During my journey out of the territory of the spiders, they just let me through. Only once I could see the light of the sun I noticed that I had spent the whole night inside their territory and that it was now the second day since the opening of the secret realm.

I continued traveling north-east.

After a few hours, I met a couple of 2nd rank demonic beasts who didn’t seem scared of me but rather interested. They were a couple of bears, one had plates of armor coating its body, and the other was covered in green fur.

They greeted me with a roar. At first, I wanted to roar back but on second thought I decided to try speaking properly with them.

“Hi, I am new here. Care to show me around?”

They froze. Just as I was starting to worry, the green one recovered from the shock and with a happy howl made me sign to follow him.

‘As I thought they are part of a faction just like the spiders. I only hope that they remain friendly.’

Half an hour later we arrived at an underground cave. On the way, we encountered various bears: some plated, some green, some brown.

The first thing that I saw inside the cave was a platform on top of which was a very old light golden bear. Down the platform, there were two 2m tall bears. A purple male and a green female. The purple male had lightning sparks dancing between his fur while the green female gave off a refreshing feeling.

The old bear looked at me and said: ” Young one, I have never seen here before. Why have you come to me? What do you seek?”

(I) “Greetings. I was traveling when I saw a couple of friendly bears, so I asked them to show me around. I didn't expect to meet their leader right away. As for what I seek, I am searching for a place full of yang Qi to improve my power.”

At my word, the two bears in front of me growled and seemed ready to pounce at the sign of the slightest threat.

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(Old Bear) “Stop, my children. He didn’t mean to threaten me, I can tell that his intentions are pure”

(I) “Did I say something wrong?”

(Old Bear) “As I thought you didn’t know, but the fastest way for a demonic beast to obtain a specific kind of Qi is to kill and eat a holder of said qi. In the case of Yang qi, the only user that you will find here is me.”

I was surprised by that revelation, the world of the demonic beasts is more brutal than I thought.

(I) “Sorry I didn’t mean like that. I just hoped you would know where to find some yang magical herbs.”

(Old Bear) “No problem, what you don’t know can’t be held against you. As for your request, I don’t know a place with yang magical herbs but I know a couple of places with yang qi. The problem is that one is guarded by a powerful beast and the other by another faction and it is quite dangerous to get there.”

(I) “I will go regardless. But can I have more details about both choices so I can make a more weighted decision?”

(Old Bear) “I assumed you would go regardless of dangers. Ah, youth. The first place is the sunbathing spot of a horned serpent at the peak of rank 3. It likes to go there during the day to absorb the convergence of yang Qi during the day. It is on the highest mountain on the mountain range to the east from here. The other place is the fruit wine pool of the white monkeys on the island to the north from here. Over the mountains to the north there is a sea and after the sea an island. That island is full of fruit trees that produce fruit all year round. From those fruits, the monkeys living there produce a fruit wine with potent yang properties. It’s guarded jealousy by those monkeys who have in their ranks several rank 3 beasts and have a peak rank 3 as their leader.”

Well now I had two possible roads: one is against a peak rank 3 beast and the other is against a tribe of rank 2 beasts with a few rank 3 beasts and a peak rank 3 beast. The choice was obvious

(I) “I will go to the monkeys’ island.”

(Old Bear) “I hoped you would say that you gave up for now, but alas. Very well, I will have you escorted to the north of our territory. From there you are on your own. Hmm, I feel I should warn you about one more thing, but it escapes my mind…”

(I) “Maybe it’s not important. Now I have to go, I am on a timer. Many thanks for the hospitality.”

(Old Bear) “Farewell”

And so I was escorted south. From there I started sprinting with my YinYang-filled muscles and soon I arrived to see the mountains. As their view came nearer and nearer I started to realize what the old bear had forgotten to mention.

“These are not mountains with how high and steep they are, they are a fracking wall!”

The new obstacle in my adventure was in front of my eyes a near impossible rock climb.