The wolf was sleeping under the shade of a tree when it smelled someone approaching it. The wolf was just a mortal wild beast, part of a pack commanded by a fire wolf. Feeling tired from continuous hunting, it had strayed away from the pack and found a quiet place to rest.

  And now an intruder was disturbing him. The wind carried the scent of a human. Human flesh wasn't that delicious compared to deer or lamb but food was food.

  The human was all alone. It could recognise that the human was a young boy. He wasn't even carrying weapons. The thought of being underestimated irked it. The wolf howled ready to devour the boy. But instead of shaking in fear, the boy just smiled.

  "Congratulations, you're the last one."

  The boy lifted his hand and a black arrow emerged from it. Before the wolf could even react, the arrow struck the it. Even though a hair of its fur wasn't damaged, the wolf was rolling on the ground howling in intense pain. Its vision was rapidly darkening as it heard the footsteps getting closer.

  "Sigh. This is the most troublesome part." It felt something sharp struck its throat. Within a few seconds, the wolf died from bleeding out without even understanding anything.

  ***

  "The evening shift is coming fast. Let's just hurry." Ling Yun was in a good mood. With the wolf the quota of a hundred souls was finally complete. He had been working hard for the past few months.

  Also winter was fast approaching. The wolf's fur would sell at a good price, giving him an additional income. He had stored its corpse in the spatial bracelet.

  Looking at silver bracelet, a complex expression appeared on his face. It had been of great help during monster hunting. His master had told him that it must be a high quality spatial artifact as it could also store living beings inside it.

  But Ling Yun wanted to discard it as soon as possible. It had been eight months since that night he lost little Hua. Even though his age and cultivation have both increased, not much has changed. The regrets, the guilt, it still haunts his heart.

  Initially he had wanted to throw it away but was made to see sense by Brahma. In the end he had decided to make use of it for now. He will sell it later when he finds another spatial bag.

  "I hope these fools just leave me alone."

  He was near the edge of the forest when he sensed some people hiding near the path leading to village. Ordinarily, Ling Yun would avoid them and take a different path but he was too mentally done to care. He had been hunting wild beasts after finishing the morning shift and it was getting late for the evening shift.

  He tried to reduce his presence as much as he could and quietly walked but to his annoyance, the three ruffians came out from their hiding place and surrounded him.

  "Little brother, just quickly leave your belongings here and run away. We don't want anyone to get hurt, do we?"

  The leader had the body build of a gorilla, even his face resembled the animal. With his bulging muscles, he really looked intimidating. His two underlings looked like average thugs, one was armed with a dagger while the other wielded a short sword.

  The leader was blocking the path to the village while the two lackeys were behind him.

  "Are you deaf? Didn't you hear, big brother said to-" "Just shut up. I don't have the time to listen to the usual bullshit that comes out of your mouths. Feel pain."

  Two black arrows materialized above Ling Yun and immediately struck the two lackeys. Their smirks quickly turned into cries of pain. Dropping their weapons, they both fell on the ground and with tears rapidly falling from their eyes.

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  After a second, a stench of urine spread in the area. The leader looked at his lackeys in shock. He knew they were weak but not that trash. Sensing danger, he immediately started charging his punch.

  "Take this, Gorilla fist!"

  He really is a gorilla.

  "Soul dissonance needle."

  The gorilla who was in the motion of punching, clutched his right arm in pain. One minute he was charging his, now all the bones in his right arm have broken. The agony was intense but he tries to remain conscious.

  "Soul connecting thread."

  While he was struggling, a black rope coiled around him and entered his chest. He tried to focus and saw the other end of the rope was in the chest of Ling Yun.

  "Who- no what are you doi-AAAHHH!"

  The leader felt like his heart was being squeezed. It was like he was trapped under a huge waterfall and the pressure kept on increasing steadily.

  "Stop! AAAHH Please I beg you stop!"

  But the pressure didn't let up and kept getting heavier and heavier. Unable to bear it, he also fell unconscious.

  The only emotion Ling Yun felt from this ordeal was disgust because of the nauseous stench. This is the reason why he doesn't want to encounter thugs. Most of them just end up pissing themselves fouling the air.

  He quickly took their belongings and put them in the bracelet. Two more threads originated from his chest and connected to the two lackeys. He went to each one by one and removed their memories of this encounter. He doesn't want to be recognised by them again and deal with further trouble in the future.

  "You should also take their souls." The alluring words of Brahma echoed in his minds. The Seven Spectral Lamps technique Ling Yun is currently practicing requires a large number of souls for its cultivation. Even condensing a single Spectral Lamp if done without committing a single mistake requires 150 souls.

  Everyday Ling Yun hunts the demonic beasts for their souls and refines them at night. Beast souls are impure and require time and effort to cleanse them. Brahma had told him that human souls although weaker are much easier to refine but Ling Yun remained firm.

  "Remember your promise, never stray from the righteous path otherwise you will meet your end by my sword."

  There are some lines he will never cross.

  "Reading from their memories, they are just petty robbers who don't have the stomach for murder. At most they would beat people unconscious before robbing them. They are not demonic cultivators."

  "And if they were? Would you have then taken their souls? Could you?"

  Every time this happens he falls into the familiar pattern of thoughts. Should have I killed them? If they cause trouble in the future would it be my fault? Am I just evading responsibility only to keep my hands clean? But what if they get so scared by this experience that they change their ways? How am I to decide?

  These question remained unanswered as Ling Yun kept quiet for the rest of the way.

  Working at the tea shop always brought a bittersweet feeling. Since that night he had been unable to sleep. He only lies down for an hour or two only to rest his body. Brahma had told him that because of his immense soul strength he could go on without sleeping.

  He hunts monsters during day and cultivates diligently during the night. The only time he can relax is while working at the Jasmine Dragon.

  He makes enough money now and doesn't need to work at the tea shop anymore but still he keeps going. Maybe it's due to the guilt he feels for Uncle Ping. Both of them have gotten closer after the tragedy with Uncle Ping trying to be father figure to him.

  Perhaps the tea shop is the only thing connecting him to a normal life that he still can't let go.

  It was past midnight when he finally finished refining the beast souls he captured today. It takes up so much work that sometimes he thinks about following Brahma's advice of refining human souls.

  Feel pain, Soul dissonance needle. Both were his primary offensive techniques he had learned after the incident. Due to his weak meridians, he has to preemptively make and store the black arrows and invisible needles.

  He can't do this during a fight. They require quite an amount of Qi and trying to quickly form them will hurt him. Here his immense soul strength shows its advantages. Ordinary cultivators could only store two arrows and needles in their soul sea and constantly carrying it would put a mental burden but Ling Yun is free from these limitations.

  He can store hundreds without any discomfort. Also his mammoth soul further magnifies these techniques. But he isn't satisfied.

  According to Brahma, while these tricks can work against average cultivators, against top level ones he stands no chance.

  This is why he is hunting wild beasts to cultivate the Seven Spectral Lamps technique. He never wants to give the excuse of being too weak to do anything.

  "Master all preparations have been done."

  "Get some rest and restore your Qi. Tomorrow you will have to perform soul splitting technique. You need to be at your full strength."

  He may not have all the answers now but the only thing to do is keep moving forward, keep growing stronger.