Surviving

"We have to run." Karni whispered in a panic, if he were to shout they might as well give away that they are here.

Siduo nodded as she tried to move but failed, the hit she took for Karni gave her back three giant and deep slashes. She was still bleeding heavily.

"Just go, one of us should complete the objective."

"Fuck that, if this were reality we couldn't use that cheat." Karni put one of her arms over him so as to help her.

"I'll carry you for a while, you focus on quick treatment."

Siduo nodded, went onto his back and started circulating soul power to stop the bleeding as much as possible.

They weren't too fast, but neither were they too slow. They ran in a straight line. With soul power, Karni ran with the speed of a normal human at the moment. He hoped to see a river or a small pond so that they could wash off the blood but he heard no water nearby.

On the other hand there were quite a few footsteps behind them. They followed their scent of blood.

Karni kept on running, but he saw it. They were surrounding them. Quite a few wolves were already on their sides.

"Can you fight?" Karni asked in a hurry.

"Just let it be, I'll just go out" Said Siduo defeated.

They were transported here with a button on their hand, if they pressed it, they could immediately escape.

"If you do that, I will too." Karni stopped her.

"Argh, why do you have to be so fucking annoying."

"No, you."

"You little shit! I'm gonna beat your ass when we get out of here, don't you dare 'no you' me!" She really wanted to claw that face of his, but chose instead to pull his hair.

Since they understood each other they both stopped, and stood back to back. They will have to stand their ground, otherwise they'll be tired out slowly and attacked when they won't have the ability to fight anymore.

Siduo has barely patched her giant wound on the back, but at least it wasn't bleeding as much anymore. She just had to watch out for any back attacks.

Luckily enough, they noticed that there weren't too many wolves. Ten of them and only one appeared to be 100 years old.

Under normal circumstances, they could defeat this group easily. However this was just a group that was sent after them, to slow them down, this wasn't the main group. The howling they heard originally was far greater than just 10.

They both summoned their martial souls. Siduo looked Karni into the eyes, they were already yellow. She quickly gained the benefits of his second ring.

Turning around, she already saw a golden image pouncing towards her, it was one of the ten year old wolves. The actual wolf moved a second later.

She activated her first spirit ring and immediately reached its side, breaking its neck. She almost stumbled because of the pain that she felt. Straining her body was not a good idea right now, but she didn't have a choice.

This angered the other wolves. They pounced towards them, Siduo quickly returned back to Karni's side.

Karni split his staff into two and immediately blocked two wolves that came from opposite sides. A third one then appeared from the middle that tried to jump him.

Thanks to his first soul ring, Golden Insight, he could react at the perfect time to jap his knee into the wolves jaw. Siduo appeared beside the wolf and killed it.

Karni spun the two wolves biting into his martial soul and threw them off him.

10 year old wolves thankfully weren't that strong for them right now. Despite being injured, they were able to take them down. The only one that truly worried them was the 100 year old wolf which was patiently waiting for an opportunity.

The group of ten wolves quickly dwindled into 5, excluding the 100 year old wolf.

The moment that Siduo killed another, the leader pounced on Siduo's back. They might not be incredibly intelligent, however instincts would still dictate younger soul beasts. Even a 10 year old beast knows to target a weak spot of an opponent.

Unfortunately for it, before it could reach Siduo, a short Bo Staff knocked onto its head knocking him down. Siduo's second soul ring shone as she unleashed the Hell Hundred Claws onto the wolf's head, killing him.

Normally, she wouldn't have to focus this attack onto a hundred-year soul beast to kill it. Especially since this wolf appeared to have just entered the hundred year mark.

She stumbled again, her back slouching. Two more wolves jumped at her. Karni was there again, but this time he hit them straight on the head. The two wolves just collapsed, dead.

The last one was easily disposed of.

Karni and Siduo looked at each other. The two ran. Siduo reopened some of the wounds so she quickly got onto Karni's back.

There was no time to celebrate, who knows when the actual pack of wolves may come. Siduo refocused on her wound, she had to patch up her injuries again. She had to be ready for the next fight.

They were lucky. These weren't Wind Wolves, which were one of the more common ones. These were Earth Wolves, who didn't specialise in speed too much nor did they have ranged attacks.

It wasn't all flowers and butterflies either though, they just haven't realised it yet.

They managed to run for another 10 minutes before they heard sorrowful howling in the distance.

Thankfully, the two heard water not too far away. They reached it and jumped in. It was a small stream of water. If it were a river, they might have been able to use it to run away, but they didn't have that much luck.

At least they got rid of the smell. They already wasted five minutes, the wolves must have closed in on them. They had to move quickly.

They managed to run for another 10 minutes, but they didn't hear any footsteps. They released a sigh of relief.

"Wait, they're Earth Wolves." Karni then realised.

Siduo knew what he ment. "Shit. How did we forget about that?"

"Can you run on your own?"

Siduo nodded. They slowed the wolves down thanks to the river, but getting rid of them? It was almost impossible.

The Earth Wolves had the best sense of smell out of the many species of wolves. They were endowed with better strength and lesser speed. So, to hunt better, they evolved their sense of smell. They could stalk prey for days on end.

Karni looked at the ground and started thinking. They had at least a few minutes of time to think while running. How to get rid of the smell? How to slow them down more? Then he realised.

"Mud!"

"Mud?"

"Mud!"

"... Mud!"

As soon as they saw a wet patch of mud on the ground, they covered themselves in it. It wasn't hard to find in a forest such as this. It wouldn't completely conceal the smell, but it was the best they got.

After becoming all muddy, they continued running. They were sure they had about half an hour left before they could quit.

… … …

"They are really unfortunate for their first time around." Complained Teacher Ye.

"Phahaha, I expected nothing less of those two. Except for the very beginning, and the big mistake in the fight against the thousand-year old Yellow Leaf Fox, they have performed marvellously." Mo Qing clearly didn't mind their misfortune, he watched Karni and Siduo progress through quite a few unfair challenges, whether imposed by him or by the two of them.

How they solved that test, how they resolved tasks about Mecha Engineering, finding meaning in his words where there are none, he smiled just thinking about it.

"Uncle, I can't tell if you're carefree or a bit sadistic."

"Oh Ye'er if you aren't a bit sadistic with your students, they will never grow."

"Yes, yes, I know, you made sure to put that into my head when I was a kid." She got shivers down her spine remembering it.

"Good." Mo Qing wore a bright smile.

… … …

"Say, you know that movement you do?"

"Yeah?"

"It looks like you're drunk when you do it."

They had to stop for a while. Siduo's injuries weren't getting any better and they were using up a lot of soul power while running. If they lose all of their soul power, they'd be absolutely powerless against the wolves. They were currently recharging.

"Do you have to say it that way?"

"I mean think about it. Imagine hearing that you couldn't defeat a guy because he was dancing drunk." She laughed to herself, but groaned in pain in the next second.

"Besides." She continued. "You need a name for that. It's not just any normal movement anymore."

Karni raised his eyebrow.

"You know." She made a cheeky smile. "Something like a Drunk Dancing Movement. Has a nice ring to it, don't you think?"

"Yeah. You think I'm gonna call it that?"

"Well if you don't then I wi-"

Howling. Again. They found them.

"Ugh. We barely rested for 20 minutes and they're already here."

They hoped that the timer would run out by the time the wolves caught them. Unfortunately, it didn't.

They had at most 5 minutes left on the clock. They weren't about to give up, but this was the whole pack they faced now. There were at least 40 of them and 7 of those 40 were hundred-year old.

At the very least, there was no thousand year old wolf, but this was a guaranteed death sentence either way.

"Kiki, would you be able to launch me to the other tree?" Siduo whispered.

Karni simply nodded.

"Are you capable of jumping that distance on your own?" Siduo asked another question.

Karni thought for a bit then nodded.

"When they sniff us out we'll move trees. We can stall for time."

Karni gave a thumbs up. She was barely making any noise, he wouldn't want to add more noise to that. They still haven't found them out, the wolves just knew that the two were in the area.

But just as Karni was thinking of that, an alerting howl was sounded.

And so their little hopping game began.

Karni boosted Siduo to the next tree and then launched himself with the bo staff.

The trees were thick and strong, the wolves needed at least a few seconds to cut it down.

But now that they knew where they were, they quickly moved to the next tree. They have to keep moving, if they stop moving, they'll get them.

Furious howls could be heard. Two of the hundred-year old wolves approached and immediately attacked the tree.

Karni and Siduo barely managed to move away to the closest safe tree.

More anger was heard from below. All of the 100 year wolves stepped up. There was a clear commander, the biggest of them all. When he approached, all of the wolves made a giant circle around the multitude of trees.

All of the trees that they could jump to were within the circle. Even the next few trees were within the circle. This was a group of 40 wolves after all.

The wolves front paws shone in a light brown colour as they started stomping. Clawing at the ground.

These were Earth Wolves. They were called that for a reason. A tiny earthquake was happening within the circle. They stomped, the ground became shakier and shakier. Earth was turned around but trees still stood.

They started swaying and suddenly the first tree couldn't hold onto the earth anymore and fell. It fell onto other trees. It was like watching dominos fall, except terrifying.

Every single tree toppled down; Karni and Siduo with them.

As soon as they were on the ground, the wolves pounced. The two children dodged and reached each other's backs. Karni's abilities were disturbed. He would have to reactivate them.

"I'm sorry." They said at the same time and in complete unison clicked the others exit button.

"Eh?"

The wolves pounced the air.

… … …

The capsules opened up, and they looked at each other, then made awkward faces.

Who would've thought that the two would press each other's buttons at the same time?

"You two did well." Mo Qing approached.

"However, you should've lasted one more minute." He smiled.

"Each of you will get a point removed."

"You didn't check if the thousand-year Yellow Leaf Fox is dead the first time around, 10 points removed."

"Karni, you panicked when you saw Siduo get hit instead of reacting appropriately, 10 points removed for Karni."

"Siduo's quick thinking managed to shield Karni, 3 points added for Siduo."

"Karni reached a breakthrough at a crucial moment, 10 points added."

"Karni's quick thinking enabled you to evade the wolves for a long time, 5 points added."

"Siduo's quick thinking enabled you to stall the wolves on the trees, 2 points added."

"Final Score: Karni 95 points, Siduo 95 points. This is a great first time for you two considering your luck in there." Mo Qing laughed.

Karni and Siduo looked at each other, they didn't know they were going to get graded.

Teacher Ye jumped in. "From now on, you'll have weekly sessions in the Spirit Ascension Platform. If you get a grade below 90, you will be punished with additional practice, since it's your first time, we wouldn't have given you any punishment. But there was no need."

This was quite harsh, but considering their current score, they were confident that they could succeed. What they didn't realise, was that Teacher Ye and Mo Qing weren't as strict this time around, there would be no bonus points in the future, and even the smaller mistakes will be counted next time.

Their future training will be quite 'fun'. For Mo Qing, that is.

However, their gains will be just as big. The Soul Beasts they killed in the Spirit Ascension Platform each gave them 1/10th of their energy. The energy was then distributed between the rings, and once their soul rings reached an adequate amount of power? The overall quality improvement would be immense, to both the abilities and the Spirit Soul.

Today they managed to get a total of about 70 years in each of the rings. The progress was going to be slow yet incredibly rewarding.

50 of those were just from the Yellow Leaf Fox! It was a 2000 year old soul beast! They managed to defeat a 2000 year old soul beast!

Between the two, each got a 100 years, and the 100 was divided between their soul rings.

… … …

The two were at the school. It was already evening. Ever since they entered the Intermediate Academy, they've been living in the dormitories. They only visited Siduo's family on the weekends.

Karni entered his dorm room. He was living alone. One of the benefits of being given special privileges by the Star Luo City Academy.

It was quite a spacious room. In the corner was his bed which could fit two adult people, on the other side was a drum kit.

This was the only instrument he could enjoy at the moment. As long as he used his martial soul in drumstick form.

He was still trying to figure out how to apply his martial soul to other instruments, but it was just weird.

He took a quick bath and then sat down at his study table. Most of it was filled with blueprints created by himself.

One of his recent interests has actually been instruments. They weren't anything special by any means, especially not in terms of complexity, he was simply frustrated that he couldn't play any normal instruments.

He was trying to figure out if a special soul tool instrument could work with his martial soul. Maybe he'll be able to do it once he's a big shot Mecha Designer. Maybe he just needs one of those metals that allows him to fuse with his blood.

Currently, with normal metal, normal soul tools, the martial soul was still prideful. Arrogant even, when coming in touch with an instrument. Three years and it hasn't changed a bit.

If he remembered correctly, the metal for blood fusion had to be Spirit Refined. That was still very far away for him. Or was it Thousand-Refined? But you couldn't actually fuse it into the body? His memory was muddy.

Either way, he felt like it would be a waste to try that in the future. Those metals cost a fortune! Sure, he could already create blueprints bordering on the 3-star rank, but it wouldn't make him much money!

His only hobbies in his free time was playing the drums and researching mecha designing. His achievements in Mecha Designing were high, and the drums made him feel closest to his martial soul. But originally, he didn't play the drums! He was a keyboard player! Synths, pianos, that's where his passions were at!

"Maybe when I meet Wulin in the future." He sighed to himself.

Tang Wulin, the main character of this timeline. When Wulin was 14 he could already make metal which could fuse with a human.

Despite that, he had to ask himself. Was it even worth it? Would the fact that it was blood fused really help with his martial soul? He'll have to waste some money in the future to try out.

He vowed to himself that he would make a great friend of Tang Wulin. Then he can ask him for many well refined metals.

He looked at the time. It was getting late. He might as well start cultivating early. Tomorrow is Friday anyway, then he can relax for the weekend.

… … …

Everything was golden. It was like reality put a filter on itself.

A shot was fired. Loud. Ear ringing.

Karni tried to look in the direction yet he couldn't.

But as he realised that, as if reality knew what he wanted, it showed him what happened.

A giant hole. Golden blood flowed out of it. He wasn't sure if it was because of the filter or something else. Then, as if there was a camera, it showed the whole picture. Zooming out into full view.

In front of him was Wu Siduo, shot. The hole belonged to her, as if pierced by some laser. A railgun.

No, wait, it was indeed a railgun, at least that was what the hand that was shown was holding. But who? No. When. And why?

… … …

Karni woke up, breathing heavily. "What was that? Siduo…"

"Siduo!" Karni ran out of the room and heavily knocked on her door.

"Siduo!"

The door slowly opened with a sleepy Siduo wearing an annoyed face.

"Kiki. Why are you acting like the world is ending you shithead." She mumbled then turned around going back towards bed, but left the door open.

He ran inside and hugged her.

"Sisi."

"Alright you, get off me!" She pushed him off, but not too hard.

"You don't just attack me like that all of a sudden." Her face was red as a tomato. Anger or otherwise.

"Sorry." He sat silently. He was still worried, but this was definitely Siduo. Unhurt.

She quieted down when she saw his innocent look. "Ughh, tell me what happened." She went to the bed and layed on it.

Karni took a seat and described everything.

… … …

Siduo was supporting her head with one of her hands, still laying on the bed in her pyjamas, deep in thought. Karni was on the chair, also, still in his pyjamas, silent, waiting to hear her reaction.

"A vision maybe?" She finally guessed.

"Why would it be a vision though, and so randomly."

"I don't know why, but your martial soul does deal with seeing into the future. Maybe there's a trick to triggering it?"

"Maybe, I only went to cultivate early though." Karni thought out loud.

"Well what do I know, now get out, I need to dress up. I'll forgive you for before, but learn to have some tact man."

"Ah, my bad, see you outside." Then he turned around. Really wanting to say to her, that of all the people, she doesn't have the right to say that. But he let her be.

This time it was his loss. He panicked. His only friend appeared dead. But she wasn't. Was it really a vision?

He went back to dress up as well. They had school soon.

… … …

"We'll be having an exchange with the Green Tiger School of the neighbouring town and you two will be one of the main participants."

Siduo and Karni looked at each other and then at Teacher Ye. An exchange?