Mao Yuhan reclined on his throne, one hand on the head of a beautiful young woman who sat on her haunches near his crotch. He gripped her hair tightly and forced her to move back and forth.

“Come on. Are you even trying now? Stop dicking around and suck harder,” he commended. The woman released a muffled cry but did as she was told. “Hmph. That’s a bit better. Guess I’ll keep you for a little while longer.”

While one beautiful young woman pleased him, another sat on the arm of his chair. He had his other hand wrapped around her and would occasionally grope her chest. The woman said nothing. She knew what the consequences would be if she spoke out against him.

The throne room was empty save him and the young woman. He preferred sitting here over staying in his room. He felt like a king. He loved that feeling, the feeling of having power over others.

His thoughts were interrupted as the doors opened and someone stumbled into the room. It was his useless son. Mao Zemin looked like he had seen better days. Blood poured from his lips, his face was covered in bruises, and he was holding a hand to his chest. Mao Yuhan could tell at a glance that the boy had at least two snapped ribs.

“You’d better have a good reason for barging in here unannounced, boy,” Mao Yuhan said. The young woman between his legs tried to stop, but he pulled her head forward. Gagging sounds echoed from the woman. Fortunately for her, she got the hint.

“Sorry for… interrupting you… Lord Father. I’ve come bearing news of an upstart who has recently joined the Xing Chamber of Commerce.” Mao Zemin prostrated himself before his father. He didn’t dare lift his head. “A young boy named Jian Wu arrived in Chenhou a few days ago with Xing Zhenya.”

“That’s the girl you fancy, if I’m not mistaken,” Mao Yuhan mused. He conjured the image of what she looked like when he last saw her and licked his lips. She was indeed quite the beauty. He hadn’t touched the Xing Family because it would cost him more than they were worth, but perhaps he should change his stance.

“You’re not wrong. Anyway, Jian Wu is a brat who stood up to me and my boys. He doesn’t put the Raging Boar Sect in his eyes at all. It’s as though our sect is nothing but a group of ants to him.”

“Is he the one who gave you those injuries?”

“… Yes.”

“How old is he?”

“I don’t know, but…”

“But what?”

“He… hasn’t reached the Hunger Realm yet.”

Mao Yuhan closed his eyes to restrain the surge of anger he felt. “Do you mean to tell me that you let a brat who hasn’t even reached the Hunger Realm beat you senseless? Are you trying to make my sect lose its reputation? Do you want the people in Chenhou to think we’re a bunch of weaklings?”

Mao Zemin paled. “N-no, that’s not it. He was just too strong!”

“Useless cockroach! Someone at the Body Forging Realm has nowhere near the power to defeat someone at the Hunger Realm, unless that person was a useless sack of shit!”

Mao Zemin trembled in fear as his father glared at him. He probably would have pissed himself if that wouldn’t have gotten him into more trouble.

“Haaaaah.”

Releasing a gusty sigh, Mao Yuhan pushed the girl serving him off. She landed on the ground in a heap. He pushed the other woman away as well.

Buttoning up his pants, he walked over to where a pair of battleaxes hung on the wall. They were massive objects about the same size as Mao Zemin, and yet Mao Yuhan removed them from their rack and hefted them over his shoulder as if they weighed less than feathers. These axes were a gift he had been given by Wind-Lightning Pavilion when the Raging Boar sect became their subsidiary branch.

He swung them around a few times before walking over to his trembling son. He looked down at the useless cretin and wondered how someone like this could have come from his loins. Mao Zemin must have inherited his mother’s uselessness. That was the only explanation he could think of.

“You are a useless little shit who doesn’t deserve to even lick the mud off my boots… but you’re still a part of the Raging Boars. I can’t afford to have some brat show such blatant disrespect to my sect, so I’ll deal with him.”

Mao Zemin’s eyes widened. “You mean…?”

“Gather the men. We’re going hunting,” Mao Yuhan said with a malicious grin.

***

It was Wu Jian’s second day working with the Xing Chamber of Commerce. The bright sky was blotted out by the canopy. Only a sparse sprinkling of light managed to penetrate the foliage, creating strange patterns on the ground.

Gao Zhou moved at the front of the back. Wu Jian took up the rear. Xing Zhenya was in the middle of the formation. There was one other person upfront with Gao Zhou. Wu Jian had been told this man was a talented tracker who could detect magical beasts from several lî away.

“There’s a pack of Wind Wolves up ahead,” said the tracker.

“How many?” asked Gao Zhou.

“Ten.”

Wind Wolves were a type of magical beast that roamed the Magical Beast Forest. They weren’t very strong. A cultivator at the fourth subrealm of the Hunger Realm could deal with one of them easily. But what they lacked in strength they made up for in cunning. Wind Wolves were good at ambushing and even setting traps.

“If there are ten, then they most likely have a Greater Wind Wolf leading them. They’re a half-step into the Anima Realm. That’ll make things difficult, but we should be able to defeat them if we can ambush them,” Gao Zhou mused.

“A Greater Wind Wolf has a lot of valuable parts that are used in alchemy, especially their monster core. If we can get that, we can sell it to the Zhou Clan’s auction house in Wuhan City for a great price,” Xing Zhenya said.

No one said anything against the idea of ambushing the Wind Wolf pack, and so they traveled cautiously through the forest, eventually coming upon the pack in question.

The pack of Wind Wolves was resting in a small clearing with a pond. Some were drinking from the pond, but most were lounging. There were no young pups playing about, which Wu Jian was grateful for. He knew killing was necessary to survive, but he never wanted to kill a child, whether it be human or magical beast.

In the center of this pack was the Greater Wind Wolf, which stood at about the same height as an adult male and looked big enough to swallow a human in a single bite. Bright green eyes were surrounded by grayish black fur. Green streaks ran through the fur.

“Grrrrr.”

“Easy, Yōuměi.”

A tail emerged from Wu Jian’s shadow, and he gently stroked it while the others weren’t looking.

Yōuměi had been forced to remain in his shadow for several days now. He had considered letting her out, but magical beasts were commodities to be bought and sold, and their flesh, fur, bones, and internal organs were traded for very high prices. Yōuměi was a black yāomó panther, which was exceedingly rare. He trusted Xing Zhenya not to try and capture her, but he didn’t trust anyone else.

“What’s that?” asked Xing Zhenya.

“What’s what?” asked Wu Jian as the tail disappeared into her shadow.

Xing Zhenya frowned as she looked at the ground around his feet. “I thought I saw something wrapped around your legs… a tail?”

“Could be a trick of the light,” Wu Jian said.

“Maybe…”

Xing Zhenya looked skeptical, but that was the moment Gao Zhou removed several small pellets from a pouch at his hip. She was forced to refocus her attention on the Wind Wolves, readying her daggers as her bodyguard lobbed the pellets into the magical beast pack.

Smoke exploded from the pellets. It was not typical smoke but a bright green. The Wind Wolves howled in surprise, then began hacking as the fumes filled the clearing.

“Let’s go!” Gao Zhou roared.

He leapt out of the underbrush they had been hiding behind, axe at the ready. Wu Jian and the others followed the man.

Their tactics were simple. Confuse the enemy with pellets that released a smoke with fumes that clogged their throats and masked their scent, then attack. Gao Zhou would take on the Greater Wind Wolf, while Wu Jian, Xing Zhenya, and the others defeated the normal magical beasts.

Wu Jian showed no hesitation as he plunged into the smoke and attacked the first wolf he came upon. His fist connected solidly with the creature’s jaw, the loud cracking of its bones breaking echoing around the clearing. It yelped, tumbling along the ground, and Wu Jian didn’t hesitate to put it out of its misery with a swift kick that broke its neck.

Another wolf had miraculously spotted him through the fog and pounced, but Wu Jian ducked low, then came up just as it passed over. His punch connected to its belly. He had packed so much power into it that the creature was launched clear above the smoke. It soon came back down with a meaty thud and didn’t get back up.

The smoke soon cleared. Wu Jian looked around and saw that the others were still fighting against the wolves. Four wolves had been killed, including the two done in by him, which meant there were six left, including the leader.

Xing Zhenya wove between claw strikes with the experience of someone who had fought these creatures before. She didn’t attack at first, instead waiting for an opportunity to kill her enemy in a single strike. The moment soon came when it opened its mouth to release a blast of wind.

She threw her knife with incredible accuracy, catching the wolf in the mouth. The magical beast whimpered in pain. Xing Zhenya then raced forward as her prey tried to escape, but it wasn’t fast enough. The young lady soon plunged her dagger into the creature’s neck. It went in like a knife traveling through butter.

The others were also dealing with their foes easily enough, which meant Wu Jian had nothing to do but stand there and watch. He decided to watch Gao Zhou.

Gao Zhou was a fifth subrealm Anima Realm cultivator, which meant his strength was about equal to the Greater Wind Wolf, which was at the third or fourth subrealm of the Anima Realm. Magical Beasts were generally stronger than cultivators of the same realm.

While Gao Zhou lacked grace and technique, he made up for that with sheer brute strength. He swung the axe in his hands like it was a feather. Each swing seemed to tear apart the ground and forced the Greater Wind Wolf back.

The magical beast wasn’t going to let this slide and released several compact balls of wind that tore into the surroundings, but they didn’t hit Gao Zhou, who stomped on the ground. Walls emerged from the earth to block the attacks. Then he slammed his axe into the walls, creating a fierce storm of projectiles that pelted the Greater Wind Wolf.

He’s using the earth element to protect himself and trap the Greater Wind Wolf at the same time. That’s pretty cunning.

While the earth element was not the wind element’s weakness, it was strong against it. Earth was one of the greatest elements for defense.

While there were many elements, the five major elements were water, wood, fire, earth, and metal. Each element promoted and controlled another. Wood promoted fire, fire promoted earth, earth promoted metal, metal promoted water, water promoted wood. Wood controlled earth, earth controlled water, water controlled fire, fire controlled metal, and metal controlled wood. Other elements such as wind did not belong to the five elements.

It didn’t take long before Gao Zhou removed the Greater Wind Wolf’s head with his axe. Blood gushed from the stump of its neck as the body hit the ground, twitching several times.

“Young Lady, go ahead and store these creatures in your storage ring. We can salvage the parts from them later,” Gao Zhou said.

Xing Zhenya nodded and did what she was told. It was always amazing to see how the magical beasts disappeared like they were being sucked into a swirling vortex. Wu Jian had a storage ring of his own, but he still couldn’t use it because he lacked the ability to use chi.

Their haul this time was big enough that they didn’t need to keep hunting, so the group unanymously decided to travel back to Chenhou.

Yet before they could get far, several men surrounded them. All of them looked like ruffians. Their clothes had no uniformity and their features were rough. The only thing they all had in common aside from their lecherous grins was the golden boar symbol printed firmly on their chests.

“Dammit. We’re surrounded,” Gao Zhou muttered.

“Mao Yuhan?! What are you doing here?! What’s the meaning of surrounding us like this?! Do you think my father will stand for this?” Xing Zhenya asked.

Mao Zemin, who stood at the head of this group, grinned. “You don’t have the right to talk to my father, so allow me to answer you. It doesn’t matter what your father wants or does. If he gets in our way, we’ll just kill him. The only reason we’ve even let him live up to this point is because killing him would be more trouble than it’s worth… but that’s changed now.”

As the man spoke, Wu Jian eyed the figure standing in the very back. He was a hulking man. Gao Zhou was big, but this guy put even him to shame. He had thick arms, a powerful chest, and an even thicker neck. Two axes were held loosely at his sides. They were bigger than Wu Jian standing at his full height.

I feel an incredible sense of danger from this man. He’s not someone anyone here can beat.

“Brat,” the man said, eying Wu Jian. “Are you the one who beat up my useless son?”