I used my new technique, halcyonic abyssal cutter, and launched a razor sharp arc of qi toward the entrance of the tunnel. Three wolves were padding their way toward me when the arc cut into them. It sliced clean through them, instantly killing them and petering out after passing through the entrance of the tunnel. The arc seemed to have slowed by the time it dissipated and I figured it would slow down as it cut into an object.

I broke through the entrance of the tunnel, more wolves heading in the direction of my hiding spot. I had no choice now. I needed to figure out which tunnel led back to above ground. All these wolves can’t live down here without any food so there must be at least one exit to this cavern.

The gigantic wolf on the dais was still sleeping, unperturbed by the deaths of the smaller wolves. I launched another few abyssal cutters in different directions and activated halcyonic maelstrom to slow down and hopefully wash away any wolves approaching me. I looked around at the different tunnel entrances but none of them stood out to me. I had no choice, I would have to inspect them closer. I ran to the nearest entrance, but after sending one of my qi daggers flying into the tunnel it plunged itself into a rock, hilt deep. That way was a dead end.

I ducked one wolf’s lunge and a shield popped up behind me to block another. I cut out with my daggers, cutting deeply into the wolf’s hide. I wasn’t able to cause enough damage with the daggers so I switched back to my swords. To make up for the loss in speed, I flooded my body with qi and used my body cultivation to increase my speed and power.

I finished off the injured wolves and dodged another lunge from my right, cutting through the wolf’s neck in one stroke.

The number of wolves surrounding me increased with time. I had only killed a few of them at this point, but their numbers swelled rather than diminished. I sent an abyssal cutter in multiple directions, cutting down tens of the wolves surrounding me. The technique was thankfully sparing on my qi reserves, easily allowing me to fire them out one after another. My qi was lowering swiftly, but that was stymied slightly by my cultivation combined with the effects of another set of qi gathering pills. The onslaught continued and I dodged another wild lunge, slicing the wolf in twain.

After a half minute of fighting, I had made a dent in their total numbers, but there were still hundreds of wolves in the cavern. I used Shimmer’s qi beam and an abyssal cutter to cut a path through the wolves and ran along the edge of the expansive room.

Having the cavern wall to one side helped protect me from sneak attacks, and should force the wolves to be more cautious about jumping at me. I ran past another entrance, sending the floating qi sword flying into the tunnel. It hit rock too and I cursed. As I passed the entrance to the tunnel, a large form moved in the corner of my eye and I stopped in my tracks watching as a wolf slammed itself into the wall of the cavern face first, the sickly crunching of bone and sound of the paralyzed wolf’s body hitting the ground briefly shocked me, rewarding my lack of awareness with a slash to my leg as the wolves caught up to my escape. Another wolf lunged at me and I dodged quickly to the side, but one wolf managed to latch its mouth on my left arm when I missed it in my blind spot.

Shimmer jumped up and latched onto the wolf’s neck causing it to yowl in pain. I slew it, but my arm was hard to move. Instead of holding the sword I wouldn’t be able to swing anymore, I made it float around me. This left two swords floating around me, the wolves watched them, but after some cursory glances towards the swords they renewed their onslaught.

By this point I was down to about half of my qi, but I estimated that over three quarters of the wolves were still alive. The most qi efficient way to kill the wolves would be to fight them with my qi swords as I only expended mana from them when summoning them or controlling them using my qi. But with one arm out of commission it would be difficult to conserve my mana and protect myself efficiently.

I launched another halcyonic abyssal cutter at a group of wolves and cut them down. Three wolves pounced at me as I did so I needed to dodge out of the way. As I dodged, I slew one of the wolves but the other two landed and lunged for me again. I was forced to use soft steps on the halcyonic sea to escape from their gnashing jaws.

I stepped into a relatively open area so I was given a tiny respite from the attacks of the wolves. I looked for the next tunnel entrance and ran my way over to it, cutting through the wolves in my way with ease. I desperately needed a break from the onslaught and I decided I needed to take a strategic risk.

I ran into the nearest tunnel, hoping beyond hope that it was the exit to the cavern, but alas, it ended in solid rock. I turned around in time to catch a wolf lunging toward me on the blade of the one remaining sword I held in my hand. The wolf snapped at me in defiance of its inevitable demise but I kept it far enough away that it couldn’t do any damage.

The wolf’s corpse slid off my sword and I prepared myself for a fight.

Luckily, only two wolves could fit comfortably within the tunnel at a time and effectively fight. These wolves, not being much for tactics apparently, piled into the tunnel, butting against each other and restricting their movements. This let me easily deal with the wolves as they came without wasting too much of my qi. I dissipated the floating qi swords and focused solely on my swordplay. As the bodies piled up in the tunnel, I moved further back until I ended up with my back against the stone wall.

The endless stream of wolves continued funneling into the tunnel. Their hobbling gates hampered by the growing pile of their slewn brethren did nothing to stymie their fervent push towards me. These wolves were acting exceedingly strange.

I had been fighting for minutes at this point in the tunnel and I was growing exhausted. I was nearly out of qi,and launched another halcyonic abyssal cutter down the tunnel to by myself some time. It cut through the advancing wolves and gave me time to dig into my pack for the qi restoration pill Zhou Li Mei had given to me.

I ate the pill and immediately felt more rejuvenated and filled with qi. This was one of my trump cards, but if I was to heed Li Mei’s warning, I wouldn’t be able to use another of these. Over the next minute it released qi into my dantian, refilling it. Unfortunately it didn’t restore the qi within my body so I was left with a little under half of the qi within my body to work with.

Over the next minute or so, the veritable flood of wolves filing into the tunnel became a stream, and then a trickle. I finally cut down the last wolf, it having jumped from atop the bodies of its fellows and lunged at me. I prepared myself for the next attack, but it never came. I was breathing heavily, but managed to keep more than half of my qi remaining in my dantian.

I climbed over the piles of corpses, jumping over them at some points in a macabre act of athletics. When I came back into the main room, a few wolves were still roaming around, eating from the corpses of their brethren.

I looked to the central dais and froze in place. The massive silver and black wolf was now looking at me with its deep black, intelligent eyes. I did my best to avoid drawing its ire by staying against the edge of the cavern. I cultivated as I walked, going from opening to opening in the cavern searching for the exit.

Finally I walked up to a larger than normal tunnel leading from the cavern. When I walked in front of it I felt a light breeze blow in and I knew this would be my ticket out of the cave system.

I was about to start walking down the tunnel when I felt this indescribable pulling sensation drawing me toward the dais. It was this itching in the back of my mind that just wouldn’t go away, begging me to turn around and approach the dais.

I had used all of my treasures to create my new projectile technique. Could I really just leave without even getting the beast cores from the wolves? Plus, I wanted what was in that box!

I turned around, looked directly at the wolf on the dais and charged it, my thoughts clouding over in my desire. I materialized all three of my qi swords as I ran. The wolf understood my intentions immediately, stood up, and howled, the sound reverberating throughout the cavern. I had a snarl on my face as I ran across the cavern floor. I launched a halcyonic abyss cutter at the wolf and it dodged out of the way.

I ignored the wolf and climbed the dais. I was about to grab the ornate box on top when the paw of the wolf took me full in the side and launched me down to the floor of the cavern. I reinforced my body with qi before I landed to reduce the impact, but it jarred my already injured arm further. The wolf stood guardian over the box from up on the dais. I launched another abyssal cutter at it but it jumped out of the way. I frowned.

“Give me that box you stupid wolf!” I said, yelling at the beast.

It growled back at me and I narrowed my eyes at it. It must have been more intelligent than I was giving it credit for, like that python.

I circled around the room, but whenever I changed direction too much from the wolf’s current position, it would turn to face me. It looked like I wasn’t getting that box without fighting the wolf. I steeled my resolve. I wasn’t leaving here without that box.

I had Shimmer help me by launching a qi beam at the wolf causing it to jump off the dais. While it was distracted I ran up onto the dais. Now that I had the high ground, the wolf needed to come up to me. It was now the wolf’s turn to circle around me. I turned with the wolf. It looked like it wasn’t going to move unless I provoked it. I moved my injured arm to grab the box and the wolf snarled at me.

I grasped onto the box and the wolf pounced. It flew at me, the entire bulk of its massive weight behind its leap. I jumped and met it in midair, my swords against its claws and teeth. My injured arm hurt like crazy, but I was still flooding my body with as much qi as my body training realm would allow.

The wolf’s increased weight turned out to be the deciding factor as I was sent flying back down to the ground from our exchange. I landed roughly but got up quickly. The wolf had returned to its place on the dais, the box having fallen from my grasp as I launched myself at the wolf in the air. I sent one of my flying swords at it and the wolf batted it away after a flurry of swimpes from the weapon. I was able to cut a few furrows into its hide but nothing debilitating.

I decided that I wasn’t going to be able to beat this wolf in a long drawn out battle and changed tactics. I sent the flying sword behind the wolf and instead of attacking the wolf directly, I sent the sword flying into the box, launching it toward me. The wolf, surprised, jumped after the box. The wolf, in its haste to retrieve the box, neglected its own safety for a moment, giving me a chance to strike. I launched the swords up at the wolf, forcing it to twist its body to dodge. That wouldn’t protect it from me though.

Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators!

I pushed through the pain in my injured arm and punched out with both of my qi infused arms into the underside of the wolf. The punches launched the wolf up into the stalactite infested ceiling of this part of the cavern. The wolf crashed against the ceiling causing myriad stalactites to fall down to the ground.

The wolf followed them, landing roughly on the ground and yowling in pain. Before it could get up I jumped in the air above it creating the largest greatsword I could with my swords of the halcyonic sea technique. The greatsword felt weighty in my hands and I cut down with it with all my might screaming all the while.

The wolf looked up and tried to get up, but I sped up my descent, using my qi to control the greatsword. The sword sped up, slicing down and directly through the neck of the wolf. Having felled the mighty beast, my qi used up in my last attack, I staggered.

I was exhausted, and fell to the ground, the greatsword dissipating. I was breathing heavily, but I couldn’t let my guard down. Even now I sensed the remaining wolves circling around me. I didn’t have the qi reserves to fight them off right now. Shimmer stood guard in front of me, ready to fight off the wolves to the death. I worried for the fox. She had grown since I first got het, but fighting against this many wolves alone was folly. I managed to stand up on shaky legs and stand off against the wolves. I only had one option at this point. I reached into my bag and grabbed another healing pill and a qi restoration pill. I didn’t know what kind of negative effects it would have if I took them, but it was better than dying.

I ate both of the pills and at first they worked. I felt my injured arm repair itself and my qi levels increase. The soothing sensation of the pills ended suddenly as I felt a rumbling sensation throughout my whole body and I bent over and wretched blood. That wasn’t good. I noticed movement out of the corner of my eye and fell to the ground to dodge the wolf that launched itself at me.

I rolled onto my side and wretched again. I was feeling dizzy, but I forced myself to stand up. I could barely see the wolves in front of me through the haze in my eyes but I couldn’t back down. I wasn’t going to die here.

I manifested my qi swords and felt them invigorate me. A wolf jumped from my left and I swung at it but missed because I couldn’t focus properly. Luckily enough my swing brought me off balance and I dodged the wolf's lunge. Another wolf lunged at me and this time my sword strike hit true. The wolf’s yowl of pain echoed throughout the cavern. My vision was slowly coming back to me, but I was feeling more nauseous as the seconds ticked by. I was vaguely aware of Shimmer fighting nearby, but I couldn't focus to ensure her safety as well as mine. I could only trust she would be alright.

There were three wolves surrounding me now and I managed the focus to launch a halcyonic abyssal cutter at one of them, slicing clean through the beast. I tried to use soft steps on the halcyonic sea to step behind one of them but when I appeared behind the wolf it was too much for my stomach to handle. I wretched again which gave the wolf enough time to turn around and latch onto my leg. The effect of the healing pill was still felt throughout my body so I slew the wolf latched onto me and let the pill heal me.

The last wolf was standing across from me, I felt the creeping approach of oblivion coming and I faltered in my stance, feeling the encroaching darkness coming in from all sides. Before I passed out, I saw the hunched form of Shimmer, pristine white fur now matted with blood standing between me and the final wolf.

*** Jia

The Peng family was acting weird. Whenever their representative appeared on the screen they would do all but beg for the view to change to someone else. We hadn’t seen any sign of Astra for the rest of the day and I was getting a little worried, but the Peng family was acting too strange for me not to notice.

I told Zi Fu my observations and he agreed, they were acting weird. The Fan family was upset that Fan Chen was unable to defeat Astra and that she got away. The city lord looked nonplussed at all of the events of the competition, like he didn’t care. Soon it would be nighttime in the city and time to go back to the Zhou family manor. I could only hope that Astra would be able to survive the night and appear sometime tomorrow.

*** Astra

I woke up feeling groggy and sore. Shimmer was licking at my face. I could see the corpse of the last remaining wolf on the ground behind her, in more pieces of wolf than any semblance of a whole body. She must have used her qi beam to destroy it. I breathed a sigh of relief and pet the fox, cooing my thanks for her bravery in protecting me. After resting for some time I took note of how I felt. My entire body was extremely sore, and I was still feeling nauseous.

I sat up on the floor of the cavern and looked around. Nearby the giant headless corpse of the monstrous wolf was blocking my sight from half of the room. I remembered the whole point of fighting the wolf and looked around for the ornate box that was originally on the dais.

I found it after looking for a little bit and set it in front of myself. I opened the box and was surprised to find two rings. One was a solid gold and the other a solid black. I picked up the gold one first but nothing about it informed me of its use.

“Any idea what these rings are, Text?” I asked, assuming the ring must be some kind of treasure.

“ANALYZING.” the familiar text and loading bar appeared on my screen. While Text was analyzing the ring I put it down in the box and picked up the black ring instead.

“FINALLY. Hey girl let me-” A voice rang out in my head, surprising me and causing me to drop the ring back into the box. The voice cut off abruptly and I looked around wondering where the voice had come from. I frowned and looked down at the ring before picking it back up.

“Let me of out of this-” The voice spoke again into my head, I again dropped the ring. I looked around again but was sure the voice was coming from inside my head. I picked up the ring again.

“Stop dropping me!” The voice rang out in my head. I looked down at the ring and cocked my head.

“Stop dropping who? The ring?” I asked, confused.

“Yes the ring you imbec- I mean, you girl. Stop dropping me and listen. I want you to release me from within the ring. I was a god realm cultivator and was sealed into this ring by the demons during the great demon wars millenia ago.” The ring explained. I frowned down at the ring.

“Oh no! That sounds awful! How would I release you?” I asked, curious.

“You just need to insert your qi into the ring and you’ll feel a lock. You need to unlock it from the outside and I’ll be set free. I have many great and powerful techniques I can teach you.

“I don’t really need techniques, but are you a wood cultivator?” I asked the ring.

“Um-er yes, I was a wood cultivator before I was sealed inside this ring.” The ring said. My eyes grew bright.

“That’s amazing! My friend’s master is very sick and we need the help of a God realm wood cultivator to help heal him. Would you heal him if I freed you?” I asked the ring.

“Of course! I’ll agree to save your friend’s master for being released from the ring, I feel that’s fair enough.” The ring said.

I was about to push my qi into the ring when a ding appeared in my vision.

“*DING* Two rings identified. Medium storage ring, and a ring with a demon sealed inside.” The text said.

I frowned. Text had never been wrong before. That must mean….

“Hey! You lied to me, you’re not a god realm cultivator, you’re a demon!” I said, aghast.

“No, no, I swear I’m not a demon, just release me, I'll prove it to you.”

“Oh no, I’m not falling for that," I said before putting the ring back into the box and shutting it. I began walking away, the other ring in hand until I felt that familiar pulling sensation, almost a calling from deep within me begging me to come back to the box. I walked back over to the box and sat down in front of it.

“Text, what would happen if I took the demon ring with me?”

“ANSWER: The user would slowly have their will eroded by the demon sealed within the ring until eventually succumbing to its will and releasing the demon from its prison.” Text said.

“Can’t I just use the Demon Sealing Mantra to suppress the demon in the ring and prevent that from happening.”

“ANSWER: Yes. But the demon’s will will slowly acclimate to the power of the skill over time due to it being sealed in a ring rather than something more structured, like a sword.”

That could happen? Did this ring even count as a treasure for the competition? I can’t imagine it would be a good idea letting the demon ring get into the wrong hands.

I pushed my thoughts aside for a moment to focus on the other ring.

“I remember Jia mentioning a storage ring and how it's similar to my inheritance. How do I use it, Text?” I asked.

“ANSWER: Pour a little qi into the ring and you’ll be able to sense the items within it. While holding another object, you can use your will to insert the held object into the ring, should there be enough room within the ring.” Text answered.

I followed his instructions and when the ring’s contents appeared in my mind I was surprised. The ring had much more space than I expected, about the same amount of space as my old apartment on Setria 9. Additionally there was already a book within the ring. I willed the book to come out of the ring and it plopped into my hand.

‘Lesser demon sealing scripture’ The book read.

“Text, do you have a copy of this book already?” I asked.

“ANSWER: Yes, the inheritance contains multiple copies of this book.”

Well that wasn’t useful. Why was this book in the ring? And why was this ring in the same box as the demon ring? Maybe in case the demon ever escaped, this technique was left so that it could be resealed? That made sense. Too bad the book is useless for me.

I thought about my new storage ring and then looked around to the wolves around the room. I smiled. I left behind all of the beast cores because I wasn’t going to be able to carry them all, but now I should have no problem taking them all with me!

I spent the next hour and some change extracting the beast cores from all of the wolves. All in all I got forty-five tier three beast cores, eighty-three tier two beast cores, and one tier four beast core. It was a good haul, despite the danger I faced. I began walking out of the cavern when I felt that pulling feeling again.

‘Oh yeah’ I thought to myself. What was I going to do about the demon ring. I guess I could just leave it here? It wasn’t likely one of the other people in the hidden realm would find it and once the hidden realm was closed it would be safe. Could I really rely on others not finding this place though?

I got an idea.

“Text, are there any technique books in there that can make demons friendly?” I asked.

“ANSWER: No.”

I frowned. That wasn’t fun. It could be cool to have a demon friend to fight with. Then I got another idea.

“Is there a way to make a demon listen to me?” I asked. Maybe I could just order the demon to be nice!

“ANSWER: There are three-hundred forty seven techniques stored within the inheritance related to subjugating a demon’s will.” Text said.

“Can you narrow it down to ones I'll be able to use now?” I asked.

“ANSWER: There are zero techniques in the inheritance related to the subjugation of a demon’s will the user can use at their current cultivation.” Text answered.

“Alright how about ones I’ll be able to use relatively soon?” I asked.

“ANSWER: One technique has been found relating to the subjugation of a demon’s will that the user will be able to use before reaching the domain realms.” Text said.

“Alright! Show me that one!” I told Text.

“Soul Technique: Lesser Demon Will Binding Contract.” The text on my vision read.