Chapter 5: Journey to Dai Shan Forest

Luo did not have enough money to hire a horse so he ran, to cover the distance from Xian town to the Dai Shan forest.

His Soul tier body allowed him to move at high speeds comparable to that of the middle layer of Qi condensation realm. He enjoyed his run and did so with vigor, running with huge bursts of energy and stopping to recover when he lost his breath. After running like this for the whole day, he came across a village the next morning.

He saw from afar that nobody was outside even though it was daytime.

He slowly sauntered into the village when he made out some guttural noises and growls. He hid behind one of the walls and peeked to check what was making these noises. He could make out 10 blood wolves and a poison wolf leading them, all of them gorging on human dead bodies, viscera ripped out into shreds with their powerful jaws. These were all Tier 1 beasts and the alpha was a peak Tier 1 demon beast, equivalent to someone in lower layers of Qi Condensation realms, something that disciples in the Gathering Qi realm avoid fighting.

The Alpha suddenly pricked its ears at something. Luo hoped it wasn't because of him. Then with a quick jump the Alpha broke the door of a nearby house with one swipe of its muscular paws. Luo could hear some object being dragged with a lot of noise and just then the wolf dragged out a big wooden chest outside. Then with a couple more swipes and bashes he broke the lid of the chest.

There was a small girl terrified, shaking uncontrollably inside the chest. She was so frightened that no noise came out of her throat and she was too shocked to even move. Before the Alpha made a move to rip her head off, Luo made wolf noises which got the attention of all the wolves, the alpha included. Luo then made himself bigger and walked into the middle of the street.

'I have to get all their attention and try to divide them. I will have no chance if they fight in a group.'

In a shocking turn of events for the wolves, instead of running he charged into them and suddenly swerved to left, where the Alpha was and jumped into the air and kicked the wolf with a downward swipe of his leg on its snout. The Alpha suddenly crashed into the ground and then in a moment rubbed its snout with its paws in pain.

Next, moved to anger, it flashed all its teeth, growling bloody murder against this puny human , but when it looked up, he was gone. 'I'm here you stupid donkey', Luo shouted even as he ran with all his might trying to spread them out amidst the houses in the village.

He could see two wolves coming for him , even after he had hid himself inside a house. Just as they broke the door with their legs, he broke out of an adjacent window and assumed the punching posture that he had used for his body refinement test a few days ago. He separated his Qi into Yang and Yin Qi and coated his left hand with Yin and the right with Yang Qi.

He threw a mighty right punch, right into the belly of one of the wolves. His body was like a Soul Tier weapon and far superior in hardiness than the wolves' bodies and instantly it's ribs broke and probably pierced its lungs, evidenced by its painful death throes for a few moments.

Even before the first wolf died, he punched the other wolf which had yet to turn back from entering the door of the house. The wolf was a male and Luo knew where males hurt the most, so he threw his Yin punch to devastate the wolf's nuts.

The entire pelvis broke and guts slipped out into the open, tearing the back and front into separate pieces, as the wolf, with its front two legs, dragged its front half for a few steps and died inside the house.

'Whoaa.... That was overkill. Aren't these beasts supposed to be dangerous to Gathering Qi disciples? Why are they so weak, even when I'm not using any special technique?'

Luo was surprised by his own power and started thinking up more bold traps to confuse the remaining wolves.

He immediately got out of the house and moved a couple of houses down. He hid inside the house, which had a similar window and door positioning as the earlier one he had been in. He separated his Qi into Yin and Yang Qi again.

They had to be used at the same time or the Qi in his body would shift towards Yin or Yang based on which Qi was in deficit in his body and that would cause troubles for his meridians, according to his master.

He smeared himself with dust to remove any immediate smells of dead wolves on him to help in concealing his presence. He then leaned outside the window and released his Yin Qi in a punching motion. The Qi was like a beam and after a few hundred feet it exploded. He could only propel it for a few hundred feet now.

The wolves' attention was captured by the explosion and they started running towards it. Luo ducked beneath the windowsill and saw as the wolves ran towards the source of the explosion. After the first four wolves had passed, he had already separated thrice the amount of Yin and Yang Qi, with Yang Qi amount being more as he hadn't used it before.

His right hand felt like it was burning up and he felt cold burns in his left hand but he endured the feeling. Just as the last four wolves were passing by, he released both Qi, with his palms outstretched in a swift movement.

Another huge explosion of Qi from the shockwave caused because of Luo's palms and the wolves lay down barely able to move, two scarred by the flames of Yang Qi and one frozen by the cold of the Yin Qi. But for the last wolf, only far flung chunks of meat and hide were its remains.

'So that's what happens if they are exposed to both Qi at the same time. Whoaa. Now four more to go'

The wolves which had headed to the initial explosion, following the Alpha only a moment ago, turned back and bared their teeth in fury. Their bristles were raised, making them look that much more aggressive.

This time the Alpha ran and then took a huge leap with his fangs bared, trying to bite into his neck. He was ready for it. He had seen its poisonous effects and knew he shouldn't come into contact with it. He had compressed the Yin and Yang Qi into his palms in a balled shape unlike before. It was stable as he hadn't used it yet, but like before he had accumulated it in a concentrated way.

As soon as the wolf was only a foot away, he struck both his palms together, each palm striking the wolf on each side of its face. The attack had a huge momentum for a while but when his hands finally clapped together[1], the Qi went berserk and out of control. The Yin and Yang Qi mixed uncontrollably and it resulted in a huge explosion. The wolf's head was obliterated, only his body from neck down was remaining.

A sharp sensation passed through his palms and as Luo looked down at his palms pressed together after the attack, a wave of excruciating pain ran through him. He let out a beastly sound, unable to bear with the pain.

The wolves, seeing their leader get squished like a bug and with the loud shout from Luo, ran back to the forest with their tails between their legs.

After a while, he tried to suppress his pain and looked down at his palms. When he tried to separate them, skin layers on his palm started to fall down in a slimy and bloody way.

Finally he took a huge shaky breath and pulled them apart in a swift motion. This peeled away the skin on his palms and both of them looked red, with damaged capillaries visible. It looked as if he had suffered 3rd degree burns.

He lost consciousness from the pain.