Chapter 4
A pale, jade-like soft skin, tainted with the dark, dried blood of both human and beast, lay on the ground. A slight movement of her chest was evidence that the woman was still alive. When Shin Jiao got a good look at her bloody face, he realized the girl looked to be only in her teens—perhaps 18 or 19 years old.
She suddenly moaned, causing Shin Jiao to jump to his feet. He quickly went to her side, checking her pulse and breathing. He then applied first aid to her wounds, checking for any ruptured veins. Finding that she was stable, he began to bind her wounds with strips of her clothing to prevent further blood loss.
Since he couldn't move or carry her carelessly, Shin Jiao first made a simple stretcher from some tree branches. His enhanced strength made it easy to carry her into a nearby cave without a hitch.
Once inside, he carefully placed the wounded girl on a bed. As her condition had stabilized, which was evident from her now calm and regular breathing, he decided to go back outside. He wanted to gather the remaining carcasses, as it would be a waste to leave them there. It took him a while to find and gather every carcass in the area. After some time, he thought he was finished and began to head back.
Suddenly, Shin Jiao was rooted to the ground upon seeing a towering wolf staring at him with bloodshot eyes and baring its long fangs. Although it had wounds all over its body, it could still stand on its four limbs, so it could still fight.
Seeing that he couldn't prevent the clash between himself and the wounded, crazed wolf, he gripped the machete in his right hand tightly as he took a fighting stance.
Upon seeing the human preparing to fight, the wolf seemed to snort in disdain. Unbeknownst to Shin Jiao, the beast was truly looking down on him. In this Daemon forest and cultivation land, Gubu had forgotten to tell him that mortals were considered trash and were disdained even by beasts.
As if insulted by facing a mere mortal, the wolf rushed forward and slashed its claws, wanting to tear Shin Jiao apart as quickly as possible. When the wolf began to move, Shin Jiao discovered that its actions were a little slow. He could actually follow its movements, which made him feel excited. With this discovery, Shin Jiao became confident that he could face the creature without a problem.
As the large, dagger-like claws of the wolf came closer, Shin Jiao calmed himself. His experience in fighting and killing from his life on Earth suddenly kicked in. His eyes and temperament changed; from being a meek lamb, he suddenly turned into a large and ferocious lion.
The thick killing intent surrounding him startled the wolf, but it was already too late for it to retreat. Then, with a quick downward slash, Shin Jiao was able to cut the attacking limb of the wolf. This made the wolf immediately howl in pain as it fell to the ground after losing its balance.
With a quick move, Shin Jiao stabbed toward the wolf's head. But the wolf was able to see his move and dodged the strike by a hair's breadth. Still, the stone machete hit its neck, though the wound was too shallow.
Shin Jiao jumped back to distance himself from the beast. Luckily for him, he moved quickly, as the wolf suddenly lashed out its other front paw.
Seeing that it was at a disadvantage, the wolf began to show a hint of fear toward the young man. Its previous ferocious eyes began to show reluctance and dread. But since it was still a mindless beast, it once again raged and wildly attacked him. Although limping, its power did not diminish, as the trees it hit shattered into hundreds of splinters.
Shin Jiao now noticed that the wolf was actually different from the carcasses he saw. Its fur was darker, and its head was a bit bigger than the others.
"This might be an alpha… This explains things then," he muttered.
Truly, the wolf's attacks were vicious and wild. Shin Jiao dodged as quickly as he could, waiting for an opening.
Then all of a sudden, the wolf opened its gigantic jaw and tried to bite Shin Jiao. He quickly dodged the attack and found himself on the wolf's right side. He now had an opening and quickly slashed upward, tearing the wolf's stomach open. But before Shin Jiao could be happy, the wolf's hind leg suddenly lashed at him like a whip, catching him off guard. He wasn't able to dodge and was sent flying toward a tree.
Although Shin Jiao's body was already strengthened, it was still not strong enough. After the impact, some bone-cracking sounds were heard. His left arm and right leg were broken, and some of his other bones were cracked.
Shin Jiao coughed a mouthful of blood as he gritted his teeth, trying to prevent himself from fainting as tearing pain assaulted his consciousness.
The wolf looked at him as if smiling, satisfied with the result of its sacrifice. It slowly lowered its head, and its eyes gradually closed. Its torn stomach bled profusely, with its innards gushing out. Then the giant wolf fell to the ground with a loud thud.
Shin Jiao looked at it as it died, while he himself felt pain all over his body. He knew the danger of staying in the open, so without a choice, he pushed himself up and dragged his aching body toward the alpha wolf.
He then took its carcass into his spatial ring and sluggishly crawled toward the cave.
"Arrgghh… This is some shitty situation I'm in. How would I close this cave now? Damn…" Shin Jiao thought for a while.
Then, looking at the water source, he decided to crawl and try to drink first as he felt parched after the fight. After drinking, he tore a part of his shirt to wipe the blood from his face with difficulty. He then lay flat on the ground near the water source and fell asleep.
An unknown amount of time passed before Shin Jiao woke up. The pain in his body was now gone, and he felt that his body had already recovered.
"Did my body just heal itself? This is amazing… but…"
Shin Jiao suddenly noticed that the sphere in his dantian had two empty sections, and the last one had ¼ of its contents remaining.
"Oh, so this is my auto-recovery ability. I will spend natural energy to rejuvenate and heal my body… Haha!" he chuckled.
After checking that nothing was wrong with his body, Shin Jiao's gaze went to the girl on the bed who was still asleep. When he was about to stand up, a loud gurgling sound came from his stomach.
"Geez… I guess I need to eat something first. Hmmm… I have a lot of wolf meat in my ring. Let's try barbecued wolf meat then." Shin Jiao said with a grin.
After closing the cave, he started a fire using some wood he gathered from outside. Like a practiced chef, he prepared a portion of wolf meat. Since he wasn't sure if these things were edible on this planet, he prepared a small portion first. Not long after, a delicious smell of grilled meat permeated the air.
"Okay, I think this is good to consume. So… here goes nothing." Shin Jiao steeled his resolve and took a bite of a chunk of meat.
"Wow, this thing is delicious! I didn't even use any condiments or salt, but this tastes heavenly." He exclaimed with his eyes wide open.
It didn't take him long to devour the portion of cooked meat. Feeling a little satisfied, he decided to continue cooking, as the small portion was not enough for him. But when he was about to take out another piece of meat, Shin Jiao felt a strong burning sensation in his stomach.
"Ow, shit! What the hell… This is… Arrgghh…" Shin Jiao cursed as an excruciating pain suddenly assaulted him.
Then he realized something: a large amount of natural energy was entering his body through his stomach, and it was causing him pain. If he didn't absorb it, it might cause his stomach to explode as the rampaging energy began to grow stronger. So he quickly channeled all his concentration toward absorbing the energy within him. Large beads of sweat appeared on his forehead as he endured the torment. But because of his perseverance, he was able to absorb all of the energy and found that the sphere in his dantian, where ¼ remained, became ½, and his body began to show traces of recovery.
"So, that's the way it should be… Every time I eat something, I should absorb it so that I won't waste anything."
With that realization, Shin Jiao continued to roast meat until he regained almost half of his constitution. As it still took him a lot of time to absorb the raw energy from the meat, he decided to stop.
"Ah, that was a satisfying meal." He said while rubbing his stomach.
Then he looked at the girl on the bed and noticed that she was still covered in blood. And the cave now had the smell of rusty metal and grilled pork. This made him feel a little uncomfortable, so he decided to clean up.
As a man from modern times, Shin Jiao was used to living in a clean environment. The only time he would become untidy was when he was experimenting or busy doing something.
He first removed the fire and the dregs on the ground. When they were removed, Shin Jiao found that the smell suddenly disappeared. He then noticed that there was a small opening at the top portion of the cave near the dim light, which looked like an exhaust vent.
Seeing that everything was good, he took a quick bath near the water source, cleaning the bloodstains from his body.
"Ah, that was refreshing!" he exclaimed as a cool, refreshing feeling enveloped him.
"Oh, crap! I forgot to clean her wounds. If I let it be, it might lead to infection." Shin Jiao muttered as he remembered the girl still covered in blood.
Shin Jiao was not new to seeing a naked female body. Plus, in his previous job as an agent, he had even handled some of his female comrades' wounds. So cleaning the girl's body didn't arouse any malice within him.
He carefully wiped the bloodstain from her face. After removing the dirt and blood, he realized that the girl's peerless beauty slowly emerged. But he still continued cleaning her whole body without a fuss.
"I can't let her stay like this; she's almost naked." he thought after seeing the exposed white skin in front of him.
"Let's see… Ah! The wolves' fur could be a great source of clothing. That would do…"
So, he took out one wolf and skillfully removed its skin. Then, using what he had learned from the jade strips, he drew some runes directly onto the wolf skin, which quickly absorbed the remaining blood in it. After some time, the blood and the smell on the skin were removed, and the wolf skin turned dry and soft. He then turned them into a simple robe to cover her bare skin. He even made some underwear for her.
Because of his habit of forgetting to think while working, Shin Jiao didn't realize that he was already crossing a taboo between males and females. But he didn't think twice and just acted on his idea, covering the woman's body.
"Sigh… okay, I'm done… You…" Shin Jiao was suddenly tongue-tied upon seeing the beauty in front of him.
Though there were beauties on Earth, nothing could compare to the woman's peerless beauty. Plus, she had a perfect and curvaceous body.
Shin Jiao just stupidly looked at the girl's face for some time. Then he woke up from his stupor and cleared his throat. To distract his mind, he decided to move away from the bed and began thinking about the things he had learned and the fight with the wolf.
"Well, so far, I don't have to worry about food anymore. The only thing I have to worry about is the improvement of my strength… Hey… wait a minute. Those wolves have something like a core, right? According to Gubu's records, each beast has a core in its body…"
So, without dilly-dallying, he quickly took out the one he had just skinned and checked it. There he found a small, pebble-like gem; the transparency of the gem signified the beast's level. Since it was light red, it meant that the wolf was only at the 1st level, or in the Body Refining realm, according to humans.
"Let's try absorbing this thing. If the record is correct, this would provide me with some amount of energy."
So, Shin Jiao slowly drained the core, as its raw energy coursed through his body and into the sphere in his dantian. It took him some time to absorb it, but he realized that when absorbing the raw energy from the core, he didn't have to balance it, as it was already perfectly mixed by itself. So he just greedily pushed it into his dantian.
After finishing, a satisfied smile crept onto his face.