Naath woke up early in the morning like usual however this time he didn't go to the forest to meditate as he usually did. He made his way over to the elders’ hut. Once he was there he knocked on the door. Now that he had stepped onto the path of cultivation he could sense the auras of everyone around him and knew the 12 elders were all waiting inside. Senior Huang said from inside “Naath don’t stand on courtesy come in, we have everything prepared for your departure.” Naath walked into the building and all 12 elders were sitting around the large circular desk once again.

Naath stepped into the center area and greeted all of them politely. They all nodded and then one of the elders got up and left the hut for a few minutes, when he came back there were various dishes and foods in his hands. He set them down on the desk and said “it isn’t much Naath, however we should celebrate at least in some regard. someone from our small and lowly little village showing the talent you have.” All of the elders praised in agreement voicing their happy opinions on the matter. Naath smiled and felt a sense of family and belonging, he remembered this feeling deeply. After the elders toasted a few times and had cleaned most of the plates the clamor died down.

Elder Huang stood up and said “Naath it is unfortunately time for you to depart towards the raging river sect. Here, this bag holds everything you will need on your journey to the sect.” Elder Huang put a large backpack onto the circular desk and motioned for Naath to take it. Naath went forwards and put it on his back and was surprised by how light it felt. When noticing his surprise Elder Huang said “Don’t be so surprised Naath you advanced into the initial stage of bone hardening after all. A rise in strength is only all too natural. You should be able to lift a few hundred pounds without much issue as you are now.”

Naath nodded in understanding and then everyone began to give their farewells to Naath. Before long Naath was at the gate to the village and looked back, memorizing the scenery of the village before looking towards the horizon and starting to walk. According to the map the elders gave him, the raging river sect was on the other side of the forest that Naath always went to the edge of to cultivate. The journey would be dangerous and there would be many wild beasts and the occasional magical beast as well. The forest was a few hundreds of miles thick, and it would take Naath roughly 8 months to make it through safely.

After 20 minutes Naath arrived at the edge of the forest where he had always worked on advancing his true void arts. Naath thought to himself ‘if only I could take this tree stump with me, I've grown rather accustomed to it’ Naath let out a breath and moved past the stump and entered into the edge of the dense forest. Naath had no troubles on his journey through the forest for the first few weeks. He carefully avoided all the dangerous magical beasts and simply prepared the various non magical beasts that attacked him for meals.

However on the 4th week he was walking peacefully through the forest like he had been when suddenly he felt the dangerous aura of a magical beast. He quickly jumped up into a tree and hid himself amongst the leaves. As he looked down and waited for the danger to pass a magical wolf beast passed below him. It had a stainless white fur coat and walked uncaringly through the forest as it was the strongest creature in this part of the woods. It seemed the area of a few miles was this magical wolf beats territory after all. Naath couldn't help but gasp when he saw the wolf and admired it.

In his life on earth he had always had a deep respect for wolves so when he saw the one in front of him he couldn't help but feel a sense of awe. The wolf however heard Naath’s light gasp and immediately looked up at his location. “Shit!” Naath swore knowing that he had been noticed, and that the wolf in front of him was clearly dangerous. The instant it saw Naath the wolf's hair raised up and it bared its fangs and jumped up towards Naath. Naath moved immediately, jumping down from where he was landing on the ground and retreating deeper into the forest.

The wolf however followed after him in pursuit, it caught up to Naath in a matter of moments. It cut off his path of retreat and charged at him again aiming for Naath’s throat. Naath dodged to the side avoiding the wolves gnashing teeth by a hair's breadth, after dodging he jumped towards the wolf's side and threw out a punch with all of the force he could muster behind it. His punch landed and a distinct cracking sound followed suit, the wolf was thrown onto its side and let out a pained whimper.

However quickly after that it shook its head standing back up and charging at Naath once more. Naath repeated his previous movement this time causing the wolf to stay down for a few moments longer giving Naath a chance to catch his breath. Just as Naath was about to turn and retreat further into the forest the wolf got back up and cut him off again. Naath cursed in his heart ‘damn it!’ The wolf lunged at him once more and he repeated his previous actions. Every time he did he managed to dodge by a hair’s breadth and counterattack.

Finally after the fifth time, the wolf fell unconscious. Naath heaved out a sigh of relief and turned leaving the area and continuing on his journey. However after another hour of walking he heard a wolf's howl behind him. Naath let out a groan knowing it hadn't given up on pursuing him. Sure enough in a matter of minutes the wolf had caught up to Naath once more and attacked him. Naath repeated his previous strategy until the wolf was once more unable to get up before continuing on his journey. However no matter what Naath refused to kill the wolf, he simply had too much respect for it.

This time he managed to walk for a few hours before it caught up again, the same cycle repeated for an entire day. Finally the wolf simply started stalking Naath waiting for an opportunity to kill him. Because of this over the days Naath began sleeping very lightly knowing it was pursuing him. He didn't even have time to meditate and try to break through to the next stage of bone hardening because of the wolf. Every time Naath would try to knock it back out it would retreat at full throttle and then come back a time later.

After several weeks the wolf finally saw an opportunity and lunged at Naath. Naath followed the same strategy from before and knocked the wolf unconscious. This time after he did he fled at full speed into the forest. This granted him a full 24 hours of peace and quiet. However the wolf still eventually caught back up with him, and carefully stalked Naath once more. Naath let out a long groan when it came back and didn't know how to handle this wolf. Several weeks later Naath was sitting by a campfire he had made in the night and was cooking a deer he managed to catch off guard earlier. The wolf was still vigilant of Naath at all times.

Naath however had lowered his guard at this point, he had fought the wolf so many times in the past few weeks that his combat strength had improved greatly. Every time the wolf attacked it went for the kill, having experienced dozens of close shaves almost losing his life his combat instinct steadily rose. Now he could easily dodge and subdue the wolf at any time. The wolf was stubborn and persistent though, and after it stalked him these past few weeks he had even taken to calling it “Brutus.” Now sitting at the campfire Naath took a piece of meat down from the spit he had going and began eating.

Suddenly Naath heard a rumbling sound and looked over a Brutus with a bewildered look. Suddenly Naath started laughing loudly “haha Brutus have you been stalking me so persistently you haven't even hunted anything else to eat?” Naath tore off a large chunk of the meat he had and tossed it over towards the direction Brutus was ‘hiding’ the wolf pretended nothing happened and ignored the food. However it’s stomach started to rumble even more intensely after that.

Naath laughed when he saw this and quickly finished his food, putting the fire out and going to sleep. When Naath woke up the next morning the meat he had tossed over was gone and the grumbling sound had disappeared. Naath chuckled lightly and continued on his way, always being stalked by Brutus. Over the course of the next few weeks Naaths slowly gave Brutus more food and the wolf even started to come out from ‘hiding’ to grab it after it was tossed over. A month later it no longer hid and stayed on the opposite side of the fires Naath would set up cautiously eyeing him.

As time passed Brutus had completely stopped trying to attack Naath and now seemed to simply stay behind him at all times. After another month Brutus would approach Naath and quickly grab the food offered to him before running back off to the other side and eating it while watching Naath. Another half month later Brutus had stopped distancing himself from Naath entirely, walking by his side as he traveled. At first Naath was originally shocked by this but he quickly got used to it, however Brutus would still not allow Naath to actually touch him.

One month later that had changed completely and Naath would often wake up with Brutus laying down with his head on Naath’s lap. Brutus’s fur was softer than most cotton and smoother than silk so Naath grew rather comfortable sleeping with Brutus on his lap. After this the journey continued peacefully, Brutus acting as a deterrent to all the other magical beasts as he went. In no time at all the 8 months had passed and Naath and Brutus arrived on the other side of the forest. In front of them on the horizon was the outline of a large city with impressive stone walls that were three times as tall as a grown man. Naath smiled and said “well Brutus looks like we made it huh?” The wolf wagged its tail happily and let out a bark of approval.

It was well known that magical beasts had intelligence, some strong magical beasts could even speak human language. The really powerful ones could reportedly transform into humans as well. So Brutus’s reaction was completely understandable and Naath smiled and led them both forward towards the city. As they approached there was a large crowd of people most of them were children around Naath’s age and their parents. From the whispers Naath heard they were also here to apply to join the raging river sect. Naath had finally arrived at the city and simply had to wait for the sect to open the exams.