The wolf charged.
Wang Ben's fingers locked around the spear shaft as the massive creature burst from the tree line. Snow-white fur caught the sunlight, making it appear ethereal. Crystalline antlers gleamed like ice. But there was nothing beautiful about the way it moved: low, predatory, death incarnate.
I'm going to die, Wang Ben thought with strange clarity.
And then he noticed something.
The wolf's gait was wrong. Its hind legs moved stiffly, awkwardly. Black-purple veins spider-webbed from what looked like bite wounds on its haunches. And as it ran, there was a hitch in its stride, a moment of weakness that...
The wolf ignored him completely.
It went straight for Zhao Yu.
"Look out!" Wang Ben shouted, but his warning came too late.
Zhao Yu barely had time to raise his weapon before the wolf was on him. Despite its injuries, the creature moved with terrifying speed. At the last instant, Zhao Yu twisted sideways, dodging a swipe that had come from his blind side. One massive paw batted Zhao Yu's spear aside like it was made of straw. Then its jaws clamped onto his shoulder, fangs sinking deep before releasing and sending him flying backward.
The sound of impact, flesh and bone meeting overwhelming force, made Wang Ben's stomach turn.
Zhao Yu hit the ground hard and didn't move. Blood spread across his torn robes, but Wang Ben could see his chest still rising and falling. Unconscious, but alive.
For now.
The wolf turned toward the servants.
Li San and Ma Hong stood frozen, their faces masks of pure terror. They couldn't move. Couldn't run. Could barely breathe. Wang Ben had seen that look before on animals facing predators: the paralysis of absolute fear.
The wolf's luminous eyes fixed on them, and its lips pulled back in what might have been a grin. Or hunger. Or both.
And then it turned to Wang Ben.
Their eyes met.
The beast was intelligent. Wang Ben saw it clearly now. Not just animal instinct, but thought. Calculation. It had sized up all four of them in a single glance and determined the order: Zhao Yu first (the threat), then the cultivator (Wang Ben), then the helpless prey (the servants).
But something was wrong with it. The black-purple veins weren't just on its legs. They spread up its flanks, pulsing with a sickly light. Poison. It had been poisoned by something, and badly. The creature was desperate, driven from its territory by something stronger, seeking easier prey.
And it had found them.
Wang Ben raised his spear. His hands were shaking so badly the tip wavered in the air. His legs felt wrong, too light, as if the ground might tilt and dump him sideways. Early-stage body refinement, he thought. Against a qi condensation spirit beast. Even poisoned, even weakened, I'm dead.
The wolf took a step forward.
And deep in Wang Ben's consciousness, buried beneath fifteen years of ordinary life, a dormant awareness stirred.
[CRITICAL THREAT DETECTED]
[HOST SURVIVAL PROBABILITY: LOW]
[EMERGENCY PROTOCOLS ENGAGED]
[FORCING SYSTEM BOOT...]
The text appeared in Wang Ben's mind like fire.
Not words. Not sounds. Just... knowledge. Information written directly into his consciousness with a clarity that was almost painful.
[WARNING: PREMATURE ACTIVATION]
[ESTIMATED FUNCTIONALITY: Marginal]
[SYSTEM ONLINE]
Wang Ben staggered, his vision blurring. For a moment, he saw double, the herb field superimposed with... something else. Metal corridors. Starlight. A void that stretched forever. And beneath it all, a river of souls flowing through timeless darkness.
What... The voice, whatever it was, didn't wait for him to understand.
[EMERGENCY ASSISTANCE PROTOCOL ACTIVE]
[ANALYZING THREAT...]
[ENTITY: Jade Snow Wolf - Rank 2 Spirit Beast]
[CURRENT CONDITION: Poisoned - Effective Combat Level Reduced]
[ESTIMATED STRENGTH: Peak late-stage body refinement]
[IDENTIFYING WEAKNESSES...]
The wolf lunged.
And Wang Ben moved.
Not the clumsy block of someone who'd trained with the spear for a few years. Not the desperate flailing of someone facing certain death.
He moved like water.
His spear came up in a perfect arc, deflecting the wolf's charge not through strength but through angle. The blade scraped along the creature's shoulder, drawing blood. Not deep, but enough to make it veer off course.
Wang Ben didn't think about it. Didn't question how his body suddenly knew what to do. He just... knew.
[WEAKNESS IDENTIFIED: Left hind leg - bite wound, poison concentration highest]
[ASSESSMENT: Target injury. Increased pressure accelerates poison spread.]
The information appeared in his mind like his own thoughts, but sharper. Clearer. Accompanied by a visual overlay that highlighted the wolf's wounded leg in pulsing red.
The wolf recovered quickly, circling him with a growl that sounded almost surprised. It had expected an easy kill. What it got was... something else.
Wang Ben shifted his stance. His hands adjusted their grip on the spear without conscious thought. His weight distributed perfectly for either attack or defense.
How do I know how to do this? part of his mind screamed.
But a deeper part, ancient and vast, buried beneath layers of ordinary life, whispered: Because you've done this for a thousand years.
No. Ten thousand years.
The memory wasn't clear. Just a feeling. His hands knew the grip without being told, his feet found the right distance on their own. The weight of a spear in his hands felt right in a way nothing ever had before.
The wolf lunged again, faster this time. Jaws gaped wide, snapping for his throat.
Wang Ben dropped low, felt the passage of the beast's body over his head, and thrust upward with his spear. The blade caught the wolf's left hind leg, the poisoned one, and drove deep into the wound.
The creature screamed.
Not a howl. A scream of pure agony and rage.
Black-purple blood sprayed from the wound as Wang Ben yanked his spear free. The wolf staggered, its injured leg buckling. Its whole body seized, a violent shudder that rippled from haunches to shoulders. The dark veins spread further up its flanks, pulsing brighter with each labored breath.
[SUCCESSFUL STRIKE]
[POISON SPREAD ACCELERATED]
[ENEMY COMBAT EFFECTIVENESS DECLINING]
[WARNING: CREATURE ENTERING BERSERK STATE]
When the tremors passed, the wolf had changed. The cunning intelligence drained from the wolf's eyes, replaced by pure, mindless fury.
It turned away from Wang Ben, away from the threat that had wounded it, and charged straight for the servants.
Li San opened his mouth to scream but no sound came out. Ma Hong tried to run but his legs wouldn't obey.
The wolf's jaws opened wide.
And Wang Ben realized, with horrible clarity, that he couldn't reach them in time.
The massive creature hit Li San first, jaws closing around his throat with a sickening crunch. The servant's body went limp instantly. No scream. No struggle. One moment alive, the next, nothing.
Ma Hong finally found his voice and tried to run. Jaws closed on the back of his neck before he made it three steps. He fell face-first into the herb field and didn't move.
Two lives. Gone before he could move.
Wang Ben's hands shook so hard the spear rattled against his palms. The smell of blood hit him, thick and copper-sweet, and his stomach heaved.
The wolf turned from the bodies, blood dripping from its muzzle, and fixed its eyes on Zhao Yu's unconscious form.
No.
The creature took a step toward the fallen cultivator. Then another. Moving with purpose despite its injuries. But Wang Ben could see it now: the slight drag of its hind leg, its breath coming in labored pants, the tremor in its muscles with each movement.
No. Not him too.
[WARNING: DO NOT ENGAGE]
[ASSESSMENT: Hostile presence exceeds Host capacity. Withdrawal advised.]
[HOST SURVIVAL PROBABILITY IF ENGAGED: VERY LOW]
Wang Ben ignored the text in his mind.
He charged.
The wolf saw him coming. Of course it saw him coming. The creature was wounded but not stupid. It let Wang Ben close the distance, waited until he was committed to his attack, and then...
Its eyes gleamed with cunning intelligence.
Oh no.
The wolf pivoted with speed that its injuries shouldn't have allowed. Its good hind leg launched it directly at Wang Ben's exposed flank. Jaws opened wide, fangs gleaming with blood and saliva.
I've been baited.
Time slowed again. Wang Ben saw his death approaching with perfect clarity. The wolf had let him wound it. Had let him think he had the advantage. And now he was going to pay for his overconfidence with his life.
The jaws closed around empty air.
Because at the exact moment the wolf lunged, the poison in its system flared.
The corrupted vessels across its body lit up like fire. The creature's muscles locked, its entire frame seizing mid-leap. Its perfect lunge collapsed into an uncontrolled tumble.
Beast and cultivator crashed together in a tangle of limbs and fur and steel.
Wang Ben felt the impact like hitting a stone wall. His breath left his lungs in a rush. His vision went white with pain. But his hands moved on their own, driving his spear up and forward with every ounce of strength he had left, guided by something his body remembered that his mind never learned.
The blade punched through white fur, through muscle, through the wolf's ribcage, and straight into its heart.
The creature's eyes went wide with shock.
Then empty.
Its bulk drove Wang Ben to the ground. He couldn't breathe. Couldn't move. Couldn't think.
The wolf's weight pressed him into the dirt, and for what felt like an age there was nothing but the hot, copper stink of blood and the ragged sound of his own breathing. His hands wouldn't stop shaking. He tried to push the carcass off but his arms had no strength left, and the fear was still there, filling his chest, making his thoughts scatter every time he tried to hold one in place.
Then, like a hand steadying him in the dark:
[THREAT ELIMINATED]
[HOST STATUS: CRITICAL]
[INJURIES: Severe]
[CONSCIOUSNESS FADING...]
[THREAT ELIMINATED. IMMEDIATE DANGER: NONE]
The last thing Wang Ben heard was voices. Distant. Urgent.
"...by the heavens, is that..."
"Wang Ben! Can you hear me?!"
"Get them back to the city! Now!"
Squad Leader Chen's voice, sharp with command and an edge of panic. Fear? Shock?
Wang Ben tried to respond but his mouth wouldn't work. The world was going dark at the edges. Cold. So cold.
Am I dying?
[NEGATIVE]
[ENTER EMERGENCY STASIS]
[CONSCIOUSNESS SHUTDOWN RECOMMENDED]
[ALERT: CEASE ACTIVITY]
[HOST REQUIRES RECOVERY]
The darkness took him.
...
Squad Leader Chen stood over the carnage, his face pale beneath years of weathering.
Five bodies. Two dead servants. One unconscious clan member. One unconscious patrol member who should, by all logic, also be dead.
And one qi condensation spirit beast with a spear through its heart.
"Impossible," muttered one of the patrol leaders who'd responded to the signal flare. Early-stage qi condensation, fifteen years of experience, and even he looked shaken. "An early-stage body refinement cultivator killed a Jade Snow Wolf?"
"Look at the wounds," another said, kneeling by the wolf's corpse. "Precise strikes. Expert technique. This wasn't desperate flailing. This was precision."
Squad Leader Chen stared at Wang Ben's unconscious form. The boy's patrol robes were torn and bloody. His face was pale as death. But he was breathing.
And in his hand, still clenched with a death grip, was a spear covered in black-purple blood.
"Get them to the medical hall," Chen ordered. "Both Wang Ben and Zhao Yu. Priority treatment."
"But sir, the cost..."
"I don't care about the cost!" Chen snapped. His voice dropped, though no less urgent. "You saw what he did. The clan will want to know how."
They gathered the bodies, both human and beast, and began the journey back to Redstone City.
Behind them, in the herb field where the battle had taken place, dark blood slowly seeped into the soil.
And if anyone had been paying attention, they might have noticed the nearby herbs withering and dying, their spiritual energy drained away by something unnatural.
But no one was paying attention.
They were too busy staring at the boy who'd done the impossible.