Journey Of An Unknown - Chapter 2
It was quite windy as Zou Shen was nearing the entrance of the infamous Grey Forest.
He had been on the road for three weeks now, he would only leave the beaten path to hunt for food. He could not hunt the strong beasts whose meat were cooked to feed the nobility and upper class, so he had to make do with killing the Light Wind Rabbits as food. These little beasts were tuned to the wind element energy or wind Qi. It made them faster than most small beasts. Their strength rank was at 1st step of the Mortal Beast Realm. They were not hard to fight or kill, they were quite easy if you were at the 1st step of Mortal Human Realm or above.
It was their speed that was the problem, they were hard to get a lock on. You needed to sense the change in Qi of the surrounding near the Light Wind Rabbit to lock on their movement and then aim quickly and accurately with a weapon or skill to kill them quickly. Hunters needed to kill them quickly and efficiently as possible. If these cute beasts were given the chance to escape, they would do so in a second and then you would be hard press to find them. Mortal hunters called them cute and annoying bastards, killing them was easy to do, once you started hunting them it would become natural habit to hunters. If you wanted to capture or tame one of the little bastards it was a whole different level of difficulty.
Mortal hunters more than often failed to capture or tame these Light Wind Rabbits as they would escape in a second at the hint of danger and would not fall into traps easily as time went by in the evolution cycle of the Light Wind Rabbits breed. They were fast and not easy to trick so there had to be careful planning by a group of hunters or an expert hunter to guide for the capture, a strong cultivator with the skills and tools needed to capture and tame this wind rabbit could capture this beast easily. They did sell for quite a lot once captured and tamed. Enough to make a decent profit for the effort put in, it was rarely done so. For the easiest and widely available beast, Light Wind Rabbit was the easiest to kill and hard to capture and tame. Only those who liked cute beasts would buy this beast at high selling price. The demand was low by these some groups of people, but they wanted one as a pet or a contract beast, so it was put as a special order when asked for and a high price was asked by the hunters who sold it or sellers for this Light Wind Rabbit. Otherwise it was usually killed in massive droves first chance people had as it was a good source of cheap meat, it was one of the cheapest available food in restaurants and inns across the region.
This easy to kill beast however was hard for Zou Shen to kill, he had arrived in the world and all he could do was use a basic breathing technique used by everyone to gather the spiritual energy of the world. It was the most basic thing people in this world did, it didn’t matter if they had no cultivation method to refine and convert this Qi to break through the Ten Steps of the Mortal Human Realm. Some broke through by accident or had some cultivation method which helped them progress. He could take in the Qi into his body through the breathing technique, but it was useless to him without a cultivation method.
He had started to sense the Qi around him from the moment he was reborn in this world and it was all he could do. Still he did so with all his focus and mind put to it. This was the only tool he had since he arrived in this world, so he wanted to be at the top of this basic skill at least. What did it’s benefit entail or the power it had once it reached the highest strength it could be? he did not know nor cared to know. He just had this tool at his disposal, so he was going to use it to the fullest. He just knew he had to work hard and put in more effort than needed just to achieve a passable result, he had to use everything he could acquire and achieve the highest strength and result from it to have some power to survive in this world.
He also started hunting the Light Wind Rabbit because he needed to train his senses as the little beast was fast and the changes it caused in the surrounding qi was also quick. At the start of hunting the Light Wind Rabbit he started to lose focus and concentration after a few seconds when the beast moved too much. His stones did not hit the mark and the beast escaped easily. Those first few days were full of his stomach grumbling in hunger as he had no food to eat. He did not eat the herbs or fruits along the path as a reminder to be strong in will and clear in mind and focus for his goal to become a reality. He did not have the cultivation strength now but if he did not even use the free strength of his available mind and focus which he could work on then he would deserve to remain chain to a mediocre life.
He started to calm his emotions and temper his mind along the few following days, his mind saw a sharp increase in speed and strength. Soon he realized when he was becoming angry and impatient, he lost focus resulting him loosing track of the Light Wind Rabbit or not hitting the mark with his rock throws. At the start of the second week he started hunting with his eyes closed, he started to hunt and train with his eyes closed. He even walked along the road with eyes closed only using Qi flow to sense the road and the surrounding to keep him on track. All of this was to self-train himself as he had no master or technique he could use easily to survive in this world. What he had he wanted to make full use of it in full force.
It was a learning experience again at the start of the second week as he stumbled, fell down and walked into trees a lot and the Light Wind Rabbit he had started to kill easily was starting to get away, Zou wondered if the Light Wind Rabbits laughed at his self-imposed blindness. He kept his previous learnings of being calm with emotions and clear in his mind to focus more, increase his aim and strength more for the kills. Soon the Light Wind Rabbits started to be killed cleanly unlike before where they looked like a messed-up kill done by someone in panic and clumsiness. By the end of the Second week killing Light Wind Rabbits became second hand to him like breathing, eating and sleeping. He could now sense the Light Wind Rabbits with his eyes closed as in his mind it was all pitch black, but he could sense and feel the movement of Qi in the world more clearly, even finding the source of strong large beasts nearby to stay away from. Those strong beasts were something he could not even think about now.
Still Zou Shen smiled to himself as he felt a sense of pride and accomplishment, he didn’t know if he had truly become strong or what level others could sense at, but he knew he had achieved something significant through his hard work and dedication. He did not feel like this in his past life, as all he could do was pass the time as he waited death to come and claim him. Food was given to him easily even if he had to cook it, he did not have to hunt for food like now. Maybe it would change once he entered the city where many things were available but he still reminded himself he had to work hard to get anywhere, to never forget this feeling as it would carry him to heavens and beyond, the moment he forgot he had to work to achieve something he would grow weak and die. Find authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience，Please click www.webnovel.com www.webnovel.com for visiting.
Zou Shen was now standing at the entrance of the Grey Forest; he had a look of worry on his average face. His sense of the spiritual energy of the world had gotten better and now he could clearly see the flow of Qi in the forest was mystifying. It meant that something was wrong with this forest and he would be in danger if he lost himself here, maybe he would be truly lost forever if he could not get out of the forest at all.
Zou calmed his emotions and made his mind clear as he stepped into the forest. Whatever may happen or whatever the danger maybe, he could not turn back ever, and he had to keep moving forward reach his destination. His path could change but the destination and goal would remain the same, nonetheless. He had no time to waste on thinking about ifs and buts. All the training and hard work he had done till now would be to waste if he gave up now.
‘MAYBE YOU SHOULD GIVE UP AND RETURN TO SAFETY’. His cautious and fearful side warned him shouting at him, but he ignored it.
Zou Shen closed his eyes and walked through the entrance and sensed the chaotic flow of the Qi in this place. It is said that many mortal people have lost their way and in time their lives in this forest. Cultivators can skip this forest or have a special tool to deal with the chaotic Qi flow of this Grey Forest. This chaos in the movement of the surrounding made one see the forest as grey in colour hence the name Grey Forest.
‘I will close my eyes and focus better and clearly to see what the results are from sensing the Qi flow this way.’ Zou had come up with the plan to observe the flow and how the beasts deal with it as he looked to see how they lived in this chaotic flow. Then come up with a solution and find his way out of the forest easily.
‘Now that I have entered, I need to get out of this forest in a week. If not, I might truly die here with no chance of escape.’ He opened his eyes to look around and see the surrounding, it had all become grey, the whole forest was grey, it looked like he had walked into another dimension. The only things in colour were the beasts who had been living in this forest a long time. The Light Wind Rabbit was easily running and jumping around in the forest, like the chaotic Qi flow did not affect his mind and senses.
‘No wonder it doesn’t fall for traps easily. When you survive in a place like this you don’t get fooled easily.’ Zou looked up to see the sky to find what effects it had above a certain range. The sky was not affected as it still had the same colour and was not grey.
‘So, the flow is chaotic only in the ground region up to a certain height, it also is not universal and is just present in this forest not affecting the surroundings outside it’s range. Is it a natural occurrence or is something causing it? Maybe something is guarding this forest and keeping guard of some treasure or is it something trying to feed itself by making this forest it’s hunting ground for mortals and cultivators.’
He tried focusing but he couldn’t find a clue quickly in this chaotic flow of Qi. Soon he just started to walk around the forest trying to find a definite path out of this forest, he knew that it would be impossible, but he might need to try it anyway as there was no harm in trying.
After walking for hours, he soon found himself back again at a familiar spot, this was the near the entrance of the Grey Forest but this time there was no entrance to walk in or out from. One could enter this forest and exit through the other end but unless they had the means to navigate through this maze of chaotic flow of Qi, they would not even be able to leave the forest by returning to entrance they came in from.
Zou Shen looked at the familiar area where he started from and smiled. ‘Looks like I am truly lost now, this forest doesn’t give any chances of escape it’s either you are prepared for it and escape or you die. I wonder which realm you have to be to just walk through this place like it’s a casual trek through the backyard.’
He sat down near a tree on his knees, closed his eyes and started to meditate while breathing. ‘If I have to make this forest submit to get through and carry on my way then so be it. I will crush this forest and move on.’
