Chapter 1071: Rise of the Wolf King
Ice Storm told Meng Chao that her initial idea had been very simple. She wanted to settle down temporarily in the Blood Skull Arena first and trade between Black-corner City and Red-gold City. On top of that, she wanted to collect information about the leopards from the wandering warriors who had fled from the Gold Clan to the Blood Hoof Clan. She wanted to know more about the customs and pedigree of the leopards.
That way, she could one day play the role of a real panther warrior well and sneak into Red-gold City.
Besides, she could hone her totem power in the arena.
After all, although she had the talent to activate totems in the land of Holy Light, she did not dare to use it in actual combat.
Obviously, the line-up to hunt down a witch and the line-up to hunt down a "witch who used totem power" were definitely two different things.
At that time, if she had dared to show even the slightest bit of her totem power, she and her mother would have been killed by the night watchers ten years earlier.
However, Ice Storm did not expect her talent in totem power to be so high.
After only a few battles, her innate talent was awakened from the depths of her bloodline.
Soon, she stood out from the gladiators and became the Blood Skull Arena"s trump card.
Even the master of the Blood Skull Arena, Casanova Bloodhoof, wanted to recruit her.
Unfortunately, Ice Storm did not have the fortune to accept Casanova"s "good intentions."
Firstly, during the Blood Bestowing Ceremony, she would not be able to hide the power of Holy Light in her body once she was surrounded by seven or eight witch doctors and priests.
Moreover, Ice Storm had no interest in joining the Blood Hoof Clan to seize the so-called "glory."
With her dual bloodline, she did not want to get involved in the ten-thousand-year war between the land of Holy Light and Picturesque Orchid Lake, ineffectively becoming a chess piece.
She just wanted to figure out the mystery surrounding her birth, and she wanted to avenge her mother.
There was one more thing Ice Storm did not mention, but Meng Chao could guess it.
Although she said that she could not imagine herself expressing filial piety, after her mother"s death, her father had been her last family member in the world.
Meng Chao had a feeling that when she was planning to enter the Gold Clan"s territory, she felt a little "homesick."
She did not know how to face her father who had left without saying goodbye twenty to thirty years ago.
She was even less willing to speculate on her father"s motive for taking away her mother"s important items back then, or even his motive for getting close to her.
Many things were best buried in the sands of time.
Hence, she hesitated and stayed in Black-corner City.
It was not until the glorious era arrived and her ident.i.ty was exposed by Casanova that she could no longer escape.
"Then, do you know any specific information about Father now?"
Meng Chao pondered for a moment and asked, "As you said, your father suffers from a special congenital disease. His hair is much thinner than that of the other leopards, and his skin color is much fairer. With such obvious characteristics, you should more or less be able to find out his current situation, right?"
"Yes."
Ice Storm nodded and said, "I found out that Father didn"t stay with the other leopards. Instead, he stayed with the Wolf Clan"s leader, "Jackal" Ka.n.u.s, and acted as his counselor."
"What?!"
Meng Chao jumped up as if he had been stabbed by an icicle.
"Huh?"
Ice Storm looked at him in surprise. "Why is your reaction so strong? Did I say something wrong?"
"No, no."
Meng Chao took a deep breath to calm himself down. "Is your father staying with the leader of the werewolves?"
"Yes. The information I received from the travelers and the traders didn"t give my father much of a good review."
Ice Storm said, "Because he was born with a disease, his hair was spa.r.s.e, and his skin was fair. His clansmen thought that he lacked heroism. At the same time, he didn"t seem to be good at combat. Although he wasn"t weak enough to become a rat, he was still a clown and a joke in the mouths of the panther warriors.
"He didn"t seem to be keen on fighting either. However, his biggest interest was traveling around and collecting lost heroic epic fragments, so he made it his lifelong job. He seemed to continue playing the role of a bard.
"In short, the panther warriors all thought that he was a loafer who didn"t do his job. Naturally, he wasn"t qualified to hold an important position in the clan.
"He ran into obstacles everywhere and asked for trouble. As time pa.s.sed, he could only hang out with fellows like "Jackal" Ka.n.u.s!"
"Is that so?"
Meng Chao narrowed his eyes.
He did not think that an advanced orc who had the courage to sneak into the land of Holy Light alone twenty to thirty years ago would be a "loafer who did not do his job properly."
Compared with the clan warriors who were well-developed and simple-minded, he was more interested in this unusual leopard man.
Ice Storm"s last sentence stunned Meng Chao slightly.
"A guy like "Jackal" Ka.n.u.s?"
Meng Chao thought quickly and hesitantly said, "I"ve heard of this name before. He should be the Wolf King who rules over all the werewolves at Picturesque Orchid Lake.
"Although the werewolf warriors in the Gold Clan are not a match for the lion man and the tigermen in terms of fighting alone, their advantage lies in their strong reproductive ability and large numbers. The Wolf Clan"s army has made many meritorious contributions in the previous battles of glory.
"Why did you sound contemptuous when you mentioned "Jackal" Ka.n.u.s? Is this Wolf King"s reputation not too good?"
"Of course. You don"t understand the Gold Clan"s situation, but everyone in Red-gold City knows about it. The so-called "Wolf King," Ka.n.u.s is just a puppet of the lion and tigermen!"
Ice Storm told Meng Chao that it was precisely because the werewolves" ability to reproduce was far stronger than the lion and tiger people"s. They were the race with the largest population in the Gold Clan, and they possessed the potential to become clan leaders.
Therefore, for thousands of years, they had been deeply feared by the Gold Clan"s "two heroes," the lion men and the tigermen, who had suppressed them with all their might.
The Gold Clan"s internal strife was even more intense and mysterious than that of the Blood Hoof Clan.
After all, the "two heroes" of the Blood Hoof Clan, the Minotaurs and the wild boar men, were not famous for their quick wit.
The Minotaurs and wild boar men, who knew everything, preferred to measure the diameter of their fists directly to decide who the leader of the Blood Hoof Clan was.
On the Gold Clan"s side, the tigermen, lion men, werewolves, and leopard men were all born hunters and backstabbing experts.
The show of these hunters fighting for power and advantages was a hundred times more thrilling and exciting than the Blood Hoof Clan"s.
After fighting for thousands of years in the open and in the dark, the lion men and tigermen who occupied the dominant position had long developed a mature method of controlling the large number of werewolves.
It was nothing more than threatening and bribing, dividing and suppressing, weeding out the strong and supporting the weak, stirring up conflicts between the various werewolf families and settlements. All of this caused the werewolves to be in a state of disunity.
In such a state, any werewolf would find it difficult to convince the ma.s.ses. If they wanted to rise to power, they would have to obtain the support of external forces, which were the lion men and tigermen. Step by step, they sank into the quagmire, and in the end, they were not able to control themselves or be loyal to their race. They were reduced to being puppets of the lion men.
"Jackal" Ka.n.u.s was reminiscent of a textbook puppet.
"There are rumors that Ka.n.u.s is not a pure-blooded werewolf, but a gnoll."
Ice Storm said, "Although the Gnoll and Wolf Clans are often mixed together, and their kinship is very close...
"In comparison to the werewolves who are qualified to challenge the lion-tiger duo, the gnolls are closer to the dog men, and their strength is relatively weaker.
"After becoming the clan leader, Ka.n.u.s tried his best to dispel the rumors and invited the respected Wolf Priestess to verify his bloodline. However, it should be confirmed that he possessed some gnoll blood.
"Due to the limitation of his bloodline, Ka.n.u.s was not very strong before he became famous. At that time, he had an extremely insulting nickname called "Corpse-eating Dog."
"Of course, that doesn"t mean that he really ate the corpses of his enemies.
"Instead, in order to survive, he played the role of dissecting totem beast corpses and collecting totem armor fragments, as well as totem cores, in the team that hunted totem beasts."
"Is that so?"
Hearing what she said, Meng Chao was slightly stunned.
Was the so-called Corpse-eating Dog not the Reaper of the Turan civilization?!
Who would have thought that the future Doomsday Wolf would be in the same line of work as him!
"To perfectly gather all the materials from a totem beast, the level of technology needed is very high!" Meng Chao could not help but say.
"That"s true."
Ice Storm said, "However, the Turan people don"t place much importance on gathering work. They place more importance on combat strength. Only those who dare to face the totem beasts head-on and fight at the fastest speed are the true heroes! "Those who only know how to use knives on the corpse of a totem beast will naturally be despised by others."
"Then, how did this Corpse-eating Dog suddenly transform into the Wolf Clan"s leader?" Meng Chao listened with great interest and could not help but ask.
"Obviously, it is because the fellow has no dignity and backbone at all. He grovels to the lion man and tigerman powerhouses and flatters them to the extreme."
Ice Storm added, "Ever since "Jackal" Ka.n.u.s became the Wolf Clan"s leader, he has ruthlessly suppressed and expelled a large number of wolf warriors who did not obey him. Many werewolves ended up in Black-corner City.
"I heard from the werewolf gladiators in the Blood Skull Arena that this guy joined a hunting team that mainly consisted of lion men and tigermen. He racked his brains to serve the lion men and tigerman powerhouses comfortably.
"One day, this hunting team received a mission to accompany a n.o.ble of the Gold Clan to hunt a very rare totem beast.
"Along the way, Ka.n.u.s used all his skills to win the favor of the n.o.ble and became the n.o.ble"s servant. He could serve the n.o.ble all day long.
"As the n.o.ble"s position in the Gold Clan became more and more major, Ka.n.u.s naturally followed the fox and pretended to be the tiger. He relied on that man"s power.
"Around the same time, several powerhouses of the Wolf Clan appeared one after another, which made the lion men and tigermen feel pressured.
"Therefore, after a series of open and secret battles, the Wolf Clan"s powerhouses, who could have challenged the position of the lion men and tigermen died one after another. They either became Origin Warriors or disappeared without a trace in the wilderness.
"Casanova, the loyal dog who was devoted to the lion men and tigermen, was put on the stage. He then became the ruler of several dozen towns and settlements that belonged to the Wolf Clan."