After walking for a few hours, he noticed a few reptilian creatures along the way and as he got close to the mountain, he felt like his heart almost giving out from fear. Right after entering the forest, he tried climbing the tallest tree near him and reached the top. As he reached the top of the tree, he looked a few tens of li and noticed a ravine with a river flowing over it.
That was when he knew it would take longer than eight hours to reach the human population at the Ling Shi mountain. As for how he knew there were people on the mountain, just the footprints in the wilderness and strange landmarks.
As for whether the people on the mountain were peaceful people or cannibalistic savages, he figured out they wouldn't be with all the animals he passed near as he came closer to the mountain and the more dangerous and nutritious animals ahead of him. He figured his clothes would at least make him worth to kidnap rather than outright kill him. All he knew was that as long as he reached the human population at the mountain, he had a 70% chance of survival as opposed to dying from beasts or other environmental factors.
Now that he knew where his chance of living lay, he started to think of his present situation, he was obviously not a human of this world, therefore it stands to reason that he doesn't speak the local language and he might face a communication barrier. As for the whole TARDIS universal translator, he finds it impossible he's not sure he has such a cheat. In addition, he's sure he's in a different universe so that wouldn't work either way.
If the locals judge from his language that he's a foreigner, they might not know what to do with him. Then they could choose to watch him for a while or enslave him. Either way, he will be safe. What scares him is that these locals might judge him to be an enemy from his accent coinciding with the enemy and then execute him without question. To prevent that, he has to find a way that will disable his speech, not permanently but in such a way that it won't look deliberate and long enough for him to understand the other's language.
The conclusion he arrived at was swelling his tongue. As long as the tongue isn't damaged, it can be healed. He then devised a plan on how to find some plants that will do that. After running a few simulations in his mind, he decided to first return the forest with his trousers full of soil.
As to how he accomplished that, he simply tied the leg area of his trousers into knots after removing them and poured in some soil in medium quantities so it doesn't become to heavy for him to carry and run with.
He looked to the heavens and thanked the goddess of luck for not landing him inside a beast's mouth or some other dangerous area far away from human population , now the rest of his survival depended on him. He knew he had no time to waste and hurried back into the forest with pants full of soil.
As soon as he reached the tree he had climbed a while ago, he sprinkled some sand around it and ran back to get more. After making sure he sprinkled at-least tens of li around the tree, he found a dead animal in the wilderness and brought it to the top of the tree. Then he cut his finger and rubbed his blood on the tree.
Immediately he climbed down and ran at the fastest speed he can muster. He ran back to the wilderness and waited an entire night. As he was getting hungry and cold, he decided to hold on and check the next day for his results. Otherwise he has no choice but to go for plan b.
He stayed up all night being cautious and vigilant to his surroundings. He was feeling terrible and hoped he wouldn't go through this experience again. He waited until morning and cautiously returned the forest. He reached the tall tree and began to inspect around it.
He finally noticed there were no footprints, meaning no animals came near it at night. As for his final check, he climbed up the tree. He noticed that the dead animal was untouched.
He didn't know why but this tree area didn't attract any animals and more passed here. Therefore, he made up his mind. This will be his temporary location till he finds a way to re-enter human civilization.
He climbed back up the tall tree of unknown origin and started to observe the surroundings once again. He took notice of the areas where the trees shook a lot and marked them as dangerous zones, he also observed where birds don't land, where there's a wide open space but no route leading there. He concluded that there were some kind of traps over there and marked them as also dangerous zones.
After making a simple map on his hand using charcoal, he got a sharp stone and decided to copy it in the tree trunk. As soon as he was done with that, he proceeded to his next step.
He had noticed a banana plantation nearby, so he trekked slowly and carefully towards it, reacting to almost any sound or movement. As soon as he reached the plantation, he hurriedly cut a few stems using his sharp rock, grabbed them and ran as fast as his legs can carry him back to his temporary location. He relaxed after reaching the tree, then proceeded to squeeze them dry with his hands and dry them out in the sun.
As soon as they were dry enough he tied them together, forming a type of cloth, and tied it near the top most part of the tree. And right now, he had his own hammock. Ignoring how strange it looked or how smelly, he ran back to the wilderness and roasted a few creatures that seemed to be prey for every other creature. At least they weren't poisonous, after forcing himself to eat a lot of them and boiling their blood to drink using a makeshift clay pot. He walked raggedly like a drunk person back into the forest and up on the tree. He knew that staying up late for almost 60 hours was very demanding for his brain and any further would start damaging it.
He was already seeing colors and by the time he reached the tree, he felt too weak to climb it. That was when he bit on his tongue and forcefully jolted himself awake. Using that small boost, he climbed as fast as he can to the top of the tree and lay on his hammock. Upon reaching there, he grabbed a few banana leaves and covered himself. At the moment, he didn't care if the forest had dragons or freakin siren head: all he wanted was to sleep. Before he knew it, he was already heading to dreamland.