Excruciating pain instantly spread throughout this body.

Unable to withstand the pain, I followed this body’s instinct and let out a miserable howl.

Immediately after, I clenched my teeth, suppressing the sound in my throat, trying not to sound too pitiful.

I knew that Xie Zhuo…

I looked at him, and sure enough, his face had turned deathly pale, and his breathing had halted.

He would be heartbroken…

“Little wolf…” He immediately crouched down, but dared not touch me, only gathering soul power in his palm before covering my wound with the light.

He was helping stop my bleeding, but the expression in his eyes made me feel as if the wound was on his own body.

“Whimper…” I wanted to tell Xie Zhuo I was fine. But a dog’s cry at this moment sounded more like I was in pain.

Xie Zhuo’s hand trembled over my wound: “It doesn’t hurt, it doesn’t hurt, soon it won’t hurt anymore.”

He wanted to comfort me, but his voice was so powerless.

At this moment, footsteps came from behind Xie Zhuo. I opened my eyes to see Zhu Lian approaching from behind him.

He held a dagger in his hand, and on his face, pale from years of weakness, his eyes looked particularly vicious.

“They should never have let you live! They should have killed you long ago!” He said this while raising the dagger high.

“Woof!”

I wanted to warn Xie Zhuo to be careful, but as my voice came out, soul power surged from all around Xie Zhuo’s body. In an instant, it directly threw Zhu Lian to the ground.

Zhu Lian rolled several times on the ground. When he stopped, he immediately vomited a mouthful of blood.

Xie Zhuo didn’t look at him, continuing to use soul power to treat the wound on my leg until the bleeding stopped.

“It’s all right now,” Xie Zhuo stroked my head and picked me up. “I’ll take you back and apply medicine.”

Xie Zhuo carried me, picked up my artificial leg that had been shot away, and then headed back.

He didn’t look at Zhu Lian, intending to walk right past him, but Zhu Lian, lying on the ground, seemed unwilling to give up and grabbed Xie Zhuo’s ankle.

“You shouldn’t exist, you shouldn’t have come into this world, you should just die.”

Xie Zhuo’s embrace tightened. I looked up at him to see his lips pressed tightly together. He didn’t speak, finally kicking Zhu Lian’s hand away and walking straight off.

Carrying me, Xie Zhuo took long, quick strides. Many tribe members we passed noticed Xie Zhuo’s unusual state, all casting glances our way, but no one came forward to ask a single question.

Xie Zhuo carried me back to the tent like this.

He placed me on the bed, then gently applied the salve he had made to my wound.

The salve was cold and somewhat painful. I shrank back slightly, and he looked at me, frowning as he said: “Bear with it…”

I gave a “woof” and endured.

“For the next few days, don’t run around, move less.”

These commands, word by word, were exactly like the Xie Zhuo in my memory, things like “Get up, the ground is cold.”

And “Come here, stay behind me.” In the past, I had dismissed these as meaningless words, ignoring them. Now, thinking back, I felt even more sorry for him.

These were the only words of comfort and protection Xie Zhuo knew.

Because he had never heard them, had never been cared for, never been protected.

He only knew how to speak from the most basic facts, saying the most common, most easily tiresome phrases.

“Xie Zhuo…”

My heart was so sore, I could only nudge his hand with my head, but he pulled his hand away.

“Don’t move, there’s still medicine.” He continued to focus on my injured stump.

Actually, under his soul power treatment, the wound had already healed quite well, but he still carefully applied the salve over it, and finally wrapped it simply with cloth strips and cotton thread.

While bandaging the wound, his expression was focused, but he murmured: “Wait a little longer, soon I’ll be able to take you away from here.”

Hearing this, I was slightly alarmed. I looked at Xie Zhuo and saw that his expression didn’t seem false. He was truly considering leaving…

“Woof…” I made a worried inquiry.

Xie Zhuo gently touched the bandaged wound, then looked at me: “The outside world is vast. I’ve heard them say it’s much wider than here. Later, I’ll take you with me, and we’ll leave this place.”

One person and one dog, going to the outside world to live a free life, without criticism, exclusion, or coldness, perhaps seeing new things, meeting new friends.

I felt that Xie Zhuo had such expectations.

Perhaps, from the moment his mind opened, he had begun planning another life. If these days were too mired in struggle, he wanted to strive for a different life through his efforts.

He learned knowledge, practiced techniques, and also learned medicine-making, hunting, and crafting small tools—all actually preparations for leaving on his own…

But, Xie Zhuo…

He didn’t leave so easily.

I roughly knew his destiny.

I had heard him say he destroyed his entire clan, killed his closest kin, he…

He ruined this place and only then left.

What would happen after that…

I couldn’t guess what would happen later, but as Xie Zhuo repeatedly stroked my head and back, I gradually became drowsy.

I fell asleep quietly in Xie Zhuo’s embrace, but when I woke up, it was not so peaceful…

A fierce wind seemed like it would shave all the fur off my head, sweeping violently across my back.

I opened my eyes in confusion to find the tent above me gone. The moon, as large as a disk, hung high in the night sky, its gauze-like light shining on the settlement of the Snow Wolf Tribe.

Xie Zhuo was also gone from my side, but around me, tribe members were gradually gathering.

“A’Yu…”

“A’Yu, don’t be rash…”

They were all persuading, all crowding toward another direction.

I stood up on the bed and turned to look in the direction they were heading.

I saw Xie Zhuo’s tent torn to pieces on the ground. The things that had been neatly arranged inside were now scattered everywhere. Pottery was broken, herbs were spilled, and all the little toys Xie Zhuo had made for me had fallen—some trampled underfoot, some kicked far away.

Looking ahead in the moonlight, through the gaps between people’s feet, I saw young Xie Zhuo pinned to the ground.

My pupils contracted! I immediately rushed forward!

“Woof!”

Let him go!

“Woof!”

Who dares to harm him!

I called out as I squeezed through between people’s feet, but I saw that the person pressing him harshly to the ground was none other than Xie Ling.

Xie Ling’s eyes were red with anger. Her knee pressed on Xie Zhuo’s chest, immobilizing him. One hand gripped Xie Zhuo’s throat, while the other held a dagger against his neck…

That dagger was the very one Zhu Lian had tried to kill Xie Zhuo with earlier that day.

I froze at this sight.

Xie Zhuo was also stunned, but unlike me, he looked at Xie Ling, his black pupils taking in Xie Ling and the moon behind her with perfect clarity.

He lay on the ground, allowing Xie Ling to press him down, allowing that dagger to rest against his throat.

Xie Zhuo wasn’t unable to move—I knew that. I had watched him learning and practicing for so many years. He could resist. Having received offerings from the entire tribe for so many years, how could he not resist Xie Ling?

But he didn’t move.

He only widened his eyes, looking at Xie Ling, his eyes filled with despair.

His despair was so overwhelming, it almost made me cry. He seemed to be silently asking Xie Ling, asking the person who had given him life, he was asking—

“Do I not deserve to be in this world?”

“Am I a mistake?”

“Do you want to kill me?”

And compared to Xie Zhuo’s silence at this moment, Xie Ling’s expression appeared even more broken and intense:

“You are the Evil God’s child!” she shouted. “I should have strangled you long ago! I should have killed you!”

As if to confirm Xie Zhuo’s despair, she raised the dagger high, and under the silent watch of the entire tribe, stabbed toward Xie Zhuo, while he just quietly watched the blade coming.

I could no longer bear it and leaped forward!

I bit Xie Ling’s hand, causing her to tilt, and the dagger flew out of her hand.

I couldn’t maintain my grip either, and after this leap, I tumbled sideways and fell beside them.

Without the dagger, Xie Ling ignored me, and like someone possessed, she used both hands to strangle Xie Zhuo’s neck, as if she would throttle him to death this way.

Xie Zhuo’s face went from white to red. He didn’t close his eyes, nor did he resist. He just stared steadily at Xie Ling, as if at this moment, his heart had already died.

I had fallen hard on the ground and was somewhat unsteady when I stood up again. I looked around, hoping that someone among the onlookers would help him.

But no one did…

Not a single one…

They were, as always, silent and cold. Even if they paid attention, all their concern was for Xie Ling, with none for Xie Zhuo.

Their whispers penetrated my ears in the cool night—”Will A’Yu just kill him like this?”

“What if it angers the Evil God…”

“Forget it, it’s better if he dies this way… better than letting him drain our tribe…”

Unable to bear listening anymore, I charged forward again, biting the sleeve of one of Xie Ling’s arms.

I desperately pushed against the ground with my three legs, trying to pull her hand away.

“Whimper!” I made sounds from my throat.

Don’t treat him like this!

“Whimper!”

He’s crying! Can’t you hear?

He’s so desperate! Can’t you see?

He’s human too! Don’t bully him! Don’t bully him anymore!

“Whimper!”

I couldn’t say anything; my throat only produced confused whimpers.

I used all the strength in my body, but I couldn’t pull Xie Ling’s hands away. I watched as Xie Zhuo’s face slowly turned from red to blue.

I released Xie Ling and turned to bite Xie Zhuo’s sleeve, pulling at him.

“Don’t give up.”

“Fight back!”

“Don’t surrender!”

“Woof!” I would pull for a while, then release him, and bark by his ear again, my voice mournful. My efforts finally seemed to make him see me.

He stopped looking at Xie Ling. His eyes now held my reflection. I frantically wagged my tail at him and licked his hand and arm.

“Don’t give up, don’t give up.”

“Woof…”

Xie Ling finally seemed annoyed with me. She released one hand and “smack” pushed me away.

Xie Ling’s strength was tremendous to me. My chest hurt as I staggered and fell to the ground. From my three paws, tearing pain suddenly came.

Only then did I see that my paws, in my desperate pushing against the ground and pulling earlier, had split open. The ground was covered with fresh blood flowing from my dog’s paws.

I didn’t care about my paws. I raised my head to look at Xie Zhuo and staggered toward him.

I won’t give up, Xie Zhuo; you shouldn’t give up either.

Stand up and fight this bastard fate to the end!

I crawled toward him. In the hazy moonlight, I seemed to see something glittering in the corner of Xie Zhuo’s eye, vaguely like tears.

His lips were slightly pressed together, his expression now determined.

The next moment, a fierce wind rose from the ground, destroying everything in its path.

Everything in the Snow Wolf Tribe was thrown into chaos. Xie Ling was blown off Xie Zhuo, and I was about to be blown into the air.

In the panic, a hand caught me and held me against his chest.

After so many years, I was very familiar with the warmth of this chest.

“Little wolf.” Xie Zhuo’s face was pale, and around his body, circles of light were entwined—the remaining glow after he had used soul power to cast his technique. The radiance made him look like a deity among the stars.

He said, “We will leave tonight.”