Chapter 14: Chapter 14
~1.7k words · 2026-06-22
CHAPTER 14: The Price of Power
Lin Xiao's fist connected with the corrupted beast's spine.
The impact should have shattered his hand. Instead, shadows coiled around his arm like living armor, and the creature's back exploded inward with a sickening crunch. It stumbled forward, roaring in confusion, black qi spraying from its wounds like arterial blood.
*"Overwhelm it,"* the shadow panther whispered in his mind. *"Don't give it time to regenerate."*
Lin didn't need the encouragement. He was already moving, his body responding to instincts that weren't entirely his own. The lightning hawk's speed carried him in a blur of motion; the wind-snake's flexibility allowed him to twist mid-air, changing trajectory without losing momentum. He hit the corrupted beast from three angles in the span of a single breath.
The disciples watched in stunned silence.
Lin drove his knee into the creature's throat. Shadows wrapped around its legs, anchoring it in place. Lightning arced from his palms, channeling through the corrupted flesh and finding the cracks in its defenses. The beast screamed—a horrible, wet sound that ended in a gurgle.
Then it collapsed.
The ground shook. Black qi evaporated from the corpse like morning mist, leaving behind only twisted bone and melted flesh. Lin landed lightly, his merged form dissipating as he released the resonance. His three beasts materialized around him—the wind-snake coiled at his feet, the lightning hawk perched on his shoulder, the shadow panther emerging from a patch of darkness beside him.
"Holy ancestors," one of the disciples breathed. "Who are you?"
Lin ignored the question. He was staring at his hands.
Something was wrong.
His fingers were trembling. Not from exhaustion—from *hunger*. A gnawing, empty sensation in his core that hadn't been there before. It felt like his cultivation was trying to devour itself from the inside.
*"The triple merge,"* the wind-snake said, its voice uncharacteristically serious. *"It drains you faster than you realize. Your qi reserves aren't ready for that level of fusion."*
Lin clenched his fists, forcing the tremor to stop. "I'm fine."
"You're not fine," one of the disciples said, stepping forward. She was a young woman with sharp features and a silver-trimmed robe that marked her as a member of the Azure Peak Sect. Her eyes were wide, but not with fear—with recognition. "You just used a triple beast resonance. Only Core Formation cultivators can sustain that without backlash. You're what? Third level of Beast Melding?"
"Second," Lin admitted.
The disciples exchanged glances. The woman's expression shifted from surprise to something colder. "That's not possible. Unless—" She stopped herself. "Unless you have a resonance talent. A rare one. One that lets you bypass normal limitations."
Lin said nothing.
"You're the one from the swamp temple," another disciple said, his voice hushed. "The one with the crippled snake. We heard rumors, but we thought—"
"Thought what?" Lin asked, his tone sharper than intended.
"That you were a fraud," the woman said bluntly. "That your beasts were weak, and you'd been lucky so far." She looked at the corpse of the corrupted beast. Then at the three beasts surrounding Lin. "I don't think that anymore."
*"Compliments,"* the shadow panther purred. *"How flattering. Now can we leave? This place reeks of death."*
Lin agreed. The corrupted beast's corpse was already attracting scavengers—smaller corrupted creatures, drawn by the scent of fresh decay. More would come. And he didn't think he could handle another fight so soon.
"Where's your camp?" he asked the disciples.
"We don't have one," the woman said. "We were tracking a corrupted beast for three days. Lost it twice. Found it again an hour ago." She gestured at the corpse. "You killed it before we could."
"Consider it a gift."
Her eyes narrowed. "We're supposed to report to the sect elders. They'll want to know who killed it—and how."
Lin felt a chill run down his spine. *The sects. They've been hunting corrupted beasts for months. If they find out about me...*
*"They'll want to study you,"* the wind-snake finished. *"Dissect your resonance. Maybe take your beasts."*
Lin's jaw tightened. "Tell them what you want. But if any of you follow me, I'll consider it a threat."
He turned and walked into the mist, his beasts flanking him. He didn't look back.
---
The swamp was quieter after sunset.
Lin found a hollow beneath an ancient willow tree, its roots forming a natural shelter. He sat with his back against the trunk, his beasts surrounding him. The lightning hawk kept watch from above, its eyes scanning for threats. The shadow panther had melted into the darkness, its presence a constant, comforting pressure at the edge of Lin's awareness.
The wind-snake coiled in his lap, its broken scales catching the faint moonlight.
*"You pushed yourself too hard,"* the snake said. *"Your meridians are strained. You need rest."*
"Can't rest," Lin muttered. "Those disciples saw me. They'll report to their sects. By morning, every major faction in the valley will know about the boy with three beasts and a resonance talent."
*"And that's bad?"*
"It's dangerous." Lin looked at his hands again. The trembling had stopped, but the hunger remained. That hollow ache in his core. "I'm not strong enough to fight off a sect. Not yet."
*"Then get stronger,"* the shadow panther's voice echoed from the darkness. *"Faster. Hunt more beasts. Absorb their cores. Push your cultivation."*
"Or what?"
*"Or you die."*
Lin laughed, but there was no humor in it. "Thanks for the encouragement."
The panther materialized beside him, its yellow eyes gleaming. *"I didn't bond with you to watch you get dissected by a bunch of robe-wearing frauds. You have potential, little tamer. But potential means nothing without execution."*
"You sound like you've seen this before."
The panther was silent for a long moment. Then: *"I have. Another tamer, years ago. He had a resonance talent too. He was stronger than you. Faster. Smarter."*
"What happened to him?"
*"The sects found him. They promised him power. Resources. Protection."* The panther's voice dropped to a whisper. *"They took everything. His beasts. His cultivation. His mind. He died in a cage, his soul split into a hundred fragments, each one studied and catalogued."*
Lin's blood ran cold. "How do you know?"
*"I was there. I was the beast he bonded with last."* The panther's eyes met his. *"I escaped. He didn't."*
The wind-snake hissed, coiling tighter around Lin's arm. *"You didn't tell us this."*
*"Would it have changed anything?"*
"Maybe," Lin said, his voice hard. "Maybe I would've thought twice about bonding with a beast that watched its previous master die."
*"And yet you did bond with me."* The panther's tone was almost amused. *"Because you're desperate. Because you know that alone, you'll never survive what's coming."*
Lin couldn't argue with that.
He closed his eyes, letting the exhaustion wash over him. The triple merge had pushed his body to its limits. He could feel the strain in every muscle, every tendon, every meridian. His cultivation base was unstable, threatening to collapse in on itself.
But beneath the pain, there was something else.
A whisper.
A presence.
Something stirring in the depths of his soul.
*"What is that?"* he murmured.
The wind-snake's head snapped up. *"What is what?"*
*"There's something... inside me."* Lin pressed a hand to his chest. "I felt it when I did the triple merge. Like something woke up. Something that's been sleeping."
The shadow panther's eyes widened. *"Describe it."*
"Cold. Ancient. Hungry." Lin shuddered. "It felt like it was *looking* at me. Through me."
The panther and the snake exchanged a look. Even the lightning hawk, usually silent, let out a low, worried chirp.
*"That's not normal,"* the panther said slowly. *"Even for a resonance talent, that's not normal."*
"Then what is it?"
Before the panther could answer, Lin's vision went white.
He was no longer in the hollow.
He was standing in a void—an endless, empty space filled with swirling mist and faint, distant stars. The ground beneath his feet was invisible, yet solid. The air was cold. So cold.
And in front of him, a massive shape stirred.
It was bigger than anything he had ever seen. Bigger than the corrupted beast. Bigger than the temple. It was a creature of shadow and light, its body shifting between forms—serpent, hawk, panther, and something else. Something that defied description.
Its eyes opened.
They were ancient. Infinite. Hungry.
*"Little tamer,"* it said, its voice reverberating through the void. *"You've finally awakened me."*
Lin's heart stopped.
"Who—what are you?"
The creature smiled—a terrible, beautiful expression that stretched across its shifting face.
*"I am the First Beast. The origin of all resonance. The soul that births the bond between human and beast."* It leaned closer, its presence overwhelming. *"And I have been waiting for you."*
Lin tried to step back, but his feet were rooted to the void. "Waiting for me? Why?"
*"Because you carry my mark. A fragment of my soul, passed down through generations. Sleeping. Waiting for a tamer worthy of waking it."* The creature's eyes narrowed. *"But you are not yet worthy, Lin Xiao. You are weak. Fragile. Your body can barely contain a triple merge, let alone the power I offer."*
"Then why show me this?"
*"To give you a choice."* The creature extended a claw, enormous and terrible. In its palm, a glowing orb pulsed with blinding light. *"Take my power, and ascend beyond your limits. Become the strongest beast tamer the valley has ever seen. But know this—the price will be your humanity. Your soul will merge with mine, and you will become something... more."*
Lin stared at the orb. It was beautiful. Terrifying. Everything he had ever wanted.
"And the alternative?"
The creature's smile widened.
*"Die, and let my fragment sleep for another thousand years."*
The void shattered.
Lin gasped, his eyes snapping open. He was back in the hollow, his beasts surrounding him, their faces etched with worry. The wind-snake was hissing, the lightning hawk shrieking, the shadow panther growling.
"Lin!" the panther's voice cut through the noise. "What happened? You stopped breathing!"
Lin looked at his hands.
The trembling was back. But this time, it wasn't from exhaustion.
It was from fear.
And hunger.
*The First Beast,* he thought. *It's inside me. It's always been inside me.*
He looked up at his beasts, his voice barely a whisper.
"We have a problem."
Lin Xiao's fist connected with the corrupted beast's spine.
The impact should have shattered his hand. Instead, shadows coiled around his arm like living armor, and the creature's back exploded inward with a sickening crunch. It stumbled forward, roaring in confusion, black qi spraying from its wounds like arterial blood.
*"Overwhelm it,"* the shadow panther whispered in his mind. *"Don't give it time to regenerate."*
Lin didn't need the encouragement. He was already moving, his body responding to instincts that weren't entirely his own. The lightning hawk's speed carried him in a blur of motion; the wind-snake's flexibility allowed him to twist mid-air, changing trajectory without losing momentum. He hit the corrupted beast from three angles in the span of a single breath.
The disciples watched in stunned silence.
Lin drove his knee into the creature's throat. Shadows wrapped around its legs, anchoring it in place. Lightning arced from his palms, channeling through the corrupted flesh and finding the cracks in its defenses. The beast screamed—a horrible, wet sound that ended in a gurgle.
Then it collapsed.
The ground shook. Black qi evaporated from the corpse like morning mist, leaving behind only twisted bone and melted flesh. Lin landed lightly, his merged form dissipating as he released the resonance. His three beasts materialized around him—the wind-snake coiled at his feet, the lightning hawk perched on his shoulder, the shadow panther emerging from a patch of darkness beside him.
"Holy ancestors," one of the disciples breathed. "Who are you?"
Lin ignored the question. He was staring at his hands.
Something was wrong.
His fingers were trembling. Not from exhaustion—from *hunger*. A gnawing, empty sensation in his core that hadn't been there before. It felt like his cultivation was trying to devour itself from the inside.
*"The triple merge,"* the wind-snake said, its voice uncharacteristically serious. *"It drains you faster than you realize. Your qi reserves aren't ready for that level of fusion."*
Lin clenched his fists, forcing the tremor to stop. "I'm fine."
"You're not fine," one of the disciples said, stepping forward. She was a young woman with sharp features and a silver-trimmed robe that marked her as a member of the Azure Peak Sect. Her eyes were wide, but not with fear—with recognition. "You just used a triple beast resonance. Only Core Formation cultivators can sustain that without backlash. You're what? Third level of Beast Melding?"
"Second," Lin admitted.
The disciples exchanged glances. The woman's expression shifted from surprise to something colder. "That's not possible. Unless—" She stopped herself. "Unless you have a resonance talent. A rare one. One that lets you bypass normal limitations."
Lin said nothing.
"You're the one from the swamp temple," another disciple said, his voice hushed. "The one with the crippled snake. We heard rumors, but we thought—"
"Thought what?" Lin asked, his tone sharper than intended.
"That you were a fraud," the woman said bluntly. "That your beasts were weak, and you'd been lucky so far." She looked at the corpse of the corrupted beast. Then at the three beasts surrounding Lin. "I don't think that anymore."
*"Compliments,"* the shadow panther purred. *"How flattering. Now can we leave? This place reeks of death."*
Lin agreed. The corrupted beast's corpse was already attracting scavengers—smaller corrupted creatures, drawn by the scent of fresh decay. More would come. And he didn't think he could handle another fight so soon.
"Where's your camp?" he asked the disciples.
"We don't have one," the woman said. "We were tracking a corrupted beast for three days. Lost it twice. Found it again an hour ago." She gestured at the corpse. "You killed it before we could."
"Consider it a gift."
Her eyes narrowed. "We're supposed to report to the sect elders. They'll want to know who killed it—and how."
Lin felt a chill run down his spine. *The sects. They've been hunting corrupted beasts for months. If they find out about me...*
*"They'll want to study you,"* the wind-snake finished. *"Dissect your resonance. Maybe take your beasts."*
Lin's jaw tightened. "Tell them what you want. But if any of you follow me, I'll consider it a threat."
He turned and walked into the mist, his beasts flanking him. He didn't look back.
---
The swamp was quieter after sunset.
Lin found a hollow beneath an ancient willow tree, its roots forming a natural shelter. He sat with his back against the trunk, his beasts surrounding him. The lightning hawk kept watch from above, its eyes scanning for threats. The shadow panther had melted into the darkness, its presence a constant, comforting pressure at the edge of Lin's awareness.
The wind-snake coiled in his lap, its broken scales catching the faint moonlight.
*"You pushed yourself too hard,"* the snake said. *"Your meridians are strained. You need rest."*
"Can't rest," Lin muttered. "Those disciples saw me. They'll report to their sects. By morning, every major faction in the valley will know about the boy with three beasts and a resonance talent."
*"And that's bad?"*
"It's dangerous." Lin looked at his hands again. The trembling had stopped, but the hunger remained. That hollow ache in his core. "I'm not strong enough to fight off a sect. Not yet."
*"Then get stronger,"* the shadow panther's voice echoed from the darkness. *"Faster. Hunt more beasts. Absorb their cores. Push your cultivation."*
"Or what?"
*"Or you die."*
Lin laughed, but there was no humor in it. "Thanks for the encouragement."
The panther materialized beside him, its yellow eyes gleaming. *"I didn't bond with you to watch you get dissected by a bunch of robe-wearing frauds. You have potential, little tamer. But potential means nothing without execution."*
"You sound like you've seen this before."
The panther was silent for a long moment. Then: *"I have. Another tamer, years ago. He had a resonance talent too. He was stronger than you. Faster. Smarter."*
"What happened to him?"
*"The sects found him. They promised him power. Resources. Protection."* The panther's voice dropped to a whisper. *"They took everything. His beasts. His cultivation. His mind. He died in a cage, his soul split into a hundred fragments, each one studied and catalogued."*
Lin's blood ran cold. "How do you know?"
*"I was there. I was the beast he bonded with last."* The panther's eyes met his. *"I escaped. He didn't."*
The wind-snake hissed, coiling tighter around Lin's arm. *"You didn't tell us this."*
*"Would it have changed anything?"*
"Maybe," Lin said, his voice hard. "Maybe I would've thought twice about bonding with a beast that watched its previous master die."
*"And yet you did bond with me."* The panther's tone was almost amused. *"Because you're desperate. Because you know that alone, you'll never survive what's coming."*
Lin couldn't argue with that.
He closed his eyes, letting the exhaustion wash over him. The triple merge had pushed his body to its limits. He could feel the strain in every muscle, every tendon, every meridian. His cultivation base was unstable, threatening to collapse in on itself.
But beneath the pain, there was something else.
A whisper.
A presence.
Something stirring in the depths of his soul.
*"What is that?"* he murmured.
The wind-snake's head snapped up. *"What is what?"*
*"There's something... inside me."* Lin pressed a hand to his chest. "I felt it when I did the triple merge. Like something woke up. Something that's been sleeping."
The shadow panther's eyes widened. *"Describe it."*
"Cold. Ancient. Hungry." Lin shuddered. "It felt like it was *looking* at me. Through me."
The panther and the snake exchanged a look. Even the lightning hawk, usually silent, let out a low, worried chirp.
*"That's not normal,"* the panther said slowly. *"Even for a resonance talent, that's not normal."*
"Then what is it?"
Before the panther could answer, Lin's vision went white.
He was no longer in the hollow.
He was standing in a void—an endless, empty space filled with swirling mist and faint, distant stars. The ground beneath his feet was invisible, yet solid. The air was cold. So cold.
And in front of him, a massive shape stirred.
It was bigger than anything he had ever seen. Bigger than the corrupted beast. Bigger than the temple. It was a creature of shadow and light, its body shifting between forms—serpent, hawk, panther, and something else. Something that defied description.
Its eyes opened.
They were ancient. Infinite. Hungry.
*"Little tamer,"* it said, its voice reverberating through the void. *"You've finally awakened me."*
Lin's heart stopped.
"Who—what are you?"
The creature smiled—a terrible, beautiful expression that stretched across its shifting face.
*"I am the First Beast. The origin of all resonance. The soul that births the bond between human and beast."* It leaned closer, its presence overwhelming. *"And I have been waiting for you."*
Lin tried to step back, but his feet were rooted to the void. "Waiting for me? Why?"
*"Because you carry my mark. A fragment of my soul, passed down through generations. Sleeping. Waiting for a tamer worthy of waking it."* The creature's eyes narrowed. *"But you are not yet worthy, Lin Xiao. You are weak. Fragile. Your body can barely contain a triple merge, let alone the power I offer."*
"Then why show me this?"
*"To give you a choice."* The creature extended a claw, enormous and terrible. In its palm, a glowing orb pulsed with blinding light. *"Take my power, and ascend beyond your limits. Become the strongest beast tamer the valley has ever seen. But know this—the price will be your humanity. Your soul will merge with mine, and you will become something... more."*
Lin stared at the orb. It was beautiful. Terrifying. Everything he had ever wanted.
"And the alternative?"
The creature's smile widened.
*"Die, and let my fragment sleep for another thousand years."*
The void shattered.
Lin gasped, his eyes snapping open. He was back in the hollow, his beasts surrounding him, their faces etched with worry. The wind-snake was hissing, the lightning hawk shrieking, the shadow panther growling.
"Lin!" the panther's voice cut through the noise. "What happened? You stopped breathing!"
Lin looked at his hands.
The trembling was back. But this time, it wasn't from exhaustion.
It was from fear.
And hunger.
*The First Beast,* he thought. *It's inside me. It's always been inside me.*
He looked up at his beasts, his voice barely a whisper.
"We have a problem."