Shadow

In the ruins, nightfall brings with it terrifying sounds that resonate through the darkness, threatening to tear the heavens and earth apart. Deep into the night, fierce birds and beasts roam the mountains, their piercing roars shaking the land and causing trees to sway, sending smaller creatures trembling and cowering on the ground in fear. Fortunately, no powerful beasts intrude through the mist this night, until dawn, when a wild boar accidentally stumbles into a magical formation.

Clark, driven by hunger, shows no hesitation. Skilled in butchery, he proficiently slaughters, skins, and cleans the boar, the entire process smooth as silk. Having been an orphan in his previous life, he had honed his culinary skills early on. He retrieves pre-mixed spices from his storage bag, applying them evenly over the freshly cut and cleaned meat.

He sets up a fire, roasting the meat until it turns golden and glistening with fat, dripping onto the fire and hissing upon contact. When the meat is perfectly cooked, he relishes his meal with great delight.

After eating, he explores the periphery of the misty area, which seems safer than other places. The mist blocks the detection of this area by the more formidable predators, keeping them at bay. Only ordinary wild beasts, which pose no threat to Clark, accidentally wander in.

Aside from seeking rare medicinal herbs, this excursion is also meant to be a training of his own capabilities. Venturing deep into the dense forest is risky, but it allows him to rapidly evolve, adapt to various crises, and enhance his responsiveness.

As he makes his way through a thicket, a spider as large as a grindstone suddenly leaps from its web, nearly biting his face. Initially flustered, Clark quickly adapts. With a "pfft," his flying sword slices through the air, and yellow fluid splatters as the spider is bisected. Before dying, the spider sprays venom at Clark. He dodges most of it, but a few drops land on his arm.

The affected skin quickly turns black. Clark uses a dagger to cut open the poisoned area, releasing dark blood. He squeezes out the venomous blood and applies some detoxifying herbs found nearby to the wound. Luckily, the spider's venom is not very potent.

After treating his wound, he continues on his journey. Along the way, he encounters many monsters, the most dangerous being a massive demonic ape that nearly decapitates him. Another creature, a pangolin covered in flames, breathes out fire with each exhalation, clearly a formidable opponent. Clark doesn't hesitate to turn and flee from such a challenge.

Throughout his journey, he seeks a beast that matches his strength for a true test of his skills. Suddenly, all becomes silent ahead. Sensing imminent danger, Clark sees a giant white wolf charging at him. This wolf, massive in size and standing six meters tall, with sharp claws and fangs half a meter long stained with fresh blood, clearly just fed.

"Why pursue me after your meal? Do you really think I'm easy to bully?" Clark flees, but the giant wolf relentlessly pursues him. With a howl, the wolf transforms into a white light and charges again, its speed astonishing, the smell of blood nearly suffocating Clark.After a desperate chase, his clothes are torn to shreds, and his back is scratched.

"Do you really think I'm helpless?" Clark, angered, stops running. Surprisingly, the wolf pauses too, sensing a dangerous aura emanating from Clark. Its massive paws furiously dig into the ground, trying to halt its momentum.

"Heavenly Sword Technique," the second form, azure sword shadows. Forty spirit swords, formed from his energy, hover in front of him. As Clark swings his hand down, the swords, with their sharp whooshing sounds, appear before the wolf, ready to pierce through it. To his astonishment, the mighty wolf kneels down, continuously bowing its huge head and wailing pitifully, begging for mercy.

"Is there no benefit at all, and you expect me to let you go?" he thought the giant wolf was very intelligent, speaking almost casually.

As he realized what he had said, he couldn't help but laugh and shake his head, wondering why he would say such strange words to a wild beast.

However, what he didn't expect was that one was bold enough to speak, and the other was bold enough to listen.

The giant wolf, upon hearing his demand for a benefit, stood upright, slapped its chest with its huge paw, and shook its massive head, meaning, "It wants to repay Clark by having him follow it!"

Clark hesitated slightly but eventually decided let to follow behind , not knowing how long they walked.

A hill appeared in front of them, and the giant wolf entered a cave there and disappeared from sight.

Clark stood at a distance, watching everything. As the giant wolf entered the hill, he had already slowed his pace, wary that the wolf might not be going to retrieve treasures but to call for help.

Soon, the giant wolf emerged from the cave, looking disheveled, followed by a dozen other giant wolves of different colors.

"Damn, I've been tricked!" Clark was about to run when he noticed that the white giant wolf was covered in wounds, clearly having fought a battle, while the dozen other wolves were biting at it.

Clark no longer hesitated and used his Heavenly Sword Technique, the sharp sword light killing the two most aggressive earth-colored giant wolves, causing the pack to halt and continuously growl towards Clark's direction.

The white giant wolf, bloodied and staggering, walked up to Clark and collapsed, dropping a spirit vine from its mouth.

"A third-grade spirit medicine, Thousand Star Vine?" Clark picked up the spirit medicine and couldn't help but exclaim.

It was a very rare spirit vine, about the length of a finger, completely white like jade, with a mysterious sheen flowing through its roots, obviously extraordinary. Amidst the hazy glow, a faint fragrance drifted on the wind.

Securing the spirit vine, Clark now had two spirit medicines in his possession, one of which was the Blood Flower he had unexpectedly obtained during an earlier expedition with his team.

With these two spirit medicines, he had enough to advance to the sixth level of Qi refining, and a look of joy appeared on Clark's face.

Clark treated the giant wolf's wounds and let it leave, but the wolf howled, meaning "it had betrayed its pack for him and now had no home to return to, and must follow him from now on."

Wherever Clark went, the giant wolf followed, and reluctantly, he took it in, also giving it a down-to-earth name he thought suitable, "Shadow."

From then on, the man and his wolf began a new training in the dense forest. With the help of the two spirit medicines, Clark had broken through to the sixth level of the Qi refining stage.

During the day, Clark would enter the mountain forests to train, and at night, he would return with Shadow to a spring surrounded by mist.

Through numerous trainings, his reaction speed had increased, and his combat awareness had begun to form a conditioned reflex.

During this period, they encountered several dangers, the most perilous being when Shadow's thigh was almost bitten off by a giant black tiger.

This tiger could leap tens of meters with each jump, bullying Shadow as if it were a small chick, and no matter how they tried to hide, the tiger would smell them and relentlessly pursue them.

Moreover, the giant tiger's skin was thick as if cast from black metal, and Clark's Heavenly Sword Technique could not penetrate its defenses, only leaving a string of glaring sparks. Shadow fared even worse, biting onto the tiger's back, only to have its long fangs shatter.

Later, they encountered a giant snake so large that ten men couldn't wrap their arms around it. Shadow, emboldened by Clark standing behind him, provoked the snake, wanting to eat its gallbladder, but ended up with two of its ribs broken by the snake's coils.

After that, Clark continued alone; Shadow refused to accompany him any longer, not wanting to live a life of entering tiger's dens one day and stepping into python nests the next.