The Myriad Beast Mountains were a chaotic symphony of life and death, but for Jian Feng, chaos was simply a complex system waiting to be understood. While his clanmates, led by the boisterous Jian Liwei, charged into the forest creating a swathe of noise and disruption, Jian Feng took a different path. He moved with an unnatural silence, his new robes blending with the shadows, his feet barely disturbing the thick carpet of fallen leaves.
His journey was not guided by chance, but by two layers of perception. The first was the small, jade-like disk in his palm, which pulsed with a gentle, rhythmic beat. It was his own creation, a formation tuned to the unique energy signature of the Dragon's Vein Tokens. It gave him direction. The second, more crucial layer was his own hyper-compressed Spiritual Sense, acting in concert with the Star-Chart. This gave him clarity.
He perceived the forest as a web of interconnected territories. A shimmering red haze to his left was the hunting ground of a pack of Fire-Claw Lynxes. A patch of deceptively beautiful flowers ahead pulsed with a toxic, purple aura. He avoided them all, not by reacting to danger, but by perceiving the shape of it long before he was ever at risk. He flowed through the forest's gaps, taking the path of least resistance, an invisible ghost moving towards a predetermined destination.
After nearly an hour of this silent, effortless travel, the pulsing on the disk in his hand grew stronger, more insistent. The path led him to a small, sunken clearing, dominated by a massive, gnarled ancient tree whose roots twisted out of the ground like petrified serpents. The air here was still and heavy. At the base of the tree, nestled between two thick roots, was a small, cave-like hollow. And inside, resting on a bed of damp moss, a jade token shaped like a dragon's scale glowed with a soft, internal light.
He had found the first token.
It was not, however, unguarded. Coiled protectively around the roots, its obsidian scales absorbing the dappled light, was a three-meter-long serpent. A single, sharp horn protruded from its forehead. A Horned Shadow-Viper, a 7th-Layer Qi Gathering beast. Jian Feng stopped at the edge of the clearing, his expression as placid as ever.
His mind worked with cold precision.
Target: Horned Shadow-Viper. Strengths: Potent neurotoxic venom delivered via fangs, ability to merge with shadows for ambush attacks. Weaknesses: Low intelligence, highly territorial, poor hearing, relies on heat and Qi sense. Its primary motivation is guarding its nest.
A direct assault was inefficient. It would be noisy, expend his precious Origin Qi, and risk exposure to its venom. The optimal solution was to make the viper move of its own volition. His gaze swept the clearing, cataloging variables. A dripping Moonpetal Flower to the east. A rotting log to the west that his Spiritual Sense identified as a Fire-Ant colony. The plan formulated itself instantly.
He didn't draw a weapon. He picked up a small, sharp stone. His wrist flicked, and the stone shot through the air with calculated force and trajectory, not at the viper, but at the stalk of the Moonpetal flower. A glob of thick, fragrant sap fell with a soft plop directly onto the viper's coiled body.
The serpent hissed, startled by the sudden contact, but its simple mind registered no immediate threat. It remained coiled. But the sweet, cloying scent of the sap began to drift on the gentle breeze, a silent invitation. Seconds later, a line of red Fire-Ants marched from the log. Their objective: the sap. The viper was merely an obstacle.
The first ants crawled onto its obsidian scales, biting defensively. The viper hissed in annoyance, shaking its body. But the swarm was relentless. Hundreds of ants crawled over it, their bites not truly painful, but creating an infuriating, maddening distraction. The viper's territorial rage, meant for larger threats, had no effective outlet against a thousand tiny aggressors. Finally, its simple brain overloaded, it uncoiled with a furious hiss and thrashed its way into the undergrowth to escape the torment, leaving its nest completely undefended.
Jian Feng calmly walked into the clearing, knelt, and retrieved the Dragon's Vein Token. The smooth, cool jade felt like a testament to a battle won before it was ever fought. As he stood up, he heard a frantic rustling in the bushes behind him.
He turned to see Jian Qiao—the nervous, kind girl from the Sky-Ark—stumble into the clearing. Her face was pale with terror, her robes were torn, and her breath came in ragged gasps.
"Young Lord!" she cried, her eyes wide with shock at seeing him. "You have to run! A pack of Iron-Claw Wolves… they're right behind me!"
Jian Feng's gaze remained steady. He could sense the five 6th-Layer beasts closing in. Panicking, he knew, was a waste of energy. "The wolves hunt by scent and sound," he stated, his voice even and instructional. "The viper you hear hissing in the undergrowth is a 7th-Layer beast whose territory you are in. It is agitated. Its scent is one of aggression."
He pointed. "If you proceed fifty meters in that direction and conceal yourself behind the rock formation, the wolves will inevitably cross paths with the returning viper. A territorial dispute is the logical outcome. The victor will be too wounded or exhausted to pursue you. Wait for the conflict to resolve itself, then leave."
Jian Qiao stared at him, her panicked mind struggling to process the cold, strategic breakdown of her life-or-death situation. But the sound of a wolf's howl nearby spurred her into action. She gave him a bewildered, grateful nod and scrambled in the direction he had indicated.
Jian Feng watched her go, a flicker of interest in his eyes. Her panicked flight had led her, by sheer chance, to this resource-rich location. Her luck was a tangible, if chaotic, force. An interesting variable to note for the future.
He heard the first snarls of the wolf pack meeting the enraged hisses of the returning viper. The symphony of the forest played out exactly as he had predicted. Without a backward glance, he turned and melted back into the shadows, his first objective complete, leaving behind a bewildered clanmate who had just become the sole witness to the fact that the 'failed prodigy' was anything but.