Day 41 – The Hunger Trial
The Starvation Pit was a vertical shaft carved into the cliff face—fifty zhang deep, walls slick with salt and blood. No food. No water. Only the howl of demon wolves echoing from the darkness below.
Abbot Hei stood at the rim, iron rings glinting in his eyelids.
"Seven days. Hunt the Crimson-Eyed Wolves. Eat their hearts raw. Absorb their killing intent. Return—or become their meal."
Wuya was shoved in.
He fell twenty zhang—CRASH—landed on a ledge of jagged bone.
The bowl-claw in his palm flexed, porcelain edges scraping stone.
His stomach was a hollow drum.
Seventeen fractures had healed into mercury-dense bone—but hunger was a new master.
Day 1: The First Hunt
The pit teemed with three demon wolves—each the size of a bull, fur matted with blood, eyes glowing crimson like Zhao Heng's sigil.
Wuya crouched behind a skull stalagmite.
The alpha sniffed—nostrils flared.
It charged.
Wuya moved.
Ghost Step—a flicker of shadow.
He vaulted onto the wolf's back.
Bowl-claw through the spine—CRUNCH.
Vertebrae shattered. The wolf howled, bucked.
Wuya ripped the claw upward—spine cord severed.
The beast collapsed, paralyzed.
The second wolf lunged.
Wuya caught its jaws with both hands.
Mercury-bone vs. demon fangs.
CRACK.
He tore the lower jaw clean off—muscle fibers stretched, snapped.
Blood sprayed like rain.
He shoved the jaw into the wolf's own throat—choking on its own teeth.
The third fled.
Wuya chased.
Ghost Step—three blinks, he was atop it.
Bowl-claw to the skull—POP.
Brain matter oozed.
He carved out the heart—still beating.
Raw. Hot.
He ate.
The taste was rage incarnate.
Killing intent surged—his eyes flashed crimson for a heartbeat.
The bowl-claw extended—porcelain segments unfolded like a whip, three feet long.
He lashed the alpha's corpse—skin flayed in ribbons.
Day 3: The Pack Grows
Seven wolves now.
They hunted him.
Wuya hung from a bone ledge, bowl-claw whip coiled around his wrist.
The pack circled below.
He dropped.
Whip-claw lash—SLASH.
Three throats opened—arteries jetted in unison.
He landed in the blood pool.
Fist through chest—RIP.
Heart torn free, crushed in his grip.
He drank the blood from the cavity.
A wolf bit his leg—fangs pierced mercury-bone.
Wuya laughed.
He grabbed the snout, twisted 180°.
Neck snapped.
He wore the wolf's pelt as a cloak—still warm.
Day 5: Demonic Deviation
Hunger became madness.
Wuya saw Zhao Heng in every wolf's eyes.
He spoke to the hearts before eating:
"You are not enough. I need his heart."
The bowl-claw whip grew—five feet, segmented like a scorpion tail.
He carved tallies into the pit walls:
四 五 六 七 八 九 十 – Four to Ten.
Day 7: The Alpha King
A Crimson-Eyed Alpha King descended—ten feet tall, horns of black iron, aura of a Qi Condensation peak.
The pit trembled.
It roared.
Wuya answered—a scream of names:
"LAN! HUA! MOTHER! FATHER! ZHAO HENG!"
Ghost Step—ten blinks.
He was inside the roar.
Whip-claw around the neck—STRANGLE.
The Alpha King clawed—gouged Wuya's chest, ribs exposed.
Wuya tightened.
Veins bulged.
Bowl-claw segments pierced the throat—RIP.
He yanked the head free—spine attached like a grotesque necklace.
The body collapsed.
Wuya dug into the chest with bare hands.
The heart was black, fist-sized, pulsing with demonic qi.
He ate half.
The other half—he pressed into the bowl-claw.
Porcelain absorbed it.
The whip retracted, now veined with crimson.
Ascension
Abbot Hei lowered a bone ladder.
Wuya climbed—naked, blood-painted, wolf pelt dragging.
His eyes were crimson slits.
The bowl-claw dripped black blood.
"Eleven hearts," he rasped. "Still hungry."
Abbot Hei studied the whip-claw.
"The Starving Wolf is born. Next: Iron Corpse Meridian Forging."
The Bowl-Claw's Hunger
That night, Wuya carved a new name into his sternum with the whip-tip:
赵恒 – deeper than the others.
The claw pulsed, craving.
End of Chapter 6