Transmigrating Into a Fantasy World: Signing in During Pregnancy, Reaching the Summit with My Childhood Sweetheart

69: Chapter 69: The Howling of the Ancient Forest and the Strange Movements of the Star CoreThat wolf howl was long, desolate, piercing through the thickening night, echoing among the ancient trees. It carried a primitive wildness and a cold, murderous intent, far from the sound an ordinary mountain forest beast could produce.

Immediately after, a second and third howl rose from different directions, echoing each other, forming a loose encirclement that was slowly tightening towards the two’s location!

Lin Mo and Su Muxue were instantly on the highest alert.

Out of the tiger’s den, only to enter the wolf’s lair! And judging by the commotion, there were far from a few of them!

”They are Yao Wolves! Their aura is cold, violent, and seems to have been corrupted by some kind of power!” Lin Mo’s thoughts came urgently. The Perception granted by the nirvana star core was especially sensitive to such auras. He could sense a faint, elusive energy on these Yao Wolves, sharing the same Origin as the deathly stillness of the Burial Ancient Abyss but far more frenzied.

Su Muxue forced herself to try and stand, but her internal injuries were still severe. Although that external Taiyin Origin was vast, recovery required time. Gritting her teeth, she grasped the zhenyuan remnant sword beside her. The sword’s body was slightly cool, transmitting a sliver of steadfast response.

”There are many of them. We are surrounded.” Su Muxue’s voice was hoarse. Her ice-blue eyes were sharp as an eagle’s in the night, quickly scanning the surrounding dark forest. Among the flickering shadows, pairs of ghostly green eyes, filled with greed and bloodlust, could already be seen flashing between the trees.

”We cannot fight head-on. Your condition is too poor.” Lin Mo immediately vetoed the thought of combat. ”My power has recovered somewhat. I can barely manage to activate the star Core to create a nirvana force field. It should temporarily mask our life force and confuse them. But we must move immediately, to find more favorable terrain or... a way out!”

This was the only feasible method at present. Su Muxue nodded without the slightest hesitation. ”Alright!”

Lin Mo’s sphere of light slowly rose, the interwoven patterns of ash-blue and dark gold on its surface glowing once more. An intangible, formless force field that could quietly ’silence’ the surrounding life force spread out from him, enveloping Su Muxue as well.

Instantly, the aura around the two seemed to vanish in an instant, becoming no different from the surrounding ancient trees and rocks.

The approaching ghostly green eyes clearly paused, revealing confusion. Low growls became restless, having lost their clear target.

”Go!” Lin Mo’s thoughts urged.

Su Muxue mustered a breath, supported by the zhenyuan sword, and staggered quickly towards a direction where the wolf howls seemed relatively sparse. Lin Mo’s sphere of light closely followed, maintaining the force field.

However, movement inevitably produced subtle disturbances and energy fluctuations.

One particularly robust Yao Wolf leader, with grey-black fur and a strange patch of white hair on its forehead, seemed to detect the anomaly. Its nostrils flared, its ghostly green eyes fixed intently on the direction of their movement, and it let out a low, commanding howl!

Immediately, seven or eight Yao Wolves pounced out from the shadows like ghosts, their sharp claws tearing through the air, bringing a foul wind, directly aiming for Su Muxue!

Although interfered with by the nirvana force field and unable to precisely lock onto life force, relying on their beastly instincts and the command, they launched a sweeping attack!

”Be careful!” Lin Mo exclaimed.

Su Muxue’s eyes turned cold. At the brink of life and death, she squeezed out the meager power she had just recovered. Her body floated backward as if weightless, while the zhenyuan remnant sword in her hand traced a cold arc!

”profound ice, Barrier!”

*Sshhh—!*

A thick wall of profound ice instantly coalesced before her! On the ice wall, the Lingxiao Sword Intent actually seemed to faintly circulate, making it even more resilient!

*Thud! Thud! Thud!*

The Yao Wolves charging at the forefront slammed hard into the ice wall. Ice shards flew, the wall shook violently, cracks spreading, but it did not immediately shatter! The Sword Intent’s reinforcement played a key role!

However, more Yao Wolves flanked them from both sides!

Su Muxue’s face grew paler. She swung her sword consecutively, shooting out icicle-like Sword Qi, barely repelling the attacks from the flanks, but her steps became disordered, her aura unstable once more.

Lin Mo was greatly alarmed. His nirvana force field was far less effective against this pack of Yao Beasts that seemed low on intelligence, acting only on instinct and command! And to forcibly activate the star Core for an attack in his current state—once he exhausted his strength again, the consequences would be unthinkable!

Just as he hesitated whether to risk a desperate move—

Deep within the Core of his sphere of light, on the surface of that nirvana star core, that extremely fine, previously barely noticeable dark pattern suddenly gave a fierce throb!

A wave of icy, deathly, yet supremely authoritative consciousness, like an ancient sleeping Vicious Beast cracking open a slit of an eye, swept through Lin Mo’s Perception towards the Wolf Pack outside.

This consciousness was extremely faint, yet carried a fundamental, transcendent power of suppression over all living beings! It was not suppression by energy, but a fear stemming from life hierarchy, from the very Soul Origin!

The Wolf Pack, which had been madly attacking, especially the white-foreheaded Wolf King, froze stiff in their movements!

All the Yao Wolves, as if frozen solid by an invisible chill, stood rigidly in place. Their throats emitted extremely fearful whimpers, their tails clamped tightly between their hind legs. Their ghostly green eyes were filled with a tremor from the depths of their Bloodline, as if they had seen some natural predator, or rather... some absolute existence they could not comprehend and could only kneel before!

Even Su Muxue felt a momentary palpitation, as if something extremely ancient and terrifying had swept past, but the feeling vanished in a flash, so fast it seemed like an illusion.

The Wolf King let out a terrified low growl. No longer caring about the command, it was the first to turn tail, fleeing in panic with its tail between its legs into the depths of the dense forest! The other Yao Wolves, as if granted a reprieve, whimpered and scattered in all directions, vanishing without a trace in an instant.

The crisis... was actually resolved in this unexpected way?

Only swaying grass and trees remained on the scene, along with Su Muxue and Lin Mo, who looked at each other in shock and bewilderment.

”Just... what was that?” Su Muxue panted, looking at Lin Mo’s sphere of light, her ice-blue eyes full of shock and confusion.

Lin Mo himself was stunned.

He clearly felt that momentary anomalous fluctuation transmitted from the depths of the star Core, and that icy, authoritative consciousness.

What was that?

Was it a mutation caused by the nirvana star core devouring too much chaotic power (star miasma, Guixu Origin, Taiyin afterglow)? Or... some residual will belonging to an ancient star brought by the star core fragment itself?

Or perhaps... a worse situation?

He tried to communicate with and sense the nirvana star core again, only to find it had returned to calm. The dark pattern on its surface had also vanished, as if everything just now had been an illusion.

But the scene of the Wolf Pack fleeing in terror was all too real.

”I’m not sure either,” Lin Mo’s thoughts carried a trace of gravity and wariness. ”The star Core seems to have... undergone some changes I cannot fully control. This is no place to linger. We must leave immediately!”

That authority had certainly scared off the wolves, but who knew if it was good or bad, whether it would appear again, or even backfire on them.

Su Muxue also deeply understood the strangeness of it. Suppressing her doubts, she nodded. ”Alright!”

Not daring to stay a moment longer, and regardless of direction, they identified a path leading away from the Burial Ancient Abyss exit and quickly vanished into the thick night of the ancient forest.

And not long after they left...

A white figure, like a ghost, once again silently appeared in the shadow of that ancient tree.

White Mask stood quietly, gazing in the direction the two had departed. He then lowered his head to look at the chaotic paw prints left by the Yao Wolves on the ground and the slowly melting profound ice wall.

He raised his hand, fingertips once again gathering that pale golden, rune-filled glimmer, and lightly traced a line in the air.

A faint ripple of space spread open, revealing a scene—precisely the moment the Wolf Pack had been startled into retreat!

His gaze seemed to pierce through time and space, firmly locking onto Lin Mo’s sphere of light, or more accurately, onto something that had flashed and vanished deep within that light.

From beneath the mask came an extremely soft murmur, carrying a trace of unconcealable... fanaticism and anticipation?

”As expected... has it begun to awaken...”

”Chaos as the seed, nirvana as the Core, Taiyin as the guide... finally...”

The ripple dissipated, and his figure once again melted into the darkness, as if he had never appeared.

Only the night wind passed through the forest sea, emitting a sigh-like moan.