The forest still roared with noise, though it wasn't the beast's roar alone, it was the clash of puppet limbs, the whine of chains, the deep thud thud thud of impacts shaking the ground. Every sound felt magnified in the mist, bouncing off unseen shapes and coming back sharper, like the trees themselves were leaning in to listen.
The damp air seemed alive. Every breath carried the tang of wet soil and something more acrid, the faint, metallic sting of corpse Qi. Mist curled in twisting patterns between the combatants, catching brief glimmers of pale green light from the puppets' cores.
Gu Muye stood within the circle of juniors, the heat of their combined nervous breaths fogging the damp air around them. He could feel the tension radiating from the others, the way their muscles tightened every time the beast moved, but his own chest rose and fell in a steady rhythm. There was no pounding heartbeat in his ears. No cold sweat beading on his palms.
It had been this way since they stepped into the forest earlier. The twisted branches overhead, the shadowed places where anything could be lurking, none of it had made his hands tremble. Not even when the beast had appeared through the mist, its massive frame blotting out the light, its eyes glowing faintly with corpse Qi.
The fear he should have felt… wasn't there.
Why?
The question had itched at him ever since. He remembered the way two juniors beside him had gasped when the beast came into view, the way one even flinched so hard his boot slid back in the mud. And him? He had simply… watched. Measuring its stride. Counting the time between breaths. Observing where its weight shifted when it turned.
Why am I so calm?
His fingers flexed slightly at his sides as he watched the battle. He'd thought maybe it was because the seniors were here, their puppets acting as a wall between them and death. But that wasn't it. Even back at the treeline, before the fighting started, the calm had been there, cold and steady like still water.
It was unnatural.
His thoughts spiraled for just a moment, turning over the possibilities. Was it because of the bone in his dantian? The strange thing had never given him a clear explanation of what it was capable of, but there had been moments before… moments when it felt like it whispered through his nerves, steadying his breath, hardening his will.
The thought barely formed before the beast's bellow shattered it.
RRRAAAAAAGHHHHH!
The roar rolled through the clearing, deep enough to rattle leaves from their branches and send a shiver down the bark of nearby trees. A few juniors flinched. One cursed under his breath. Someone else's puppet twitched in place, as if it too had been startled by the sound.
Muye's attention sharpened again, his eyes tracking the beast's movements. Its swings were slower now, though still powerful enough to dent the earth when they missed. Each claw strike gouged deep trenches in the wet ground. Each whip of its tail cracked through the air with enough force to splinter wood.
Yun's iron plated puppet absorbed the brunt of its attacks, bracing each impact with grounded legs. Lian's bladed puppet never stopped moving, chain sickle lashing out like a striking serpent, forcing the beast to divide its attention. Feng's brawler puppet crushed into it from the flanks with enough force to make the forest floor quake.
BOOOM!
The brawler puppet's fist smashed into the beast's ribs.
SHNK!
The bladed puppet's hooked arm carved a line across its thigh, a spray of dark, almost tar like blood splattering the ground. The smell hit almost immediately, rotten meat laced with the pungent tang of corpse Qi.
The beast stumbled, favoring its left side, but its retaliation was brutal. Its claw slammed into Yun's puppet, sending the iron plated behemoth sliding back two paces before it dug its heels into the soil again. The impact made the ground ripple under Muye's feet.
Muye's earlier strike hadn't gone unnoticed. He could feel it in the quick glances from Yun and Lian between their attacks. They didn't have time to speak, but they were assessing him, and he wasn't sure he liked the weight of that attention. In a sect like this, standing out could be as dangerous as standing in the beast's path.
The beast's breathing grew ragged, each exhale sending coils of mist curling through the air, mingling with the vapors rising from its corpse Qi infused blood.
"End it!" Lian barked, his voice cutting through the chaos like a blade.
The puppets surged forward.
CRRRSHHHH!
The iron plated puppet locked its arms around the beast's torso, joints grinding as it tightened its grip.
THUUM!
The brawler puppet slammed its fist into its ribs, a wet cracking sound splitting the air like dry wood snapping.
WHRRSSHHH!
The bladed puppet's chain sickle wrapped tight around its neck, the metal biting deep and pulling taut until its skin bulged between the links.
The beast roared one last time, but the sound was weaker now, more gurgle than challenge.
CRACK!
Its body sagged.
BOOOOM!
The iron plated puppet lifted and slammed it into the ground. The forest floor shook under the impact, sending a few smaller creatures in the undergrowth scattering.
Silence followed, heavy, ringing silence. The kind of silence that pressed against the ears after too much noise.
The beast lay still.
That was when it began.
A pulse in his dantian.
Muye stiffened. This wasn't the usual steady hum of his cultivation. It was something deeper, sharper, a throb like a heartbeat, but heavier, older. The bone that rested there stirred as if roused from deep slumber.
Hunger.
It wasn't his own, yet it flooded through him like molten lead, burning slow but heavy. His mouth went dry, his breath shortening. The beast's corpse reeked of thick, rich corpse Qi, and the bone wanted it. No… it craved it.
The sensation wasn't a gentle tug. It was claws dragging down the inside of his ribs, urging him forward. Whispering in a voice that wasn't quite sound.
Feed me.
The words, if they could be called that, coiled through his thoughts like smoke. He swallowed hard, his throat suddenly tight. The idea of stepping forward, pressing a hand to the beast's cooling flesh, letting that power pour into him, it flickered through his mind unbidden, vivid enough to make his fingertips twitch.
But no. Not here.
The distance was too far for the bone to draw on its own, and even if it could… there were three Inner Sect seniors standing over the body. One wrong move and they'd crush him before he could explain. In the demonic sect, no one asked questions first.
The hunger didn't fade. It lingered, coiling in his gut like a living thing, displeased at being denied. His skin prickled faintly, as though the bone's dissatisfaction radiated into his flesh.
By the time he looked back, Feng's brawler puppet had lifted the beast's limp form just enough for Yun's to bind its limbs in reinforced chain. The links clinked and rattled with each twist, locking tighter until even in death the beast could not move.
Lian knelt briefly, inspecting the wounds. His gaze slid over Muye once before moving on. That single glance was enough to remind him, he was still being watched.
"All juniors, gather," Yun called, her voice cutting through the stillness like a whip crack.
The group shuffled forward, boots squelching in damp earth, the smell of churned mud and beast blood mixing in the air. The crate at her feet was small, the rewards inside smaller still.
"You provided support," she said, her tone even. "You will receive basic mission shares."
One by one, she handed them out, a single low grade corpse Qi recovery pill, a talisman for minor defense, and a silver spirit coin. To the juniors, these were valuable enough to be worth guarding. To the seniors, they were nothing more than scraps from the table.
When Muye stepped forward, Yun's gaze lingered on him for a heartbeat longer than the others. She didn't comment, simply set the items in his palm and moved on.
Her glance stayed with him as he tucked the rewards away.
The hunger in his dantian still simmered. Quiet now, like embers in ash, but still there.
The group began to settle, some loosening the tension in their shoulders, others muttering about the fight. Someone joked weakly about the smell, earning a few half hearted chuckles.
Muye didn't join in. He only adjusted the strap of his pack and looked once more at the chained corpse.
For now, the battle was done.
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A/N: And that's how our MC survived a monster the size of a house without even breaking a sweat 😏. Is he brave? Is he insane? Or is there something creepy in his dantian that's secretly hungry for BBQ monster ribs? 🍖 Drop some power stones or leave a review, maybe your support will finally let him buy a bib for all that drooling 😂.