Chapter Sixty-Seven: The Wolf-Lion Beast

After battling the prison ghosts for half an hour, Wei Xiaoping and his companions had only managed to advance a mile or so. The further they pressed on, the more prison ghosts surged toward them, their fighting prowess growing ever stronger.

“General, it seems the further we go, the stronger the prison ghosts ahead of us become! At this rate, if we don’t use deadly force, it will be hard to cross the Black River Prison!” Old Ma said.

“Holding back our strength is even more uncomfortable than using neck strikes!” Niu Dahua chimed in.

Wei Xiaoping pondered for a moment, then gritted his teeth and declared, “Since the prison ghosts are growing fiercer and refuse to let us pass, let’s use neck strikes. Otherwise, we’ll waste precious time returning to the world of the living!”

With their master’s permission to fight without restraint, Old Ma and Niu Dahua immediately brightened. They turned to Wei Xiaoping and said, “General, you follow behind us. We’ll clear the way up front. As your servants, it’s only fitting that we lead. If we find ourselves overwhelmed, you can come and assist!”

With that, Old Ma and Niu Dahua leapt ahead of Wei Xiaoping, swinging the thick chains around their necks forward in a powerful neck strike.

The chains around their necks emitted deep whistling sounds as they swept toward the charging prison ghosts. Remarkably, the chains lengthened in midair, more than doubling their original size.

With the chains extended, the sweep struck many more ghosts; each swing toppled dozens at once.

Niu Dahua’s technique mirrored Old Ma’s. The chain around his neck matched Old Ma’s in thickness and length, and when hurled, it too automatically elongated, felling a similar number of prison ghosts.

After their chains swept a wide arc, Old Ma and Niu Dahua didn’t pause. They drew up their forelegs and lunged forward with all their might into the horde of prison ghosts. Their bodies crashed into the ghosts with lightning speed, knocking dozens into the turbulent black waters, where they were instantly swallowed by the waves.

Immediately after, they opened their three enormous jaws, each seizing a prison ghost and flinging it dozens of meters away.

Thus the two ghostly hounds repeated their actions, relentlessly forging a path forward. Wei Xiaoping followed behind, fending off the prison ghosts rising anew from the rear.

Before long, they had advanced ten miles.

After about an hour, Wei Xiaoping and his companions approached the center of the Black Water River. Suddenly, for reasons unknown, the prison ghosts in the center began to scatter in all directions.

With the ghosts fleeing, a wide space opened in the river’s center. Soon, bubbles rose and the black waves grew even more turbulent.

As moments passed, the vacant space in the middle churned with ever stronger waves. Amid the roar, a strange wailing sound—woeful and wild—echoed louder and louder.

Wei Xiaoping, startled and curious, halted his attacks and leapt to a height of several yards above the river, fixing his gaze on the violently surging waves.

The black waves rose higher and denser. In the time it takes to drink a bowl of water, the surging waves spouted to heights of dozens of yards, their roar intensifying, interspersed with a beast’s howling.

Listening closely, Wei Xiaoping discerned the howl, reminiscent of wild wolves he’d encountered in the forests of the living world, yet not quite the same. The call began as a wolf’s howl, trailing into a lion’s roar.

Old Ma and Niu Dahua, while fighting, also listened intently to the beastly cry emanating from the waves.

Before long, Old Ma recognized the sound and called out to Wei Xiaoping, “General, that is the howl of the Wolf-Lion Beast. In the world of the living, this creature is born from the union of lions and giant wolves. It is fiercely savage! In the living world, the Wolf-Lion Beast reigns as king of the forest—true lions and tigers are no match for it.”

Wei Xiaoping recalled Old Ma’s words, remembering a time in his mortal life when he and Wei Xiaofan studied cultivation and martial arts with their master, Taoist Xuanzhe, at Qingfeng Mountain, a branch of Twin Peaks Mountain. Once, while their master was in seclusion, Wei Xiaoping and Wei Xiaofan descended the mountain to gather herbs.

As they passed beneath a small but densely forested hill, a monstrous howl suddenly sounded from the summit. With the howl came a tremor, as if something heavy struck the earth, the vibrations growing ever closer.

The two brothers instantly grew alert, sensing a beast had discovered them and was approaching fast.

They glanced around warily.

Wei Xiaoping looked toward the source of the howl and saw a beast, as large as a full-grown bull, racing down the hill, its eyes—each the size of an egg—locked onto him and Wei Xiaofan.

The creature charged down at a staggering speed, closing the distance to a hundred meters in the blink of an eye. Wei Xiaoping and his brother realized outrunning it was impossible; their best chance was to climb a tree, and the higher, the better.

Looking around, they saw only towering trees, each as thick as a water vat, with no branches within five or six yards and trunks so smooth they were impossible to climb. Even with the lightness technique their master taught them, they could leap only a yard or two—too little to reach the branches, which were four yards above the ground.

Desperately searching for a tree to climb or a cave to hide in, the brothers ran a dozen steps and spotted a tree as thick as an embrace, with sturdy branches sprouting a yard or two above.

They quickly hurried to the tree, set down their herb baskets, and used their lightness technique to leap onto the thick branch. From there, they jumped higher and secured themselves on the branches, watching the beast approach.

No sooner had they settled on the tree than the monster arrived beneath them.

The beast looked up, furious, letting out a wild howl as it leapt and lunged, trying in vain to reach Wei Xiaoping and Wei Xiaofan. Frustrated, it backed away several yards, then charged headlong into the tree.

Wei Xiaoping and Wei Xiaofan clung tightly to the branches, watching below. The beast bore a wolf’s head, but behind it was the body of a lion—massive, even larger than a grown bull, and incredibly powerful.

Each time it rammed the tree, the trunk shook violently, leaves raining down, and the brothers nearly tumbled from their perch more than once.