The blizzard howled, and branches snapped as fear and spirit energy mixed with the storm feeding it with the lives lost during the cold winter. A reaper had come to the province of Pennsylvania, and it swung its scythe liberally. The wind carried the comforts of warmth before the peaceful end the storm promised as once-plus souls bathed in the storm’s Dao of blizzard. It was the first phenomenon created by the altered spiritual energy flowing from the land tainted by the battle against the hollow.

 

 

 

While wielding his Dao Eye, Silas could tell that something like a consciousness was forming within the storm. Malignant spirit energy and the liquid spirit energy within the land had empowered the storm. Every life reaped by it had added to the phenomenon. From what he could see through the Dao Eye, it had already changed directions ignoring its natural path south and turning to soak up more spiritual energy.

 

 

 

Silas had wrapped himself in furs before returning to where the battle against Oscar occurred. He had too much to do and work on to turn his attention to fencing in the area. That had unexpected consequences.

 

 

 

A blizzard doesn’t carry much snow with it and normally lifts the snow already on the ground and throws it around. Powerful winds blew like a giant’s breath ripping small trees up by the roots while his Dao Eye hovered around his body.

 

 

 

Even wrapping himself in furs wasn’t enough to stop the cold from cutting him to the bone. Yet, it was what he wanted; he felt his heart race while the spirits pulled into the storm, mostly women with paper white skin and glowing wintery blue eyes, whispered in his ear. They were manifestations of the storm tools to cause victims to accept death.

 

 

 

“Take off thy furs, and we will warm thou with our bodies. Look at us, art we cold.”

 

 

 

Shadows blurred his visibility for hundreds of miles as the storm reaped and absorbed more power. It, too, was a demon beast and a natural manifestation of malignant spirit energy and human spirit energy. The monster had no thought but to feed to continue living. It would slaughter the whole world given enough time. It was in its nature to freeze the world and consume lives until there was no more energy, and it faded away.

 

 

 

He felt it in his cultivation, and his heart began to beat quickly; he felt his hook pierce the storm as a sliver of Dao Insight entered him from the storm. The cold wasn’t only a natural phenomenon; humans had turned it into something malicious long ago. The cold was pain, a lack of food, and if left to soak in a heavyweight that would sink a man into death. He felt it cut into his bones through his warmest clothes and aura.

 

 

 

The insight began solidifying as he cultivated it, slowly feeding it the insights he gained from experiencing the blizzard firsthand. Through his Dao Eye, he pulled upon the storm’s vast energy from many souls taken in by its inception and began to feed on it to solidify his minor Dao Insight of cold a minor Dao Insight of the greater Dao of Yin.  

 

 

 

He felt the storm's power flow into him, seeping into his bones as it tried to cut into him and steal his life essence and then his soul. A newborn demon beast had no name or thoughts except for the desire to feed and continue surviving. Silas had fenced in his homestead and had formations to stop outside forces from draining his spirit energy.

 

 

 

Silas used its weakness and strength of its new existence to solidify his Dao Insight. Without his Dao Eye, it would have been impossible to even try without some solid techniques created by wise old masters.

 

 

 

The cold seeped deeper into his body as the blizzard actively tried to kill him with all its might. Trees flew clumsily at him, and the snow piled high. His face stung as several feet of snow buried him, but the blizzard only made it, so Silas was no longer vulnerable to its sheer cold winds.

 

 

 

Suffocation wasn’t a problem, thanks to his stage 1, thanks to refining his lungs. A single breath could keep him alive for hours. So he continued to drink in the power of the blizzard until he felt it. Then, the cold Dao Insight solidified.

 

 

 

Bang! All throughout his body, it felt like his pours opened up to accept a new kind of power. His aura gained slight traces of cold in its nature that could be refined further in the future.

 

 

 

Silas hadn't panicked, even with tons of snow on top of him. For every challenge, there was a tool to see him through it. He expected a blizzard to try and bury him. It had been a month since his spar with Soifon, and she came by every week to trade blows with him. For the moment, his homestead was a resource for their squad. It was a barrack in the world of the living and a valuable resource thanks to its spiritual energy. A Shinigami could regenerate their strength quickly on his land.

 

 

 

He felt through his aura for the insight he had nurtured over a month, the insight of distance, a minor insight of the Great Dao Insight of space. Silas pushed out with his telekinesis accelerating it and stretching the distance between it and the snow piled on top of him. With room to accelerate, the mass of his aura generated more force than ever without extending out of his control. The snow erupted, freeing him. The demon spirits attached to the blizzard fled from him as he stepped into the raging winds of the blizzard. His Dao Eye hovered beside him as the winds cut sharper, tearing into his body. Blood leaked from sudden new injuries as the wind howled.

 

 

 

His brain hammered against his skull, and he knew he had hit his limit. Frozen sweat clung to his body, but the cold couldn’t hurt him as bad through his aura. Out of the cold and ice, a wolf that stood like a man walked out of the ice. It was a demon beast in the first stage and looked ready for a fight.

 

 

 

“That thing hovering above thy shoulder. I want it. Give it to me, and thy death will be swift.” The wolfman said.

 

 

 

Silas felt the monster push its aura against him as the massive wolf edged closer. Other wolves edged out of the woods into the clearing; a few looked ready to kill over. They were looked at keenly by their healthier packmates. In these hard times, they may eat their own after they fall and can’t get up or drive them off to die alone. 

 

 

 

“I see thou can’t guarantee painless or that thou won’t eat my corpse,” Silas said.

 

 

 

“Hard times,” The alpha wolf said.

 

 

 

He pulled his musket out of storage and shot the wolf, and it gripped its chest as Silas replaced his spent musket with a loaded one. His minor Dao of distance allowed him to use his ring easier. Another wolf charged and then backed away. Silas felt a set of sharp fangs bight into his leg. His head pounded worse as he increased the distance between his leg and the wolf’s teeth before pulling his staff free and slamming the butt down on the wolf’s head. A concussive force blew its head away.

 

 

 

Another wolf came up from behind, but it couldn’t hide its aura. Silas turned his musket to the pre-natal demon beast and fired. The anti-malignant round burned through the beast’s head with the round as it pierced the animal’s skull and melted its brain. The alpha stabbed its claws into its chest and pulled the round out while blood gushed out of its chest and froze in the storm.

 

 

 

Silas tossed back the spent musket and hit the next wolf in the side, swinging his staff like a baseball bat. “That was my last female.” The wolf yelled and charged Silas. Blood continued to pour from the demon beast’s wound as it moved fast as lightning. Silas used the long reach of his staff to hit the wolf in the knee.

 

 

 

A concussive force blasted until the wolf’s claws sliced through it cleanly. More ice clung to the demon beast’s fur, and Silas decided it was cultivating instead of freezing by the fact it wouldn’t stop. It reached out but shouldn’t have made its body so human-like. He grabbed the beast’s arm and threw the beast. He felt its claw cut his wrist into meat ribbons for his trouble.

 

 

 

Silas used his new cold insight to freezer-burn the wounds shut. That ensured the scars would be extra horrible, possibly worse than packing horsehair into them. He wanted to fight and test himself, and a clawed-up arm was his reward. He needed to make a new treasure to supplement his combat abilities. Guys like the wolf would undoubtedly appear more often with more spiritual energy in the world.

 

 

 

 He raised his finger and used his cold and distance insight in tandem with his only original technique. The beast stood on one leg, his other held on by a few strands of flesh. Aura gathered at the tip of his finger before firing in icy drills of spiritual energy. He shortened the distance until his attacks were nearly point-blank range. They were already piercing through the demon beast’s back the second they were fired.

 

 

 

Silas felt his head pounding nonstop and knew he couldn’t fight anymore. Using two Dao, even minor in the first stage had been too much. Only after he refined his brain could the Dao be properly cultivated. His Dao Eye had been a cheat to easy power. Even the blizzard was a mere opportunistic strike.

 

 

 

“Thou have not beaten me. So long as I live, the pack survives.” The wolfman said.

 

 

 

Silas pulled out a musket and fired it, then another, until the wolf stopped talking. He shivered and stared at where the hole in the hollow hideout had been. The place had been firebombed, but it would surely be better than the wind. He needed to get out of the cold with his fading strength.

 

 

 

He could feel the blizzard moving after it collected the spirit of the demon wolf. It, too, was waiting for him to die under the blizzard’s onslaught.

 

 

 

The hole was large enough for him. Silas used the remains of his staff to create a light to see down it, but it was after using a brain-pounding amount of telekinesis to move the snow. Then he crawled down into the hole as the snow covered his descent.

 

 

 

…

 

 

 

When the sun rose, the blizzard returned north by Silas’s compass while he slept off his headache. Under the snow and earth, where the wind couldn’t bite into him, his wolf furs warmed him up thanks to the lingering malignant energy in the cave. The pelt he wore greedily absorbed the lingering energy like a man thirsting in the desert does his first glass of water.

 

 

 

Before falling asleep on a slope, he scratched some alarm formations into the rock. Then, when he awoke with his head clearer than when he intercepted the blizzard for a quick power-up, he freed himself of the snow blanketing the hole and made his way back home. It had been a month since he last saw Soifon, and there was bound to be another two before spring melted the snow.

 

 

 

Silas returned home and enjoyed a long soak in the tub before spending a day in bed being unproductive. He dreamed of a new magic treasure that was more useful than his staff with a myriad of abilities. If his mind couldn’t handle the use of Dao Insights, then perhaps he could build something that could and begin making plans to charge into the low state of the first realm. His lungs and stomach needed to be cultivated.

 

 

 

 

 

Check out my new story loosely based on this one.

 

First Sage