Fairy tale: Little Red Riding Hood's wolf mentor

"Jack, you traded an entire cow for some useless beans?!"

Night. Inside a cramped wooden house, a woman spoke furiously, while a boy stood silently before the dining table, head lowered, eyes red-rimmed, not daring to utter a word of rebuttal.

"I'm sorry... Mom..."

He mumbled, head bowed in apology.

But the woman was clearly not so easily appeased. A cow—their last asset for survival—had been traded away in exchange for what a salesman called 'magic beans.'

Clearly, this time, her anger wouldn't be easily extinguished.

Just then, a knock came at the door.

"Knock, knock, knock—"

The woman paused, pointing at Jack, saying:

"I'll punish you later!"

Then, she got up to open the door, not expecting any danger. At this point, Jack's house was practically bare, devoid of any extra money.

Standing outside was a tall, burly man, an axe slung over his back, looking like it was used for chopping trees.

On his forehead, a faint, blood-red rune was visible.

"This is Jack's house, right?"

"Yes, sir. Is there something wrong? Did he cause trouble again?"

The woman asked tentatively, a look of bewilderment and wariness on her face.

"Madam, your son exchanged a cow for some magic seeds at the market today. I need them."

The tall man stated directly.

"Magic seeds? Oh, you mean those magic beans, right?"

The woman's eyes lit up, and she quickly asked, "Yes, yes, that's right. I wonder what price you're offering? Just a few silver coins—no, some copper coins would be enough!"

The woman said hastily.

The man at the door, upon hearing her words, relaxed his somewhat somber expression:

"Of course, madam."

The man's gaze swept past the woman, towards the inside of the house, focusing on the small boy, Jack, standing at the doorway of the inner room. His eyes narrowed slightly. He saw the few thumb-sized beans in Jack's hand—

Reassuring him somewhat.

"I will pay you, your price is reasonable."

As he spoke, the man reached towards his waist, took down a pouch, opened it, and prepared to take out some money.

However, when his fingers touched the contents, his expression froze.

Slowly, he pulled out an object. It wasn't money, but some stones of similar weight!

"Where did my money go...?"

The axe-wielding man's mind flashed back to the daytime, at the market, when a merchant-looking person bumped into him while passing by.

"Bastard... vile creature!"

The burly man tossed the stone-filled pouch aside and reached into his chest, pulling out another pouch containing the blue gem and the stolen Boron military insignia.

"Sir, our magic beans were exchanged for an entire cow. You need to offer some compensation at least..."

The woman, watching the man's movements, began to suspect something.

The enraged man, just raising his eyes, saw the woman's gaze retracting from his blue gem.

"Of course, compensation. You also have your eyes on the offering I'm going to present to the king, right?"

The axe-wielding man carefully placed the pouch back into his chest, looked at the woman, and withdrew his earlier gloom, forcing a smile. The blood-red rune on his forehead became even more vivid.

In the next moment, the axe instantly appeared in the burly man's hand from behind.

The woman had no time to react before she was slammed down in the center of the cramped, oppressive wooden house amidst a spray of blood. Blood spurted like a fountain from her body, almost cleaved in two!

"Boy, give me the magic beans, and then, you also want some compensation, right? Consider my hush money will let you die painlessly, together with your mother—"

The axe-wielding man spoke slowly, looking towards the inner room, at the tightly closed door.

The instant he hacked Jack's mother to death, in less than half a second, Jack had already turned and ran back to the inner room behind him, closing the wooden door!

"Hmm? The little rabbit runs fast?"

The axe-wielding man frowned, but wasn't worried.

A dilapidated wooden house, a wooden door, a child, couldn't stop a burly man wielding a sharp axe, even one blessed by the Giant King!

"Bang—crack—"

The axe swung, and with just one blow, half of the wooden door was chopped away. The burly man peered in, only to see the open window on the wall of the inner room!

As soon as Jack returned to the room, he didn't hesitate and climbed out of the inner room window directly.

His heart was pounding violently. Fear and terror almost blanked his mind, but his movements became quicker and more decisive under such threat.

This was an extremely rare talent.

Most people, under extreme panic, would be too frightened to move a finger, but only a very few could break free from it and make rational actions.

And Jack, although just a child.

But this talent for facing fear directly was one in ten thousand. People with such qualities, with a little training, would be invaluable as special forces soldiers, spies, and other professions.

"Who is that? Is he a robber? A bandit... Did he come for these beans?!"

Jack staggered as he ran, clutching the handful of magic beans tightly. He was extremely regretful, never imagining things would turn out this way.

He didn't expect that handing the magic beans to that man would save his life.

To such a vicious madman...

Even if he got the magic beans, he wouldn't care about killing a child!

"Run, run, run, run to the forest, and I can get rid of him..."

Jack kept saying to himself, but just then, another sound of wood breaking came from the wooden house behind him.

Jack couldn't help but look back, only to see the wall of his own wooden house being easily cut in half by a sharp axe!

Like... scissors tearing a thin piece of paper!

"Ah—"

Such strength was clearly not something ordinary people could possess!

Jack panicked at such power, his foot missed, not noticing a protruding rock on the ground in front of his toes, and instantly lost his balance!

"Bang!"

He fell heavily to the ground, his hand cut by a splinter when hurriedly climbing out of the wooden window.

The magic beans stained with his blood fell into the soil on the ground. In a daze and in pain, Jack saw that the magic beans that had fallen on the ground seemed to... flash a hint of green light.

No, it wasn't an illusion!

In the next moment, those magic beans sprouted rapidly with the naked eye, their roots piercing into the soil, and then, huge vines, thicker than tree trunks, rose from the ground in an instant!

Jack had no time to think.

His extraordinary crisis response talent made him hug the rapidly growing vines without hesitation. His light body was instantly lifted up by the explosively growing vines, going straight towards the clouds!

Leaves as large as canopies sprouted one after another, and the thick magic vines rushed into the sky with a gust of wind...

On the ground, the axe-wielding man looked up.

Watching Jack's figure rise higher and higher with the vines, he sheathed the bloody axe behind him.

"Okay, little brat, although it's a bit different from the plan, the heavenly road to the Giant King's Court is connected again—it makes no difference."

The axe-wielding man said with a forced smile, stepped forward, reached out, and firmly grasped the surface of the magic vines.

Then, looking at the huge clouds in the sky connected by the magic vines, the muscles in his arm twitched slightly, and then, he went up step by step.

Heavy dark clouds didn't let through any sunlight.

The green ladder stood upright on the ground.

...

A day later, the vines were silent under the dim sky. Due to the cover of dark clouds, although it was only dusk, it was already pitch black.

"Creak—"

Leike closed the wooden door and looked at Poro:

"Let's go."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah."

Leike nodded. "There are no other magic beans in the house. The magic mirror said that we need the seeds of these magic vines, so there must be some reason. This is the only way I know now."

The girl clenched her fist, walked to the vines, and stroked the vines that were thicker than trees.

Unlike the withered magic vines seen in the abandoned village, this bunch of magic vines in front of her was grown from several magic beans mixed together. Standing in front of it was like facing a wall that grew infinitely upwards!

"Even if there is a Giant King above—so what."

Leike held the Star Killer Sword in one hand, turned to wink at Poro, "He was defeated by the Star Killer Sword nearly a hundred years ago. This time, there's nothing to be afraid of either."

"Um... if that Jack is still alive, find him and see if there are any magic beans left, and also about these bloodstains."

There's no information yet, and Poro couldn't connect to any truth, "Then let's go, Leike."

Nothing unexpected should happen.

After all, even demons have fallen into their hands before.

The vines were very high, but fortunately, the surface of the plants had some fluff. These rough textures allowed Leike and Poro to speed up their ascent.

Poro's wolf form was not good at such near-vertical climbing.

In the past, for such a height of two thousand meters, even the strongest climber among mortals would be powerless to reach the top.

But fortunately, now, Poro was no longer what he used to be.

His two eyes showed the red light of [Ring Regression: Red Shoes · Dance of Liberation] and the magic light of magical levitation respectively.

His body became light and leaped upwards.

On the side, Leike's rapidly improving physical fitness allowed her to leap on these vines even faster than Poro.

She tapped lightly on the leaves and branches on the surface of the magic vines with her toes, applying a little force.

She could quickly dart up several meters.

Of course, for ordinary people, even with more tools, it would take a lot of time to climb such vines, but Leike and Poro obviously didn't need such expenditure.

The wind howled, and the details on the ground were swallowed by the dark night, a vast expanse.

The distant stars seemed closer.

The flowing clouds pressed down like a curtain.

"We should be there soon."

"Above the clouds, will there really be a giant's castle?"

Poro felt the humidity in the air, and Leike also looked at the end of the ladder, hidden in the clouds above.

The clouds above were indeed a bit strange. When Leike and Poro climbed up, they felt the long wind at high altitude, and the flowing clouds followed the wind.

But the clouds above remained still.

Like being tied to the ground by vines.

"There really is something up there."

The closer Poro got to that cloud, the clearer he observed its appearance. Those white veils, when in front of him, looked more like they were vaguely wrapping something.

In the dim starlight, a black and heavy outline appeared.

"Huff..."

Poro and Leike looked at each other on a leaf, took a deep breath, and disappeared into the clouds.

In the milky white view, Poro remembered what he heard before.

In the market town, he heard the residents of the local Biwei Kingdom describe this area—

Some extremely large plants always inexplicably grow on the ground here, but most of them cannot increase in value on the ground, and often die after growing for a certain period of time or producing fruit.

What does that mean?

The shadow in the cloud became more and more obvious, and the water vapor was rapidly thinning, which was a sign that it was about to break out of the cloud.

Poro took a deep breath, and one of his front paws pressed up and down on the leaves.

In his eyes, the magic light of levitation flashed, the white mist disappeared, and the field of vision broadened—

Leike in front was also standing there blankly. Poro also followed his gaze and was also stunned.

What was in front of him was not just a single castle.

Above the clouds was a boundless floating island, with countless plants several times taller than the trees on the ground covering the entire island.

Those colorful flowers were even taller than adults!

A mixed, intoxicating fragrance instantly filled his nose, and bees and butterflies, several times larger than those on the ground, were flying in it.

The silver moonlight scattered among the forest.

An ocean of plants, a giant's garden.