Qian Jin waited, anticipating the precise moment the alpha wolf would let its guard down. During the long trek these past few days, he had encountered numerous wolf packs, all sharing one common trait: extreme caution. Yet, there was always one moment when they were most relaxed.

He stirred! Qian Jin noticed that even when dozing, wolves maintained a high level of alertness. The true relaxation of vigilance only occurred in that brief window right as they finished dozing and began to rise.

Time ticked by, minute by minute. Qian Jin remained like an experienced old hunter, his gaze fixed constantly on the alpha’s movements.

A-oow...

The alpha’s eyes snapped open, and it threw back its head in a long, mournful howl, prompting the surrounding wolves to join in. They pushed off the ground with their four limbs and slowly stood up.

"This is the chance!"

The slits that were Qian Jin’s eyes suddenly blazed with the light of impending battle. His ninth-level Dou Jin erupted violently from the acupoints within his body, flooding into his legs. His bent knees propelled him forward with an explosive rebound, generating immense thrust. His body shot down toward the alpha like an arrow loosed from a taut bowstring. The results of nearly ten thousand swings of his Jidu Zhama Saber over the last three days were unleashed in full force at this very moment!

Surprise flashed across the alpha wolf's eyes. Its still-bent limbs tightened their muscles, and it lunged sideways to evade.

Aow... Thwump...

The alpha’s body was still airborne, mid-leap, but its head no longer followed the movement. Instead, it tumbled separately onto the ground, silencing the howl that had not yet finished.

Everything had happened too quickly! Qian Jin’s growth and learning from three days of relentless training were fully manifested in that single strike—killing the alpha through a perfect ambush.

Successfully ambushing the red wolves, who excelled at stealth themselves, made Qian Jin happier than simply killing the alpha head-on. His constant practice of infiltration over the past three days was finally showing initial, tangible results.

With a single cut, the wolf was dead. Qian Jin’s feet landed, his knees slightly bent. He immediately utilized that stored flexion to surge forward like a cannonball, straight toward the nearest three red wolves. His Jidu Zhama Saber slashed horizontally in a straight line, cleanly severing the three red wolves that hadn't even processed what had just occurred.

In the blink of an eye, Qian Jin had slain the red wolf on the verge of evolving into a Flame Wolf Beast, and then instantly killed three more. His imposing aura solidified immediately. He whipped his body around and swept toward another flank, bringing his blade down once more to fell two more wolves.

Awooo... A red wolf threw its head back and let out a mournful cry, lowering its body slightly into a pouncing posture. Qian Jin leveled the Zhama Saber across his chest, spun around sharply, and glared fiercely at the attacking wolf!

The red wolf instantly shuddered, the ferocity in its eyes rapidly receding. The fur standing stiffly on its back settled down. Its long tail, which had been dragging, tucked tightly between its legs, and it began to retreat, the whimpering sounds it made sounding more like pure terror.

Killing intent! The red wolf instinctively sensed the dense, palpable aura of slaughter emanating from Qian Jin—an emissary of death clearly forged in seas of blood and piles of corpses.

The wolves’ intuition far surpassed human intuition. The surrounding red wolves, baring their teeth, watched him cautiously, their tails clamped between their legs as they backed away, constantly retreating.

They dared not rush forward to avenge their alpha. Both the man wielding the blade and the broad, heavy Zhama Saber itself radiated a thick, suffocating intent to kill!

Awooo...

With another howl, the remaining red wolves simultaneously turned tail and bolted, disappearing into the forest without a backward glance, terrified that if they lagged, this maniacal slaughterer would claim them next.

"That’s it?" Qian Jin looked at the suddenly deserted battlefield with surprise, frowning slightly in confusion. "Aren't wolf packs supposed to be fearless? What happened to these red wolves today?"

"It's better this way; saves me the trouble."

Qian Jin drew a deep breath and employed the Iron Forging Breathing technique, slowly expanding his senses outward, searching for the Hundred-Year Ice Iron Ore he had sought for three days.

Icy? So cold! Like blocks of ice! Qian Jin closed his eyes and swung his fists, registering the currents of cold air emanating from different spots around him. Beneath the earth and rock lay a massive ore deposit, distinguishable from common iron ore by the distinct, chilling sensation it imparted.

What is this? Qian Jin suddenly sensed that alongside the cold metal, there was one area emitting a faint warmth—a sensation completely opposite to the Ice Iron, an intense heat, registering well over a hundred degrees Celsius! However, this heat spot was tiny...

Qian Jin opened his eyes and looked toward the direction of the heat source. He discovered that the source was located within the body of the dead alpha.

He split the alpha’s carcass open with his Zhama Saber. Inside its abdomen lay a small, reddish stone, no bigger than a pinky fingernail. Reaching out hesitantly, he found the small red stone intensely hot.

"Is this a Demon Core?" Qian Jin used the tip of his blade to tentatively pry out the red stone. He then cut a strip of fur from a nearby red wolf, wrapped the stone securely in the pelt, and placed it in his pouch, sighing, "It must be a Demon Core. Unbelievable that it had already gestured a core. Given a little more time, I would have been the one with the headache."

If an ordinary person stumbled upon a Demon Core, its sole utility would be a significant monetary reward; registering it at any auction house would fetch a handsome sum.

However, for practitioners of different trades—Mages, Warriors, Alchemists, Blacksmiths—it held varying degrees of significance.

Legends said Alchemists could use them to concoct miraculous potions. Mages could hire specialized individuals to inlay them into staves or use them to forge magical scrolls. Even Blacksmiths who weren't true Soul Forgers could utilize a Demon Core to subtly enhance the quality of their battle weapons.

Though this item, whose nature he wasn't completely certain of, could not be taken back to the academy, utilizing it now would grant him invaluable forging experience at Blake's smithy. This preparation meant that if he were lucky enough to possess a Demon Core in the future, he wouldn't be completely clueless about how to apply it in tempering his own battle gear.

The Hundred-Year Ice Iron Ore was not condensed into a single mass; rather, it existed in discrete chunks, growing slowly over time like large boulders.

Qian Jin uncovered several rocks and selected one weighing about one hundred and ten jin. He immediately wrapped the cold iron in the processed red wolf hide. Otherwise, simply carrying the metal down the mountain would likely freeze him into an ice statue long before he reached the foothills.

Carrying the hundred-plus-jin piece of Hundred-Year Ice Iron, Qian Jin glanced again at the mangled remains of the red wolves, a wave of gratitude and reflection washing over him. If he hadn't taken this solo mission, he wouldn't have had the chance to personally test the Warrior knowledge gleaned from his textbooks.

In fact, without these three days of relentless searching and fierce combat, merely practicing forging at the smithy would have made it difficult for his Dou Jin to even break through to the eighth level.