326 The Dog Who Heals

I'm Da Wei's Animal Soul.

Right now? I'm a cute little pupper.

I yawned wide enough that my little jaw cracked, then rolled over onto my side. Everything smelled like blood, smoke, and a whole lot of divine trouble. I wriggled under some heavy cloth draped across me and realized… ugh… that it was made of quintessence. My quintessence. No wonder it stank of me.

So I inhaled it.

Energy trickled back into me, faint, but enough to shake the sleep from my furry little body. Still, a headache pounded behind my snout.

"Hey, focus."

It was my progenitor, Da Wei, calling to me from within.

"Fuck off, cunt!" I barked back without hesitation.

He sighed. "You sure got a mouth in you—"

"No," I corrected smugly, wagging my tail. "I got a snout."

Another sigh, heavier this time. "Fine, fine… I give up. Can you just bring them back to life? Start with Joan first, so she can help you raise the rest—"

"So noisy…" I groaned, pawing at my own ears. "Shaddup. I think I got a headache."

"You sure are becoming more and more eloquent, huh?"

I ignored him and hopped onto the dais. In front of me lay the blonde lady Dave was always staring at with those longing eyes. She looked peaceful, even with the hole in her gut.

"Divine Word: Raise."

Quintessence surged out of me, warm and golden, and wrapped around her body. Slowly, the wound sealed, blood faded into her skin, and her breathing steadied. Her eyelids fluttered like curtains in a breeze.

I padded up close and sniffed. She smelled alive again, though her soul was messy, like a jar of marbles shaken too hard. Still, alive was alive.

So I licked her cheek.

"Wake up, woman!"

My progenitor groaned in my head. "She has a name. It's Joan."

"Hmmm… okay? Joan, wake up? Should I pee on her face?"

"No!"

He sure was picky. Pee always worked when I wanted someone's attention.

Still, she stirred, shifting beneath the dead weight of Dave, who, yep, still wasn't breathing. That scary lady sure got him, and I felt bad that it all came to this. When Joan's eyes finally opened, bright blue and trembling, she panicked.

"W-what!? What is happening!?" she screamed, pushing Dave's limp body off her. He tumbled from the dais with a heavy thud, lifeless.

"Oof," my progenitor muttered inside me. "That's… unexpected."

I sniffed again. Joan reeked of fear, confusion, and sorrow. Her hands shook as she clutched her bloodstained robes, staring at her own trembling body like she didn't recognize it.

Finally, her voice cracked with dread.

"Where am I? Who… who am I? And what am I doing here?"

I could feel my progenitor groan from within me, sounding pissed off and worried at the same time.

"Great! A classic case of amnesia!"

Hmmm… so that was it. The blonde woman, Joan, didn't even remember herself. Lovely. That meant the deed of reviving everyone else now fell squarely on my fuzzy golden shoulders.

But that was when they appeared.

From the horizon, cultivators in white robes marched in waves, their auras sharp like drawn blades. Each step they took split the air. And then, one of them leaped, covering the distance in a single bound. He landed before me, boots cracking the broken stone of the Nameless City.

A middle-aged man. His eyes gleamed cold. His qi was heavy, suffocating. He reeked of power at the Tenth Realm.

"It looks like they took each other out," the man muttered, sweeping his gaze across the ruins of the Summit Hall. "A pitiful outcome… We could've used that fragment of the goddess, but she went and died like that. I suppose her contract is now null and void. Still… unbelievable how she controlled those angels, even sealed."

He stopped mid-sentence. His gaze snapped to me.

I wagged my tail.

"Now, that's an interesting creature…" His lips curled. "Hmmm… should I refine you into a pill, or take you as a pet? You glow with divine power… I suppose you'd be more useful turned into a pill."

My progenitor's voice snarled in my head.

"Idiot. Hey, you should exude your spiritual pressure—"

But my fur bristled, and I whined. "But I feel like peeing when I do that."

A pause. Then Da Wei sighed, long and tired. "This is weird… When you're in this state, you act belligerently. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I miss the old you already."

I tilted my head. "Like this?"

I let my spiritual pressure pour out, no longer holding back. My little puppy body shimmered, golden fur brightening, muscles stretching, paws cracking the stone beneath me. I grew bigger, radiant, until I stood like the handsome, lovable doggo everyone once adored. My ears perked, my snout gleamed, and golden mist rolled off my coat.

Then I barked.

One bark, loud and booming, shaking the heavens above.

The cultivator's smirk faltered, but he quickly hid it.

"Feisty, but it doesn't matter… You are for the furnace!"

The middle-aged cultivator sneered, and his qi rolled out like a tide. From the haze, more arrived. Two of them. One wore a mask and stood calmly upon the wall as if watching ants scurry beneath him. The other dragged behind a colossal battle fan, each feather inscribed with runes that hummed with wind and flame.

Now this was weird.

"What's happening? Who are you?" Joan's voice shook, her hand clutching her robes. She looked at me, then at the corpses scattered across the ruined plaza.

The lead cultivator smirked, his eyes raking over her. "Ah, you… I can't believe you are still alive. But we'll find use for you. Your beauty is quite exotic in these lands and would fetch us many advantages. But no… your powers will serve us better than your face alone. Now… beg for your life!"

I felt my progenitor's worry radiate into me. "Careful. They aren't weak."

I wagged my tail and laughed in my snout. "Hah~! Don't be worried. I got this handled."

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My form swelled, fur bristling, my body stretching longer and taller. Not the cute pup anymore. Not the golden retriever either. I grew viciously, like a wolf, dangerous, and with fangs glinting. Handsome still, oh yes, I was very, very handsome, but now a bad boy in all the best ways.

The cultivator with the fan hissed, his voice cutting through the wind. "Elder, this is no ordinary beast. It reeks of divinity. An Eleventh Realm… should we call for backup?"

The masked cultivator replied coolly, his tone like steel behind silk. "As long as it doesn't have an Immortal Art, we will be fine."

The elder snapped his hand forward. "Seize the woman!"

The masked cultivator vanished in a puff of smoke, reappearing beside Joan. His fingers clamped around her wrist like iron.

"You are coming with us."

That was enough for me.

I snarled, divine light bursting from my fangs. "No, you won't." My paws pressed against the ruined stone, claws biting into the rubble as I opened my snout and unleashed an Ultimate Skill on each of them.

Divine Word: Raise.

Golden light surged outward in radiant waves, pouring into the broken bodies nearby. Dave's chest lifted with a gasp, his clawed hand twitching. Yi Qiu's mangled form shook as flesh knitted itself, bones cracking into place.

I didn't stop. Another surge of power.

Blessed Regeneration. Great Cure.

Yi Qiu's shredded body pulsed, healing rapidly until the blood-steam rolling off him steadied. He coughed, grinned madly, and his red mane flared back to life.

And then Dave stood.

He didn't need to roar, didn't need to posture. The menace rolled off him, cold, controlled, and lethal. His golden eyes glowed as his voice came out like a growl of judgment.

"Hands. Off. Her."

The masked cultivator froze, Joan still in his grip.

Yi Qiu blinked, his red mane swaying as if he had just woken up from a nap. He noticed the sword embedded in his skull. For a heartbeat, he looked confused, then simply laughed.

Dave's hand lifted, steady and commanding. Silver Steel shuddered free from Yi Qiu's head and flew into Dave's grasp, glowing with divine radiance.

"Immortal Art: Godslayer—"

The masked cultivator's head detonated into a burst of divine light. I wagged my tail, impressed. No theatrics, no speeches. Just pop, and gone!

"Divine Smite."

Dave reappeared beside the headless body before it even toppled. Joan, freed from the man's grip, stumbled to her knees, shaking like a leaf. Dave caught her before she collapsed, his golden form steady as iron.

The battle-fan cultivator shouted, panicked. "Elder, that sword is dange—"

The elder raised his palm. "Buy me time, I need to—"

But he never finished. Yi Qiu's massive hand clamped around his throat like a vice. The elder's eyes bulged, his qi flaring as he tried to summon a defense. It was useless. Yi Qiu's berserk strength dwarfed him, veins glowing red with blood and lava as his skin sizzled.

As for me? Heh. I was busy. I lunged and bit down hard on the cultivator with the battle fan, my teeth blazing with Thunderous Smite.

Crunch. Crackle. Sssshh.

Ooooh… that char smelled good. I ripped away half his chest, lightning sparking in my jaws. The man tried to flee on his fan, wings of qi flaring, but…

"We can't let anyone escape." Dave's voice rang cold.

He hurled Silver Steel forward, casting his Immortal Art again, layered with Searing Smite. The sword ignited like a comet, streaking across the ruined plaza. It pierced the fleeing man clean through and erupted in a blaze of fire. The cultivator screamed once, then turned to ash, leaving only his fan behind.

Awwww… That guy was mine… Rude… They honestly had no chance. Dave had an Immortal Art, and I? I was practically an Ascended Soul walking on four legs. I turned my eyes back to the elder, watching him struggle helplessly under Yi Qiu's iron grip. His qi lashed out like frantic waves, clawing at the bloody hand around his throat. Nothing worked.

"W-what's the meaning of this?! M-Master of the Martial Alliance!? What are you doing here? And Sacred Sword Mao Xian, of the Union? This is a conspiracy—"

"Silence, cur!" Dave's words cracked like thunder.

But Yi Qiu only laughed, fire and madness in his eyes. "We can't kill him. I have questions that need answers, and he will be perfect for interrogation. Someone of his realm won't give up his life easily. Meaning, he won't even think of suicide while he's in my grasp. So, I'm going to say this once, elder… Give up."

The elder's nails dug into Yi Qiu's arm, qi burning like acid. Yi Qiu didn't even flinch.

Instead, he leaned in, grin spreading wide. "If you know anything about me, elder, you should know… My martial arts and techniques focus on one thing: the more I am hurt, the stronger I become." His voice shook the ruined city. His veins pulsed red-hot, glowing. "And guess what? I just died!"

He threw his head back, laughter roaring from his chest. "Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!"

With one brutal motion, Yi Qiu ripped. The elder's scream tore through the dome as his limbs were dismembered, ripped from their sockets one by one. Blood misted the air as his furious qi shattered against Yi Qiu's unstoppable madness.

The elder's fury rang out, but it was drowned in his own screams.

I padded at Dave's feet, ears twitching, tail a metronome of worry. Joan curled into him like a bird into a nest, face buried in his chest, and I sniffed the air. I smelled fear, blood, and the bitter tang of power. Around us, the white-robed army tightened like a noose; a ring of Fifth-to-Seventh Realm cultivators hovered like bad weather above the rubble.

Dave's voice was that of wonder. "They reacted too fast…"

Yi Qiu wiped blood from his grin and tilted his head. "Hmmm… What do you think?"

The elder, limbs gone, dignity worse for wear, scrabbled and pleaded. "L-Let go of me! The Temple will f-fetch a huge ransom for me!"

Yi Qiu only laughed, teeth flashing. "And what? Tell them of our little conspiracy, attacking the Nameless City, your lot unlawfully occupied? I think not!"

The elder's protests dissolved in the wind. Yi Qiu had torn him to pieces; his limbs had been scattered everywhere. Even our disguises were history, porcelain masks Zai Ai made, meant to hide our faces, lay ruined. Yi Qiu lost his when Silver Steel went through his head; Dave's was beaten to crumbs.

Dave's eyes cut the circle, calculating. "We need to kill them all if we want our secret alliance to remain secret. It's an advantage I am not willing to give up, just yet…"

"How can we do that when they can just flee?" Yi Qiu snapped back. "Kill them? I'd love to, but as you can see, there are a lot of them."

Dave's reply came with the cold certainty. "The golden dome remains. Don't you see? It's the work of the spell Divine Mandate of Proximity, imbued by my lord into this body. As long as I don't cancel it, they're trapped. Anyone who leaves loses power. We have to be thorough, or all fails."

Yi Qiu looked at the elder, still gasping. "What about him?"

Dave glanced at me and then back at Yi Qiu. "Kill him for now. Keep him in your pocket dimension. I'll revive him for interrogation later."

The elder's voice turned to raw panic. "This is too much! Do you not have self-respect!?"

Yi Qiu's hand tightened on the throat like a vice. "I lost it when the Heavenly Temple decided to keep secrets from me."

And then, snap! The elder's head came free in a crimson arc. Yi Qiu stashed the body and head away with the pocket dimension, swallowing the scream and the blood-smell.

Dave looked tired. He crouched beside Joan and laid a hand on her shoulder to steady her. Then he looked down at me, those gold eyes like lanterns in fog.

"Fetch Tao Long and Zai Ai. Maybe heal or raise them."

My tail beat once, hard. I inhaled, filling my little snout with quintessence, and felt the old dog-joy of being useful. Bring them back, he wanted. Make them fight-ready. Keep them alive. I had work to do. I barked once at him. "On it."

I trotted off to Tao Long, my paws leaving faint ripples of golden light across the cracked earth. His massive body lay sprawled across the battlefield, scales torn and bent like dented armor. It was a sight that churned my stomach. Cultivators in white robes were already swarming over him like vultures, prying at his scales, shoving spears into his flesh to peel off trophies.

It angered me.

I was still in my wolf form, and I let the power within me boil. My throat rumbled, my jaws opened, and I howled, a sound that made the air vibrate like a struck bell. Spiritual energy quaked in answer. Golden ripples surged outward from me, my presence swelling, bigger than a wolf, heavier than the sky.

I cast Divine Word: Rest, a pulse of golden light surging from my snout, washing over the dragon's body like a wave. Then, without pausing, I followed it with Blessed Regeneration and a series of Great Cure spells, my voice rumbling in the strange speech of my kind.

The dragon shuddered. His tail twitched. Lightning crackled over his torn scales like rain striking a thundercloud. Slowly, Tao Long's eyes flickered open, ancient, reptilian, yet warm.

"I thank thee, guardian beast," Tao Long rumbled, his voice like rolling storms.

He slithered upright, his massive coils curling. Lightning spewed from his mouth, a waterfall of pure blue destruction. He ascended with fury, joining Dave in the sky where war thundered. Dave was a storm of his own, streaking across the clouds like a blade of divine light, while Yi Qiu below lashed at the weaker cultivators, Fourth Realm and under, tearing through the ground forces like a blood-soaked gale.

I turned away, sniffing the air, my nose working until I caught a familiar scent of Zai Ai.

I ran, paws leaving glowing prints in the broken stone, following the trail of blood and despair. It led me to her crumpled body. She was bleeding to death, her saber Raindrop embedded deep in her abdomen, like a cruel joke. Her soul was shaking, its essence flickering as if it was trying to escape her dying vessel. Whatever Aixin had done to her was particularly nasty.

Zai Ai's dull eyes lifted weakly at me. Her voice cracked, but her words were still edged with bitterness.

"So what? Did you come to gloat?"

I felt her sadness, desperation, and beneath it all was defeat.

"Make it quick… You're the victor… Just let me die in peace…"

I could feel my progenitor shouting in the back of my mind, his voice sharp.

"Doggy, no! Don't let her die! We still don't know where the Hollow Star is! Also, I'm not telling you not to kill her just because we need—"

"Shaddup."

I cut him off, my hackles rising.

Who did he think I was?

I wasn't a monster.

I'm a good doggy!

My form shimmered and shifted, golden light pouring off me as my giant wolf body melted down, shrinking and reshaping until I stood there as a golden retriever, the form everyone loved. Soft fur, bright eyes, and a tail that wagged despite the battlefield.

I padded closer to her, the glow of my paws touching her body.

"Divine Word: Life."

Light poured from me, warm and soft as spring sunlight. It flooded Zai Ai's wounds, knitting flesh, mending bone, and anchoring her soul back into her body. Her saber fell away from her abdomen with a clatter as the wound sealed.

I nudged her cheek with my snout.

"Don't die, okay? You still have to meet your disciple."

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