Jinshen narrowed his eyes in frustration as he pursed his lips. letting his hand fall to his side as he slowly started to pour his Qi into his eyes once more, his eyes glowing more fervently and brightly, his veins also becoming alight with a blue glow as he clenched his fists.
Nanomachine had learnt his patterns and Jinshen no longer needed to order it to activate any more as the liquid Nanomachines poured out of the pores in his palm, hardening immediately into a silver sword.
Jinshen exhaled softly as he saw the Qi pathways of the people through the wall, most of them were far away but one was a few walls away..
No one mentioned that I couldn't break the walls... Lets test this out.
Jinshen dashed forward, holding his sword in a reverse grip, striking the wall with the ring shaped pommel as it broke into pieces, the kid behind the wall was shocked and terrified by the sound of someone breaking through the thick walls of the labyrinth, letting out a yell in response
But before he could process anything, Jinshen already punched him in the nose, his Qi eyes determining that this was his weakpoint.
His head whipped backwards, hitting the wall as he fell to the ground, his nose broken and the blood falling rapidly towards the ground as he narrowed his eyes at Jinshen who was standing tall above him.
"W-Who are you?!"
Jinshen looked down at the kid stoically as he sneakily reabsorbed the sword, he was definitely not older than him, he had short, ashy grey hair that seemed to be natural. His eyes were black and his skin was pale, he was pretty handsome. Too handsome to be a commoner.
He looks like a noble... A runaway kid huh? He could be in trouble... Maybe I could help him. Yeah, I should help him, since if he's a big shot noble, his clan or sect will put a bounty on me, that'll help start my journey as a famed warrior.
Jinshen frowned slightly before sighing deeply, swallowing his pride as he put a hand forward towards the kid who looked very, very confused since he was just punched in the face by Jinshen a moment ago, nonetheless, in a moment of naivety he took Jinshen's hand with a small smile, standing up from the ground.
Jinshen noticed that the kid was rather naive, already trusting Jinshen wholeheartedly which made Jinshen want to punch him in the face again but he controlled himself for now.
"I'm Jinshen, sorry for the rather.. Unfortunate first impression I was just on guard."
The kid's grip was surprisingly strong and so was his Qi now that Jinshen had time to see its full extent properly but the innocence and soft hands he had was just more evidence that this kid was truly a noble.
"Oh um.. I'm Yanwei.. I um, I was from the Iron-Mind Clan but I got kicked out and all.. So now I'm here."
Jinshen shook his hand firmly, staring deep into his eyes, he knew Yanwei was lying but it didn't bother him, he wasn't going to force Yanwei into spilling everything when their just becoming familiar with each other.
"Very well then, Yanwei. How much do you know. Anything about the goal or how long we'll be here."
Yanwei let go of Jinshen's hand as he cleared his throat, putting his hand behind his back before he spoke in a bit more serious tone.
"Well, we'll be here for a day or so. We were originally told that we will get rations but that was just to throw us off, we're in here hungry, and uh... Its not about clearing the labyrinth, its about showing off what you can do."
Jinshen narrowed his eyes as he took a step back from Yanwei, process the information as he sighed deeply.
"I see... How-"
Jinshen suddenly grabbed Yanwei as he pulled him into a passageway that led to a dead end. Yanwei looked at Jinshen confused but then he heard the footsteps of something large and heavy which made his eyes widen as he whispered
"I forgot to mention.. There will be Qi Beasts in the labyrinth and uh.. One of the Qi beasts will the Phantom Wolf..."
Suddenly the wall behind them both warped, rippling like water as something large and animalistic jumped through it.
Jinshen managed to push away Yanwei but in turn he had to endure the tackle of the Phantom Wolf, an animal that was many times larger than a wolf but not only that it had created all three Dantians required to channel Qi.
What the hell? Weren't Qi Beasts just damn rumors?
The wolf that was pinning Jinshen to the ground was an ethereal white and it had blue eyes, had it not been for the scowl on its face Jinshen would have thought of it as beautiful, but Jinshen didn't have time for that.
He immediately activated his Qi eyes, now being able to see the weakpoint of the wolf, the back of its knee which was now glowing blue for Jinshen.
he smirked before pulling the wolf's knee towards him, a strange move that surprised the animal who lost its balance and instinctively jumped away from Jinshen's glowing eyes, it seemed to be cautious of anything that has light.
Jinshen's smirk widened as he readied his sword once more, the glow in his eyes intensified, now seeming like a small sun that light up most of the labyrinth.
The mutt's afraid of light eh?
The wolf grunted in annoyance, its eyes narrowed as it phased through the wall once more, staying there for a moment before it suddenly jumped up from the ground, biting at Jinshen's neck.
Jinshen just smirked, he already knew that the wolf would do something like that so he just casually moved out of the way, his long robe flowing in the wind, the sound of his chuckle was making the wolf more irritated from what it looked like since it was now ignoring the glow from Jinshen's eyes.
The mutt's excited now Jinshen, be careful.
It was now attacking Jinshen wildly, its pride was definitely damaged from Jinshen's casualness and seemingly refusing to just give in and be its prey.
Yanwei watched silently, he had stepped into the corner out of fear, beads of sweat were rolling down his forehead and temple and when Jinshen looked back at him he couldn't help but let out a small laugh
"You're afraid of fighting huh Yanwei?"
Yanwei's eyes widened, his expression was one of disbelief since not only was Jinshen casually fighting a legendary beast that most warriors of his age would commit suicide before fighting, he was talking to him, he was utterly speechless as his mouth remained open.
Jinshen looked back at the wolf and yawned loudly as he finally attacked the wolf, slashing at its chest in a precise manner, wanting to end the fight as soon as possible. The attack pierced the wolf's chest, making it howl in pain as it jumped back, panting for air as it was already tired from attacking Jinshen, but now it was bleeding heavily.
Its fur was coated with red as its body was shaking and trembling, it tried supporting itself to run away but it failed and fell to the ground in surrender, no longer having the strength to fight back its superior opponent as Jinshen, simply slit its throat in a small act of mercy.
Jinshen stood up straight as he sighed deeply, he was facing away from Yanwei but he knew that the latter was utterly terrified of him now that he had showed his strength and ruthlessness in battle. He took in a deep breath to calm himself down, trying to think of something to say to break the tension while looking at the glass ceiling which was now fully dark.
"Yanwei, the Phantom Wolf was a cub, I would have died near instantly, I'm just at the level of a first class disciple. A real, fully matured Phantom Wolf might take an Elder of a famed clan to defeat it, maybe even a master."
Yanwei slowly nodded in silent understanding, but his expression remained fearful and he was sweating a lot, his white silk robe was now damp with sweat and the headband that was holding his hair from coming onto his forehead was now on the ground.
Jinshen sighed deeply and turned around to face him as he put his hand behind his back, reabsorbing the sword into his body in order not to reveal his Nanomachines to him, since it might scare him further.