Baiyun knew he could wait for the wolf to strike before counterattacking, but it was a problematic fighting style. It was fine against a single opponent in a safe setting like this, but this would be suicidal if he had to fight many beasts.

  The wolf seemed to also have realised that was his only way of damaging it, so it lazily awaited his next attacks. Annoying bastard...

  If he could not hit the wolf with its superior speed, he would have to change his tactics.

  Baiyun rushed in again and launched a spinning kick at the wolf, who had already begun to dodge. There was a certain complacency to its movement that held absolute confidence in its super reflexes. But he tucked in his abdomen with a sudden burst of speed, combining that with the momentum of the kick to launch himself at the wolf fist-first!

  The fist slammed into the wolf's mask from above with a loud bang, shock reverberating through its body as it was forced groundward. Its head struck the earth from the downward momentum, and it grunted in pain.

  Still airborne above the wolf, Baiyun unknowingly grinned even as his swollen hand screamed with agony. This time, he managed to channel the full impact of his attack without sending the wolf flying, dealing far more damage. But fighting bare handed meant that same damage was mirrored into his fist.

  The momentum of his punch spun his body even quicker; he took the opportunity to launch two consecutive spinning kicks downwards, slamming against into the wolf's skull with loud thumps. Fuelled by the rush of finally landing consecutive attacks, Baiyun spun faster in the air and struck again and again in a frenzy!

  A muffled howl of pain echoed, the wolf almost seeming helpless as the repeated impacts pinned it down.

  But with every kick, Baiyun spun quicker and quicker through the air until he became a blur. His mind spun and his consciousness grew fainter. Tsk! He disengaged his attacks and fell to the ground, violently tumbling several meters until he slammed into the fence with a deafening clang.

  The violent impact knocked the very air out of his lungs and made him splutter, briefly dazing him.

  Hah... to think it would be his own attacks that would send him flying. He had gotten carried away, but he finally understood an aspect of the whirlwind art; capturing momentum that would otherwise send him flying, to unleash rapid attacks that grew stronger the quicker he spun!.

  Baiyun wiped his spittle off his face and resisted the the urge to spew his churning stomach. Every organ of his felt in disarray from the sheer speed he had spun; he felt a mind splitting headache, unable to even tell which way was up.

  But with divine touch to sense the ground and his unaffected soul, he managed to stand up despite the overwhelming nausea. His body cultivation still had a long way to go before he could unleash the true potential of this art.

  The wolf got up as well, but its footsteps were unstable. Even with armour protecting it, the shockwaves from repeated strikes had taken their toll.

  "Had enough?" Baiyun said, hiding his weakness.

  Having flown out of range of the rabbit, it had become harder to discern the wolf's position. With his fist and legs swollen and red from the repeated attacks, he really wasn't in the position to fight for much longer either.

  But the wolf only snarled and approached with defiance.

  Sparks erupted from its body, the furs coating its leather armour glowing a brilliant white and standing on their ends. True fur beneath armour grew longer before fraying apart, spilling out into the air as razor-sharp fragments, lightning arcing between them and its body with threatening crackles!

  "Ekkk!" the rabbit cried in soulsense.

  Baiyun reached into his bag and tossed the large wooden bowl over the rabbit to protect it. It wasn't ideal due to flammability, but it was at least an insulator.

  In the combat trials, the wolves were not allowed to use qi against disciples that only fought with body cultivation. But such rules did not apply in a fight that stemmed from a grudge.

  That was fine by him. Wild beasts at the border would not hold back from using their abilities, nor would they have consideration for his tattered state. He would learn to fight while completely exhausted!

  And besides... a faint clink came from his mouth as he bit down on the Thousand Wills Ring. He chose not to use it previously, but he would not restrain himself now.

  Now that the wolf was on the offensive, Baiyun had no intention of letting it use its move. He took a step backwards to brace himself against the metal fence, then activated the ring.

  BANG!

  A barrier erupted immediately, slamming into the gate and launching him forward in a blur of speed. He pulled in his torso to spin mid-air, then swung his leg downwards with great force.

  This time, he was simply far too fast. The wolf had no idea he was capable of such a move and tried to roll away in panic, but that only exposed its underside. Baiyun's heel slammed downwards mercilessly, the immense impact sending shockwaves through them both!

  He winced as he felt small cracks in his bone, but he did not hesitate to slam his other foot down in quick succession.

  "Grahhh!"

  The wolf roared through the pain of the second strike, lunging forward with a vicious chomp. Even as Baiyun hurriedly retracted his leg, his delay allowed the teeth of the wolf to leave gashes on his skin before tearing straight through his robes.

  Arcs of lightning entered his flesh from the small wound, sparks surging through his entire body. But Baiyun only felt unpleasant prickles and muscle twitches. With the servant constitution reinforced by Black Earth, these were nothing but paltry sparks. He could even survive a lightning strike!

  Freed from underfoot, the wolf hurriedly got up to its feet, though somewhat confused and disorientated. It spat out a droplet of blood before growling, intensifying its lightning further.

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Tsk. Baiyun didn't activate the barrier to shield the bite because he wanted to continue his assault without being launched away, but the wolf recovered faster than he expected and nearly chomped on his leg. He supposed it mattered not.

  With killing intent in the air, the two of them rushed towards each other once more!

  Suddenly, spirit aura flooded the garden, crushing upon the two of them with subtle pressure.

  "STOP!" the lantern spirit's voice echoed through the garden.

  Instantly, the wolf froze. It let out a pitiful howl and dispersed its lightning, fleeing into the distance with astonishing speed, the last of the sparks fading from its armoured body.

  Without the wolf's presence to hold them afloat, its electrified fur tufts were blown all over the garden by the wind. Landing all over the plants, the sparks scorched the plants and ignited the dryer ones. The lantern spirit let out a cry of panic and shot around the garden, hurriedly absorbing all the flames and lightning tufts into its storage jade. In that short time, the wolf had already fled far into the distance.

  Fleeing so quickly... Baiyun mused to himself that it must have been stalking them all along, waiting for an opportunity to strike the moment the lantern spirit left.

  "What in the world? I leave for just a moment and immediately hear a loud commotion. Then it turns out you're being attacked by a sect beast!" the lantern spirit said in disbelief. "How in the world are you so unlucky?"

  Under a lightly scorched wooden bowl, the head of a rabbit suddenly peeked out like a turtle.

  "Hah! Stupid wolf is gone!"

  It kicked away the wooden bowl and lunged at the nearest carrot plant. Wasn't it full moments ago?!

  Baiyun took out the the Thousand Wills Ring from his mouth and returned it to his bag. It was a good thing the fight suddenly ended as he was nearing his limit against an enraged beast. But a small part of him felt like it was a shame, ridiculous as the thought was. The wolf's condition was no worse than his. Just another good hit and he might have been able to claim proper victory!

  "Look at you. You're covered in so much dirt and bleeding!" the spirit grumbled. "Hold still."

  It took out a salve from its jade and applied it to his leg wound, before feeding him an elixir of sorts. Baiyun nodded gratefully as he felt his wounds quickly patch themselves. He could have recovered them on his own with soul mending, but the gesture was still welcome.

  "Go wash up immediately!" the spirit huffed. "Urgh... she is not going to be pleased about this..."

  It flew around the garden and surveyed the damage anxiously. Many plants had been torn up and eaten, piles of dirt left everywhere from the rabbit digging up roots and tubers; the plants that survived its onslaught were covered in black marks from the lightning tuffs. Even the metal fence wasn't spared, dented and crooked from how much abuse Baiyun had put it through.

  With the lantern spirit's metal attribute, all it could do was to mend the dents in the fences and return them to their original state.

  Baiyun apologised to Yue silently. He couldn't think of any other way to appease the rabbit, since he was penniless currently. Besides, how would he have known its appetite was this voracious? The sudden attack of the wolf was also entirely out of his control.

  But this rabbit... something was up with it. He frowned as he yanked it into the air, surprised by how heavy it was. The creature had increased in weight by more than 10 times! He quickly examined it with divine touch as it stared at him in confusion.

  Previously, he didn't notice anything off when he did a rudimentary search. But with the sheer amount of food that stuffed its stomach, the distorted space within now revealed itself. Baiyun was baffled; since when did spatial traits manifest in animals so easily?

  The fish in his gourd that could survive inside storage bags, and his mole that remained unharmed even after sticking half its body in. Twice could be a coincidence, but it was beginning to seem like spatial traits truly were commonplace.

  Back in his old world, such traits were almost never seen in nature and usually required enlightenment of Spatial Daos. For such a small and insignificant world to have such oddities... Perhaps the higher worlds had missed out on many opportunities by rarely descending to mortal planets.

  The lantern spirit cleaned up the garden as best as it could as Baiyun thought to himself, musing that it needed to consult a wood spirit for this. It turned to him and finally noticed he was standing there for some reason.

  "Don't you young humans need a lot of sleep? It's already past midnight, so go get some shut-eye!"

  A carriage crashed into the ground from its jade, and the spirit quickly ushered him in with invisible hands, the rabbit tossed in right after. Baiyun stood speechlessly as the door shut behind him, the grumbles of the lantern spirit still audible outside.

  Hah... he supposed he would have to rest. It wasn't as if he could explain how he didn't actually need sleep. But just as he placed a textbook under his head as a pillow, he heard the rabbit prance over.

  "Baiyun! Let's talk!" it said.

  ...He stared at it speechlessly.

  "Yes, yes..."

  Now full and content, the rabbit prattled on and on about random nonsense and its various misadventures back at the martial mountain. Baiyun played along but sighed deeply on the inside. Weren't rabbits supposed to be quiet animals that only let out shrill shrieks in the face of death? He wondered if other rabbits had as much to say if they had voices.

  It was an hour later when the chatter finally came to an end, much to his relief.

  On the soft seats of the carriage, the rabbit tucked its paws beneath its body in contentment, its ears lowered onto its back as it slept. Baiyun wondered if it was little comforts like that which held the most sway over domesticated beasts.

  He laid back down on the textbook and resumed his nightly read.

  The night sky was dark, moonlight hidden by a sea of clouds. Hours passed uneventfully until he sensed something. The lantern spirit left the carriage and flew off, seemingly waiting for him and the rabbit to fall asleep before leaving. He was once again freed from the watch of spirits.

  For it to leave a 2nd time in such a short time... Baiyun figured this likely wasn't because it was looking for wood spirits to mend the ravaged garden. With how turbulent things in the sect were, there were likely important duties it had to juggle on top of supervising him. Though at least he had the carriage to protect him from sudden attacks this time.

  Hours ticked by as he read, and morning soon came. The light of dawn should have been his cue to rouse, but he heard a commotion far in the distance.

  Loud hurried footsteps struck earth with unnatural force, clouds of dirt stirred into the air. This sounded oddly familiar... Baiyun was puzzled for a moment, then realised it was the footsteps of Qinghe's mechanical bird chariot!

  He frowned. What was she doing here? The court forbid him from meeting with any clans!

  Not long after, the chariot came to a stop beside the lantern carriage. Servants hard at work gawked at the sight as Mohei and Qinghe left the doors. They had never seen young masters visiting this rural area, much less a strange beast made of metal! The only other cultivators they had seen were grumpy middle-aged cultivators disgruntled by their jobs.

  "Baiyun!" Mohei shouted as he ran over.

  He suddenly stopped and glanced around nervously.

  "The lantern spirit isn't here?"

  Mohei knew of the lantern spirit? It seemed others knew of who was supposed to be monitoring him.

  "It flew off to do something last night and left me here. So I'm stuck here now." Baiyun shrugged.

  "Ah! So irresponsible! Hnnnn..."

  Mohei tugged harder at the handle, shutting his eyes from the strain as he pulled with all his might.

  Behind him, Qinghe finally caught up. She yanked him off the door unceremoniously and examined it herself.

  "Hey!" Mohei shouted.

  "This is such a bad idea..." she sighed.

  She shut her eyes as she imbued qi sense into the metal, muttering something to herself. Then she pulled out her staff and poked at several spots on the door, until...

  Click!

  The door swung open smoothly. Qinghe smiled smugly to herself for a moment, then returned to her usual neutral expression.

  First the wolf and now them... Baiyun felt speechless, thinking there were certainly were many who exploited the carelessness of the court.

  "Whoa! When did you learn to do that?" Mohei asked.

  "Nothing but simple formations studies." Qinghe said. "Now, Baiyun. We have important business at hand. Let's finish quickly before we get caught."