7 Lone Wolf

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Dark Bamboo Forest, most of the people that heard this name trembles in fear. The forest is about 10 kilometers in radius, such size is considered enormous wherever one goes. Adding on it's reputation, the forest is surrounded by tall and gloomy looking Dark Bamboo.

A fully grown Dark Bamboo is about a person thick and stood for about 25 meters high, compared to a normal bamboo, Dark Bamboo's leaves are numerous, it's also black colored through and through and this type of bamboo is practically surrounding the whole forest two kilometers deep. The forest not only houses Dark Bamboo though, it also a home to countless of Dire Beasts, Fierce Beasts and some Demonic Beasts. Some of those beasts are very poisonous that up until this day there were no antidotes for thier venoms. Some beasts also has bodies that are as tough as metals making it hard to even wound them, other beasts specializes on thier speed while other rely on thier size to intimidate cultivators. Some people even saw that majority of the beasts that attack the nearest city came from this very forest, so the reputation of the Dark Bamboo Forest struck deep fear onto others.

[A/N: Dire Beast<Fierce Beast<Demonic Beasts]

Of course there's always exceptions.

Five kilometers deep inside the Dark Bamboo Forest, one might actually stumble upon a nice and simple hut. The hut is located at an auspicuous corner of the forest, it is a home for a fifteen year old kid who's wearing a brown robe. The youth's eyes are closed as off the moment and after quite some time he opened them. To most people, the youth's expression was nothing special, even the way he walks was entirely simple, nothing special really.

But for some experts, it isn't.

If a normal person left thier vision away from this youth or even just blink, they will found out that the youth disappeared into thin air. They would have no way of knowing that the youth truly didn't disappear, it's just that he completely blended in his surroundings that it created an illusion of him disappearing.

The youth of course is Sieg. After learning the first two steps his master told him, it took him two days to master the other three. 'Discover the Metal', 'Swallow the Fire', and 'Inhaling the Wind'. He did all sorts of things like digging everywhere, staring at the sun or any lightsource and learning how to hold his breath for a maximum six hours. None of the things he did made sense but it made him understand a lot of things.

He understood that every element have their own secrets and purposes, even though his training only allowed him to blend with them it still brought him huge benefits. His cultivation rose from 2nd step to 3rd step. He also learned about the name of the technique his master was trying to teach him. It was the "Walk of Innocence", according to his master, this technique is a type of an 'Auxiliary Movement Technique', as for the benefits of learning the technique his master didn't tell him any but only said that he will understand it in the future.

"Kid…" Sieg was in the middle of training when his master appeared out of nowhere, he didn't heard him through the stick instead, his master really appeared.

"Master! Welcome back!" Sieg hurriedly knelt in front of his master. He was quite elated to see his master again.

"En, stand up we're going somewhere." Wilson nodded to Sieg and then he turned his back and started walking somewhere. Sieg of course has no idea where his master was taking him but he followed him nonetheless…

"Did you successfully finish your business Master?"

"Hmm…" Wilson stroked his beared, obviously thinking how to respond to Sieg. "Well, it isn't considered as a business, but yes, i won't be going there for quite sometime."

"I don't get it…"

"Well you don't have to, for now. Anyways were here." Wilson stopped walking and so is Sieg.

They didn't walked that far really, they stopped at the place where Sieg found his wounded master before. The difference is the huge crater was replaced by a building that shaped like a pagoda. The pagoda was surrounded by thick and tall walls, and a gate that was made out of pure black metal.

"This is where you will be spending the rest of your training. Let's go to the first floor." Wilson walked forward then Sieg followed. The huge black metal gate opened on it's own and let them enter, the same also goes for the iron door of the pagoda.

Sieg's vision was obstructed by a white light for a brief moment and when his vision came back he saw a that he is standing before a massive formation. It was formed by huge magical cirlce the floor with five circles that doesn't have any inscriptions in them, inside those circles stood five different flags that had inscriptions on them outlining some figures of beasts.

"This is the '1000 Beast Killing Array', you next task is to finish the whole array in one month, you're not allowed to go outside of this pagoda unless you finished all of the tests inside of here." Wilson faced Sieg and said this, he also tossed an jade slip at him and continued. "In addition to finishing the array, you must also master that technique in a month as well."

After saying all those his master once again disappeared leaving Sieg smiling wryly, 'I should get used to him doing that, anyways let's look at this technique.' With that in mind he sinked his thought inside the jade slip and what he saw shocked him.

"9 Mystic Beastial Stances" a fist technique the require Sieg to learn and assume a habit of a Wolf, Turtle, Bear, Eagle, Lion, Monkey, Snake, Deer and Vulture to master and use thier stance in combat.

'And i'm supposed to learn this all in just a month?' Sieg was bewildered, he thought that his teacher must have high expectations for him and he don't if he should be happy or terrified.

After hesitating for a while he decided to start training, he recalled the details from the jade slip and decided to do the 'Wolf Stance' first.

One hour, two hours, three… four hours passed and Sieg was just assuming a wierd pose, a threatless pose at that.

Wolves are known as swift, cunning and deadly beasts, so for Sieg he too needed to be just like that, but Sieg was more of like a 'lamb' rather than a wolf so how was he suppose to do that? Even though the stances were very much detailed in the jade slip, he knew that he lacked combat experience to display such traits.

'Combat, i need combat experience…' as he thought of this, he turned his head around to look at the '1000 Beast Killing Array'. He was hesitating, he knew that if he enter this array he might very well be in a mortal danger. Afterall it has a 'Killing' word on it's name, he can still remember some informations from those jade slips his master gave him before, a few of those are actually about Arrays and Formations. It would be okay if it was a 'Combat Array' which are purposely made for trainings but what in front of him is a 'Killing Array' which were specifically made for security or killing.

He clenched his hands and gritted his teeth, he made a very dangerous decision by entering the array. As he stepped inside, his environment changed, instead of a huge gloomy room he was now at vast forest. He was standing a huge patch of grass, it currently night time and the moon can never be any clearer than it is for him.

*Wuuuuu~~~*

His body trembled, he was immediately drowned in fear, that cry sounded very close to him which made his heart beat furiously, he was looking around frantically, obviously panicking and then…

*Xiu* *Xiu*

He heard a movement behind him, he turned around just to see nothing yet heard that same similar sound behind him again, it was obviously playing with him. Sieg was furious upon realizing this, he gritted his teeth and came up with a plan. 'So you're having fun playing with your food huh? Let's see who's gonna play with who today…'

Sieg didn't hesitate and ran full speed, his cultivation base screeched at this moment, his plan was clear and that was to run away as far as possible for now. After running for about five minutes he was sure that the wolf was not around so he immediately executed the "Walk of Innocence", his face went bland and he nonchalantly climbed a tree and sat in there. He was waiting.

*Xiu* *Xiu*

*Grrrr*

Sitting on top of a tree he saw was he was waiting for, it was the wolf. It was covered in grayish mane except for the furs on it's limbs, it's fangs were about three to four inches long protruding out of it's mouth and it's eyes are forming a narrow slits hiding a clear blue pupils. It stood about three meters tall, Sieg was very sure it was a Dire Beast Lone Wolf. It sniffed something for a second before slowly walking while turning it's head from time to time to look for Sieg.

Sieg carefully climb down the tree, he was being very quiet with every step he makes, though his face might be bland, his heart is most definetely not, he stalked the wolf observing it clearly, he was quitely taking notes it's every habits and remembering it by heart, as for why he was doing so is beacause he believed that it will be the key on mastering the 'Wolf Stance'.

***

*Pa*

*Ruuu~~*

The Lone Wolf was furious, even though it mas merely an incarnation of the array it still have the usual pride of a Dire Beast. It was enraged because he was harassed by a puny human for the seventh time and everytime it decided to go after him, he will disappear into thin air. What's even more infuriating is that the puny human only hit it's belly everytime he appear that it now is visibly caved in. It was hurt, it wanted to tear the puny human 'till the very last skin but has no way on doing so. Now it was panicking, it was angry, humiliated, and even begin to fear the human. It gotta admit the it greatly underestimated the human and now it was paying dearly for it.

*Chuk* *Chuk*

The Lone Wolf turned it head, it heard several bushes shake, it leaped at the bushes without hesitation hoping to find the human but alas, it found nothing. It was about to leave when suddenly it felt a deadly crisis somewhere.

*Pang!*

Sieg appeared on top of a tree, he clasped both hands and fell directly on top of the Lone Wolf smashing it's head using his full force. It had to be known that Sieg have a whopping force of 150 kilograms, and he used that while also borrowing momentum from gravity making it a deadly strike. The Lone Wolf didn't even had a chance to let out a mournful cry, it's life was taken by a surprise attack from the human that it believed to be 'puny'. It's life became one of the perfect example on what will happen if you underestimate your opponent.

Even a lion would use it's full effort to catch a rabbit.

"Ptui! You want to play huh! Come on! Play with this Young Master a bit more! Come! Come! What? Dead already! B*tch!" Sieg released some more of his pent up frustrations on the dead wolf, he kept on kicking it over and over while saying these words. After he released all of his emotions, he slumped down onto the ground tearing up a bit. His taut nerves relaxed and he was enveloped by a blinding light as he was sent back to the 1st floor of the pagoda.