Chapter 22 - First Day In The Woods

Standing alone in the woods he felt dread from,

shock and fear crept into his mind, body, and heart, which made him realize that he might not be as courageous as swordsmen are supposed to be,

although he was sure of his decision, the fear that was looming in his heart kept him rational as he looked towards his master for some escape out of this situation or some other way for him to learn that can be less dangerous.

Mr.Teacher gave his student a mocking glance and said, "Li Jie there's no escaping this, remember carefully that this is your own choice and you can't back off now, this is the only way if you want to tower over others and be strong enough to bring justice to those who need it, remember Li Jie, in this world true strength is justice without true strength you can only make excuses and complain, that's all you can be amount to but if you want to change the world to how you see it fit then you must have the strength to do it",

which was an indication for Li Jie that he won't be able to get out of this and that he must complete his given task.

"Master, how will I hunt beasts, if even the weakest beast here is strong enough to kill me with a pinch, and there's also the matter of what and where to drink after all I can't seem to locate any lake, pond, or river from here and I will also be spending a whole week here, I don't even have any extra clothes with me to change".

It suddenly dawned on Mr.Teacher, that the boy in front of him is a pampered young master of a great family which made him frown for a bit after which he just smirked wickedly while looking at Li Jie and simply just vanished without any explanation.

Li Jie was taken aback by the actions of his master, who suddenly left without any further explanation, Li Jie didn't know what to do, all he knew was that somehow he had to live in this forest for a week.

Li Jie knew that just standing around the same place and waiting for the whole week to pass by wouldn't help,

so he moved around the forest carefully whilst crouching, so that he doesn't get noticed by a beast which would be very troublesome for him,

At first, he started to look for a cave to have a dwelling, while he spends his time in this forest for a week,

as it was already sunset, which would limit his vision, and if he gets late in finding a cave, then at night time he won't even be able to look at all.

Even after looking from place to place around the forest, he couldn't find a cave, the trees were tall with reddish textured bark,

the leaves were of lush green color with sharp edges and smooth to touch, it's texture was strikingly veined and shiny to the eye,

there were various plants too with flowers of different varieties which gave him a feeling of peace and serenity,

yet he could feel that behind this beautiful scenery lies the true terror of the forest and that he shouldn't be mesmerized by the scenery,

he was cautious due to recalling again and again in his heart that right now he is all by himself and that no one is here to protect him from any danger which he might face,

and that any carelessness on his part would lead to some unfavorable consequences, where he wouldn't even know how he died,

Li Jie after some time found what seemed to be a lake but he could see some reptile looking beasts which had a face of a menacing snake,

but the body of a sharp-clawed four-legged creature with dull green scales with yellow stripes on it's back and the stripes reached from it's mouth to it's tail and an elongated neck which helps in flexibility and movement for it to hunt,

there was a pack of them near the lake, where these beasts can be seen catching fishes with their mouth and ruthlessly crushing the fishes caught by them in their mouth and swallowing them whole,

witnessing this scene gave Li Jie a fright but he couldn't figure out of what rank were these beasts who lived in a pack,

where even one of them looked strong enough to kill and devour a master stage cultivator,

he wondered if his parents were to know that their son is right now amongst these dangerous beasts, how would they feel, will they even think of training him this way,

No, The answer was no, his parents wouldn't be able to bear the pain of watching their son going on such a risky endeavor,

but Li Jie knew he couldn't afford the luxury to be pampered by his parents after all it was him who chose his path, the path of sword, which was against the very common sense of this whole world,

which was never even tried by any being due to the instabilities of this path and a completely different path, about which no one knows what the end of it is,

and with it's mystery and the strength which was never experienced by any being was tread on by Li Jie himself who knew he can't give up and he can't just give all of his to this path,

he knew Mr.Teacher had good intentions when he brought him to this forest, although he expected to learn some mysterious high-level sword art but what he was first taught was how to survive in this forest with all it's savage and menacing beasts present who kept devouring each other without any reasoning,

after all, this is the place where the strong literally devours the weak and by the end of the week won't he himself understand how to best survive in this strong eating weak world and it was then an idea popped into Li Jie's head,

isn't the world of humans also consists of the strong devouring the weak, even if the methods adopted by humans are different but in essence how different is the human world from this savage beast world?