" The mana path is a kinder path, but a dead-end for you with a C-grade. This path is a harsh one but with plenty of benefits and the last string of hope for you. It is up to you to decide the path you shall tread "
Ryan remembered what Wung Dao had said to him 3 months ago.
He had been given a choice, to stubbornly continue using mana as his 'foundation' or accept the other path Wung Dao had offered him. Unsurprisingly, Wung Dao had offered Ryan the Qi path - which was a path for cultivators.
Cultivation was rather ruthless in every Xianxia themed manhua Ryan had read. Weak cultivators were treated as cheap as cabbage there - from being used as human sacrifices to being used as a cauldron by demonic cultivators for them to cultivate and advance.
Although Wung Dao had been rather truthful about the cultivation path being harsh, Ryan still felt as if he had somewhat downgraded to how dangerous it actually could be.
In one novel Ryan had read, The MC had actually died in the first stages of cultivating due to a Qi deviation.
What is a Qi deviation you ask?
Well, this horrible thing was described in the novel as the result of Qi overdrive inside the body - leading to severe bleeding from all orifices of the body and finally leading to a miserable death. The MC in the novel had died, but his regression ability allowed him to typically keep his life after such a brutal experience. And all of that had happened in the earliest stages of cultivation!
The MC survived, because well - he was an MC and a hero, therefore had to have some rigged abilities that could allow him to survive clearly impossible-to-survive situations. Now take Ryan who had shitty luck and put him in the same situation - it would be a miracle if immediately after cultivating didn't die miserably by having his body literally self-destruct and explode like a popped balloon!
Hence why even though the Qi cultivation had some benefits, Ryan still didn't choose it.
Pftt , benefits? They all would be useless if he died before even tasting them.
Surprisingly, Wung Dao when he had heard Ryan's refusal didn't attempt to persuade him to think otherwise but simply accepted his decision.
In any case, In the last 3 months Wung Dao had spent training Ryan, Ryan now was absolutely positive of holding his own against 4 to 5 strong gorillas.
Speaking of gorillas -
' The horn of a wild pig beast? And the arm of a silver haired gorilla?'
Ryan pondered as he read the list Wung Dao had given him just 5 days ago.
It was a list with 4 body parts from different beasts of the forest, Wung Dao hadn't mentioned what he would be using the parts specifically for. He simply said it was Ryan's first mission after the 3 months spent training him.
Ryan was now in a dark forest, named 'Doom'. This forest was rather extravagant when it came to scary appearances; the smallest tree in the forest was probably the size of an adult baobab tree. Dark purple vines were wrapped around trees in some sections of the forest and barely any light managed to penetrate the forest with most of the trees being towering giants. This all together gave the forest a gloomy and threatening aura, as if a predator could lunge at you at any moment.
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'Where am I going to find a wild boar anyways?'
Next to the names of the beasts were drawings, but well - Wung Dao wasn't exactly that great of an artist hence Ryan couldn't exactly differentiate the drawings from the scribbles of a 5-year-old. However, he found that if he squinted hard enough and tried tilting his head from every possible angle - he could have an idea and a picture of what the scribbles probably were.
The first thing on the list - the wild pig beast looked similar to a warthog back on earth in the sketch, the only noticeable difference was that it had a rather large horn on the middle of its face similarly to a rhino. If the thing was a forest beast, then it was safe for assume it was probably larger than the average adult warthog male back on earth too.
Warthogs back on earth were known to be ferocious creatures with dark colored skin, a similarly brown colored mane which ran down it's back and of course an ugly face. To Ryan, this wild pig seemed as an alternate but more dangerous version of the normal warthog.
Warthogs back on earth were really resilient and wouldn't back away from a fight, Ryan remembered watching an animal video on a TV channel where a warthog brutally pierced the stomach of another in a fight.
Ryan gulped.
'Heh- hopefully this wild boar beast is a peaceful animal and will calmy let me slaughter it.'
Ryan chuckled to how ridiculous that thought sounded.
On the other hand, ever since he left Wung Dao he had to dive into the deeper parts of the forest. Wung Dao had warned him that the forest became more dangerous as one deeper explored it.
Ryan when he was occasionally hunting 3 months ago, he only hunted nearby rabbit beasts which looked like the normal rabbit with just extra 2 eyes and didn't pose much of a challenge or a threat.
But ever since he started the hunting trip in Doom Forest, Ryan had to eat rations of dry meat and a bag of wild berries every day to survive. The purple vines in some of the sections of the forest were also no joke, he remembered how just 3 days ago had mistakenly stepped on a vine and got assaulted by ten vines which launched themselves at him. If it weren't for Ryan's quick thinking which allowed him to react before it was too late - by leaping backwards to avoid the assault of the live vines, he would have been tangled with no way out but to become a meal of some carnivorous plant hidden somewhere in the forest.
Ryan was also running out of rations too.
'Sigh, I'll have to start hunting for food soon.'
Ryan thought as he stealthily moved from tree to tree quietly as possible.
He was far deeper into the forest, surely there were dangerous beast and animals lurking in hiding. Ryan wasn't completely confident in being able to survive an ambush hence why he tip toed around the forest like a thief in hopes that he didn't mistakenly wake up a slumbering giant bear monster which could tear him limb from limb.
'Wung Dao is too brutal, he didn't even tell me which specific beasts I should look out fo-'
Ryan's internal monologue was cut shot, he had been crouching down near a tree for a moment of rest when a buzzing sound coming from above his head interrupted him.
And when Ryan turned his head to look-
'Shit shit shit , why are they so big and so numerous!!'
Ryan cursed inside his mind as his eyes landed on rather large bee hives hanged up on the same tree he was leaning on - the bee nests were all individually absurdly as large as a tree house.
The bee hives were the least of Ryan's worries, because a bunch of large bees carrying a bloody thing flied into one of the nests. (seemingly, a dead animal?)
Yes, they were carrying a whole animal and not pollen as cute bees back on earth were supposed to.
During the whole exchange, Ryan held his breath.
If even plants in the crazy forest didn't shy away from making the first move by attacking any foolish nearby prey, with the intention to devour the prey, surely these bees which were similar to the size of a cow, having sharp pointed legs, large beady eyes and very sharp stingers wouldn't too.
Ryan would hate to end up as a meal of crazy bees.
On the other hand -
'Those bees carried a bleeding animal inside that treehouse, that probably means they are really good at locating prey in this dense and dark forest'
Ryan began calculating, in the 3 months he spent training with Wung Dao he had learnt to be somewhat quick witted.
The bees were a danger to Ryan of course, but they were simultaneously an opportunity too. If he could just follow them on their next hunt - then he could probably locate the wild pig beasts. Well, given that they chose to hunt them on their next hunt anyways or were nearby.
Ryan slouched even further down and tried his best to look like a harmless inanimate object.
Now he just had to wait for the bees to go back to hunting, hopefully not for him.