Chapter 662: Appeared from Nowhere
’So that was what had happened.’
A year ago, a Level 85 Gold-tier boss, the Three-Eyed Fire Turtle King, had followed an underground magma river into the grotto and eventually emerged from the circular fire pool. There, it discovered the Blue-Flame Howling Wolf sealed within the formation.
The wolf had been trapped there for one hundred and eight years, evolving in the fire pool and enduring the Celestial Star Fire Dragon Formation in the hope of completing its evolution. When the Three-Eyed Fire Turtle King saw the wolf helplessly confined by the seal, greed immediately took over. It wanted to devour the wolf and claim whatever benefits came from its body.
What the turtle king had not expected was that a hundred and eight years of evolution inside the fire pool had changed the Blue-Flame Howling Wolf completely. It had gradually adapted to the intense fire energy and, more importantly, learned to endure and make use of the Celestial Star Fire Dragon Formation. Although it appeared to be trapped and helpless, it was no longer the same creature that had first been sealed there.
Cunning and vicious, the Blue-Flame Howling Wolf curled itself up inside the fire pool, trembling as it endured the Three-Eyed Fire Turtle King’s attacks. It deliberately made itself appear weak, allowing the turtle king to believe that it had already been pushed to the brink of death. Eventually, the turtle king lowered its guard and moved closer, convinced that its prey could no longer fight back.
That was the moment the wolf had been waiting for.
"Wolf Flame Howls Across the World!"
The Blue-Flame Howling Wolf suddenly unleashed its ultimate skill. An enormous ice spell condensed all of its power into a single point before exploding outward in a sudden ambush. The Three-Eyed Fire Turtle King was caught completely off guard, and the attack successfully froze it for five seconds.
"Wolf Claw Chain Strike!"
The Blue-Flame Howling Wolf immediately seized the opportunity. Its claws flashed as it struck the frozen turtle king again and again, dragging the massive creature directly into the sealed area.
The moment it crossed the boundary, the Three-Eyed Fire Turtle King was trapped inside the Celestial Star Fire Dragon Formation as well.
And so, the formation became a closed battlefield containing two monsters.
The battle that followed was inevitable.
The Level 85 Three-Eyed Fire Turtle King was an extremely powerful creature in its own right, a tyrant capable of dominating an entire region. However, despite its ferocity, it was still one step short of the level of a Mythic Beast, while the Blue-Flame Howling Wolf had already spent a hundred and eight years accumulating power inside the formation.
The turtle king had entered the grotto hoping to steal its prey, only to become the prey itself.
In the end, it had gained nothing.
The Three-Eyed Fire Turtle King failed to evolve, while its body became the nourishment that pushed the Blue-Flame Howling Wolf toward its own evolution. When the battle was over, almost nothing remained of the turtle king except its red stone-like shell.
But there had been another surprise.
A three-hundred-year Fire Turtle Core had been forming inside the Three-Eyed Fire Turtle King’s body.
The Blue-Flame Howling Wolf had truly struck the jackpot.
The turtle king’s naturally fire-attuned body, combined with the precious Mythic-grade fire-energy core, provided an enormous boost to the latent fire magic within the Blue-Flame Howling Wolf. The effect became even more powerful because the Celestial Star Fire Dragon Formation was constantly drawing energy from the fire pool and directing it toward the wolf.
Within only ten days, the wolf’s dormant fire magic finally erupted.
Under the combined stimulation of the formation, the Fire Turtle Core, and the turtle king’s remains, the Blue-Flame Howling Wolf completed its evolution within the formation.
It became a Divine Beast: The Ice-Fire Howling Wolf.
Once the evolution was complete, the newly transformed Ice-Fire Howling Wolf naturally broke free from Beastmaster Manor’s taming. Its suppressed wild nature returned in an instant, and it immediately began attacking the formation that had held it captive for more than a century.
Beastmaster Manor, however, had no idea what was really happening.
All they could sense was that the Celestial Star Fire Dragon Formation was beginning to tremble violently, showing obvious signs of collapse. They assumed the Blue-Flame Howling Wolf had suffered an energy deviation after absorbing too much fire energy and that the formation was failing because the wolf had lost control of its power.
They never imagined that the creature inside had seized an extraordinary opportunity and evolved into a Divine Beast after one hundred and eight years.
By the time Lady Silvia finally arrived, the Divine Beast Ice-Fire Howling Wolf was already breaking through the formation.
What she witnessed was chaos.
Thunderous explosions shook the cavern as the five magic pillars surrounding the circular fire pool detonated one after another. An overwhelming mixture of ice and fire energy erupted from the collapsing formation, flooding the entire cavern in an instant.
"Awooo!"
"Awooo!"
Two enormous wolf howls echoed through the grotto.
Amid the explosion, a massive creature emerged from the collapsing formation. It was roughly the size of a tiger, but it possessed two wolf heads. One head was wreathed in blazing flames, while the other was surrounded by cold, mist-like ice energy. Red and blue light constantly flickered across its body as the opposing forces of fire and ice surged around it.
The Divine Beast Ice-Fire Howling Wolf fixed its gaze on Beastmaster Manor and the members of the Roaring Tiger Squad.
"Retreat!"
The Roaring Tiger Squad’s vice leader immediately realized that they were in danger. He shouted the order while he and two Beastmaster Manor experts moved in front of Lady Silvia, protecting her as they desperately retreated from the cavern.
They had barely begun to withdraw when the Ice-Fire Howling Wolf moved.
It was as fast as lightning.
The Divine Beast lunged after them with murderous intent, and the battle that followed left the cavern littered with corpses.
The scattered bones Marcus had found earlier were the remains of those who had failed to escape.
"Ice-Fire Howling Wolf... a Divine Beast."
Marcus’s expression became solemn.
The information revealed by Insight made his scalp tingle. He had known this quest would be dangerous, but he had not expected the trail to lead to a genuine Divine Beast.
If he actually had to fight it, he would give up on the quest.
That was the only thought in his mind.
There was no shame in retreating when the difference in strength was that enormous. Besides, Beastmaster Manor possessed tremendous power and resources, yet even they had been unable to locate Lady Silvia. That alone was enough to tell Marcus that this quest was far more complicated than it appeared on the surface.
If he continued investigating, there was a very real possibility that he would eventually have to confront the Divine Beast Ice-Fire Howling Wolf himself.
Marcus looked around the grotto one last time. There was nothing else here worth investigating.
He whistled, and Blackie immediately carried him high into the sky. Their next destination was a ruined temple located more than one hundred kilometers to the right, just outside the Valley of Ten Thousand Wolves.
The temple itself was strange.
That area had always been a broad, empty stretch of land. The terrain was flat, and as far as anyone knew, no temple or other large structure had ever existed there. Yet when Beastmaster Manor had searched the area surrounding the valley for Lady Silvia and the Roaring Tiger Squad, they had discovered something that should not have been there.
A massive temple had suddenly appeared.
There had been no warning, no signs of construction, and no record of the structure existing there before. It was as though the entire temple had simply fallen from the sky and landed on the grassland.
Although much of it had already collapsed, several statues could still be seen inside. Their features had been eroded beyond recognition, but even at a glance, it was obvious that they represented figures entirely different from the deities currently worshipped by the Dragon Dynasty.
Judging from the ruins, the temple appeared to have existed for tens of thousands of years.
It was an extremely peculiar place.
Beastmaster Manor had immediately launched a detailed investigation, but despite sending people to search through the ruins and examine every trace they could find, they came up empty-handed. They could not determine where the temple had come from, why it had appeared so suddenly, or whether it had any connection to Lady Silvia’s disappearance.
There were no useful clues.
They still could not find Lady Silvia or the members of the Roaring Tiger Squad, and the Divine Beast Ice-Fire Howling Wolf had disappeared as well.
Everything about the situation was strange.
With the investigation stalled, Beastmaster Manor had no choice but to appeal directly to the Dragon Dynasty for assistance, hoping that additional experts could be sent to help with the search. At the same time, they marked the mysterious temple as a location requiring particular attention.
Now that Marcus knew what had happened to the Blue-Flame Howling Wolf, the situation had changed.
It was time to investigate that strange temple.
Beastmaster Manor had searched it and found nothing, but Marcus possessed something they did not: his unique Insight skill. He could examine the environment in ways ordinary players or NPCs could not, and apart from those bizarre broken system characters, no one else possessed an ability quite like his.
Marcus was confident.
As long as the temple had any connection to Lady Silvia, there should be something he could uncover.
"Let’s go!"
Blackie accelerated toward the distant temple.
At its speed, the journey still took more than four hours.
By the time Marcus finally reached the area, he looked down from the sky and saw a vast, flat grassland stretching beneath him. In the middle of that seemingly endless expanse stood a large temple complex, its silhouette immediately catching his attention.
It was enormous, almost like a massive ancient mansion.
But whatever grandeur it had once possessed was now buried beneath decay. Its walls had collapsed in several places, broken beams protruded from the ruins, and the entire structure was covered in the unmistakable marks of countless years of abandonment.
The strange temple.
Even in its ruined state, Marcus could tell that it had once been magnificent.
It was certainly not a small or insignificant structure.