Jin didn't lower his guard for a single moment.
The red wolf in front of him was enormous; if he had to find a comparison with his past life, he would say it was the size of a bull, with a broad and muscular body, thick legs capable of crushing rocks when it pushed off, and dark crimson fur that seemed to absorb light. Each breath made its chest expand like a bellows, and the reddish Qi surrounding it seeped into the air, dense and aggressive.
"Big… too big to be a wolf," Jin thought with curiosity.
As he watched it, he let his mind work calmly, as if he were not in the middle of a battlefield.
In these eight months, he had not only trained to exhaustion, but had also read everything he could get: basic manuals, records of spiritual beasts, incomplete maps, and old books that no one seemed to touch. He wasn't an expert, but he knew how to recognize when something didn't fit.
And this didn't fit at all. Crimson Fang Wolf… the name emerged clearly from his memory.
A subspecies of spiritual wolf, named for its long and sharp fangs, capable of piercing low-quality armor as if it were paper, extremely aggressive beasts, with a natural inclination for combat and a speed that far surpassed other creatures of the same level.
Jin recalled the description from the book. "They inhabit distant regions, in wild zones near the boundary of territory managed by the sect…" he murmured quietly, his eyes sharpening. They shouldn't be here.
This place was too close to the area under the sect's protection, far from their natural habitat…
A growl escaped the beast's mouth, showing its long, curved crimson fangs, covered in thick saliva. The Qi around it stirred as if responding to Jin's hostility, pressing the air between them.
Adjusting his stance slightly, he couldn't help but think: not only is it strong… it's out of place. And in Jin's experience, when something like this happened, it was rarely a simple coincidence.
Yet, far from feeling fear, Jin noticed that his blood still boiled with excitement; his fingers slowly curled into a fist, and a faint smile crossed his face.
"No matter… first, I'll take you down," he thought. The Crimson Fang Wolf lowered its body, preparing to attack, and Jin stepped forward.
Energy surged from his Dantian and spread through every meridian with almost perfect fluidity, reinforcing his muscles, tendons, and bones, while his skin acquired a faint shine, as if an invisible layer had fused with his body.
The ground creaked beneath his feet as he lunged at the Crimson Fang Wolf; without a shout or warning, everything became an explosion of movement. Jin lowered his center of gravity, launching a clean feint toward the wolf's left side, a direct and precise attack designed to force it to react.
But the wolf was not an ordinary beast. With unusual agility, it twisted its body in midair, dodging the strike easily; its hind legs struck the ground and, in the same motion, it propelled itself forward like a red lightning bolt.
Jin's eyes opened in surprise. "Damn, it's so fast!"
He couldn't see clearly when it happened; in a blink, the wolf's claws were on him, the air tearing with a violent whistle, and Jin only managed to react by pure instinct, twisting his body hastily.
"Tsk!" a complaint escaped him as sharp pain shot through him.
The claws grazed his thigh, tearing the fabric of his pants and drawing blood; Jin stepped back several paces, planting his feet firmly to avoid losing balance.
He looked down, briefly observing the wound, and to his surprise, although it bled, it wasn't deep.
No flesh was hanging, and the wound hadn't even reached his bones; Jin blinked in surprise, relieved that it wasn't the level of damage he expected from a beast like that.
Was that all?
The Crimson Fang landed in front of him, growling with fury, clearly convinced that its attack should have been effective.
Jin touched his wound with his fingers; it burned, but the pain was superficial, his thigh still functional, hard as rock and responding without problem.
Then he realized something… it was the Jade Dragon Body.
He had pushed the first level to its limit, hardening his flesh much more than he himself had imagined; when the claws reached him, he barely felt them penetrate his skin and flesh.
A low laugh escaped his lips. So… it really works. He raised his gaze, and his golden eyes locked on the wolf, shining with a dangerous intensity, as the initial surprise turned into confidence.
Bending his legs slightly, he adopted a more aggressive stance. "Now it's my turn," he smiled, mocking the beast. The Crimson Fang growled even louder, as if it had sensed the insult.
This time, neither of them intended to retreat, and the clash continued without a single pause.
Jin advanced, cracking the ground beneath his steps, launching a succession of direct strikes, each loaded with Qi and body strength in perfect synchrony; his fists sliced through the air with muted thuds, but none reached their target.
The Crimson Fang moved like a red shadow.
Despite its size, its body seemed weightless; it jumped, twisted, and propelled itself with absurd speed, dodging every attack by a minimal margin. Its fangs passed inches from Jin's neck, and its claws brushed his chest, leaving grooves in the skin without touching the flesh.
With a dull thud, Jin recoiled while controlling his breathing, his gaze sharp as a blade.
"Tch… Not just fast… it knows how to fight."
That brief but intense exchange was enough for the conclusion to form clearly in his mind. If this thing were a cultivator… it would be at the seventh level of Qi Condensation.
And yet, the pressure it exerted felt brutal, reminding him of the scene he had seen before: the two cultivators pushed to the brink of death in just a few exchanges.
Now he understood: it wasn't that the cultivators were weak, but that demonic beasts were, by nature, superior, recalling a phrase from a book he had read in the library.
At equal level, their physical strength, endurance, and killer instinct far surpassed those of a human cultivator; where a human had to refine techniques and control their Qi precisely, a beast was born to kill.
Taking advantage of the moment when Jin got lost in his thoughts, the Crimson Wolf roared and launched itself with murderous intent.
Sensing the imminent attack, Jin did not strike in response.
He simply dodged, twisting his torso and shifting his feet, letting the claws pass by with a whisper; each movement measured, each step calculated.
I can't force a strike… not yet, he thought as he analyzed his surroundings; if he made a single mistake, he would pay with his own flesh. At the same time, he felt that, somehow, he was beginning to understand the flow of combat.
The more they exchanged attacks, the clearer the difference became. I'm stronger… but he's faster. And that meant only one thing: if he wanted to win, he couldn't keep chasing him; he had to force him to make a mistake.
Jin's eyes narrowed and a playful smile appeared on his lips as he dodged another charge that felt loaded with murderous intent.
"Let's see… how long can you keep that pace?" he said, with a crooked smile, finally stopping his retreat.
The instant the Crimson Wolf launched itself again, something in Jin's stance changed completely; his breathing became deep, and the Qi running through his body stopped dispersing uniformly.
He could feel the flow of energy moving and concentrating in his right arm, tightening in every muscle fiber like a perfectly polished channel, compressed to the limit.
Organ-Destroying Fist: a deadly martial technique, intermediate level, but Jin had taken it to its peak: mastery.
His fist advanced, simple to the eye… until the air in front of him collapsed; his strike was not meant to hit the target, but to threaten it.
An invisible, penetrating pressure projected toward the Crimson Wolf like a lethal needle meant to pierce its flesh and organs.
Instantly, the beast reacted, Its pupils contracted, and for the first time since the fight began, it immediately retreated, planting its hind legs into the earth and sliding several meters backward, kicking up dust and leaves.
Jin did not pursue it; in the same motion that his fist stopped, he pivoted on his heel and jumped.
His body shot toward the side of the path, near the thick tree where his black steel spear remained embedded, with the wolf's corpse still impaled on the trunk.
Agile as ever, Jin stretched out his hand, and his fingers closed precisely around the dark shaft.
The spear vibrated as he yanked it from the tree with a sharp pull, causing the wolf's body to fall lifelessly to the ground.
Upon landing, Jin spun the spear naturally, adopting a firm stance completely different from before.
His eyes returned to the Crimson Wolf, and the beast growled, ears pinned back while baring its fangs. Jin had the impression that it was annoyed at having been tricked.
"Now then," Jin murmured, gripping the shaft. "Let's continue." The air between them seemed dense, and the beast was the first to attack.
The wolf's body vanished from where it stood, becoming a red shadow that crossed the distance between them in the blink of an eye; the air exploded under its paws, and its fangs aimed straight at Jin's neck.
It was still too fast and overwhelming, but this time… it wasn't enough.
"——!"
Clang.
The tip of the spear appeared just in time, intercepting the attack with surgical precision; the impact resonated, metallic and dry, the wolf diverted just a few centimeters, enough for its fangs to bite empty air.
The beast did not give up and attacked again from another angle, chaining claws and fangs in a ferocious sequence; each movement lethal, each charge intended to kill.
But every time it seemed it would reach him—clang, clash, whoosh—the attacks were always deflected by the spear.
Jin did not step back in panic nor force himself to dodge; his steps were short and filled with a strange calm, while the shaft spun, slid, and appeared at difficult angles, blocking, deflecting, and cutting.
A superficial slash appeared on the wolf's side, followed by a deeper one on its leg, and soon a bleeding wound opened on its shoulder, the Crimson Wolf growled, frustrated and furious, as more blood began to stain its dark red fur.
Seeing his enemy's frustration, a cheeky smile slowly formed on Jin's face. Now you notice, huh? he thought. You're losing. Jin felt the battle beginning to tilt in his favor.
He spun the spear once more and stepped forward. "Let's not prolong this," he said, his Qi moved forcefully through his meridians, like a river that could not be contained.
It was a precise and controlled flow that traveled through the spear shaft to envelop the blade in a faint but constant glow, while the air around began to vibrate.
Jin executed the Spinning Spear Dance, a deadly intermediate technique. Each spin not only blocked attacks but seemed to control all the space around him, combining defense and offense in a continuous flow.
The spear spun at dizzying speed; the space around Jin shrank to the rotation of the weapon, and every movement of the wolf was immediately responded to and punished.
The Crimson Wolf tried to retreat, but the spear followed without giving it a moment's respite; it tried to circle around, and the tip reached it, opening a clean cut, while a spin chained into a lateral thrust that drew blood, followed by a step forward and a reverse rotation that added another wound, until, in a desperate attempt at a frontal charge, the shaft struck and the blade pierced, tearing flesh.
The beast was cornered, each movement injuring it and each second weakening it, its breathing becoming heavy and erratic, while its legs trembled from blood loss.
Jin advanced without hurry, spinning the spear as a natural extension of his body, cold, confident, and relentless.
In Jin's eyes, the Crimson Wolf was no longer the predator, but a prey that seemed to realize the end was near.
The rotation of the spear changed; it didn't become faster or more violent, but adopted an intentional rhythm, and Jin stepped half a pace to the left as the shaft described a low arc, leaving, for a fraction of a second, the Crimson Wolf's right flank exposed.
That opening was what he sought; his gaze sharpened as he advanced.
Without fully retracting the spear, he let it maintain enough pressure to limit the beast's movement, while his right arm drew back and the muscles tensed like a bow ready to fire.
His Qi condensed, ready for the strike. "Organ-Destroying Fist!" Jin shouted with a smile, enjoying the ridiculousness of the moment.
A short and brutally precise impact hit the wolf's chest at the exact instant it tried to regain balance.
CRACK!
Jin felt it clearly: how the beast's thorax gave way and fractured inward, eliciting a strangled howl from the Crimson Wolf.
Its massive body shot backward as if struck by an invisible wall, slicing through the air before violently crashing into a thick tree and knocking it down, splitting the trunk with a dull roar.
The forest fell silent, leaves drifting and dust suspended in the air, while the distant echo of the impact dissipated.
For several seconds, Jin did not move. The spear remained firm in his hand, and his chest rose and fell as he regulated his breathing, never taking his eyes off the wolf's body.
After a few breaths, nothing happened, and the Crimson Wolf's body did not move; blood spread slowly beneath it, and its chest, once powerful, had collapsed unnaturally.
Seeing this, Jin let out a sigh: "…Hah." He pivoted on his feet and observed that the battlefield was no longer the chaos it had been, at least for now.
The last wolves lay motionless among the undergrowth, and the surviving guards breathed with difficulty: some leaning on their spears, others sitting on the ground with visible wounds, but alive. There were bodies… several.
But it had not been a total massacre, and Jin felt certain of one thing: if he hadn't intervened… he did not want to finish that thought.
As he approached, he noticed several guards watching him, not with fear or distrust, but with respect; some even slightly bowed their heads without realizing it.
Jin noticed the two cultivators healing their wounds. One was leaning against a broken carriage wheel, and the other was lying on his back, both channeling Qi slowly to stabilize themselves. Their faces were pale, soaked in sweat… still alive, barely.
"I thought…," he murmured to himself, "something cliché would happen now: a sudden evolution, one last roar, or an absurd twist of fate—"
Just as he finished speaking, the atmosphere changed. Not immediately, nor explosively, but in a way that Jin felt… repulsive.
From the spot where the Crimson Wolf's corpse lay, a thick, viscous energy began to seep out, as if the very air were corrupting, and a dark crimson aura, streaked with black, slowly emerged from the beast's crushed body.
A smell flooded Jin's senses, metallic, rotten, and unnatural; he couldn't help frowning at such a sensation.
The closest guards instinctively stepped back, some feeling nauseous, others clenching their teeth as if something invisible pressed against their chests.
"What… is that…?" one murmured, and the two cultivators opened their eyes at the same time; the older one paled even more. "That Qi isn't normal…" he said hoarsely. "It's… corrupted."
The crimson-black energy swirled over the wolf's corpse, forming an irregular, pulsating mass, as if it had a life of its own, and with each pulse, the surroundings grew heavier and more hostile.
Jin gripped his spear tightly as a shiver ran down his spine; instead of fear, he felt his instincts screaming at him to run.
Something was wrong; his worst assumptions seemed to be coming true. "…So there really was something behind this," Jin murmured, eyes fixed on that nauseating energy.
The forest, which minutes before had been a battlefield, now seemed to hold its breath, and without waiting for anything to happen, Jin assumed a combat stance.
With his feet firmly on the ground, the spear lowered slightly, its tip aligned with the center of his vision, while his breathing became slow, as Yan Mei had taught him countless times.
Then—
Strangely, the wolf stood up.
Its chest was grotesquely collapsed, the bones pushed inward unnaturally, and every movement produced a wet, crunching sound that made teeth grind. Yet, it rose, shaky but firm, as if something else held it upright.
Its eyes were no longer red; they now had a deep black hue, like a bottomless pit. Fixing them on Jin, there was no animal rage, only pure, naked, brutal murderous intent.
For a moment—just a moment—Jin's heart skipped a beat.
"Shit…" he muttered under his breath. A flicker of fear rose from the most primitive part of his being, but it was crushed and ground under the strange emotion that dominated him.
The tremor that had barely begun in Jin's arms stopped. He watched tensely as the wolf opened its jaws without making a sound. He could feel the air around him distort, as if something invisible were gathering in its throat.
It was then that Jin heard a shout.
"Young friend!" roared the older cultivator, half rising with a strained expression. "If this old man is not mistaken… that is demonic energy!"
Upon hearing this, Jin's heart sank, and his face twisted into a bitter grimace, as if a sip of poison had crossed his tongue.
"It shouldn't be possible for something like this to appear here! Much less in a spiritual beast of this level!" roared the cultivator, trying to continue, but there was no time for further explanation.
A repulsive, thick, corrosive stream of Qi flooded Jin's senses, making his lungs and nose burn with discomfort.
It felt as if something alien to the world were forcing its existence. Suddenly, the ground cracked, and a crater formed where the wolf had previously lain.
"What—?!"
He barely had time to react when the crimson-black figure was already upon him.
The beast lunged with monstrous speed, far exceeding what it had shown before, leaving behind a trail of corrupt energy that burned the skin on contact.
Jin gritted his teeth and shouted, "So you really are playing dirty…!" with frustration.
He spun the spear as Qi coursed through the shaft like a contained lightning, and his body moved purely by instinct just as the wolf's jaws descended on him, intent on tearing him apart.
The spear intercepted the strike just in time; the shaft vibrated as if it might break, and a wave of brutal energy surged through his body, hurling him into the air while the world around him spun violently.
"Guh…!"
His figure shot several meters, tearing up earth and stones in its path before crashing to the ground; air escaped his lungs in a harsh gasp, and Jin's world shrank to a white ringing that encompassed everything.
"Hold on…" was all he could gather in thought as he rose onto one knee—when suddenly a cold sensation of death ran down his back. By reflex, Jin twisted his body and raised the spear at a desperate angle.
CLANG!
The claws collided with the black steel; the force was so absurd that his arms went numb instantly and his bones creaked. Again, his body was thrown into the air, rolling violently until covered in dust and blood.
A pain filled Jin's body. It wasn't unbearable, but deep and insistent, as if something inside him were warning him.
"If this keeps up… I'm going to die," he thought, aware that at this pace he couldn't defend himself.
Jin clenched his teeth so hard they cracked, though he thought fleeing would be the best way to save his life—he decided not to; on the contrary, he stood tall.
His feet sank into the earth, and his breathing changed; Qi began to circulate not only through his meridians but through his flesh, bones, and every fiber of his body.
A subtle thought filled Jin's mind: Trust the Jade Dragon Body. The memories of the technique crossed his mind, and with a whisper—Indomitable Pride…—the Qi of his body exploded inward, condensing into every muscle fiber.
His meridians were pushed to the limit, Qi compressed, and every muscle tensed into pure steel; a faint green glow appeared on his skin, almost imperceptible, yet enough to completely transform Jin's presence, imposing respect and fear in the very air.
Before him, the creature that had once been a Crimson Fang Wolf paused for a fraction of a second; its form was twisted, covered in black veins pulsing under the skin, and a dark, smoky substance dripped from its mouth.
Without warning, the beast let out an unnatural shriek and lunged at him with chaotic violence; Jin raised his gaze and said, "Come" without taking a single step back, while closing his fingers tightly around the spear shaft.
Jin's stance was firm like a rock against the current, and a memory appeared in his mind: he could see the figure of his older sister, Mei, standing before him, arms crossed and expression oddly serious.
"Normally, an outer disciple shouldn't have something of this level yet," she told him then. "High-grade mortal-range techniques are already the limit…"
The scroll she had given him was simple, unadorned: Violent Qi Sweep. She smiled with some pride and said, "Consider it a reward for enduring the beatings I gave you," her eyes shining.
A direct, brutal, honest spear technique: a horizontal sweep that condensed Qi into a short wave of energy, designed not to cover great distances, but to obliterate everything in the user's path, leaving a trail of pure, ruthless force.
Jin had only a month to practice it, but he felt as if the spear techniques spoke to him; he emptied his mind, took a deep breath, and let his body synchronize with every movement, as if the weapon were an extension of his own will.
The "beast" before him trembled, its body covered in black cracks as its corrupted crimson energy erupted uncontrollably; its eyes no longer held reason, only a terrifying and desperate murderous intent.
It seemed to be burning the last of its existence; the ground cracked as it propelled itself and lunged at Jin like a living catastrophe.
"Now," whispered Jin as he spun the spear with terrifying precision.
His Qi flowed from his dantian and, like a violent current, surged through his arms and concentrated at the spear's tip, condensing into a controlled torrent that made the weapon vibrate; Jin stepped forward and executed the movement with absolute cleanliness—Violent Qi Sweep—as the spear traced a perfect horizontal arc, cutting through the air with lethal force.
BOOOOM!
A wave of compressed energy exploded before him, forming a devastating Qi blade with the sweep; the earth lifted, the air tore and distorted for a fraction of a second, leaving a trail of brutal force that made everything around it tremble.
The demonic charge and Jin's sweep collided head-on, unleashing a deafening roar that made the ground and air around them vibrate.
A violent wind swept across the field; the trees creaked, the guards and cultivators were blown several steps back, shielding their faces as the force of the air sent dust and leaves flying around them.
In the center of the clash, Jin's figure remained firm.
The spear vibrated violently as Jin's Qi roared, releasing a wave that sliced the "beast" from side to side, leaving a trail of pure and devastating energy in its wake.
The demonic body split in half, the crimson energy exploded in a final shriek, and dispersed into the air like dirty smoke carried by the wind.
Jin exhaled slowly as his spear descended; he took a step, but his legs failed, and a shiver of helplessness ran through his body.
He fell heavily onto one knee, the damp earth giving way under his weight; he planted the spear in front of him almost reflexively, leaning on it to avoid collapsing completely, as the Qi that had supported him until a moment ago began to dissipate, like a tide retreating without warning.
Then he felt a strange sensation: intense heat came from his side, and he looked down.
The fabric of his robe was torn; a hole in his stomach allowed blood to gush violently, like a broken faucet, soaking his clothes and falling in heavy drops to the ground. Only then did he understand that, in the last instant before disappearing, the "beast" had managed to reach him.
"Wow…" he murmured, surprised at not feeling immediate pain. "I only felt a strange, distant sensation, as if my body no longer fully belonged to me, disconnected from the world around me."
Jin let out a low, hoarse laugh, thick with irony.
"I suppose… this was part of the thrill too…" he thought. It was the last thing I managed to think.
As his world began to tilt, sounds became distant and muted; the sky fragmented into blurry patches as his strength slowly left his arms.
As if it had waited for this moment, the spear slipped from his fingers; Jin collapsed forward, and darkness enveloped him as the Qi of his body slowly dissipated.