The Devil’s Pact, in the days when warlocks roamed the earth and defied heaven, the pact was the basis of their power. With their qi and blood, they bound demons to themselves and weathered the tribulation of the heavens in their demon’s stead. In exchange they gained the power to temper hell’s qi and remain human. Only with the agreement of a demon could a Devil’s Pact form. Few mortal cultivators had the cultivation base to surpass a demon and fewer had the demon’s consent.

More Meifeng felt her wounds heal at a shocking rate. The power of earth and hell empowered her body and even if the hell gate closed, she could continue to cultivate. The qi of earth was no longer closed to her. In exchange for the earth’s qi she was bound to a mortal. If he died, then so would she. The only way out was for her to kill him herself. That was something she prepared to do. If he ever weakened or proved himself unworthy, she’d kill him and keep the connection with the earth.

She let her body revert to her humanoid form. Her wolf ears became pointed human ears and the symbol of the moon remained on her forehead. Silky white hair fell down across her shoulders. She stood up and the world teetered to one side then the next. When she tried to take a step, she lost balance and fell on her ass. The odds of helping Ian were dwindling.

Time wasn’t on her side and it definitely wasn’t on Ian’s. If Da Chao managed to open the hell gate, then it was over for them. Warlocks were hunted down to the last by the hell knights seventeen years ago. If the gate opened here the hell knights would be alerted. The Warlocks couldn’t handle a legion of hell knight realm demons. A wet behind the ears human cultivator won’t be able to handle them either.

She propped herself against the wall and hoped that Da Chao failed to open the hell gate. Meifeng pushed through their connection. With all her demonically gifted intelligence she sent her sense of worry, rage, and pain. There was a deadline and if they failed to meet it they’d both die.

Not for the first time she wished he was a little more experienced. Just a few months and she knew he’d be unstoppable. She couldn’t imagine what he will look like in a few months.

She was confident in his abilities. With two barely understood Dao he pushed her into a cave and nearly subdued her. Even without the power of the heavens he could survive near a hell gate. There was so much Ian had going for him except for time. That was something that neither of them had in large quantities.

Part of her wanted to flee but the gate was so close to opening. Could they get out of range before the gate opened. What about the elders of his sect? Would they allow him to run away instead of using his body as a meat shield?

The air was putrid with rot. Bodies lay hoarded in piles. Maggots burst from the piles and poured down in waterfalls of black sludge. Flies in uncountably large swarms buzzed about. Only his mini hurricane of blades kept the air somewhat bearable.

The talking mass of skeleton parts and rotten sinews paced in front of him. It was easily two meters tall. Some of its body was stitched muscles, organ systems, and poorly tanned leather. Dui Peng had been a pleasure to kill the first time. The demon cultist wannabe seemed to have arrived at his destination regardless of Ian’s interference.

“Old friend,” Ian said the words as if they tasted foul. “You should be thanking me. You’re well ahead of your chosen career path. I’m sure it would have taken decades before your dark masters thought you worthy to be turned into an abomination.” The skeleton grinned with malice.

“Do you feel nothing for what you did to me? I offered you a helping hand and you put an axe in the back of my head.”

The creature said the words with a level of drama. The baleful qi poured into it at a constant rate, but its own cultivation increased at a snail’s pace. Ian could feel his cultivation base hit the peak of the fourth stage. His machinery was hardening and the hurricane around his body grew ever swifter and increased its size.

“You showed your hand to someone you robbed. Did you think a day in the sect mattered to me? We had no common ground and then you revealed what you were about. You were going to join the ranks of hell. I’d have had to kill you eventually when you were even stronger. How could I let such an opportunity pass me by? You were a strong enemy and I was weak. When you showed your weakness, it was an easy choice to make.” Ian said and raised his axe.

“I might be a demon spirit, but you are the monster.”

Flaming demonic snakes curled around Gui Peng’s arms and flew off in several strikes. Ian dashed to the side tagged the side of the cave and dashed forward. She struck the hardened leather chest with a wind palm and felt several rotten bones crack.

Bladed skeletal hands clawed at him while Ian made his body as small a target as possible. The wall exploded behind the skeleton blasting out with heat and shrapnel. Pieces of it blasted into Gui Peng’s side. Ian kept his body small and retreated a step.

“I’m not made of flesh anymore More Ian.” He grabbed ahold of the rotten bodies in the cave and from his center mass horrible black tentacles stretched out and into the putrid bodies. They pulled the rotten bodies into the monster.

“You seem very solid to me.” More Ian muttered and pulled a few rocks from his robes.

There was the danger of the cave collapsing but not a big one. Talismans littered the top and sides of the cave. If they did anything it was probably to keep the cave from collapsing. A hell gate buried under rubble might not be too valuable.

He threw the rocks and they exploded when they struck the skeleton. The leather skin cracked only for fleshy tentacles to stitch it back together. Ian sighed and pulled out his axe.

“You can’t kill me here. Don’t you get it. With this many bodies I’m immortal.”

Ian crossed the distance between them and took his axe to Dui Peng’s knee. The bone snapped like old wood and the corpse fell over. He placed a foot under it and kicked it up in the air like a grown man would a cat. He placed his hand on the ground and dashed back.

A much stronger eruption burst up from the ground. Hot gas, and shrapnel shot up in a geyser. Pieces of the skeleton burned away, and several bones fell away from the central mass. Ian kept his distance and inspected the creature. Black tendrils shot out in every direction pulling the corpses to a winding ball of black matter.

Ian stared at the former human with a look of pity. After unleashing several eruptions, he came to a couple conclusions.

The cave wasn’t collapsing, he wasn’t running out of qi anytime soon, and that sludge was probably very flammable fat. From his sixth sense he gained a feel for what the mass of black tendrils represented.

His elements were fire and wood. The fire represented the end of life and the wood represented the manipulation of life. To end its recovery ability, he had only one choice. Ian raised the Anaconda 44 and fired one of the last two rounds he had. When the round hit the center mass it was halted.

Ian crossed the distance and placed his hand on the black mass. He felt the roiling fire qi within and knew of only one way to put an end to this monster.

He cultivated Dui Peng’s fire qi. He felt to soul shriek as Ian pulled away at the forces keeping the soul stable. If that’s even what this was. The fire qi was what allowed Dui Peng to effect dead material. Without it he’d only have wood qi, which would reject his very dead soul. That was the theory. Either way once the fire qi is gone his foe would be left weakened.

The undead creature fought back and tried to pull the fire qi back. It pulled and screamed. Ian merely let his hurricane spin. With the debilitation of the wood qi he’d cut the mental power of his foe in half. Ian drew away the fire qi and felt his own control over the Dao of flame increase by just a little. To exist the dead creature needed a constant source of qi. That’s why its cultivation base didn’t have a positive gain.

Seeing Dui Peng again hadn’t been easy but was it really him? More Ian didn’t know and couldn’t know. When the fire qi was finally drained away, he took a step back. The black ball slowly morphed into a black mass of heart wood. Pure wood qi flowed from the hardwood in a beautiful symphony of nature.

Ian placed a hand on the chunk of wood and felt himself absorbed the remnants of the qi. Old aches and pains he’d gotten used too healed and he felt better than before. The amount of waste he produced decreased by a fraction as well. Suddenly, his qi expanded, his machinery hardened to an unprecedented level, and purer qi flowed through his body.

He clenched his fist and felt a greater level of vigor fill his muscles. Ian knew that in qi alone, he was stronger than the bear two nights ago.

Ian made his way to the antechamber in the back of the cave. There a large man with a shaggy beard stood in a circle. Slowly, he went through a series of hand signs and a tiny peep hole in space began forming.

Ian pulled his pistol free of his robe and pointed it at the bear. The cylinder turned and the bear froze. It turned its head and pushed all its anger and power down upon Ian. For a moment, the image of a savage ancient bear with long sword like claws standing upright on two feet appeared. He saw it hunting his ancestors in the woods. The fearful humans called it a demon.

Qi flared from his cultivation base shattering the image. Ian squeezed the trigger. A talisman turned to dust and the man was in another location a smile on its face.

“You wasted it. With one shot you could have saved your pitiful sect for another year. More Ian could have become the name of another human qi expert to become a hero. Now you can do nothing but bear witness as I open the hell gate.”

Ian’s mind moved he had to find a weakness. There were hundreds of talismans above his head. The ritual seemed to require the bear remain stationary. The small red hole in reality grew larger. His mind raced as he felt the power output increase at an incredible rate. There had to be something he could do. He couldn’t cave in the cave because of the talismans.

He didn’t need to destroy the talismans to kill Dui Peng.

An idea struck him, but it was crazy. The cost of qi would be ludicrous. It would be an utter waste of energy which wasn’t an issue right now.

“You’re going to lose. You underestimated one thing about humans.” Ian began to take long powerful breaths. Vast amounts of wind and blade qi swirled around him.

“Oh, do you think a few weak blades will stop me. You have no metal besides that axe. Good luck piercing my hide with that.” The bear said with a laugh.

The wind took over the room and grew from a gentle breeze to a powerful storm. Hurricane winds along with sharp blades tore into the cave floor and ripped apart the walls around them. He continued to waste qi pushing it into his breathing technique. The winds continued to climb at a rate that threatened to rip out his lungs. The entire time the bear laughed at the wind.

“Your insights in the Dao of wind and blades is too weak. Your sacred arts can’t even touch me. Thanks for the breeze it was getting stuffy.” The demon bear said in a cackle.

“My hurricane breathing technique isn’t offensive.” Ian said while he kept up the steady breathes. “It has a single purpose." The bear man scoffed.

Ian continued carried on. "I said before that you underestimated humans. I wasn’t talking about our skills, intelligence, or even our creativity. No before we gained those traits, we first had to perfect a single concept. We had to dominate our environments and bend nature to suit us.” He opened himself to the baleful qi pouring out of the pin hole in reality.

In an instant his hurricane buckled as it dealt with the enormity of hell’s qi flowing out of the portal.

"What makes humans the dominate species of earth has nothing to do with heaven. We are the dominate species because we are always hungry for something more."