Chapter 52

Huo Funiu thought that Ning Yue had come to seek his help for some other matter. He was already stretched thin protecting the village and only wanted to pacify this child for now. He patiently said, "The village is now besieged by the Moon Shadow Wolf demons. If you have any matters, we can discuss them after the situation in the village has eased."

Ning Yue smiled and said, "I have just thought of a plan that can alleviate the crisis of the village."

Although Huo Funiu also held Ning Yue in high regard, he did not believe that such a young child could have a good plan. However, Ning Yue had a certain aura that made people trust him, and Huo Funiu couldn't help but ask, "What is your plan?"

Ning Yue drew on the ground, sketching a rough inner city layout, and said, "The Moon Shadow Wolf demons cannot breach our village because the walls are too high, and we can defend from inside. If we reverse the situation and trap the Moon Shadow Wolf demons inside the village without leaving them any food, they will lose their fighting strength after ten to fifteen days of hunger."

Ning Yue explained in detail how to construct the inner city, separate the people in the village from the trapped wolf demons, and how to lure the wolf pack. This method, known as the "瓮城" (瓮城, wengcheng, or "jar city"), is used to lure the enemy into a trap and then kill them with arrows, depleting their forces. Using this method against a group of demon beasts was somewhat overkill.

Huo Funiu was enlightened and couldn't help but be delighted, exclaiming, "This method is indeed feasible! Our village has plenty of large logs stored for repairing the walls in case any demon beasts damage them. Now, they can be used to build the inner city."

Huo Funiu immediately gathered the young and strong men of the village. Since he couldn't explain everything clearly, Ning Yue helped by the side. The young and strong hunters of Huo Family Village were immediately roused, eager to take action.

This matter concerned the survival of Huo Family Village, so even the women and children were mobilized. The village quickly turned into a bustling construction site. In just seven to eight days, they built an inner city that resembled a maze, isolating all the inhabited areas of the village.

Once the inner city was completed, Huo Funiu led a few skilled men to slowly open the main gate. The Moon Shadow Wolf demons outside, unaware of the human's cunning plan, hesitated for a moment before swarming into the village.

Ning Yue stood on a section of the village wall, carefully counting the demons. He couldn't help but change his expression slightly. The Moon Shadow Wolf demons besieging Huo Family Village numbered over 120. Without the protection of the walls, these demon wolves could have completely wiped out the village.

Huo Funiu gave the order, and the village gate was closed, trapping over 100 Moon Shadow Wolf demons inside the inner city.

Although the people of Huo Family Village were somewhat tense, they also felt a sense of relief. Previously, they had suffered heavy casualties to defeat just a dozen Moon Shadow Wolf demons. Now, they had trapped ten times as many, and only needed to wait for the demons to starve to death.

There were also skilled archers in Huo Family Village, and some saw the opportunity to shoot arrows at the Moon Shadow Wolf demons.

These demon wolves were agile, far surpassing ordinary martial artists. Although the archers of Huo Family Village were skilled, their bows and arrows were weak, and the arrows were not fast enough. After a few arrows were swatted away by the demon wolves, the archers, unwilling to waste their precious arrows, gave up.

Previously, when Huo Family Village had helped Bai Luoluo, they had used arrows to drive back the demon wolves. At that time, Ning Yue had observed that perhaps due to the strong martial culture in the Nine Heavens, the use of arrows was weak, and the craftsmanship was complex, so there were few skilled bow makers. Therefore, the bows and arrows used by Huo Family Village were not powerful enough to hunt anything but the weakest of beasts.

Moreover, the entire Huo Family Village had only about ten bows, and even the best hunters carried only about ten arrows, and they were reluctant to use them.

Ning Yue sighed inwardly. If he had a few good bows, he wouldn't need to wait for the demon wolves to starve to death; he could just shoot them down with a barrage of arrows.

Thinking about this, Ning Yue felt a glimmer of joy and suddenly thought of a way to better integrate into this world and hide his identity.

Perhaps due to the rich elemental energy in the Nine Heavens, the trees here grew exceptionally dense, and there were several types of wood suitable for making bows.

When he was a peerless grandmaster, he had traveled the world, not only challenging countless experts but also befriending renowned military strategists. He had once met the legendary bow maker, Lu Yazi, and out of curiosity, learned the art of bow making from Master Lu Yazi for three months.

Lu Yazi had once told him, "You have extraordinary talent. If you are willing to learn patiently, you will surely surpass me in the art of bow making. But I see that you lack the patience to learn such a minor skill, so I will teach you the six techniques of bow making. These six techniques are all unconventional, either creating bows that are too powerful to find users or making special strong bows in a short time, but they lack durability and will be useless after two to three years. For true bow makers, these six techniques are considered heretical, but you can play with them, and it will be a way to pass on my knowledge."

At the time, Ning Yue didn't pay much attention, but now he thought, "There are probably few bow makers in the Nine Heavens, and no good bows. I can make a few bows and present myself as a descendant of a bow-making family, thus discarding my identity as a remnant of the Bai family."

With this thought, Ning Yue said to Huo Funiu, "Uncle Huo, if these demon beasts starve to death, could you give me a few wolf skins and all the wolf tendons?"

Huo Funiu, feeling pleased, laughed and said, "Wolf skins can be used to make quilts and fur coats. I can give you five. What use do you have for wolf tendons? They have no taste and are hard to chew. If you want them, you can have them all."

Ning Yue smiled slightly but did not answer. He felt relieved after making this decision and refocused his attention on the Moon Shadow Wolf demons.

Although the number of Moon Shadow Wolf demons was significant, after using the Ten Directions Illusion Annihilation technique, Ning Yue discovered that only five of them had life souls, while the rest were ordinary beasts.

He thought to himself, "The people of Huo Family Village use life souls crudely. Even if these five life souls were left to them, they might not be able to cultivate experts with life souls. I will take them as a reward for helping to kill these demon wolves." Ning Yue never accepted favors without reason and did not take things by force, but since he had devised the plan to trap the demon wolves, he felt no guilt in taking the life souls of five of them.

Ning Yue ran along the inner city wall for a hundred steps and focused on a snow-white demon wolf. This wolf was so striking that it stood out even among the wolf pack.