The first step in harvesting a demon was to pull out its core. The core greatly outshone the internal energy pathways of the beast, hiding any other treasures within. The problem was, after the removal of the core, a demon’s body quickly deteriorated, returning to dust within 4 incense times. As such, it was critical that a harvester was both efficient with their cuts and quick, like a painter rushing to finish a work of art. Normally, Jianyu would have just hired one to do the work for him; harvesting was a very common profession in the Lin Yan plane. Unfortunately for him, a good harvester cost an exorbitant fee, and there was no one to ensure his spoils would be kept safe if he left the grounds.

Thus, Jianyu set about handling the wolves. Using one of the canines of the first wolf, he dug a hole in the flesh of the demon, feeling increased resistance as the tooth grew closer to the core. This was because Qi naturally reinforced everything around it, explaining why Qi enhanced tools or armor were more durable than their mundane counterparts. As Count stage demons were not typically intelligent, they couldn’t typically control their progression, and so the natural energy of the world leaked out of their core haphazardly, hardening the flesh around the core as a side effect.

When he finally reached the core, Jianyu put down the fang and stuck his undamaged left hand into the body of the beast. He grasped around for a moment, locating the core in his Soul Sight and grabbing on to it. He had to pull with a significant portion of his strength to remove it, and when it finally relented, the flesh around the core exploded outwards in a bloody shower of gore. Almost immediately in his Soul Sight, Jianyu recognized the precious resources scattered throughout the wolf’s body. Its energy pathways, functionally similar to a cultivator’s meridians, were valuable resources, useful for all forms of mechanization. They were ideal for channeling Qi to power constructs, and were widely used in major cities and trade hubs.

For Jianyu however, energy pathways were functionally useless. The Cloud Runner Sect was intentionally located several hundred li from any major population centers, isolated from the rest of the world. It lay in a valley formed between 3 mountains, meaning that travel to and from the strict was both easily surveilled and strictly limited.

The rest of the wolf wasn’t flattering either; for some unapparent reason, the eyes of the wolf, typically the 3rd and final valuable harvest from the Blue Spirit Wolf, were blind and thus useless. Even the flesh of the wolf looked toxic in his Soul Sight, devoid of any and all Qi whatsoever. This was peculiar because even mortal beasts had some amount of Qi in their bodies after death. However, this wolf had no Qi in its body or even in its core, as Jianyu discovered later when examining his spoils.

With a sigh, he moved onto the next wolf. Cutting into its body with slightly increased efficacy from his previous attempt(he could only improve from that pitiful excuse), he managed to defang the corpse and retrieve the core within 3 incense times. But this time, Jianyu was incredibly surprised by what lay within the wolf’s body. It would’ve been apparent to a typical observer that this wolf was larger than the others, but in his Soul Sight, Jianyu only saw things like Qi, pathways, and karmic threads, not the outlines of shapes, people, or in this case, demons.

What he saw defied his expectations entirely. It wasn’t resources that he had located; no, instead he had found something even more precious; new life. The wolf had been pregnant, and according to the size of the unborn pups, very close to term. Jianyu knew next to nothing about animals or the cycle of life, but he saw no reason to condemn the unborn pups before they had a chance, and so he cut open the belly of the demon. The gruesome scene normally would have bothered a commoner or peasant, but cultivators quickly desensitized themselves to gore; it was one of the hallmarks of the occupation.

A startling amount of fluid poured out of the corpse, followed by five wolf pups, two of which immediately began whining. Upon further examination, the remaining three were no longer amongst the living. He decided to attend to them later; amongst the obvious dangers of leaving corpses unattended to attract devils and other evil spirits, it was simply disrespectful to the pups, who had done nothing wrong, and to the mother, who had simply been trying to find a meal.

But when the pups opened their eyes, he forgot about everything else. He had never seen such beauty in the world as in this moment. To a bystander, the pups appeared to be different colors, one dark as night, with fur tinged blue at the ends. Its eyes were like endless pools, holding an intelligence inherited from its mother. The other pup was the shade of ethereal blue characteristic of Blue Spirit Wolves, but its eyes were white as jade. However, Jianyu could see none of this with his Soul Sight. What he saw instead was even more beautiful.

As soon as the pups opened their eyes, a tiny but distinguishable karmic thread was formed, leading from each pup to Jianyu. The bond described in the thread wasn’t something he felt he deserved, but it was beautiful nonetheless. In some aspects, it reminded him of Zhaohui, and how his younger brother had always looked up to him with admiration, even when Jianyu thought himself a failure or insignificant. Through his Soul Sight, everything except karmic threads appeared in varying shades of gray. Although he intuitively knew the difference between the different affinities of Qi he observed, only the karmic threads were a different color altogether, depending on the type and strength of the bond.

After overcoming his initial surprise and awe at the beauties of nature, Jianyu came to two conclusions about the pups. First, they were very quiet. He had expected them to whine and cry as human babies did, but for some reason, these wolf pups were silent. And secondly, they were filthy. They reeked worse than the corpse of their mother, which was quickly disintegrating into a pile of dust, the result of removing the core from a demon’s mortal shell.

Thankfully for him, there was still clean water in the sect, and even the moisture collectors were full, miraculously undamaged by the assault on the sect. After locating a suitable container, Jianyu set about washing the pups. After they were clean, he washed himself of the gore and grime that was covering him from head to toe. He then retrieved a new set of robes from the barracks, keeping an eye on the pups all the while. Although mortal pups would have needed milk, demons were born with the ability to consume pure Qi, whether from demon cores directly, or from the Qi-reinforced flesh of other demons. Only in the most dire of situations would a demon prey upon a mortal beast.

Accordingly, Jianyu searched the sect for sustenance for the pups, hoping to locate an exquisitely crafted dish of high quality, to no avail. All he managed to find were a few demon cores of the Baron stage, barely higher than a mortal beast. However, it would have to suffice for now. After all, Jianyu wasn’t so disturbed as to feed the pups the cores of their own pack. He placed the cores, sourced from local rabbit demons, in front of the pups, and observed through his Soul Sight as they drank in the Qi contained within the cores.

“What are we going to do with you,” he said to the pups. He had always had a desire to care for strays. This painful train of thought brought Jianyu back a quarter of a 60 year cycle, to the first time he had laid eyes upon his brother.