Chapter 141: Remarkably Accurate Marksmanship

Zhang Can knew he could not afford to panic at that moment. Though terror gripped his heart, he forced himself to remain calm.

The three fierce wolves were exceedingly cunning. As they lunged forward, they did not attack simultaneously; instead, they staggered their pounces slightly. The one directly facing Zhang Can came first, followed a fraction of a second later by the other two. No matter where Zhang Can directed his focus, he would be vulnerable from the remaining angles.

However, Zhang Can had no time to dwell on that. The wolf right in front of him had its jaws wide open, leaping through the air as if intending to clamp down and tear out his throat mid-flight. Suspended in the air, the beast's gleaming white fangs looked exceptionally terrifying.

The wolf moved with terrifying speed. Before Zhang Can could properly prepare, it was already right before his eyes—he could even smell the foul stench reeking from its jaws!

In barely a thousandth of a second, leaving no room for conscious thought, his body took over on instinct, automatically retreating and leaping backward straight into the river!

The wolf followed in pursuit. The instant he retreated, Zhang Can exerted every ounce of strength, propelling himself a distance of over a meter with a mighty bound, plunging into the water with a heavy splash.

When the wolf leaped across, it had calculated the distance much like a human would. When you estimate how much force you need to cross a small ditch and how far you will soar, you generally make a rough calculation—just enough to clear it—and never exhaust your absolute maximum effort to jump far beyond the obstacle. Therefore, when Zhang Can instinctively hurled himself into the river, the wolf followed suit, but its momentum was spent before it could reach his neck. With a loud splash, all four paws struck the water surface first, kicking up a flurry of spray.

The other two wolves, suddenly witnessing this unexpected turn of events, checked their momentum and stopped to assess the situation. Wolves naturally detested water, and the biting cold of the night would rapidly sap their stamina. Yet, the river was shallow, and should they see Zhang Can rendered helpless, they would undoubtedly pounce again.

Thinking quickly in a crisis, Zhang Can saw the first wolf fall spent into the water, just a dozen centimeters away from him. Without hesitation, he reached out, grabbed the wolf’s head, and forcefully shoved it beneath the surface, immediately plunging his own head underwater as well while using both hands to pin the beast's head against the riverbed.

The river was actually quite shallow, less than a meter deep. However, when Zhang Can forcefully pressed the wolf’s head against the river bottom, the creature struggled fiercely, but because its paws and jaws could only claw at the muddy bed rather than reach Zhang Can, it could not right itself. A meter of water was more than enough to completely submerge its body.

Zhang Can knew this was a matter of life and death. The moment he let go, the wolf would surface, free its claws and jaws, and launch a vicious attack against him. Therefore, he pressed down on the beast's head with all his might, refusing to loosen his grip.

Fortunately, Zhang Can was submerged in the bone-chilling river, and wolves naturally abhorred water. This hesitation kept the other two wolves from immediately leaping in after them, buying Zhang Can precious time.

In its panic, the wolf might normally have lasted a few minutes, but pinned firmly to the riverbed, it instantly choked on the water. Choking only accelerated its loss of oxygen and strength. It let out muffled whimpers beneath the current, its four paws kicking frantically to churn the mud and stones at the bottom into a murky soup. Before long, its body grew limp, and in less than two minutes, the wolf stopped moving entirely.

The creature could not possibly be playing dead. Zhang Can pinned its head down with his foot, then burst through the water's surface with a splash, fixing a fierce glare on the remaining two wolves waiting on the riverbank.

Those two wolves were clearly bewildered by Zhang Can's plunge into the river and showed no intention of jumping in after him. Although Zhang Can had been submerged, he had kept tabs on their movements through the water's vibrations. Had they followed him in, he would have been forced to take alternative measures; under no circumstances was he willing to die or let himself be torn apart and devoured by these beasts.

Judging by the wolves' expectations, Zhang Can should never have jumped into the river. In such freezing temperatures, leaping in meant freezing stiff within minutes—a principle that applied equally to animals, though wild beasts possessed far greater cold tolerance than humans.

Naturally, these wolves could not have guessed that Zhang Can was no ordinary person. The energy of the Water-Aversion Pearl rendered him impervious to the frigid temperature. Moreover, even with his head submerged, he could clearly perceive their positions and movements.

Although Zhang Can had exploited the medium of the river to drown one wolf, two remained. If they were to leap at him simultaneously, there was no way he could handle them.

In truth, had all three wolves attacked him simultaneously from the start, Zhang Can would have had no way to fend them off or evade them. Though cunning and accustomed to using this tactic to overwhelm their prey, they had encountered Zhang Can—someone entirely out of the ordinary—and their calculation had failed.

Tension gripped Zhang Can as he stared at the remaining two wolves on the bank. They glared back at him just as fiercely, emitting sharp, howling cries that sounded exceptionally shrill and terrifying in the dead of night.

Zhang Can had considered calling out for his companions, but fearing it might provoke the wolves into a sudden, vicious ambush, he had forced himself to stay silent, saving the cry for the moment of greatest peril. He had not expected the wolves to start howling themselves.

Were they signaling for him? A sudden thought struck Zhang Can, chilling him to the bone. *Oh no!*

As it turned out, the wolves were not simply howling to intimidate him; they were calling for reinforcement. In a split second, Zhang Can saw a dozen more wolves charging swiftly from the direction of the snow-capped mountains!

*This is bad!*

Panic instantly overwhelmed Zhang Can. When faced with only three wolves, he had managed to keep his wits about him, fortunate enough to dispatch one and leave a much more manageable pair. But now, with a dozen more suddenly appearing, there was simply no way he could cope!

He also knew full well that nowhere in the river where he stood was deeper than a little over a meter. At such a shallow depth, once the wolves gained the upper hand, they would boldly plunge into the water to tear him apart, willing to endure a brief freeze to kill him quickly.

Seeing Zhang Can panic, the two wolves seized their opportunity. Zhang Can had averted his gaze and lost his focus, prompting them to instantly dive into the river from opposite sides toward his location, without making a single sound.

Though he was no longer looking at them, Zhang Can's mental perception remained locked onto the two beasts. When they lunged, awareness struck him, yet for a fleeting moment, he was paralyzed, unsure how to dodge.

Two crisp, sharp cracks—*crack, crack*—rang out, resembling the explosions of tiny firecrackers. Mid-air, the two wolves abruptly plummeted, crashing onto the surface of the river. They kicked up a splash before sinking into the water, never to move again.

Startled, Zhang Can whipped his head around to see Su Xue running toward him with an elegant grace, a pistol clutched in her right hand. Evidently, Su Xue had shot dead the two wolves that had just attacked him.

Su Xue was an astonishingly good shot!

Although Zhang Can had never touched a gun nor witnessed one in action, she had managed to shoot two wolves dead in the pitch-black night while they moved at high speeds, and all of this amidst the distraction of his own struggling figure in the water. Her accuracy was so incredible that even a blind guess would confirm her marksmanship was formidable.

Hearing the gunfire, the dozen-odd wolves charging from afar screeched to a halt, stopping twenty or thirty meters away to fix their eyes on Su Xue.

Su Xue sprinted swiftly to the riverbank, training her pistol on the distant pack, and urged Zhang Can urgently, "Zhang Can, get ashore! Hurry up and get ashore!"

"Oh..." Breaking out of his daze, Zhang Can hurriedly reached into the water, grabbed the wolf he had drowned, scrambled out of the river in a few quick strides, and heaved the carcass onto the bank.

Su Xue reached out and pulled Zhang Can up. Through her warm hand, Zhang Can felt her body heat, while the bone-chilling cold radiating from his hand made her shudder—not out of fear for herself, but out of deep concern that he might have suffered frostbite.

The nighttime temperature in these parts hovered near freezing. Coupled with the icy night air, anyone stranded in the wild would surely freeze to death, let alone someone who had just plunged into a river.

Su Xue had experience. In situations like this, a person could be frozen stiff and numb in ten minutes at most. Prolonged exposure would cause severe frostbite to the hands and feet, sometimes requiring amputation to save a life. Her sole focus was Zhang Can's physical safety.

Zhang Can, of course, was completely fine. Although his physical body lacked Su Xue's rugged conditioning, the spiritual core within him and the energy of the Water-Aversion Pearl were unmatched by any mortal. In particular, the pearl's power allowed Zhang Can to harmonize with water as naturally as an aquatic creature, rendering him entirely immune to the frigid temperatures. Thus, upon climbing ashore, he did not tremble or shiver in the slightest.

Dragging Zhang Can toward the tents, Su Xue kept pace while raising her pistol to keep a watchful eye on the wolves.

By then, figures were crawling out of the other tents, brandishing firearms. The massive Tibetan Mastiff also lunged forward, letting out a low growl that startled the distant pack, causing them to wheel around and scatter into the night with a chorus of howls.

Even beasts could accurately assess a hopeless situation when they saw one. They realized they had no chance left of catching Zhang Can; the fierce black mastiff terrified them, and the dozen armed humans terrified them even more.

In truth, humans remained their greatest threat. Once a dozen people burst from the tents, the wolves knew their opportunity had vanished entirely. Remaining any longer meant forfeiting their lives.

Next, a dozen more people emerged sequentially from the tents: Zheng Dabao, Wang Qian, Zhu Senlin, Wang Qian and Zheng Dabao's subordinates, and over a dozen herdsmen. The herdsmen clutched hunting rifles, while Wang Qian's seven bodyguards each drew handguns.

Zheng Dabao felt no fear. Knowing Wang Qian's background, he had long been aware that these bodyguards were elite soldiers straight from the military, possessing formidable combat skills as special forces operatives. That was why he remained entirely unperturbed.

Upon seeing Zhang Can drenched from head to toe, Wang Qian and Zheng Dabao looked genuinely shocked. They hurriedly instructed their subordinates to fetch woolen blankets while urging him, "Little Zhang, get into a tent and change out of those wet clothes immediately, or you'll catch a severe chill!"

Zhang Can did not argue. Insisting he was fine would only invite suspicion. He nodded and ran toward his own tent.

Feeling it inappropriate to follow him any further under the circumstances, Su Xue released his hand. No matter how deep her concern, under the gaze of so many people, she lacked the courage to follow Zhang Can inside his tent.

Zheng Dabao's men trotted over to the riverbank to drag away the wolf Zhang Can had drowned. Inspecting the carcass, Zheng Dabao looked up at Su Xue with a grin and said, "Little Su, your marksmanship is truly impressive. To hit two targets dead-center on a pitch-black night..."

Su Xue shook her head, attaching no special significance to the feat. Her eyes remained fixed on the direction of the tent, consumed by worry over how Zhang Can was faring. Though everyone present was formidable, not a single one of them would dare leap into that freezing water. At that temperature, jumping in was courting disaster—not to mention Zhang Can had apparently lingered in the water for quite some time.

Su Xue had simply woken up by chance. Groping the edge of her cot and finding it empty, she had immediately gotten up, pulled back the tent flap, and peered outside. Though the night was dim, she had caught sight of Zhang Can by the river, only to watch in horror as several dark shadows surrounded him before he leaped into the current. That terrifying moment had made her realize he was in mortal danger!