Teddy trailed him, flying right above Tian Kui’s head.
’Hurry up!’
He whined impatiently.
Tian Kui just kept running for his life. He didn’t understand, nor could he spare the effort to reply.
He just let out a long howl from time to time, calling for his nearby pack members.
If enough of them showed up, Tian Kui figured he could stop and make a stand.
But they couldn’t just rush in blindly. They needed the numbers first.
Hiding was also an option.
Like a burrow, or a crevice in the rocks.
The gray wolf was bigger. Maybe he could find a crevice that was just the right size—one he could squeeze into, but the wolf couldn’t.
Climbing a tree was also a good option.
The problem was, wolves couldn’t climb trees, and dogs weren’t exactly experts at it either.
He wasn’t Da Mei, for whom climbing trees was a piece of cake.
’Better to just keep running.’
Tian Kui made up his mind.
’Our speeds are about the same anyway. This is just a test of endurance.’
’Back when I was with the City Bureau, I ran five kilometers every morning. As if I’d be scared of this.’
With that thought, Tian Kui looked up and barked at Teddy a couple of times.
’Don’t just keep squawking! Think of something!’
’You’re a bird of prey, aren’t you? Go scratch it!’
Good thing Teddy didn’t understand. If he had, and had actually gone to claw the Wolf King, it would have been a suicide mission.
His dives were incredibly fast and his talons were plenty sharp. He was like a bullet, capable of snapping a target’s neck in an instant.
But that only worked on small animals.
Against a gray wolf that weighed over a hundred pounds and was renowned for its "iron skull," a diving attack would likely do little more than scratch an itch.
In the midst of this chase, they covered several kilometers in just a few short minutes.
Tian Kui stopped overthinking it and just waited for Shen Xin to arrive.
’Anyway, the distress signal is out, I have a tracker, and Shen Xin is taking a helicopter. He could be here any minute.’
Just then, however, as Tian Kui ran, his gaze swept across the ridgeline of the hill up ahead, and his eyes suddenly narrowed.
He saw a black...
...animal that looked like a wolf, but was clearly a size smaller than the gray wolf.
It must have noticed the commotion, as it had stopped in its tracks under a tree to gaze in their direction.
Tian Kui barked urgently at Teddy overhead.
’Target!’
’See it?!’
It was all black. It looked like a dog, but bigger; it looked like a wolf, but not quite that big.
The longer Tian Kui looked, the more certain he was that this was the target they had been searching for for days.
Teddy didn’t react at all, just kept whining, urging Tian Kui to run faster.
Tian Kui was so furious he could hardly stand it. Seizing an opportunity, he leaped onto a rock and launched himself into the air, snapping at Teddy.
Teddy deftly dodged and squawked in annoyance.
’Are you crazy?!’
Once he landed, Tian Kui kept barking in the wolfdog’s direction.
’I can’t necessarily keep up, but Teddy can!’
’The crucial thing is, it’s noticed things are getting messy over here and looks like it’s about to slip away!’
’But this dumb bird has no clue what I’m saying.’
’If I weren’t on the run, I’d stop right now and teach that bird a lesson.’
’Don’t think I won’t rough you up just because you’re valuable.’
Thankfully, all of Tian Kui’s commotion made Teddy instinctively look up and glance ahead.
With that one glance, his powerful vision clearly spotted the black animal on the distant ridgeline.
He froze for a second.
’The target!’
Only then did Teddy understand what Tian Kui had been making such a fuss about.
’Why didn’t you say so earlier?!’
Teddy squawked, as if asking what to do now.
The wolfdog turned its head and vanished over the ridgeline.
Tian Kui barked urgently, shot him a meaningful look, and even stuck his tongue out, pointing it straight forward and flicking it.
’Go follow it!’
For once, Teddy was smart enough to understand.
It was mainly because he figured Tian Kui wasn’t in any real danger. With a beat of his wings, he flew off in the direction the wolfdog had vanished.
Only then did Tian Kui breathe a sigh of relief.
’We finally stumbled upon it. It would be a real pity to lose it now.’
The Wolf King behind him let out two howls, as if to say, "Your partner left. You’re done for."
Tian Kui didn’t understand, of course. If he had, he would’ve thought, ’You’re the one who’s done for.’
Because at that very moment, Tian Kui could already hear the whir of helicopter blades.
Shen Xin was here!
The helicopter roared in.
On the helicopter, Shen Xin pointed sharply at the ground ahead. "Over there."
Then he slapped Lin Wei, who was beside him. "Just open fire."
’I let you go last time. We were supposed to leave each other in peace, go our separate ways.’
’But no, you had to go and pull a sneak attack.’
’Worst of all, you went after Tian Kui.’
If anything happened to Tian Kui, Shen Xin would never let this pack of wolves off the hook.