White Wolf

We headed to the tailor first. Once inside the shop, Ashin started by choosing fabrics, then took her time explaining what kind of clothes she wanted and placed her order.

After she finished ordering, the tailor turned his eyes to our down jackets.

“The clothes you are wearing are quite unusual.”

Ashin smiled happily.

“They look a little awkward, but they’re very light and warm. Once it gets cold, you can’t bear to part with them.”

The owner said he wanted to see it, so I took off my down jacket and handed it to him. He held it in his hands and gauged its weight. Surprise appeared on his face.

“I’m astonished. I thought it would be much heavier.”

“The filling is different from cotton, so that’s probably the difference.”

When he heard that, the owner picked up a pair of scissors. His eyes were glittering almost unnaturally.

“I’ll say this now, but I refuse to let you undo the stitching with scissors and inspect the inside.”

“I’ll put it back properly.”

“No. We’re about to go shopping.”

Looking disappointed, the owner returned the down jacket to me.

After leaving the tailor’s shop, we headed to a tool shop. That shop sold tools used in alchemy, including devices called medicine grinders for milling medicinal ingredients into powder or grinding them into juice, as well as mortars and pestles. Once I bought what I needed, five gold coins were gone.

After that, we headed to a weapon shop. I could not keep borrowing a sword from the armory forever, so I had decided to buy one of my own. When I went inside, various weapons were lined up.

“Hm? Aren’t you that brat from the Chian Trading Company?”

The master craftsman spoke to me when he saw me.

“I already quit the Chian Trading Company. I’m now an outer disciple of Gyorei Cave.”

“Oh? So you became a Taoist practitioner. You came to buy a weapon today, didn’t you?”

Kou nodded.

“I want a one-handed sword. Do you have any cheap one-handed swords?”

When the master heard my budget, he made a bitter face.

“It’ll have to be a weapon forged by an apprentice.”

“If the workmanship is good, I don’t mind.”

The master showed me several one-handed swords. Among them was a mountain blade with a blade length of about forty centimeters, and I chose that mountain blade. The other one-handed swords were long, but they were thin and looked like they would snap if used against a yōma. Once I paid for the mountain blade and its scabbard, almost all of the money I had saved up was gone. All I could do was sigh.

Carrying the heavy load on my back, I started walking back the way we had come.

“Kou, are you studying alchemy too?”

“I’ve only just started.”

Ashin tilted her head.

“Why alchemy?”

“It was written that immortal medicines and spiritual medicines are needed to raise your qi level, so I’m thinking of making them myself.”

“That’s admirable. You’re thinking that far ahead.”

When I checked Ashin’s qi level, I found that she was at the Second Tier. Since immortal medicine would only be needed from training at the Sixth Tier onward, that was probably still far off for her.

About twenty minutes after we started climbing the slope leading to Gyorei Cave, I sensed an unpleasant presence and stopped. Ashin looked at me.

“Is something wrong?”

“I sensed something unpleasant.”

As I said that, I set my load down and drew my mountain blade. Seeing that, Ashin also took the war staff she had been carrying on her back into her hands. I looked around while searching for the presence. Then, from the direction to my right, a large white wolf appeared.

“Don’t tell me… a yōma?”

It was rare for a yōma to leave the demon realm and appear near human settlements. However, it seemed to have happened many times in regions close to the demon realm.

“That’s a yōma. I’m pretty sure it was called a White Wolf.”

That White Wolf had a body length of about one hundred eighty centimeters and looked like it weighed over a hundred kilograms. Its characteristic pure white fur looked as though it was shining.

I refined qi inside my body and raised its level. At that moment, my senses sharpened, I could see farther, and the world seemed to expand. Not only that, I could hear even faint sounds and sense distant presences.

Then, following the teachings of Meisen Swordsmanship, I released all unnecessary tension from my body. The body that had tensed up at the sight of the White Wolf returned to a relaxed state. When I glanced at Ashin, her face was pale.

“Ashin, I’m going to bring this one down myself. So can I keep whatever we strip from it afterward?”

“W-what are you saying? You mean you’re going to fight it alone?”

“Yes, I’ll fight it alone. Could you step back a little?”

Ashin nodded and backed away.

I was glad I had bought the mountain blade. If I had been bare-handed, I definitely would have been killed. The White Wolf approached with a growling snarl. Rather than a wolf, it had the intimidating presence of a tiger closing in.

The White Wolf leaped and attacked me. It was faster than I had expected. I barely dodged, but the White Wolf’s claws grazed my left shoulder. In that instant, an impact ran through my left shoulder and blood spurted from it.

That was strange. The White Wolf’s claws had only grazed me; it should have been no deeper than skin-deep. It was not deep enough to bleed this much. The White Wolf landed and tried to rake me with its claws again. I dodged it completely and slammed my mountain blade into the White Wolf’s flank.

My new mountain blade bit into the White Wolf’s side and tore through its flesh. It was nowhere near a fatal wound, but a large amount of blood was pouring out. Roaring, the White Wolf swung its foreleg, and that foreleg struck a standing tree. Then claw marks larger than its actual claws were carved into the trunk.

Those claws seemed to possess some kind of power.

“Kou, are you all right?”

Ashin cried out. She had probably gotten worried because my shoulder was injured.

“I-it’s fine, so leave it to me.”

I was not fine, but as I said that, I focused all my nerves on the White Wolf. I barely dodged as the White Wolf tried to bite at my neck, then used qi to strengthen my power threefold and drove the mountain blade into its belly. I felt the strike connect, and with my body weight behind it, I sliced through.

Even the White Wolf, which had not died from that blow, had taken heavy damage and was staggering. It was my chance. I dashed in quickly and slashed open the White Wolf’s neck.

The White Wolf collapsed to the ground and stopped moving. Somehow, it seemed I had won.