As expected, the throbbing pain did not come, confirming the wolf's thoughts. The wolf began its reign of terror on the forest's weak beasts: rabbits, squirrels, ferrets, and even rats. He did not increase his overall cultivation level, but instead used all the qi he gained to refine his foundation within the Bone-Forging Realm. Although the small beasts offered little to no energy individually, the wolf used the collective influx to meticulously strengthen his skeletal system. By the time the white wolf reached his final destination, the accumulated qi from the small beasts was more than enough for him to strengthen his bones two times over.
The wolf stood in front of a familiar cave surrounded by tall trees. For a whole day, he did not move. He remembered the good times he had shared in the cave with his pack, but these precious memories were quickly replaced by horrifying ones. The wolf saw his pack being slaughtered one by one with no mercy. For an entire day, he allowed himself to deeply relive these memories. By the following day, his yellow eyes were entirely free from all thoughts of death and helpless vengeance; his only remaining thought was power, for the weak have absolutely no right to seek vengeance.
The white wolf knew all too well that he was not the epitome of righteousness. He knew that he had committed some pretty vile acts that most definitely created people and demonic beasts to whom he now owed a blood debt of vengeance. For example, he had killed that one innocent Huang family member in the basement without a second thought. And when he entered the forest for the first time in years, his very first act was murder. He then went on a mindless rampage, killing all manner of defenseless beasts that crossed his path with no regard for their loved ones ,acting just like the ruthless white tiger that had originally killed his own pack. If one thought about the situation without any bias, even the First Prince of the Tinding Kingdom was owed some vengeance, and if he were still alive, his spirit would be filled with thoughts of vengeance against his murderer.
The white wolf had firmly made up his mind not to overthink these things and simply accept that the world was not perfect. Not all who are owed vengeance possess the power to take it, and those who can may not wish to bother. But if they did ever seek vengeance against him, the white wolf would not let himself be killed. If the weak sought vengeance from him, the white wolf was more than willing to turn them into his next batch of cultivation materials.
The white wolf entered the dark cave and found a black mountain cat sleeping peacefully in the center. The wolf did not hesitate. He pounced on the cat and unleashed all his power on the sleeping beast. The cat instinctively sensed the oncoming attack and jumped wildly out of the way. Boom! The ground where the cat had been sleeping was blasted to pieces, sending sharp rocks flying through the air. The cat looked at the devastated stone floor in absolute fear. Thankfully, its fear did not stop it from trying a desperate run for the cave's exit.
Bang! The cat ran hard into a solid barrier, causing it to stop and look at what had blocked its escape. It turned out the white wolf was already standing directly in front of it, looking down at the cat with a ruthless glint in his yellow eyes. The mountain cat was not weak; in fact, it was in the second level of the beast path, the Nascent Realm. This realm was equivalent to the ninth stage of the Mortal Realm in the human path. The white wolf was technically in the sixth stage of the Mortal Realm, but the fierce demonic mountain cat was nothing more than a helpless house cat in front of his specialized power.
The cat shivered with fear, and this time, the terror was so intense that it stopped its brain from working well enough to plot a proper escape. Its legs gave out completely, and it fell to the ground. The cat was roughly the same size as the wolf, at just six feet long. The wolf looked at the unconscious mountain cat, debating whether to absorb its energy or simply eat it for lunch. The wolf finally chose to just toss it into the corner of the cave until he could make up his mind about the best way to utilize the beast.
When the cat woke up a few minutes later, it cleverly pretended to still be unconscious. For hours, it lay there with its belly exposed, trying not to twitch a single muscle, even when its posture became incredibly uncomfortable. The cat was waiting for the wolf to sleep so it could safely make its escape. To the cat's absolute horror, the wolf did not sleep; he just continued cultivating throughout the entire day and night. At some point, the wolf stood up and approached the cat, poking it callously with a single sharp claw, but then went right back to his cultivation. When the wolf was directly in front of it, the cat wanted to make a frantic run for it, but it decided that its best chance at survival was to stay put. Its heart beat so hard the cat thought it would explode.
In the morning, the wolf let out a sharp howl at the cat that was still playing dead, making it jump up in absolute terror. The cat and wolf looked at each other, and the cat decided to actively show the wolf that it was far more useful alive than dead. The mountain cat walked out of the cave, communicating its peaceful intent to the wolf through the common beast language. Although low-level beasts could not talk to each other using complex human words, they could communicate perfectly through small sounds, deliberate actions, and body language; even just by looking at each other, demonic beasts were able to understand intent.
The wolf let the cat go out before he sat on the floor and waited. The cat returned a few minutes later with a half-dead panther clamped tightly in its mouth. The panther was also a Nascent Realm demonic beast, which genuinely surprised the wolf. The cat placed the bleeding panther before the wolf and communicated its complete intent to become a loyal servant of the white wolf.