Jianyu and the wolves surrounding him were at a stalemate. They were wary of attacking the human that had just inexplicably killed their packmate, and Jianyu was in no condition to go on the offensive. With the lull in the battle, he took a moment to try and understand what had just occurred. He remembered the pain of the wolf’s bite, but almost immediately afterwards, the crushing force had disappeared, and his opponent had fallen limp, dead weight still embedded in his flesh with incredibly sharp teeth.

Jianyu took this opportunity to examine the specimen attached to him. Although he had heard of and even fought Blue Spirit Wolves before as a lowly Qi Condensation cultivator, he had never had such a chance to examine them. The demon’s visage was twisted into a posthumous snarl, its dark eyes vacant but menacing nonetheless. Its characteristic midnight fur stood up along its spine, and lighter shades of blue fur adorned its sides in beautiful patterns. Though its limbs hung limp, taut muscles were visible under its thin fur, explaining why even in death it would not let go.

Despite his many injuries, Jianyu felt much better than before. Of course, his body was still in terrible shape, but even a single drop of water is precious to the drowning man. It was a fascinating sensation; even though his body was physically in pain, it seemed to contain limitless energy, and he was more than ready to fight.

Typically, the wolves would have retreated at this point, and this was observed in the cautious and deliberate circles the pack made around Jianyu’s position, but their hunger eventually overcame their fear, and they began to stalk him once more, albeit with caution in their steps. There were 7 remaining wolves after the one he'd accidentally dispatched. There was no obvious alpha, but some wolves were slightly larger than the others and were drooling more proportionately as well.

The Blue Spirit Wolf in the back began to dash towards him, with space to accelerate ceded by its packmates. In a move that astonished Jianyu, it immediately stopped about 3 bù away from him, before moving to the side to reveal yet another wolf behind it. This surprise attack normally would’ve astonished him, as it suggested a level of intelligence greater than typically seen in a Count stage demon. However, he had no time to ponder the complexities of the relationship between stage and intelligence, as he was under threat by the second wolf, quickly followed by the rest.

Jianyu raised his staff to swat away the first wolf, but he wasn’t able to repel the others following it. But instead of the painful bite he had been expecting, he was simply bowled over, the wind knocked out of him. He crashed to the ground hard, clumps of earth flying up from the impact point as well as further soiling his pitiful disciple’s robes.

Once again choosing not to bite Jianyu, four wolves held down his limbs with their enormous bulk(they were over 3 times his weight), and two of the remaining 3 used the innate attack of the Blue Spirit Wolf: Sonic Howl. This attack was an Earth based attack, using sonic waves that emanated from the throats of each wolf to stun or otherwise incapacitate prey. The only drawback was that the wolves couldn’t move as they used the attack. Unfortunately for him, with both wolves attacking in tandem, it was too strong for him to resist.

As the final wolf sauntered over to the immobilized Jianyu, clearly confident in its victory. As it moved towards Jianyu, he felt a sort of pull from the demon, and it was only growing stronger as it approached him. He was understandably confused; the abilities of the Blue Spirit Wolf were very well documented by adventurers and explorers, and never had an ability such as this been described.

Finally, the wolf was upon him. As was characteristic of all wolf-type demons, this one went for Jianyu’s throat, and no matter how hard he strained, he was unable to avoid the inexorable jaws of the famished demon.

But then, suddenly, Jianyu felt the odd pull again. It was emanating from the stomach area of the wolf, where its core was likely located. Instead of ignoring it, this time he gave into the pull. Instinctually, he felt his cracked dantian form a strand of Qi connecting to the wolf, and through his Soul Sight, Jianyu saw the way that this strand wormed its way through the wolf’s exterior like it wasn’t even there, before settling upon its core.

The wolf paused, jaws only hairs away from Jianyu’s throat, and after a moment it began to howl in pain. Frothing at the mouth, the powerful demon began to sway side to side, its dark brown eyes rolling up into its head. Then, abruptly as it began, the howling stopped. The wolf continued to stand there for a few moments, before it finally toppled over, dead.

While this left Jianyu with more questions than answers, it had the added bonus of significantly reducing the pressure on him. With all 6 remaining wolves occupying themselves with restraining him, there was no immediate threat to his life.

As if realizing this concurrently with the human, the wolves began to growl amongst themselves in a rudimentary form of communication. After what seemed like a few moments of discussion, they began to ease up on him. Accordingly, Jianyu didn’t move, allowing his foes the opportunity to retreat. In any case, he had no true quarrel with the unfortunate pack of demons, nor any particular desire to attack them.

The wolves began to turn around, one by one, before trotting into the distance.

After the wolves retreated, Jianyu sat down. He felt weak and lightheaded but he tried to stay conscious as he dressed his new wounds. Thankfully, the blood loss from the first wolf bite was relatively minor, and his flesh had returned to a normal coloration in his vision. He spent an incense time prying off the wolf that had attacked him first, which was still pried to his arm with a vice grip. What lay underneath was a relatively minor wound.

Jianyu tore off the left sleeve of his robe and fashioned it into a bandage for his damaged arm. Normally, he would have tried to create some sort of Qi construct to heal his arm, but with his shattered dantian, he had no hope of accomplishing that. Instead, he opted for the more mundane solution, although as a cultivator he was largely immune to any pathogens that might have entered his body via the open wound.

After tending to himself, Jianyu set about collecting the spoils of victory. Once more, he lamented the fact that he lacked any true tools that could make this arduous task less tedious. Since he didn’t have a knife to skin the corpses with, he made use of the teeth of the wolves themselves, as sharp as a mundane iron sword, and more durable to boot. However, it still was not well equipped for the task of skinning his prize.

“Curse the one who stole my storage ring,” he said to no one in particular. This wasn’t the first time such a thought had come to his mind, and it wouldn’t be the last.