In the past 800 years of Wu Yue’s life as a wolf spirit, he had two great hobbies.
The first was fighting. However, most of the spirits on Nine-Move Mountain were foolish creatures. Usually, when Wu Yue glared at them with a fierce and intimidating look, they would flee in terror before he even had the chance to draw his claws. Wu Yue found it boring—killing them didn’t give him any sense of accomplishment. Eventually, he became familiar with their faces and couldn’t even be bothered to kill them anymore. So, he began chasing down the more vicious and ferocious animal spirits on the outskirts of Nine-Move Mountain, often fighting all the way to the desolate regions at the four borders of the spirit realm. Thanks to him, this battle-loving – spirit, the area around Nine-Move Mountain became unexpectedly peaceful, with no evil spirit daring to live there.
His second pleasure was more leisurely. When he had nothing better to do, Wu Yue would find a spot to lie down—whether on a cloud, a mountain peak, or a grassy field—it didn’t matter. He would comfortably stretch out and spit out his inner core, watching it float and spin for entertainment. As his cultivation grew stronger, so did his inner core, which became increasingly powerful. The golden light swirling around it grew brighter and more dazzling, floating up and down in mid-air, casting a golden glow over the entire surrounding area. Wu Yue found this immensely satisfying, and if no one disturbed him, he could happily watch it for days without growing bored.
Recently, however, a reckless snake spirit had arrived on Nine-Move Mountain. This snake spirit increased its power by absorbing the inner cores of other spirits, and over several days, it had killed quite a few smaller spirits.
The moment Wu Yue heard about this, he became excited. He hadn’t had a good fight in a long time, and his hands were itching for action. With full of enthusiasm, he rushed off, wanting to exterminate the snake spirit.
The snake spirit was not a easy opponent. It had cultivated for a thousand years, and after absorbing many small spirits’ inner cores, its power had greatly increased. For a time, it was evenly matched with Wu Yue.
The two spirits battled for days on Nine-Move Mountain, and the more Wu Yue fought, the more exhilarated he became. Fighting was his greatest pleasure in life, and now, with his interest piqued, he feared neither life nor death—only relishing the thrill of the battle.
However, the snake spirit gradually began to falter. Sensing that the situation was turning against it, the snake spirit twisted its body and burrowed into the ground, fleeing through the earth.
Wu Yue hadn’t expected the snake spirit to be a tunneler. He was unfamiliar with the underground terrain, and with the soil obscuring everything, he couldn’t sense the snake spirit’s energy, making it impossible to pursue. He crouched at the entrance of the hole for a long time, but the snake spirit refused to show even a sliver of its head. Wu Yue found it incredibly dull and had nothing but disdain for this style of fighting—escaping when you couldn’t win.
Nine-Move Mountain has no distinct seasons and was like spring all year round. That day, the sun was warm and nourishing, and life was flourishing everywhere, creating a scene of peaceful harmony. Wu Yue, guarding the hole with nothing to do, began sunbathing, and as he soaked up the sunlight, he started feeling a little restless.
In recent days, Wu Yue had spent so much time hunting that vile serpent that he hadn’t had a moment to appreciate his inner core. He glanced around; the afternoon sun over Nine-Move Mountain was warm, and everything was quiet—there wasn’t a trace of even a single small spirit.
Feeling at ease, Wu Yue relaxed, chewing on a blade of grass while lying back with his hands behind his head. His inner core floated gently in the air above his eyes, its brilliance even more dazzling under the sunlight.
Just as Wu Yue was feeling content, a sudden change occurred.
A dark shadow abruptly burst out from the ground beside Wu Yue. Before he could react, it quickly snatched the inner core that had been floating in the air.
Wu Yue moved almost simultaneously with the snake’s tail, his golden spirit power striking it, causing blood to spray out in an instant. However, the snake spirit seemed ready to sacrifice everything, ignoring the attack. It grabbed the inner core and, without hesitating, changed direction and fled.
Wu Yue was furious, his golden eyes flashing with cold fury as his killing intent spread out uncontrollably. The surrounding plants and trees, usually nurtured by the spiritual energy of Nine-Move Mountain and faintly sentient, trembled and swayed under the pressure of his spirit power.
With a furious roar, the ground trembled, and as the golden light faded, what stood on the grassy field was a tall, majestic black wolf. Its four limbs were powerful and muscular, and its jet-black fur gleamed in the sunlight, each strand distinct and radiant.
The black wolf’s golden eyes were filled with killing intent. With a mighty leap, it sprang forward, chasing in the direction the snake spirit had fled.
The snake spirit knew that a direct fight with Wu Yue would lead to certain death, so it had resorted to a dirty trick by snatching the inner core and fleeing. It figured that if it could refine Wu Yue’s inner core and absorb it for its own use, killing the now coreless great spirit would be an easy task.
As it fled, the snake spirit tried to channel its own power to devour Wu Yue’s inner core. However, the inner core seemed loyal to its original owner, fiercely rejecting the snake. The more the snake spirit attempted to absorb it, the brighter the core’s golden light shone, refusing to be taken in. After several attempts, the snake spirit not only failed to gain any advantage but also suffered significant backlash from the inner core.
The snake spirit was puzzled, not understanding the intricacies of the situation. But with Wu Yue hot on its tail, there was no time to figure it out. With no other options, it had to keep fleeing while stubbornly attempting to refine the inner core.
As for Wu Yue, the inner core was a vital object for a spirit, tied to the majority of their power. With his inner core out of his body for such an extended period, Wu Yue’s strength was not what it used to be. This left him and the snake spirit—who was busy running while also struggling with the inner core—on more equal footing. For the moment, all Wu Yue could do was chase the snake spirit closely, unable to easily bring it down with his claws.
The two great spirits continued in this way—one fleeing, the other pursuing—until they reached a place in the human realm.
Chuanki Mountain was part of a vast mountain range in the human world, with towering peaks that connected in a steep, treacherous line, almost like a natural barrier. Few people lived there.
At this moment, it was late spring, and Chuanki Mountain was lush and green, shrouded in mist and clouds, peaceful and serene. Suddenly, a deafening crash echoed down from the sky, shaking several mountain peaks. The mountains trembled violently, and birds and beasts scattered in all directions, terrified, creating chaos.
Wu Yue stood proudly and imposingly atop the mountain wilderness, his golden eyes fixed on the snake spirit across from him with disdain. “A filthy worm like you thinks you’re worthy of taking my inner core?”
The snake spirit had been yanked down from the sky by Wu Yue’s claws and thrown onto the mountain. Having suffered multiple backlashes from the inner core during its escape, it now looked rather disheveled. Realizing that this would be a fight to the death with no way out, the snake spirit quickly calculated its chances of survival and found them slim. It raised its head and called out to Wu Yue, “I’ll return your inner core—will you spare my life in exchange?”
Wu Yue looked down at the snake spirit from his elevated position. Though his spirit power was not at its peak, his commanding presence was undeniable. His eyes gleamed with deadly intent as he let out a cold laugh. “You think you’re in a position to negotiate with me?”
His tone was utterly disdainful, and the snake spirit, enraged, coiled its body and shot upward. The surrounding winds stirred, sending sand and rocks flying, and plants scattered. The snake spirit used its power to wrap Wu Yue tightly, trying to strangle him to death.
Wu Yue grew increasingly impatient. Back on Nine-Move Mountain, he had found some amusement in fighting the snake spirit, but now, with his inner core still out of reach, he felt irritable. He no longer wanted to toy with the snake and just wished to kill it quickly, retrieve his inner core, and return to Nine-Move Mountain to cleanse it in a spiritual lake.
His spirit power was no longer held back, and with a single swipe of his claws, he tore through the snake spirit’s constricting formation. His following attacks were all deadly, and before long, he seized the snake spirit’s vital point, throwing it to the ground where it lay motionless, the battle’s outcome already decided.
By all rights, Wu Yue could have retrieved his inner core now and ended things. But his roguish nature chose this inconvenient moment to surface. Instead of immediately reclaiming the core, he found the cold texture of the large snake rather enjoyable. One paw lazily pressed against the snake’s life point while the other batted its head back and forth, playing with it for amusement.
The snake spirit, gravely injured and unable to resist, was so humiliated it almost died of fury, its vertical pupils glaring at Wu Yue in rage.
“What?” Wu Yue drawled, “Do you have something to say?”
As soon as the words left his mouth, a sound came from the nearby bushes. It was faint, but Wu Yue’s senses were extremely sharp, and his movements paused for a moment as his peripheral vision caught sight of something.
The plants and trees that had been blocking his view were swept aside by his spirit power, revealing a man standing behind them. Though the plants had been cleared away, the man still held his hands in a pose as if parting the branches, his face frozen in shock as he stared, wide-eyed and slack-jawed, at Wu Yue and the snake spirit beneath him. The man looked utterly terrified.
“Pfft,” Wu Yue thought with disdain, “just a human.”
In several hundred years, Wu Yue had rarely visited the human realm and had never actually seen a human before. It was inevitable that he would take a second look at the sight. But in that brief moment of distraction, the nearly lifeless snake spirit made a sudden dash for escape. Wu Yue’s sharp claws ripped through the snake’s vital point, but at the same time, the snake spirit, with a desperate sweep of its tail, wrapped it around the frightened man and, in a flash of golden light, stuffed Wu Yue’s inner core into the man’s mouth.
The man’s face turned red as he coughed violently. In his shock, he swallowed.
Wu Yue: …
The man: …
It all happened in an instant. With its dying breath, the snake spirit had pushed its power to the limit, managing to transfer ownership of Wu Yue’s inner core right under his nose.
Wu Yue felt a bit helpless, even contemplating whether he should smooth down his now-disheveled fur. Was the snake spirit out of its mind? It had refused to return the inner core, but what could a human possibly do to him?
“What was the point of that?” Wu Yue yawned lazily. “It’s just a human. Kill him, and it’s done.”
The snake spirit could no longer answer; it was already dead.
The man, who had accidentally swallowed Wu Yue’s inner core, was trapped beneath the snake spirit’s massive body and was struggling to crawl out. He had almost freed himself when he heard Wu Yue’s comment, which made him freeze in place, scared stiff. After a moment of panic, he tried to retreat and squeeze back under the dead snake’s body.
As he clumsily tried to burrow halfway back under, Wu Yue easily grabbed him with one paw and lifted him out.
The man was covered in the snake spirit’s foul-smelling blood, which Wu Yue found repulsive. Without hesitation, he tossed the man to the ground nearby, lowering his head to stare at him as if inspecting a curious new toy. With the stark difference in their sizes, Wu Yue’s posture was one of supreme arrogance.
The man was clearly terrified, his face pale, his whole body trembling. With a stiff, awkward grin, he stammered, “I-I’ll spit it out for you right now…”
He didn’t care about the filth, immediately reaching to force his fingers down his throat.
Wu Yue hadn’t expected a mere human to swallow his inner core and still be alive and kicking, but he wasn’t particularly interested in that. He was just annoyed, thinking that once he returned to Nine-Move Mountain, he’d have to soak the inner core in a spiritual spring for a good ten years to purify it.
Not wanting to waste any more time, he yawned, arched his back, and pounced toward the man.
Huh?
Halfway through his leap, Wu Yue suddenly felt something was off. The man, who had his eyes tightly shut and was shivering moments ago, now seemed much larger. Before Wu Yue could figure it out, he plunged headfirst into the man’s chest.
The suddenness of it left Wu Yue momentarily dazed. He lifted his paw in shock, only to see a small, fuzzy ball of fur, with claws so tiny and delicate they resembled blades of grass.
Huh?
Wu Yue let out a furious howl, only to be met with the man’s cautiously opened eyes.
Their gazes locked, one human and one spirit, staring at each other in mutual bewilderment.