Fortune and Misfortune Intertwined: The First Evolution of the Flame-red Eyes

Little Leopard lay unconscious in the wilderness for an entire night. Anyone else would long since have been carried off by wild beasts, but he had absorbed the seed of the mystic flame, and some of its energy had merged into his internal energy. As a result, a faint aura of mystic flame radiated from his body, keeping the surrounding beasts at bay.

"A blessing born of disaster, or one calamity after another?!"

Little Leopard slowly opened his eyes and gazed at the dappled sunlight falling through the strangely twisted branches overhead. He lay motionless, silent for a long time.

It was not that he did not want to move. The moment he did, a tearing sensation filled his entire body.

Yesterday's fire had badly depleted his vitality. Although an examination after waking revealed that his meridians were not seriously damaged, the intense pain had not subsided. Instead, as his meridians recovered, the stabbing sensations grew even clearer.

The weather had cleared, but yesterday's rainwater still pooled in this gloomy stretch of forest. Little Leopard was lying in muddy water. While unconscious, he had felt nothing, but now that he was awake, the pain in his meridians was compounded by the bone-piercing chill of the mud outside. Assailed from within and without, he could no longer describe the feeling in words.

Little Leopard had already gone numb, the muscles of his face twitching irregularly.

"Only by swallowing the bitterest hardships can you rise above others. After all the suffering I've endured, if I don't rise above everyone someday, then Heaven really must be blind!"

Little Leopard chuckled, strange sounds rumbling from his throat.

Suddenly, he let out a roar. His body snapped straight, and with a kip-up, he sprang from the ground to his feet.

"Hsss!" Apparently, he had exerted himself too hard. Little Leopard drew out a long hiss, then took two steps forward with his body rigid.

"My meridians aren't badly damaged, and my internal energy has mostly recovered. There's something strange in my dantian now, but it doesn't seem to be harming me!"

The muscles in Little Leopard's face stiffened and twitched. Suddenly, as though something had occurred to him, he sharply summoned a breath of internal energy. In an instant, the Nine-Dragon Divine Fire Inner Qi began circulating through his meridians.

"Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah!" His internal energy circulated for the time it took to drink a cup of tea, and Little Leopard cried out for just as long. Once it had completed a full circuit, his facial muscles finally lost their stiffness and gradually returned to normal.

Strangely enough, this time, the internal energy infused with the black flame's power no longer scorched him as it had yesterday. Instead, as it circulated, it slowly nourished his meridians, greatly easing his pain.

"So this is what they mean by sweetness coming after bitterness, huh?!"

The pain had not vanished entirely, but it no longer stopped Little Leopard from finding amusement in his suffering.

He was naturally optimistic and had never been one to rail against Heaven or blame others. In his mind, yesterday's suffering had simply been bad luck. He had already cut the culprit in two, and apparently gained something from the ordeal as well, so he bore no further resentment. Even in the depths of agony, all he had felt was frustration and self-mocking humor.

Now that the pain had greatly eased, his spirits naturally soared.

Turning to look around, he saw the corpse of the strange loach he had cut in two yesterday still lying there. He walked straight over. "This monster withstood attacks from my kunai. If I hadn't had a superb weapon like the Black Gold Short Sword, I might not have been able to kill it. That means its outer scales are really tough. I might as well strip them off and put them to good use!"

He acted as soon as the thought occurred. Since he had already cut the loach in two, he peeled away its scaly hide from the severed edge. After rubbing it between his hands a few times, he smiled in satisfaction.

"Mm, this really is good. Looks pretty sturdy!"

Then he looked at the flesh left behind after skinning the loach.

His stomach rumbled like thunder again. Following his principle of never wasting anything, Little Leopard built another fire and made do by roasting the loach.

Though the loach looked ferocious, it tasted excellent. Its flesh was tender and smooth, with a peculiar fragrance. After swallowing it, he felt a warm current merge into the black flame in his dantian, and the flame immediately grew livelier.

The loach was small to begin with, and Little Leopard finished it in a few bites, but it only left him about a third full. After gnawing off the last mouthful, he looked eagerly around for anything else he could forage. Unfortunately, the aura of mystic flame had frightened away every beast for several miles around last night. Apart from ancient trees and moss, where could he find a living thing?

"Forget it. I'll rest a little longer, then get out of this damned place!" Little Leopard abandoned the idea of looking for food. His gaze shifted and landed on the loach skull left over from his meal.

The skull had originally been connected to the loach's spine, but after being cut apart and roasted for some time, it had long since come loose. Besides, Little Leopard still shuddered at the memory of those rows of sharp teeth in its open mouth last night, so he had not eaten its head. Now the roasted loach head lay all alone on the ground.

"Let's see just how many rows of teeth you have!" Little Leopard picked up the head and gently pried its mouth open.

Good grief, opening it really gave him a fright. Despite the roasting, the loach's teeth had clearly remained unaffected. Those several rows still gleamed coldly, enough to make anyone's scalp prickle.

It was not just the teeth, but the skull as well. The roasting seemed to have affected only the flesh; the skull remained as hard as ever. Little Leopard tried squeezing it, but it did not budge. He even felt a faint force rebounding against his hand.

"It might come in handy someday. I'll keep it!" After a moment's thought, Little Leopard put the skull away instead of throwing it out.

"I've rested enough. Time to get moving!" Little Leopard activated the Nine-Dragon Divine Fire Art, using its heat to evaporate the muddy water on his body, then patted off the dirt clinging to him. His nose twitched twice as he looked around. Last night, seeking shelter from the rain, he had headed straight toward a thinner stretch of woods without paying attention to direction. Now he had no idea where he was.

With no other choice, he picked a direction and walked straight ahead. Before he had taken many steps, however, he realized something was wrong.

The farther he went, the fewer trees there were, while the ground beneath his feet grew increasingly muddy. Finally, when he reached an open area, he could not help swearing.

A swamp. He had actually wandered into a swamp.

Earlier, he had entered the forest from the swamp at the end of the stream. He had never expected to circle back after all that wandering. Clearly, after his frantic run in the rain, he had ended up on the swamp's other side.

By now, the sun had risen, and the mist hanging over the swamp was growing thicker. Even at its edge, he could smell a peculiar rank odor.

This was the boundary between the dense forest and the swamp. The surface mud was soft; anyone who stepped onto it would sink and be unable to pull free. The surrounding trees had thinned, and the way ahead was difficult. Looking out, he saw nothing but aquatic weeds and mist-shrouded marsh. Under the sunlight, banks of white vapor rose from the ground, giving off a faint foul smell. His body was already in poor condition, and after carelessly inhaling so much poisonous vapor, his head swam. He stumbled and nearly fell headfirst to the ground.

"This won't do. I have to get out of this damned place!" Little Leopard instinctively tried lifting a foot, only to discover that, without his noticing, it had already sunk halfway into the mud.

Damn it! Little Leopard cursed inwardly and forced the Wild Goose Floating Heart Method into motion, wrenching his body out of the mud. Then he drew a sharp breath, twisted, and sprang like an agile ape into the nearest tree. Finding a relatively thick branch, he sat down cross-legged.

"Mm, here will do. I'll recover my strength first!" Little Leopard sat on the branch and quietly regulated his breathing. In a place filled with strange poisonous vapor, he did not dare cultivate. He was only trying to restore his physical strength.

After about the time it took to drink a cup of tea, his strength gradually returned. He was ready to head in the opposite direction and find a way back.

"Hiss!" Before he could rise, a strange hiss came from below. Looking down, Little Leopard jolted in alarm. At some point, a white-scaled strange snake had coiled beneath the tree. More than ten feet long, it stared at him with fierce eyes gleaming yellow, flicking a blood-red tongue.

Huh? Why does this snake look so familiar?

Little Leopard froze, then abruptly cursed. Wasn't this White-Scaled Python the very one he had encountered while chasing that wild boar the day before yesterday?

You really can run into an old acquaintance anywhere in life!

Now Little Leopard did not dare move. Having grown up in the mountains in a hunter's family, he naturally knew that he must not make any sudden movement in this situation. The instant a person moved, the snake would attack, and such an attack was deadly. Ordinarily, he would not have been particularly afraid, but in his current condition, he really was in no state for exertion!

So Little Leopard remained motionless. Not only that, he stared straight into the snake's fierce yellow eyes without yielding.

Man and snake faced each other like this for roughly an hour. The snake seemed to realize that the person before it was not easy prey. The yellow gleam in its fierce eyes gradually faded, and its coiled body slowly loosened, as though it intended to retreat.

Little Leopard inwardly breathed a sigh of relief, but he did not dare relax outwardly. He kept his eyes fixed on the snake. Suddenly, a fierce rush of wind sounded overhead, and a dark shadow swept down from the sky.

"An eagle?!!!"

Little Leopard started violently. A Black Eagle plunged from the sky, its iron talons seizing the White-Scaled Python's newly uncoiled body.

The White-Scaled Python writhed sharply and coiled again, but it was already too late. In the instant it had loosened its coils, the Black Eagle's talons had struck its vulnerable belly. Thick though its white scales were, the talons ripped six deep, gaping wounds through them, and its entrails spilled out.

"Hiss!" Apparently realizing that it could not survive, the White-Scaled Python unleashed its final savagery. Ignoring its injuries, it bound the Black Eagle's legs before the bird could withdraw its claws. Then it opened its mouth and sprayed two jets of dark green venom from its fangs directly onto the eagle.

Whatever strange breed this snake belonged to, its venom was terrifyingly potent. The moment it touched the Black Eagle, white smoke rose from the bird. A large patch of feathers and flesh corroded away, exposing the bone beneath.

In agony, the Black Eagle drove its sharp talons in with even greater force. By the time the Red-Scaled Strange Snake had wrapped halfway around it, the eagle finally tore the White-Scaled Python into two pieces. Both sections writhed and twitched on the ground for a while before falling still. The Black Eagle broke free of the dead snake, but its venom-corroded injuries continued to worsen. After hopping about a few times, it hopped toward the snake's severed corpse. Its hooked beak seemed intent on pecking something out of the body, but just as it opened the snake's belly, it tilted sideways and collapsed.

Both had been mortally wounded, and both had died together.

"So I actually became the fisherman who profits from their fight. This really is absurd!" With a strange expression, Little Leopard jumped down from the tree, reached the snake's corpse in a few strides, and pulled apart the opening the Black Eagle had pecked in its belly before dying.

"A snake gallbladder. Good stuff!" Little Leopard thrust two fingers into the snake's belly. When he withdrew them, he held a warm gallbladder the size of a pigeon's egg. Dark purple-black, it gave off a faint rank odor. Without a second thought, he tossed it into his mouth.

Snake gallbladders sharpened the eyesight.

Ever since discovering that his eyes showed signs of developing into Sharingan, Little Leopard had paid close attention to them. Although he did not know how to train them, he understood that snake gallbladders improved eyesight. Back home, he had often gone to the mountain's edge to find and kill snakes, then eat their gallbladders raw. He had noticed no special effects, but neither had there seemed to be any harm. Thus, he was fairly practiced at killing snakes and extracting their gallbladders. This White-Scaled Python was very different from the snakes he had caught before, but a gallbladder should not differ all that much. His movements were deft, and he swallowed it straight down.

After swallowing the gallbladder, Little Leopard turned his attention to the eagle's and snake's corpses.

Snake soup was delicious, and eagle meat was fragrant!

Both the eagle and the snake were large enough to provide him with several meals.

After all, that loach had hardly filled his belly!

"Huh, what's this?!"

Just as Little Leopard was about to bundle the snake and eagle together and carry them away, he happened to notice a flash from the strange snake's head.

This was very odd. The snake had been torn apart at the middle of its belly, so its head was undamaged and completely intact. Its jaws still clamped tightly around a piece of eagle flesh. It could not have been more thoroughly dead.

"Inside its eyes?!"

Looking again, Little Leopard confirmed that the light had come from the snake's eyes. Upon closer inspection, he discovered that it was reflected moonlight. Passing through the snake's eyes, the moonlight gave off a faint red glow.

"Interesting!" A thought stirred in Little Leopard's mind. This glow definitely was not a reflection from the snake's eyes. He immediately turned its head over and, without ceremony, used his kunai to split it in half through the lower jaw.

Once the snake's head was split open, a faint red radiance shone out.

"An inner core?! This snake was fucking unlucky. It was almost a spirit beast!"

Little Leopard drew a quiet breath, knowing that fortune had favored him today.

The snake had an inner core. What about the eagle?

Naturally, Little Leopard felt no need to stand on ceremony with a dead eagle. He turned its body over and cut it open with his kunai. Likewise, he found a blue-green inner core inside the Black Eagle's head.

Neither core was large, each only about the size of a soybean, but Little Leopard knew that selling these two would bring him at least ten thousand taels of silver.

The Vast Cang Mountains really are just as the legends say, filled with countless rare treasures. Unfortunately, so few people can venture deep inside! After putting away the two inner cores, Little Leopard rose to continue gathering up the eagle and snake corpses. Just then, a searing current surged from his dantian straight toward his eyes.

"Urgh, ah!"

In an instant, Little Leopard's vision went black. Both eyes felt as though they were about to burn. He clapped his hands over them and doubled over.

"Huff, huff, huff!" Ignoring the fact that he was at the edge of the swamp, he gulped down a couple of breaths of foul air and forced himself to calm down.

"The gallbladder. It was that gallbladder! Was it poisonous?!"

He hardly needed to think to identify the cause. Clearly, the gallbladder he had just eaten was responsible. Regret welled up inside him. This was the depths of the Vast Cang Mountains, not home. The snakes back home might be venomous, but they were merely ordinary local snakes. How could they compare with the strange, exotic snakes of these mountains? What had possessed him to swallow the gallbladder as soon as he took it out? A miscalculation. A terrible miscalculation.

Deeply regretting his actions, Little Leopard did not dare take any chances. He circulated his Nine-Dragon Divine Fire Inner Qi, hoping to neutralize the "poison" inside him.

As soon as he activated it, Little Leopard sensed something wrong. The Nine-Dragon Divine Fire Inner Qi did nothing to impede the "poison" surging into his eyes. It even added fuel to the fire. Within a few breaths, that scorching force poured entirely into both eyes. An indescribable tearing agony erupted from them. Then he abruptly pulled away the hands covering his eyes, because at the same time, he felt as though those hands were being burned by fire.

"I-I'm not blind?!"

With his hands removed, the surrounding scenery appeared before him again. Everything looked normal, except that a faint veil of blood covered the entire world.

"What's going on?!"

After confirming that he had not gone blind, Little Leopard felt somewhat reassured.

Through that faint bloody tint, everything within a thousand meters lay within his field of vision, clear down to the smallest detail.

Little Leopard immediately understood. His strange eyes had entered their activated state again, giving him this three-hundred-and-sixty-degree view. Only this time, his vision extended for a thousand meters, meaning his range of observation had greatly increased.

"Was that the gallbladder's effect?!"

Little Leopard privately speculated, but what had caused the pain in his hands?

Lowering his head, Little Leopard looked at his hands. "You've got to be kidding me!"

Both hands were charred black, visibly burned. In some places, the burns were deep enough to expose bone. His emotions had been in such turmoil that he had not paid attention before. Now that he looked, waves of unbearable, tearing pain followed.

"Hsss!" Little Leopard sucked in a cold breath. Forcing himself to endure the agony, he began replaying what had happened inside his body.

That warm current, the "poison" as he had first thought, now seemed to have been the gallbladder's medicinal power. It had surged straight toward his eyes. Once it reached them, he felt as though an immensely powerful force had torn them apart, causing excruciating pain. At the same time, the medicinal power seemed to break through something inside his eyes. Then the hands covering them had been burned.

Narrowing his eyes, Little Leopard seemed to realize something and began examining the internal energy within his body.

"So that's it!" Sensing how little internal energy remained, Little Leopard slowly narrowed his eyes and tried harder to hasten the state he had just experienced. "My eyes should be able to refine my internal energy and then release it. I should have noticed sooner. This happened last night when I activated my eyes, too, but I was in too much pain to pay much attention. Didn't that warm current follow the same route as my internal energy last night? The Nine-Dragon Divine Fire Scripture I cultivate gives my internal energy a strong fire attribute, so after my eyes refine and release it, it becomes flame. Luckily, I'm young and my internal energy cultivation is low. Otherwise, my hands would be ruined!"

Looking at his scorched hands, Little Leopard's mouth twitched twice. "Just now, it probably wasn't only this strange snake's medicinal power. It also drew out the medicinal power from all the gallbladders I ate before and sent it pouring into my eyes, which caused the breakthrough. In other words-!"

At that thought, Little Leopard focused his mind on his eyes. Then he felt them slowly begin to rotate. As his pupils turned, the remaining Nine-Dragon Divine Fire Inner Qi in his body stirred as well. Like the medicinal power earlier, it gathered into a single current and poured toward his eyes. His eyes grew hot, and the internal energy he had just gathered abruptly vanished without a trace, as though it had never existed. Almost simultaneously, a bright flame suddenly rose from the small tree on which he had fixed his gaze. In an instant, it engulfed the tree, then kept burning, scorching a fist-sized hole into the muddy ground before finally disappearing.

"These really have fucking become Sharingan!" Little Leopard's mouth twitched twice before he fell into thought. These eyes have some strange abilities. Besides expanding my field of vision, sharpening my perception, and improving my control over internal energy and strength, they can refine internal energy and release it through my eyes. Since I cultivate the Nine-Dragon Divine Fire Art, this is the result after refinement. If I cultivated cold-attributed internal energy, maybe what I shot out would freeze that tree instead. Damn, this world really is strange. It even has superpowers? No, this isn't a superpower. Without internal energy, it would be no more than enhanced dynamic vision! Little Leopard pondered the matter privately, but he was not particularly astonished by the change in his eyes. After all, this world had already given him far too many surprises. Never mind its miraculous martial arts: Blood Wuy a's ability to turn into a streak of bloody light and fly through the sky using Bloodflame True Astral Energy had already far exceeded his expectations. His eyes had merely gained another function. It was nothing extraordinary.

Returning his eyes to their normal state, Little Leopard sank to the ground, completely drained.

"These eyes are good, but they put far too much strain on my body. Releasing flames through them is unusual, but gathering my internal energy takes preparation, and I have to concentrate. It's too slow to activate. Otherwise, it would be a fine way to ambush Blood Wuy a. What a pity!"

Suddenly, something seemed to occur to him, and his expression darkened. "Damn it, doesn't shooting fire from these eyes make them like the Mangekyo Sharingan's Amaterasu? It might look impressive, but that damages the eyes! If using this for too long makes me blind, the loss would far outweigh the gain!"

At that thought, Little Leopard lost all enthusiasm. He no longer had any interest in carrying off the eagle and snake corpses before him. The strong scent of blood had already attracted some beasts toward the area, so he dared not linger. Once his internal energy and physical strength recovered, he began searching for the way back with his scorched hands hanging at his sides.

Fortunately, his luck held. During his search, he discovered traces of Drifting Glass Flowers. Thus, he completed Blood Wuy a's five-day assignment on the second day.

Two things: first, I had half the day free today, so I wrote everything in one sitting and am posting it all at once.

Second, the Wilds storyline is almost over, and the protagonist will soon grow up. So I need plenty of support through bookmarks and recommendation votes. Thank you, everyone.