ARK SPIRIT

Two figures stepped out of the small stone cave.

The cold moon still hung in the pitch-black sky above the Spirit Beast Forest, casting a pale silver sheen over the mountains and woods. Wind slipped through the rocky gaps, carrying the scent of damp earth, wild grass, and the faint metallic tang lingering from the distant battlefield of the two Beast Kings.

Hao Nhien paused outside the cave, his robes neat and his black hair tied behind his head. Compared with the inexperienced youth who had first entered Thanh Van City, he had changed considerably. He was taller now, his features firmer, and there was a steadiness in his eyes that did not easily belong to an ordinary seventeen-year-old.

The days spent studying the Gray Shadow Wolf King’s beast core had changed him in another way as well. It was not wind affinity, nor had he created a complete movement art, but whenever air currents brushed across his body, he could now adjust his center of gravity and the angle of his movements more naturally than before. There was less wasted motion, and his steps had become lighter.

Beside him, Quan Nha had returned to her usual cool composure. Her long hair was tied neatly, her sword rested at her waist, and almost no trace of the previous night’s incident remained on her face. Only now and then, when Hao Nhien caught her glancing his way, there seemed to be a little less distance in her gaze.

At first, Quan Nha had planned to accompany him back to the Gray Shadow Wolf King’s territory, but after discussing it, the two changed their plan.

Both Beast King territories had only recently been left without their rulers.

The lingering presence of the two Kings was still strong enough to keep most nearby demonic beasts from intruding recklessly, but that would not last forever. If the two of them searched each territory together one after another, the remaining traces in the second might already have been disturbed or destroyed by the time they returned.

Splitting up and regrouping later would be more efficient.

Hao Nhien would return to the Gray Shadow Wolf King’s territory.

Quan Nha would remain in the mountainous region once ruled by the Python King.

For a Beast King to grow strong enough to dominate an entire region, instinct alone could not have been enough. Perhaps each had occupied an area with unusual spiritual qi, or consumed some rare spiritual resource suited to its innate talent. If any traces remained, their value would be difficult to estimate.

Quan Nha had also begun to grasp how to consciously open and close her Charm Art. She was still far from mastering it, but at the very least, it gave her another means of protecting herself. The Python King’s territory had never gathered a large beast pack around it either, so letting her search alone for the time being was not excessively dangerous.

Before they separated, Hao Nhien still could not stop himself from warning her.

“If you run into danger, retreat immediately. Don’t risk your life over a few resources in the secret realm.”

Quan Nha looked at him.

“You’re saying that to me?”

He paused.

She raised a brow. “I don’t remember being the one chased by the Gray Shadow Wolf King until I had to run into the Python King’s territory.”

Hao Nhien coughed.

“That was an accident.”

“You have a lot of accidents.”

He had no answer to that.

A moment later, she added, “You be careful too. If you encounter something you can’t handle, leave. Don’t make me come back and collect your corpse.”

Her voice was as cool as ever, but Hao Nhien only smiled.

“I’ll return before the secret realm closes. If nothing unexpected happens, we’ll meet back at this cave.”

“All right.”

Quan Nha looked at him for another moment, then turned and headed deeper into the mountains.

Hao Nhien watched her leave before turning toward the stream.

Cold water rushed between the rocks. Instead of jumping straight across as he would have before, he stepped onto a stone in midstream. When a crosswind brushed over his shoulder, he leaned with it and released true qi at just the right moment, carrying himself lightly to the opposite bank.

He glanced back.

The stone he had stepped on bore only a shallow trace of water.

A smile appeared on his face.

Progress.

For the first few hours, Hao Nhien did not hurry.

He walked while testing what he had learned. When air currents came from the side, he adjusted his shoulders and hips to reduce resistance. When crossing slopes, he relied more on momentum instead of forcing his body to stop before accelerating again.

Sometimes it worked so well that the dry leaves beneath his feet barely made a sound.

Sometimes his judgment failed.

Once, he leaned too early and a gust from a rocky gap struck him squarely in the side, knocking him off balance. If he had not caught himself against a tree trunk, his forehead would have slammed straight into bark as hard as stone.

Hao Nhien stopped, stared at the tree, then laughed.

“Looks like I still can’t call myself an expert.”

Those failures only helped him understand his current limits more clearly.

He could not control the wind.

He certainly could not let it carry him wherever he wished.

The only thing he was doing better than before was recognizing the direction of force sooner, reducing unnecessary resistance, and using true qi at the right moment.

But for someone who often had to fight beyond his limits, even that alone made a tremendous difference.

By the end of the second day, he encountered two second rank Gray Shadow Wolves.

They did not attack immediately.

Two gray shapes moved silently between the trees, appearing and disappearing while keeping their distance. One stayed in front while the other circled to the right, clearly retaining the pack’s instinct for coordination.

Hao Nhien stopped.

At some point, the Tieu Dao Sword had already appeared in his hand.

He did not chase the shadow on the left, nor did he fix his eyes on the wolf in front. He listened to the faint scrape of claws against the ground and felt the changing chill of the air across his neck and shoulders.

Then he waited.

Three breaths later, the wolf in front suddenly lunged.

Hao Nhien leaned away from the pounce. The Tieu Dao Sword cut a short line across its flank, then withdrew.

The wound was not deep.

But it was enough to make the beast snarl in pain.

At the same time, an abnormal pressure brushed close behind his right shoulder, accompanied by the faint scatter of dirt and stone.

He did not turn.

Dropping his center of gravity, he pivoted left.

The second Gray Shadow Wolf’s claws swept past his hair.

The Tieu Dao Sword followed the turn of his body and stabbed backward into the beast’s shoulder. It jerked away and retreated instead of stubbornly trying to bite again.

Hao Nhien did not pursue.

The stalemate continued for a while longer.

Eventually, when the wolf wounded in the flank attacked again, he shifted half a step, slipped away from the strongest line of its pounce, and drove his sword through its neck.

The remaining wolf slowed the moment it saw its companion fall.

It did not continue attacking.

After several low growls, it backed away, then turned and disappeared into the forest.

Hao Nhien let it go.

He crouched beside the dead wolf and harvested its beast core, his thoughts returning to the fight.

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In the past, two second rank Gray Shadow Wolves working together like that would certainly have cost him a considerable amount of true qi. The fight still had not been easy, but now the same amount of effort allowed him to accomplish more.

That was the real change.

Not how much faster he had become.

But how much less strength he wasted.

Over the next several days, Hao Nhien continued climbing toward the higher reaches of the mountain.

First rank Gray Shadow Wolves became less common, while second rank wolves appeared more frequently. Some avoided him the moment they saw him. Others still attacked out of territorial instinct, but he did not deliberately hunt them all.

Only those that blocked his path or attacked first became his opponents.

Every battle became another test. Little by little, Hao Nhien learned to combine what he already knew with his new understanding of how force moved through the air.

The Tieu Dao Sword was still a sword.

True qi was still true qi.

His body had not become magically lighter.

But things that had once felt separate were beginning to work together more naturally.

A dodge no longer ended before the counterattack began. The angle of the evasion itself became the opening movement of the next sword strike. Momentum from a retreat could become the force behind a turn of the waist. The pressure of air brushing across his skin could warn him that an attack had entered dangerous range before he needed to see the entire motion.

It was all still crude.

But the pieces were beginning to connect.

His cultivation also changed quietly through the process.

The eighth layer of Qi Condensation had already been stable for some time. After days of constant fighting, circulating true qi, and absorbing the spiritual qi of the secret realm, his dantian gradually filled toward its limit. Each completed circulation made the vague resistance ahead feel weaker.

The ninth layer was no longer far away.

But he did not rush to break through.

Breaking through inside the secret realm was not a bad thing.

Breaking through in the wrong place was.

By the fifth day, the terrain ahead began to change.

The gray trees thinned.

The earth and stone beneath his feet took on a silver-gray hue, harder and drier than before, with deep claw marks appearing across the surface. The wind grew stronger as well, passing through cracks in the rock with long whistles that rose and fell in pitch.

Hao Nhien slowed.

He was very close to the Gray Shadow Wolf King’s lair.

Ahead lay a vast stretch of bare stone halfway up the mountain, almost like a natural arena. The ground was flatter than the surrounding terrain, covered in claw marks, old bones, and patches of gray fur caught between cracks.

At the far end, a massive cave mouth opened in the cliff.

Several zhang high.

Pitch black.

The rock on either side was scarred with claw marks so large that one glance was enough to tell that their former owner had been no ordinary demonic beast.

But it was not the cave that made Hao Nhien stop.

It was the gray shapes in front of it.

Many of them.

Gray Shadow Wolves.

He remained behind a rocky outcrop and observed for a while.

At least sixty or seventy.

Most were first rank, but more than ten carried distinctly stronger auras. Several of the second rank wolves were nearly the size of young cattle, with pale silver glints along the fur of their backs.

Though the Gray Shadow Wolf King was dead, the remnants of the pack had not abandoned its lair.

Perhaps this was simply the heart of their territory.

Or perhaps something inside the cave was keeping them here.

Hao Nhien did not know.

But the numbers alone were enough to make him abandon any idea of charging straight in like a madman.

He observed for nearly half a ke.

The wolves did not remain still. They moved in small groups across the stone field. Several lay near the cave entrance, while the strongest second rank wolves frequently changed positions.

Their King was gone.

But the pack’s order had not completely collapsed.

One second rank wolf in particular stood out near the cave entrance.

Its gray-silver fur was thicker than the others. Nearly half of one ear was missing, and a long scar ran from its chest toward its belly. Whenever it growled, the nearby wolves moved aside.

Hao Nhien narrowed his eyes.

Perhaps after the King’s death, this one had temporarily taken the role of leader.

If he wanted to enter the cave, a fight was unavoidable.

He did not step out at once.

Instead, he studied the terrain.

Wind continually blew from deep inside the cave and across the stone field.

To the left, the cliff compressed the air through a narrow passage, creating a sideways vortex.

Behind him, mountain wind pushed upward from the slope.

Three currents crossed over the stone field, making the airflow far more chaotic than it had been in the forest.

In the past, terrain like this would have been extremely troublesome.

Now it was different.

He could not control those currents.

But he could use them.

Or at least try.

Hao Nhien drew the Tieu Dao Sword and stepped out from behind the rock.

One step.

Then another.

The nearest Gray Shadow Wolf raised its head.

A moment later, dozens of red eyes turned toward him.

Low growls spread across the stone field.

The one-eared leader stepped forward and threw back its head in a long howl. The sound rolled across the entire clearing.

The pack moved.

Hao Nhien drew a deep breath.

He did not retreat.

But neither did he charge into the center of the pack.

The first three wolves lunged.

He shifted left, slipping past the middle one as the Tieu Dao Sword cut across the foreleg of the wolf on the right. Blood splashed across the stone. He dropped low when another beast sailed over him, then used the momentum of his evasion to turn his hips and slash across its belly.

A first rank wolf fell.

The other two wheeled around at once.

Five or six more gray shapes were already closing in behind them.

Hao Nhien kept moving.

He retreated along the edge of the stone field, trying to keep the pack in front of him rather than allowing them to close around his back. Each time a wolf attacked, he moved only as much as necessary. No farther. No harder.

But numbers were still numbers.

One claw tore through his left sleeve.

Another wolf nearly caught his calf between its jaws.

Hao Nhien smashed the hilt of his sword into its snout and rolled aside. The instant his shoulder hit the ground, he planted a hand and sprang back to his feet, true qi circulating without pause through his meridians.

Ten breaths.

Twenty.

Thirty.

His breathing grew heavier.

Yet his sense of the forces around him became clearer.

It was not spiritual awareness.

He was not “seeing” the wind.

After dozens of evasions, his body was simply becoming more familiar with the pressure of moving air, the scrape of claws against stone, the sound of fur cutting through the wind, and the subtle changes that came when a large body entered close range.

The more wolves surrounded him, the more chaotic the situation became.

But that chaos also created openings.

A wolf lunged from the left.

Hao Nhien did not meet it head on. He tilted his body and let it pass, then turned his shoulder with its momentum.

At that exact moment, another wolf attacked from the front.

The two beasts collided.

Hao Nhien stepped through the gap they created and drove the Tieu Dao Sword down.

One collapsed.

He had not yet fully withdrawn the blade when a whistle of air reached his ear.

He ducked.

Claws tore through his hair, severing several strands.

His wrist turned, and the sword slid upward from below, opening a line of blood across the attacker’s neck.

Blood splashed across his robe.

Hao Nhien breathed hard, but his eyes only grew brighter.

Not because of the killing.

Because in a real battle, the things he had been learning were finally beginning to join together.

Do not resist the force.

Do not chase it.

Find the strongest line, step away from it, then turn what remains into your own path.

That was it.

A savage howl cut through the battlefield.

The one-eared leader finally entered the fight.

Its speed was entirely different from the others.

Instead of attacking directly, it circled to the right, forcing Hao Nhien to retreat toward three other second rank wolves already waiting there.

He understood the intent at once.

This one was far more intelligent.

He changed direction.

But the wolves behind him pressed in as well.

In an instant, nearly all four directions were sealed.

One second rank wolf charged straight at his chest.

A second snapped from the left.

The one-eared leader remained just outside, waiting for him to expose an opening.

Hao Nhien tightened his grip on the sword.

Within his Sea of Consciousness, the Spirit Sword moved.

A sharp intent pierced directly into the Divine Soul of the Gray Shadow Wolf charging from the front.

The beast’s eyes faltered.

Its intent to attack broke for a single beat.

One beat was enough.

Hao Nhien stepped directly into the opening, turned his shoulder aside, and slipped past the beast’s jaws. The Tieu Dao Sword pierced through its neck and came free at once.

He did not stop.

Using the falling body as cover on one side, Hao Nhien burst out of the encirclement.

The one-eared leader snarled and pursued.

Now.

Hao Nhien did not turn around.

He heard its claws hammering against the stone, drawing closer with every step. At the same time, the air behind his back compressed more sharply.

Three steps.

Two.

One.

He dropped his center of gravity.

Claws swept close over his shoulder.

A line of blood opened at once, but Hao Nhien was already turning with the wolf’s own forward momentum.

He did not block.

He did not contest strength with strength.

The Tieu Dao Sword followed the turn of his body and swept coldly across the beast’s neck.

Blood sprayed into the air.

The leader staggered several more steps under its own momentum before losing balance.

Its red eyes opened wide.

Then its heavy body crashed onto the stone.

The impact echoed across the clearing.

The surrounding Gray Shadow Wolves slowed at once. A few continued growling, but the rhythm of the pack’s assault had already broken.

Hao Nhien planted his sword against the ground and breathed heavily.

His left shoulder burned.

Two claw marks also scored his arm.

More than half the true qi in his dantian had already been spent.

Still, he took one step forward and stared directly at the pack.

No words were needed.

Hesitation spread among them.

A first rank wolf at the rear turned away first.

Then another.

Several breaths later, a small group began fleeing down the mountain. The others looked at their fallen leader, then back at Hao Nhien.

In the end, survival instinct prevailed.

The retreat spread through the pack.

Before long, most of the stone field that had been filled with growls and howls was empty.

Hao Nhien did not pursue.

He remained standing until he was certain none of them intended to return, then sat down on a nearby rock.

His breathing was heavy.

The muscles in his legs were tight.

Yet the true qi remaining in his dantian continued to surge in waves.

The eighth layer of Qi Condensation had reached its limit.

With every circulation, the resistance ahead trembled more clearly.

Hao Nhien knew that if he sat down and attempted the breakthrough now, his chances were high.

But he did not.

This place was not safe.

The Gray Shadow Wolf King’s cave still stood directly ahead.

He drank a mouthful of Qi Recovery Liquid, sat for a while until his breathing steadied, then rose again.

“No need to rush.”

The ninth layer was already within reach.

There was no reason to gamble his life just to reach it a few hours earlier.

It took Hao Nhien quite some time to finish harvesting the Gray Shadow Wolves that had fallen.

He had not killed the entire pack, but there were still plenty of bodies scattered across the stone field.

More than twenty first rank beast cores.

Six second rank cores.

He placed the cores that counted toward the examination into his examination pouch and stored several other valuable materials separately.

A quick calculation told him that the cores from this battle alone were worth more than three hundred examination points.

Combined with everything he had accumulated earlier, his ranking had gained another layer of security.

The materials from the two Beast Kings and the other unusual items he had stored separately were another matter.

Their true value would only become clear after he left the secret realm.

Hao Nhien stopped counting.

Points were points.

Fortune was fortune.

What he had truly returned here to find was not the pile of first rank beast cores at his feet.

He rose, wiped the blood from the Tieu Dao Sword, and looked toward the cave entrance.

Wind was still flowing out from within.

Cold.

But different from the mountain wind outside.

Hao Nhien stood still and let the current brush across his face and neck.

Something was different.

Its rhythm was unusually steady, yet countless smaller vortices shifted within it. The spiritual qi carried by the wind was also somewhat denser than outside, with a sharp, light quality that stood out clearly.

His dantian, which had only just settled, stirred again.

Hao Nhien narrowed his eyes.

The Gray Shadow Wolf King had lived here.

Even after its death, the remnants of the pack had refused to abandon this place.

Perhaps there was a reason.

He stepped into the cave.

Darkness swallowed his figure at once.

Farther inside, wind whispered through cracks in the stone, sometimes near, sometimes distant, as though something that had slept for a very long time was waiting for the first person to find it.