69: Chapter 69 Thorny Poison Wolf

Jiang Yan's gaze paused for a moment on the silver horn of a male rhino.

The single horn of a Silver-Horned Rhino is a natural first-rank High Grade spiritual Materials, containing pure metal-attribute Spiritual Qi, and is an excellent Materials for forging armor-piercing Magical Artifacts.

Hundreds of Silver-Horned Rhinos meant hundreds of silver horns, plus a large amount of essential blood from the Late Stage of Qi Refining.

Then, his gaze shifted from the silver horns to the formation of the Silver-Horned Rhinos.

The females and calves were in the center, while several of the largest males were scattered along the perimeter.

Every quarter of an hour or so, two males would patrol the perimeter of their territory—they followed a fixed route, walking from upstream to downstream and then turning back.

While walking, their ears constantly twitched, white puffs of air were frequently expelled from their noses, and their hooves stamped pits into the grass one after another, forming a faintly visible boundary line.

This was not a randomly distributed herd of beasts.

This was a clan with a defensive formation.

If he dared to strike at one of them, hundreds of adult Silver-Horned Rhinos would surround and kill him within dozens of breaths.

If he went around, it would take at least four or five more days.

Jiang Yan tapped his fingers lightly on his knees.

He mentally ran through the transformation options of the Great Art of Changing Heaven and Earth.

He had to choose one that they couldn't be bothered to pay attention to. To be precise, one that they couldn't even be bothered to sniff.

Thorn Poison Wolf. When this name surfaced from his memory, he himself felt like laughing a little.

It wasn't amusement; it was the satisfaction of pragmatism.

Thorn Poison Wolf, a first-rank Yao Beast, capable of growing up to the first-rank Late Stage.

Its skin and flesh are covered in barbed poisonous thorns, and its meat is poisonous, bitter, and astringent.

Even a predator that has been hungry for three days wouldn't be willing to take a second bite, let alone the herbivorous Silver-Horned Rhinos.

He retreated deep into the dense forest and found a hidden depression to sit cross-legged.

Here, his back was against a rock wall, the tree canopy shielded him from above, and to his right was a dense thicket of thorns.

The incantation for the Great Art of Changing Heaven and Earth surfaced in his Sea of Consciousness.

Spiritual Qi surged out from his Dantian, pouring along his Meridians into his limbs and bones.

First, his bones began to dislocate—his spine arched downward, his leg joints bent in reverse, and the crisp clicking sounds were exceptionally clear in the dense forest.

Immediately afterward, his muscles began to deform; the muscle groups in his thighs and calves rearranged, changing from human upright muscle groups to the sprinting muscle groups of a wolf.

The changes on the surface of his body were the most agonizing.

Barbed thorns of blue-gray color pierced out from beneath his skin.

First his forehead and back, then his limbs and abdomen, and finally his cheeks and tail.

The root of every thorn was connected to the dermis, where pain nerves are most dense, bringing a sharp, fine stinging pain as they broke through the skin.

Sweat seeped from his forehead, dripping down along the newly formed thorns.

After the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, a six-foot-long Thorn Poison Wolf stood at the edge of the dense forest.

Its fur was dark green, exactly the same color as the moss-covered tree trunks in the dense forest.

Its entire body was covered in inch-long blue-gray thorns, densely packed from the tip of its nose to the tip of its tail, and there were even a few extremely fine short thorns growing on its eyelids.

The Thorn Poison Wolf lowered its head and looked at its own reflection in a puddle of water beside it.

Its eyes were a murky yellow-green with vertical pupils, and deep within the bottom of its eyes, a faint dark golden light shimmered.

It opened its mouth and yawned, saliva dripping from the corners of its mouth onto the grass leaves, making a soft "hiss" sound.

The saliva was mixed with bitter liquid secreted by poison glands, and the grass leaves were corroded, emitting a very faint white smoke.

It walked out from the edge of the dense forest.

When it took its first step into the valley, the nearest Silver-Horned Rhino lifted its head and glanced at it.

That was a prime-aged male rhino; its silver horn was longer than those of the others nearby, and there was a tiny chip at the tip of the horn, likely worn down on a stone.

Its mouth stopped chewing, and the grass leaves slipped from the corner of its mouth.

Its dark brown eyes swept over the thorns covering the Thorn Poison Wolf, and its pupils contracted slightly—it was not fear, but identification.

It was identifying whether this thing covered in thorns was a threat.

The Thorn Poison Wolf did not stop. It walked along the edge of the valley at a moderate pace, its tail hanging naturally, occasionally flicking it to drive away the flying insects buzzing around its rear.

The prime-aged male rhino exhaled a heavy breath from its nose. It pressed its lips back against the ground, shoveled up grass leaves, and continued to chew.

It recognized that this thing covered in thorns was not a threat.

The valley was large, and the density of the Silver-Horned Rhinos was sparser than it appeared.

They were scattered on both sides of the stream in small groups, each group varying from three or five to a dozen individuals, with large distances between the groups.

These gaps were the path for Jiang Yan to pass through.

The Thorn Poison Wolf walked along the gaps, trying its best to avoid areas where the Silver-Horned Rhinos were dense.

When passing by a mud puddle, a half-grown calf curiously ran a few steps toward it.

The calf's horn was only a palm long, and its four short legs made a pattering sound as it ran in the mud, splashing mud all over its own face.

The mother rhino almost instantly turned its body sideways, like a gray-blue stone wall, slamming down to block the front of the calf.

Its broad, thick shoulder knocked the calf, causing it to stumble and sit down in the mud.

A low warning sound issued from the mother rhino's nostrils, the sound rolling in its abdomen, and the ground even trembled slightly.

The Thorn Poison Wolf passed by the mud puddle without looking aside.

It could hear the rustling sound of the mother rhino licking the calf's fur behind it, and could hear the calf whining in dissatisfaction before being nudged by the mother rhino's horn again.

In the distance, two male rhinos were butting each other with their silver horns; the collision of the silver horns made a dull thud, and every time they collided, the ground trembled.

The sun slowly shifted from due south to the west. The light in the valley was changing.

The bright, blinding light of noon gradually became soft, and the luster on the grass leaves slowly turned from silver-white to golden-yellow.

The temperature in the air also changed; the water vapor rising from the stream and the sweet, fishy smell of the grass leaves baking in the sun mixed together, forming a very thin layer of mist that flowed slowly along the ground.

The Thorn Poison Wolf's pace remained consistent. Neither fast nor slow, neither rushed nor leisurely.

Occasionally, a Silver-Horned Rhino would lift its head to glance at it, its gaze lingering for a moment on the thorns covering its body, exhale a breath from its nostrils, and then continue to lower its head to eat grass.

The further one went into the depths of the valley, the lower the concentration of Spiritual Qi.

It was not that the valley itself was barren—it was because hundreds of Silver-Horned Rhinos lived here; their silver horns would naturally absorb the surrounding Spiritual Qi between breaths, and each one was a miniature Spiritual Qi absorber.

The Spiritual Qi in the air was diverted and absorbed by the hundreds of Silver-Horned Rhinos, leaving only a very faint layer floating between the blades of grass.

After walking for more than an hour, only half of the valley had been crossed.

The stream took a turn here, the riverbed narrowed, and the current became a bit faster.

The stream water hit the pebbles at the bend, splashing up white foam; a few small fish, each the length of a finger, floated belly-up in the foam, tossed about by the turbulent current.

On the inside of the bend was a patch of dry, hard sandy ground, about twenty zhang wide, with a few scattered low shrubs growing on it.

The sandy ground was a public activity area for the Silver-Horned Rhinos—several male rhinos were lying on the sand rubbing their backs, their broad, thick backs rubbing back and forth against the sand, scraping off the dried mud and revealing the thick, blue-gray skin underneath.

The scraped-off mud was blown into powder by the wind, covering the ground of the sandy area.