Book I Chapter 10
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Wu Hyuna has lived in the Outer Sect for many years now and she has already turned 13. Year after year she practices and honed her body to be a weapon.
Though her strength cannot be compared to those in the body refining stage, she is still confident that her skills and techniques would not lose to them.
That is why she is not afraid to face any danger in this forest.
Plus, she is only at the periphery of the forest, the most beast here are just normal beasts or fierce beasts. Those are easy for her to defeat or if she could not, she can easily escape from them.
However, today seems to be not her lucky day.
This is because what appears in front of her is a wounded beast.
The beast suddenly jumps out of the bushes and stopped as it seemed a bit surprised to see a human before it.
That wounded beast's aura suddenly changes as its eyes turned murderous. Then its body began to emit a powerful killing aura which immediately stunned Hyuna.
No matter how hard she tries, she could not move her feet, her hands, and her body.
Her body is now frozen in fear in front of a powerful beast.
"Is… is this the true strength of a fierce beast?" she thought as hundreds of bloody scenarios enters her mind as to what would happen next.
She could not help but feel a bit helpless and anxious as she did not want to lose her life at this point in time.
She still has a lot of things to accomplish which her mother left for her to do. She has a mission and that mission is to protect the legacy that her mother has left for her.
Plus, she also has to protect that small jade she is currently hiding beneath the collar of her hemp cloth robe.
As the beast slowly approaches her, she could not help but look at it with trembling hands.
"Do… do… don't come… come near me…" she said with a trembling tone.
No matter how hard she tried to be strong and brave, she just could not help but feel afraid.
Suddenly, inside her mind, she regretted not bringing that zither. If only she has that zither, she could play that calming tune to appease her feeling of fear.
However, she also realized that she is currently frozen so bringing that zither would also be still useless.
Then the idea of the tune in her heart appears.
"Calming tune!" she thought as her mind thinks of the tune that Madam Il has taught her in her class.
She has memorized that tune and has even played it countless times deep in her heart whenever she is faced with difficult trials and problems.
Without hesitation, she began thinking of the tune.
Meanwhile, the beast that looks like a 2-meter giant wolf slowly advances as it slowly looks around the area to make sure that there are no other humans in the vicinity.
It knew how crafty humans are as it has already fallen into many of their traps.
As it slowly approaches it noticed the human in front of it closing his eyes.
A slight sneer could be seen on its face as it licks its razor-sharp teeth as it is already imagining how it could tear the human apart and enjoy his meat.
From the looks of it, that human is still young. With its delicate flesh, it surely would enjoy the bounty before it.
Though there is a huge wound on its side which was caused by some humans who were hunting it. When it saw the human, it seems to have forgotten the pain it has felt back then.
All it could think about is the delicacy before its eyes.
Then without warning, it pounces on the young human while exerting its aura to suppress its prey.
Snap!!!
Its large maw snaps at its prey wanting to bite his neck off.
But then it suddenly felt weird as the thing that it has bitten was pure air.
Plus, it suddenly felt a pang of pain on its side.
It then noticed the puny human has actually escaped its killing aura and had moved before it could bite it.
But what baffled it is that the human actually grabbed this chance to suddenly stab its wound.
Now a small dagger has been plunged deep into its wound.
But still, the human seems not strong enough to penetrate its strong muscles.
In fact, Hyuna is feeling frustrated right now.
Because of the tune, she has chanted in her heart, she was able to escape the giant wolf's killing aura. But when she plunges her dagger into its wound as she intended a surprise attack, she actually could not even penetrate the wolf's inner muscle.
A fierce beast is really a fierce beast. It is not some normal beast that a mere mortal like her could hunt on her own.
She heard of stories before of the whole village getting devoured by fierce beasts. She did not believe such stories as at that time, her mother could easily kill them.
But who would have known that these things are not that easy to kill?
As she tried to pry out her dagger, she was stunned to discover that she is unable to take it out.
Then her eyes look at the wolf who is now glaring at her.
Without hesitation, she quickly dodges below as the wolf tried to bite her once again.
Growl!
Snap!
The powerful bite snaps the air and she knew that if that thing could hit her, then she would surely be dead.
That single bite alone could take her life.
She rolled on the ground and quickly grabbed a broken branch that looks like a long stick on the side.
When she stands up, she is already pointing that stick in front of the wolf.
"Don't come near me…" she said trying her best to be threatening.
But the wolf just glares at her and slowly circles around.
It did not take out the blade on its side and just focused its eyes on Hyuna's figure.
Suddenly, a thought appears in her mind as she followed the movement of the wolf.
She shortened the stick in her hand where the back of the stick is now hitting the ground while she pointed the tip of the long stick towards the wolf.
While this is happening, the young man who is watching this scene showed an incredulous expression on his face.
He now understood that this guy is no spy. He is just a mortal servant who came to this place to practice writing.
From what he had seen, the guy could actually write pretty well. He even uses a chisel just to be able to practice writing some words on the wall.
"One may come and go. The season begins and ends. Life and death flow." He reads.
"Truly a mortal's mind…" he thought as his gaze shifted to the battle below him.
The giant wolf suddenly lunges and attacks again, and the mortal guy was actually quick on his feet and dodges the attack easily.
But for some reason, the guy did not retaliate.
"Well, even if he does, he would not be able to hurt that thing…" he thought.
The battle continues, and the wolf is now annoyed that it is unable to catch the small prey in front of it.
It has tried its best to catch it, but the young human is truly slippery. It's like the human could read its movement easily.
Then suddenly, the young human lowered his stance and then lengthen the wooden stick in his hand. The wolf saw this as a provocation, so it suddenly opened its mouth and tried to snap at the stick.
As soon as it opened its mouth wide, it saw the human show a strange glint in his eyes. Then the human said some words that it did not understand.
"I got you now…"
Without hesitation, Hyuna plunges the wooden stick in her hand directly at the beast's mouth.
The wolf wanted to close its mouth, but the stick seemed to be traveling really fast and its reaction speed seems to have slowed down.
It suddenly felt a stinging pain from the back of its mouth as the stick penetrated through its strong skin.
For some reason, a mere stick actually skewered its neck.
But the beast is not dead yet.
It suddenly sweeps its large paw and strikes its prey in its rage.
The figure of Hyuna was caught off guard at this time as she is still holding the stick and wanted to plunge it deeper. But the strong paw of the fierce beast sent her tumbling to the ground and had her frail mortal body hit the boulder where she wrote those words.
Her mind suddenly turned fuzzy as her body began to scream in pain all over.
But she did not want to give up this fight.
She did not want to die in this place.
Her fighting spirit rose up as she picks herself up.
But then suddenly she felt another bout of pain on her side which seems to say that some of her ribs were broken.
That smack from the wolf made her look like a ragdoll thrown to the side.
She spat a few mouthfuls of blood and her blurry eyes watched in horror as the giant wolf broke the stick and removes it from its mouth.
Though it has penetrated out at the back of its neck, it did not mind the pain as it only howled and then looks in her direction with its menacing eyes.
"Mother… I… I'm sorry, I failed you…" she muttered as she closes her eyes and lowered her head.
The wolf took one step after another as it bear the pain coming from its throat.
It knew that it has made the mistake of looking down on the human. It did not expect that the human was able to wound it severely with a mere wooden stick.
It now wanted to crush this person with its powerful paw.
So without hesitation, it lifted its paw and stumped on the unmoving figure.
Bam!!!
But the sensation of smashing something fleshy was not felt by the wolf. Instead, it felt its body getting weaker as a stinging pain could be felt coming from its chest.
Then it slowly looks at its side where the human is now staggering.
The two both fell on the ground with both of their vision fading away.
The difference is that, one is just unconscious… while the other one has lost its life.