Chapter 7- Diving Inside the Jungle

It was not only this Elder, there were several other Elders in the Zhang clan who were in the same stage. If Yang Chen stayed here, his end would no doubt be very miserable. Thus his only option for survival was to scram from here before the bodies of the five bullies were found.

Fortunately for Yang Chen, the previous soul of the body knew the streets of the cloud town like the back of his hand. It wasn't a problem for Yang Chen to manoeuvre around the town.

He used the less traverse path to get out of sight of everyone and stealthily left the premises of the town.

From what he recalled from the memories of the previous owner of this body, a few kilometres north of the town, was a vast jungle visited by the hunters to hunt demonic beasts.

Currently, the jungle was the best place for Yang Chen to hide from the pursuit of the Zhang clan. They would no doubt follow after him after finding the corpse of five members and his absence in the manor. As such, Yang Chen ran like his life depended on it.

It took him more than five hours to reach the jungle. Of course, he was only able to reach here so fast on foot because of the Attribute Booster buffing his strength or else he would have collapsed halfway through the road given his malnourished state.

Nevertheless, now that he was here, Yang Chen glanced at the vast jungle that lay ahead of him. With how the low howls and deep grunts of the demonic beasts could be heard even from the borders of the forest, one could tell that it was a dangerous place filled with numerous demonic beasts.

"There is no other choice, it was either the jungle or the snow covered mountains" Yang Chen muttered to himself.

The jungle was south of the town while the snow mountains were towards the north. If he went north to the snow mountains in his ragtag clothes, he would have died after a few minutes by freezing to death.

Well, that was an unlikely scenario since he would have gotten caught even before reaching that place after all, it would have taken him three days of time just to reach the foot of the mountain. The people from the Zhang Clan would have caught him by then.

Also, there was no place to hide. His only ending would be death if he went to the snow mountains. Yang Chen who wanted to live, would never go there.

By the process of elimination, the only likely place that could allow him to get away from the clutches of the Zhang clan, was the south where the jungle was.

Yang Chen glanced behind him and seeing that nobody came in pursuit after him yet, he sighed in relief. Even if the jungle was his only option of survival, it was not like it was a safe haven. In fact, the jungle might be even more dangerous than the snow mountains in a way.

Gathering his courage, Yang Chen manned up and decided to dive inside the jungle. He was going to survive and live this life the way he wanted.

It was obvious from the passing glances the hunters gave him, they looked at him as if he was some kind of suicidal idiot who came here to die. All sorts of looks of derision and pity were directed at him.

It couldn't be helped after all, his current appearance with his rag tag clothes and his malnourished body was to be blamed for that. Those hunters that came here to hunt the demonic beasts, came prepared with armours and weapons.

On the contrary, he was only in rag tag clothes and without any team. No matter how you look at it, anyone would arrive at the same conclusion.

Yang Chen did not bother himself with their gazes. He was used to this kind of gaze being directed at him since the time he was diagnosed with the terminal illness. Even if this was a different life, many aspects of his previous life still remained the same.

Hell bent on defying his fate this time, he stepped inside the forest...

.

.

An hour after Yang Chen dived into the jungle, he was sitting on top of a small boulder looking at his [Character] Window.

After killing the five bullies, Yang Chen had levelled up to become a Five Star Battle Apprentice.

In this world strength ruled supreme. If you have strength, you will have everything, be it money, treasure, fame or women. Those without strength are nothing.

In this world, the people use a special energy called the Battle Energy to cultivate in an attempt to reach higher ranks. Higher rank means higher power and the ability to control battle energy more freely.

Battle Energy is present throughout the heaven and earth, and it is by absorbing this energy, can one transform their body and step into the higher realm. 

Cultivation realms are divided into various ranks and each ranks are further separated by nine stars, from one to nine.

After reaching nine stars, a practitioner possesses the qualification to step into an even higher rank.

The gap between each rank is enormous and it keeps on getting bigger as higher the rank one climbs up.

From what he knew, the Battle Apprentice rank that Yang Chen was currently at, and the Elders of the Zhang Clan who were in the Battle Master realm, was separated by one rank. That said, even though it was the difference of one rank, there was a large difference in strength between them.

A Battle Apprentice, as the name suggests is a stage where one tempers their body and lay the foundation for their future. Whereas, a Battle Master is someone who has already tempered their body and started cultivating battle energy inside them. 

Even if there were two Nine Star Battle Apprentice, they would have an incredibly difficult time defeating a Battle Master rank opponent. Forget about Yang Chen who was just a five Star Battle Apprentice practitioner.

Defeating a rank above oneself might be difficult; however, it was not impossible. In this world, those who practice Battle Energy are able to harness it into techniques to bring forth miraculous and supernatural phenomenon, called the Battle Skills.

Using the Battle Skills which increases your strength further, one stands a chance to even defeat an opponent more powerful than them.

Yang Chen had inherited all this information as memories from the previous owner of this body.

Currently, he was looking into that option. Unfortunately though, his [Character] window was empty, he currently had no battle skills that he could use to cover the gap between him and the elders of the Zhang Clan.

Well, it was given that this body had no skill since they were just an ordinary person who was treated like a slave in the Zhang clan.

"This cannot go on" Yang Chen muttered in annoyance. Fortunately for him, he had the Greedvil System with him.