Falling Petals of Will
Lan Wu's breath was shallow.
The wind around him was faint now, thin spirals of air fluttering weakly at his fingertips like silk strands torn by time. His robes were scorched—charred at the shoulder, torn along his side, and spattered with crimson from the impact of the Thunderhand Tiger's earlier blow.
He leaned against the wide trunk of a plum-leaf tree, coughing blood into the grass.
" I'm… not done yet… I can't… fall here."
But his legs wouldn't listen.
He gritted his teeth, trembling fingers wrapping around his blade, knuckles white. The trees around him were silent. Even the birds that once sang had long flown from this cursed part of the forest.
He heard it then.
Heavy, crushing pawsteps.
Boom. Boom. Boom.
Crackling thunder accompanied each slow step like a looming storm stalking its prey.
Emerging from the morning mist, it returned.
The Three-Headed Thunderhand Tiger, the nightmare of the Verdant Hollow, strode into view. Its middle head, once wounded by Lan Wu's strike, now fully healed, bore not a scar. In fact, it looked even larger, more monstrous. As though their last battle had been… nourishment.
Its fur glistened with oily dark Qi.
Its claws left black scorch marks in the earth.
Lan Wu's lips parted. No words came. Just despair.
"It's stronger… I… didn't even…"
He turned, weakly trying to run. His feet moved only a few steps before the sky cracked, and a streak of purple thunder lashed through the air and struck his back.
He flew across the clearing like a broken kite, slammed into a tree, and collapsed face-first onto the grass.
Blood splattered from his mouth.
His limbs refused to respond.
He blinked once, then twice, his vision tunneling into a single thought.
" I'm going… to die… again… so weak…"
" I'm sorry…"
The world began to fade.
Until—he heard it.
A voice?
A word?
It echoed not in his ears, but in the core of his being.
"Switch."
And the wind stopped.
Then surged.
The Breath of a Forgotten Storm
The tiger paused.
Its front paw hovered in the air, one claw poised to pierce Lan Wu's spine—when suddenly, the boy's body twitched. Then arched. Then stilled.
An unnatural pressure burst from within him.
Not righteous. Not pure.
But cold. And ancient.
Wind howled from the forest canopy. Leaves ripped from their branches. The ground shivered. Nearby spirit beasts bolted into the distance.
The temperature shifted.
And when the tiger looked down, the eyes that stared back…
…were not the same.
The hair was wild, tousled and shadowed with streaks of darkness. His robes fluttered unnaturally. His fingers twitched as though testing the flesh. When he stood, it was slow. Intentional.
No fear. No hesitation.
Only one thing remained: curiosity.
"Hnn… still cramped. It's been… too long."
Wuixe stretched his neck, letting it crack lightly. His fingers moved in intricate circles, summoning strands of wind with disturbing ease—except these were not like Lan Wu's gentle spirals.
These were serrated. Jagged. Sharp as broken glass carried on a breeze.
His aura—a haze of dark purple and faint blue—danced around him like a predator's grin.
Eyes of the Beast
The Three-Headed Thunderhand Tiger growled low, each maw vibrating with charged Qi.
But then—it did something unexpected.
It spoke.
"You are not the same. Your scent… different. Old. Cold."
Wuixe's brow lifted.
"You talk? Hah. I was starting to think you were all brawn and no brain."
The tiger's central head leaned forward.
"We were drawn here by power. Something fell from the sky. We wanted to feed. Grow. Change."
Its voice was thick like thunder wrapped in stone.
Wuixe circled his shoulder again, then cracked his fingers one by one.
"Well, you did change. You reek of corrupted Qi. Even the trees don't want to touch your shadow."
The beast let out a low, amused rumble.
"You hurt us. We wish to return the favor. You… interest us."
Wuixe chuckled, low and sharp.
"Interest? Heh… I feel the same."
Then, to himself:
"Let's see what this brat's body can do in a proper fight…"
He crouched.
Left foot forward, sword hand behind. It was Lan Wu's stance—but colder. Tighter. Refined.
The wind bent around him unnaturally, coiling like snakes preparing to strike.
The beast widened its stance.
Sparks crackled across its shoulders.
Then—
They moved.
Clash of Dual Natures
The first exchange was like a sudden storm colliding with a mountain.
The tiger lunged, claws extending with Qi arcs rippling behind. Wuixe slid low beneath its paw, his hands forming a tight spiral, releasing a Condensed Wind Pierce that sliced across the beast's right flank.
Blood sprayed.
But the beast barely flinched, roaring as it turned mid-air and struck down.
Wuixe leapt backward, eyes glittering with childlike delight.
"Not bad… Fast for a monster."
The beast snarled.
"Faster than you."
It launched three thunder orbs from each maw—small, rotating spheres of crackling energy that raced through the trees.
Wuixe countered by forming a spiraling wind barrier—a temporary dome that deflected one orb, absorbed another… and then, the third struck his shoulder.
He grunted, arm numbing for a second.
"Tch. Still not perfect. But…"
He raised his palm and began rotating his Qi in reverse, pulling the energy in.
The corrupted Qi from the orb lingered on his skin—and vanished.
Absorbed.
Wuixe smiled.
"So it works."
He whispered, almost with a sense of reverence.
The Devouring Moon's passive ability to consume corrupted Qi—not in full, not yet, but just enough to reinforce his own dark flow.
The tiger noticed.
"You… devour…"
Wuixe's eyes gleamed.
"I do. And I'm still learning. So thank you… for being my lesson."
They faced each other again.
And though the true battle had not yet begun…
Both sides understood.
The next clash would be beyond mere testing.
It would be survival. Evolution. Victory.
The forest was no longer a forest.
It had become a battlefield of devils and beasts.
Above the shattered treetops, arcs of crimson thunder cracked against blades of spiraling wind. The earth was torn in half-moons where paws had landed, and shallow trenches carved by Qi strikes marked where Wuixe had dodged.
The morning mist had dispersed long ago.
All that remained was the hum of battle and the strange rhythm between predator and prey—though at this point, no one could tell which was which.
Devil's Curiosity, Tiger's Hunger
Wuixe twisted mid-air, narrowly avoiding the lunge of the thunder beast's right head, the wind spiraling beneath his feet giving him unnatural mobility. He landed on a broken tree trunk, still warm from a lightning strike.
He was grinning.
"You're cleverer than most of your kind," he said, rotating his wrist as wind gathered around his knuckles. "Are all beasts like you, or are you just special?"
The tiger said nothing this time, but all three heads grinned—teeth bared, breath sparking with electricity.
The tension between them crackled like the air before a storm.
" Heh… You're not just a brute, Wuixe thought, wiping blood from his lip. You're learning. I like that."
He flicked his fingers, releasing a spiral of wind toward the beast's front leg—not to harm, but to test.
The tiger responded by slamming its paw down, sending a pulse of thunder through the soil to disperse the spiral, then countered with a double-jaw thunder beam, launching from two mouths at once.
Wuixe dropped to the ground, skimming over broken earth and shattered roots, rotating his body to swing his leg into a sharp wind crescent kick, the gusts blowing away part of the beam before it reached him—but a trailing crack caught his shoulder.
He rolled twice before rebounding.
"Tch... too slow, but not bad."
A Dance of Evolution
He rushed in this time.
Not with a sword.
But with his fists.
He struck with his right—spiraling wind wrapped around his knuckles, the air forming a cutting vortex.
The tiger sidestepped, surprisingly agile, and clawed downward.
Wuixe ducked and pivoted, letting the wind carry him past, using it like buoyancy. He used the tiger's exposed angle to jam his palm into its ribs, a technique borrowed from Mei Lian's orthodox stances, twisted with his own timing.
Bang!!!
The beast growled and retaliated with a tail sweep laced with Qi, forcing Wuixe to somersault backward.
Both fighters paused, facing one another again.
Breathing heavily.
Smiling.
Like two monsters playing at war.
Devouring Thunder
The beast's eyes narrowed.
All three heads began chanting, a low and primal sound vibrating with nature's raw power. Storm clouds rolled in above—unnatural, summoned by its Qi.
"Thunder is... judgment," it rumbled.
The three mouths opened wide. Purple Qi surged out.
In the next breath—
"THREEFOLD HEAVEN PIERCING STRIKE!!!"
A beam of thunder as thick as an ancient tree shot down from the sky, aimed squarely at Wuixe.
He didn't run.
He laughed.
"That's it. That's it!!"
He raised his arms and pulled the wind into a spinning vortex shield, absorbing what he could—but the thunder cracked through it. The pain surged through his arms, burning and vibrating down to his core.
His body nearly gave out—
But he gritted his teeth.
Blood poured from his eyes and nose.
He clenched the thunder into his palm, rotating the corrupted energy with his internal Qi channels, dark wind devouring the corruption, merging into his own spirals.
"You're not the only one who adapts."
And with a sharp cry, he released it—
RETURNING SKY REND!
A compressed lance of wind-infused thunder shot back toward the beast.
The tiger raised its paw and smashed it apart, sending crackling sparks in all directions.
It wasn't damaged.
But it was impressed.
"You… learn… fast."
Wuixe was panting now, hunched over, but his smile remained wide.
"I'm not done yet."
Small streaks of thunder now crackled along his arms, dancing between the coils of wind. The essence hadn't been fully expelled—it had fused, albeit crudely.