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Northern Wolf Country is one of the seven nations in the Northern Wasteland, and at its peak, it occupied the entire Hetao Region of Youyun, dominating half of the northern world. It almost managed to conquer Beihai City and monopolize the trade of the Northern Sea.

For nearly a century, it has been the most powerful country in the Northern Wasteland!

The Northern Wolf Country claims the largest grassland in the Northern Wasteland: the Frost Wolf Plains.

Though it sees perennial snow, the grass is strangely lush, and even in the snowy season of winter months, the grass of the wondrous Frost Wolf Plains does not wither.

Beneath the thick snow is an everlasting green.

It had been so many years since she returned, Murong Yunji looked at the familiar grasslands with a face filled with complex emotions.

The Frost Wolf Plains are still the same as before, with the unstoppable vitality of wild grass beneath the thick snow, but it is much more exaggerated than before.

The grass is so green it shines and has grown much sturdier. Any random blade could be as large as a fist, almost comparable to some of the pastures in Jiangnan. It seems Chen Qing was right; with the revival of the Earth Spirit, everything in the world can change in an extremely short time!

All things between heaven and earth are undergoing mutations, all reaping the benefits from the revival of the Earth Spirit... except for the Human Race...

It’s not that the Human Race doesn’t benefit; it’s just that they do so slowly. They can’t immediately grow strong like the common demons due to the revival of the spiritual energy. They need to cultivate step by step, but how can their speed compare to that of the demons?

So, this is a world of demons, and every time the Earth Spirit revives, it is a nightmare for the Human Race.

"We have walked through this prairie for quite a while now, why have we not seen any herding? Nor any wolves?" Murong Yunji asked curiously.

In the winter, wolf packs are less active but not entirely inactive.

Not to mention herding, which in the winter leads to decreased activity in the livestock, making them most prone to losing condition.

Usually, the shepherds of the Frost Wolf Plains would forcefully drive the flocks to graze on the snow grass.

But after half a day’s journey of her own group across the vast grassland, they hadn’t seen anything at all.

"Herding is impossible now..." Murong Yunliu gave a bitter smile.

"Which family dares to keep livestock these days?

The grass on these plains has become poisonous; livestock that eat it either explode from within or turn into demons, that consume the shepherds and escape back to the plains.

Just in the first month, Northern Wolf Country had to slaughter all its livestock. "

"Is that so?" Murong Yunji nodded slightly, once again finding Chen Qing’s words convincing.

Originally, she had asked whether the revival of the Earth Spirit outside wouldn’t make things as good as in Jiangnan?

Jiangnan’s spiritual energy is tenfold richer than outside, leading to today’s prosperity, with high-quality agricultural products emerging one after another, and pastures researching excellent fodder to make cattle, sheep, and other breeds plump and healthy, their meat and blood far surpassing anything before.

Shouldn’t the revival of the spiritual energy in this world be a good thing?

But Chen Qing’s answer was no. Jiangnan’s spiritual energy is controlled, slowly changed by various mountain gods and river gods using the power of belief, with the ultimate goal of strengthening the faithful Human Race, hence it is extremely gentle.

But the revival of the Earth Spirit is different; that spiritual power comes from the resentment of heaven and earth, and is incredibly fierce.

It can support the insane growth of plants but also, due to the hatred contained in the spiritual energy, can make any species that absorbs it become ferocious.

Sheep turning on their shepherds and consuming them are a case in point...

Given this, the environment in the future will become even less suitable for humans to live in, but he was curious about one thing.

"Without livestock, how do ordinary people survive?" Murong Yunji was slightly taken aback.

"They all rely on those envoys who lead giant serpents bringing in demon flesh..."

"All rely on that?" Weichi Feihong was also surprised.

He was aware that the Northern Wasteland now accepted the Demon Flesh hunted by those pythons, but to rely on others for feeding... wasn’t that an exaggeration?

"Is there so much Demon Flesh?" Murong Yunji frowned.

"Yes..." Murong Yunliu nodded. "After we slaughtered all the livestock, we were pondering over how to find new sources of food and were even ready to risk a journey up north for farming. But we never expected those giant serpents would take the initiative to come to us."

"Just in time for the arrival of the envoy mentioned in the letter, you’ll be able to see it soon."

Murong Yunji and Weichi were both quite intrigued, but their curiosity soon turned to shock.

Northern Wolf Pass was not far from Northern Wolf City, and despite the delay from the horde of Northern People trailing them, the group still arrived outside Northern Wolf City before nightfall.

But the scene outside the city took Weichi Feihong and Murong Yunji’s breath away.

Before them lay a mountain of Demon Corpses outside the vast Northern Wolf City!

Underneath the snow, those demons were utterly dead, with the strong stench of blood detectable from ten miles away...

Murong Yunji and Weichi looked at each other, their eyes brimming with disbelief.

They knew about the Giant Serpents hunting Demon Beasts to rear humans, but this amount... wasn’t it too exaggerated?

The Northern Wasteland... does it have so many Demon Beasts?

Murong Yunji felt her mind hadn’t quite caught up; she had grown up on the plains and, with her mastery of Divine Wind Sorcery, she had once roamed as wildly and freely as she wished. Where on the plains hadn’t she been to? Even the den of ice wolves where the Wolf King resided, she had visited.

It was precisely because she had traveled throughout the northern plains that she knew the number of demons... could absolutely not be as exaggerated as this.

If there were, the Northern Wasteland would have long been annihilated—how could there be any opportunity to invade the Central Plains?

"This is really..." Weichi Feihong was also unable to calm down for a long time.

Seeing the shocked expressions of the two, Murong Yunliu said with a bitter smile, "We hadn’t anticipated this either. Afterward, our scouts from several major families went to investigate, and the results were terrifying!"

"What do you mean?" Murong Yunji frowned.

"The breeding rate of the demons has completely changed from before.

Taking for example the most common ice wolves in our Northern Wolf Plains, a female can give birth to over a hundred pups at a time, and they grow extremely fast, becoming larger and fiercer than fully grown wolves within almost a month.

Almost every month, the plains see the birth of several hundred thousand ferocious ice wolves. "

"If this were the case at present, our Northern Wolf Country would probably be eaten to the bones by these wolf cubs!"

"But with these giant pythons, the endless stream of demon beasts has become our food supply for winter..."

"That exaggerated?" Weichi Feihong, stroking his chin, felt immense shock. No wonder his majesty said the descent of the ancient era was a catastrophe for ordinary people!

Given this growth rate of demons, if there was no power to control, the entire Human Race might have been wiped out in the first month...

A single mother wolf giving birth to a hundred or more—faced with such an exaggerated rate of troop influx, what could the Human Race use to resist?

How many years of painstaking effort does it take to cultivate a bloodline soldier? The meticulous nurturing from childhood, various training, and what about demons?

They only need to keep giving birth.

How could one win with mere numbers...

For a moment, Weichi Feihong felt this era was somewhat terrifying; even now in Jiangnan, facing such a frenzied world, could they really protect the lives of millions?

"Let’s go inside first..." Murong Yunji said calmly, "Is the emissary not outside? Will this Earth Spirit not attack passers-by?"

Yes, outside the gate, besides the pile of demon flesh that was like a mountain, there was also an extremely large python. Its size appeared almost large enough to encircle the entrance!

Clearly, it was identical to the one Weichi had killed in Beihai City.

"From what we’ve seen before, it seems it won’t.

.." Murong Yunliu shook his head. "Each emissary brings along one such Earth Spirit, and these Earth Spirits always stay put, right outside the city gates. Even when caravans pass by, they don’t face attacks.

Look, the gates of Northern Wolf City are wide open, but this Earth Spirit has no intention of charging in. "

"Every emissary accompanies an Earth Spirit?" Murong Yunji suddenly frowned. "Are you sure?"

"It should be..." Another member of the Murong Family spoke up. "There have been three different emissaries to Northern Wolf City, each presenting almost entirely different terms. The one constant has been the enormous pythons."

"Really?" Murong Yunji suddenly felt something was off.

According to Chen Qing, Earth Spirits were extremely precious, with every ten capable of summoning a True Dragon Rank from the Celestial Serpent Palace!

There shouldn’t be any extras, so... since it’s an ambush, why allow such creatures to come? Why not those so-called emissaries?

The people spoke of the great strength of the emissaries; such precious creatures were killed by Weichi Feihong, and yet there has been no retaliation to this day.

That made Murong Yunji suddenly feel that something was wrong.

If every Earth Spirit was managed by an emissary, then why was there one in Beihai City?

Could it be the one that slipped through the net?

As she pondered this, a hearty voice laughed from the entrance: "I was wondering where you had disappeared to, turns out you were welcoming esteemed guests. Come on, the wind and snow outside are harsh, hurry into the city."

Standing at the city gate was none other than the Murong Family’s head: Murong Yuntian!

The expressions on Murong Yunji and Weichi Feihong’s faces weren’t very good...

If Shen Yuntian could be waiting at the city gate so early, it meant they had been monitored the entire way.

Combining the ’one Earth Spirit per emissary’ notion, Murong Yunji felt a chilling sensation, and a terrifying conjecture surfaced in her mind.

That emissary... could it be within their midst?