Hope spirit

"The mutant wolves are way stronger than the spirits, but the spirits have several mutant beast pets and they also have the advantage in numbers." Bian moved closer to the group taking a better look at the wolves.

Most of the wolves had two or three thick strands of hair standing out on top their heads, a few of the stronger ones had four strands of hair. But they were all but wiped out. All the primitive wolves had been killed, leaving only three mutant wolves left.

Awoo!

An even larger green wolf ran out from the forest. This wolf had six thick strands of hair on its head, it ran on the wind and landed with a mighty blast of wind. The green wind uprooted several trees, hurling several spirits and beasts away while directly killing all the squire spirits and ordinary pets.

"A mutant Green Wind Wolf with six gene locks opened! Scatter!!" Even the Knight spirit with the black katana panicked. She stayed behind to tackle the wolf, as the strongest among the remaining knight spirits with four gene locks opened, a true pinnacle of strength.

She summoned three mutant giant brown moles with steel like claws, they swarmed the new wolf, while the elite knight spirit retreated to a safe distance. The wolf looked at its fallen companions in anger, it was a top mutant creature with six gene locks opened, yet it failed to protect its pack.

Awoo!

It howled to the skies in anger, an extra green tail sprouted from its back, and the shade of its fur changed to dark green.

"It went berserk" Bian could only say the luck of this group of spirits was particularly terrible. After summoning the stone greatsword, he summoned the stone armor to protect his face, and prepared to kill the wolf once it had killed all the spirits. That was when its guard would be completely lowered.

The wolf slaughtered the three mutant moles and all the other spirits and their pets without much effort. The elite knight spirit lost all hope of victory and ran away. She had almost reached the hatch when a powerful canon of wind blew her towards a tree.

Bang!

She smacked into the tree, spitting out a mouthful of blood. She weakly sat up with defiance in her eyes, pointing the black katana toward the approaching wolf.

Suddenly, the world changed color.

A strange, unnatural, indigo light sufficed through the air drowning the spirit, the wolf and the forest, then it faded away like it never existed. The wolf was stunned for a moment, then suddenly it felt a disturbance in the air. It shot a blast of concentrated wind towards the great sword falling towards its head.

A spear rushed towards its heart from the forest. It evaded the spear, blasting another shot of wind towards the area where the spear came from. The wolf was on full alert, looking towards the forest warily.

The great sword from earlier was taking an awfully long time to fall, it looked up and saw a stone knight with a shield falling towards it. It shot another gust of wind towards the stone knight, while jumping back narrowly dodging the knight.

As soon as the stone knight fell, he threw the stone shield towards the wolf's leg giving it little time to dodge. The wolf narrowly avoided getting its foot smashed by jumping into the air.

The knight rushed towards the wolf, with a stone spear aimed true to its chest, taking advantage of the fact that the wolf was in the air. The wolf was a master of the wind though, it jumped on the air, over the knight then turned to face him with anger boiling in its eyes.

"Damn, am I really good at calculations or what."

Bian smirked, a stone great sword stabbed the wolf from above, pinning it to the ground. Earlier, Bian had not unsummoned the great sword, instead he threw it back into the air, planning to kite the wolf back to its original position in less than six seconds, and he succeeded.

Bian critically damaged the wolf which was stronger than him with aid from the dongxuan sutra, his little observation of the wolf, some luck, mutant weapons and his mind which could perform complex calculations in an instant. He saw few ways of beating the wolf in direct combat, and that was speaking of before it went berserk.

The second gene lock of three inner cylinders allowed for him to bring out his best attempt on the first try. If he were to pull this stunt he just did again, the result might be different.

He walked up to the wolf, ignoring its hating glare towards him. Raising the stone spear, he stabbed the wolf through the ear, ending its suffering once and for all.

[Berserk Mutant creature Green Wind Wolf killed. The beast soul has been acquired. Eat its flesh to gain 0 to 10 mutant geno points randomly.]

Bian was exuberant, he killed a berserk mutant creature with six of its gene locks opened. It would have been impossible without mutant weapons, the timing and taking advantage of the wolf's wind power to greatly disturb the wind in a short time frame.

Regardless, the facts still stood strong. Less than a week after evolving, Bian had killed a berserk mutant creature with all six of its gene locks opened. The wolf could kill ordinary sacred-blood creatures and yet Bian had killed that very same wolf.

'It was risky, but my tactics paid off. I tossed the greats word high in the air towards the wolf, then threw the spear. Immediately after that, I jumped towards the great sword after the wolf had blasted it away.

It was tricky, but I threw the great sword up again while correcting its course. Then I summoned the stone armor and shield, making my body incredibly heavy. The wolf was on edge, during that time before it sensed my approach

I used the stone shield to block the air blast, which didn't slow down my heavy descent much. More importantly, I disturbed the flow of wind with my landing preventing the wolf from sensing the falling great sword.

Throwing the shield at the wolf then immediately rushing after it, they're were many ways it could go wrong, I aimed for the leg to increase the chances of it jumping. I was already rushing it while it was in midair, while aiming the spear at its chest.

If it jumped back, the spear would still reach it with my rising thrust. So it jumped over me instead, ending up exactly where I wanted it and at the right time too. Our little scurry had already disturbed the wind, preventing the wolf from sensing the great sword.'

Putting aside his joy, Bian pondered a bit more. 'After so many years of using vital point targeting, missing any trick shot would actually be a miracle. My greatest strength though, was that this was a beast. Would my tactics work against an executioner? They could if I knew about them beforehand'

He clenched his fist, remembering Executioner Blue. After a deep breath, he walked towards the elite knight spirit who stood weakly by the tree, maintaining her balance with the black katana.

'Why is she looking at me like that?'

She looked at Bian as if he was her savior, the awe in her eyes almost seemed to be spilling out, then she looked a little bit confused.

"You're a human?" She asked

"Yes, do you have a problem with that?" Bian asked, taking a step forward.

"No, not at all. I am Hope spirit, in my shelter we don't discriminate against other races."

"That wasn't what I saw when I passed by a shelter not too far from here." Bian said with a scoff, taking another step towards the spirit. Standing one step away from her.

"That is because all those humans are weak, the strong are more valued. That's why I have them tend to geno plants." She said, standing firm.

"Really, then why don't you allow them to leave through the teleporters?" Bian asked intrigued, what he was hearing from her was different from what Yi Dongmu had told him.

"That is because we are currently at war, we need all the help we can get. If I allowed them to teleport back, do you think they would return?"

"War? Also they wouldn't teleport back because you forced them into a slave contract." Bian was surprised that there was a war going on here too.

"Yes, our protector and her sister are fighting against their brothers. Also, I can't just let humans wander around without a contract. They would go around slaughtering spirits and sentient creatures that are working for those spirits." Hope spirit said stepping forward, standing face to face with Bian.

'Well I can't deny that last part' Humans needed to conquer shelters to have a safe spot in the sanctuaries, they also needed to hunt creatures to improve their constitution.

"So you don't treat humans like slaves?" Bian asked once more for confirmation, he would much rather believe the words of a spirit than that of a man. Sadly, a spirit would be more honest than a person.

"I do not. I might forcefully take their blood to measure their fitness initially, but I am not a cruel person. Neither are my sisters, nor my mother." Hope spirit said, her feminine voice unwavering with steel-like resolve.

"Are there more spirits like you" Bian asked, he had taken a liking to Hope spirit. Her perfectly curved body and flawless face, was the only reason you could tell she wasn't a human.

"My grandmother, had this belief. It was passed on to both of her daughters, but her two sons are against this ideology."

"Did your grandmother die?" Bian found the use of past tense odd, spirits did not usually perish as they were immortal.

"Yes, she died when she tried ascending to the fourth sanctuary. She could not make it past the ninth step." Hope spirit said, sounding slightly pained.

Hiss!

Snarls, roars and screeches came from the forest and the skies, several creatures were attracted towards the smell of blood from the battle that had just concluded.

"I'll fill you in on the rest, on our way back" Hope spirit said, going to open the hidden hatch. Bian went towards the Green Wind Wolf, slicing its abdomen open with a dark-green dagger, the beast soul of the Green Wind Wolf.

He placed all ten of his fingers into the bloody gash of the wolf, using Vitality Drain on its corpse.

[Flesh of Green Wind Wolf eaten. One mutant geno point gained]

[Flesh of Green Wind Wolf eaten. One mutant geno point gained]

[Flesh of Green Wind Wolf eaten. One mutant geno point gained]

[Flesh of Green Wind Wolf eaten. One mutant geno point gained]

Bian had absorbed more than half of the blood in three minutes. Several predators had already started munching on the dead beasts in the forest.

Roar!

A large lion with a red flaming mane walked out of the forest. It had seven rings of red fire on its tail including the tail itself. Wherever the king walked, other predators made way.

"That's a sacred blood beast, Hell-Fire Lion" Hope spirit shouted.

Bian had already started running towards the hatch once he saw that the beast had seven gene locks opened. A mutant creature couldn't have more than six gene locks opened, so Bian figured it was sacred-blood even without Hope spirit saying so.

A normal sacred-blood creature with three of its gene locks opened was more powerful than any mutant creature, let alone this monstrosity with seven gene locks opened. It could kill ten of the Green Wind Wolf with a single swipe of its paw.

Thankfully, the Lion didn't set its sights on Bian. It walked over to the corpse of the giant wolf, and began eating in big mouthfuls.

"What are you waiting for, we should head back." Hope spirit said.

"Yeah" Bian was hoping for a creature to challenge the Hell-Fire Lion, looking to score a sacred-blood beast soul, but it seemed that the Lion was undisputed in this part of the forest.

He wasn't a greedy person though, he was more than satisfied with his gains from today. Especially the beast soul of the Green Wind Wolf, which was a green dagger. It was a berserk mutant weapon, sharp enough to damage sacred blood-creatures with some effort.

"Tell me all about your family tree." Bian said, at least the walk back to the shelter wouldn't be boring