The sun shouldn’t have set yet, but inside the Duskroot Wilds the canopy smothered the sky, turning afternoon into twilight. The air smelled of damp leaves and rot; every rustle carried sharp against the silence.

  Xiao Lei quickly got to his feet, muscles protesting, weak and trembling. His eyes narrowed toward the source of the faint sound but beyond the cackling remains of his small fire, the trees swallowed everything. The flames spat feebly. Jagged shadows leapt across the trunks. Then—two glints appeared. Eyes.

  They hovered at the edge of the firelight, unblinking. Slowly, they came closer, each step silent until the firelight caught the outline of a animal. Four-legged, low to the ground, fur as dark as night itself. Xiao Lei recognized it instantly from the clan records he’d skimmed: rank one spirit beast, Hollow-Paw Wolf.

  Considered a bad omen, they were drawn to the scent of recent death. Though scavengers by nature, they were apex predators to any below the Qi Awakening realm. Spirit beasts were not divided by fine gradations like humans; even the weakest among them were lethal. A newborn Hollow-Paw could slaughter a Mortal Vein cultivator with ease. Within a year, its strength rivalled that of a 2nd or 3rd stage Qi Awakening expert.

  The one before him was still very young. Its size—like that of a large hunting dog—but the eerie stillness in its movements marked it as a hunter confident in its power.

  Its breath misted faintly in the cold air, but no sound came from its paws. This was the trait that gave it its name—Hollow-Paw.

  Xiao Lei’s heartbeat drummed against his ribs. For some reason, the creature didn’t sense any cultivation from him; to it, he was simply prey.

  The Hollow-Paw advanced. Xiao Lei shifted back a step, every muscle in his body coiled. His mind screamed to run, but his legs felt heavy. Then, with no warning, the Hollow-Paw lunged.

  Instinct exploded through him. He dove to the side, the air splitting as the wolf’s claws raked where he’d just stood. Mud sprayed, and Xiao Lei scrambled up, adrenaline forcing his tired body into motion.

  He didn’t think. He ran. Branches lashed his arms. Roots caught at his feet. Shadows deepened. The forest closed in.

  Behind him, the predator gave chase. No sound of footsteps followed, only the occasional snap of a twig when it changed direction. The silence was worse than noise—each moment he expected teeth at his neck.

  Deeper and deeper he fled into the jungle, his breaths ragged, every second stretching into an eternity. Somewhere behind, the two ghostly eyes glimmered in the dark, never losing him. The Hollow-Paw was enjoying this hunt.

  Xiao Lei’s legs felt carved from lead, pain lancing through his chest as the world narrowed to the pounding in his ears. Not even the days when he trained on poles with weights strapped to his limbs had left him so drained.

  He staggered to a halt. There was no point in running anymore.

  The beast was toying with him, waiting for him to collapse so it wouldn’t even have to strike.

  Chest heaving, he turned back toward the suffocating dark. His forehead was slick, strands of sweat-soaked hair clinging to his face as though he had just stepped out of a bath. The air tasted of damp bark and metal.

  A few breaths passed. Nothing moved except the wind, a thin whisper threading through the trees. Then—there. Two pinpricks of pale light. Growing. Sliding closer, unhurried as death.

  Xiao Lei’s jaw tightened. His teeth ground together as he forced himself to stand straighter, meeting that approaching gaze. The creature emerged—gloom draped over muscle, fur blending into the night until only its eyes and the faint ripple of its movements betrayed its presence.

  It prowled around him, slow and teasing. As if inviting him to run again, daring him to cling to hope. Each step pressed against his chest like a drumbeat, yet the ground gave nothing away.

  The beast lunged. Xiao Lei moved. The world smeared into motion. Fangs sliced past his shoulder, missing by inches—but the tail followed, a black whip cracking through the air. It struck his side like a hammer, sending him crashing into a tree trunk. Bark split under the impact.

  Blood streaked from his lips as he slid down the trunk, the world swimming. Still, he dragged himself upright.

  The spirit beast didn’t press its attack. It stood a few paces away, head tilted, watching. Waiting.

  Xiao Lei staggered to his feet, only for the world to jolt as a massive paw slammed into his chest. The blow hurled him back, air tearing from his lungs. He hit the earth hard, a spray of blood leaving his mouth as claws carved deep lines across his torso. Not deep enough to kill, but deep enough to bleed him dry.

  Its ears twitched, catching the faint rasp of his breathing. Its claws pressed into the soil, leaving faint grooves that filled with dew. The tail lashed once, a black whip cutting the still air.

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  White-hot agony seared through him, burning white behind his eyes. His vision wavered, edges blurring. Yet through the haze, he forced his trembling hand to the wounds—fingers digging into the torn flesh. The shock wrenched him awake.

  And from that pain, the laugh came.

  It started low, a rasp barely louder than a breath, then climbed—broken, jagged—spilling into the night like something feral. The sound cracked against the trees, echoed between the trunks, and made the shadows shiver.

  The Hollow-Paw paused mid-step, one paw lifted, its muscles coiled. The laugh slid through the forest, wrong and wild. The beast’s eyes narrowed, its circling halting as if something in that sound gnawed at its instincts.

  Xiao Lei forced himself onto his knees, his head down, trembling but still laughing. Each breath was a knife, yet with every exhale, the laughter grew louder. It was the same laugh that had chilled the hearts of everyone in Fogwood Ridge, and now it rolled through the Duskroot Wilds like a challenge.

  The creature tilted its head, its cold eyes narrowing. It stepped closer, soundless as shadow, its muscles coiled like springs under the pitch-black fur. A low growl vibrated in its throat, but it didn’t lunge—something about this quarry was different.

  The boy dragged his hand away from his wounds, letting the blood drip freely to the ground. His fingers curled into the dirt, smearing red across the roots and leaves. Slowly, he pushed himself upright, forcing himself to stand straight. His breathing steadied—not from relief, but sheer will.

  Then he looked into the beast’s eyes and for a heartbeat, something primal in it flinched, as if recognizing a predator greater than itself.

  There was a strange stillness, thick enough to choke on. The air hung heavy, unmoving, as if even the wind dared not stir. Around him, the forest crouched in silence, every leaf, every shadow holding its breath.

  The Hollow-Paw circled, its movements slower now, deliberate. Each step sank into the damp earth, faint prints vanishing into nothing. Its cold eyes burned with suspicion, wary of the boy who stood bleeding yet unyielding.

  Xiao Lei no longer laughed. His chest rose and fell, every breath sharp against the pain, yet his gaze never left the wolf. The roles between them—hunter and prey—blurred with every passing second.

  From deep inside, something stirred.

  It was faint at first, a tremor beneath his ribs, then a surge that ripped through him like a storm. A sound cracked in his mind—sharp, final—the shattering of an unseen barrier. Qi roared into him from the air, a rushing tide that set every nerve alight.

  For three years he had clawed at this threshold. Now, in the jaws of death, it shattered. Qi Awakening.

  There was no time to rejoice. No time to even breathe it in. For with the surge came whispers—alien and familiar—flashes of knowledge unfurling in his mind like they had always been there, waiting.

  The knowledge wasn’t learned; it bled into him, carved into his bones by the awakening. Each fragment seared itself into his nerves, as if it had always belonged to him, only waiting to be unleashed.

  The hunter halted mid-prowl. Its head lowered slightly, hackles raised. Instinct screamed at it to attack, to crush the thing that now felt… different.

  Power coiled through Xiao Lei’s limbs, electric, weightless. Every breath felt sharper, every sound clearer, as if the forest itself had slowed around him. The wolf’s muscles tensed—and so did his, the space between them trembling on the edge of something impossible.

  It pounced.

  The world flickered. For a heartbeat, space itself wavered, bending like heat haze. The creature’s fangs snapped shut on nothing but air. Where Xiao Lei had stood, there was only emptiness.

  He now stood ten meters away, body still, as if he had been there all along. The spirit beast froze mid-snarl, its head snapping to him with a flicker of disbelief—raw instinct warring with fear and fury. The shift was not teleportation—it was as though the space between had simply been skipped.

  A low growl rumbled from the predator, vibrating against the ground. It prowled, uncertain, muscles tensed with snarling confusion, edged with fear. Its eyes narrowed at the boy who no longer seemed so fragile.

  Xiao Lei’s lips curved into the faintest trace of a smile. He knew this power. He had been waiting for this moment, for this release.

  Something deeper moved within him, more than Qi, more than flesh. Something rising from the cracks of his own. He felt it as a shadow under his skin, a presence that was his and not his. Knowledge flooded him in pieces—names, instincts, fragments of power—burning themselves into his bones.

  The predator hesitated. For the first time since the hunt began, the creature wavered, its cold, predatory stare flickering between aggression and something close to caution, for the boy it had been playing with—the fragile prey it thought would collapse—had changed. The tension stretched between them like a drawn bowstring, taut and trembling.

  Xiao Lei’s chest rose sharply, his shoulders trembling, his eyes burning with something darker than rage. He gave the wolf no chance to decide.

  His mouth opened.

  What came out was not a scream, not a roar, but a sound that seemed to tear at the very edges of the world. A corrupted howl, raw and broken, reverberated from his throat, vibrating against the trees, crawling into the shadows.

  Blood surged up his throat, metallic and hot, but he swallowed it back. The cry rolled out in jagged pulses, breaking the silence like cracks in glass, each echo clinging to the air long after the sound itself died. It was as if a wolf-call had been dragged through some shattered reality, distorted, played backward.

  The creature staggered. Its head jerked, muscles locking as if struck by an invisible force. A shiver rippled down its spine. The sound hit not its body, but its mind, clawing at its instincts and drowning them in fear.

  Xiao Lei moved.

  In the space of a heartbeat, he was no longer still. His body blurred, every step fuelled by the surge of unnatural strength that burned through his limbs, making his attacks and reflexes blaze hotter—sharper. This attack didn’t just cripple his opponents; it ignited him, even as it strained his own body from within.

  Ten meters vanished under his feet in a single breath—not through any ability, but through sheer, blazing speed.

  His fist slammed into the creature’s side, a brutal, bone-shaking impact that drove the Hollow-Paw into the ground. Earth cracked, leaves scattered, and a sharp yelp of pain burst from the wolf’s throat.

  The creature wailed, writhing, its claws gouging the dirt as it forced itself free. Staggering, it scrambled away from the boy, putting distance between them. Its breath came fast, a snarl rattling its chest, but beneath that sound there was something else—fear.

  Xiao Lei didn’t let it escape.

  The voice ripped from him again, louder, darker. This time blood spilled with it, streaking his chin, but he didn’t stop. The sound crashed against the Hollow-paw’s mind like waves against a crumbling wall.

  The spirit beast froze.

  Its eyes widened—not at Xiao Lei, but at the thing behind him—something vast, unseen, but whose presence gnawed at the edges of reality.

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  Destiny Reckoning. It’s set in the same universe, and you definitely don’t want to miss it, because the stories will eventually crossover.