Jianyu was jolted awake by another howl, much closer this time than before. He didn’t know when he had fallen unconscious, but he was certainly awake now. He gripped his staff with determination and fear, as he knew he was easy prey in his weakened state. Due to the blindness in his eyes, he couldn’t tell whether it was day or night, not helped by the towering walls that blocked the sunbeams from reaching him. By some miracle, the formation that regulated the temperature within the walls had not been critically damaged, and so it was just as warm as it had ever been within the sect.
He put a hand to his stomach, and instead of coming away wet with blood, there was only the crusty feeling of a sealed wound. While this was good, Jianyu was still in pain from the wound in his abdomen. He hadn’t regained his full range of motion, but this was a promising start. If he survived, that was. The howl that had awoken him had been significantly closer than the last, and by its tone, they howls likely originated from a pack of Red Spirit Wolves, Count ranked demons.
Typically, a Count ranked demon would be relative to the strength of a Qi Condensation practitioner. Blue Spirit Wolves were on the weaker end of the spectrum, but what they lacked in strength they more than made up for in both numbers and cunning. Additionally, there was almost certainly an alpha of the pack, either a wolf at the end of the Count stage, or an Earl ranked Red Dire Wolf, equivalent in strength to a mid-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator. Normally, such enemies would be a difficult adversary even in good condition. However, Jianyu was currently anything but that. This meant that Jianyu’s only chance was to evade detection.
Even though Jianyu could technically move without the staff, he decided to risk detection rather than give up his only weapon to defend himself with. Especially considering the state he was in, he needed every advantage he could get his hands on. His limbs aching and his body shaking, he waited for the imminent threat to his survival to appear.
While Jianyu waited, he could only meditate to pass the time. With his shattered dantian, he couldn’t cultivate, and any ambient Qi simply passed through his body. If his opponents were human, he might’ve stood a chance by using a Soul based attack, but demons were immune to such attacks until they reached sentience, usually around the Marquess stage, one stage higher than the Earl ranked Red Dire Wolf he could potentially face. What he could do, however, was attempt to activate his bloodline.
Typically, a cultivator’s Body Cultivation followed the typical stages; the first, mortal stage, followed by four practitioner stages, and finally, the set of transcendent stages after a cultivator had awakened their blood. But this wasn’t to be confused with activation of a bloodline. In rare circumstances, a cultivator was the descendant of some powerful mythical beast. Normally, this relationship was minimal, but one’s bloodline could be strengthened as they consumed precious treasures and relevant materials. For example, if one was descended from a dragon, consuming the marrow of a dragon could advance their bloodline.
Ideally, Jianyu would have conducted such an activation surrounded by several thousand essence stones’ worth of treasures, but he currently lacked that luxury. Using a flawed activation technique, Jianyu withdrew his consciousness into his body, directing it into his veins. He followed his blood, contaminated as it was the poison plaguing his body, as it was pumped by his heart, following key arteries to the major organs of his body, noticing discrepancies there. He saw the vital Life Qi in the air as it entered his lungs, passed into his blood, and went to his heart, liver, and stomach. Even if his dantian was broken, it appeared that he could still absorb Life Qi necessary for survival from the air.
Finally, Jianyu fell into a trance. Normally, this would have been a perilous activity, as he was unable to defend himself in this state. However, the reality was that he had no alternative. Even if he fought his hardest, he couldn’t defeat the enemy ahead of him.
To the casual observer, Jianyu seemed to be in pain. His face was twisted into a grimace, and he winced several times with blind eyes wide open. Legs crossed in the Lotus position, it presented a unique sight; typically a meditating cultivator would appear at peace as they cycled the natural energy of the world through their channels, rejuvenating their vitality with every breath.
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Instead, Jianyu began to flinch, and at one point began to whimper, attracting potential predators to his location faster than they would have otherwise. A sickly green aura began to surround Jianyu and his skin turned translucent, revealing black and green veins underneath. His blind eyes took on a pinkish hue the color of burnt skin. Finally, after two incense times, his eyes snapped open. It appeared that he had done it.
What exactly he had done, Jianyu didn’t know. “It looks like I’ve become more aligned toward whatever ancestor’s bloodline I am drawing upon,” he thought. And he meant this literally; along with the changed colouration in his eyes came a type of rudimentary sight. He couldn’t make out specific details, but he could distinguish between living things and their surroundings, which appeared a light gray in most cases.
Jianyu didn’t have much time to reflect on this, as he heard a low growl a short distance away. Due to their keen sense of smell, it appeared that the Blue Spirit Wolves had located him. When the first came into sight, he froze with fear; it was a towering Red Dire Wolf standing at a height far above his shoulder. It could toy with him even at full power. What confused him more was the wolf’s entourage; all of the following wolves were crimson in his sight as well, which confused him greatly.
Normally, a hungry pack like this one would have ignored prey that could fight back. However, these were extraordinary circumstances. The Void Qi used by the assassins was not only corrosive but toxic to most natural demons. Using his Soul Sight, Jianyu saw the ways in which the corpses of his comrades appeared as holes in the fabric of the Lin Yan plane, anomalies devoid of either Life or Death Qi. If he had more time, Jianyu would have meditated upon such a concept to further his understanding of cultivation, but time was a resource he had a critical shortage of.
All of this was to say, Jianyu was the only prey that the wolves were interested in.
It was a rare sight to see even one Red Dire Wolf, but more than that was nigh impossible in the same place. They were fiercely territorial against their own species, and even though they were followed around by packs of Blue Spirit Wolves, they were clearly inferior and thus not a threat to the Red Dire Wolf.
It would’ve been apparent to Jianyu that his newfound sight only saw in shades of red if not for one major issue; when he looked at his own body, Jianyu saw only translucent green and white skin under gray clothes, rather than the typical sky-blue of his torn sect robes.
What the wolves saw would’ve unnerved them had they actually been Red Dire Wolves with the increased intelligence that entailed. However, they were in fact Blue Spirit Wolves instead, but Jianyu did in fact appear to them with translucent and eldritch colors of skin. Under dusty and torn blue robes was this strange human colored different than usual and radiating both power and weakness simultaneously.
But the wolves were hungry, and against their better judgment, they surrounded the prey. Jianyu raised his staff in preparation, knowing it wouldn’t be enough. Without warning or hesitation, the wolves attacked. Jianyu had strategically chosen a defensive position along the intersection of two walls so that he would only have to defend against two directions.
Jianyu had no knowledge of the staff arts, but he used the tools available to their maximum, using the latent power in his body to deliver a crushing blow to the first wolf, cracking its skull and causing spittle to fly about. Right on its heels was another, and Jianyu didn’t have time to repeat this maneuver. Instead, he followed through with his initial strike, rotating his staff at the end to trip up the legs of the second wolf. But as he was fighting off his second opponent, a third slipped inside of his guard and leaped at his right arm. Jianyu tried to move out of the way, but he was essentially stuck in place with nowhere to go.
Jianyu braced himself, but it simply wasn’t enough. The pain of the wolf’s bite was excruciating. Jianyu kept his dignity, biting his tongue so hard as to make it bleed, barely avoiding letting out a scream. Strangely, after the initial bite, the body attached to his arm went limp. There were benefits to having a body attached to his right arm. He was able to shield himself from further wolf attacks by moving about the corpse of their compatriot around, although Jianyu himself didn’t quite understand why the wolf had died so easily.