On the ground, Bowwow was darting about under the wolf king's pursuit. From time to time, he also needed to run from the other wolves that came at him from all directions.
While the dog was dodging the attack from a level-six wolf, the wolf king seized the opportunity to pounce on him.
"Owooo!" This time, Bowwow didn't manage to get away and was pressed on the ground, struggling. Sensing the incoming danger, Bowwow finally had his hair standing straight up. He turned his head and desperately barked toward the surrounding area.
While defending himself with his claws against the wolf king's white, shiny teeth and scratching the wolf's face, the dog didn't forget to kick the wolf's crotch area with his rear legs.
"Hrrr…" The wolf king bared its teeth and attempted to bite the dog's neck over and over again. But, the dog managed to push away the wolf's face with his forepaws every time.
At that moment, Lin Qiao showed up in the midair behind the wolf king and swung her claws toward it. Meanwhile, a large stream of dark fire was released from her palms, spreading and descending on the wolf.
"Whooo…" Hearing the swishing noise caused by Lin Qiao's claws, the wolf who had suffered from those claws once instantly leaped away with vigilance. However, that leap brought it right under Lin Qiao's black fire.
As the devouring dark fire came close to it, the wolf king immediately covered itself with a thick layer of ice. In the air, the wolf kicked its legs, twisted its body in a weird posture, and then darted into the forest.
Lin Qiao clenched her fingers in the air. Following her move, the black fire swiftly flew at the wolf and wrapped it up within a blink.
"Owooooo… Hrrr…" Being wrapped in the fire, the wolf king lost balance and made a few rolls on the ground, then started struggling while releasing a great amount of energy, wishing to push away the devouring energy contained in Lin Qiao's black fire. However, the more energy it released, the more the black fire absorbed. and the stronger it became.
Lin Qiao floated in the air, treading over a small sphere of black fire. She controlled the fire on the wolf's body with both hands to absorb the wolf's energy. The fire had even started to melt the ice on the wolf's skin.
"Owooooo…" The wolf king rolled and struggled on the ground, then sprung up and bumped into a rock. From there, it leaped high and hit a tree with its body. It had lost its sense of direction and sight completely.
Some level-seven mutated wolves had run away long ago while quite some wolves at level five and six were killed by the other zombies, having their nuclei dug out. The rest of the wolves had fled away without a trace.
Lin Qiao trapped the wolf king with all her power. At that moment, no other level-eight beings were hindering her. So, the wolf king would eventually fall in her dark fire and die when its energy ran out.
Without the threat coming from the wolf king, Bowwow had started teasing the group of large wolves once again. Some of them who were slow-minded still had their eyes fixed on Bowwow while the smart ones noticed that all their friends were gone, and their leader was trapped. Those smart wolves instantly stopped chasing the dog, then turned and ran deep into the forest.
At that point, the black snake had his body wrapping an over two-meter-long gray wolf tightly. As same as the wolf king, that gray wolf was also covered in ice, and the snake's teeth had sunken into the wolf's neck. Near his teeth, the ice had cracked. The snake's cold eyes sparkled with a strong intention of killing. No matter how hard the level-seven wolf struggled and how much icy mist it released to try and freeze the snake to death, or how it tried to scratch with its claw, the huge black snake didn't relax his bite by even a little bit.
Even though the snake had the wolf fully suppressed, quite some new wounds were added to his body, some left by claws and others caused by sharp ice pieces. A few ice thorns were even stuck in its skin.
Not far away from the wolf and the snake, a dead level-six gray wolf was lying on the ground. The dead wolf's body was twisted in a weird way, lifelessly.
A huge mushroom slowly moved to the dead wolf's side using its roots and stood there, glancing at the dead wolf, at the black snake, then at the wolf, and then at the snake again. Every time the mushroom gave the snake a glance, it would make a small step toward the dead wolf.
After making a few small steps, the mushroom found that the snake was still trying to strangle the level-seven wolf. So, the mushroom instantly made a big step, hopped onto the dead level-six wolf, and poked its tentacles into the dead wolf's head. Then, it stirred inside and quickly dug out a nucleus. The mushroom tossed the nucleus on the ground and gave the black snake another glance, then dragged the rather large dead wolf which weighed at least one hundred kilograms quickly into the forest nearby using its tentacles.
Seeing the mushroom drag away the dead wolf but leave its nucleus, the snake had a faint gleam of light flashing across his eyes but made no further reactions. The level-seven wolf in its grip soon lost its strength to struggle because the snake's venom had delivered its effect. The black snake slowly tightened his body; the bucket-thick snake was so strong that his body even crushed the wolf's bones.
The wolf-king's level-eight nucleus contained a huge amount of energy, just like the bear's nucleus. Therefore, the time Lin Qiao spent to suppress the wolf king was no shorter than what she spent on the bear.
Finally, the wolf king's mind grew weak and Lin Qiao seized the opportunity, cutting off its head with her claw. By that time, her zombie friends and three pets had rested for a while nearby.
They harvested twenty-two nuclei this time, including one level-eight, one level-seven, eight level-six, and twelve level-five. Added with the level-eight bear's nucleus, those nuclei could improve the powers of a small number of Lin Qiao's zombie soldiers.
But, that was still far from enough.
Apart from Lin Qiao herself, Mo Yan was currently the only level-eight being in her base. Right now, she wondered how much power he had regained. She assumed he wouldn't be able to regain all his power within a short time. Lin Kui, Qiu Lili, and Yun Meng were the only three level-seven zombies in the base. Apart from them, she also had about ten level-six zombies and around a hundred level-five ones.
That force she controlled was strong enough to face one large base. However, it was not good enough to protect her base against all human bases in the country. She was still not powerful enough to awe those human beings and make them fear her.
Only by making those human beings fear her zombie army and realize how much stronger she and her army were than themselves could she force them to accept the existence of her zombie army. They might still not accept the existence of her and her zombie army, but at least they would not always try to destroy her and her zombies.
Lin Qiao glanced at the two level-eight nuclei in her hand. She needed one of them to strengthen herself. As for the other one, she planned to save it for the future. She would have plenty of level-eight nuclei in the future.
The vibes that she and the wolf king released while fighting the battle frightened all the other mutated animals a hundred miles around them and made them restrain their own vibes.
Lin Qiao spent a short while scanning the area with her sensations but failed to detect any other high-leveled mutated creatures. She didn't plan to chase the few level-seven wolves that had run away anyway.
She threw all the dead wolves into her space, then turned and swiftly moved toward Lin Kui and the others, "We're heading home."
Wolves didn't taste good, but at least the meat of high-leveled wolves contained energy more or less. They should taste okay after soaking in the lake water for a while.
Following Lin Qiao, the other zombies disappeared one after another.