153 – The Woods

“Ah, sh**!! Sh*! Sh*!” Li Yun continued cursing and running as the two giant pandas with glowing eyes charged at him. “This can’t be happening!” 

Li Yun sprinted away further from the temple, trying to keep his path as straight as possible, but it was impossible with the way the terrain was laid out. The branches and bushes were an absolute nightmare to pass through. His hands pushed away the branches blocking his path, and ignored the pain as the thorns scratched the thick lining of his bomber jacket and into the surfaces of his hands.

Thud, thud, thud! The thundering sound of the giant pandas continued to pound from behind as they plowed through the forest. Li Yun picked up his pace, recklessly colliding into the bushes. There was no use to avoid them, he could only charge through them. 

It wasn’t just the low trees and bushes, the terrain was uneven and rugged. He missed a low elevation change, almost falling down completely if he hadn’t grabbed onto a nearby vine.  His hand tightened on the vine and pulled himself up. The vine snapped, but his feet were already stable and ran in the opposite direction of the charging pandas.

Li Yun noticed a clearing, but quickly stopped as soon as he realized the drop. Looking down, it looked like a five-meters drop to the ground. There were more bushes down below that could break his fall and a tall beech-like tree that he could reach from a lower position. Li Yun quickly grabbed another vine, twisted the two pairs, and lowered himself down the cliff until he was hanging down near the tree. He pushed his feet onto the cliff, gaining enough force to propel himself onto the branch of the tree. His body landed on top of the thick limb, and he grabbed onto it for his dear life.

His body was sore from slamming into the tree, but he didn’t break anything. He looked back to see that the two pandas had stopped near the cliff. After briefly staring and growling at him, they gave up and moved away.

“What the hell is this place?” First, he was attacked by a moving statue, and then two giant pandas rushed out to attack him. He didn’t know of any pandas that aggressively attacked without provocation.

They probably weren't even pandas, but some type of mutated spotted bears. Their speed was a lot quicker than the stone statue and the only thing preventing them from reaching him was the rough terrain. As much as it was hindering his movement, it also slowed the pandas down. Much of the taller trees blocked their path and even plowing into the bushes took some time to uproot and rip apart.

He looked back at the short cliff. There wasn’t any sign of the pandas. He contemplated returning to the temple using the pandas’ destroyed path, but he wasn’t sure he wanted to deal with the two pandas; if they could easily uproot the bushes from the ground, he was sure they could rip him apart.

Li Yun wasn’t sure how he managed to escape, but he didn’t want to go back. Was there any meaning to return to the temple? He looked ahead toward the opposite side of the cliff, but there was nothing but more trees and bushes.

He pulled himself up to a sitting position, rested his head on the trunk, and bent his head down to inspect himself. The jacket and jeans were ripped and torn, but protected most of his body. However, his hands had a few bloody markings. Luckily he didn't have a mirror to see all the scratches on his face. Well, he did have a reverse mirror if he used his phone. He changed his eye's dilation, and took out his phone. There wasn’t any reception, and the phone stated that it was only 3am.

He sighed, he had a feeling there wasn't any connection. His backpack had a bunch of medical kits, and he could use the scalpels as a weapon if needed, but only as a last resort. Fleeing was probably the only thing he should focus on.

As soon as he put his phone away, he felt toxins entering his blood system, but his body wasn't neutralizing it like usual. It was not something he had encountered before. Whatever toxin was in the thorns of these plants, it was much more powerful than the ones he had encountered. His breathing was harsh and he felt his blood pressure elevated higher than usual.

He decided to remain on the branch and wait it out until his body could clear out the toxin. Typically, after a toxin entered his bloodstream, his meridian did two things. It first ordered his immune system to destroy the toxins. However, if the immune system wasn't able to destroy it quickly, his meridian somehow absorbed the toxin.

The toxin in his body was blocking his meridian. He didn’t know that was even possible.

Without the aid of his meridian, his natural immunity had to defend itself. The toxins in his bloodstream were fighting with his white blood cells. The toxin in his lymphatic vessels was trapped inside the lymphatic node. The toxin seemed unfamiliar with the creature that it had penetrated and waited for its death. His natural immune system destroying toxins, but it was going to be a long time before it cleared out.

A searing pain entered stabbed his body. He had never felt this unusual pain before. His meridians were going crazy and the channels fluctuated, fighting their way back. It felt painful like hell.

“I should use Zuowang,” he decided to meditate and focus on unblocking his meridians. Unfortunately, he wasn’t exactly sure how that was done. Was it a matter of willing his meridians to unblock itself? Ever since unlocking his body's ability to see meridians, he had not truly understood all of its capability. 

Entering the meditative state, he was able to see his meridians and dantian actively working to enter his body. The toxins blocked all the channels entering into the body systems, causing the meridians to create a massive buildup of energy trying to force its way into his body. It was like a traffic jam at the intersection, and it was the reason for his unusual pain. It wasn’t a physical pain, but a spiritual pain alarming him that something was wrong with his meridian.

The pileup of energy from his meridian was creating more blockage. He needed to instruct his meridian to stop sending more energy. What the meridian needed to do was not to continue pushing, but create a constant wave of coordinated attacks on the toxins.

Li Yun sucked in air and energy, and then breathed out forcefully. He repeated the cycle, hoping his meridian could follow the rhythm of his breathing. What he wanted was to draw the energy back into his dantian, and then pound at the blocked passage like an oscillating hammer. 

As he continued breathing, he sensed the meridians slowing down the energy and quickly rearranging their strategy to copy his order. The energy immediately withdrew to the dantian, and as though on command, it burst out. Li Yun felt a bit of pain every time they attacked the blockage, but he also felt some energy leaking to his body and removing parts of the toxins.

He repeated the breathing method until his body regained strength.