Chapter 42: First Cycle

Several hours had passed since Lyra first spotted the Spirit Wolf. The silver beast never truly stopped moving; whenever they closed the distance, it accelerated just enough to stay outside striking range before slowing again once it believed itself safe. It wasn't fleeing in a blind panic—it was actively preserving its strength.

"Don't rush it," Lyra reminded them quietly, keeping her mount at a steady trot. "The moment it thinks its life is truly in danger, it'll dissolve into spirit form. We won't catch it, and by the time it reforms somewhere else, we'll have lost the trail entirely."

"So we just... keep stressing it?" Maya asked, pulling her cloak tighter against the wind.

Lyra nodded. "Exactly. The trick is exhausting its Spirit Qi instead of its muscles." She pointed toward the faint tracks disappearing into the crimson snow. "It has to keep reinforcing itself while running, and every adjustment burns Qi. We're herding it."

Leon glanced ahead through the swirling flakes. "...Toward the fluctuation."

Lyra smiled. "Convenient, isn't it?"

No one pointed out that they each had arrived at that same convenient route for very different reasons.

---

The wolf remained just barely visible in the distance. Whenever it tried to veer away, Lyra subtly shifted the group's angle, forcing the creature back toward the path they wanted without ever cornering it. Leon couldn't help but appreciate the tactic—no unnecessary confrontation, no wasted effort, just continuous pressure.

Hours later, a sudden rustle exploded from beneath a snow-covered boulder. A crimson-scaled reptilian beast burst forward, its jaws snapping violently as it lunged straight toward Maya's mount.

Before Leon could even shift his weight, Adrian was already jumping down from the saddle. "I'll take it."

Maya followed immediately, drawing her short sword. "So will I."

The mounts retreated a safe distance while Lyra calmly crossed her arms. "I'll intervene if necessary."

Leon remained seated. His previous fight had nearly emptied his reserves, and he needed to recover his vitality. Besides, they needed the field experience.

---

The Grade Zero beast was fast—much faster than either of them expected. It zigzagged through the snow before suddenly launching itself toward Maya, who barely managed to bring her blade up in time.

*Clang!*

Its jagged jaws scraped harshly across her steel. Adrian attacked from the side, but the reptile twisted midair with terrifying agility, causing his sword to strike only empty snow.

"It changes direction too quickly!"

"Watch the shoulders!" Leon called out from behind them. "It commits to the angle before it jumps."

The two adjusted their focus immediately. Instead of staring at the creature's snapping head, they watched the tension in its muscles. The next leap came a second later, but this time they predicted the trajectory. Maya ducked beneath the arc, allowing Adrian's sword to sweep across its exposed flank.

Stolen novel; please report.

Blood scattered over the red snow. The beast hissed, but instead of retreating, it began to circle them, waiting and looking for another opening.

Both humans unconsciously slowed their breathing. It wasn't an intentional cultivation choice, but simply a byproduct of realizing that panic had proven entirely useless. The familiar rhythm gradually returned to their chests: in, out, in, out. Neither noticed that their breathing had stabilized without them stopping to think about it.

The beast attacked one final time. Adrian stepped sideways, diverting the incoming momentum, while Maya thrust her blade forward. Their attacks arrived together; one diverted, one pierced, and the creature collapsed lifelessly into the snow.

Silence returned to the clearing. Adrian lowered his sword, catching his breath. "...That felt better."

Maya blinked, looking down at her hands. "...I was talking the whole fight."

Leon smiled faintly. "You were."

She froze. "...Wait. I didn't lose Sage Breathing."

Adrian finally noticed his own state as well. "...Neither did I."

Lyra nodded approvingly from her mount. "Congratulations. You've both crossed the first hurdle. From now on, it becomes a matter of practice rather than a constant struggle."

The two exchanged exhausted smiles before climbing back onto the mounts.

---

The journey resumed under the steady snowfall, with the Spirit Wolf remaining ahead—never close, but never far. Leon gradually opened his eyes. His breathing had long since stopped drawing Qi, leaving his meridians nearly empty as the final remnants of his first cycle wound down.

Instead of resting, he activated his Sage Eyes. A golden-brown light faintly shimmered within his pupils, and the remaining Qi flowed outward to sharpen his vision. The falling snowflakes seemed to slow down, air currents became visible, and tiny streams of Qi appeared drifting through the blizzard.

He increased the output further. His hearing sharpened, his balance improved, and even the grip of the mount beneath him felt more precise. It was a comprehensive physical enhancement.

He compared it instinctively to his other techniques. As a method of recovery, it was weaker than Self-Reliance Mode. As a physical enhancement, it was weaker than Boost Mode. He activated Boost briefly, and the familiar purple current surged through his body, completely overriding the Sage Eyes enhancement beneath its stronger effect, just as he had expected. The stronger passive simply overrode the weaker one, offering no direct advantage.

He frowned, analyzing the workflow. *Linked Energy Manipulation only affects my own body, which is why I've never bothered carrying weapons. But Sage Eyes behaves differently.* His gaze shifted toward Maya's sword.

"...Maya."

She looked over from the adjacent saddle. "Hm?"

"Can I borrow your saber for a moment?"

She blinked once before handing it over without hesitation. "Sure."

Leon balanced the hilt experimentally, then activated his Sage Eyes again. Instead of channeling the enhancement into himself, he guided the flow directly into the blade. The steel faintly shimmered under his gaze.

The saber suddenly felt sharper—not physically, but conceptually. Its edge resonated faintly with the surrounding Qi. Leon swung once through the empty air, and the wind resistance dropped noticeably. It wasn't because the blade itself had physically changed, but because the Qi flowing around it had been altered.

His eyes widened slightly at the calculation. *Linked Energy Manipulation is self-targeting, but Sage Eyes isn't. It can enhance external objects—a weapon, armor, or perhaps eventually anything capable of carrying Qi.*

He handed the sword back to her. "For now..." he muttered quietly, "...that's my strongest fighting style."

His passive modes would reinforce his own body, while his Sage Eyes would strengthen the weapon. He calculated that he could maintain the maximum output of his Sage Eyes for around five or six minutes. When his stored Qi ran dry, his vitality would remain entirely untouched, acting as a reserve that could sustain the expenditure of any active application of Linked Energy Manipulation—especially True Strike—for almost another five minutes.

His combat options had quietly doubled.

---

The wind suddenly intensified, sending snow exploding across the wasteland until visibility dropped to barely a few meters. Both mounts slowed to a crawl, lowering their heads as they struggled against the growing storm.

"The blizzard's worsening," Lyra called out over the howling wind. "No choice. We keep moving."

Leon poured every last thread of his remaining Qi into his Sage Eyes, forcing his vision to pierce deeper through the swirling snow one final time. Far ahead, for only a fraction of a second, he thought he saw something ominous through the veil—a sight that made the hair stand up on the back of his neck.

Then, his Sage Eyes extinguished. The light vanished from his pupils as the first cycle officially completed, and everything disappeared back into the white blizzard.