Chapter 1

The Holy Mountain soared into the clouds, composed of three peaks, the highest of which was even more majestic than the former main peak of the Dragon Spine Mountains. Due to its extreme altitude, the mountain was perpetually covered in ice and snow from halfway up, and its treacherous paths would deter any ordinary human. The brave and powerful werewolves regarded this mountain as a trial for their young. Whenever a young werewolf came of age, they would set off alone, carrying only three days' rations, to cross this high mountain. Only those who successfully crossed the mountain and brought back a specific prey from the east side of the Holy Mountain would be recognized as capable of standing on their own. The highest peak of the Holy Mountain, "Sunburn Peak," was the target of competition among the most outstanding young werewolves. The bravest (and sometimes the most reckless) young werewolves would climb to the summit barehanded and take a piece of rock from the peak as a symbol of their courage. This rock would be inlaid by the elders of the tribe on the tribe's totem, becoming a lifelong honor for the werewolf. It was said that hundreds or thousands of the most outstanding werewolves challenged the peak every year, but less than 30% succeeded. Thanks to the unremitting efforts of these brave werewolves for thousands of years, the altitude of the Holy Mountain was now almost two meters lower than when the werewolves first migrated here…

Anyway, it was said that the leaders of the werewolf tribal kingdom were discussing whether to control the enthusiasm of the young members of their tribe for the challenge—those silly wolf cubs with nowhere to use their energy were digging stones from the top of the Holy Mountain every day, and they were about to grind the top of the mountain into a rounded corner.

Eighty percent of the werewolves on Planet Holletta lived in the Holy Mountain area, and this majestic mountain and the surrounding vast land were enough to accommodate so many werewolves to live and multiply. The werewolves here formed a society in the form of tribes, each with its own leader, and all the leaders formed a tribal council, thereby becoming the ruling class of the werewolf tribal kingdom. It was said that this social form had been passed down from the ancient magic kingdom period, and it perfectly fitted the tradition of the werewolves: it valued bloodlines and united the entire tribe. Therefore, the tribal kingdom system had brought thousands of years of stability to the werewolf society, making them an ancient country comparable to the Kingdom of Holletta.

Uruk, who was sent by the werewolf tribal kingdom to contact Holletta, was one of these tribal leaders. His tribe lived on the mountainside of the Holy Mountain and established a large city-state there. His werewolf cavalry was not the most elite in the werewolf kingdom, but it was the largest in number—therefore, Uruk was able to become the representative of the Holy Mountain patrolmen and bear the responsibility of commander of this joint operation.

Well-equipped elite knights and magic soldiers set off from Hoddesis, divided into three teams to enter the Holy Mountain, and met with the werewolf soldiers waiting at the entrance of the mountain road. Next, under the leadership of the werewolves, they would enter the Holy Mountain and enter the depths of the mountains in three routes. Hao Ren and Aufra and others traveled with the largest main force, and the other two groups were led by werewolf General Elson and Archbishop Auburn respectively. The big beard, as an ascetic monk, also followed the third team.

The Knights soon arrived at the meeting point agreed with the werewolves. Lily stood on a boulder and took a deep breath: "Hiss—the air of my hometown…"

While looking at Lily, Nangong Sanba whispered to Hao Ren: "Is she really sure that Holletta is her hometown?"

"There's no way. I can't find any werewolf sources on Earth other than the Dream Plane, and I haven't found a second case of huskies becoming refined," Hao Ren twitched his lips. "I can only assume that her old home is Holletta for the time being."

Nangong Wuyue transformed into a snake, raising her upper body to nearly three meters high. She swayed and looked into the distance on the mountain road: "Uruk said he would be waiting for us here in advance, why hasn't he appeared yet?"

A werewolf adjutant beside Aufra took the initiative to speak: "Chief Uruk will come with his war wolves, and he should be here soon."

As soon as the werewolf adjutant finished speaking, Nangong Wuyue exclaimed from mid-air: "Oh, oh, I see them! It's really a werewolf cavalry!"

A cloud of dust suddenly rose on the mountain road in the distance, and then a dense and heavy running sound came from the dust. Dozens of black figures galloped from afar. Uruk led a team of fully armed werewolf warriors to the crowd. These warriors were all wearing black leather armor in a rough style, carrying huge beheading swords on their backs, and wearing necklaces of beast teeth as decorations and record of kills. Apart from this, they had no heavy armor. Their mounts were huge black war wolves—those terrifying beasts several times larger than Earth's wild wolves, with bone plates growing on their waists. Due to their special body structure, these wolves could be used as mounts here.

Dozens of werewolf knights rushed from afar and stopped simultaneously less than ten meters in front of the soldiers of the Knights. Every war wolf did not make any extra movements, and even the position of stopping was as neat as a straight line. Their unified action made it difficult to imagine that this was a group of unruly toothed beasts. The werewolf cavalry lived with their war wolves all year round, and the werewolves' natural abilities allowed them to communicate with these beasts without obstacles. Thus, in cooperation with each other, they became the most combat-effective ground force in the world. Meeting them for the first time today, as expected… well, they were quite neat.

Anyway, Hao Ren was a layman, and he could only see the three words "quite neat."

The werewolf cavalry's attire was all black, which seemed to be for the convenience of night combat, but in fact their black armor and black war wolves had nothing to do with "camouflage." This was just their traditional combat attire, and they still wore this conspicuous outfit even when they were active in the snow-capped mountains. This involved some customs and habits of the werewolf tribe, and it would take a lot of time to explain it clearly to outsiders.

Uruk rode a war wolf to Aufra: "You can't control the war wolves and can only walk in the mountains. To be honest, I don't think this is a good idea—the Knights are very powerful, but they may not be so strong as infantry."

Aufra smiled calmly: "Do you think that the Knights I personally brought out can only ride horses to fight? We still hacked down 200,000 barbarians from the south in the swamp. Let's go. I hope your werewolf cavalry's noses are as sensitive as the legends say, and can dig those heretics out of the cracks in the stones."

Uruk smiled. Aufra's tough answer seemed to suit his temper, but before he ordered the departure, Hao Ren hurriedly asked: "First check your protective crystals, are you all wearing them?"

Aufra turned around and waved to the Knights: "Squad leaders, check. All soldiers, raise your protective crystals. Report immediately if the crystal is lost."

Uruk also turned his head and greeted: "Check your crystals! They are life-saving things!"

The soldiers raised the protective crystals that had been issued to them before departure. These crystals were all brought out by Hao Ren from the Crystal Nucleus Research Station. These things were piled up like mountains in the Crystal Nucleus Research Station. Tens of thousands of such fragments could be knocked off from any large spare part, so Hao Ren simply gave one to each soldier. Aufra also took out her crystal and looked at it: "I really can't imagine… that monster's mental power would be suppressed by such a small stone, and before, even the archbishop with the firmest will we sent failed to reach the foot of the main peak."

The war wolf under Uruk had been curiously looking at Hao Ren just now, and at this time, he finally couldn't help but snort and speak in a low voice: "Wait, are you a ‘Hard Man’?"

Hao Ren was a little dazed by this title, and then he suddenly remembered who this special title belonged to when he saw the war wolf speak. He was immediately stunned: "...Wolf King?! The one on the grassland?"

The black wolf looked back and forth at Hao Ren and Lily and others next to him, and seemed quite surprised: "Hey, it's really you. I didn't dare to recognize you at first—you humans are too difficult to distinguish, and I can't even tell the difference between male and female. Fortunately, your smells haven't changed much. How did you get here?"

Hao Ren and his partners (the ones who had met the Wolf King before) were all shocked. They never expected to meet this talking Wolf King in this situation. Lily sniffed hard: "Hey, it's really you—I wanted to ask you, how did you get here? Aren't you a grassland wolf?"

"Oh, this is a long story… a gust of wind blew across the grassland, the season changed, and many animals were migrating. The wolves also had to find a new place to settle down. Fortunately, I have great wisdom and led my brothers to find a new home here…"

The surrounding generals and soldiers were all stunned. Uruk was even more staring, not knowing what to say. He was facing the most bizarre situation in his life:

He, the commander, was being left aside by everyone, and his mount was chatting with someone else…