Chapter 1: The First Encounter with Humans

  After the baptism of heavy rain, the whole forest looks fresher and the air is filled with the clarity of the earth.

  Qilin didn't mind at all and simply stretched out her hand to gently pat the shoulder of You Yue who was drenched in rain.

  At this time, Qilin was no longer the one wearing tattered uniforms.

  After half a year since Zilin came here, she has completely integrated into the life of this pack of wolves. With her intelligence, she successfully defeated other wolf packs that came to grab territory and drove away other beasts, thus gaining recognition from the wolf pack.

  Xue Lang handed the animal skin to Qi Lin, which was snow-white in color, a mature wolf's pelt. It was probably hunted and skinned by someone, then retrieved. Qi Lin found it strange that Xue Lang would give her such a precious wolf pelt, especially since Xue Lang seemed to value it so much, protecting it so well. Yet, he hastily gave it to a stranger, which didn't make sense.

  But after a month, Qilin finally figured out some things.

  This piece of wolf skin was probably one of the Snow Wolf's companions, and the Snow Wolf gave it to itself as clothing. It's probably a way for itself to take its companion's place, is that a kind of sacrifice?

  So Qilin accepted the gift without hesitation, made the animal skin into simple clothing, a tube top, an ultra-short skirt, two wrist guards, and used grass vines to make a pair of grass shoes, padded with the remaining wolf skin, thus becoming a female version of Tarzan.

  She won't betray Snow Wolf's trust in her, so she will get familiar with this strange environment as soon as possible.

  "Ao wu~~" The snow wolf walked up to Qilin's side, rubbed against her, and its sapphire-like eyes were filled with gentleness.

  "Xiao Bai, I think everyone has eaten their fill today." Qi Lin looked at the wolf pack resting, they had gone out to hunt and there wasn't much food left in the den, it was time to bring some back. Moreover, autumn was deepening, wild fruits were ripe, she could pick some on the way back.

  Qilin gathered up the wild fruits she had picked and shouted at the pack of wolves, "Everyone, let's head back... uh..."

  "Waaaah~~"

  Qilin's words were cut off by a strong killing intent, and the wolf pack was also affected by this killing intent, all of them forming a circle around Qilin, vigilantly looking at their surroundings.

  The originally relaxed atmosphere suddenly became much more tense. Qilin knew that with winter approaching, food was becoming scarce, so scenes of wolf packs fighting over food were common.

  However, every time Zilin goes out to find food, she makes a tight plan and tries to avoid other wolf packs. Today, she took the pack to the northern part of the forest, where the temperature is lower. Generally speaking, there won't be any other wolf packs here, although there may be less food, it's enough for their own pack.

  But I didn't expect to run into another pack of wolves here.

  Qilin packed the fruit into the animal skin she had prepared earlier, tied it behind her back and jumped onto the snow wolf's back. "A Mo, you take Xiao Man and Xiao Yue back with the food first. On New Year's Day, you guys come with me and Xiao Bai."

  Upon hearing Zilin's orders, the wolf pack executed them in an orderly manner. The wolves split into two groups, one pair running towards the east of the forest and the other following Zilin in the opposite direction.

  "Xiao Bai, if we encounter an opponent later on, don't get caught up in the fight. We're just diverting the other wolf packs so that Xiao Man and the others can return safely, got it?" Qi Lin once again seriously instructed in Xiao Bai's ear, but discovered that Xiao Bai's speed had slowed down, and finally came to a complete stop. Qi Lin was perplexed: "Xiao Bai?"

  The other wolves also stopped with Xiaobai, but they still stared intently ahead, yet didn't take another step forward.

  Qilin looked at the wolf pack with a strange expression, then glanced around, as if there was something even more dangerous ahead. Qilin didn't dare to jump off Xiao Bai's back, so she quietly observed her surroundings. The atmosphere was still oppressive, and the howling of the wolves could be faintly heard, which was the sound of them fighting, but it seemed like they were fighting among themselves.

  However, the wolf pack in the north is scarce and most of them have gone south to escape the cold and find food.

  Zhilin perked up her ears and listened carefully to the movements in front of her, her eyes also carefully observing the movements of her wolf pack. She found that except for Xiaobai, all the other wolves were showing signs of unease.

  Qilin grasped Xiao Bai's neck hair, her intuition telling her that a fierce battle was unfolding ahead, and she could even smell the bloody scent in the air. Although she had lived with the wolf pack for half a year, Qilin had only taught them how to fight, but had never personally joined the fray; now that she was face to face with it, she couldn't help but tremble slightly.

  Unconsciously grasping Xiao Bai tightly, staring forward with pale lips.

  Xiao Bai seemed to sense Qi Lin's fear, and tilted his head towards her, winking. Suddenly feeling something rushing over, he jumped back a few meters, staring intently at the thicket that was making the noise. The other wolves were also on high alert, ready to rip apart whatever came out in an instant.

  Qilin was also startled, her legs tightly wrapped around Xiao Bai, her eyes wide with fear.

  "Whoosh whoosh whoosh"

  The sound is getting closer and closer, but it's very chaotic, as if being chased by something.

  "Ah"

  "Woof"

  Uh... Qilin felt like every cell in her body was coming alive. It wasn't tension, but excitement.

  She had just heard the sound of a human cry, as well as the howling of wolves. Although she didn't know what exactly was happening, Qilin guaranteed that she indeed heard the voice of a human being. Moreover, this person was not far away and should be approaching them soon.

  Qilin suddenly jumped off Xiao Bai, excitedly took a few steps forward, and then stopped again. She turned around to face Xiao Bai and said, "Xiao Bai, you guys hide first, don't come out without my instructions, okay?"

  Xiao Bai tilted his head and looked at Qi Lin. Although he didn't know what Qi Lin was going to do, he still listened and hid in the grass.

  Qilin nodded excitedly and shifted her gaze to the tall grass, lifted her foot wanting to walk over, but found that her feet seemed to be filled with lead.

  It's been so long, she hasn't seen a human in half a year and has barely spoken to anyone for almost six months. Every day, she talks to a pack of wolves or mutters to herself. Now, suddenly, she feels the presence of humans approaching.

  Qilin's heart began to stir, it was the excitement of seeing her companions, but she was also afraid, afraid of seeing a certain general figure in history, and from then on being drawn into a life she had always disliked.

  Pfft

  "Boom boom"

  Several birds flew quickly from the big tree, causing the tree to shake violently, and a few drops of rain fell down, hitting Qilin's body, which also made her sober up a bit. Qilin then came back to herself, stretching out her hand to slap her own face several times.

  "Qilin, what are you afraid of?" After scolding herself silently, Qilin lifted her foot and quickly crossed the grass thicket, carefully searching for the source of the sound just now.

  But after walking more than 30 meters, she still couldn't find anyone. Qilin was wondering if she had misheard, but suddenly saw bloodstains in the grass ahead. Qilin ran over to take a look and found a wolf lying in a pool of blood. Qilin squatted down and reached out to touch it "The blood is still warm, so what I just heard must be true."

  Suddenly, an abnormal chill spread across her neck, and Qilin reflexively turned her head back, but was heavily pressed to the ground by a strong force. Her face was just pressed against the body of that wolf, with wolf blood staining half of her face red.

  "Don't move." A hoarse, powerful male voice entered her ears, and Qilin was stunned. It's a person!!! Qilin gave up struggling, but also felt a hot flow sliding down from her neck. She knew that this person... was injured.

  Ji Lin didn't struggle, the man was slightly stunned, even if it's a fish on the chopping board, it should still struggle a few times before dying. But this person under his hand had no intention of resisting at all. Thinking of this, the man relaxed his grip slightly, but Ji Lin still didn't struggle, as if she had lost consciousness. The man frowned slightly, pretending to be dead?

  "I said..." Seeing the person pressing down on her trying to probe her, Qilin no longer remained silent. But as soon as she opened her mouth, the hand on her head applied even more force, causing her face to be almost completely submerged in the pool of blood.

  She almost felt Xiao Bai's angry eyes, but since she didn't give any hints, Xiao Bai was trying hard to suppress the anger in his heart. Qi Lin knew that if she didn't escape soon, this person would probably become Xiao Bai's next meal. "How long do you plan on pressing down? Don't you know how heavy you are?"

  The man was slightly stunned, and only then did he realize that Qilin didn't know martial arts, but was just an ordinary person. He also let go of his hand and jumped back two meters, quietly watching Qilin.

  Qilin got up from the wolf's body, this was already the second time she had encountered a wolf corpse at such close range. What bad luck, she casually wiped the blood off her face, and for the first time, her neck was touched by an icy blade, Qilin didn't panic.

  "Are you, sir, harboring some deep-seated grudge against me?" Qi Lin had originally wanted to say "Do you have a deep-seated grudge against my mother?", but the words were forcibly changed into a more elegant phrase as soon as they reached her lips. Although Qi Lin's expression remained unchanged, she had already prayed to God several hundred times in her heart.

  But for a long time, she didn't get the other person's response. Qilin was somewhat curious, had this person fainted while standing? Qilin slightly moved her neck.

  "Don't move." The man spoke again, scaring Qi Lin into immediate stiffness. She didn't dare to move even a little bit anymore.

  Feeling that the person behind her was doing something, Qilin also tried hard to think of a way to escape. Suddenly, she smelled a gunpowder smell and heard a "whoosh" sound, and something flew into the sky.

  "Boom"

  A red firework exploded in the air, and also set off a thousand waves in Qilin's heart.

  It won't be long before a lot of people come over, no, can't drag on until then. Qilin clenched her fist and was about to break free from the man's control when she heard the sound of someone falling behind her. Qilin curiously turned around and saw a masked man wearing night clothes covered in blood lying on the ground.

  Qilin didn't dare to move forward, she just kept a distance and stared at the man carefully.

  The little white dog suddenly rushed out from the grass beside and opened its mouth to bite the man's neck.

  "Wait, Xiao Bai." Qilin hastily stopped him and ran to the front of the man. She had already heard the footsteps coming from afar, not just one person, but a group. This wasn't good. But... there was no way to abandon this person and leave, after all, he was human too. Take him away for now. "Xiao Bai, please."

  Qilin helped the man onto Xiao Bai's back, then ordered the other wolves to take away the wolf corpses on the ground and leave in another direction. This way, they could cover up the bloodstains. Then, she made a mess of the place, tore off a piece of cloth from the man's body, and hung it on a tree branch before letting Xiao Bai leave.