Chapter 26 - Learning Step By Step

Days passed by as Li Jie went on living in the forest day after day, thankfully none of the previous threatening encounters occurred again, yet he remained cautious in spite of the repetitive yet unstable dull life that he was living right now.

After living in the forest for a while, Li Jie came to a realization that there was a set of patterns, which was followed by these beasts subconsciously.

According to Li Jie's observation, most of the beasts in this forest start the hunt at the time of peak noon and at night when it gets completely dark, which helps many beasts who have extraordinary senses to hunt easily.

During these times when the forest is filled with the movement of beasts from here and there.

Li Jie would patiently stay at the cave taking his time, and when Li Jie felt that it's safe to go out, he would descend down the mountain looking for food.

Whether it be hunting of a fledgling beast which he could kill, or some exotic fruits only found in the forest with wide varieties of flora present.

Of course, there would always be a certain amount of danger present when he went out searching for food, after all in this forest no one knows when some beast is hiding and using fruits as bait to nab at him.

That's why Li Jie would first test the whole area for any beast in hiding so that he can escape while prepared.

In these passing days, there have been situations in which he was almost caught into a trap by a beast or in those where he almost faced death, encountering life and death on a daily basis at first kept him tensed,

where he wasn't even able to sleep properly but after some time he realized,

that he has to take care of himself or else he will get sleep deprived, there were cases of him feeling physical exhaustion which he found to be alarming,

after all, if he isn't ready at his best at all times, even a single moment of weakness could be fatal for him in this forest, so he started forcing himself to sleep,

but he had always kept himself alert about his surroundings when days passed by one after another, he was starting to get used to facing life and death situations on a daily basis, which made him less stressed and less afraid,

experiencing something such horrendous on a daily basis had changed him little by little without him knowing,

now his eyes had no more the shine of innocence, now they contained caution, decisiveness, and apathy towards everything,

as if, even if a King stage beast were to appear right in front of him, he would have no fear like he first had towards these beasts, even if he were to face death right away, all that will be seen from his face will be nothing but indifference.

This feeling of indifference started from when he first almost faced death at the hands of the Lesser Flaming Viper and the first time he saw that King stage bird who appeared before crashing onto the lake,

from both these situations, he realized that no matter the gap in cultivation between the Lesser Flaming Viper and the King stage bird when facing them apart from some differences between them, the fear of death that he felt was the same,

and while pondering and replaying those situations in his mind, it was this same fear of death that made him stop thinking rationally and started to panic due to which he finally comprehended the fact that being afraid of the enemy in front of you is of no use,

it's better to be as little afraid as possible so that no matter how strong the enemy a person faces, one shouldn't give up no matter what,

while in the face of absolute power, it might feel impossible to survive, but giving up in your own heart makes your death certain, whereas there might be less than 1% chance of survival even when not giving up, but even this low odd of surviving can sometimes turn up the whole situation upside-down.

Li Jie not only had a change in his demeanor but he also learned about most of the beasts and the plants in the forest, which to eat and which not to eat, while he didn't know their exact species name,

he did however learned about their characteristics, whereas about beasts he learned their behavior pattern, likes, and dislikes.

Li Jie made a note of it in his mind that when he gets home he will start reading various books possessing knowledge regarding beasts and plants.

While it was common knowledge that beasts have less intelligence compared to humans, it didn't mean that they could be underestimated, even if the beasts have less intelligence, their strength as well as their wild instinct is enough to make up for it to hunt ferociously.

Li Jie was back in his cave with some fruit in his hands, his biggest problem right now was that he had nothing to store water, he also made a note in his mind that from now on, whether he is thirsty or not, he will always carry a gourd with him at all times.

Li Jie was wondering, how everything was back at home, it's been quite a number of days since he has gotten to play with his younger twins, he also missed his father and mother but he couldn't help it, he has to do this for the well being of himself and his family's future.

He was relaxed though that the puppet placed by Mr.Teacher was handling everything back at his home, which made him less worried, but at the same time,

he had this distasteful feeling in his heart that he has been replaced by a puppet, and no one even knows that he is not there with his family anymore and that the one who is currently with his family at the moment was a puppet.

Li Jie closed his eyes but he couldn't shake off this sour feeling anymore, the more he thought about it, the more annoyed he got, he couldn't help but punch at the wall of the cave.

Thud...

Drops of blood trickled down Li Jie's small fist when out of nowhere,

BANGGG...

the whole cave started shaking as if the whole world is going to turn upside down, the floor beneath Li Jie cracked, and he fell down towards the nearly never-ending hole that formed due to the fissure on the ground.

Finally, he fell at what seemed like a liquid surface because when he fell down, the whole area splashed, Li Jie tried to calm down but when he opened his eyes, it was dark all around.