Demon Wolf

Wolf nodded and entered the designated chamber. He scanned the tiny room in a moment. A low table and a pair of brown mats were its only furniture. A Spell Formation engraved in the wall painted the sole decoration, ensuring the claustrophobic nook does not get stuffy. 

“Greetings. Sit.” A man, several years Wolf’s senior, greeted with a friendly grin, revealing a bright contrast between his coffee-colored skin and pearly white teeth.

His smile’s forced. Just like that woman’s. They are tired and desperate. Why? What exhausted them? What pushed them to the point of despair? That Leena mentioned cruelty and trampling people; she didn’t have such air about her. I guess she’s the trampler while these are the trampled.

“Hello,” Wolf kept his face neutral as he sat on the hard mat.

“This trial is simple. We assess the power of your soul. I believe you’re familiar with blood crystals, but I shall explain anyway. Blood crystals are the slag of Qi crystal mining. They contain impurities, and before using them, you must expel those impurities,” Rondel narrated the memorized text. “Your task for this ability test is to expel the impurities. To do this, you send Qi into the stone and force out the taint. This task is not about brute force, rather we expect you to use finesse. You have four minutes. Based on your results, you will join Earth Pavilion or we will reject your application.”

Rondel handed Wolf a crimson gem the size of a chicken egg. The stone was eight times larger than the blood crystals he had looted off the Fox tribe’s slain elders. However, the principle behind its refinement remained unchanged.

Wolf focused and guided his Qi into the smooth, red pebble. During his previous experience with blood crystals, he had found that straightforward surges of Qi first stacked the taint in random spots. This phenomenon wasted energy. So, Wolf created his own optimized solution.

Instead of creating a front and pushing forward, he drove his Qi into the crystal’s core like a needle-thin drill. There, the Qi flow spun into a spherical current, forming a dot. The sand grain sized bead grew, forcing the impurities outwards. Wolf’s energy expanded as it assimilated the pure World Energy trapped within the gem.

Wolf kept his Qi input constant. However, as the Qi sphere reached cherry-size, a chain reaction started and the World Energy it extracted with its expansion fueled further growth. Wolf only had to focus and keep the energy inside the crystal in constant rotation, otherwise his construct would fall apart, wasting his effort.

In the corner of his eye, he saw Rondel holding his breath, focused on Wolf’s endeavor as the blood crystal grew a deeper shade of scarlet.

Two minutes trickled by, and the pressure on Wolf’s strawberry-sized bead reached the limit. Wolf felt a sudden pop, as the resistance disappeared. Like a balloon popping at its weakest point, cinnabar dust sprayed from the gem’s side.

The taint seeped out, and Wolf’s revolving globe of Qi clung to the precious stone’s interior, preserving the majority of blood crystal’s energy.

A vigorous applause snapped Wolf from his concentration.

“I’ve never seen anything like that.” Rondel grinned with greater sincerity. “I thought there was no way you could pull it off in four minutes, but you finished in three.”

“What’s the pass criteria?” Rondel’s genuine surprise tickled Wolf’s curiosity, and the question seemed harmless enough.

“Disciples have to purify half their blood crystal. Those who purify the whole thing get to keep it as a reward. So, I guess that’s yours.” Rondel gazed at Wolf’s award longingly, further confusing the young man.

Don’t you guys get better rewards as disciples? Or is there something special about this blood crystal?

“Is this blood crystal special?” Wolf found the question neutral enough to ask, and Rondel nodded.

“While that is technically a blood crystal, it’s much bigger than what others get in their tests. It’s a least Qi crystal which failed to form. Purified, it’s worth at least half a least Qi crystal.” Rondel paused for a second, then lowered his gaze and his smile grew awkward. “I thought someone was making things hard on you, but apparently they wanted to reward your excellence. You will do great, just don’t join any factions—”

“Rondel, five minutes are up.” Stella knocked on the door.

Wolf half-expected Rondel would make a startled face, or look at the door with distrust, however the man’s strange expression melted and grew relaxed.

“We’re coming, Stella.” He smiled and motioned Wolf towards the door. “Come, lest someone accuses you of cheating.”

It seems Earth Pavilion has undercurrents and factions despite rooting out “corrupt” disciples during the entrance exam. Wolf headed towards the door. Ah, face it; things were the same back home. Where there are people and power, there’s conflict of interest. I just wasn’t interested in their petty squabbles, but as Sky grows—

With a creak, Wolf opened the door.

“Did he pass?” Stella fixed her gaze at Rondel, who followed two steps behind Wolf, his lanky figure towering over the half-elf.

“With flying colors.”

Standing right before her, Wolf studied her countenance. Her face twitched as several emotions struggled for dominance, replacing her disinterested expression. He could not understand why her eyes first shone with hope, then grew glum with disappointment the next moment. Her brows furrowed with anger, which she suppressed with a resigned sigh.

Is she insane?

“What was his result?” the crazy woman asked her fellow disciple.

“He purified the entire blood crystal in two minutes fifty-seven seconds.” Cheeriness and hope tinged Rondel’s voice, further confusing Wolf.

Stella clenched her fists, her knuckles going white, then she relaxed.

“He’s a Glorious Tyrant Qi Gathering.” The way she said those words gave Wolf the impression she had suffered a major setback.

“Oh?” Shock tinged Rondel’s voice, and Wolf heard him gulp.

“Oh, well.” Rondel chuckled without mirth. “I guess that’s that.”

He paused for a moment, then spoke again.

“Junior apprentice brother, I stand by what I said before. Even though you ruined your cultivation so early, I advise you to stay away from women. That way you won’t regress and with great effort you might still reach Tendon Strengthening.” With those words, Rondel headed out of the cave, leaving Wolf and Stella alone.

“What does he mean, ruining my cultivation? You mentioned it takes more resources, but that’s just resources.” Regardless of how he wanted to keep these people at a distance, Wolf wished to know anything endangering his return home.

Stella hesitated for a second, but answered the question straight. “When advancing a realm, the greater your stage the greater the difficulty in advancing. Technically, you can advance Qi Gathering as long as you want. However, with each stage, the amount of resources you need increases. If you’re interested, Earth Pavilion’s library contains manuals and studies describing resource requirements in detail. I think you will need a third more resources than others to advance a stage. Then, you will have three additional stages, which will require more resources than you used to reach the peak of the ninth stage.”

Stella gave Wolf a sad smile. “Earth Pavilion won’t fund you; you must earn resources through merit or completing missions. But that’s not all. To advance into the Earth Monastery, you must reach Tendon Strengthening before turning twenty-seven years old. You came in older, meaning you have less time, while your advancement is thrice as difficult as everyone else’s.”

She sighed and shook her head. “Your cost of reaching Tendon Strengthening is thrice the usual, reaching Bone Scribing will cost nine times as much… You see where this is going. At some point, raising you becomes exorbitant. Even the richest families prohibit their talents from following the path you chose. By the time the wealthy scion reaches the peak of the five mortal realms, the family could’ve raised a hundred elites.”

Listening to Stella, Wolf rubbed his chin. I have the fusingcube. As long as I get some decent recipes, I will have infinite money. So resources shouldn’t be a problem.

Stella saw Wolf’s expression remained confident and rolled her eyes.

“You must be thinking how earning merit isn’t all that difficult. That by completing missions, you will have enough Qi crystals to advance in no time. You won’t. Buying Qi crystals, techniques, manuals, items and medicine, all of it burns contribution points like crazy. True, as you grow stronger, you can tackle more difficult missions, earning more, but to complete tougher missions, you need stronger gear, the higher your realm, the better medicine you need, the more Qi stones you need to advance.” Stella lectured, her speech growing quicker and quicker.

Her words seemed to spiral into a vicious loop. Wolf immediately realized the cycle of chasing and burning money to earn money had become her life, and the source of her despair.

I’m doing all of this for my daughter, Wolf repeated, affirming his goal. He wanted to never lose control as much as this desperate woman had.

“In the end, advancing one stage per year is a rich woman’s privilege. Common disciples, like you and me, are lucky to advance once every two years while growing their strength and honing their combat skills. They bleed us—” Stella panted. Then, her eyes went wide and she looked at Wolf in terror.

“Don’t tell anyone I said this. Please.” She cupped her hands and bit her lip.