…
Noctis got up and wiped the blood stain on the side of his mouth, as he was mildly panting for a few moments. He looked around the surrounding area and realized that the tens of dead Forest Wild Boars that were littered around him were somewhat scattered.
He finally had a moment to catch his breath and recover his overall state, but what he was more focused in was stabilizing his cultivation base after breaking through to the Second Level of the Mortal Blood realm!
Generally, the breakthrough process for cultivators that don't advance through the use of insight knowledge would have to rely on intense pressure and constant use of energy throughout the body. This was especially true for the early cultivation realms because it would serve as the foundation for the overall state in the future realms!
In the higher cultivation realms, one would find it to be increasingly difficult to purely rely on physical means to breakthrough since it would have to involve walking in the thin line between life and death. That is to say, one would need to go through life and death struggles as if it was a normal occurrence!
There were countless of cultivators that never got far in their own cultivation path this way because they were lacking in the talent of insight knowledge or they had simply died… it was too difficult and risky to do this method without having comprehension towards the 'Body Transformation' insight, which mainly focused in the overall state of energies within the body and the actual toughening of it!
The 'Body Transformation' insight was also one of the 12 Prime Insights, but it wasn't really an insight that Humans had far accomplishments in. In fact, it was rare for a Human to gain insight knowledge of it in the first place, but to those that did and focused on it were the really talented geniuses in the upper-echelons of the Human race. Some races have a higher natural comprehension towards it because their bodies were fit for it, but it was still a very difficult task to reach the high stages of it.
This is the reason why insight is the basis to cultivation because if one was severely lacking in talent regarding the comprehension and use of insight, then one would never be able to reach the high cultivation realms! One would eventually reach a bottleneck in their cultivation, which would most likely last a lifetime if the individual couldn't put all their effort into comprehending the power of insight…
Noctis faintly smiled, but wasn't overly excited about his breakthrough since it was within his expectations and that he was still quite weak. He also had reached this level before he was crippled, so he was generally knowledgeable about breaking through in the Mortal Blood realm. The highest cultivation level that he had reached before he was crippled and had lost his physique was the late stages of the Mortal Blood realm when he was about 7 years old, which was pretty good and indicated his promising talent.
Noctis wanted to build his foundation using the method of simultaneously comprehending insight and accumulating pressure on his body. This was the most ideal path in the early cultivation realms if one was also talented in insight knowledge, but the main difference between Noctis and other people regarding this field is that he was the sole inheritor of the all-mighty Old Great One Animo!
He had access to the Insight World, which enabled him to comprehend insight in a way that nobody has ever done before!
Noctis thought about going into the Insight World after finding a safe spot within the forest since it was around evening time. It was getting dark and he was about ready to leave the river stream area but before he was able to go anywhere, Spirit Magi had suddenly appeared right next to him.
"!!!"
Spirit Magi had greatly startled Noctis, but it didn't give him the chance to speak before it had spoken instead with its deep and hoarse voice,
["You have broken through… this is not a bad start, but this is merely the beginning. I have only come here to tell you that a rather 'high-ranked' beast is quickly approaching. One that is above your strength and is something you probably can't handle… Now, what will you do?"]
"I appreciate the warning, but judging by what you said then there's only one beast and a way for me to probably handle it… I will see what I can do because if not, then I could always just escape." Noctis calmly spoke after thinking for a moment, but as soon as he finished, he heard some rustling sounds within the bushes that was several meters ahead of him.
He took a readied stance and stared at the beast that was coming out of the bushes with killing intent…
It was actually a Silver Dire Wolf… and a rather large adult one at that!
Noctis widened his eyes because he never expected that an adult Silver Dire Wolf would come near to the area that he was in!
These beasts wouldn't normally appear in ground-level forests during this time and season because they would be near their dens atop of hills rearing the younger generation and would prepare to migrate for prey…
It was clear that this lone adult Silver Dire Wolf had been led astray from the pack, but Noctis couldn't find a reason as to why this was the case. He did realize that this Silver Dire Wolf was most likely the reason why the groups of Forest Wild Boars earlier had run in a frantic manner as evidenced by their footprint tracks.
"This doesn't look too good… we're at an open area and would give a lot of advantage in mobility for this Silver Dire Wolf…" Noctis thought to himself as he closely observed this large beast while it was furiously growling at him and was slowly moving towards him.
This adult Silver Dire Wolf was very big to the point that if it stood on its two hind legs, then it would be about the same height of an average-tall Human! The most eye-catching aspect to the Silver Dire Wolf was its beautiful silver coat color that looked like it had a unique and fine texture. Its thick legs served as a contrast to the rest of its body, as it was much darker, but it gave a more subtle banded coloration. When the Silver Dire Wolf growled, Noctis was clearly able to see its large and pointy canine teeth… and deduced that it definitely had a great bite force and was meant for tearing off large chunks of flesh!
"Kid… that's a damn big wolf! It looks really hungry, so don't let it eat you! I wouldn't want to live the rest of my poor spirit life in the belly of a wolf… Oh wait, I would be fully dead before that even happens!" |
Spirit Ster's loud voice came at a wrong time, but Noctis wasn't really distracted by it since he fully concentrated and observed every movement that the Silver Dire Wolf made.
He steadily lifted one of his hands towards his chest and was planning on making another small 'ball' of qi essence. Thankfully, he had recovered a considerable amount of qi essence after killing the Forest Wild Boars and had somewhat stabilized his cultivation base.
This qi essence ball was actually a standard ability upon the manipulation of qi essence, but greatly differed in size to a normal one. This was because Noctis liked condensing it into a small form since it was easier to control, and moved faster when it is thrown, but overall it didn't have much power into it. He used this essentially as a quick disposable distraction tool, whereas the normal or larger-sized qi essence balls were way stronger, but were harder to control, and moved slower when thrown.
Within a few moments later, he had condensed a small qi essence ball in the palm of his hand and then circulated the qi essence towards his feet. Noctis unexpectedly started to run forward, but as soon as he did, the Silver Dire Wolf did the same and ran towards him as well!
Noctis threw the small qi essence ball towards the Silver Dire Wolf, but it was able to clearly see it, which made the large beast pounce to the side and was able to smoothly dodge it. Noctis didn't panic because this was within his expectations, but instead of continuing to run forward, he actually ran to the opposite side to where the Silver Dire Wolf had landed after dodging his attack.
Noctis activated the qi essence that was still condensed in his feet, which increased his speed as he bolted into the forest!
The Silver Dire Wolf barely had any time to react before it turned around and started to chase after him.
"I have a better chance of survival and killing it if I move through the forest…" Noctis quickly thought in his mind, as he was able was able to swiftly move through various amounts of stubby bushes and bulky trees before he stopped.
He moved to hide behind a tall tree because he noticed that the Silver Dire Wolf had already caught up to him!
Despite the terrain disadvantage, the Silver Dire Wolf was still pretty fast… they were not known just for their strength, but also their speed!
Noctis gathered upon the natural energy of the world and relaxed himself, but still remained vigilant because he knew that he didn't have much time left before the Silver Dire Wolf discovers him by using its strong sense of smell.
He condensed another qi essence ball, but this time it was a rather large size and he had to control it with both hands. He made a large one instead of a small one because he wanted to have enough power to kill the Silver Dire Wolf in one hit!
This made him exhaust the majority of his qi essence supply, but Noctis was willing to take the risk because otherwise there would be no way for him to kill the ferocious beast and there might be unexpected outside factors… he wanted to finish this as quickly as possible!
Noctis leaned his head against the tall tree and closed his eyes as he quietly listened to the Silver Dire Wolf's low growl and its footsteps inching closer to him.
A short while later, the Silver Dire Wolf began to aggressively growl, which was the cue for Noctis to attack and catch it off guard since he was already discovered!
He opened his eyes and circulated the qi essence through his hands and feet, before he turned around and erupted in great speed!
The Silver Dire Wolf was able to react in time, but not enough for it to make its own initial attack before Noctis had instantly arrived right next to it.
Noctis brought his palms forward and had pressed the large qi essence ball right against the neck of the large beast!
BOOM!
A loud sound could be heard as the large qi essence ball made impact, which soon dispersed and started to spread.
Noctis was successful, but then sensed an extreme danger as he immediately realized that the large qi essence ball didn't blow away the Silver Dire Wolf and hadn't killed it!
Instead, the large beast had actually planted its legs firmly into the ground and had tanked the hit, even though it became gravely injured.
Noctis's 'precognition' sense informed him of the immediate danger, and was barely able to react in time, but his body unfortunately wasn't able to!
His arms were in the middle of retracting before the Silver Dire Wolf was able to fiercely bite down one of his forearms!
"AUUGHHHH!"
Noctis couldn't help but loudly scream as he heard a sharp crunch sound before blood had splattered onto his worn-out clothes and onto the ground. His vision blurred, which made him barely able to see a sharp red glare coming out of the Silver Dire Wolf's eyes as it was on its dying breath, but still had a large amount of adrenaline.
Noctis reflexively tried to push back the Silver Dire Wolf's face a few times before using his free arm to hold tight onto his right shoulder that had his other arm grabbed. He was able to distinctly feel that the large beast's teeth had deeply sunk into his flesh and bone!
Before he was able to do anything else, the Silver Dire Wolf consecutively swung him and dragged him across the ground before it unexpectedly started running again while Noctis was still being pulled by the arm!
The remnants of the large qi essence ball had actually dispersed to the rest of the Silver Dire Wolf's body, which gave the large beast a stinging pain as if it was being prickled by hundreds of needles throughout its body. Its instant reaction to it was to start running in a crazed manner, but it still wouldn't let go of Noctis's arm!
Noctis was in a state of panic, and had struggled to endure the terrible pain from his arm, as he was tossed and dragged across the ground. He was frantically using his free arm to grab on to something before he was eventually successful… he brought it towards his face and discovered that it was luckily a sharp tree branch!
He didn't have much time to think about it before he lunged the sharp end of the tree branch straight into the Silver Dire Wolf's eye, but as soon as he did, he noticed that the surroundings had changed!
It was not the forest, but a small area that had a steep cliff!
As soon as Noctis stabbed the Silver Dire Wolf's eye, the large beast had finally let go of his arm, but they both unfortunately fell over the steep cliff!
Noctis continually rolled down the cliff and wasn't able to stop himself, so he used both of his arms to roughly cover his head, but he still felt it bump several times onto the hard surface. The rest of his body was in no better shape as it coped with the majority of the impact. A few moments later, he had reached the bottom of the cliff, but he wasn't able to move his body…
The last thing Noctis was able to see was the Silver Dire Wolf that was laying down with him before the world turned black as he lost consciousness…