The cave smelled of burnt iron and fresh blood when Raqin entered, dragging the massive corpse of the wolf behind him. Its eight eyes were still open, glimmering with a faint malice even in death.
Eva wrinkled her nose. "Why did you bring it back?"
Raqin dropped the body with a thud. "This thing didn't die like normal. Even split in two, it clung to life for fifteen minutes. That itself deserves some research to find its value."
He cut open the wolf's chest with a precise slash. A faint glow pulsed within — a jagged crystal core, black with threads of crimson.
Uncle Lucas stepped closer, eyes widening. "It ca—can't be… your father one told me about something like this. A theory we never got to prove. That if you soak your body in a diluted crystal pool… or consume the flesh of a true core beast…. The body itself might transform."
Eve tilted her head, smirking. "So you want us to brew soup and build a bath out of wolf guts? Sounds disgusting."
Uncle Lucas barked a thunderous laugh. "In this world of the strong preying on the weak, you need to have guts, girl. The core, mixed with water. It might enrich the marrow. The flesh, if cooked right , should strengthen the muscles and physique."
Raqin thought for a moment, then looked at the two prisoners chained against the wall, bruised and bloodied from interrogation. "We already have two perfect test subjects."
The twins, as well as uncle Lucas exchanged a glance and grinned.
A day later, they carved out a shallow indoor pit in one of the side chambers of the cave, lining it with stone. Raqin dropped the core into a basin of water . The liquid, turning faintly red and releasing steam.
Meanwhile, Eva skewered chunks of wolf meat over a fire, the scent filling the chamber.
"You'll…rot in the pits of hell for this." The first prisoner snarled weakly. Uncle Lucas just kicked him toward the steaming pool. "Get in. Or I'll break your spine and toss you in myself."
The prisoner stumbled, then sank into the red water. He screamed, his skin bubbling, muscles twitching as veins turned dark red.
Eva shoved roasted meat into the second prisoner's mouth. "Chew and swallow. Or I'll sew it into your stomach."
He gagged, but the moment he swallowed, his body convulsed, veins bulging with new strength. Both prisoner, within minutes , looked less like broken captives and more like feral beasts—muscles swelling, eyes wild."
Eva gasped. "It works…"
Uncle Lucas grimaced. "Too well. But their minds are gone due to the torture."
The prisoners roared, breaking their bindings, but Raqin stepped forward. His sword hummed with qi, slicing both heads clean in one motion.
Raqin indifferently swung his sword wiping the blood of its blade. "We've proven the theory. Now they'll serve better for my future experiments."
During the process of the experiments. SAM's voice chimed in Raqin's mind. /Analysis complete. Crystal cores and flesh of same beast indeed augment physiology. Recommend controlled exposure for your group. Suggest cybernetic integration of prisoners./
Raqin wiped his blade. "We'll hunt more wolves. Slowly, we'll use their cores and flesh to climb until we're strong enough for the alpha."
Everyone nodded, their eyes gleaming.
The next day. They had reached the ruins of the iron sky sect — now a desolate hunting ground.
The air stank of blood. Broken stone pillars jutted out of the ground like jagged teeth, smeared with crimson. Shadows moved among them — five massive wolves, their sleek pelts shimmering with a darkish silver luster. They were the wolves that emerged from the passage, the new apex predators of the island. Their jaws cracked bones like dry twigs as they feasted on the corpes of humans and beast men alike.
From the ridge, Raqin crouched with Eva and eve. His hand rested lightly on his sword, eyes narrowing, thinking to himself. "Five wolves with potential cores within them, levels two through 5 bone and tendon refinement realm….definitely not ordinary beasts. Their skin is tough than our guns can pierce, except maybe at the eyes or the mouth. Since they're distracted. Perfect for an ambush."
He glanced at Eve, who lay prone on a hill a few hundred meters away, her rifle already in position.
"Eve," he whispered through the communicator, "blind the strongest one. Aim for the eyes . Don't miss."
Eve's finger caressed the trigger, her breathing slowing to a calm rhythm.
"Don't worry. I won't miss. Big guy over there is in for a surprise."
The moment came.
CRACK!
The sharp thunder of a shot split the stillness. One of the massive wolves — the strongest, with jagged scars along its flank — jerked its head back, howling in rage as an eye exploded in a gush of black blood.
Before it could even orient itself towards the source —
CRACK!
The second eye burst. The beast's roar became a maddened shriek, its world was plunging into darkness. The other four wolves snapped their heads up, hackles rising, their feast forgotten.
That was the signal.
Raqin blurred forward, a streak of killing intent emanating from him. His sword gleamed like a shard of moon. With a swift and of sword force, light carved across the throat of a wolf. Blood sprayed high, but the beast, tenacious, lunged at him fangs bared.
He sidestepped with a smirk, his sword chopping down.
SWOOSH!
A clean strike severed the head.
Another earth-shaking roar echoed as the partially blind wolf stumbled, enraged.
Eva surged forward with her spear, her movements sharp and precise. She thrust, her spear force flaring in a burst of azure light. The spear pierced deep into the belly of the partially blinded wolf, its shriek cutting across the battlefield. Eva twisted, withdrew, and leapt back, regrouping with raqin.
At the same time. Uncle Lucas watched from the live feed in the cave, his hands trembling and he seemed to be in deep thoughts. "Weapon Qi… weapon force…. This should be impossible. Not even twenty years old, and they're fighting like seasoned masters. How could children of this generation wield such foundations? My nephew…what sort of monster are you?"
On screen, blood sprayed and steel flashed. Eve chambered another round, firing at a wolf that lunged toward her sister, forcing it back with a shredded ear. But the remaining four wolves had shaken off the surprise. Muscles rippled under their fur, killing intent radiating as they closed in from all sides. The battle was far from over.
The wolves went berserk. Their howls rolled like thunder, shaking the ruins. The strongest — partially blind, belly wounded, a limb torn —lashed its tail, the stinger slicing a boulder clean in half.
Raqin and the twins fought back-to-back. Sword force, Spear force, and cold bullets answered fang and claw. The battlefield was chaos — stone splintered, dirt flew, blood painted the ground in arcs. Eva gritted her teeth, thrusting again, only to be swatted aside by a wolf's paw. She rolled, coughing blood, but forced herself back onto her feet. Eve dashed in to cover her, twin dagger blades flashed, her movements graceful yet feral, slicing into the beasts' legs with quick, surgical cuts.
Raqin's breathing grew heavier, but his eyes burned with exhilaration. 'This…this is the kind of fight that tempers my sword. Skin refinement is only the beginning. My sword force must cut through everything, or it is worthless.'
With a roar, he cleaved downward, his strike cracking the ground as another wolf staggered back, its chest split open.
Uncle Lucas' jaw dropped as he watched. "Invincible against peak bone and tendon refinement human cultivators…these children are already invincible."
The strongest wolf shrieked, half its body ruined, but still standing. Rage twisted its movements as it lunged, forcing the three into a desperate defense. Their bodies were battered, blood streaking across their armor, exhaustion clear in their movements.
Then the communicator chief. Jill's voice broke through, urgently. "Big brother! A pack of fifteen wolves is chasing a group of survivors toward your position! They'll be on you in minutes!"
The words tightened the air.
Raqin's gaze hardened. He shoved Eva and Eve back. "Cover me. I'll end this."
From his storage, he drew a weapon — a sleek, experimental gun shape like a magnum revolver. Its design was archaic yet otherworldly, the barrel engraved with faint runes.
Eve's eyes widened even as she parried a wolf's strike. "Now? This wolves are as good as dead.."
"Exactly." Raqin loaded a single round — crafted from the bone of the previously slain wolf. He inhaled, compressing his sword qi into the bullet, the weapon trembling in his hand as if it would collapse under pressure.
He leveled the gun at the strongest wolf, who roared, charging one last time.
BOOM!
The explosion was deafening, louder than thunder. The recoil jolted his arm numb. When the smoke cleared, half its skull was gone. It collapsed, twitching, before falling still.
The twins froze, their eyes wide. "That.." Eva whispered. "That was…a gunshot?"
The remaining wolves panicked, bolting in s straight line. Raqin's expression was cold as he steadied the ruined magnum.
BOOM!
One shot, two kills. Both wolves collapsed mid-stride.
The gun crumbled in his hands, fragments of metal scattering onto the blood-soaked ground. No time to explain. Raqin waved the girls to him, storing the corpes in his spatial treasure and setting fire to the area to mask the scent of blood.
"Move," he ordered, his voice steady despite the exhaustion in his limbs. "Fifteen more are coming. This hunt is over."
The three disappered into the shadows, the flames hind them marking the battlefield like the scar of a war god's strike.
A week later. The cavern pulsed faintly with azure and crimson light. Raqin's runic inscriptions along the rocky floor had been reinforced with the marrow, powdered bone of the wolves, and arrays drawn from his newly-developed rune-language. The pool itself bubbled faintly, steaming with a metallic tang.
Uncle Lucas stood off to the side, frowning at the mix.
"Boy… this looks like poison more than cultivation medicine. Are you sure about this?"
Raqin smirked, though exhaustion lingered in his eyes. "Poison and medicine are two sides of the same coin, uncle. What kills ordinary men can temper cultivators. And with the wolves essence, we've got more than enough energy to push through our bottlenecks."
Eva was first to kneel by the pool, dipping her hand in. A surge of prickling heat crawled up her arm, making her veins glow faintly silver. "This…is so thick for a spiritual liquid. Almost like a swamp."
Eve stood behind her sister, expression calm but cautious. "Raqin, if this kills us, I'm haunting you."
Jill, the blind girl whose SAM and help of runes, whispered softly, clutching her brother's hand. "…it feels alive. Is the pool ….breathing."
Raqin nodded. "It should. I seeded it with all the cultivation resources we possess. The energy won't stagnate — we must endure the pain as it'll attack our flesh and meridians until they adapt. We either refine it, or end up crippled."
Uncle Lucas muttered under his breath. "Madness. Pure madness…yet brilliant."
One by one, they entered. The liquid burned like molten steel at first touch. Skin blistered. Muscles quivered. Then, slowly, they started stabilizing the pain to a steady rhythm — destruction and rebirth in cycles.
Raqin exhaled sharply as he lowered himself in fully. The liquid seemed to latch onto him and running his Dragon encapsulation technique at full capacity. Inside his dantian, the soul nexus core stirred, feeding the influx of beast essence directly into his meridians
"This is it. Run your techniques to the maximum. Don't resist fully — guide the energy. Let it break, then rebuild."
The cavern filled with groan, snarls, and muffled cries as the group endured the first cycle of refinement.
The process lasted hours. Then, subtle differences emerged.
Eva's spear based cultivation resonated with spear force mixed with her aura. Her body flickered with shadows of spectral spears, stabbing outward in rhythm with her heart. Her veins bulged, then smoothed, as her muscles tempered to a new density. With a roar, her cultivation surged past the bottleneck of the profound 10th level of the skin refinement realm to the bone and tendon refinement, 2nd level.
Eve's progress was stranger. The motion of two types of forces began to spread then fuse into one then linked to her heart beat. Every breath she took sent thin lines of light towards her dagger, condensing her dagger force. Her body hardened slower than Eva's, but her precision and speed has been elevated to a notch. She, too, broke through from the profound 10th level skin refinement realm to the bone and tendon refinement, 2nd level.
Jill convulsed violently, rays emitting from her eyes, flickering like broken lanterns. Then to everyone's shock, she started emitting scythe qi and her already blinded eyes started evolving into something new. A biotech or bio-organic eyes appeared, adaptation was instantaneous, feeding her a flood of data: heat signatures, flow of energy, even the pulse of her companions. For the first time, she gasped — truly seeing. Her soul force flared, knitting with her frail body. Though not as combat- ready as the twins, her cultivation leapt directly into skin refinement, 9th level, then stabilized.
Her brother held her steady, his own breakthrough slower, and steadier. His body thickened and gradually he too started emitting sword force. Breaking through to the skin refinement, profound 10th level.
Uncle Lucas was stunned silent.
Finally, Raqin. The pool swirled around him unnaturally, vortexes forming as if the essence obeyed him. The Soul Nexus Core in his dantian greedily devoured the energies, converting them into threads of sword qi. He clenched his fists, veins bursting with silver light.
Then — BOOM.
A faint sound like a sword being unseated echoed through the cavern . Sword force wrapped around him, sharper, purer than before, making the pool itself ripple with cuts of invisible energy. His flesh refined, marrow tempered, meridians reinforced to near-metallic toughness. He broke through — bone and tendon refinement, 3rd level in one leap.
When the pool finally stilled, the cavern smelled of blood, sweat, and ozone. Everyone collapsed on the stone floor, gasping, but their eyes burned with new light.
Raqin stood last, steadying himself with his sword.his lips curled into na thin smile. "This is only the beginning. With this pool…and our tailored cultivation techniques… we'll only grow faster."
Uncle Lucas whispered hoarsely, staring at the group. "Monsters…you're all monsters in human skin."
The twins only grinned at each other, weapons in hand.
"Sigh…children shouldn't be this terrifying." Uncle Lucas looked at the with amazement.