Meeting

A whole day passed by as Li Yu's wounds were healing very slowly. After the day's healing, blood had stopped flowing out of the gashes and his chest wounds were nearly healed, leaving three barely visible scars. The wounds on his stomach were still not healed completely and felt very painful. Another half a day would be needed to heal them.

After a day's healing, Li Yu was very tired. However, he would have to continue to heal and then cultivate for two more days as he couldn't afford to waste the Qi Condensing pill. Taking a short break, he quickly started eating. It was fortunate for him that he had some leftover roasted meat that he had put in his spatial ring, otherwise he wouldn't be able to go out for a hunt with his current condition.

He had wanted to hunt a monstrous beast to taste its meat, hence he did not have enough rations with him to begin with. Yet, on his first meeting with a monstrous beast, he had nearly turned into its food. The fight was very close, and he wasn't sure of the outcome. Li Yu was still puzzled by the Shadow Leopard's behavior, as uncle 96 had mentioned that low levelled monstrous beasts had higher intelligence than normal animals and beasts, but not much higher. However, the Shadow Leopard's decision to run away was just like a normal person's reaction when faced with danger.

It was true that the outcome between their fight was indefinite, but how could a low levelled monstrous beast make such a decision? Weren't all low levelled monstrous beasts supposed to get more irritated and angry when they were injured, and then disregarding everything in their anger as they fought to the death? Li Yu quickly went online, entered the chat room and seeing that uncle 96 was online, he started narrating the fight with the Shadow Leopard to uncle 96, and asked,

UserM78-' Uncle 96, you said that the low levelled monstrous beasts were not very intelligent, so why did Shadow Leopard make such a decision?

UserM96-' Hmmm... First of all, let me tell you some basic knowledge about monstrous beasts. Monstrous beasts are divided from Tier 1 to Tier 4, with each tier corresponding to our cultivation realms. Thus, Tier 1 monstrous beast corresponds to a Qi Expansion realm cultivator and Tier 4 monstrous beast corresponds to a Nascent Soul cultivator. Each Tier is divided into four sub stages- low, mid, high and peak. The Shadow Leopard that you fought was a low grade Tier 1 beast.'

Li Yu interrupted, as he asked,

UserM78-' What about the monstrous beasts above Tier 4?'

UserM96-' Above Tier 4 monstrous beasts are demon beasts, now shut up and don't ask about demon beasts. You should know that normal beasts mostly act on the instinct that is particular to their race. As they evolve into monstrous beasts, they form a beast core within their body, and gain some intelligence every time they breakthrough. Now, for Tier 1 monstrous beasts, they have low intelligence, so they have not completely escaped from the shackles of their instinct, but it does not mean that they are solely dependent on their instincts for making decisions.'

UserM78-' So you mean they are intelligent enough to escape from tough opponents?'

UserM96-' Not exactly. Hmmm... how should I put this? Well, let's take an example of two small kids at the age of three or four years old who are near a source of fire. One is a bit cowardly in nature, hence he will stay away from the source of fire. One is curious and inquisitive in nature, hence he will try to touch the source of fire. Even though both have same amount of intelligence, they made different choices due to their different nature. This nature is what they are endowed at their birth. Do you understand what I am trying to say? Of course, this counts only for beings with lesser intelligence, as no matter how brave a grown up human is, he/she wouldn't jump in fire for no apparent reason'

UserM78-' Yes, I understood! So the different low levelled monstrous beasts have different natures, and hence they make different choices. As the Shadow Leopard was cautious by nature, it turned and ran away as soon as it felt that it would be embroiled in a death match with me. Whereas, if it had been a monstrous beast with a ferocious nature, it would have surely fought to the death.'

Li Yu now understood more about monstrous beasts, and he left the chat room after saying goodbye to uncle 96. He now realised that the monstrous beasts were not too easy to deal with. However, one thing puzzled his mind, why would manager Ma advice him to cultivate up to 1st stage Qi Expansion realm before entering the Southern Dark Forest? Wasn't that just pushing him to death? If he didn't cultivate with a low grade Earth tier cultivation technique, but cultivated with the technique that manager Ma gave him, then he might not have even heard the Shadow Leopard approaching him, and his life would be in danger. He may not even be able to injure the Shadow Leopard before dying a horrible death. Just what was manager Ma thinking? This incident with the Shadow Leopard had buried a seed of doubt within his heart about manager Ma's motives.

He quickly finished eating and noticed that he didn't have any more food left. He cursed himself for being overconfident about hunting monstrous beasts for food and not having prepared enough food for emergency, and started healing the wounds on his stomach. Now all he had left was a large amount of water that he had taken from the Surging River.

After healing for half a day, the wounds had finally healed. Li Yu touched the scars, and did not notice any discomfort. The scars would remain, but they would disappear over time as his body was nourished by spiritual energy. Not wasting any time, he continued cultivating, and stopped only when he noticed the drop in his cultivation rate, which signified that the Qi Condensing pill's medical efficacy within his body had been thoroughly used up.

Now completely exhausted mentally, he adjusted his posture a bit, and slept within the cramped space. By the time he woke up, he was feeling completely refreshed. Getting out of the space between the roots of the giant tree, he looked around carefully for any possible ambush. Noticing that the surroundings were calm and without any danger, he started heading towards the exit of the Southern Dark Forest which would lead him out of the Southern Barren lands.

Three more days passed by in a flash, as Li Yu finally managed to kill a monstrous beast. The monstrous beast, known as Blue Horned Bull, was a bit stronger than the Shadow Leopard. But as its speed was slower than Li Yu's speed, Li Yu managed to kill the bull relying on his speed as he engaged in guerrilla tactics with the bull, relying on the trees in the forest for cover. Of course, the fight was very dangerous, as a single mistake on his part would have resulted in him being skewered by the Blue Horned Bull's horns, turning them crimson. He put the Blue Horned Bull's corpse within his spatial ring, and continued the journey.

When the sun was its highest position in the sky, and the forest appeared a bit more bright, he took out the corpse of the Blue Horned Bull, and started separating the edible parts from the bull. He noticed a small black coloured fist sized round object within the stomach of the Blue Horned Bull. Remembering the conversation about the monstrous beasts he had with uncle 96, he realised that the round object was a beast core. Washing it clean with water, he put it inside the spatial ring.

He had planned to roast the whole Blue Horned Bull, which was about five feet in height and eight feet long, to prepare himself for emergency. The meat from the Blue Horned Bull would last him till he crossed the Southern Dark Forest.

As he was roasting the meat of the bull slowly on the fire from the dried up branches and leaves that had fallen from the trees, he couldn't help but think about the time he had roasted a bull shaped beast with his little brother on their first hunt together, which would prove to be a last one. Remembering the 'guidance' that he provided to his little brother, he closed his eyes and murmured ' Do you see, little brother? I killed a monstrous beast which was stronger than me without any tricks. I am not a coward anymore. Now I can finally act like the image you had about me when you were little. Unfortunately, you are not here to see me change for the better.' His eyes were a little lost as he slowly roasted the meat.

Even though he said that, he feared about his little brother knowing Li Yu's choice of entering the cultivation world for revenge. His little brother, Li Ming, only wanted him to lead a happy life. And even though Li Yu promised to his little brother that he would lead a happy life, Li Yu's life was already destined to be full of ups and downs as he sought revenge.

But he had decided that after he had his revenge, he would follow the promise he had made. Till then, he would do anything, even if it would mean going through immense difficulties, to become powerful. He had many thoughts swirling in his mind, when he suddenly heard a voice behind his back.

" Little brother, why are you looking so sad?"

"AAAHHH" Li Yu shouted in fright, as he turned around quickly and saw a young lady wearing white robes standing behind his back.

"What are you shouting for? It's as if you had seen a ghost. Have you heard about a ghost that looks as beautiful as me?" the young lady asked, a bit irritated at Li Yu's overreaction.

Now that he saw her clearly, even though he thought that the young lady had a narcissistic tone, he felt that her words were true, as he really had not seen another woman as beautiful as the one in front of him.

The woman had right facial features on her face, that made her look extremely beautiful. And she had a well endowed body, with a very slim waist. Her skin was extremely fair and smooth looking. Even her voice was extremely melodious and pleasant to hear.

Of course, Li Yu didn't have the time to admire her beauty, as he felt scared that the lady had appeared so near him, yet he didn't hear her approaching. This only meant one thing, that the young lady was many times powerful than him!