The Berserker dragged two wolves for three steps, then stopped on the fourth.

  It wasn't because of pain.

  He stopped because the wolf carcasses hanging from his legs were slowing down his pace.

  The greataxe fell, cleaving through the wolf and his own leg armor simultaneously. Gray-white fur split in two, and entrails spilled across the ground. The Berserker pulled out his axe and continued forward.

  A hole had been ripped into his thigh pte, and the muscle beneath was mangled and bleeding profusely. He didn't look down, nor did he even adjust his stride.

  Qian Duoduo’s back was pressed tight against the bottom of an overturned wagon. His legs were curled up, his knees pinning that small iron chest.

  The chest wasn't his anymore.

  But he didn't have time to mourn his money.

  The second row of Berserkers pressed forward. The frequency of their swinging axes was terrifyingly stable—every strike delivered at the same angle, with the same lethal force. The howling of the wolf pack was drowned out by the dull thuds of metal crushing bone.

  The crossbowmen formed three rows in the rear.

  The first row knelt, the second stood, and the third reloaded. Bolts were fired at fixed intervals, saturating every inch within thirty meters of the Berserkers' fnks.

  A single bolt tore through the bodies of two wolves. A third wolf was knocked over by the momentum of the shaft, and before it could scramble up, it was pinned to the snowy earth by the second volley.

  Qian Duoduo’s fingers gripped the edge of the wagon floor so hard that his nails cracked.

  He had been in business for twenty years. He had seen mercenary groups fight, noble private armies suppress rebellions, and the Imperial Regurs train.

  But he had never seen a combat style like this.

  The Berserkers in the front didn't defend at all. No parrying, no dodging, no shield walls. They performed only one action—walking forward and cleaving whatever blocked their path into two.

  A Frost Wolf leaped from the side onto a Berserker’s back.

  Its fangs pierced through the gaps in the neck armor, sinking directly into the flesh. Blood flowed down the edges of the ptes, trailing along the grooves of the backpte to his waist.

  The Berserker did not turn around.

  He swapped his axe from his right hand to his left. His right hand reached back, and five steel-gauntleted fingers cmped onto the wolf’s upper jaw.

  He wrenched downward.

  The wolf’s lower jaw, along with half its tongue, was torn away entirely.

  The Berserker tossed the bone and teeth aside. Simultaneously, his left-hand axe buried itself into the skull of another wolf in front of him.

  Blood was still streaming from his neck. The muscle was shredded and turned outward, revealing the white of his cervical vertebrae.

  He did not stop.

  Qian Duoduo’s backside sat completely in the snow.

  He wanted to stand up, but his legs wouldn't obey. It wasn't because they were frozen; they were weak.

  "What... what kind of monsters are these...?"

  His voice cracked, and the rest of his words were swallowed by the wind and snow.

  The wolf pack began to retreat.

  The Frost Wolves on the outer edge turned tail first, disappearing into the depths of the wastend. Chaos erupted in the middle yers; some were still lunging, while others had already fled. The entire encirclement began to colpse from the southeast.

  The Wolf King did not retreat.

  The giant white wolf shook the blood and brain matter from its head. Its four limbs were nailed firmly into the snow. A low rumble vibrated in its throat—not a call to its pack, but a build-up of power.

  Qian Duoduo recognized the sign.

  "Magic! The beast is going to cast magic!" he shrieked toward Lin Yuan.

  Blue ice crystals began to condense on the Wolf King’s fur. The frost spread outward from the tips of its hair, forming dense ice spikes in the air within a three-meter radius. The temperature plummeted; the falling snow actually froze into tiny shards of ice mid-air.

  The Frost King’s area-of-effect spell—Frost Domain.

  Once fully unleashed, everything within fifty meters would be frozen into ice sculptures.

  Lin Yuan stepped out from the crossbowmen's formation.

  As he passed the nearest crossbowman, he reached out and took the steel crossbow from the soldier's arm. The crossbowman offered no resistance, his right arm remaining in a firing position, waiting for a new weapon to be equipped.

  Lin Yuan propped the crossbow on his left forearm. The tension of the string made the muscles of his arm bulge. There were still three armor-piercing bolts in the magazine.

  The ice crystals on the Wolf King grew thicker. Blue cold air seeped from its pores, freezing a circle of white patterns onto the snow beneath its feet.

  Lin Yuan raised his arm.

  The first shot.

  The bowstring snapped. The armor-piercing bolt tore through thirty meters of space and buried itself in the Wolf King’s left eye.

  The arrowhead vanished into the socket. The Wolf King’s head jerked violently, and its channeling was interrupted for a split second. The speed of the ice crystal expansion slowed.

  The second shot.

  The right eye.

  The bolt entered at the same angle, piercing the eyeball. The fletching at the tail of the bolt caught on the edge of the eye socket bone.

  The Wolf King let out a distorted howl. It could no longer see. Its limbs began to cw frantically at the ground, and the Frost Domain's buildup was completely severed.

  The third shot.

  Right into the Wolf King’s open maw.

  The bolt passed through the upper pate, its tip emerging from the top of the head, trailing a streak of white brain matter.

  The Wolf King’s body stiffened for a moment.

  Six Berserkers charged from three different directions simultaneously.

  Greataxes bit into the Wolf King’s neck from both sides. A third axe severed its hind leg. A fourth split its abdominal cavity, and its steaming organs spilled onto the snow. A fifth. A sixth.

  Ten seconds ter, the Silver-rank Frost Wolf King was reduced to a heap of shredded meat and bone scattered in the snow.

  The remnants of the pack completely colpsed.

  No howling, no looking back. Over three thousand Frost Wolves scattered in every direction, drawing gray-white lines across the snow before vanishing into the blizzard.

  The wastend fell silent.

  Only the wind remained, along with the dull thuds of greataxes hitting the ground—a few Berserkers were mechanically finishing off the wolves that hadn't died yet.

  Lin Yuan tossed the crossbow back to the soldier and brushed the snow off his forearm.

  "Recycle."

  Deep red circles of light ignited one after another across the snow.

  The wolf carcasses were sucked in one by one. Gray fur, shattered bones, scattered fangs, and the entrails sprayed everywhere were all swallowed by the bottomless vortex.

  The numbers on the system panel jumped rapidly.

  [Recycled Frost Wolf carcasses ×1438... Energy Points +8628][Recycled Silver-rank Frost Wolf King carcass (damaged) ×1... Energy Points +1200][Recycled Magic Beast bones and fur... Energy Points +2160][Recycled scattered mercenary equipment... Energy Points +340]

  The numbers finally settled.

  [Current Assets: 5187 Gold, 16429 Energy Points, 34 Primary Magic Crystals, 32 Top-grade Magic Crystals]

  Lin Yuan closed the panel.

  He turned toward Qian Duoduo.

  The fat man was still sitting in the snow, his legs spyed out. The iron chest had been pushed a full arm’s length away. His cotton robes were soaked, his face was a mess of sweat and melted snow, and his mouth hung half-open.

  Lin Yuan stopped in front of him.

  "Get up."

  Qian Duoduo’s mouth moved twice, but no sound came out. His gaze shifted from Lin Yuan’s face to the silent formation of iron giants behind him, then back again.

  "Who... who the hell are you?"

  Lin Yuan didn't answer. He bent down, grabbed Qian Duoduo’s arm, and hauled the nearly two-hundred-pound fat man out of the snow.

  Qian Duoduo stumbled as he was pulled up, leaning against the overturned wagon to find his footing. He stared at Lin Yuan’s face for five or six seconds, his pupils suddenly shrinking.

  "Wait."

  He took half a step back.

  "Your surname is Lin?"

  Lin Yuan watched him.

  "The fourth young master... of the Imperial Lin Family?" Qian Duoduo’s voice rose an octave. "You're the 'useless' one who was exiled to the Winter Wastend—"

  He swallowed the st word.

  Because he had just seen this "useless" person blind a Silver-rank magic beast with three bolts.

  Qian Duoduo’s throat bobbed twice. He re-evaluated the seventeen or eighteen-year-old youth before him, then looked back at the st few wolf corpses vanishing from the snow.

  "The fourth master of the Lin family, with over two hundred iron-cd monsters who aren't afraid to die, and the ability to summon things out of thin air."

  Qian Duoduo wiped his face with his sleeve.

  "The news those people in the capital are spreading... is it all fake?"

  "Why do you care what they say in the capital?" Lin Yuan opened the system inventory and pulled out a short bde.

  The bde was entirely silver-white, the edge so thin it was nearly translucent. He casually sliced it across the iron axle of a nearby wagon.

  The iron axle was cut open like butter. The surface of the cut was perfectly smooth, with no jagged edges.

  Qian Duoduo stared at the cut, his eyes bulging.

  "This knife costs fifteen energy points to produce," Lin Yuan twirled the bde in his hand. "An Imperial-issue military saber would need three full strikes to leave a mark on this axle. How much do you think this would be worth out there?"

  Qian Duoduo didn't speak. But he licked his lips.

  That gesture revealed everything.

  Lin Yuan stabbed the bde into the snow and crossed his arms.

  "I need someone who can help me sell things. Magic beast materials, weapons, armor—I'll sell as much as I have. At the same time, I need someone to help me bring back ore and magic crystals. In bulk. Continuous supply."

  Qian Duoduo’s tongue did a p around his mouth.

  "Exclusive?"

  "Exclusive."

  "What's the cut?"

  "You take twenty percent."

  "Thirty." Qian Duoduo held up three fingers and shook them.

  Lin Yuan looked down at those three trembling fingers.

  "Twenty percent. You were nearly wolf food just now; I'm the one who saved your life. I didn't charge you for that favor."

  Qian Duoduo retracted one finger.

  "...Deal."

  He pulled a palm-sized copper pte from his robes, the back engraved with the emblem of the Merchant Alliance. He bit his thumb and pressed a blood-print onto the front of the pte.

  "Qian Duoduo, Grand Deacon of the Eastern Branch of the Continent Merchant Alliance, will only do arms business with you from this day forward."

  He handed over the copper pte.

  Lin Yuan took it, flipped it over to check, and stuffed it into his pocket.

  "One more thing."

  He opened the system inventory, took out the iron chest Qian Duoduo had surrendered, and flipped the lid.

  Thirty-two top-grade magic crystals y quietly on the bck velvet, their blue cold light reflecting on both their faces.

  Qian Duoduo’s fat face twitched. That was four thousand gold in cost, and twelve thousand in profit.

  Lin Yuan ignored his reaction. He poured the magic crystals into the system inventory and opened the upgrade panel.

  [System Upgrade Requirement: Consume 1000 Gold + 100 Primary Magic Crystals][Top-grade Magic Crystals ×32 → Automatically converted to Primary Magic Crystals ×160][Current Primary Magic Crystals (including conversion): 194. Requirements met.]

  Lin Yuan clicked confirm.

  [Consumed 1000 Gold. Consumed 100 Primary Magic Crystals.]

  [System Upgrading...]

  [Upgrade Complete.]

  [Invincible Troop Multiplication System Lv2: Steam Magic Modification Era Unlocked!]

  [New Technology Tree: Magic-Powered Gatling, Heavy Magic-Modified Ballista, Iron Walls, Steam Arsenal]

  A row of new icons lit up on the panel.

  Lin Yuan scrolled through them one by one.

  Magic-Powered Gatling—Six-barrel rotary fire, powered by low-level magic crystals, 600 rounds per minute of metal projectiles with elemental penetration.

  Heavy Magic-Modified Ballista—A truck-sized ballista, bolts engraved with explosion arrays, specialized in piercing high-level magic shields.

  Iron Walls—Overy metal armor ptes, can be directly used to reinforce existing stone walls, increasing defense by four levels.

  Lin Yuan closed the panel.

  Qian Duoduo, standing nearby, couldn't see the system screen, but he saw the change in Lin Yuan’s expression.

  The youth's mouth curled up slightly. It wasn't quite a smile; it was more like a confirmation.

  It was the look a hunter gives when he hears the trap snap shut.

  Lin Yuan turned his gaze to the north.

  At the end of the blizzard, the ground was vibrating slightly. That dull, continuous trembling was coming from the horizon.

  The beast tide.

  Less than nine hours remained.

  Lin Yuan turned to leave, patting the fat man's shoulder as he passed.

  "Follow me back. Soon, you'll see the best investment of your entire life."

  Qian Duoduo wanted to ask more, but the snow beneath his feet shuddered again.

  He looked down at the fine cracks appearing in the snow he was standing on, swallowed his words, and jogged to catch up.

  Two hundred and thirty death-soldiers turned around, forming a marching column, and began a full-speed advance toward Bck Wind Fortress.

  Qian Duoduo was sandwiched in the middle of the formation, fnked by silent iron giants. He had to jog just to keep up, his cotton robes fluttering in the wind as he stumbled along.

  As he ran, he suddenly looked back at the snowfield.

  The battlefield that had been covered in thousands of wolf carcasses moments ago was now just a patch of trampled slush and a few bloody grooves.

  Nothing was left.

  Not even a fragment of bone.

  Qian Duoduo turned his head back, staring at the back of the man in the bck coat, and swallowed hard.