The creature thrashed wildly, its attacks now erratic and unfocused. It was blind, but not dead.
Wu Chen wiped blood from his lips and rose slowly, the rusted spearhead clenched in his fist. The creature's blindness gave him the advantage he needed.
But he know's that in critical and dire moments like this are when he is supposed to be more alert.
'The moment you let your guard down is when you die.'
The thought struck him like cold water. He'd seen it before—fighters growing careless when victory seemed certain, only to fall to a final, desperate strike. The beast was blind, but far from harmless. One lucky hit from those claws could still tear him apart.
He circled carefully, letting the creature exhaust itself in its fury. When it lunged, he sidestepped—not by much, just enough. When it swung, he leaned back—barely avoiding the killing blow. Conserving energy. Waiting.
Then—
The rest was easy.
Well
compared to the battle in the beginning at least.
He waited for the right moment, dodging its frenzied attacks, until he saw an opening.
With all his remaining strength, he plunged the spearhead into the creature's throat, silencing its roars.
The creature writhed in agony, its movements growing weaker until it finally collapsed.
Wu Chen's knees nearly buckled as he stumbled back, his breath ragged and his body slick with sweat and blood. His muscles screamed in protest—every bruise, every shallow cut a testament to how close he'd come to death.
"Too close," he spat, the metallic taste of blood sharp on his tongue.
Even with Supreme Intelligence, he was still painfully weak. One solid hit from that beast would have been enough to shatter his bones. One misstep, and those fangs would have ripped out his throat.
So He new he needed a plan.
And luckily His gaze flicked to the rusted spearhead glinting in the dirt—just far enough away to make the gamble insane.
But insanity was all he had left.
So he played the only card left.
Luring the creature, he let his movements grow sluggish, his dodges sloppy. He exaggerated his panting, his trembling—painting himself as a cornered prey.
And the creature, drunk on its own superiority, took the bait without hesitation.
It wasn't easy.
The claw caught his side, shredding cloth and skin. A glancing blow sent him spinning. But he gritted his teeth and endured—because survival had always been his strongest skill.
And when the moment came, when the beast lunged for the killing blow—
He Became the predator.
And the rest you already know how it unfolds.
With the creature After it blindness acting as if Wu Chen was a long lost ally that betrayed him.
Was the bastard expecting him to bring his head to it's maw?
Though It wasn't easy at all to device a plan mid fight and had received some few additional bruises and wounds due to it.
but hey, he's still alive isn't he.
But before he could catch his breath, a voice echoed in his mind, cold and mechanical
[System Notification]
[You have slain: Special Mortal Creature (Level 1 Top Tier) - "Demonic Wolf"]
[ Do you wish to absorb the Special Demonic Core? - Y/N ]
Wu Chen froze, his eyes widening. The voice was unfamiliar, yet it felt like it had always been there, waiting.
'Woah, do I hear and receive this notification after slaying creatures?. Wu Chen thought, his mind racing.
But some few words stood out: "Absorb Special Demonic Core?".
He knew what a demonic core was—every cultivator did.
The pulsing hearts of power that dwelled within creatures and cultivators alike.
It was the essence of a creature's power, a condensed reservoir of energy, much like how food was stored in the stomach.
He'd heard the drunken boasts of mercenaries who'd harvested them, the whispered warnings of alchemists who paid fortunes for prime specimens.
But both demonic and divine creatures possessed cores, though their locations varied.
Some housed them in their chests, others in their skulls or bellies. For humans, the core resided in the chest, the very heart of their cultivation.
But he had never heard of special demonic core, were this creatures different than other demonic creatures he knew?.
That explains it.
The unnatural intelligence in its eyes. The way it fought with cruel precision rather than mindless fury. This was no ordinary creature—it had been something more.
Is that why they have special core?,
Wu Chen's hovered over the phantom prompt, in his mind.
'Absorb a demonic core?'
Every cultivator knew the dangers. He'd seen the cautionary tales scrawled on tavern walls—fools who'd tried consuming cores raw, their bodies twisting into grotesque parodies of humanity before the purge squads put them down.
Demonic cores were poison.
Refined through alchemical fires?
Its Useful.
Distilled into elixirs?
Its Powerful.
But absorbed directly?
Thats Madness.
Yet the system's prompt pulsed patiently before him, its cold certainty undeniable.
Wu Chen's throat went dry.
How?
Would it be forced into his chest like a burning brand?
Would his veins flood with corrupt energy?
The creature's unnatural intelligence had unnerved him—would he inherit that same alien cunning?
And the price...
Would his mind survive intact?
The fallen beast's corpse stared at him with hollow, bleeding sockets—a warning and a temptation all at once.
.....
Wu Chen ventured deeper into the forest, his senses heightened and his mind razor-sharp. The air was thick with an eerie stillness, broken only by the occasional rustle of leaves or the distant cry of an unseen creature.
Moonlight filtered through the dense canopy above, casting ghostly shadows that danced across the forest floor like restless spirits.
Every step he took felt like a step into the unknown, but Wu Chen pressed on, driven by a potent mix of curiosity, determination, and the faint glimmer of hope that he might uncover the secrets of his Destiny.
The Supreme Intelligence humming in his skull sharpened the world to knife's-edge clarity in his eyes:
- The way the wind hesitated before changing direction.
- The faint musk of something large moving just beyond sight.
- an unsettling feeling—a prickling sensation at the back of his neck, as though unseen eyes were tracking his every move.
It seems like this ability of his isn't just limited to battle but his out look to everything has changed he can easily see things down to details.
And it looks like he is not just limited to physical and tangible objects but can even analyze intangible things like air, smell and gaze.