CURSED AND LOVE

THE PACK OF WOLVES

She lifted her eyes and looked upstream. She paused for a moment in thought before she got up and lifted her foot to follow the stream upward. It was roughly half a stick of incense before her steps stopped and her gaze fell upon a clump of weeds by the stream.

A man was slumped there.

To be more accurate, it was not known whether he had fainted or was dead. His entire upper body was sprawled within the running stream, and as he was lying face down, his face could not be seen. But judging from the quality of the light brown clothes on his body, his family must have been quite well off.

The clothes around his abdominal region were a ghastly red, and his head was bleeding as well. Although he was lying face down in the stream's water, he was lucky, as where he was sprawled over, there was a slightly larger piece of rock bulging out slightly higher than the water's surface, which kept his face from being submerged under water. If not, even if he did not die from loss of blood, it was thought he would have drowned.

It was because his body was lying in the stream that the blood flowing out of his head and abdomen naturally followed the water and flowed downstream.

Jocefie walked over and flipped the man over. She then reached out her hand to check for any signs of breathing under his nose. She found that he was still breathing and dragged the man onto the grass beside the stream.

She examined his wounds, and she took out a tiny bottle from the sack-bag. She sprinkled some of the blood-clotting astringent on his head wound before undoing his clothes to sprinkle the medicine on his abdominal wound as well. Next, she took a piece of clothing out as a bandage from the sack-bag and tore it up into strips to cover up the man's wounds.

"You must be really lucky to have met me."

Looking at the unconscious man, she gave a light and easy laugh and then felt a little surprised at herself as her brow lifted and she mumbled to herself,

"When did I become so nice?" That was Felisa asking herself.

"You were nice enough for me, why you ask?" Jocefie replied to her instinct.

"I never did this before, I was only busy creating my own magical powder for a cure, but I never did something to someone else who needs an extra care."

"You know Felisa, sometimes a "care" is much valuable to a person who got sick or wounded. My mother got sick. But she fought it for so many years because she knew that I was taking care of her. She feels pain, but I am her strength."

"I understand"

In order to not let the scent of blood draw in any beasts, she removed the blood-stained clothes from the man and threw them into the water, letting them be carried down with the stream. She then took another piece of clothing out of the sack-bag and covered the man's body with it.

Seeing that it was getting rather late and there was a ready supply of fresh water, she picked up some twigs and small branches to start a fire, intending to spend the night here.

She had thought that by being near the water, she might be able to catch some fish. But after squatting beside it for a long while, she did not even manage to spot a single fish swim by, and she sighed in disappointment: "Clear waters do not have fish?"

She had no choice but to reheat the leftover roast meat and tear off a piece to eat. After filling up her stomach, she sat cross-legged in the lotus position and began cultivating once more.

She was only drawing the energies into her body now. Beginners in the warrior phase start from zero. But she could sense some minute changes in her body after cultivating the mystical energy, and since she had been able to feel the tangible advantages, she became highly motivated to carry out her cultivation.

She carried on with her cultivation for several long hours. It was not until she felt that the mystical energy that had been drawn into her body was breaching the warrior phase's second grade's initial mystical boundaries that she finally blew out a long breath of relief and opened her eyes.

The sky had turned dark, and the air in the woods was getting rather chilly. Fortunately, she had been able to draw some warmth from the fire before her, and the mystical energy in her body could be diverted to drive out the chill.

She turned to look at the man at her side. Seeing that the curled-up figure seemed to be shivering, she reached out a hand to check, and she found that inflammation of his wounds had caused his body to be running a fever.

She thought about it for a while, and she dug through the sack-bag. She finally took out another small bottle and poured a pill into her palm to sniff at it. After ascertaining the medicine's prescribed use and effects, she pulled down the man's lower jaw and stuffed the pill into his mouth before pouring in some water for him to swallow together with the pill.

She threw a few more branches into the fire, and the flame burned a little stronger. But at that moment, the sounds that reached her ears from within the woods made her body freeze, and she tensed up and felt a feeling of dread.

"Howl!" "Howl!" "Hooowl......"

"Wolves?"

She stood up in an instant. Hearing the howl of wolves that sounded especially chilling in the deep of night coming in from far and near, every single howl reverberating in the trees

Wolves are ferocious beasts that form packs. When they appear, they will most definitely appear in a group!

She wanted to slip away quickly before the pack of wolves reached her. However, at that moment, from among the masses of weeds, pair after pair of dark green eyes shone, and they began to multiply.

"It looks like it's too late to go."

Her brows creased together as her gaze glanced over to the pack of wolves surrounding her. She took one quick look at the unconscious man behind her, and she felt that she really had a knack for seeking out trouble for herself.

Facing the pack of wolves, she thought to herself that it would be fine if she were alone, but with an unconscious man behind her, this could be rather troublesome.

"Howl!"

"Felisa, what should I do?" Jocefie said rolling her gaze around.

"Let me handle this." Felisa spirit whisper

"If you can defeat the wolves make sure this unconscious man is safe too" Jocefie reminded her. But Felisa reacted to what she said,

"What? you already treated him right? That's enough for him to live, and now I'm going to save him! that's just extra responsibility!"

"Helping others is not a responsibility, it just means that you have the grace to be strong against the weak. That's why the goddess gave you extraordinary skills and powers. Look, even if you are a spirit, you can still do something, you say that!" Jocefie told her

A long howl sounded, sounding as if it were giving out a command.

"Hayst, uh, you win" Felisa said.

The previously slowly approaching pack of wolves, as they surrounded Jocefie, suddenly leapt to come right at her.

Jocefie's eyes suddenly lit up, after she pressed her left palm to her right palm, she seemed to be absorbing the energy around her.

As the stream was running down the sloping ground, she had dragged the man out of the stream and left him below a slight outcropping that jutted out from the sloping ground. At that moment, the steep slope behind her turned out to become a form of defense for her back, and she need not worry that wolves would attack her from behind, nor would she need to worry about being unable to look out for the unconscious man behind her, whereby he might be dragged off by the wolves.

She pulled out her dagger, holding it horizontally in front of her, fully releasing her killer's instincts. If she wasn't able to escape, then she would choose to fight! She didn't believe she would be able to kill all of these wolves because she has someone to save.

When she was alive before, every time she went to the forbidden forest, she didn't have to fight here, but she just used his power to scare them and beat them instead.

Her eyes took on a cold chill, and they gleamed sharply. She slowly summoned up the mystical powers within her body; her eyes locked onto ten overly salivating wolves who seemed to be waiting for something.

The pack of wolves was giving out incessant low howls, like they were trying to frighten her into losing her will to fight before approaching her. However, Jocefie was no ordinary person, and she wasn't the type who could be frightened into becoming weak in the knees and losing the will to resist.

As she was at a huge disadvantage in numbers, she could not charge forward at them or she would be immediately surrounded. So she remained in her spot, waiting for the wolves to leap at her.

Every single one of the more than ten wolves could feel the murderous intent growing more intense instead of diminishing, and they howled. And at that moment, a larger-built gray wolf gave a long howl from somewhere higher up the slope.

"Howl! "

Once the long howl was heard, more than ten wolves immediately leapt at her. Wide slavering jaws, revealing sharp wolves' fangs with drool dripping out the sides of their mouths, snapped mercilessly at Jocefie. The wolves' long claws seemed to gleam razor-sharp in the dark night.

Jocefie timed herself properly and struck out in a flash! Her strange movements, when executed together with her mystical powers, increased her speed. The dagger in her hand was thrust into the neck of the wolf, who leapt at her first and was quickly pulled out. Within the darkness of night, a pitiful howl resounded, and she saw a gush of blood spray out. The warm blood carried with it a strong stench as it sprayed all over her, and the wolf collapsed.

After striking the wolf dead, she immediately took a step back, and the dagger in her hand flashed before two wolves leapt at her from the left. It might have been their pack mate's sudden death that caused the two wolves to become more alert. Their reactions were extremely fast, and they dodged at the same time her dagger struck out while the other wolves were almost upon her from the front.

The wolves attacking from the right had taken the opportunity to leap towards the unconscious man lying on the ground at the back. At that moment, she was unable to split herself up, and she had just barely managed to lift a leg to kick at the camp fire while striking out with her dagger at the wolves on her left at the same time, causing a flurry of red, glowing branches still aflame to fly towards the wolves on the right.

Wolves dreaded fire, and when they saw the flurry of embers flying, they howled out in panic and quickly retreated. That was the moment the dagger in Jocefie's hand quickly eliminated two more wolves. Including the one earlier, lying at her feet were three wolf carcasses.

It could have been the intense austerity of her murderous intent that was too frightening, or it could be due to her insatiable bloodthirstiest that terrified them. The other wolves in the pack were all giving out low whines as they slowly retreated a step at a time, not daring to take another step forward but still unwilling to leave just like that.

The dawn's sun rays slowed and crept across the land, and the man who had been unconscious throughout the night finally awoke at that moment. But when he opened his eyes, an extremely strange scene met his eyes.

A little beggar dressed in torn and tattered clothes was sitting in the lotus position beside him, his body covered with blood, and although the stench was still strong, the blood had dried up completely. He was unable to determine the little beggar's features as his face was a deep shade of green, like he had applied some medicine to it.

Seeing that the little beggar was holding a dagger in his hand and his gaze was staring forward, the man turned and followed the little beggar's gaze, and what he saw made him narrow his eyes warily.

Besides the three wolf carcasses that had already turned stiff right before the little beggar, at a distance of about three meters from them, about ten gray wolves with heavily slavering jaws were sitting on the hind legs, and their eyes were watching them hungrily.

Jocefie Abad turned her head very slightly, happening to meet the eyes of the man, which were filled with both shock and confusion at what was happening.

"Look out!"

The man shouted out suddenly in shock, his eyes wide with horror as he saw the gray wolf leaping towards the little beggar. In a state of panic, he reflexively tried to stand up, but that big movement tore at the wound in his abdomen, and he groaned before falling back onto the ground, where blood could be seen seeping out through his wound again.

At the man's shout, Jocefie had already turned back, leaping nimbly to her feet in one quick move as her chilling gaze fixed on the gray wolf. She saw the leaping wolf closing in on her, and she immediately crouched and fell into a roll, her dagger slicing in an arc through the air above.

"Shak!" "Howl!"

The dagger was pushed in deep with vicious strength, and it cut a long, deep s***h across the wolf's underbelly. The wolf howled out in agony, and as its leap carried it forward, it continued sailing through the air towards the man who had fallen to the ground. Its cruel eyes widened, staring unwaveringly at the man. It fell to the ground, and its body gave a twitch in finality; its large jaws moved a little before its last breath left the huge furry body.

"Aroool!"

The rest of the gray wolves were getting restless and agitated as they raised their heads, giving out long howls. The wolves started clawing at the earth, short whimpers sounding from their throats. Their hungry and bloodthirsty eyes continued staring at Jocefie in despair, and they did not dare to rush in recklessly.

Jocefie had quickly gotten back to her feet in a single bound as her chilling gaze watched the gray wolves once more. Looking every inch like a malevolent demon with an insatiable thirst for blood, her lips curled up and she said, "If you still choose to remain here, I will kill every single one of you."

Her icy gaze swept over them, finally fixing onto the large wolf standing on the slopes a distance slightly further away, the leader of the pack of wolves.

Seemingly having acutely felt the presence of the intense threat before them, the larger wolf stared at Jocefie for a moment before raising its head to give out a long howl. Not long after, the ten odd wolves closing in on the humans got up and loped away into the distance.

The man propped himself up on his elbows, staring in shock and disbelief; his eyes widened as big as eggs, his face frozen in astonishment.

Jocefie wiped her dagger clean on a wolf's fur before keeping it away. When she turned around and saw the man's expression, she laughed indifferently and said, "It's good you woke up. You slept any longer and I would have left."

She walked to the side and sat down, pulling out her bamboo canister to have a drink of water. After staring down over ten wolves the entire night, her mind had been highly tensed, and she had not relaxed a single moment. The moment she let down in that situation, they could very well have been shredded to pieces by the wolves.

"Who are you?" He might have been frightened by Jocefie's malevolence earlier, and the man was now stuttering as he spoke.

"Why do you care who I am?"

"Then... Then who am I?" The moment those words left the man's mouth, it was suddenly Jocefie who was confused.

"Did you hit your head that hard? You don't even remember who you are yourself?"

As she spoke, she seemed to suddenly remember something, and she stretched her hand to feel the back of the man's head. As expected, a huge bump had swelled up there.