Perilous Situations

Yuan Ming's relieved heart immediately tensed up again. He quickly scrambled to his feet and looked down.

He saw the Black Bear sprinting towards him from a distance on all fours. As its massive body reached him, it suddenly changed direction and slammed its incredibly thick back against the banyan tree.

With a dull thud!

The old banyan tree shook violently. A crack immediately appeared on its already somewhat withered trunk.

Yuan Ming, having discovered it early, had desperately clung to the tree trunk and avoided being knocked off. However, seeing the crack on the trunk, he couldn't help but feel worried.

After its attack, the Black Bear ran off some distance and then charged towards the old banyan tree again.

"Crack!"

Before it could even charge, the crack on the trunk widened further.

"It can't hold on."

Yuan Ming's brows furrowed. Just as the Black Bear was about to charge again, he shifted his body, ran a couple of steps on a thick branch of the old tree, and with a powerful leap of his legs, jumped towards an ancient tree seven or eight zhang away.

At this distance, Yuan Ming wouldn't have been able to jump across from the ground. However, with the added power boost from the springing branch, his body seemed to fly through the air as he leaped towards the opposite side.

Amidst the sound of the old banyan tree collapsing behind him, his body reached its apex and began to descend, still a short distance from the other tree.

Yuan Ming stretched out his arms and, just like a monkey picking peaches, reached out forward.

At the last moment before falling, his hand grasped a extending branch of the ancient tree opposite him. He swung in mid-air and leaped up again, heading towards the tree trunk.

Just as he was about to land on the tree trunk, Yuan Ming didn't let himself fall directly. Instead, he extended his other arm, grabbed another branch, swung again, and leaped another seven or eight zhang.

It was only then that Yuan Ming felt he had truly gained control of this body.

He swung his arms, one after another, until his arms felt sore and weak, and then he stopped on a tree.

When he looked back, the Black Bear was nowhere to be seen.

Yuan Ming slowly let out a sigh of relief, feeling somewhat drained. He sat down against the tree trunk.

His entire body was soaked in sweat. The sensation was peculiar, as if the ape skin had truly grown from his own flesh and blood, and even sweat could seep through the fur.

As his emotions gradually calmed, Yuan Ming closed his eyes. He silently drew in the air in front of him with his fingers, beginning to reconstruct the path he had taken to escape in his memory.

Despite his earlier panic, he hadn't forgotten to leave markers at every point where he changed direction. Now, a map of his escape route was quickly constructed in his mind.

Yuan Ming slowly opened his eyes. A rumbling sound came from his stomach.

Ever since he arrived at Jade Luo Cave, he hadn't eaten. After the intense chase and escape, the strong feeling of hunger could no longer be suppressed.

Yuan Ming glanced at the sun, which was already beginning to set in the west. He knew that the primeval forest would only become more dangerous at night. If he didn't find food and a place to shelter before dark, he might not make it to tomorrow.

Thinking of this, Yuan Ming could only muster his spirits and stand up.

He turned his body and looked into the distance, carefully observing his surroundings. The seemingly silent mountain forest held many subtle movements.

He saw a dull gray python slowly wriggling around a grayish-brown old tree. The patterns on its skin were almost identical to the scars on the tree, a nearly perfect camouflage.

Below a dirt mound on the other side, a small beast with skin like an alligator's armor poked its head out of a hole. Startled by a large bird flying overhead, it immediately retreated back into the hole.

Not far from it, a clump of wild grass rustled, and a plump gray rabbit hopped out and ran off into the distance.

Seeing this, Yuan Ming immediately leaped forward, pouncing in the direction of the rabbit.

In mid-air, he grabbed an old vine with one arm, lowered his body, and with the other arm, reached out like scooping the moon from the sea, trying to grab the gray rabbit.

Yuan Ming's palm had already touched the soft fur of the rabbit's tail when a strong gust of wind, carrying kicked-up sand and stones, hit his palm.

The rabbit leaped up like an arrow released from a bow, soaring three or four zhang. The moment it landed, it changed direction, burrowed into the grass, and disappeared.

Yuan Ming remained in his mid-air posture, his movements somewhat stiff, his heart filled with bitterness.

He realized that none of the wild beasts in this forest were normal.

He slowly landed on the ground. Just as he was about to look for another target, he heard a faint sound from behind him.

Yuan Ming instinctively wanted to turn his head, but his peripheral vision caught a glimpse of a green shadow darting out from his left, near his blind spot.

He quickly stopped himself from turning and abruptly dropped forward.

Almost at the same time, a Green Wolf, nearly eight feet long, lunged at him from behind. If he hadn't dodged in time, he would have been knocked down and had his throat bitten at the moment he turned his head.

Yuan Ming didn't have time to be scared. He ran forward on all fours, and the sound of wind immediately followed behind him.

Suddenly, he stopped his forward momentum, sharply twisted his body, and swung his long arm back, punching straight behind him. His posture was as if he were holding a spear and executing a "returning horse" strike.

His fist even made a whistling sound as it cut through the air, letting out a "snap," and then it smashed into the mouth of a Green Wolf that was lunging at him with its jaws open.

With a dull "bang,"

Yuan Ming felt a sharp pain in his fist. The large Green Wolf also flew backward, crashing directly into a thick old tree before falling down.

The Green Wolf got back on its feet, its mouth bloody and torn, a wolf tooth broken. It let out a low whimper and growl, its ferocity undiminished, but it didn't pounce again immediately.

Yuan Ming was also greatly surprised at this moment. Vague memories surfaced in his mind, and he suddenly saw images of himself practicing martial arts with spears and staffs in a wide-open square.

Accompanying these images was a lingering grogginess in his head.

Yuan Ming knew this was not the time to dwell on these thoughts. He quickly shook his head, suppressing those thoughts, and focused his gaze forward.

He saw that beside the Green Wolf, another, even larger Green Wolf had appeared without him knowing when.

The two beasts split left and right, encircling Yuan Ming from the flanks.

His previous punch had indeed been unexpected, delivering twice the force he thought he could muster. Yet, even with that power, he still couldn't heavily injure the Green Wolf.

"Can't beat them, gotta run," Yuan Ming immediately decided.

At this moment, the two Green Wolves suddenly accelerated simultaneously, charging at him from the left and right.

Yuan Ming quickly sprinted forward, glancing left and right. He saw that the two Green Wolves were maintaining the same speed, with no discernible lead, clearly intending to attack at the same time, forcing him to be unable to attend to both.

His speed was already inferior to the Green Wolves, and both escape routes were blocked. Even climbing a tree now would be too late.

Just then, the sound of wind suddenly rushed past Yuan Ming's ears on both sides as the two Green Wolves attacked at once.

Without any hesitation, he stopped abruptly again, twisting his waist to the right, feigning a punch towards the injured Green Wolf.

Seeing this, the latter instinctively flinched out of fear.

This momentary delay gave Yuan Ming an opportunity. He twisted his body back, and the punch aimed at the injured Green Wolf turned into an elbow strike, smashing fiercely into the Green Wolf on the left.

With a "bang," the Green Wolf was hit hard by Yuan Ming's elbow and sent flying.

But almost simultaneously, the Green Wolf on the right bit down on Yuan Ming's shoulder.

The sharp wolf fangs pierced his flesh, and the intense pain made Yuan Ming gasp. He grabbed the fur on the Green Wolf's back and powerfully threw it forward.

Because it had lost a tooth and couldn't bite down fully, the Green Wolf was flung off his shoulder by an over-the-shoulder throw, crashing heavily onto the ground.

Seizing this opening, Yuan Ming quickly ran towards a tall, ancient tree and, using both hands and feet, scrambled up in a few swift movements.

The Green Wolf he had elbow-struck pursued closely but bit empty air, failing to stop Yuan Ming.

Yuan Ming climbed until he reached a thick branch near the treetop before stopping. Looking down, he saw both Green Wolves had gathered beneath the tree.

The Green Wolf whose tooth he had broken and then thrown looked somewhat disheveled, with blood trickling from its mouth. The one he had elbow-struck, however, was completely unharmed, its pair of red eyes fixed intently on him.

Yuan Ming felt a little relieved when he saw that these two wolves weren't mutated enough to climb trees. He took the opportunity to glance at his shoulder, discovering three bloody holes from which blood was welling.

He slightly tensed the muscles in his shoulder, immediately causing him to grimace in pain.

The Green Wolf below circled the tree for a while, then suddenly raised its head and let out a "woo woo" howl that echoed through the forest, carrying into the distance.

Yuan Ming immediately realized the beast was calling for reinforcements. It seemed that even in this strange forest of the Hundred Thousand Mountains, wolves still maintained their pack-hunting habits.

"I can't stay here. If I get surrounded by the wolf pack, I'll have no chance of escaping."

With this thought, Yuan Ming tore off a vine from a nearby branch, hastily wrapped it around his shoulder twice, and once again used the "Soaring Crane Arm Swing" skill, leaping between the ancient trees.

Seeing this, the two Green Wolves relentlessly pursued from below.

Unlike the lumbering Black Bear, the Green Wolves possessed greater patience and tenacity, naturally unwilling to let the prey in their sights escape.

No matter how Yuan Ming leaped and fled, they kept pace steadily, occasionally howling to report his position to their companions.

Yuan Ming dared not rest. He could already see shadows flickering in various parts of the forest, but the bleeding wound and prolonged lack of food were pushing his body to its limit.

His vision began to blur. Even the pain in his shoulder couldn't stimulate him enough to stay conscious.

The tree canopy ahead began to darken, his arms grew unbearably sore, and he kept losing his grip on the vines. Perhaps on the next jump, he would fall.