I am Villain Cultivator
Chapter 61: Awakening of the Divine Wolf, Mia

Chapter 61: Chapter 61: Awakening of the Divine Wolf, Mia

Mia knelt beneath the sun-dappled leaves and gently plucked a ripe Dwarf Cavendish banana, placing it carefully into the woven basket by her side. The warm breeze rustled the edges of her robe as she rose to her feet, her steps slow and thoughtful as she made her way toward the ancient temple grounds.

As she approached the central courtyard, her gaze fell upon a familiar figure seated before the colossal stone gate marked with a single engraved character, Strength.

There, bathed in the soft golden light, sat a girl of striking beauty. Her long crimson hair shimmered like fire, cascading over her shoulders, while her violet eyes stared blankly ahead, distant and lost. Her features were delicate, almost ethereal, and her elongated ears, subtly pointed, her Elven lineage.

It was Jane.

She sat motionless, her expression vacant, her entire presence draped in quiet sorrow.

Mia’s heart tightened at the sight. She stepped closer and gently placed a hand on her sister’s shoulder.

"Sis," Mia said softly, "the Young Master will be alright. You know how strong he is."

Jane did not respond right away. Her fingers were curled in her lap, unmoving, and her gaze never left the sealed gate.

Mia sighed inwardly.

She wasn’t usually the observant type, but even she couldn’t ignore what Jane’s current state revealed. The sleepless nights, the endless waiting, the silent prayers. It was clear now her sister’s feelings for Kaal ran deeper than duty or respect.

"I know Kaal is strong," Jane finally whispered, her voice fragile, barely audible. "But... It’s been seven months, Mia. Seven months since he entered that trial. And still, no word. No sign. Nothing..."

Her voice trembled as her eyes shimmered with unshed tears.

Mia knelt beside her sister, wrapping an arm around her shoulder.

"He’ll come back," she said, trying to sound confident, for both their sakes.

What Kaal didn’t know was this: Every time he died and was revived by the system’s mechanism within the trial, a full month passed in the outside world. He had died four times.

Combined with the three months of cultivating the Heaven-Slaying Demon Sutra, seven months had already gone by since he first stepped into the Second Trial.

And outside the gate of Strength, the world continued its slow, patient breath.

Mia stared into her woven basket, filled with ripe forest fruits, bananas, spiritberries, and golden dates. She crouched beside Jane, who still sat unmoving at the foot of the colossal gate, its single etched word glowing faintly beneath the sun: Strength.

Jane’s expression hadn’t changed in days.

Her red hair blew softly in the wind, violet eyes blank and distant. Her beauty, usually radiant, seemed dulled by a constant haze of worry. Her long Elven ears twitched faintly, the only sign that she was even still aware of the world around her.

Mia’s heart ached at the sight.

"Sis," she said softly, "at least eat something. If the Young Master comes out and sees you like this... do you think he’ll be happy?"

Her voice trembled, not from fear, but from helplessness.

Jane blinked slowly and turned to Mia. Her eyes glistened with the hint of unshed tears.

"I’m not hungry, Mia," she whispered.

Mia sighed. She didn’t say anything further.

But her thoughts drifted.

She remembered her own trial, the Truth Gate, the second test she had passed. A realm of illusion, crueler than any battlefield.

There, the Illusion showed that she had been home again.

The sun had risen over green fields. Her father hunted deer in the forest and returned with pride. Her mother, warm and gentle, had roasted the meat while Mia helped prepare for the Harvest Festival. The village was alive with music, laughter, and the scent of cooking fires.

Mia had believed it all, that she was at home with her father and mother, all of them laughing.

Until the bandits came. They rode on the Horses. With their sword in hand

Cutting through villagers like wheat. Her father had fallen while protecting their home. Her mother had taken her in her trembling arms and fled through the woods. There, beneath the old woodpile storage, in the winter basement, her mother knelt and kissed her forehead and said:

"We’re playing hide and seek, Mia. If you’re a good girl, stay quiet. Don’t move. Don’t speak. Don’t come out no matter what."

Mia had nodded. She hadn’t understood anything, but she saw her mother’s loving gaze with a hint of determination and nodded when her mother ran, distracting the bandits. She does not remember everything, but she remembers her mother’s smile. Her trembling hands. The final kiss.

She had waited in that darkness for what felt like eternity. Her stomach growled. Her throat burned. But she didn’t move because she had promised her mother.

Not until she heard voices.

The door creaked open, and a man came and said

"Victor, another survivor. A child. A girl. She’ll fetch a good price."

And then what followed was that she was chained and sold to the Slave trader.

Chains. A cage. The stench of despair. The slave market was every day of Slave market was like this. Until she met a girl who was older than her red hair and violet eyes.

It was Jane.

Her beauty had already begun to bloom, even then. But her eyes, those same eyes, were lifeless. They sat beside each other in silence, both broken, both sold for coins.

But from that hell, something bloomed a Sisterhood.

Jane, though only a few years older, had taken Mia under her wing. Protected her. Shared her food. Took beatings in her place.

Until they were freed from this hell by a boy similar to her age with black hair and black eyes, that boy was Kaal. he gave them freedom and a place to live.

He hadn’t just saved them; he gave them a reason to believe again that they were more than slaves.

The Truth Trial had forced Mia to relive all of her Trauma.

Again and again.

She screamed. She wept. She begged the illusion to stop. But only when she accepted the pain and recognized that none of it was real, did the dream shatter like glass.

And when she passed, a cold, emotionless voice had echoed in her ears:

[ "Trial complete. Giving Reward: Bloodstone." ]

Soon, a Gemstone with red colour appeared on her hand.

The moment her fingers touched it, something awakened inside her body, her unawakened Bloodline trembled soon a change was happening inside her body. She felt a warm stream in her soul that gently awakened something.

When the awakening ended, a quiet stillness fell over the trial ground. The storm within her soul had passed, but what it left behind was something utterly transformed.

Then, the changes began.

Her body trembled, and a wave of heat flushed through her skin. Her spine arched as she grew taller, her limbs elongating with a graceful power that felt natural, as if she had always been meant to take this form.

A wolf’s tail unfurled behind her, sleek and silvery-white with golden streaks, swaying in rhythm with her breath.

Her ears stretched and sharpened not feline, not quite elven, but unmistakably lupine, twitching with each sound the forest made. Her eyes shimmered and narrowed, becoming vertical slits predator’s eyes capable of piercing darkness and illusion alike.

She could hear every heartbeat within a hundred meters.

She could smell the faint scent of rain yet to fall.

And when she ran her tongue across her lips, she felt her canines elongate, sharp. Fangs.

The transformation was subtle yet undeniable. Not monstrous, but regal. Elegant. Dangerous.

Mia opened her eyes. And the world felt different.

Clearer.

Sharper.

Alive.

She had awakened her bloodline.

The Divine Wolf Bloodline, an ancient inheritance buried deep within her, forgotten even by her ancestors, now surged through her veins like wildfire. It was as if her very soul had remembered something primal. Something sacred.

She was still Mia. But now, she was something more: A hunter born from divine lineage.

When she opened her eyes, she found that she was outside the Truth Gate, and a strange warmth had filled her soul, like a calling from the heavens themselves.

She closed her eyes, trusting her instinct. And she raised her hand and called, trusting her instinct.

A white glow appeared, and from it, a small white wolf pup emerged, its fur as pure as snow, its eyes a fierce crimson, and golden stripes tracing its spine like ancient runes.

Her soul beast. The manifestation of her Divine Wolf bloodline.

Tears welled up in her eyes, but she smiled. For the first time in a long while...

She didn’t feel weak.

She didn’t feel like prey.

She had laughed, then cried even as the pup licked her hand, sensing the bond between them. Her soul beast. Her family.

And her first thought had been:

"I need to show Jane."

------( Present Day)-------------

Mia could only sigh, she did not know back then that the happiness of waking her bloodline did not last long because the young master had not come out for the trial in seven months, and Jane was not in a good state, just silently waiting outside of gate.

She reached out, brushing Jane’s shoulder softly.

Just then—

RUMBLE.

A deep vibration spread through the ground. Both girls shot to their feet as the Strength Trial Gate, long sealed and unmoving for seven months, began to creak and split.

A beam of scarlet light spilled from the crack.

Then—

The gate opened.

And from within, a lone figure stepped out. But he paused and, seeing the change in both girls, whether in appearance or body, he said in a bewildered manner,

"What happened to both of you?"