Author note: I should probably mark this a tragedy. I felt horrible writing the first part of this; it even made me sad. It plays no significant impact on the story so if you don't want the feels you can skip to "~~Elsewhere in the mountains~~" and just remember this isn't a nice world, it's a cruel world full of cultivators where the strong kill the weak. That said I'll explain the title at the end of the next chapter.

~~~

In the mountains, a small Wind Wolf pup suckles with it's brothers and sisters. It's the weakest of the bunch and has yet to even open its eyes even though the others had.

The others didn't care though and made room for this weak wolf pup as they were filled with a strong familial bond. There was a previous male wolf that had come and bring food for his mother, but that wolf no longer came. If the wolf pup was older it would understand that the male wolf was his father, but now the only thing it recognized was the loving mother in front of it and caring siblings around it.

Its mother would leave sometimes, but would always return smelling of blood from a hunt. They weren't a part of a pack as their pack had been hunted before the wolf pup was born. Only the pack leader and his mate survived the hunters wrath as both were peak First Layer magical beasts. After seeing the pups born the pack leader set out for revenge, but never returned.

Having drank it's fill the wolf pup slowly drifted asleep; warmed by brothers and sisters curled up next to it to keep it warm. It's life hadn't been long, but was filled with the warmth and kindness of kin.

When it awoke it found that it's mother had left for a hunt and that it's brothers and sisters were stirring and behaving frantically. Their frantic behavior persisted until they could bare it no more and ventured out.

Blind the wolf pup began to panic as well. The smell of blood was in the air and it was left alone. Mustering bravery that would make it's father proud it left the den where it had spent it's entire life.

Following the sounds of it's siblings the wolf pup tripped and stumbled its way to their tiny howls. The wolf pup was weak so each time it fell it was painful and each time it rose again was even worse. It knew not why it was desperate only that it felt alone and must continue on.

Eventually it reached a clearing where it's tiny brothers and sisters were howling where it collapsed from exhaustion in front of a bloody smell. Mustering all its remaining strength the wolf pup desperately forced it's eyes open.

It's vision blurred as the wolf pup's eyes took in light for the first time. Gradually they began to focus on the reason the bloody smell was similar to his mother.

The weak pup tried to voice his sorrow, but he had used all his strength to open his eyes. So painful was the sight of his mother's death that the weak pups heart broke and stopped working. He had never been strong to begin with and could not take the pain.

From the time of the pup's birth the only thing he would ever see was his mother's corpse. As life faded the final thought that passed through the weak pup's mind was that at least he would be by his mother's side soon...

~~Elsewhere in the mountains~~

"You fought very well Xu Rong! I'm impressed. That wolf was not only fast, but incredibly fierce."

Xu Rong blushed at the compliment looked away shyly.

"Thank you master."

"Let's see if we can find something a bit stronger though. I'm really looking forward to fighting."

The two continued through the mountain forest traveling slightly up hill. The sounds of animals could be heard, but no roars of a magical beast.

Eventually the sounds silenced and as a vicious snort could be heard in the distance.

"This one is mine."

Sun Jiao quickly dashed towards the snort and came across a single boar type beast that snorted flames as he approached. Instantly the boar's ferocious eyes locked onto Sun Jiao and a reddish-brown ki surrounded it's body.

The hairless, grey boar was the size of a small bus and covered in what appeared to be a stoney flesh. The fire red tusks curled up from the side of it's nose and rose to the top of it's head. The tusks, covered in barbs, appeared as though they were flames turned into bone. With a shake of it's head a small flame rolled out of it's nose causing Sun Jiao to understand exactly why it was hairless.

Xiaobo, knowledgeable about all kinds of beasts, quickly spoke up.

Hearing Xiaobo's instructions Sun Jiao quickly took some ki from his dantain and surrounded his body with it giving it a black ki glow. The black ki glow was actually rather embarrassing for Sun Jiao as it gave him the impression of an angsty character from earth.

The boar however didn't care about the glow and with a loud grunt surrounded itself with a rust colored ki. It was considered slow for a First-ki beast, so even without any strengthening paths Sun Jiao was able to avoid it and throw out a punch.

The boar slide a bit and then turned immediately to charge again.

After going through this pattern a handful of times Sun Jiao realized he wasn't doing any sort of damage to the Boar as it's defense was too strong. Even Xu Rong's cheering in the background wasn't enough to help him break through it's defense!

With a smile Sun Jiao stopped spreading the ki over his body and instead focused it into his fist. Xiaobo had told him that spreading the ki would weaken the power so concentrating it should give him enough strength to cause some damage.

It was a risk though. If Sun Jiao took damage from the boar it would be much worse without ki supporting his defense and it would be much harder dodging without ki strengthening his legs.

As the boar charged again Sun Jiao was barely able to avoid it in time. Turning to attack he stopped and had to dodge instead.

The boar had charged past Sun Jiao and turned around too quickly for him to counter-attack.

Again and again Sun Jiao dodged but was unable to attack before the boar charged again.

Just as Sun Jiao was getting frustrated he remembered his fight from the night before. Under Xiaobo's guidance he had dodged and attacked at the same time. Thinking hard about how he could fight the boar he realized he had been going about the fight completely wrong.

Moving the ki from his fist to his right leg Sun Jiao prepared for the next attack. He had realized he'd need to dodge and attack all at once.

As the boar charged Sun Jiao avoided by jumping to the right again, but this time as he landed on his right leg he bent it and kicked off the ground. With a twist faster than the boar could react Sun Jiao's right leg slammed into the beast causing it to smash through several trees.

Xu Rong was ecstatic and quickly shouted out words of praise as she began to run over.

Xiaobo was very satisfied. He knew if Sun Jiao fought with his full strength then it would be an easy fight. However he wanted Sun Jiao to learn from the fights and mindlessly killing them wouldn't accomplish that goal.

Xiaobo could simply tell Sun Jiao what to do, but the time it would take for Sun Jiao to listen and then execute could mean the difference between life and death. If Sun Jiao was able to react and move on his own his fighting potential would be significantly higher. Also, Sun Jiao thoughts were almost completely foreign to Xiaobo and so teaching him to fight would open up possible solutions that even Xiaobo couldn't figure out.

In this case for example Xiaobo would have simply faced the boar head-on and with his full strength punch the oncoming beast. The previous attacks had come from the side and so the boar could absorb the blow. A head-on attack was a clash of forces and would cause significant damage to the boar's brain.

This knowledge is even shown on earth as cars have many more safety features protecting from head-on collisions than ones from the side as the amount of force will be significantly more head-to-head.

Sun Jiao's choice on the other hand was actually slightly better than Xiaobo's option. Xiaobo's attack would result both sides taking significant damage. The boar would die, but Xiaobo's fist would have broken as well.

Sun Jiao's attack would cause damage to the boar while avoiding any incoming damage. If the damage was enough to kill then it would be the best choice. It was only slightly better because if the attack wasn't enough to kill then it gave the opponent a chance to think of a counter.

Or even worse; a breakthrough.

As the boar got back up it stumbled a bit on the way to the field. The cloudy eyes dulled from the attack suddenly cleared and burst with energy. The copper colored ki surrounding the boar had faded with the last attack. As it's eyes cleared the ki abruptly exploded and gave off a pressure much stronger than it had at the start of the fight.

Xu Rong eyes narrowed with fright. She had been watching the entire time and knew she'd only barely be able to win if she had been fighting. Now the strength it was giving off caused her to reconsider her chances of victory.

With a sigh of relief Sun Jiao started the first and second strengthening paths.

At this point Xiaobo noticed Xu Rong and got a better idea.

Sun Jiao's eyes shown with suspicion, but eventually he conceded. Even after it's breakthrough it was still equal with Xu Rong so there wasn't much to worry about. Still to be safe he kept up his strengthening paths so that at any time he could jump in to protect her.

"Xu Rong. I think you could take it."

The boar snorted out fire and stomped its feet. It could roughly understand their discussion and delighted at the fact that it would be able to kill this man's mate in front of him. If it had been more intelligent...well it would have run away, but if it had been slightly more intelligent it would have fought Sun Jiao rather than give him a chance to rest. Instead it actually favored fighting the woman.

"A-are you sure? It looks pretty strong I'm not sure-"

"You'll be fine. I promise. If you're in trouble I will step in don't worry."

"R-r-right! I can do it! I'll make you proud master!"

With a nod and a fist pump she turned to fight the boar.

The boar's eyes gleamed with anticipation. It had yet to release its strongest attack and after the breakthrough it was confident it could even beat the man with its explosive power.

It stomped its foot again and began its charge.

Side story:

The putrid smell of the city sewers was sickening even to the noseless flame that followed Jia Cho. For BK it was even worse. A beetle will use smell to find it's mate and right now Jia Cho was considered becoming a priest.

Suppressing the urge to flee from the filth BK wandered around trying to find a gang. It didn't take long before two rat gang members showed up wearing blue bandanna around their necks.

"Squeek squeek(your money or your life)" the rat's said.

BK wondered what currency the rat's used or how they expected him to carry it without any pockets. He didn't wonder very long though and instead attacked. With a jab and SHWING slice the rats fell. Quickly he skinned the rats and cut out patches of fur. After covering his body in patches of fur his plan to infiltrate the rats with a clever disguise was complete.

How could he mimic the voice though? Looking at the fire that followed him the two shared a glance and again knew the others thoughts.

The flame flickered and a squeek(I will talk for you brother!) sound came out. 'Excellent' BK thought!

Wrapping the now blood soaked blue cloth around it's horn the six legged beetle with two horns covered in patches of fur set off to join a rat gang.