A year has passed since the gray wolves attack and nothing serious happened. It was probably a problem of overpopulation or the scary beast stopped after taking the gray wolves' territory.

Mother has brought me and Bob hunt for boars and young elks and also showed us where to find food in the wild. Not that I needed it as a seasoned hunter but I still discovered new sources of nutrition.

Many things have changed during this year:

Name:

Kuma Zhao

Race:

Prodigious Ursus Arctos

CULTIVATION

Qi

1st layer Qi gathering realm

Mental

Early 1st stage Spirit Sense realm

Physical

4th layer Skin refinement realm

SKILLS

Spirit Sense (Lv 1) - Murky mind lake (Lv 9) - Bear combat style(Lv 1) - Qi infusion(Lv 6)

Half a year ago I reached the 4th layer of skin refinement and Lv 9 of the murky mind lake skill but after that, they simply stopped improving

I reached a plateau in my cultivation. Not only qi but also physical and mental.

The problem with the qi was easy enough: there was not enough raw qi in the air, probably also the reason why I hadn’t met any demonic beast or any cultivator so far. That could only be solved with patience or by changing location and since I was constantly traveling south I could only wait.

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My mental and physical ones were instead a mystery. I followed the instructions of the manuals to the letter but my skin after the 4th stage started improving at an abysmal rate and no matter how I cleaned my mental lake when I return for the next session is polluted the same as before.

So, since improving my cultivation seemed difficult, I decided to improve my fighting prowess instead. In particular, I started practicing my qi infusion skill and I discovered various things. I couldn’t use my qi externally: so no energy beams or Rasengan for me. I could instead improve pretty much everything about my body. By injecting qi into my muscles I make them more explosive and durable, by infusing it in my paws I can make my hits heavier and by infusing it in my teeth and claws I can make them sharper.

[Bear’s cub combat style Lv 10 → Bear combat style Lv 1]

Soon, though, it will be time for me and Bob to leave mother, I’m sure that before that I will be able to break through what is keeping me back.

3 months later

‘I wasn’t able to do it. Fuck!’

It’s time for me and my brother to leave the mother bear’s den. Bob started trekking east while I went south. I would have gone north to challenge the gray wolf and avenge Star, but with the stop in my cultivation, I feel that I’m not strong enough yet.

The plan contemplated also finding a place to settle in and to go out only when I was strong enough but now I decided to go explore various locations in search of enlightenment.

I was traveling for about a month when I found out something peculiar, a smell that pervaded the air and guided me somewhere. Wary, but also somewhat expectant to find something useful for my condition, I followed.

I ended up at the edge of a clearing, in the center of the clearing was a big tree and at the base of the tree, a violet and pink flower emitted a qi-infused smell.

I was sure that if I ate the flower my qi cultivation would progress by leaps and bounds.

But I was weary, I knew from the novels that I read that usually qi-infused herbs are protected by ferocious beasts. So I squinted my eyes and looking carefully I noticed that between the branches of the tree was laid an enormous python.

‘How to proceed?’

‘Well the only solution seems a head-on fight, besides I also need someone to practice my moves with’

I went ahead and released a qi-infused roar that startled the python and made it fall down the tree. I waited for it to recover from the dizziness and then I attacked.

The first paw strike was easily avoided and so was the second, the snake seemed to read me like an open book. Then it struck, it was fast and powerful, and without my powerful skin, the match would have ended there. But my skin was tough and once the python teeth pieced it, they had lost much of their momentum so they only left a superficial wound on the neck.

Still, the situation wasn’t in my favor, the snake had a lot more battle experience in comparison to me and soon I was on the back leg of the confrontation. I could run away but, at the thought of the flower, I decided to press on. In a moment I found myself enveloped between the serpent’s coils, and then it started squeezing.

I could hardly breathe, the pressure was immense and I started to see all red. Then amid the desperation and the auto condemnation for my stupidity, I saw a black figure exiting from my mind lake.

‘You are alone, you are stronger alone you need nobody’

‘Let yourself go, surrender to the fury’

[Skin tempering reached lv 8]

No, I won't succumb

I freed myself from the snake and ran away as far as I could then all went black