It took a good four hours for the wolf to finally wake up. By that time the sun was setting, and the workers had been given an early break for the day.
It slowly opened its eyes, the pain of all its injuries making it whine slightly as it strained to move its head. It looked up, slowly, at the face of the man that had fought with it. Its first reaction was to growl as it felt threatened. It tried to move back and make some distance but using its body wasn’t a great idea as pain assaulted its brain, trying to make it not reopen the wounds that had closed thanks to Adel.
Ed on the other hand simply looked at the wolf without moving an inch. He simply looked on as it calmed down and looked back at him, this time without showing its teeth.
It was now that Edward finally took the bucket he had hidden behind his back and placed it in front of his legs, too far for the wolf to catch but close enough that even in its distracted state it could smell the contents. Raw Chicken. Food.
It flinched, knowing that it hadn’t eaten in a long while and if it didn’t eat soon it would probably die of starvation. A great hunter such as itself couldn’t be allowed to die of hunger and hence the wolf allowed the man to throw some chicken to its mouth by placing its head on the ground and making some high-pitched whimpers.
Edward smiled and threw pieces of cut chicken at it one by one. It wasn’t as if the wolf had suddenly become his pet or anything of that short but Edward was happy enough that the hostility seemed to be gone.
“Lycan! You can come here whenever you want from now on.” Ed said as he threw the last piece to the wolf, now proudly named Lycan by him, and left. Going back to his room to focus on his gathering more Qi in his swirling Dantian.
He visited Lycan a few more times till nightfall when he fell asleep. Edward was sad to see Lycan gone in the morning though that sadness lasted for only a short while as during lunchtime it returned to the house.
Lycan waited patiently for Edward to give it food just like yesterday before leaving again. Weirdly Edward was fine with that, he knew he wouldn’t suddenly tame the wolf, thus t was enough to have some sort of relationship like that. It was cool, that was essentially Edward’s motivation.
Another week passed by and by now Everything had settled down. Lycan spent more and more time around the base, the laborers had built small huts for themselves. Lao Qing was working harder than ever, Wang Dong, the head of police, was compliant. Last but not least after 1 month and a half of familiarizing himself with this energy Edward had become more accustomed to it and everything it brought.
He didn’t find it weird or supernatural anymore, completely integrating it as part of himself. Along with a change of mindset for the better Edward’s control of it had gotten much better. HE could move a wisp of Natural Qi in fluid and curvy motions as if it were nothing.
If he imbued it with his inner, Fire, Qi it made for a really mesmerizing light show. Like those Polynesian performers with sticks of fire flying around, the fire could fly all around him at incredibly fast speeds, leaving behind long light trails as it danced in the star-filled sky. Though more often than not Edward got carried away and lost control over the Fire as he was forced to shoot it into the sky and let it explode, constantly.
Adel had improved as well, making great strides toward her control, even though she had been late for more than 2 weeks compared to Edward her control was already almost on par to his, and if her outstanding focus she was better than him overall, since she didn’t mess up as often.
Other than that both of them were searching and finding more creative ways to use inner Qi and their attributes. They were getting closer to forming some basic ‘Form’, that is how they referred to it at least.
A ‘Form’ as they called it didn’t mean the whole process of creating a Fireball like Edward had done by luck on his first attempt, that was the complete ‘Spell’, but instead, it referred to the standardization of certain parts of the process of using a spell.
Specifically, Form was about taking Natural Qi and giving the shape needed and then filling it with the attribute of the wielders Inner Qi and making that process more automated. Instead of wasting a lot of mental power, of which they had a finite amount as of yet, making that movement of Qi simple and easy, letting the Caster to focus more on the rest, the control of the amount of Qi used, as well as the directions needed for the spell after it is cast.
For the example of a Fireball, those would determine the size and explosiveness of the Fireball as well as its aim and trajectory.
It would be a very important tool for people with naturally low Mental power but most importantly for everyone starting out on the journey of cultivation, as they had low Mental power that they had just begun the process of increasing.
As they were caught in their thoughts and brainstorming in the disconnected-elevated house, meaning the library/ study room, they didn’t notice the agitated wolf that had come running from the thicket. Lycan hadn’t come for his lunch a few hours ago and so Edward wasn’t expecting him. Lycan though came but not for his food instead he came rushing in. He looked around but didn’t find Ed and his sister and resorted to howling as loudly as he could.
Edward broke out of his thoughts with a start, he rushed out of his room only to see the wolf slightly hurt yet again though this time one more wolf, a smaller white one, stood a little ways behind Lycan as he called for Edward to come out. Lycan’s slightly red mane flowed in the wind.
It was weird how much Tibetan wolves reminded Edward of lions, he noticed just now as the thought that Lycan resembled a lion hadn’t really registered so far in his head.
Once Edward had come a few meters away from Lycan he turned around and almost motioned for Ed to follow him as he and the White wolf both started picking up pace. At first, both Ed and Adel followed them while slightly confused. Something must have happened, but they were completely in the dark.
Running down the steep edge of their base was going to be extremely tough for normal humans but thanks to their improved physics and reflexes the pair didn’t have any trouble as they stayed right behind the two wolves.
Eventually, the angle of the run evened out as the big mountain valley spread in front of them. Form a small clearing in the trees Edward could see the lonely Cherry tree. He had seen it just one week ago but somehow from this angle, it looked taller and lusher than he remembered it.
The Wolves picked up their pace immensely when they reached the flatter and the more maneuverable terrain, easily reaching 30 kilometers an hour, as Ed and Adel had to use effort this time around to stay on pace.
They passed right below the cliff with the cherry tree and next to a pond that was also made of spiritual water, the mud they had thrown near it had already dried up or has been washed off.
Further down the valley, they went up a small incline only to reach one of the many dirt paths coming out of the national forest. The two had grown familiar with many of these oaths by now and from where the wolves rushed off to they knew that instead of going towards the cities they were heading further into the huge mountain range.
After running for half an hour more they had passed through the valley created between the almost lonely mountain they lived on and reached the actual, connected, and vast mountain range. They were by now hundreds and hundreds of meters above sea level and a few kilometers west of their own home.
From what Edward had read about the area they were living in, and in these tall mountains existed many minorities. They were and had been living in this mountain for many generations. Their culture was distinct from that of Han Chinese and for most, they would remind them of a mix between Nepalese and Mongols with maybe some Turkish. Though in truth they were a distinct subgroup of the Tibetan Ethnic group and they were named the Qiang minority and they lived in the mountains in the north of Sichuan.
Edward’s mind roamed while they were running, and if the directions were correct then they were running right towards their villages and town up in the mountains. Something must have been happening the past few days and that was the reason Lycan had been leaving and returning.
They continued to sprint ahead, deeper into the mountains. It became extremely clear that they were following the same path as the roads that had been built up in these mountains, making it easy to understand that they were indeed heading to a place that was inhabited by people.
An hour later they finally reached the place, apparently, as Lycan and the wolf that was running with him stopped behind some big rocks. From there in the distance, a village could be seen.
It was built in the unique, Fortress village style of the Qiang people in these places and only 40-50 households lived inside it. Usually, it would be well-defended thanks to the wall, from animals at least, but it had been left unmaintained for a major stretch of times and by now it wasn’t as secure.
The only reason though a wall would be needed in the first place was unknown since most animals knew not to mess with humans and so stayed away from populated as much as they could. Even if they did, it would usually be out of desperation, probably hunger, or being driven out of their homes by the human’s wanton destruction of everything around them. That, most of the time, meant that those animals were starving and weak.
Sadly, such a thing was not happening right now. The only thing Edward could see was some big, and fast, wolves circling the Village walls as they growled and howled at the people that stood on top of them.
Every now and then a shot would be fired but amazingly the wolves mostly managed to get away from the bullet with minimal injuries. IT appeared that they were seeing the human readying to shoot them and moved out of the way before the trigger was fired.
What was even weirder was the fact that instead of thinking about it the wolves dodged on instinct as if someone was telling them to dodge and at the correct timing.
Edward was thinking all of that while Lycan, his partner, and Adel were next to him as they all looked at the scene.
“Hey, Ed…”
“Yeah, I am thinking the same. Let’s focus for a little bit.”
The two agreed with each other and sat down, still hidden behind the rocks, as they focused on their senses and tried to search for Qi. If someone or something was ordering the wolves like that then the use of Qi was a given.
This meant that if they were concentrated enough they would be able to find the big clump of Qi that was sending the orders. As long as they took that out they would be able to save the villagers from the wolves jumping over the walls after they had run out of bullets, and arrows.
Though the arrows turned out to be pretty useless against these wolves since it was much more apparent when someone was going to shoot an arrow than a gun.
It took five minutes till their senses spread far enough and as if spotting a lighthouse in the thunderstorm both spotted the clump of Qi that they were searching for.
“It’s…. a wolf?!” We both said in surprise, though in reality, we should have expected it. IT was much more possible for a wolf to become a cultivator than for a human to tame and become the Alpha of a wolf pack
