Chapter 3: The First Hunt
One month had passed since Lin Yun fell from the heavens.
In the world above, the Spirit Beast Sect had already moved on. The death of a genius was tragic, yes, but in the cultivation world, a dead genius was worth less than a living dog. Rumors had spread that Lin Yun had succumbed to a cultivation deviation during the ceremony and threw himself off the cliff in madness. Gu Cang, the benevolent master, had even held a tearful memorial service.
But in the eternal twilight of the Dark Mist Ravine, time flowed differently.
Crunch.
A heavy boot stepped onto a rotting log, pulverizing it instantly.
Lin Yun stood in a clearing, the damp fog swirling around his knees. He looked nothing like the elegant Chief Disciple in white robes who had stood on the Jade Altar.
His upper body was bare, revealing muscles that looked as if they were carved from granite. His skin, once fair, now held a faint metallic sheen under the moonlight. Crisscrossing his chest and back were faint golden lines, the pathways of the Dragon Marrow that had replaced his human weakness.
He was not breathing. He was waiting.
Fifty meters away, in the dense underbrush, a pair of glowing red eyes watched him.
It was a Steel Bristle Boar, a peak Spirit Gathering Beast. Its hide was as hard as iron, capable of shattering normal steel swords. It was a tank of nature, known for goring cultivators to death before they could finish chanting a spell.
Usually, a cultivator without a Dantian would be suicidal to face such a beast.
But Lin Yun did not have a sword. He did not have Qi to reinforce his body.
He had hunger.
Snort.
The boar lost patience. With a squeal that shook the trees, it charged. It moved like a cannonball, tearing up the earth as it rushed toward the motionless human.
Ten meters. Five meters.
Lin Yun did not flinch. His golden flecked eyes tracked the beast's movement. To his new senses, the terrifying charge looked almost slow.
Just as the boar's tusks were about to impale his stomach, Lin Yun moved.
He did not dodge. He stepped in.
His right hand shot out, his fingers hooking into claws. The air whistled around his grip.
Bang.
A sound like a sledgehammer hitting wet meat echoed through the ravine.
Lin Yun had caught the boar by its massive tusk with one hand. His feet dug furrows into the ground, sliding back a few inches, but he stopped the thousand pound beast dead in its tracks.
The boar's eyes widened in confusion. It tried to thrash, to gore him, but the human's grip was absolute.
"Is that all?" Lin Yun whispered.
His voice was hoarse. He had not spoken to anyone but Long Xi for weeks.
He channeled his will. The golden rune over his heart, the Sovereign Seal, pulsed. Heat rushed to his arm.
"Break."
Crack.
With a simple twist of his wrist, Lin Yun snapped the boar's iron hard tusk like a dry twig.
The beast shrieked, but before it could retreat, Lin Yun's other hand, formed into a spear hand, pierced straight through its impenetrable hide and into its skull.
The beast convulsed once, then went limp.
Lin Yun did not let go. He kept his hand buried in the beast's flesh.
"Devour," he commanded.
This was the core of the Ancient Path of Beast Sovereignty. He did not sit in lotus position and meditate on the Dao. He took what belonged to others.
A grey mist, the beast's soul and vital essence, seeped out of the carcass. It swirled up Lin Yun's arm, entering his pores.
Pain shot through him. It felt like swallowing needles. The beast's primitive soul screamed in his mind, trying to bite, to tear, to resist.
Shut up, Lin Yun's will slammed down like a hammer. You are food.
The resistance shattered. The energy flowed into his blood, strengthening his muscles, hardening his skin. He felt a tiny fraction of the boar's resilience merge with his own.
He withdrew his hand, shaking off the blood. The massive boar corpse was now a shriveled husk, devoid of all essence.
"Sloppy," a voice echoed in his head.
Lin Yun looked up toward the cave entrance high on the cliff wall. "I killed it in one strike, Senior Long."
"You used too much force," Long Xi criticized. "You relied on the Dragon Strength to overpower it. Next time, find the weak point. A Sovereign dominates, but a Sovereign is also efficient."
Lin Yun smirked, wiping sweat from his forehead. "Understood."
He felt good. Strong. For the first time since the betrayal, he did not feel like a victim.
Suddenly, his ears twitched.
The Dragon Marrow had enhanced his hearing to a superhuman degree. He picked up a sound coming from the east, about half a mile away.
Footsteps. Two sets. Clumsy. Human.
"Disciples?" Lin Yun frowned. "Here?"
"Go," Long Xi commanded. "Consider it your final test for the night. If you cannot handle mere humans, do not bother coming back to my cave."
Lin Yun grabbed the shriveled boar carcass. He needed the meat, even if the essence was gone. He tossed it into a bush and moved toward the sound, silent as a ghost.
"I am telling you, Brother Zhao, this is a waste of time," a whining voice complained.
Two figures were hacking their way through the dense thorns of the ravine. They wore the grey robes of Outer Sect Disciples of the Spirit Beast Sect.
"Quit whining, Liu," the older one, Zhao, grunted. He was holding a compass that tracked Spirit Energy. "The Sect Master offered a reward of one thousand Spirit Stones for Lin Yun's corpse. Or at least his sect token."
"He fell from the Cloud Severing Cliff," Liu argued, slapping a mosquito on his neck. "He is paste. There is nothing to find. Besides, the beasts down here probably ate him weeks ago."
"That is why we are looking for the token. Metal does not get digested." Zhao stopped, peering into the gloom. "Wait. Did you hear that?"
"Hear what?"
"A thump. Like something heavy hitting the ground."
From the shadows of a towering fern tree, Lin Yun watched them.
He recognized them. Zhao Hu and Liu Yan. They were lackeys of the Elder who had supported Gu Cang during the ceremony. They were trash, stuck at the third Stage of Spirit Gathering for years. In his past life, they would not have dared to look him in the eye.
Now they were hunting him like a loose coin.
"One thousand Spirit Stones," Lin Yun whispered to himself. "Is that the price of my life now, Master?"
He stepped out of the shadows.
"Looking for something?"
The two disciples jumped, drawing their swords instantly.
"Who is there?" Zhao Hu shouted, his sword tip trembling. "Identify yourself. We are disciples of the Spirit Beast Sect."
Lin Yun walked into a patch of moonlight. His tattered pants, his bare scarred chest, and his wild uncut hair made him look like a savage. But his face...
Zhao Hu squinted. Then his jaw dropped.
"Lin... Lin Yun?"
Liu Yan gasped. "Impossible. You are a ghost."
"Not a ghost," Lin Yun said, cracking his neck. "Just a man who crawled out of hell."
Shock was quickly replaced by greed in Zhao Hu's eyes. He scanned Lin Yun. No spiritual energy fluctuations. No Qi aura. Just a dirty broken beggar.
"He is alive," Zhao Hu licked his lips. "And he is crippled. Look, Liu. He has no cultivation base. I cannot sense a single wisp of Qi on him."
Liu Yan's fear vanished, replaced by a nasty sneer. "The genius Chief Disciple. A cripple. Heaven really has eyes."
"If we bring his head back," Zhao Hu chuckled, tightening his grip on his sword, "Master Gu Cang might make us Inner Disciples. He clearly wants this loose end tied up."
"You want my head?" Lin Yun tilted his head. "Come and take it."
"Arrogant trash," Zhao Hu roared. "Die."
He lunged forward, his sword glowing with a faint yellow light. The Earth Splitter Sword Style. It was a basic technique, but lethal to a mortal.
The blade slashed toward Lin Yun's neck.
Lin Yun did not move his feet. He simply raised his left arm.
Clang.
Sparks flew.
Zhao Hu's eyes bulged. His sword had not cut through flesh. It had bounced off Lin Yun's forearm as if it had struck a steel pillar.
"What..." Zhao Hu stammered.
Lin Yun looked at his arm. There was a faint white mark on his skin, but no blood. The passive defense of the Sovereign Body was terrifying.
"My turn," Lin Yun said.
He stepped in, delivering a punch that carried no Qi, just the raw kinetic force of a compressed spring.
His fist connected with Zhao Hu's chest.
Crunch.
The sound of ribs turning to powder was sickeningly loud.
Zhao Hu did not even scream. He was launched backward like a ragdoll, smashing into a tree five meters away. He slid down the bark, blood bubbling from his mouth, his chest caved in.
Dead instantly.
Silence descended on the clearing.
Liu Yan stood frozen, his sword halfway raised. He looked from his dead companion to Lin Yun, his brain unable to process what had happened. A cripple killed a third Stage cultivator with one punch?
"You... you monster," Liu Yan shrieked, turning to run.
"Run?" Lin Yun's eyes flashed cold.
He stomped on the ground. The earth cracked. He launched himself forward, closing the distance in a blur of speed.
He caught Liu Yan by the back of the neck and slammed him face first into the dirt.
"Please, Senior Brother Lin, mercy," Liu Yan wailed, eating mud. "I was forced. I did not want to come. Master Gu Cang sent us."
"Mercy?" Lin Yun leaned close to his ear. "Did Gu Cang show me mercy when he ripped my stomach open? Did the heavens show me mercy when I hit the ground?"
He tightened his grip.
"I have no mercy left to give. Only justice."
Crack.
Lin Yun stood up, leaving the second body motionless in the dirt.
He stood there for a moment, his chest heaving slightly. Not from exertion, but from the adrenaline of his first human kill. He expected to feel guilt. He waited for the nausea.
But it did not come.
Instead, he felt a cold hard satisfaction. The world of cultivation was simple. Eat or be eaten. Tonight, he was the eater.
He crouched down and searched the bodies.
"Two low grade storage bags," he muttered. He could not use Qi to open them yet, but he could force them open later with Long Xi's help. He found a few Spirit Stones and, more importantly, a sect communication talisman on Zhao Hu.
He pocketed the items.
"Gu Cang knows I might be alive," Lin Yun realized. "Sending two weaklings was a probe. When they do not report back, he will send someone stronger."
He looked up at the moon, his golden eyes narrowing.
"Let them come. Every beast they send, I will devour. Every disciple they send, I will bury."
He turned and vanished back into the shadows of the ravine, dragging the Shadow Leopard carcass behind him.
The Sovereign had completed his first hunt.