Breath of the Wilderness

At first, the opening ceremony had been a bustling clamor, a roaring sea of voices. Immediately after, helicopters had hovered close for aerial footage, while throngs of fans in their own vehicles chased along both flanks, cheering and hollering. Eventually, the chasing fans had scattered. The roaring helicopters overhead slowed down, dodging falling snow and dark clouds. In the end, the competing convoys that had been jostling for position drifted farther and farther apart along different routes and track conditions. Even the camera crews dispatched by the organizing committee had not been seen for a long time. Now, atop the vast, desolate snowfield, nothing remained under the murky night sky except a dim, unending expanse of pure white. It stretched all the way to the edge of the earth, where faint, pitch-black mountain ranges carved a distant boundary between sky and ground. Beneath the low, heavy overcast, the snowfield spread out so emptily and boundlessly that the distance between heaven and earth seemed uncomfortably close, cramped and stifling. Compared to such a world, the modified armored off-road vehicle—so colossal and conspicuous within a city—dwindled into insignificance. Like an ant navigating the narrow crevice between sky and earth, it forged ahead into the unknown. Only after delving deep into the snowfield could one realize that the greatest enemy in this rally might not be the malice of competitors or ambushes lurking in the shadows, but the world itself. "It really is desolate." Ji Jue rested his hand on the window frame, looking up every now and then to gaze at the surrounding scenery. It was a sight he had never witnessed before; everything felt novel and wondrous. Predictably, over the coming days—no, perhaps in just a few hours—all of this would turn dull and monotonous under the attrition of time. As the temperature dropped further and strong currents arrived, it would bare its ferocious, ruthless fangs. It was hard to imagine that one or two hundred years ago, this place had been the largest agricultural region in the entire Federation. Back then, this snowfield enjoyed four distinct seasons and crisscrossing river systems. The humus was rich and fertile, and everywhere one looked were sprawling plantations and farmlands. Now, there was only boundless snow and ice. Erratic geomagnetism meant that sometimes you couldn't even catch a signal, let alone figure out where you were. Beneath the snow lay countless chasms carved by geological upheaval, and between the perpetual ice sheets lurked deep, shadowy crevasses. There were far too many of them to count or survey. Not to mention the aberrant species hiding in the crevasses and chasms, or the packs of beasts—even calamity beasts—roaming the ice sheet under the catalyst of bitter cold. Even the survey maps provided by the organizing committee could only roughly mark out danger zones and relatively... less dangerous zones. To secure victory—no, to survive the race—the crucial factors were route planning and crisis management. In this regard, Ji Jue's choice was... to connect the checkpoints between the starting point and the destination by drawing a single straight line, completely ignoring any chasms or mountain ridges. Since Little Niuma had been so lively lately, it was the perfect chance to pile some extra weight on its shoulders and give it a few trials! As for navigation, aside from satellite positioning and assistance, there were physical maps, primitive manual calculations, and the innate, sharp sense of direction belonging to the White Stag lineage. A White Stag Chosen of An Ning's caliber possessed a natural blessing in the wilderness. It wasn't just a keen intuition for directions, water sources, and impending disasters, but a survival instinct that surpassed that of all other living creatures—not to mention the myriad arts passed down within the House of An. Lyu Yingyue had truly found him the best possible candidate. More than enough to handle any danger. Well, the only drawback was... when there was no danger, she was a bit of a danger herself. "Back off. Don't distract the driver." Only when Ji Jue looked down at the instrument panel did he suddenly realize that An Ning had somehow crept over again to warm herself—and not for the first time. Just like a cat sneaking up to bask beside a stove when no one was looking. Yet every time, Ji Jue failed to sense when she had arrived. If the car hadn't been so cramped, she probably could have hung off his back without him noticing. No seatbelt, curled up in the passenger seat, the treacherous road conditions seemingly irrelevant to her. She rose and fell as light as a feather, her petite frame maneuvering with effortless grace within the confined interior. One moment she hopped to the passenger seat to fiddle with the peace talisman dangling from the rearview mirror; the next, she scrambled into the back seats or even the cargo bay, rummaging through Ji Jue's belongings without the slightest restraint. Even if Ji Jue ignored her, she amused herself just fine. And sometimes, she crawled over to play with Ji Jue. Tying his hair into little buns, or drawing her pistol to pose for selfies. In a word... a menace! Where had this kid come from? No sense of personal boundaries whatsoever. Couldn't she just sit quietly like Xiao An? Helpless, Ji Jue had no choice but to let her be. Then... when she crept close to warm up again, he abruptly unleashed the constraint on his Crucible Blood, spiking his body heat. Unfortunately, it didn't work at all. "The signs were way too obvious, Brother Ji Jue! So slow, you couldn't scare anybody." An Ning grinned smugly. "Even if you didn't notice, your gaze and muscle instincts don't lie. Just like this—ow!" The instant her guard dropped, the hand she had reached out recoiled in pain. Like a startled cat puffing up its fur, she leaped back onto the passenger seat, shaking her stinging fingers. Ji Jue smirked. A naughty cat gets burned by the stove! The scalded redness on her fingertips faded rapidly. Having already tossed the lesson behind her, An Ning leaned in once more, brimming with curiosity. "How did you do that? Your body language and telltale signs were so obvious just now, and then suddenly it all changed!" Human beings had instincts; they benefited from them, but were also bounded by them. Every action was preceded by telltale signs. For example, the rise and fall of the chest during breathing, the tightening of muscles when clenching a fist, the subtle shift in expression when harboring malice, the instinctive changes in breath, posture, and micro-expressions when activating a blessing... Even if one could perceive them, and even if one defied nature through rigorous conditioning to suppress them to the bare minimum, to An Ning, they were still as glaring as a match struck in the dead of night. Just as Ji Jue could detect a fraction of a gram's discrepancy, a flaw in procedure, or the slightest machining error with a single touch or glance. Yet just now, the signs had vanished completely out of nowhere. The first attempt had been so clear, but the second time, when he seized on her smug moment to strike ruthlessly, she hadn't been able to read a single trace! What fascinated her even more was: how on earth had Ji Jue pulled that off?! "Grown-up secret." Ji Jue merely smiled, letting An Ning pester him with questions that clawed at her heart. He kept his lips sealed, changing the subject. Sorry, but our Deus Ex Machina is just that versatile! Human instinct certainly gave off physical tells, but when Ji Jue made himself the target of Deus Ex Machina's control, all instincts and neural reflexes were brought under mechanized, modular command. Every limb, every internal organ, even every single muscle fiber could be treated as an independent unit and component. Drawing a square with the left hand while drawing a circle with the right, or pacing out the Big Dipper steps with the left foot while breakdancing with the right, was merely the most basic of the basics. On that foundation, he could even operate more than a dozen Quicksilver mechanical arms simultaneously, each performing separate tasks. If Isis assisted him, his multitasking capacity and precision could climb yet another tier. This was simply beyond An Ning's realm of comprehension. "Tell me, tell me, please?" After rolling around on the passenger seat and tugging at him failed to work, she squirmed onto the dashboard, blocking the windshield. Her eyes blinked pitifully. "If you don't tell me, I won't be able to sleep tonight!" "Aren't you on night watch?" Ji Jue slammed the gas, completely unbothered by the blocked view. "You're not supposed to sleep in the first place!" "Then... I'll sneak little mice into your bedding!" "With miles of ice everywhere, where are you going to catch mice?" "Then I'll take pictures of—" An Ning had been about to say she would take pictures of him, but the thought that even her phone might betray her ruined her mood instantly. "All right, there's no harm in telling you." Ji Jue reached out exasperatedly and brushed her aside. "While we have some free time, how about we exchange our situations?" "Ooh? You're finally interested?" An Ning's eyes lit up, and she raised a hand excitedly. "An Ning, seventeen, female, 166 centimeters tall, weighs 51 kilograms, three sizes are... mmmph!" Who the hell asked you for that?! Fortunately, Ji Jue's hands were quick enough to slap over her mouth. She hadn't even dodged. He couldn't see her expression, but he could feel her soft breath against his palm, and her eyes were brimming with smug amusement. "Enough, drop the name, age, and gender routine." Ji Jue sighed and let go. "Can't you tell me your rank, matrix, types of blessings, and what you specialize in?" How had a perfectly normal intelligence exchange between teammates turned into a blind date? If he had reacted a second slower, she probably would have blurted out her bank account pin. Even if she told him, he wasn't going to withdraw her money, and she would only use it to tease him later. His blood pressure was spiking. "As for matrix type, it's 'Claw' among the White Stag's Claws and Fangs, specifically the 'Hunting Finger'—【Flying Light】. Naturally, all my blessings belong to the White Stag, too." Having had her fill of gloating, An Ning sat cross-legged on the passenger seat, making no attempt to conceal secrets that ought to have been guarded fiercely. Her tone was matter-of-fact: "As for specialties, roughly the same as A-Ran's, but I should be much stronger than him in every aspect... mm, way stronger! Though 【Sword Resonance】 was once an orthodox lineage of the White Stag's Claws and Fangs, ever since the House of Gu fell, the 'Blade Tooth' inheritance has been lost for many years. Trying to restore it on his own with just the basics is simply too hard." When it came to earthly influence among the Twelve Virtues, the most vast were undoubtedly Tianyuan and White Stag. Yet unlike Tianyuan's strict and exacting standards for succession, the Path of the White Stag had a kind of indifferent beauty—taking all comers, regardless of whether they lived or died. Its internal lineages were naturally labyrinthine and intricate, and the gap in strength between them was like heaven and earth. Among them, the four lineages regarded within the Wild Gathering as closest to the essence of the White Stag were Scale, Horn, Claw, and Fang. Let alone outsiders, even within the Wild Gathering, few knew much about them. And knowing more usually meant being entangled deeper. Yet Ji Jue had long been hopelessly entwined with the White Stag. The aura of the White Stag on him was intensely thick, and yet... he didn't have a single blessing! A habitual freeloader at first glance. If the other Claw and Fang lineages saw him being treated like a favored son, they would probably chew their handkerchiefs in rage. Brother, you really don't partake in any of it at all, do you? "If you were to join the White Stag, Brother Ji Jue, I bet the guys from the Scale and Horn lineages wouldn't be able to sit still either. When the time comes, you have to consider our family first, okay?" "I'm doing perfectly fine in Embers. Why would I switch to the White Stag?" Ji Jue shoved away An Ning, who had leaned in close again. "Stop derailing the topic. Keep talking." "Fine..." An Ning curled her lip and continued, "My rank is still pretty low—currently just Tier 8, Regeneration. So don't hold too much hope for me, okay? If we run into something we can't beat, the most I can do is sling you over my shoulder and bolt." "Regeneration?" Ji Jue was slightly startled. "Is Regeneration rank really enough to represent the House of An?" "It barely scrapes by. After all, the Wild Gathering isn't all about killing and fighting; social etiquette and worldly favors are unavoidable. Normally at home, I just run errands and deliver letters for my uncles and aunts." An Ning sighed. "After all, in ordinary situations, people are sensible enough when facing the Chief's arbitration. Those who aren't are mostly brainless punks, so there aren't many occasions to actually fight. "Besides, even if I can't beat them, I can always call my uncles for backup!" "True enough." Ji Jue nodded in deep agreement. While there were countless supreme arts in the world, calling in backup was definitely Tier 0. No matter the situation, if you could summon friends and family, you could carry yourself with pride. "Still, I thought you might be Exaltation rank." "A seventeen-year-old Exaltation from the House of An? Brother Ji Jue, you sure dare to dream! This isn't several hundred years ago!" An Ning grumbled resentfully, "These days, there are too few 'wolves' fit to serve as quarry. Only a handful turn up all year round. Between the Claw and Fang lineages, there aren't even enough to go around—we have to fight over them every single time! Those old fogies don't know the first thing about looking out for the young. Every one of them grabs everything they can carry, completely shameless!" The four lineages of Scale, Horn, Claw, and Fang were indeed closer to the essence of the White Stag, but their requirements were equally stringent and diverse. Just like any critical post, the KPI demands were naturally higher. Leaving aside the Scale and Horn lineages that often suffered broken successions, the families granted Claw and Fang represented the wilderness's self-cleansing mechanism. If they sought advancement, casually slaughtering a few stray cats or dogs would never cut it. The real heavyweight quarry, naturally, was the unborn sin of the White Stag! According to An Ning, when the previous generation's sacrificial king of the Mid-Continent's White Nation had thirstily drunk wolf blood and fallen into corruption, almost every White Stag lineage in the mortal realm—across the Federation, the Thousand Islands, the Mid-Continent, and the Empire—had mobilized in full. They had even brought along seven- and eight-year-old children. With so many mouths and so few wolves, everyone scrambled for whatever bite they could get. The current patriarch of the House of An had relied on the quarry from that great hunt to advance to Celestial-Human. Unfortunately, such "golden ages" were rare. Ever since then, the corrupted inheritors of the wolf had dwindled to nothing, hiding deep in the shadows across the lands, refusing to show their faces even on pain of death. "Brother Ji Jue, seeing how hard I'm backing you, you have to help me bait a few more out this time!" An Ning urged encouragingly, full of anticipation. "You've got to work hard!" "Work hard my foot," Ji Jue rolled his eyes. "In the middle of nowhere, where am I going to find wolves for you to kill?" "Oh, they're here." An Ning smiled, gazing out the window at the snow-covered plains and into the even farther darkness. Just as monsters in a jungle could always sense a hunter's tracks, the hunter had already scented the quarry wandering in the dark! Patient lurking, hungry waiting, and the ferocious clash of fangs and claws were not far off. She could hardly wait. However, before that... Her body suddenly tightened. She cast her eyes down, the fine hairs on her arms standing on end one by one, raising a broad wave of shivering goosebumps. "Something's wrong, Brother Ji Jue! Turn! "Head west—" Turn? What the hell was she playing at right now? There was a cliff right beside them! Hearing her cry, Ji Jue was baffled, unable to understand. Yet... without the slightest hesitation or thought, he wrenched the steering wheel hard. Amid a shrill, piercing screech, Little Niuma plowed a curved furrow across the wilderness, completing the turn, and then accelerated! Bolstered by an infusion of spiritus and the blessing of Deus Ex Machina, it broke through its limits, surging to even greater speeds. Just like that, it leaped into the air, plunged downward, and roared across a vertical drop of more than a dozen meters. As if gone mad, following An Ning's guidance, it veered off its original trajectory, hurtling down the steep slope. After several rolls, it righted itself and slammed onto the ground amid a world-spinning daze. BOOM! A colossal roar suddenly echoed from the distance. Thick ice sheets fractured, collapsed, and slid down from the mountain ridge, plunging downward like rolling ocean tides, rampaging across the snowfield. Yet the sounds of shattering were endless. Beyond the distant avalanche, the ground trembled with mounting urgency. Like an earthquake without warning. Right behind them, the helicopter that had been tailing them from far up in the sky abruptly swung around, rapidly pulling up its altitude to the brink of stalling. Yet even so, it did not forget to fire warning flares. Streaks of white smoke and flashing red lights drifted slowly downward, not only here, but across the farther sky, dyeing the murky, overcast clouds in patches of scarlet. Soon, Ji Jue saw it. At the edge of the horizon, behind the faint mountain range, a pale wall gradually rose—bit by bit, patch by patch, stretching into a single line, expanding, expanding further, expanding endlessly— The ghastly pale color rolled forward like a roaring ocean tide, consuming everything, sweeping forward in an overwhelming wave. Everywhere it passed, it swallowed the earth and mountains whole, tossing countless boulders, chunks of ice, and every insignificant thing high into the sky, gulping them into its maw... Compared to that majestic, colossal spectacle, the vehicle in the wilderness at this moment was so tiny it could hardly be called a speck of dust. The storm was here!