Chapter 4
A pale white jade-like soft skin tainted with the dark dried blood from both the human and that of beasts lay on the ground. The slight movement of her proud chest is evident that the woman is still alive. When Shin Jiao got a good look at her bloody face, he realized that the girl looks like only in her teens. She's maybe 18 or 19 years of age.
She suddenly moaned which made Shin Jiao jump to his feet. He quickly went to her side and checked her pulse and breathing. Then he applied first aid treatment to her wounds, by checking if she had some ruptured veins because of the blood. Finding that everything is fine, he began binding her wounds using some of the strands of her clothing to prevent more blood loss.
Since he can't just move or carry her carelessly, Shin Jiao first made a simple stretcher from some of the tree branches. Because his strength is already enhanced he easily carried her inside the cave without a hitch.
Once inside, he carefully puts the wounded girl on the bed. Since the girl's condition has stabilized which is evident to her now calm and regular breathing, he decided to go out again. He wanted to gather the remaining carcasses outside as it would be a waste to leave them there. It took him a while to find and gather every carcass in the area.
After some time, as he thought he was finished gathering everything, he decided to go back.
But then all of a sudden Shin Jiao was rooted to the ground upon seeing a towering wolf staring at him with its bloodshot eyes and baring its long fangs.
Although there are wounds all over its body, it still can stand on its four limbs, so it can still fight.
Seeing that he couldn't prevent the clash between himself and the wounded yet crazed wolf, he grips the machete on his right hand tightly as he stood and took a fighting stance.
Upon seeing the human preparing to fight, the wolf seems to snort in disdain. Unknown to Shin Jiao the beast is actually really looking down on him. In this Daemon forest and the cultivation land, Gubu forgot to tell him that mortals are considered as trashes and is being disdained even by the beasts.
Then as if being insulted by facing a mere mortal, the wolf just rushes forward and slashed its claws wanting to tear Shin Jiao apart as quickly as possible.
When the wolf began to move, Shin Jiao actually discovered that its action is a little slow. He can actually follow its movements which made him feel excited. With this discovery, Shin Jiao became confident that he can face the creature without a problem.
As the large dagger-like claws of the wolf came closer, Shin Jiao calm himself down. His experience in fighting and killing from his life on earth suddenly kicks in. And his eyes and temperament suddenly changed, from being a meek lamb he suddenly turns into a large and ferocious lion.
The thick killing intent surrounding him actually startled the wolf, but it was already too late for it to drawback. Then with a quick downward slash, Shin Jiao was actually able to cut the attacking limb of the wolf.
This made the wolf immediately howled in pain as it fell to the ground after losing its balance.
With a quick move, Shin Jiao stabbed towards the wolf's head. But the wolf is able to see his move and dodges the strike by a hair's breadth. But still, the stone machete hit its neck. However, the wound was too shallow.
Shin Jiao jumped back to distance himself from the beast. Luckily for him, he moved quickly as the wolf suddenly lashed out its other front paw.
Seeing that it was at a disadvantage the wolf, began to show a hint of fear towards the young man. Its previous ferocious eyes began to show reluctance and dread towards Shin Jiao. But since it still a mindless beast it once again rages and wildly attacked him. Although limping, its power did not diminish as the trees it hits shatter into hundreds of splinters.
Shin Jiao now noticed that the wolf is actually different from the carcasses that he saw. Its fur is darker and its head is a bit bigger than others.
"This might be an alpha... This explains things then," he muttered.
Truly the wolf's attacks are far too vicious and wild. While Shin Jiao dodges as quickly as he could and waited for an opening.
Then all of a sudden, the wolf opened its gigantic jaw and tried to bite Shin Jiao. He quickly dodges the attack and found himself on the wolf's right side.
He now found an opening, and quickly slashed upwards tearing the wolf's stomach open. But before Shin Jiao could be happy, the hind leg of the wolf suddenly lashed at him like a whip which caught him off-guard. He wasn't able to dodge and was sent flying towards a tree.
Although Shin Jiao's body is already strengthened, it still not strong enough. So after the impact, some bone-cracking sound was heard. His left arm and right leg were broken and some of his bones are cracked.
Shin Jiao coughed a mouthful of blood as he gritted his teeth trying to prevent himself from fainting as tearing pain assaulted his consciousness.
The wolf looked at him as if smiling and was satisfied with the result of its sacrifice. It slowly lowered its head and its eyes gradually closed. Its torn stomach bleed profusely along with its innard gushing out. Then the giant wolf fell on the ground with a loud thud.
Shin Jiao looked at it as it died, while he himself felt pain all over his body. He knew the danger of staying in the open, so without a choice, he pushed himself up and dragged his aching body towards the alpha wolf.
He then takes its carcass in his spatial ring and sluggishly crawls towards the cave.
"Arrgghh… This is some shitty situation I'm in. How would I close this cave now? Damn…" Shin Jiao thought for a while.
Then looking at the water source he decided to crawl and tried to drink first as he felt a little parched after that fight.
After drinking he tore up a part of his shirt to wipe the blood on his face with difficulty. He then lay flat on the ground near the water source, and then he fell asleep.
An unknown amount of time has passed, when Shin Jiao woke up. The pain in his body is now gone, and he felt that his body already recovering.
"Did my body just heal itself? This is amazing… but…"
Shin Jiao suddenly noticed that the sphere in his dantian has two empty and the last one has ¼ of its contents remaining.
"Oh, so this is my auto-recovery ability. I will spend natural energy just to rejuvenate and heal my body... Haha!" he chuckled.
After checking that nothing is wrong with his body, Shin Jiao's gaze went to the girl on the bed who is still asleep. When he was about to stand up, a loud gurgling sound came out from his stomach.
"Geez... I guess I need to eat something first. Hmmm… I have a lot of wolf meat in my ring. Let's try barbecue wolf meat then." Shin Jiao said with a grin.
After closing the cave, he starts a fire using some woods he gathered from outside. Like practiced he prepared a portion of wolf meat. As he is not sure if those things are edible on this planet he just prepared a small portion first. Not long after a delicious smell of grilled meat permeated the air.
"Okay, I think this is good to consume. So… here goes nothing." Shin Jiao steeled his resolve and take a bite of a chunk of meat.
"Wow, this thing is delicious! I didn't even use any condiments or salt, but this taste is heavenly." He exclaimed with his eyes wide open.
So it didn't take him long when the portion of cooked meat was devoured by him. Feeling a little satisfied with what he just had he decided to continue cooking as the small portion is not enough for him. But when he was about to take out another meat, Shin Jiao felt a strong burning feeling in his stomach.
"Ow, shit! What the hell… This is… Arrgghh…" Shin Jiao cursed as an excruciating pain suddenly assaulted him.
Then he realized something, there is a large amount of natural energy entering his body through his stomach, and it's giving him pain.
If he didn't absorb them it might cause his stomach to explode as the rampaging energy began to grow stronger. So he quickly channels all his concentration towards absorbing the energy within him. Large beads of sweat appear on his forehead as he endured the torment. But because of his perseverance, he was able to absorb all of the energy and found the sphere in his dantian where ¼ remains became ½, and his body began to have traces of recovery in them.
"So, that's the way it should be... Every time I eat something, I should absorb them so that I won't waste anything."
With that realization, Shin Jiao continued to roast meat until he regains almost half of his constitution. As it still took him a lot of time absorbing the raw energy from the meat, he decided to stop.
"Ah, that was a satisfying meal." He said while rubbing his stomach.
Then he looks at the girl on the bed and noticed that she is still covered in blood. And the cave now has the smell of rusty metal and grilled pork. This makes him feel a little uncomfortable, so he decided to clean up.
As a man living from modern times, Shin Jiao is used to living in a clean environment. The only time that he will become untidy is when he is experimenting or busy doing something.
He first removes the fire and the dregs on the ground. When they were removed Shin Jiao found out that the smell suddenly disappears. Then he noticed that there is a small opening at the top portion of the cave near the dim light which looks like an exhaust of the cave.
Seeing that everything is good, he took a quick bath near the water source cleaning the bloodstains in his body.
"Ah, that was refreshing!" he exclaimed as refreshing and cool feeling envelopes him.
"Oh, crap! I forgot to clean her wounds. If I let it be, it might lead to infection." Shin Jiao muttered as he remembers the girl still covered in blood.
Shin Jiao is not new to seeing a naked female body. Plus in his previous job as an agent he even handled some of his female comrade's wounds. So cleaning the girl's body doesn't rouse any malice within him.
He carefully wipes the bloodstain from her face. After removing the dirt and blood, he realized that the girl's peerless beauty slowly emerges. But he still continued cleaning her whole body without a fuss.
"I can't let her stay like this, she's almost naked." he thought after seeing the exposed white skin in front of him.
"Let see… Ah! The wolves' fur could be a great source of clothing. That would do..."
So, he took out one wolf and removed its skin skillfully. Then using what he had learned from the jade strips, he draws some runes directly into the wolf skin which quickly absorbed the remaining blood in it. Then after some time, the blood and the smell on the skin were removed and the wolf skin turned dry and soft. Then he turns them into a simple robe to cover her bare skin. He even made some underwear for her.
Because of his habit of forgetting to think while working, Shin Jiao didn't realize that he is already crossing the taboo between males and females. But he didn't think twice and just acted on his idea and covered the woman's body.
"Sigh… okay, I'm done… You…" Shin Jiao was suddenly tongue-tied upon seeing the beauty in front of him.
Though there are beauties on earth, nothing could compare to the woman's peerless beauty. Plus she has a perfect and curvaceous body.
Shin Jiao just stupidly looks at the girl's face for some time. Then he woke up from his stupor and cleared his throat. To distract his mind he decided to move away from the bed and began thinking of the things he has learned and the fight with the wolf.
"Well, so far for food, I don't have to worry anymore. The only thing I have to worry about is the improvement of my strength… Hey… wait a minute. Those wolves have something like a core right. According to Gubu's records, each beast has a core in its body..."
So without dilly-dallying, he quickly took out the one he just skinned and checked it. And there he found a small pebble-like gem, the transparency of the gem signifies the beast's level. Since its light red, it means that the wolf is only at the 1st level or in the body refining realm according to humans.
"Let's try absorbing this thing. If the record is correct, this would provide me with some amount of energy."
So, Shin Jiao slowly drains the core, as its raw energy courses through his body and into the sphere in his dantian. It took him some time to absorb it, but he realized that when absorbing the raw energy from the core, he didn't have to balance them as they are already mixed perfectly by itself. So he just greedily pushed them into his dantian.
After finishing a satisfied smile crept on his face.