ARK SPIRIT

Hao Nhien did not immediately approach the two Beast King corpses.

He remained outside the Cosmic Ark for a while longer, quietly observing the area around the stream.

After the battle, the forest had fallen into an unnatural silence. The surviving Gray Shadow Wolves had long since withdrawn, and their howls were gone. Deep within the Python King’s territory, no new movement appeared. Only a thin poisonous haze lingered among the broken trees while water slowly threaded its way through the scattered rubble.

That did not mean the area was completely safe. Still, for a short time, few demonic beasts would dare intrude carelessly into territory that had only just belonged to a King. The lingering presence, blood, and venom of the Python King were enough to make most creatures nearby keep their distance.

Hao Nhien waited a little longer before leaving his hiding place. He walked toward the Gray Shadow Wolf King’s corpse, though his gaze still swept across the surrounding forest and mountainside from time to time.

Only when he stood before that enormous body did the feeling in his chest truly change.

This had nearly been the disaster that killed him.

Now it had also become an opportunity so great that Hao Nhien could no longer pretend to remain calm.

His eyes brightened despite himself.

If Tieu Lan were here, she would probably cover her mouth and laugh, saying that his expression looked nothing like someone who had just gained insight from a brush with death.

Hao Nhien did not find that embarrassing in the slightest.

Two Beast King corpses lay before him.

Even an old monster who had lived for centuries might struggle to remain composed if such a fortune suddenly dropped into his lap.

And right now, Hao Nhien genuinely lacked resources.

Badly.

He looked at the Gray Shadow Wolf King, then toward the section of the Python King still stretched outside the mountain fissure. After a few breaths, he drew in a deep breath and forced himself to calm down.

He could not take everything.

First, he had to choose what was most worth taking.

Hao Nhien stepped beside the Gray Shadow Wolf King and placed a hand on its silver gray fur.

The first sensation was cold.

Not the coldness of a corpse, but something closer to faint currents of wind still lingering within the dense coat. Each strand was far tougher and sharper than ordinary beast fur. As his fingertips moved across it, Hao Nhien could even feel traces of wind affinity that had not completely dispersed.

”A wind affinity…”

He spoke softly.

The hide alone was already a rare artifact refining material.

Hao Nhien drew the Tieu Dao Sword, chose a relatively intact section, and tried to cut into it.

The blade left only a shallow mark.

He looked at the scratch, then at the wolf’s body, and fell silent for several breaths.

When this creature had still been alive, he had once thought that if there were truly no path of retreat, he would at least have to find some way to fight back.

Looking at it now, that idea seemed somewhat unrealistic.

Hao Nhien moved to another position and chose a section of hide near the wound left by the Python King. The venom had corroded the fur and skin there, weakening the structure slightly. He circulated true qi and guided the Tieu Dao Sword along the edge of the wound, gradually cutting deeper.

This time it worked.

But it was still extremely difficult.

Only after struggling for a while did Hao Nhien manage to separate a relatively intact piece of hide. It was not especially large, just enough to hand over later to someone skilled in artifact refining, yet its weight and toughness alone made him let out a long breath.

”Worth it.”

He ran a hand across the silver fur and stored the piece in his storage ring.

Truly valuable items did not all have to be placed inside the examination pouch. The examination pouch was mainly useful for recording spoils and calculating points. Anything he did not intend to exchange immediately could be stored elsewhere.

And for especially unusual materials he did not want others noticing, the Cosmic Ark was even safer.

Hao Nhien did not stop to strip the entire wolf.

That one attempt had already taught him something important.

If he tried to carry away the whole corpse, he might still be sitting here by the time the examination ended.

What he needed were smaller parts that were valuable and difficult to obtain.

The claws were the first choice.

Each claw on the front paws was longer than an adult hand, curved like a blade and colored silver gray. Hao Nhien selected the most intact ones and carefully separated them from the joints with the Tieu Dao Sword.

It was not easy, but it was far simpler than dealing with the hide.

After taking several, he stopped.

The fangs were the same.

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There was no need to take the entire jaw.

He chose only the two largest intact fangs.

Once the materials he wanted had been safely stored, Hao Nhien looked at the remaining bone, hide, and flesh of the Wolf King and still felt a trace of pain in his heart.

All of it had value.

But greed would only cost him time.

He reminded himself once, then turned toward the Python King.

The moment he approached, the poisonous smell made him frown.

Dark green blood around the serpent’s body was still corroding the earth and stone. Several places on the ground had already sunk inward, while leaves splashed by the blood had shriveled into blackened clumps.

Hao Nhien placed another antidote pill beneath his tongue and circulated true qi around his hands for protection.

The Python King was dead.

Its poison was not.

In some ways, that was more dangerous than many living demonic beasts.

He chose intact scales from a section of the body that had suffered less damage from the Gray Shadow Wolf King. After several attempts, Hao Nhien quickly abandoned the idea of taking any pieces that were too large. In the end, he removed only a few thick scales with clear patterns and little corrosion from the poisonous blood.

Then came the two fangs.

He was extremely careful.

Each one was wrapped separately so that the tip could not touch anything else.

The venom still remaining within the glands demanded even greater caution.

Hao Nhien took out several small bottles, used the Tieu Dao Sword to open a narrow channel, and collected the remaining venom drop by drop. He placed only a small amount into each bottle before sealing it tightly with medicinal wax.

He knew nothing about poison arts.

But someone on Medicine Peak certainly would.

Tieu Lan and Old Van would probably know how to handle it far better than he did.

After finishing with the venom, Hao Nhien looked at the Python King’s corpse for a moment and let out a breath.

”That’s enough.”

Easy to say.

Yet when he turned away, he could not help glancing back at a long stretch of serpent body still covered in intact scales.

All of it was resources.

Hao Nhien remained silent for two breaths, then turned his head away.

”Know when to stop.”

After walking a few more steps, he caught sight of a massive section of bone beside the Gray Shadow Wolf King.

”…Know when to stop.”

This time, he truly did not turn back.

The most important part was still waiting.

The beast cores.

Hao Nhien returned to the Gray Shadow Wolf King first.

Its head had suffered considerable damage during the battle, saving him a great deal of effort. Even so, it still took him quite some time to open a gap deep enough to reach the beast core.

When the object inside was finally revealed, Hao Nhien’s movements slowed.

A silver gray beast core rested among the broken bone.

It was far larger than the second rank beast cores he had seen before. Within it, threads of silver light continuously twisted into small spirals, sometimes spreading apart, sometimes gathering again, never following a fixed path.

Even the air around the core shifted faintly.

A few strands of hair at Hao Nhien’s temple moved despite the almost complete absence of wind.

The beast core of the Gray Shadow Wolf King.

It was not merely an ordinary third rank beast core.

The Beast Kings of the Spirit Beast Forest were clearly different from ordinary third rank demonic beasts. They held positions within their populations, possessed more pronounced innate talents, and even seemed to have developed distinct ways of using their abilities.

Hao Nhien raised the beast core.

The earlier amusement gradually faded from his face.

The silver currents inside reminded him of the battle he had just witnessed.

The way the Gray Shadow Wolf King tilted its body.

The way its claws dug into the ground.

The way it changed direction with almost no pause at all.

It was not simply fast.

Nor was it merely relying on true qi or physical strength.

There was something about the way it used its wind affinity that Hao Nhien still did not understand.

He watched for a few more breaths, then stored the beast core separately.

This was not the time to study it.

The Python King still had something similar waiting for him.

Extracting the beast core from the serpent’s head was far more difficult.

The bone was hard.

The poisonous aura was heavy.

Dark purple fluid still seeped from several damaged areas.

Hao Nhien had to put in considerable effort before he finally managed to remove the beast core.

It was dark purple.

Unlike the swift and fluid movement within the Gray Shadow Wolf King’s core, this one contained a layer of mist that rotated slowly within.

Hao Nhien stared at it a little longer.

A strange feeling appeared.

Faint.

Unclear.

Yet the Python King’s vertical golden eyes suddenly surfaced in his memory.

That coldness made Hao Nhien think of a certain kind of fluctuation he had once sensed from Quan Nha.

Charm affinity?

The thought flashed through his mind, then he immediately suppressed it.

There was not enough evidence.

The Python King clearly possessed extremely powerful venom, but whether the strange quality hidden within its eyes and beast core truly had anything to do with charm affinity was something Hao Nhien could not yet determine.

He did not rush to a conclusion.

Instead, he sealed the beast core inside a small wooden box and stored it separately.

Something to investigate later.

While clearing the battlefield, Hao Nhien also found several beast cores from Gray Shadow Wolves killed by the aftermath of the battle.

Two intact second rank cores.

More than ten first rank cores whose structure remained relatively undamaged.

Those that had been too badly corroded by poison or shattered, he left behind.

Not everything worth picking up was worth carrying.

By the time he finished, Hao Nhien possessed more resources than at any other point since entering the secret realm.

He straightened and looked back across the battlefield one last time.

A great deal still remained.

Hide.

Bone.

Flesh.

Scales.

Parts of two Beast Kings that would undoubtedly command a high price if he could bring them out.

But he could not take everything.

Nor did he need to.

No matter how great the opportunity, survival still came first.

Besides, this was still the Python King’s territory. Its lingering presence was the reason nearby demonic beasts had not yet dared approach recklessly, but that would not last forever. Once the scent of blood spread far enough or the King’s residual presence began to fade, the situation could change.

Hao Nhien secured what he had taken and left the stream.

He did not immediately head back toward Lam Phong and Tieu Van.

First, he needed somewhere hidden to treat his injuries and examine what he had just obtained.

After following the mountainside for a while, Hao Nhien found a small stone cave concealed behind gray vines. The entrance was narrow, the interior dry, and there were no recent signs of demonic beasts.

He circled the area once, erased some of his tracks, and used branches and leaves to obscure the entrance.

Then his intent shifted.

A pale blue doorway appeared within the darkness of the cave.

Hao Nhien stepped through.

The Cosmic Ark shrank and concealed itself.

The Cave Dwelling fell silent.

No scent of Beast King blood.

No poisonous haze from the Python King.

Only Hao Nhien’s breathing and the silver gray beast core resting in his palm.

He sat down.

What he wanted to understand now was not the Gray Shadow Wolf King’s power.

It was how the beast had used that power.

Hao Nhien raised the core to eye level.

The silver currents within continued moving without pause. They never followed a fixed circuit. Whenever they met, some separated, some turned aside, while others borrowed the momentum of neighboring currents to change direction before continuing onward.

He watched for a long time.

The image of the Gray Shadow Wolf King slipping past the Python King’s strike returned to his mind.

No need to block.

No need to overpower the force.

Only find the path the force did not cover.

Hao Nhien raised one finger and traced a tiny movement through the air.

Nothing changed.

He was not disappointed.

The opportunity was already in his hands.

How much he could understand from it depended on him.

Outside, countless dangers still waited within the Spirit Beast Forest. Hao Nhien did not know whether Lam Phong and Tieu Van had escaped the pack, nor did he know where the others had been transported within the secret realm.

But for the moment, he had something worth studying.

If he could integrate even a fraction of the principle he had just witnessed into his movement technique or swordsmanship, his chances of surviving another situation like this would rise considerably.

Hao Nhien looked at the beast core in his palm.

Silver light continued to turn within.

He spoke softly.

”No need to become the wind.”

”Just understand how it moves.”

Then he closed his eyes.

Tonight, he would learn to listen to the wind.