The obvious danger

At this moment, Karl Zeal appeared in a thick forest, much to his displeasure. Not only was the forest cold and gloomy, but it also carried traces of a lifetime hunt. With his current ability, he couldn't make out much from the forest: like the weirdness and all the life force inside. He could only comb through it little by little.

"How could someone be bold enough to throw a child to hell?" Zeal muttered, unable to satisfy his anger. However, it seemed as though the trees responded to his mutter as they made some eerie noises, reminding Zeal that he was his (own) savior, and from his experience, he was powerless. He grumbly sat with his leg crossed. He began to feel the environment as the first rule. He needed to familiarize himself with his surrounding so he could travel freely. First, he strangely but truthfully began to feel the aura the forest bore. In no time, he had already comprehended the direction of the wind, allowing him to figure out his general path. It was as though the world placed a compass above his head. Not long after, he immersed himself in the place; he gradually began to feel the life within the forest. Previously, he couldn't feel these things. But to his surprise, all the life appeared hazy, much to his pleasant surprise. They were like some flame shadows—each of them had different colors.

After spending almost the whole day, Zeal was ready to move out. He stood up with a solemn expression. At this moment, Zeal could make out that he was able to actually view the faint fractures of the surrounding with his Soul-eyes (eyes born from his mind). Of course, the result came as a hazy mist. He couldn't see much of anything, but at the very least, it was better than hopeless predictions and guesses. In fact, Zeal had passed that stage of guessing; he could actually feel his environment. However, a few days ago, he could only feel and had no visual impact.

"Does this old man really wants me to walk blindfolded for three years? What the hell does he want to achieve?" Zeal absent-mindedly muttered as he walked away.

After some unknown amount of time, Zeal came under a cold atmosphere. The green field had a pleasant flowery smell, while the atmosphere was a bit frigid, and there was nothing bizarre about it. However, as Zeal took a simple step forward, a chilling feeling bathed his brow. Sweat immediately drenched his back. A momentary distraction almost cost Zeal his life as something enveloped him with an unusual killing aura. At this moment, Zeal heard the rustling of the bush. He strained his ears to the limit. At the same time, he could make out a variation of blurry colors in his mind. However, the most conspicuous was a purple color. Just as Karl Zeal distracted himself with his thought, he heard a crawling sound. In fact, he could make it out to be a slithery motion. At first, Zeal thought it was a snake, but later, he figured out something was amiss.

At this moment, something suddenly appeared in Zeal's mind. He panicked; he turned around and ran. Even though Zeal couldn't make out the original appearance of the thing that had its eyes on him, he figured out that it wasn't a snake. But what could it be? It was a venue fly trap that looked ancient and so mature that it had somehow altered its original appearance. It moved like twirls of ropes in the forest as it chased Zeal with its high jagged teeth. Honestly, this insectivorous plant looked like it could swallow a full-size human, which was strange. But what made it more bizarre was that this plant had purple eyes at each end of its enormous head. It made it look like a monster.

As Zeal ran, he didn't forget to regulate his direction even in panic. He knew the only key to survival was a sense of direction. Else, he would be wandering in circles without making any progress. Zeal continued running but soon saw a huge tree. There was nothing he could do other than hide behind this tree. It was noteworthy that Zeal's gait and the race were never smooth because he couldn't perceive his surrounding very well. He found himself running with the utmost difficulty, and even walking was awfully tricky as he occasionally met an impasse; these large trees blocked his path.

.....

Behind the tree, Zeal breathed heavily with his back drenched with cold sweat.

"Phew! That's how I was about to be made a sumptuous dinner for whatever creature that is." Zeal muttered fearfully.

But as he relaxed on a tree, he noticed ten creepy green snakes. They wriggled down stealthily with killing intent. Zeal forced himself to become calm. There was no way around it. In fact, the moment he couldn't maintain his composure, he would become food for the skulking slithering snake. At this moment, he paid more attention to his environment and bluntly remembered what the Old Man had told him: fear leads to destruction—you die of fear first before the actual death. This unseemly ordinary quote had succeeded in calming Zeal, much to his surprise. At this moment, the long leathery skin of the green snake slapped the floor.

"I have to survive." Zeal strengthened his will to live.

At this moment, three of the snakes lunged at Zeal. Fortunately enough, he had begun to learn a variety of stunts. So Zeal somersaulted and edged his feet on the back of the large tree behind him; he used the tree to lunge his small weightless body out of the attack range of the three snakes, contrary to his belief. Zeal couldn't exactly say how he became perfect with that stunt he just did. He had been learning them half-heartedly, but now they came in handy. Of course, the remaining seven snakes followed up and chased Zeal with an unfathomable speed. But how would Zeal know that another big surprise waited for him? His vision had begun to change. In the environment, he could perceive three distinct visuals: red, black, and gold dots. He didn't know why those colors appeared in his mind, but he understood his blurry environment had begun to sharpen (even though it wasn't worth mentioning).

These snakes were adamant and weren't about to let Zeal breathe the air of freedom. It was Zeal's seventh day in Ashura forest, but the ten snakes had no intention of letting him go as he ran with all his might. He noticed from his newly developing visuals that the ten snakes behind didn't suffer a loss of breath like he did. This situation surprised and alarmed him. 'how did these creatures do it?' He questioned with contemplation. Zeal understood that if he could reduce his severe exhaustion, it would do him better than harm. While Zeal was a little distracted, five snakes were already catching up to him; they lunged at him with the intention of a quick kill. But to their amazement, Zeal tilted back with his head almost touching the ground as he evaded the attack. Honestly, Zeal was actually bewildered at how reactive he had become. Perhaps his loss of sight had compelled his nervous system to improve quite a lot. In fact, Zeal had always possessed a level head with a high IQ and EQ. So it was relatively easy to process his progress.

While his back was almost touching the ground, Zeal rotated towards his left flank and ran away. By the time the eighth day approached, Zeal had already left the domain of the ten snakes. At this moment, Zeal sat crossed legs behind a large tree with an ancient gesture as he began to circulate energy to himself. Zeal suddenly began to reflect on those snake movements: they were fast, stealthy, and they had a unique breathing technique. They were all in his favor and what he needed to cultivate. In his mind, stealth shadow movement began to replay. He moved freely in his mental space; he left shadows in his wake. The after image behind his every move had different patterns according to the control of Zeal. Not only was he slithering stealthily like a snake, but his direction was also irregular, much to Zeal's ecstasy. After that, Zeal appeared in his mind, seated with a crossed leg as he breathed in and out. He was obviously practicing the breathing art of those snakes. Time passed slowly, and before Zeal realized it, three days had passed. But of course, he had recovered his strength and installed new weapons from his death experience. Zeal believed this result would come in handy.

On the fourth day, Zeal stood from his cultivation. He was fully restored and needed to move on. The sun shone brilliantly, but Zeal couldn't make out much from the sun's image. After all, what he saw was still blurry images. However, he was already satisfied with the result. He could see better than before. This result would have been unrealistic a week ago, so Zeal was pleasantly surprised. Zeal sucked in a breath and strode forward without any hesitation. But even though Zeal was angry toward Sou Long, he had always understood that his brutal training was much more important to him, much to his shock. So, in any case, he didn't blame him much, but he still cursed him in his mind. After all, he had been aggrieved because of that Old Man.