Evan Lin looked up, gazing toward the sky. Overhead, the full moon was already ringed by a faint blue halo.
That pale blue halo seemed to be subtly eating away at the moon, little by little.
"This moon..."
Evan Lin frowned slightly, remembering the blood moon he’d seen once outside Thornridge Mountain.
The current situation felt eerily similar to that night.
He stood there for a moment, then tapped his foot lightly and sprang off the dead branch jutting from the cliff, soaring after the pack of wolves.
"Why are they acting like maniacs? What the hell is going on?!"
Gavin Luo’s face was pale. He’d just been attacked by the snow wolves and was still hurting.
Now he watched the pack sprinting ahead, dragging their dead companions, moving so fast that even Vajra realm experts like him could barely keep up.
Stranger still, when he got close to some of the slower snow wolves, they completely ignored him—no aggression at all, as if he didn’t exist.
"The Sea of Flames is just a sign that ‘that thing’ is about to come out. By rights, the snow wolves should be guarding it, which is why they attacked us. So what’s really going on now?" Clark Luo muttered, completely baffled.
He wasn’t in great shape either. He’d burned a ton of energy fighting—their bones were way tougher than normal wolves, and every slash cost him dearly.
"Maybe... maybe something even worse is about to show up, something they absolutely have to stop?"
Rena Luo sounded unsure.
She surged forward, gathering her strength, and leapt high onto a nearby cliff to get a better look.
"What’s up ahead?"
Gavin Luo shouted after her.
"It’s... it’s a lake."
Rena Luo froze for a moment. In the far distance, she could see a deep blue lake, its surface sparkling with rings of moonlight—clear as a mirror.
"A lake?"
Clark Luo’s brow furrowed, as if recalling something, and his face suddenly changed. "Heavenly Lake!"
"Heavenly Lake on Changbai Mountain?"
Hearing Clark’s words, Gavin Luo opened his mouth, clearly surprised. "How could that thing possibly be in the water?!"
"Who knows where it really is? The only person who ever saw that thing for sure is Mo Yang—and he’s long dead!" Clark Luo muttered.
Ahead, the wolf pack suddenly leapt into the air.
Their bodies traced arcs through the air before dropping down.
When Rena Luo and the others caught up, they realized they were at the mouth of a gorge.
A broken cliff cut across the gorge ahead, about ten meters high. The pack of snow wolves had just leapt from the cliff’s edge.
A thousand meters ahead lay the deep blue waters of Heavenly Lake (Tianchi).
The wolf pack raced to the edge of Heavenly Lake.
The lead wolf charged forward, eyes full of wary vigilance, staring dead ahead at Heavenly Lake.
"There are... so many wolves over there."
Rena Luo’s heart jolted. Looking left and right, she saw that the snowy mountains encircling Heavenly Lake were packed solid with snow wolves.
Night had fallen, and the wind and snow kept blowing. The wolves’ white fur blended almost perfectly into the snowy ridges of Changbai Mountain—if not for their eyes, burning like lanterns, it would have been nearly impossible to spot them.
Each wolf cohort had a towering lead wolf.
More than ten lead wolves slowed to the water’s edge, then, almost simultaneously, raised their heads and let out piercing howls.
High above, the orange-yellow moon was now ringed by an increasingly obvious pale blue glow, within which faint sparks of red fire flickered.
Heaven and earth fell eerily silent.
Only the drawn-out howls of the lead wolves remained, chilling to the bone.
The snow wolves following the leaders let out low whines, each one sounding like a warning.
Countless whines merged together, echoing across the mountains around Heavenly Lake.
The night was deep and shadowy, the sound curling into their ears and sending chills down their spines.
It felt like a soul-calling dirge that hadn’t ended in ages.
Rena Luo and the others stared dead ahead, a powerful sense of danger rising in their hearts.
Everyone held their breath, silently watching.
All eyes focused tightly on the center of Heavenly Lake.
The moonlight rippled across the water, shining like liquid silver.
The wolves’ howls went on for five minutes, then suddenly stopped.
The entire pack grew even more tense, bodies going rigid as bowstrings.
"The center... the center of the lake... the water’s starting to boil!"
Rena Luo’s eyes sharpened as she stared that way.
Gavin Luo and Clark Luo turned to look, seeing bubbles rising in the once-calm heart of the lake, as if something below was breathing—or as if the whole Heavenly Lake was boiling.
"Careful, whatever that thing is, there’s bound to be something else guarding it. Otherwise, our family wouldn’t have failed so many times over the years." Clark Luo warned.
"Besides, our main job this time is just to confirm whether that thing’s really here. If we can grab it, great. If not, don’t rush—we just need to bring back the info and let the elders handle it. No need to risk our lives for pride."
Gavin Luo nodded seriously.
"Let’s just watch for now."
Gavin Luo’s face was sober, all his earlier bravado gone.
Rena Luo nodded, her gaze fixed on the center of Heavenly Lake.
The snow wolves by the lake finally began to move.
They dragged the corpses of their dead companions toward the water.
Once they reached the water’s edge, the wolves tossed the bodies into the lake.
The moment a wolf corpse touched the water, it sank instantly, as if the whole Heavenly Lake was swallowing it.
Countless bodies were dragged into the water—including plenty of other animal corpses from the mountains.
Every time a body entered the lake, the bubbling at the center eased up a little.
Gradually, the heart of Heavenly Lake calmed and returned to mirror-like tranquility.
Seeing this, all the snow wolves seemed to relax, and the oppressive tension over Changbai Mountain finally eased.
"It really looks like some kind of ritual, doesn’t it?" Rena Luo whispered.
No matter how she looked at it, these wolves seemed to be offering up corpses to keep the lake calm.
"That place... anything can happen near that thing." Clark Luo agreed.
Clark Luo nodded, glancing up at the sky out of habit—then his face suddenly changed. "No, something’s wrong!"
"Huh?"
Hearing Clark’s words, Rena Luo and Gavin Luo looked up as well, their faces turning pale.
The full moon had turned into a pale blue disk, and around it, rings of red fire burned.
In that instant, a deadly stillness fell over heaven and earth.
A moment later, from the center of Heavenly Lake, a colossal shadow surged up from beneath the surface.
As the massive shape rose from the heart of the lake, all the omens of the Sea of Flames’ awakening converged: blue moon, crimson firelight, wolf sacrifice, and the boiling heart of Heavenly Lake—just as the Luo family’s records foretold.