Chapter Fourteen – Fangs in the Darkness
The deeper Jesse Jordan moved into the Obsidian Bone Forest, the heavier the air became. The skeletal trees groaned in the cold wind, their branches creaking like the dying breaths of forgotten souls. The ground beneath his boots crumbled with every step, black dust rising like smoke.
His robes were torn, his body battered, and his breath ragged. Each cut on his skin stung, and every bruise throbbed with pain, but his grip on the fractured sword was unyielding. That broken blade pulsed with faint jade light, almost as if it were alive, resonating with the unnatural silence of the forest.
The silence shattered.
A howl unlike anything Jesse had ever heard split the air. It was deep and resonant, vibrating through his bones, shaking the marrow in his spine. The skeletal trees rattled violently, branches snapping and raining down like shards of bone. Jesse staggered but refused to fall. His cold eyes narrowed, locked on the darkness ahead.
Then, it appeared.
A wolf, colossal in size, its entire body formed from interlocked bones and fueled by writhing black flames. The ground shook beneath its weight as it prowled into the clearing, hollow sockets blazing with molten red light. With every breath, its ribcage expanded and contracted, revealing the pulsing black core nestled within like a heart forged from corrupted jade.
The fractured sword in Jesse's hand quivered as though afraid. Or perhaps it was hungering.
The wolf lowered its skull, and with a guttural roar, it charged.
The world became motion and sound—earth splintering beneath massive claws, black flame scattering like sparks, and Jesse leaping aside as a claw gouged the ground where he had stood. The impact sent tremors racing through the clearing.
Jesse rolled to his feet, his chest heaving. He slashed upward, the fractured sword screaming against the beast's bone leg. A deep crack spread across the limb, spilling black fire, but the wolf only snarled and pressed forward. Its skeletal tail whipped like a whip of steel, smashing Jesse into a skeletal tree. The impact rattled his spine and forced blood from his mouth.
He staggered, his vision swimming. Yet his eyes remained sharp. "So… even monsters bleed."
The beast lunged again, jaws snapping with enough force to shatter boulders. Jesse dove low, rolling beneath its ribs. His instincts screamed at him, guiding his gaze toward the pulsing black core in its chest. The jade slip's teachings echoed in his mind, and for a heartbeat, the wolf's form seemed to unravel into streams of qi, all converging into that single point.
The core. Destroy the core.
His grip tightened. With a guttural cry, Jesse drove the fractured sword upward into the beast's chest.
The strike connected.
The clearing exploded in light and sound. The black core shuddered violently, fissures spreading across its surface as black flames surged outward. Jesse was hurled back like a ragdoll, crashing through roots and stone, his body screaming in agony. He rolled across the ground and came to a stop, coughing blood. His arms trembled, but his gaze remained locked on the wolf.
The beast staggered, convulsing as cracks spiderwebbed across its core. Its howl shook the trees, a deafening sound of rage and despair. Black flames poured from the wounds Jesse had carved, engulfing the clearing in chaos.
Finally, with a shattering sound like glass breaking, the core ruptured.
The wolf collapsed in on itself, bones crumbling into dust, black fire sputtering out. Shards of the core rained down around Jesse, glowing faintly as they sank into the ground.
Jesse forced himself to his knees, every muscle trembling. His lungs burned, his blood was thin in his veins, but he had done it. He had slain a beast that no disciple should have been able to face.
But the trial was not over.
The shattered fragments of the core pulsed, dissolving into streams of black light that surged into Jesse's body. His meridians ignited with pain, as if molten metal poured through his veins. His dantian pulsed violently, expanding and contracting, on the verge of collapse.
He clenched his teeth until blood seeped between them, refusing to scream. Pain was his companion, but surrender was not.
The fractured sword flared with jade light, its glow intertwining with the black qi raging inside him. In the chaos, Jesse felt a strange balance forming. The darkness and the jade fought, clashed, and finally fused, carving themselves into his very bones.
His cultivation surged. Barriers shattered like brittle glass. He felt himself ascending—beyond the fragile mortal state that had chained him. His battered body healed fractionally, strength returning where despair had threatened to swallow him whole.
When the storm of qi finally calmed, Jesse collapsed forward, drenched in sweat, his breath ragged. Yet within his dantian burned a new flame—darker, sharper, and infinitely stronger.
He had broken through.
Jesse raised his head, his lips curving into a faint, cold smile. "If this is what the forest calls a trial… then I'll consume everything it dares to throw at me."
But even as he spoke, the fractured sword shivered violently. A low resonance trembled through the earth, deeper and older than the wolf's howl. The skeletal trees bent as though bowing to some unseen presence.
From the abyssal depths of the forest, something stirred. Something vast. Something ancient.
Jesse rose shakily to his feet, his sword steady despite the weakness in his limbs. His cold gaze locked onto the shadows where the sound originated.
The true trial had yet to begin.