After that Saturday, I finally managed to get back to fulfilling my plans. Lin Yun'er's confession had honestly thrown me off balance, but deciding, why not, I agreed. After that, I became even more confident in my desire to realize everything I had planned, because otherwise the world might be destroyed. I don't want to just rely on a happy coincidence like in the original.
Returning to the matter, the next event in canon was the attack of an evolving wolf within the city limits. Everything should have started with Mo Fan being called by Zhou Ming, but I'm not entirely sure if that will happen again, although it won't be difficult to steer everything to the desired outcome. Precisely for greater certainty in this event, I conducted an experiment, and also wanted to know what would happen if, say, I slightly changed the future and postponed Mo Fan's trip by one day. Or find out everything from Zhou Ming in advance and meet the wolf earlier. Although I think such inquiries would be too suspicious.
The free time before the start of this event, I spent, also diligently cultivating the lightning element, and on one of the last days, I even broke through to the second level, which is gratifying. I no longer encountered rats or other monsters in that clearing, fortunately or unfortunately, but that's how it is.
And so, unnoticed and unremarkable, the last year of schooling began, and less than a year remained until the duel between Yu An and Mo Fan and the catastrophe of the city of Bo. Nothing happened in the first couple of school days, but Zhou Ming's glances towards Mo Fan were noticeable. But I still didn't dare to approach, waiting for her to try to contact Mo Fan through me, after all, we seemed to be friends and she trusted me.
"Hi, Jiaxing Yun, do you have a minute?" Zhou Ming asked, approaching me at the end of September, when I was starting to lose patience.
"Yes, did something happen?" I replied, surprised, looking at the agitated and slightly frightened Zhou Ming.
"Nothing special, it's just that something strange is happening near the house where my grandmother lives. According to her, she hears howling at night and things like that," she said.
"And you want someone to help you figure out what the problem is?" I pretended to guess.
"Well, yes… I'm not asking you to solve the problem if there is one, but at least to find out what's going on there," she said, clearly feeling awkward.
"But why are you asking me? Mo Fan seems more like the type to help a girl in distress," I said, with a slight smirk.
"It's just that I trust you more, you can consider that, in my opinion, you are more reliable than him," she said, slightly offended.
"Of course, I can try to help, but I'm far from as fearless as Mo Fan, so I'm not going to wander around the outskirts of the city or in dubious places," I said in a calm tone.
"And you say that, the person who managed to remain calm even when faced one-on-one with a monster in practice?" Zhou Ming chuckled.
"You know I immediately noticed that it was a summoned creature, so there was nothing to be afraid of," I said, waving my hand.
"Okay, okay, I believe you. Would you mind walking with me after school so I can show you where all this is happening?" she asked, with hope in her voice, to which I naturally agreed.
After school, Zhou Ming kept her promise and took me to abandoned warehouses and other buildings on the outskirts of the city. After saying goodbye and saying that I would look around, I went to track the wolf. A powder I bought at the hunter's association specifically for this purpose helped me. It is used by novice and intermediate level mages to search for monsters. With the help of the powder, I found the monster's tracks, and following them, I found the beast itself. I wasn't particularly afraid of it, as I could escape, and if necessary, I could always call the hunters who work with Mo Fan.
The wolf was walking around one of the warehouses in search of food. To avoid being found by it, I hid in a very smelly pile, which it diligently ignored. Following it at a considerable distance with binoculars, I kept it in sight, thankfully that pile completely masked my scent.
I dealt with it until deep into the night. In the end, I was exhausted both mentally and physically. After all, one must not forget that this is an evolving monster servant, closest to the pack leaders, and I am just a novice mage of the second stage. At times, it seemed like it sensed me, but fortunately, I was far enough away from it to hide quickly. Fortunately, it eventually got tired of wandering around the abandoned buildings and headed away from the city. Following it, I carefully memorized the way, marking the path with a knife on the walls and trees.
It led me far from the city, somewhere towards the mountains, and then to a cave. I didn't go deep into it, of course, that would be foolish. Who would go into a monster's lair without being able to kill it or at least having complete confidence in escaping? I returned to the city by the marks, and from there immediately to the dormitory and the bathroom. I needed to wash off this smell, otherwise they wouldn't let me into class.
"Hi, Jiaxing Yun, well, did you find anything yesterday? I'm starting to get really worried about my grandmother," Zhou Ming asked me as soon as I appeared at school.
"Oh, hi, Zhou Ming. According to my observations, there is indeed something there, but I wouldn't dare to enter the territory itself. However, I walked around the entire perimeter of the warehouses and found a huge hole in the fence, which also doesn't make me want to go in there," I said, my voice full of despair. It's better to pretend to be a coward for now than to create an even greater probability of changing the canon.
"And what do you suggest we do about it?" Zhou Ming asked, disappointed and hopeful at the same time.
"Well, you can ask Mo Fan, I don't think he'll refuse you… He's braver than me, and besides, he has powerful offensive magic, and if anything, he can protect you… As for me, with my pathetic wind magic, I'd be lucky to escape myself…" I said awkwardly. Of course, the best solution would be to call the hunters, but on the other hand, I'm sending her to him, and besides, I'm pushing the plot in the right direction. Two birds with one stone, just perfect.
"I see, then I'll try to ask him, thank you…" she said with an unreadable expression, then turned and left. Later, I learned from Mo Fan that she had approached him, and today they were going somewhere after school. I should follow them, just in case something else happens?
After school, I immediately went to the place where the wolf lived. An hour later, Mo Fan and Zhou Ming arrived. They entered one of the unfinished buildings, where the wolf was currently "dining." A few minutes later, a scream was heard, and a few minutes after that, they both flew out of there, pursued by the wolf. Mo Fan heroically sent Zhou Ming to safety, while he himself began to distract the wolf. A few minutes later, an ice mage from Mo Fan's team arrived, along with Yu An, who himself hurried to escape.
I watched all this through binoculars, sitting on a neighboring multi-story building, from where there was a beautiful view of the entire spectacle. Well, everything should be fine from now on, and I need to go kill another wolf that's bothering me. So I immediately headed to that cave; I still had a lot to do today.
Upon reaching the cave, I boldly entered. It turned out to be quite large and complexly tangled, but I wasn't going to retreat, intending to finish everything in one go. Finally, after a couple of hours of searching, I found what I was looking for. Deep in the cave, I felt a strong concentration of magical elements, but the whole problem was the presence of another wolf! Although this one was much weaker than the previous one, I still had doubts about the advisability of fighting it. Even though I had innate spiritual seeds, and I myself was at the second stage of magic, this wolf would definitely not be as simple an opponent as ordinary rats.
Gathering myself and deciding to take the risk, I began to construct lightning stars with slight trepidation, while simultaneously preparing wind stars for the beginning of the construction. But something unexpected happened: the wind and lightning stars mixed with each other! I didn't understand how it happened; the point was that now I was constructing not seven, but fourteen stars simultaneously, which was more difficult than usual, but they seemed to strive to occupy their own specific and unique places. I didn't resist much, sensing that something very interesting and unusual was about to happen.
When everything was ready, a mixed energy of lightning and wind gathered in my right and left hands. Without wasting time, I swung my right hand towards the wolf. A wind blade, but infused with lightning, flew towards it, making it sparkle with a bright purple color, and a crackle of discharges spread through the cave. I also felt that the energy in my left hand was weakening, so I swung it as well, and another such blade flew towards the wolf.
Of course, it didn't sit idly by. Feeling such a clear threat to its life, it even seemed to me that these two blades surpassed the magic of the third level of the initial stage, which I had asked her to show me at the end of practice. But unfortunately for the wolf, it didn't manage to dodge, and both blades hit its body, tearing it open in a cross shape, and the lightning charge contained within them coursed through its entire body, causing it to fall to the ground. Taking advantage of its position, I cut off its head with a wind blade, just to be sure.
After death, a soul shard flew out of its body and entered my tooth, after which it glowed and buzzed, and a moment later, everything stopped. It was clearly felt that it had changed, most likely rising to the level of a spiritual tool, which greatly pleased me.
It was foolish to leave the wolf's body here; other servants and even worse might come for its scent, so I spent a lot of time dragging its carcass, dismembered by wind blades, far away. Then, late at night, I returned to the cave and, using the same wind blades, reduced the passage to the cave I was interested in so that only I could pass, and even then with difficulty. This exhausted me even more, and I returned to the dormitory.
The next day, I learned from rumors that the first wolf had been killed by hunters, with the help of Yu An. After school, I rushed to the cave; I needed to make sure of what I had found. Fortunately, my blockage had not been touched, and there was no one inside the cave. Going deeper, I entered a small room where water dripped from a stalactite into a small puddle. The room itself was full of magical elements.
Sitting down to cultivate, I confirmed that I now had a spiritual tool, and also that this was the place where the sacred spring of the city of Bo "flowed." Of course, the cultivation speed here was probably lower than at a real spring, but this would be enough for me. In less than a year, Mo Fan would have the opportunity to cultivate at the spring and would go far ahead of me, even breaking through to the intermediate level. To compensate for this difference, I would now cultivate here a couple of times a week, so as not to strain myself too much with trips to such a wilderness, nor the spring. Taking out my notebook, I marked the fifth page as successfully completed. This was the first of several opportunities to gain power by hiding behind Mo Fan.
After that, I tried many times to repeat my combination of lightning and wind magic, but no matter what I did, I couldn't replicate the same effect. However, I clearly felt that I could combine these two elements without resorting to a magic-mixing glove. I just needed to understand some principle, and that would be it… But this would take a lot of time or some kind of epiphany… Most likely, this is possible at all because my elements turned out to be connected by one source. And how this happened is a mystery to me, just like why I awakened two elements with spiritual seeds. But everything indicates that the lightning strike was to blame for this; no other reasonable ideas come to mind.