With the sun coming up and the birds singing it wakes Haiyang. Still covered in blood from yesterday’s festivities he started to rotate his yin qi. The yin qi flowed like water over his fur cleaning off each hair to be blood free.

In minutes his fur was back to its usual clean state. Without a single drop to way down his fur, he felt great. Haiyang picked up the habit of hating water and anything that would make his fur heavy. It was just uncomfortable to be still, to move, or anything really but enough of that back to the cultivation.

Sitting there in a small trance he absorbed the wood qi around him. Constantly having it flow through his body into one of the symbols. Slowly one stabilized then another, and another slowly his left leg was being completely stabilized.

Losing track of time Haiyang finally woke himself up not knowing what happened. He examined his body and he saw a shocking sight. Almost each of his left leg symbols were stabilized! When he examined around him just as shockingly the tree was devoid of wood qi!

Haiyang didn’t understand how this could be. To be able to complete his whole leg that would need more wood qi than what the tree could provide.

He had to take a minute to breathe and think. After taking that minute he still had no idea so he just put it to the back of his mind. He’ll study in depth when he gets back to the Lan Clan. So ignoring the mysteries he just walked out of his burrow and into the sunlight.

Walking to the center of the clearing, away from the spirit tree, he slowly breathed and steadied himself.

He stood there in the center for a minute with his eyes shut. Then, they flew open revealing determined eyes. He slowly unlocked his seals releasing his full strength.

The feeling of power flowed through him and he got slightly lost in the feeling. He smiled dumbly for a minute completely away from reality. It wasn’t until he shook his head did he gain back some clarity.

He was slightly afraid of that distractedness but that stopped him from examining his no seal state. The strength he felt now was much stronger than what it was from the last time. This time he smiled with delight.

Carefully he made qi pads at the bottom of his paws. The pads were five or so centimeters larger than his paws. Carefully taking a step forward and unlike before he didn’t sink into the ground. All he left behind when he lifted his foot was a small round print, not even two centimeters deep.

Haiyang took another step forward then another and then another. Before he knew it he was sprinting at a much faster pace.

Running through the forest around him he dodged trees and looped around. He went back and forth savoring the feeling of the wind in his face. Soon he returned back to the clearing but not without wasting a few minutes running.

Standing in front of his burrow he was breathing heavily. This wasn’t due to fatigue but instead sheer excitement. He was so happy. No longer was the need of that suffocating feeling of his sealed state.

He did a few more test of running, jumping, and climbing trees before he knew he was in control.

He sat atop the crown of one of the taller trees. He basked in the warm sun and the blowing wind. Looking off watching the sea of trees it was dazzling. Each leaf was blowing in the wind looking like flowing tides in the sea.

He smiled and got slightly drunk in the relaxation but he got back to work in minutes. He scanned the surroundings looking for anything that could be of interest.

Towards the northeast, there was a clearing maybe 200 or so meters away. From his very limited experience, spirit trees tend to cause clearings as they grow. His guess was that the tree took too many nutrients causing other trees to not have the ability to live. Yet again it’s only a guess.

To the south the leaves dark, from the vibrant green to a dark almost black color. The few trunks that he could see were dark brown bordering black. He looked towards the center then alarm bells filled his mind.

Haiyang dived back into the crown of the tree as a howl resounded out.

The howl was powerful and filled with viscousness. It carried the heavy aura of a ruler that made Haiyang want to bend his knees in respect. Hiding in the crown shaking Haiyang was in fear, pure unadulterated fear.

He had to take a few minutes of breathing to calm down. After what seems like tens of minutes Haiyang finally had some semblance of sense.

Slowly he climbed down the tree, onto the ground, to the center of the clearing. He stared toward the center of the forest with fear shining in his eyes.

He closed his eyes, breathed, then opened them again. This time they weren’t consumed by fear but new emotions shone inside. There was determination and the intense will to get stronger.

Now with some new purpose and a steadied body, Haiyang walked toward the clearing he saw to the northeast.

He walked and walked in with is normal overly cautious manner. Careful of each sound and tiny movement around him.

When he walked 160 meters toward the clearing he to hear sounds. There were howls, growls, and heavy thuds. These were the sounds of fighting and they clearly came from the spirit tree.

Haiyang slowed his walk down to small and quiet movements. He was careful to not alert anyone or anything that was in the mood to fight.

So in his small steps, he walked till he was ten meters away from the clearing. He could finally see all the commotion.

In the center of the clearing stood a silver-barked, golden-leafed spirit tree. To the right were two wolves fighting.

One was quite big easily overshadowing the other by what seemed like double! It had claws that were long and sharp which showed off by digging into the ground with every step. Its teeth looked like daggers, and eyes shone with that same sharpness. It had brown fur with a green tinge. It had an aura much stronger than the other beast he had met, except for that beast from the primary inner ring.

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The other was half the size of the bigger one. Its claws weren’t nearly as long as the other but they were close in sharpness. Its teeth were sharp but not nearly as large as the other’s dagger-like teeth. Its eyes didn’t hold any sharp ferociousness but instead a softer intelligent glow. Its fur was silver with small green highlights here and there. It had vibrant green irises and had an aura closer to Haiyang’s and the owl’s.

The fighting between the two wolves was very intense. There were countless swipes thrown and skills used. Obviously, the smaller one was losing and by quite a bit at that as it was covered in wounds of all sizes.

The wolves kept battling and the bigger one took a step forward letting out a bright green glow. When it’s paw landed on the ground arm thick roots burrowed out from the ground. Like pythons, they wrapped around the smaller wolves legs, torso, and soon they crawled up to the neck.

The smaller one struggled to break free from it's wooden prison but it didn’t have the strength. The wounds and the long battle causing fatigue was too much to break free. Its qi was also mostly gone told by the weak green light that wrapped around its body fighting back the roots.

The bigger wolf walked forward and with a qi covered paw swiped at the bound wolf.

The smaller one struggled to turn the side before getting hit.

A boom rang out as the paw connected shredding the roots and skin of the wolf. The smaller one was finally freed and sent flying.

The small wolf flew 20 meters away before coming to a sliding halt. By whatever luck there was the wolf landed not far away from Haiyang.

It struggled to stand and shakingly took a few steps before collapsing. The bigger wolf just let out a threatening growl before walking to the spirit tree. It laid beneath the tree absorbing the qi.

A lightbulb went off in Haiyang’s head as he jogged over to the collapsed wolf. Ha placed his paw on the wolf’s side and injected wood qi into it. He tried to heal some of the more serious wounds.

They started to close a bit but it was gonna take a lot more time than what he had time to do. So Haiyang gently took the wolf by the scruff of the neck and started to drag it through the forest back to his burrow. As he walked Haiyang constantly kept using his wood qi to heal the hurt wolf.

Finally after almost an hour of walking Haiyang finally returned. Multiple times through the trip the wolf awakened but quickly went back unconsciousness.

Haiyang dropped the wolf under the spirit tree which had recovered some qi after this morning’s cultivation. He willed some of the wood qi from the air into the wolf. The wounds started to heal slightly faster but this was mostly the external wounds. The internal ones were still very bad.

Slowly the wolf started to shake awake. It opened its eyes slowly, starting to look around. After seeing an unfamiliar area and unfamiliar fox it shot up in a fighting stance. It started to shake before it fell back down with heavy pants. It stared at Haiyang threateningly.

“You can’t be standing up after all your injuries,” Haiyang lightly chided. He walked up to the wolf attempting to put his paw back on its body.

The wolf quickly backed away yelling in a young male voice, “Don’t you dare come closer!”

“Oh,” Haiyang said in surprise, “You can understand me?”

“Of course I can! Why wouldn’t I? You’re a demon beast and so am I,” The wolf replied with sarcasm.

“Oh, that’s why. I thought so but not important. Now come back here so I can heal your wounds,” Haiyang kindly said while waving his paw.

“What do you mean heal my wounds,” The wolf questioned?

“Look at yourself and you’ll see that most are closed,” Haiyang replied like he was talking to a fool.

The wolf ignored the tone and looked at his body. He closed his eyes probably reviewing the internal wounds.

After a few minutes, the wolf replied, “I see that you did but WHY!?”

“Because you need help and I need help. So how about we help each other. Also what is your name,” Haiyang said with a smile.

“You can call me Mu like the rest and how can I help you,” Mu said skeptically.

“Well Mu, I’m Haiyang and as you can see I have this spirit tree here. I wish to cultivate and explore but coming back to a new owner each time is quite the annoyance,” Haiyang explained.

“So you wish for me to act as your guard dog,” Mu growled.

“Of course not,” Haiyang hastily said, “I just want you to watch over and make sure no one else can get the tree. In exchange, you get a share of demon beast cores, some of the qi, and when I move onto better herbs I’ll bring you along.”

“Now why should I help you,” Mu angrily exclaimed!

“Because,” Haiyang paused for a moment, “You want to get strong just as I do. This partner will get you a spirit tree and it will give me some peace for a few moments. This is a win for both of us.”

“How will I know you won’t backstab me later on,” Mu said with a much calmer tone.

“Well leave that to me,” Haiyang said as he searched through his memories. He looked for one of the techniques he saw earlier.

Seeing Haiyang close his eyes Mu stayed silent. He started to absorb some of the qi from the tree already.

A few minutes passed before Haiyang opened his eyes. He found the technique, Blood Pact, and it was going to help solve this situation.

“I have a technique that allows us to make an agreement. It is called Blood Pact and all it requires is a little bit of qi filled blood. This will bind the agreement making it so whoever breaks it will be punished. Their path of cultivation will be cut off unless you’re in the foundation establishment realm,” Haiyang said with seriousness.

“Qi filled blood? Ok, I can do that. Are you sure this will keep our agreement though,” Mu curiously asked?

“Of course it will. I don’t want to lose my cultivation and I doubt you do either so this is perfect,” Haiyang replied.

“Ok then, let’s get started,” Mu laughed out.

Haiyang walked forward and started to chant an incantation. After a few strange sounding words, he started to state the rules of the agreement. Those were that Mu will have to guard him and the tree. Neither of them can attack the other. Neither can leave the other behind during their time in the forest and all rewards are split

Then Haiyang cut his arm a bit and let a glowing red qi filled drop of blood float out. Mu did the same except his was tinged green.

Mu seemed surprised that Haiyang’s blood held flaming qi but he wasn’t about to ask any questions.

Haiyang started to chant another incantation this one slightly different than the first. As he went on the drops of blood hot closer and closer together. When Haiyang muttered the last word the drops collided!

A bright light of green mixed with red exploded out! Both Mu and Haiyang shut their eyes. A minute passed before either opened them back up. To both of their shocks, there were now two matching red and green qi filled drops of blood.

Both of them in a stream of light shot toward Mu and Haiyang respectively. They both shot towards their mid area and into their dantians. The drops soaked in and left a red green stain on the walls of their dantians.

Mu and Haiyang stood there not saying anything. Minutes passed before Haiyang decide to break the silence.

“Well I guess we’re partners now,” Haiyang laughed.

“I guess so,” Mu chuckled.

“I guess we both should go cultivate,” Haiyang said before turning, and running into his burrow. Quickly he went to his cultivation chamber and started to cultivate.

Mu just stood there staring at the hole in deep thought. A minute passed before he shook his head with a smile. He laid down beneath the tree and started his own cultivation as he basked in the sun.