Chapter 90: New companion Qing Yan

Are you insane, child?” the old man hissed, taking a step toward her. “That forest is death itself, are you going to there for die”

All other people also said the same thing.

“I know, i know about this forest” she said, keeping her eyes locked onto mine, though her legs were visibly trembling. “But the demons killed my family. If I go to a sanctuary, I’ll just be hiding forever. I want to see… I want to see a world where humans don’t have to hide. Please, let me come, i can be little useful to you sometimes.”

‘He is powerful, i think i will be safe at his side and maybe he can help me get my revenge back’

I stared at her for a moment, measuring her resolve. The shadows of the Necis Forest were lengthening, and the eerie, ghost-like howling from earlier was growing louder as the sun dipped below the horizon. Night was almost here.

“It’s going to be crawling with monsters,” I warned her, stepping past the first line of dark, twisted trees. “And I don’t plan on slowing down,

are you sure you can keep up with me.”

“I’ll keep up,” she whispered, swallowing her fear and stepping into the darkness right beside me.

The canopy of the Necis Forest swallowed the last traces of twilight, plunging the world into a suffocating darkness. The twisted branches overhead looked like skeletal fingers reaching across a blood-red sky.

I glanced to my side. The girl was keeping her word, jogging to match my pace, though her breathing was ragged.

“So,” I said, my voice cutting through the eerie silence of the woods. “Since we are officially hiking buddies in a suicide forest, are you going to tell me your name, or should I just call you ‘Hey You’ for the rest of the night?”

She let out a nervous breath. “Qing Yan. My name is Qing Yan.”

“Qing Yan,” I repeated, testing the sound of it. “Nice name. Much better than ‘Hey You.’ I’m Barry, but you already knew that since I like introducing myself dramatically.”

Before she could reply, the ground beneath us began to vibrate. The ghostly howling from earlier stopped, replaced by a rumbling growl that echoed from all sides.

Snap. Crack.

Twisted trees splintered as dark shapes began to emerge from the foliage. Dozens of them. They looked like massive wolves, but their bodies were made of pure, writhing shadows, and their eyes glowed with an unsettling red light. Shadow Wolves. Within seconds, a massive horde of them completely surrounded us, blocking every single exit.

“We are surrounded…” Qing Yan whispered, her voice tightening as she instinctually stepped closer to my back. “Barry, there are too many of them. The stories were true. Nobody survives this place at night, what should we do now ?.”

I looked at the giant, drooling shadow wolves, then looked back at her. “Too many? Honestly, I’m just disappointed. I was expecting a grand welcome committee, but they just sent oversized puppies.”

One of the wolves snapped its jaws at me, letting out a deafening roar.

“See? That one agrees with me,” I chuckled, completely unfazed. “He’s just excited for a belly rub.”

“Are you insane?!” Qing Yan cried out, her eyes wide with disbelief. “They want to eat us, not play fetch and you are joking in a situation like this ?”

“Relax. Watch me closely and learn.” I said.

I didn’t even drop my casual stance. As the first three wolves leaped through the air with their claws outstretched, I moved. To Qing Yan, it must have looked like I simply vanished into air. At the Ascendent Level, my speed was far beyond anything these low-level creatures could comprehend.

Thwack! Bam! Boom!

Three precise punches landed in the span of half a second. The force of my fists didn’t just knock the wolves back—the shockwaves completely vaporized their shadow bodies into black mist.

I reappeared exactly where I had been standing, smoothly catching a falling leaf out of the air. “See? Effortless. Though I think I might have ruined my favorite shirt.”

Before I could make another joke, two wolves broke away from the horde and lunged directly at Qing Yan from her blind spot.

“Barry!” she screamed.

I pivoted to step in, but to my surprise, Qing Yan didn’t cower. She took a breath, her eyes flashing with a fierce determination. She raised her trembling right hand, and a brilliant, flicking spark of flame erupted from her fingertips.

Fwhoosh!

The flame expanded into a small barrier of fire. When the shadow wolves slammed into it, they howled in agony, their dark fur burning as they scrambled backward, terrified of the light.

I paused, raising an eyebrow in genuine surprise. The aura of that fire was incredibly pure. “Well, well. A Genesis Level expert. No wonder the demons chained you up—they were terrified of what you could do.”

Qing Yan fell to her knees, panting heavily. The tiny spark of fire vanished, leaving her completely drained. “I… I am too weak right now,” she whispered, clutching her stomach. “The demons… they starved me and used sealing cuffs to suppress my energy. I can barely hold a spark.”

“Hey, a spark is more than enough to roast a marshmallow,” I said, walking over and placing a reassuring hand on her shoulder. The moment my hand touched her, a tiny fraction of my Ascendent Level aura gently flowed into her, stabilizing her chaotic energy. “You did great. Now, take a seat. Let me handle the rest of the pack.i will beat them up “

The remaining horde of shadow wolves seemed to realize they were horribly outmatched. They began to back away, their eyes darting around frantically.

“Oh, now you want to leave?” I called out to them, stepping forward as my aura flared, crushing the grass and rocks beneath my foot.

“Sorry, fellas. The park is closed, and the exterminator is already here, you come to wrong person.”

With a confident grin, I charged directly into the center of the massive horde.