Dual wielding volcanoes, killing through the west

“Take my advice, madam. You’ve won the lottery. Redeem it and go back to live a good life,” Gisele said in a deep voice.

"A grand prize? What grand prize?" Xiaomei sneered, "I even have to pay out 200!"

“You’re still alive, and you still have a chance to get out unscathed. That’s the greatest reward.” Giselle’s tone was icy. He shredded his clothes with a knife, made strips of cloth, and tried to bandage his wounds. “Don’t be obsessed with revenge. That’s a price you can’t afford. It’s not worth sacrificing your whole life for it.”

If you only listened to these words, they might actually make some sense. The problem was that these words came from the mouth of her father's killer, and in a tone that said, "I'm doing this for your own good." Xiaomei didn't even know how she finished listening; she only felt a ringing in her ears and her head buzzing.

She had no advantage in terms of timing, location, or people, but she couldn't stand it anymore.

To endure it for even a second longer would be an insult to myself and my father.

Do you know Barry Marston?

"..." Giselle suddenly stopped what she was doing, as if she realized something.

His expression shifted slightly, his gaze towards her becoming increasingly complex. Just as Xiaomei hadn't noticed anything amiss with the previous "Giselle," the rage of revenge had filled her completely, threatening to explode. At this moment, she didn't notice many details, only staring intently at Giselle, her eyes bloodshot and bulging with fury!

“I’m sorry, ma’am,” he replied. “I don’t remember.”

……

"ah----!!!"

After a brief moment of calm, Xiaomei suddenly let out a wild, unrestrained scream, drew her dagger, and, just like Professor Zhang Renfeng, stabbed it towards her throat! Giselle was prepared for this and grabbed her wrist with her uninjured right hand, but found the strength to be terrifying, almost breaking free from his grasp, not at all like a fifteen-year-old girl.

"Calm down. I told you, this is a game for fools." Using her superior strength, Giselle easily subdued Mei. "You have no right to avenge him. Showing your claws rashly will only invite..."

Xiaomei didn't want to listen to his nonsense, or rather, she had heard enough of it.

She pounced on him, and with all her might, bit off one of Giselle's ears, causing them to tumble off the horse together.

Chapter 48: The Gray Wolf Mountains, True to Their Name

"Pooh!"

Spitting off the half-ear, Mei tasted Giselle's blood, and she felt an immense, almost frenzied excitement. Nothing in the world could compare; this was the taste of revenge—fascinating, addictive! She groped through the dirt, twigs, and weeds, finding a stone of the right size and shape, which she grasped in her hand.

"You idiot, can't you understand human language?!" Giselle's tone was somewhat annoyed, clutching her injured ear, the pain causing her to clench her fists. "I..."

"what--!!!"

Not only could she not understand human speech, but Mei was now practically unable to speak at all. Seven months of pent-up anger erupted in an instant, like a volcano, temporarily transforming her into a beast. She let out another piercing shriek, and, wielding the first weapon in human history—a stone—she smashed it down towards Giselle's head!

Yes, not throw, but hold it in your hand and smash it down hard. She didn't want to miss any of the delicate feel, including the dull thud of the stone hitting her enemy's head.

"Boom-!!"

Giselle was struck hard and fell to the ground. In her rapidly falling vision, a pair of green eyes suddenly appeared, hidden in the shadows, quietly watching the two identical species kill each other.

Bloodshed. Horses. And unrestrained screams.

He suddenly remembered the origin of the name Gray Wolf Mountains. The inhabitants of this mountain and this forest were not only humans!

“I am Messaria Marston, Barry Marston’s daughter. Don’t worry, I won’t kill you here… My father is a mounted policeman, a defender of justice and the law, so I will let justice and the law kill you!”

Xiao Mei held the stone high, her attention completely focused on him, oblivious to the changes in her surroundings and the threatening growls carried on the wind.

"As you are on the gallows, in the moments before you are hanged, I want you to know clearly that your fate is entirely, entirely, entirely because you killed my father!"

……

The gray Grim Reaper darted out from the shadows of the trees without a sound and pounced on Xiaomei, who was roaring in anger!

"Snapped!"

At the critical moment, Giselle gave her a hard shove, saving her from a bite aimed at her throat.

However, while she avoided the wolf's kiss, she couldn't avoid its claws. The sharp claws lightly grazed her face, leaving four bloody marks.

"what……"

Xiaomei felt excruciating pain on her face, and her right eye was instantly covered in blood, making it impossible for her to see clearly. Before she could even react to what was happening, she was tackled to the ground by a huge object. The difference in strength was so great that she had no chance to resist.

Through her blood-blinded vision, she could barely make out the creature's appearance: just as Mike had said, it looked like it had stepped out of her grandmother's horror stories, with a huge head, bared teeth protruding from its short snout, and a pair of eyes that gleamed with an eerie green light in the darkness.

Grey Wolf Mountains... Grey Wolf Mountains...

By the way, Mike was quite precise; the gray wolves weren't completely wiped out by humans, they simply fled deep into the mountains. It's just that years of dormancy seem to have made people forget this.

So, that's it?

The arduous journey of revenge, traversing mountains and rivers, has finally reached its climax, only to deliver a fresh meal to the Grim Reaper lurking in the mountains. Is this also God's arrangement? What about the joy and pain along the way, and the thrill of finally getting revenge?

In that instant, Xiaomei suddenly became absolutely convinced that God truly existed, but He was certainly not as merciful as people imagined. The gray wolf was His embodiment, telling her that regardless of good or evil, death would find everyone equally. This was probably one of the few things in the world that were truly equal.

She closed her eyes in despair, awaiting judgment.

……

"boom!"

Gunshots.

Giselle used her barely functional right hand to draw her revolver and fired a shot into the gray wolf's back. The wolf's fangs, about to strike Little Mei, twitched and let out a painful whimper. It suddenly turned its head to look at Giselle lying on the ground, its body arched, its gray fur shimmering in the moonlight, like a beast from another world.

“Shit…” Faced with the beast, Giselle was no longer so calm. The wound on his left shoulder was still bleeding, making it impossible for him to get up for a moment. He could only lie on his back and aim and fire with his right hand.

"Bang!" "Bang!" "Bang!"

Several shots were fired in quick succession, and it was hard to say whether they hit anything. The gray wolf leaped back and forth in the air and bit down on his arm. The gray wolf's bite force is around 700 pounds, which is about 318 kilograms. They can easily crush the skulls of large creatures. In its eyes, Giselle's arm was not even a hard dish, at best a small snack.

The upper and lower jaws snapped together, bones broke, and blood and flesh splattered everywhere.

"ah----!!!"

The excruciating pain of the physiological reaction was undoubtedly the hardest to suppress, and he was no exception. The revolver flew out of his hand, and the gray wolf bit his arm, violently swinging his body and tearing his entire arm off! Instantly, blood gushed out from the wound like a fountain. The pain rendered him powerless to resist, and his body instinctively curled up, as if awaiting his death.

The gray wolf growled, sniffed Giselle's scent, and after confirming that he was still alive, it did not rush to eat him. Instead, it bit Giselle's leg and tried to drag him into the depths of the jungle.

Suddenly, its wolf ears perked up, as if it had heard something, and it raised its head alertly.

……

An arrow shot out from the darkness and pierced its neck in an instant.

"Ouch..."

The gray wolf let out a mournful howl. This is the true nature of the world: hunter and prey, their roles reversed in an instant.

This seemed to be more than just a simple arrow; after striking the gray wolf, it quickly stopped moving, foaming at the mouth, and collapsed on the spot.

In a daze, Xiaomei saw a brown warhorse slowly emerge from the woods. The figure on horseback was tall and strong, and its crimson feathers were particularly conspicuous even in the darkness.

It was the Native American who helped bury the body...

Having escaped death, Xiaomei didn't settle down. A strange, inexplicable impulse surged within her, making her support her nearly broken body and crawl forward inch by inch. A burning pain shot through her face, and she was almost blind in her right eye, but none of that mattered.

Climb! Climb! We must keep climbing forward without stopping! It seems that if we don't see some things now, we'll never see them in our lifetime!

Giselle lay there, half-dead and panting, but Mei ignored her.

A trail of blood was left behind, like a signpost she had left behind.

Finally, Xiaomei arrived at her destination—the gray wolf's corpse. With all her might, she turned the gray wolf's body over and, with her less painful left eye, searched inch by inch of the skin until she found the bullet hole.

It was left behind when Giselle, in her impulsive act, fired at it in self-defense.

"Bullet holes, bullet holes... What's so interesting about bullet holes? Why should I look at bullet holes?" She didn't understand. Her head inexplicably felt hot, and the pain from her wounds seemed to seep into her flesh and stick to her face.

Xiaomei's thoughts gradually became chaotic, but she kept telling herself that she must never forget this scene.

The bullet hole was very small; it was just an ordinary revolver that fired an ordinary bullet. There was nothing particularly memorable about it.

Her body felt light, and she fainted.

Chapter 49: The Mark of the Wolf

In the dim light, the girl felt something pressing on her chest, preventing her from getting up, but she could hear the voices of the people around her.

"Don't look at me like that, old man. It may sound a bit far-fetched, but it's actually feasible."

A somewhat sly voice spoke up, “Fake identities, fake names—the things I handle are more real than real gold and silver. Randall Stevenson, birth certificate, social security number, and every trace of his life—he’s like a ghost, a phantom, Harvey the rabbit’s second cousin. Anyone can be him, and so can you.”

"You mean you can conjure someone up out of thin air and then have me take his place?" Mike's tone was somewhat teasing.

"To be precise, before you took over, he only existed in the document records."

Sly Jimmy chuckled and said, “Even if the Thunder Gang comes looking for you later, they’ll only find out it’s a fake name. You can use that identity to set up a business in New Elizabeth… How about a logging camp? From what I’ve observed, this business has great potential; you can make a lot of money in a few years.”

"..."

"Of course, whether you make money or not is secondary. The important thing is that you need a channel to legally spend the money you 'earned'. Look at Chaidel, he also robs others, so why is he never wanted by the police? It's because he has so many businesses under his control, all operating day and night, which allows him to make a lot of money on expenses!"

"...You're very eloquent." Mike didn't comment on his content, just made a nonchalant remark.

"This is for the future. I mean, look at you, you must be over fifty this year. How much longer can you live like this? A stable and sustainable business model is very necessary, don't you think, Boss Hongzhong?"

"It's too early to think about these things now, let's talk about it later..."

"She seems to have moved!" Alana's voice interrupted the discussion. Although she couldn't move, Xiaomei could still feel many burning gazes on her. She tried hard to respond to these expectations, exerting all her strength, but in the end, she could only barely open her eyes a crack.

Her first reaction was pain, especially on her face, which felt like it was about to split open. She reached out to touch it, but instead of skin, she felt only a thick layer of gauze. Her nasal cavity was filled with a foul smell—herbs, dirt, and some other, heaven-knows-what—smeared on her face.

Zhang Renfeng, Alana, Mike, and Jimmy McGill, the lawyer I'd met once in Poplar Town, were also there for some reason. Seeing me awake, their eyes held a mixture of joy and a vague, unspoken worry.

Xiao Mei had a vague idea of ​​what was going on.

"Where am I?" she asked instinctively. "How long have I been gone?"

“This is ‘Peregrine’s’ cabin. He’s the one who rescued you from the gray wolves,” Alana said, her voice filled with worry. “When we found you, you were already unconscious. He carried you back to the cabin, settled you down, and gave you emergency treatment for the wounds on your face, managing to stop the bleeding. But…”

In this era without cosmetic surgery, facial scars mean irreversible disfigurement, and it also means she will find it very difficult to find work through normal channels. No one wants to hire a girl with facial scars, and no one cares whether her scars were inflicted by a knife or torn open by a wolf's claws—it doesn't matter.

Alana hesitated for a long time, unsure how to begin, but from her hesitant attitude, Xiaomei already guessed everything.

She smiled.

When I smile, my face stings terribly.

The mark left by the gray wolf on her will never fade, as if to remind her of the weight and cost of revenge.

“Don’t be too pessimistic, Miss Marston. There’s a bright side to things. Please allow me to express my respect to you.” Jimmy gave her a proper bow. “To risk everything to avenge one’s blood relatives is truly admirable.”

"Revenge...revenge is nothing but a game for fools." Xiaomei slumped down like a dehydrated plant, completely uninterested. "Look at me now, Mr. McGill, do you really think so?"

“At the very least, your enemies aren’t doing well either. Giselle lost an arm and is locked in the stable. Since you were out of danger, the Red Center leader and the Peregrine Falcon have been doing everything they can to save him and keep him alive.”

“I’ll tell you what will happen next. You take him back to Windblown Sands, hand him over to the sheriff there, explain your situation, and ask him to execute Gisele.”

"For criminals who aren't wanted, it usually takes a day or two to go through the proper procedures. Then, on a sunny afternoon, you prepare celebratory champagne, go to the gallows, and watch him be hanged. Justice is served, and your parents' souls are comforted!"

"All that pain and endurance over such a long time will be transformed into joy in an instant! The champagne will be sweeter than you imagine; this is the taste of revenge earned through your own efforts!"

Jimmy is indeed very eloquent; rather, he excels at describing a concrete future and then drawing people into that world.

But for Xiaomei at this moment, this joy seemed ethereal and far less real than the pain on her face.

She threw back the covers and got out of bed, her body trembling.

"Your injury hasn't fully healed yet, you need to rest!" Although she said that, Alana still subconsciously helped her up. "Lie down for a while longer."

“…No, I think I’ve been lying here long enough.” Mei firmly refused her, and said in a deep voice, “Where is Giselle? I want to see him.”

“Um, Miss Marston, you may have misunderstood me.” Jimmy clasped his hands together, his tone somewhat troubled. “Revenge is indeed addictive, but it’s best to hold back. Once your wounds have healed, send him back to Windblown Sands and let the executioner do it. That way, it will be better for your mental state…”

……

“The stables are in the back,” Zhang Renfeng said calmly.

Xiaomei nodded to him, refused Alana's help, and, supporting herself against the wall, slowly walked out the door and headed towards the stables.

The atmosphere in the room became somewhat somber.

“Hongzhong did the right thing.” Mike stood by Zhang Renfeng. “What’s done is done. The sooner she can move on, the better for her.”

“…Miss Marston.” Jimmy sighed and exclaimed, “What an incredible woman. It’s hard to believe she’s only 15 years old. Adversity certainly makes people grow.”

"Are you sure you're okay?" Alana was more worried about Xiaomei's health. "She just woke up. What if she sees her father's killer and gets too excited, causing her wounds to reopen?"

"Don't worry, she's much stronger than she looks." Zhang Renfeng was quite confident about this. "She'll pull through."

----

Pushing open the stable door, she saw Giselle.