"You can do this!" the young girl psyched herself up.

She had to kill the wolf if she wanted to cultivate. Bing Meilu had told her to increase her cultivation and there was no way she'd let the girl down! This was Xia Xuefeng's chance to prove herself to her mistress, that she could be useful even without the girl's direct oversight.

The wolf growled at her threateningly, black smoke wafting from its mouth. Perhaps an ordinary cultivator might find such a sight-threatening but...

"Compared to the demons from the Flesh Mountains... it's pretty cute,' she thought. 'If I didn't need the Blood Qi I might have tamed it.'

Within Xia Xuefeng's Dantian Ten Blood Crosses began to rotate, releasing a wave of rumbling, powerful Qi. With a thought. the crimson Blood Qi poured through her meridian system, saturating every cell of her body. It was a pure expression of raw power, utterly lacking in technique. A blood-red glow surrounded her body as some Qi leaked out. A low noise, like the howling of ghosts or the screaming of tortured souls, filled the air.

All of the girl's previously usable magical techniques only worked with her old cultivation manuals Yang Qi, and the only blood-based magical techniques she knew, which came from the Anthem of the Crucified, required a higher cultivation base. so she had to get by with this unrefined, raw Qi manipulation,

Before her the wolf demon tensed, sensing the danger. Its own cultivation was equivalent to the seventh level of Qi Condensation, but with the physical body of a demon, it was multiple times stronger than the average human of the same level. Yet despite the fact the human before it was merely in the fourth level of that realm, its strong predator instincts informed it of danger.

The wolf slowly retreated, resolving to find easier prey-

Xia Xuefeng burst towards the wolf, lashing out with a kick. The wolf leaped sideways, dodging.

Immediately it retaliated, bursting forward to bite down on the girl's leg. A second kick lashed out, connecting this time, and the wolf's head was knocked aside with a crack.

Blood leaking from its ear, the wolf began to furiously retreat, running away at full speed.

Xia Xuefeng cursed and she began to pursue her prey. Legs enhanced with even more Qi, she dodged and weaved through the forest like it was a playground, swinging on branches and kicking off trees.

She had practiced her acrobatics during her time showing off back in the village and honed them even further as a cultivator in the Bone Spike Forest of the Flesh Mountains.

Soon, she caught up to the wolf, leaping from behind, she grabbed it, furiously squeezing the wolf. Its claws swiped at her side, tearing a gash over her hip.

Blood leaked out from the wound.

Xia Xuefeng's grip tightened and within moments cracks sounded out as the wolf was crushed to death. It let loose a blood-curdling scream, a squishing sound filling the air as its internal organs ruptured one after another, a slurry of meat and torn organs erupting from the wolf's mouth like a jet of water from a bottle one had squeezed too hard.

Xia Xuefeng gasped, stepping back. A thick powerful Blood Qi filled the air, many times more powerful than any animal she had seen prior. A strong hunger filled her. She kneeled over the wolf's corpse, jabbing her hand directly into its stomach.

Immediately she began to refine its blood, a wet slurping noise filling the air as she drained dry its viscera. The rich, powerful blood flowed into her and she gasped at the intense surge of satisfaction that filled her as she began to refine the demon blood into Qi.

An eleventh, twelve, thirteen and fourteen Blood Cross formed within her Dantian, bringing her only one cross away from a breakthrough to the fifth stage of Qi Condensation. She would need fifteen for that.

Her mistress, Bing Meilu, had told her that reaching the fifth stage of Qi Condensation would allow her to utilize some of the magical techniques contained within the Blood Moon Spectral God's Anthem of the Crucified, rather than simply relying on wielding her raw Qi. So that was her current goal at the moment.

She spent a moment digging through the demon to find its Core, which she pocketed. While harvesting the meat and bones might be economically worthwhile, she instead preferred to head out further, looking for more prey. She was so close to the fifth stage.

With that decided, Xia Xuefeng continued deeper into the forest, looking for animals.

It was eerily bizarre how empty the forest seemed, to be honest. From her experience with forests, they were usually bustling with animals. Deer, rabbits, birds and all sorts of things. So far she only encountered a single animal, a demon wolf.

Bing Meilu had ordered Xia Xuefeng to raise her own cultivation whilst she cultivated in seclusion, and the twelve-year-old girl wanted to surprise her with just how much progress she made. She knew if she couldn't even find more than a single animal per day, that hope was dead. Finding blood and thus reaching the fifth stage today was a necessity!

'By the Heavens, this is taking forever. Can't I find some goddamn animals?'

It was only a few moments later, pushing into a clearing, that Xia Xuefeng's wish was granted.

Dozens of wolf demons lay in a clearing, fur stained with blood, eyes glowing red and wafting with black air. Still covered in the blood and scent of a pack member, all the wolves turned their heads towards the newly arrived girl, sniffing at the air.

Rumbling growls filled the air as the animals stood, baring their teeth.

'Oh fuck!'

Xia Xuefeng grimaced. She had found the answer as to why the forest seemed so empty of common prey animals. A whole pack of Demon Wolves?

That did not make much sense.

Demons were ordinary entities that awakened spirituality and began to cultivate, either from the ambient Qi in the air or due to stumbling into some kind of outside power source. They were more often than not insane and filled with an unquenchable lust for blood and power.

A whole pack going through Demonization and not killing and devouring each other?

'I have to get out of here,' Xia Xuefeng decided.

Whatever was the cause of the strange phenomena, it was likely beyond her pay grade.

She turned tail and began to run away at full speed, deranged bloodcurdling howls filled the air as countless feet pounded behind her. The girl did not dare to look back, focused fully on escaping.

'I don't think I crossed any so-called 'marked areas' and yet I still stumbled into such a danger! How unfair...'

She kept running and running and running, face white and nervous. Yet it seemed no matter how much she ran, the wolves were still behind her.

'Fuck! What direction was the end of the forest?'

She couldn't remember.

Gasping, sweaty and still bleeding from the earlier wolf fight, Xia Xuefeng found the sound of chasing wolves getting closer and closer.

'If I keep this up, I'm going to run out of Qi,' the girl realized. 'Then I would be certainly screwed. I have to fight them off. Maybe if I kill a couple they'll give up?'

Xia Xuefeng swung around, eyes narrowing.

Merely ten paces in front of her, the wolves halted their chase. Rapidly counting she saw twenty-eight.

They fanned out, surrounding the girl and letting out deep growls.

'Shit, shit, shit!' the girl lamented. 'I'm so utterly screwed!'

Blood dribbled down her side and an idea occurred to her.

'I'm so close to the fifth stage. Perhaps being able to use magical techniques will be enough to kill these wolves?'

Feeling desperate, she reached into her own dribbling blood and attempted to refine it.

"Aaargh!"

An utterly horrific pain rose up in her as her Qi went wild, explosively shaking around her meridian system. Before any permanent damage occurred, she immediately stopped, face pale and gasping for air.

The wolves had yet to attack, still warily eying her, but she could see a cruel light in their eyes. they could sense her injuries. Xia Xuefeng coughed up blood but kept her face steady to not show any weakness

'Well, that was a horrible idea!'

The wolves seemed to grow tired of waiting, and five leaped toward her at the same time, fangs bared!

Xia Xuefeng narrowed her eyes, she stepped forward and launched a powerful punch directly into the nose of one of the wolves. An enormous wave of Qi rippled through her arm, reinforcing her strength to the point the wolf's skull caved in, brain and blood exploding outwards.

However, unskilled as she was, she had failed to properly reinforce her durability as well, and she felt her left arm pop out of its socket, a ripping pain shooting through it.

The others four surviving wolves landed their attacks, teeth tearing into her legs and thighs.

Their fangs tore into her flesh and she screamed, kicking her legs trying to force them to let go. She slipped on wet blood, falling onto her back as the four wolves tore and bit at her legs and thighs. She could hear several other wolves running toward her as she screamed hoarsely.

Xia Xuefeng's Dantian whirled as she desperately drew in the spattered blood of the one wolf she'd killed She gasped, refining it into a blood cross with every bit of her will, even as she could see a wolf closing in towards her neck, mouth wide to tear open her throat.

An explosion of power flooded through her as she reached the fifth stage of Qi Condensation. Red Qi blasted away the wolves around her, though her legs were horribly mauled at this point.

Her fifteen Blood Crosses, which previously had floated around her Dantian, gathered together in a formation, links forming between them as they circulated power.

Now, having reached the fifth stage of Qi Condensation, she could use magical techniques.

'Blood Qi, from the seventh meridian to the tenth, to the seventy-first-'

Battle Art - Blood Demon's Whirlwind.

Around Xia Xuefeng, blood began to swirl, some of it pouring into her wounds and restoring her vitality.

She sprung to her feet, a nail appearing in her hands.

Battle Art - Impaling Nail of the Crucifix

With a seemingly casual swing, she tossed it. The nail of blood slammed into the shoulder of a wolf, sending it flying. The nail impaled through the wolf, affixing it to a tree. A second nail followed, ripping through the wolf's throat. Immediately its body shrivelled as the blood from it was pulled out, a river of its blood flowing over to Xia Xuefeng, soaking her robes and glowing with red Qi as it hardened into an armoured shell.

Battle Art - Red Lotus Dress

A third nail appeared in her left hand. In her right blood swirled and gathered. Slowly it stretched out, taking the shape of a chain with a nail at the end.

'Two killed, five stunned, 21 uninjured' Xia Xuefeng thought.

She burst into the attack, launching nails, at the wolf pack, while swinging her chain of hardened blood at any wolves that came too close.

Tearing through the wolf packs one died after another, and with each kill more and more blood swirled in the whirlwind around Xia Xuefeng, knocking aside wolves. This was one of the main strengths of blood cultivators. The longer a battle continued, the more powerful they became. Given she could heal and re-energize herself with blood, the young girl was like an undying demon once the fighting had started.

She launched her chain nail forward, impaling it through a wolf, which she ripped in half, even as she tossed a nail of crucifixion at a second wolf, ducking to doge a claw swipe from a leaping third wolf.

As Xia Xuefeng slaughtered wolf after wolf, she heard an enormous roar fill the air.

A massive wolf, the size of a horse seemed to appear from the shadows. Though Xia Xuefeng still lacked the ability to utilize spirit sense, its sheer size made its higher cultivation than the other wolves obvious.

It barreled towards her, each furious step causing nearby trees to shake.

Xia Xuefeng looked around. One Alpha wolf, Five uninjured wolves, six injured, and the rest were dead.

She inhaled, before leaping forward to meet the alpha. Its paw slammed toward her but was pushed away by the Blood Demon's whirlwind.

Xia Xuefeng's blood chain lashed out, stabbing into the demon's eye. It screamed and the fog around its body condensed forming a floating rune.

The rune shot toward her, exploding into a black fire that began to burn away at her blood whirlwind.

Xia Xuefeng severed that part of the whirlwind, stopping the spreading of the flame. At the same time, she launched five nails into the wolf's flesh.

They dug in, causing the alpha wolf to let loose a scream of pain, but didn't do any fatal damage.

Grimacing, she ducked under a ferocious leap, slicing her chain across the beast's belly.

Its tail whipped, smashing into her and sending her flying. Pain filled her chest monetarily before blood surged into her, filling her with an even stronger vitality before.

The wolf spun around, eyes red with fury as it charged her, jaws wide, intending to crush the human interloper.

Xia Xuefengs chain rose into the air and she slashed it forward, directly into the wolf's mouth, a huge surge of her Qi empowering it. Crimson Qi flooded from her Body Cross Diagram, making the chains glow a deep red.

With the screeching sound of the air being torn, dozens of blood spikes erupted from within the wolf's stomach, ripping it into pieces. Even a Foundation Establishment Cultivator might have trouble releasing such an attack.

At the end of the day, The Anthem of the Crucified was the precious art of an ancient God felled before time began. It was normal for Xia Xuefeng's power to be so much higher compared to others of her level.

"I- I did it!"

The girl out a whoop of joy, before ducking as the elven wolves once more assaulted her

After that, she made quick work of the remaining wolves, looking down at the forest floor flooded with several inches of blood and gore, wolf heads and limbs littering the soil.

'Time to cultivate?'

Xia Xuefeng could only laugh at the absurdity.

---

Xia Xuefeng trod towards Port Snake, dress soaked with blood so thoroughly one couldn't even tell it wasn't simply red naturally. A powerful Qi resonated from her. The eighth stage of Qi Condensation, with thirty-six blood crosses.

As she trod towards camp, a man flew towards her. A powerful crushing force seemed to slam into her, forcing her to her knees. This was the spiritual pressure of a much higher-level cultivator!

"You there!" he shouted, face severe. "What's a Demonic Cultivator doing in Port Snake?"

'Uh oh!'

The red-splattered girl immediately raised her hands.

"I- I'm not a demonic cultivator," she wheezed gasping for air.

The man snorted in disdain.

"Tell it to the judge, brat!"