"So that means," Nie Rougang said slowly, "he has to wait until he reaches 18?"

"Not necessary…" Albert waved a hand dismissively. "He only has to wait until his body stabilizes. You can tell from the footage—he's already grown tall, with a strong frame. You just have to confirm that his reproductive capabilities have reached the peak. Then, he can accept the legacy without a problem. Judging by his physique, I bet he only has to wait half a year, at most."

Nie Rougang frowned. "Still, the risk—"

But before he could finish, Feng Xiu suddenly turned away, his sharp eyes catching something on one of the upper screens. "Wait," he said, stepping closer to the wall of monitors. "Camera Twenty-Eight. Zoom in."

The technician on the panel quickly complied. The image enlarged, revealing faint heat signatures moving across a thermal map—two dozen figures, scattered in formation.

Feng Xiu's tone hardened. "Who's monitoring CAM 28?"

A young staff member raised his hand nervously. "Y-Yes, sir?"

"What's the current position?" Feng Xiu demanded.

The man quickly typed on his console. "Sir, coordinates correspond to Sector 37."

There was a collective murmur through the room. Nie Rougang's face tightened. "Sector 37? That's one of the danger zones. Who the hell would be reckless enough to enter there at night?"

Albert leaned forward. "Probably one of the veteran teams from Camp 1, right?"

But Feng Xiu didn't answer immediately. His eyes narrowed further as he focused on the identifiers glowing beside the heat signatures.

A moment later, he turned, his voice low and cold. "No… they're from Camp 2."

Both commanders froze in disbelief.

"Camp 2?" Nie Rougang repeated, his tone incredulous. "You mean your unlicensed rookies' camp?"

Albert slammed a hand on the console. "Who in their right mind from Camp 2 would step foot into a danger zone?!"

Feng Xiu's gaze didn't waver. He leaned slightly forward, eyes glinting as the thermal images grew sharper—three humanoid signatures and several smaller ones, following the faint outline of a stream.

He leaned closer to the display, his reflection flickering against the glow of the monitor. "Control the drone," he ordered curtly. "Get me a top-down angle."

"Yes, sir." The operator's fingers flew over the controls, and the view shifted from the oblique thermal map to an aerial feed. The scene in Sector 37 was pure chaos.

While the two young direwolf puppies and their masters watched in awe, Lin Fang moved like a shadow, with his twin Icy Daggers flashing left and right as he moved in the Ironhowl Hyena pack, surrounding him. Their gray bodies with metallic hides painted in their blood. Every time they lunged, a flash was seen; either their necks were cut off or their bodies pierced by the dagger.

Anne and Wang Jie stood on the slope overlooking the field. The girl could barely speak in awe. "He's… he's cutting them all down—like they're nothing. They were all Elite Tiers and some even are Commander Tiers for god sake…"

Her voice trembled in disbelief and fear. Wang Jie, on the other hand, seemed to be proud of his choice, "we did the right thing, after all. But that's not all… look at him… it was as if his mana could regenerate by itself."

Unlike what Wang Jie thought, Lin Fang wasn't regenerating mana. While his mana was capped at 100,000 MP, it was endlessly refueled by the remaining 2.4 million MP of reserves. Each time he emptied his pool, the stored reserves surged forward, refilling him instantly.

"Alpha," Lin Fang muttered between breaths in a serious face, slicing through another hyena that lunged for his throat, "how many left?"

"Fifty-two," Alpha's calm voice echoed in his head. "But more are coming. You're drawing the entire pack's attention. The leader will appear soon."

Lin Fang's lips curved into a dangerous smile. "Good."

He spun midair, blades crossing, slicing through three necks in one motion.

\\*Ding!

As the night deepened, more and more hyena packs joined the fray. Moonlight slipped through the storm clouds, glinting off the metal hide of the beasts that surrounded Lin Fang.

The newer Hyenas were slightly bigger — four feet tall at the shoulder, seven feet long from snout to tail. Their eyes glowed red in the dark, and yet… they too fell, one after another, in clean, silent cuts.

Not one survived more than a heartbeat.

By the time the sixth pack also collapsed, the battlefield looked like a butchered plain.

Anne and Wang Jie stayed back, barely breathing. Their direwolves crouched low, growling softly as the ground trembled.

They could sense something bigger was coming this time.

The faint rumble under their feet turned into a quake as the seventh pack arrived, which was led by the largest hyena Lin Fang had ever seen. It was a two-headed Ironhowl Hyena, with its fangs glinting like curved blades. It was massive — six feet tall, nearly ten feet long, and its twin throats growling in perfect sync.

"Lord-tier…" Wang Jie muttered. His legs trembled in fear. Anne also seemed to be tense, too, grabbing his arm. "Darling…"

Meanwhile, the Alpha Female stared at Lin Fang with both heads. Then it let out a piercing, twin-voiced roar that shook the trees.

The ground beneath them began to move as it directly unleashed the skill without even trying to approach Lin Fang.

"Shit—!" Anne shouted as the dirt turned liquid. The quicksand spread wide like a dark ripple, sucking in the carcasses of the Ironhowl Hyenas that Lin Fang had massacred so far.

"Hold on!" Wang Jie grabbed Anne's hand and reached for one of the direwolves. The beasts whined, struggling to find footing, but even their claws couldn't grip the sinking soil.

Lin Fang didn't flinch. He stared straight at the Alpha, calm as still water. Tightening his grip on the daggers, he murmured. "Activate, Spectral Step."

A blur shot across the quicksand in the next second. The afterimage of his body lingered in the air before disappearing.

He reappeared right before the twin-headed beast with his twin daggers glowing faintly in his hands. His voice then dropped low. "Alpha's Blessing."

\\*Ding!

\\[Alpha's Blessing has been activated]

\\[Twin Daggers of Xuanwu have been selected. 500% damage has been increased.]

As the damage surged fivefold, the first slash came before the beast even moved. A clean arc that cut the right head straight down the middle. The second slash followed instantly, crossing from shoulder to hip, slicing through the left head diagonally in one motion.

The Lord-tier Hyena didn't even finish its scream before it split apart.

Two halves of its body crashed to the ground with a wet thud, kicking up a wave of blood-soaked dust. The quicksand turned back to the hardened soil again.

Lin Fang stood there, drenched in its blood. Letting out a steady breath, he murmured in satisfaction. "Lord-tier monsters are no longer a match for me."

\\*Ding!

\\[You killed a level-46 Twin-head Ironhowl Hyena Queen. Epic grade is detected.]

\\[You earned 46000 coins as a reward.]

\\[1 Epic grade spirit has been converted into 1000 common grade spirits. System's will absorbed them.]

With the death of their leader, the remaining hyenas around run away with tails between their legs in fear. Lin Fang didn't chase after them but instead opened his character interface to check the progress.

"91850 coins of debt has been reduced…" He instinctively clenched the daggers' handles. "Less than 200,000 left…"