Late at night, munching sounds echoed in the darkness of the servant garden. A black carriage was parked nearby, but its lantern was noticeably dark.

  Situated near the servant quarters and fields was a small and humble garden fenced off by a sturdy fence of scrap metal. Little decorated its interior aside from crops; there was only a small circle of rocks for campfires and a discoloured metal pot.

  Yue built it a century ago as she found the punishment for underperforming servants too harsh. At the very least, this garden allowed them to eat something a little more proper instead of kitchen scraps, albeit boiled without seasoning.

  Ren Hai wasn't too pleased about the arrangement and they had to come to a compromise, but that was a story for another time.

  But tonight... This little act of benevolence was being ravaged by a foul pest.

  The rabbit affixed its eyes upon a carrot plant, its gaze like that of a gawk. It disappeared in a flash and shot towards the stalk, ripping it out of the ground with a crocodile roll! Dirt flew everywhere, splattering the surrounding plants as well as the robes of poor Baiyun. It examined its prize happily, blasting the dirt off with bursts of qi.

  Munch munch munch...

  All Baiyun heard was voracious munching and plants being ripped up one after another. Being unable to see made this somewhat disturbing. He let out a sigh of frustration. How was he going to explain this to Yue when she returned? He took the rabbit here as a peace offering, but he could never have imagined how destructive it was! All across the garden, the crops were full of bite marks and pelted with soil.

  The rabbit had awakened its ancestral bloodline of being a agricultural pest, and this little garden would know its wrath.

  In the few seconds he thought to himself, the rabbit had already finished devouring the carrot, not even sparing its stalk and leaves. It rushed to the nearest lettuce plant without the slightest pause and resumed its act of destruction.

  Only after chewing through half the plant did rabbit finally pause its rampage.

  "Urgh... too full... stomach hurt." it said.

  Leaving the ravaged lettuce alone, it jumped to Baiyun's side and laid down happily. Gone was any of the fear it showed previously, and it even let him pick it up without resistance.

  "You're friend! Bad humans always chase me out of gardens!"

  Baiyun rubbed his temples in frustration. He had been so worried about what he would do to placate the rabbit, racking his mind to think of all sorts of methods... only for food to instantly satisfy its every desire. It almost felt like his resolve was being mocked by how quickly it had forgiven him.

  He left the creature on the ground and walked to a patch of sweet potatoes with a shovel in hand. If even an enlightened rabbit was such an idiot about food, perhaps he could use simple vegetables as bait or distractions at the beast border.

  They wouldn't be much use against carnivorous beasts, but omnivorous predators were common as spirit animals had quite the tolerant stomachs. And even if nothing took his bait, he could also roast them over a fire for a good meal.

  "Baiyun! Baiyun!" the rabbit suddenly called out.

  He sighed, bracing himself for a flood of chatter now that the rabbit's hunger was sated.

  "What is it?"

  "Wolf! Wolf!"

  Huh?

  Baiyun suddenly became alert. The servant quarters was a safe area protected by a beast warding formation, so how could any wild animals get in? Unless... a dismaying thought came to mind. It could be a tamed beast sent to assassinate him!

  The rabbit hurried got onto its feet, ducking its head and squeezing under his robes. Baiyun's eyes twitched as the rabbit peeked through one of the many holes, conveniently torn open by one of its comrades earlier today.

  Tsk. What was he doing, letting himself get distracted by things like that?

  Baiyun hurriedly unleash his divine thread. Without Yue nor the Lantern Spirit present, he was able to unleash it without worry of being caught. He retrieved his the Thousand Wills Ring and bit it with his teeth, arming himself with Ying Shi's artefact bow. Since there wasn't an opportunity to return it yet, he would make the most of it.

  Divine thread swung around haphazardly, but he sensed nothing. It seemed the wolf was simply too far away.

  "Order: shared hearing!"

  "Ek?"

  An immaterial connection appeared between him and the rabbit, and a strange sensation washed over him.

  He could feel the rustling of his robes, the flow of air through its many holes. He could hear his own heartbeat and the movement of his organs. Further outside, he felt the sway of grass and garden plants in the nightly wind.

  The power of a spirit rabbit's hearing was truly something. But it was no time to rejoice in its effectiveness; he shut his eyes and focused. Unlike the rabbit, he had no mastery of such hearing and struggled to find traces of the wolf.

  ...

  Off in the distance, he finally heard deft paws pushing grass aside, almost soundless.

  Baiyun quickly overextended his divine thread and shot it forward! He winced as his body trembled, but it was no time to hold back. It was only then when he sensed the figure of the intruder.

  Fully clad in leather armour and furs, the small figure of an animal inched forwards carefully. Its head was enveloped in a white mask-like helmet that lacked eyeholes, even its ears covered in horn-like cones. A latch allowed its mouth to open, revealing a pink tongue and sharp teeth.

  This... Baiyun was taken aback.

  It was a wolf from Martial Elder Guan Qiang's training temple! In fact, he even recognised it; it was the one he defeated in combat by shoving a mace into its mouth. A faint purple could still be seen in its mouth from the incident.

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  Ridiculous...

  Baiyun could not help but laugh faintly. He had been so wary, worried it was an assassin, but it was just a little pup back for revenge. He wasn't sure how it managed to track him down now of all times, but his worries slightly diminished.

  "Grrr..."

  A low growl came from the wolf as it heard his laughter.

  Baiyun's stance relaxed as he thought of how to deal with the situation. It was an opponent he managed to face long before he attained his physique, so he had little fear. In fact... perhaps this was an opportunity.

  It was certain he would have to face many beasts in combat later at the border. And now, a practice opponent had arrived on its own. An old memory came to his mind of his training at the Martial Temple as the wolf approached, pushing the gate of the fenced garden open.

  Back then, Earthquake taught him the Whirlwind Martial Art when he had first arrived. Due to the spirit's terrible teachings and his mortal physique, he was unable to harness any of its power. But now that his physique was strengthened by the Black Earth Elixir, this might be an opportunity for him to give it another go. His reflexes were still dulled, but he felt like he had begun to adapt to the slower movements of his body.

  He suddenly frowned as an odd thought came to him. Did he have a subconscious preference to only practice new arts mid-battle? Back when he first learned the bow, it was in combat against Sanguang.

  As Baiyun readied himself for battle, the wolf suddenly paused, its qi sense was affixed firmly onto his missing arm. Perhaps a bit too late, it had finally realised his injuries. Its eyeless mask acted as a blindfold for training, and qi sense at such low levels struggled to discern distant details.

  "Grrrrr!"

  The wolf let out a loud grunt of anger, before howling. He could guess its thoughts; it came here for revenge against him, not a crippled remnant.

  If it looked down on him just because of his injuries, he would prove it wrong. Baiyun slowly retracted divine thread as he put his bow away, blindness truly returning once more. The spirits likely kept watch at the borders, so he could not let himself get reliant on a sense he couldn't use.

  He took out scraps of cloth and tied them to his neck, the speed astounding for only a single hand. Now, he had a makeshift neckguard, mirroring his past self at the wolven trials.

  "What's wrong? Didn't you come here for revenge?" he taunted.

  The wolf snarled as he wagged the fingers of his lone hand provocatively. With how long it held a grudge against him and even tracked him down, it was clearly an enlightened beast. He was certain it understood its words.

  "Still not attacking?"

  Baiyun recalled one of the movements of the Whirlwind Arts. He dashed towards the wolf in a blur, spinning his body in a circular motion and launching a kick towards it!

  Faced with the surprise attack, the wolf merely turned its head, the attack shooting past it as it hopped aside.

  The only thing his attack achieved was exposing the rabbit beneath his robes, as he spun past the beast from his momentum. Baiyun skidded to a stop, his shoes digging into the earth.

  No. This wasn't right. When Earthquake demonstrated the Whirlwind Art, the earth puppet it summoned was launching blasts of air with every punch and kick. While his spinning motion did increase the strength of his kick, it was merely a move a street thug might have used.

  It wasn't because he lacked wind meridians either. Earthquake was a pure earth spirit, and he sensed no wind qi while watching its demonstration. He frowned. Exactly how did that martial art work? Was it perhaps fuelled by the strange "Martial Force" of this planet he did not understand? His complete lack of knowledge in physical combat was beginning to show itself.

  He did learn a few martial techniques to advance his understanding of alchemy in his past life, but they required physiques powerful enough to crush a mortal continent with the flick of a finger. Let alone him, no one on this planet could actually execute such arts.

  "What are you doing? Kill wolf!" the rabbit said frantically.

  It tried to flee moments ago but bumped into the 5 meter limit, so it could only hide behind him. All it could do was tug on his robes, not understanding why he was standing there with a frown.

  "Grrrr..." the wolf growled again.

  Baiyun felt its glare boring into him even without divine thread. It was a strange thing; he had lost his eyes and the wolf's own were covered by an eyeless mask. Yet, he could still feel its hostility as if through an unidentifiable sense.

  The wolf shifted slightly, then vanished in a blur.

  A person with sight would have been disorientated, but to one who used hearing, the fast movement only stirred louder wind! Even without his eye art, Baiyun had already reacted. He knew his body's reactions were too delayed to fully dodge it, so he turned his back and braced himself.

  Thump!

  A paw clammed into his back like a club, sending violent reverberations strong enough to crack mortal spines and disrupt organs. But Baiyun tensed his muscles in time and shrugged off the blow. Even if the wolf had extended its claws, it would only have left minor cuts.

  The tensed muscles were not merely for defence. He had already prepared a counter attack in advance to compensate for his delay, spinning around and focusing his momentum of his body into a powerful uppercut.

  A fist carrying the full might of the Black Earth physique slammed into the wolf's chin, sending flying several meters into the air! It howled as it crashed into the garden's fences with a loud metallic crash, tumbling to the ground.

  Baiyun frowned as he felt a sting from his wrist. His punches might be able to instantly split small trees, but the durability of the armour was far beyond that. And besides... this was not a good blow. He watched as the wolf stood back up, barely fazed by the attack.

  When Ying Shi pummelled another armoured wolf into defeat through repeated impacts, he did not send it flying a single time. It might be a spectacle to send the opponent tumbling into the distance, but that was a waste of momentum that greatly diminished the blow.

  Should he have angled his fist downwards then? But if he did, the impact might launch his lightweight body into the air instead. This headache was why body cultivators often wore heavy armour.

  The wolf seemed wary as it paced to the side. Baiyun decided to strike first. He bounded off the ground and rushed towards the beast with a flying kick, only for the wolf to quickly dodge like before.

  BANG!

  Baiyun's kicked struck the fence with a deafening echo. He had so much momentum the rest of his body was about to slam into the fence as well, but he quickly spun around and pressed his other foot onto the fence to brace himself. For a moment, he squatted sideways on the bending fence as if he was defying gravity.

  A quick thought entered his mind as the fence bent from the momentum. He used his squat and launched off the bending fence as if it was a springboard, launching towards the wolf with a spinning punch! Behind, a deafening rattle came from the fence as it dented from the impact.

  It was at such speed he flew that he could almost feel the wolf's alarm and the sensation of his fist striking armour. But just like before, the wolf ducked at the last second.

  Punch after punch, kick after kick, Baiyun launched countless moves of the Whirlwind Art at the wolf, his movements growing smoother with every attempt. Ever so slowly, he was gaining some level of proficiency with it. But the wolf learnt from his stiff attacks just as quickly, sliding and dodging every attack like a slippery eel.

  The exhaustion finally took hold of him after 50 attacks in quick succession, and he stopped to pant. Hah... were counterattacks the only way he could actually hit the wolf? Even with how much the Rock Ginseng pill and Vital Heart Brew had enhanced his stamina, on top of his soul passively mending muscle, he still had his limits as a mere Qi Gatherer.

  Baiyun thought back to when he first defeated the wolf by slamming a mace into its mouth, near the beginning of his journey. Had the wolf been so strong when he first faced it?

  No. While the wolf had gotten somewhat stronger, his victory back then was merely the product of his ridiculous reflexes and eye arts working in tandem, allowing him to use the wolf's speed against itself in a victory bordered on a fluke.

  Without that unfair advantage, the wolf was able to harness its superior speed to its full extent. Back in the forest with the Blackhorn Beetle, he had seen many beasts of similar cultivation, but their strength was nowhere close. The martial temple's training had truly created a monster.

  Baiyun shook his frustrations aside.

  He was fighting without a weapon this time, and the wolf's armour was unfair to begin with! If not for that, the powerful uppercut he slammed into its jaw would likely have knocked it unconscious.

  And with a moment to breath, he could feel his stamina quickly returning.

  There was no reason to get frustrated by the armour. It only meant the perfect punching bag had shown up.