt like an eternity.

The scythe of death always hangs in the air.

what happened?

A faint thought, like a firefly in the darkness, flickered weakly in a consciousness frozen by fear.

It...didn't move?
Is it... asleep?
It... is dead?
This thought spread like wildfire, and the instinct for survival once again overwhelmed the fear.

Startled, he opened his eyes, his gaze filled with disbelief, a mixture of extreme fear and a sliver of desperate hope, and stared once more intently at the terrifying, mountain-like colossal figure deep within the cave.

This time, he observed more carefully and more boldly. He suppressed the immense pressure on his soul as his gaze lingered on the dark gold, rune-covered scales.

Without the rise and fall of its breath, its massive body was like the coldest metal sculpture, deathly still and chilling. Its crouching posture was also unusually stiff, not like sleeping, but more like... frozen.

His gaze, ultimately drawn uncontrollably by an invisible force, fell upon the most ferocious and terrifying head of this Void God-level earthworm—above its enormous, abyss-like maw.

At the top of the behemoth's monstrous head, resembling a tunnel boring machine's drill bit, near the center, lay a massive, shocking gash, as if ripped apart by the most violent lightning bolt—

A glimmer of silver light was quietly shimmering.

The light was not dazzling; in fact, it was rather faint, like a lone star in the night sky.

But against the backdrop of the enormous, deathly silent, and terrifyingly oppressive dark golden heads surrounding it, this point of silver light emitted an indescribable radiance that surpassed even the corpse of this Void God…

It was deeply embedded in the skull, like a nail from outer space, pinning this terrifying being, capable of shaking the earth, firmly to the dark depths of the earth.

"What...what is that?!" My heart nearly jumped out of my throat in shock; the immense shock instantly overwhelmed any remaining fear.

What is that silvery light?
What was it that... killed this Void God?!
Curiosity, mixed with the immense shock of surviving the ordeal and an instinctive awe and longing for that mysterious silver light, eroded his reason like a poison.

The pain and numbness seemed to have subsided temporarily.

He must see this clearly!

A voice screamed wildly in his heart.

Jing gritted his teeth and struggled with all his might, inching forward like a worm towards the mountain of corpses. The wound on his back rubbed against the rough ground, each movement bringing excruciating pain, but he ignored it all.

His body was covered in mud, gravel, and blood fragments that had long since dried and congealed into dark purple crystals, scattered from the earthworm carcass.

The distance is slowly closing.

The chilling pressure emanating from the corpse grew stronger and stronger, like waves of icy water crashing against his will.

Twenty zhang... ten zhang... five zhang...

He finally moved to a position where he could see the details of the wound clearly.

hiss!
The moment I saw it clearly, I gasped in shock.

The wound was even more terrifying than he had seen it from a distance. It was a huge penetrating wound with a diameter of over a hundred feet. The flesh and carapace at the edges were not torn or charred, but rather showed a complete, microscopic "annihilation," as if it had been directly erased from the level of existence by some incomprehensible force!

The fracture surface is smooth as a mirror, presenting an eerie, black glass-like texture.

At the very center of the wound, deeply embedded in the hardest part of the skull, was a simple, antique-looking token, neither gold nor jade.

The token is about a foot long and palm-width wide, its entire surface exhibiting a warm, understated yet profoundly deep silver-white color. The material is neither jade nor gold, seemingly forged from solidified moonlight and starlight. The token's surface is devoid of any intricate patterns, except for a single, minimalist mark in the center, exuding an indescribable aura of antiquity and majesty!
The mark was not carved, but rather resembled a naturally formed Dao pattern, its silver light flowing, as if it might break free at any moment and tear apart the chaos.

At this moment, the silver-white token is quietly inserted deep into the earthworm's head.

The light it emitted was very soft, but one could sense an indescribable supreme will emanating from it, surpassing the oppressive aura of the void god's corpse before them, seemingly originating from the fundamental laws of the universe.

It was this remaining, condensed willpower that formed that terrifying wound, a fatal blow.

It was this very pressure of will, even if it was just a remnant and unconsciously emanating, that prevented the ferocious bone lizard from even stepping into the cave! This earthworm, a true god of the void, had no chance to resist and was eternally nailed to this spot.

“A token… one… a token… killed it?” Shocked’s mind was completely in chaos.

This was completely beyond his comprehension. A token? To kill a Void God? What kind of power was this? What level of treasure was this?!

He stared blankly at the silver token, at the Dao patterns flowing on it.

An irresistible desire, originating from the depths of his soul, blazed within him like wildfire—this was his chance to change his destiny! (End of Chapter)