Chapter 21As Chen Zhen was running thru the woods he went over the plan he had in his head with Shanggu Feng and Lou Tian concerning his training. He would see how difficult it was to fight the rank 2 Thunder Bison and Fire ox first. He would fight them until it became easy to defeat them. From there he would move on to the rank 3 Frost Mammoth. He was told by Lou Tian that they had a very strong defense to make up for their slow speed.
When Chen Zhen arrived at the Thunder Bison territory he found one foraging along by itself. Besides being highly territorial The Thunder Bison"s were family oriented, they would often be seen traveling in family herds through the forest. Chen Zhen hadn"t learned to hide his aura yet so as soon as he was within the Thunder Bison"s sensing range it immediately noticed him. Chen Zhen didn"t mind being spotted, he wasn"t trying to sneak up on the Thunder Bison. As the Thunder Bison came charging at him he was surprised by its size. He had never seen a Thunder Bison before, he had only eaten whatever Shanggu Julong had given him. Even though he knew Shanggu Julong had large amounts of bison meat, Chen Zhen just a.s.sumed it was from multiple bison. Haven seen the size of this beast for himself, Chen Zhen realized that Shanggu Julong only needed to kill one bison to feed him for a week or two at a minimum.
Chen Zhen didn"t underestimate this Thunder Bison at all. He sent power to his hand and feet, creating flames on his right and lightening on his left. The Thunder Bison was intimidated by Chen Zhen"s power, it only enraged it more to see Chen Zhen prepare to battle it in its own territory. The Thunder Bison lowered its head and sparks could be seen flashing across the horns on its head. When it was twenty feet from Chen Zhen it suddenly released a lightening strike from its horns. Shanggu Feng, and Lou Tian didn"t give Chen Zhen information on the Thunder Bison"s attacks because they wanted to see how he would respond in this situation. Even though this was unexpected Chen Zhen still reacted quickly to this attack, he shifted his stance to his left and took the brunt of the lightening on his left arm. Chen Zhen felt a slight tingle in his arm but otherwise he was fine. The angle of Chen Zhen"s body and the forward push of the bison slid Chen Zhen out of the way of the bison"s charge. As the bison was pa.s.sing in front of Chen Zhen he took the opportunity to punch with all his strength. Chen Zhen still wasn"t sure where the limits of his strength lied, and he hadn"t exactly learned to control his strength yet. As Chen Zhen threw his punched he pushed all his energy into his right fist, the flames surrounding his fist tripled in size. Before his fist even touch the side of the bison its hairs were already burned away. The closer his fist got the more of a depression formed in the side of the bison. When his fist finally connected all of the energy was released at once in a thunderous explosion that sent this two-ton creature flying thru the air. The Thunder Bison"s internal organs were roasted to a crisp before it even hit the ground. Chen Zhen ran over to the bison carca.s.s to see exactly what he did. He approached it cautiously thinking it was just hurt and not dead yet. As Chen Zhen circled around it he could already smell roasted meat. When he checked the bison with his spiritual sense and realized he had killed it with one punch he was amazed at himself.
"Take that Siatama!", Chen Zhen cheered in his head.
Chen Zhen was standing there gloating over his first kill when a loud roar came from not too far away.
"That is one of the Blood Lions! It"s a rank 4 spirit beast. You are not ready to face one of those. Hurry up and place this in your interspatial ring and get out of here!", Shanggu Feng shouted to Chen Zhen.
Chen Zhen waved his hand and the Thunder Bison vanished. He would never get used that, it was so cool! Chen Zhen immediately took of running back to the clearing. As he was running he could hear the roars of the Blood Lion getting closer. Chen Zhen was a hundred yards from the clearing when his sense felt the Blood lion entering his range. As fast as Chen Zhen was running it seemed as if he was standing still, that"s how quickly the Blood Lion was catching up to him. Chen Zhen was still ten yards from the clearing when it felt as if the Blood Lion had teleported behind him. Chen Zhen leapt forward jumping the last thirty feet and entering the clearing in the nick of time. Cold sweat was running down Chen Zhen"s forehead as he stood up form where he had landed. Chen Zhen winced in pain when he made it to all fours. Looking over his shoulder he could see four b.l.o.o.d.y slashes, two across his shoulders and lower back, and two along the back of his legs. Chen Zhen realized that he was very fortunate to be alive. When Chen Zhen first started hunting that Blood Lion was no where around. Today"s experience was a huge wake up call for Chen Zhen. He now knew he had to be a lot more cautious when he was out hunting.
Chen Zhen hobbled to Mei Ling"s shack. When she saw the condition, he was in she was instantly astonished by his injuries. She rushed him back to his shack and laid down to apply ointment to his wounds. Mei Ling tried to be as delicate as possible, but Chen Zhen still cried out in pain a couple times. Mei Ling was well practiced since she used to help her husband out the times he came home injured as well. The medicinal effect of the ointment caused Chen Zhen to fall asleep before Mei Ling was done. She stood up looking at him and was reminded of her husband once again. Memories flood her mind and before long Mei Ling was fighting back her tears as she quietly left his shack and headed to her own.
The next morning Chen Zhen woke up and was surprised that he wasn"t in any pain. As he stood up and stretched his body he found he had full mobility. The medicinal ointment was better then the best medicine from his world. This was completely incredible. He remembered that Mei Ling had brought him home and help apply the ointment to him. He went to her shack and thanked her profusely, while be bowed low to her. She was thrown back by his display. She wasn"t worth of such grat.i.tude, especially having him bow low to her. He had saved the lives of her children and herself. If he wanted to claim their lives for his own he had every right to do so. Besides all she had down was apply a little ointment to his wounds, that was nothing compared to saving their lives. She quickly told Chen Zhen not to worry about it. The more she was around Chen Zhen the more she found his behavior to be strange.
"Do you know how butcher a Thunder Bison?", Chen Zhen asked her sheepishly.
"Yes, I do. I used to do that for my husband when he returned from hunting.", Mei Ling replied looking at Chen Zhen a little weird.
Chen Zhen mistook her look for annoyance, it was the same look that Xian-er would give when she was getting p.i.s.sed with him.
"I have the Thunder Bison I hunted yesterday, and I don"t know…. how…", Chen Zhen was to embarra.s.sed to finish his statement, he just stood there rubbing the back of his head like a simpleton.
Mei Ling got the gist of what he was trying to say and took pity on him offering to butcher it for him. Chen Zhen was about to release it out of his ring before Mei Ling stopped him. A Thunder Bison was way to big to fit inside of her small shack. Chen Zhen laughed at himself with a goofy grin on his face and went outside to drop off the bison.
"Try to be more careful this time….", Mei Ling stated meekly out of concern for his well-being as Chen Zhen started to run away.
"I will. I won"t put you in that position again.", Chen Zhen said with a very serious face, before turning around and heading out at full speed.
Mei Ling realized Chen Zhen misunderstood her again but shook head hopelessly as she watched him disappear.
Out in the woods Chen Zhen wasn"t in a rush to pick target this time. He wandered around observing the different groups of animals. Chen Zhen was hiding in a tree overlooking a family of Fire Ox, when suddenly a line of light appeared out of thin air under the tree next to him. If it wasn"t for the light he wouldn"t have known it was there, he couldn"t sense any energy fluctuations at all. As Chen Zhen stood there watching three people slowly walked out of the light.