Li turned around to see what could possibly be growling at him. He came to find a wolf looking him dead in the eyes.
He had already claimed the cave as his and he wasn't just going to give it to any old joe. He assumed the most basic fighting stance.
The wolf charged him and he deflected its attempt at biting his chest area. He then weakly and with no correct form, weakly punched the wolf.
If he was very lucky and the wolf had never cultivated before the hit may have been a critical injury, but neither of those criteria were true.
The wolf turned around and attempted a very valid counterattack but Li was very quick on his feet. He once again deflected the wolfs offense and made a counterattack of his own.
The head was the most obvious target so he struck its temple with a sufficient amount of force to fracture the wolfs skull and kill it.
Although there was a large variance in the first attack and second, Li was just nervous since he had never been in a real fight before, hindering his will to fight.
Once he had realised it was a fight of life and death he had defended himself.
The wolf, now dead, was ready to be harvested. Li had wanted to taste totally untampered meat, because the processed food made him feel sick. He couldn't stand it.
He began the process of meat making by peeling off all the skin, as you do, and he was terrible at it. But practice makes perfect and He'll get lots of practice in later.
Li was currently conflicted though. The voice had told him the mushrooms would be enough for his body, but it wasn't like he was fasting or anything and logic dictates the human body requires the iron found in meat to survive.
Li just didn't want to disobey the voice as he had never done so before and he was afraid something bad may happen.
Against his better judgement however, he cooked the edible parts of the wolf and began eating it. He heard nothing of the voice however.
Perhaps he had been misunderstanding his purpose. Maybe he was just a schizophrenic? That was impossible because he should have a stable mental state, he didn't rule it out though.
It just didn't make much sense in retrospect since the things it guided him to do were reasonable and of help of him.
All of that aside, he really enjoyed his meal as he found it very tasty. With a satiated stomach, Li lied on the floor and began drifting off to sleep.
---
"In the latest news, a planet thousands of times larger than our own has suddenly appeared, and its denizens are headed right towards us, if this is the end, make your last moments count." A grim reporter said to a camera.
"They look really friendly wait. Are those humans? What the fu-"
---
"Ughh what a nightmare. What an odd thing to think about. Makes me question why we even dream in the first place." Li said groggily, speaking to no one in particular.
'I really want to fight something today' he had to improve his skills one way or another. First hand experience always came in handy.
Li ventured into the forest in search of a wild animal that he could fight, after narrowly avoiding a few bears and other deadly predators he finally found another worthy opponent.
"sssssssss"
The snake hissed at him venomously locking eyes with him like the vicious predator it is. Just a few grams of its poison is enough to kill 3 humans but now that its cultivated its strength is unprecedented.
It was a unique opponent because a snake does not stand on four legs and does not have the same extremities as most other animals.
It was an odd shape and had very few bones in its body. Li was perplexed as to how to fight the thing, but since he picked a fight with it, he would find a way!
He decided the best course of action would to be to go for the neck as he may be able to pick it up and smash its skull in with raw power.
In the time he spent strategising the snake, completely undetected by Li, got dangerously close to him with an unparalleled swiftness, and was readying for a lethal blow.
Coming back too reality Li quickly rotated his body so the lunge the snake commenced would be entirely dodged.
He took the opportunity to grab the snakes neck but the unexpected sliminess of it almost made him drop it because of how uncomfortable it was. It was like holding a cucumber covered by glittery slime.
Steeling his resolve he tightened his grip and now its head was immobile so it couldn't bite him anymore.
(Thank god for that)
He made sure to kill it as painlessly as he could but his amateurness was unpleasant to the eye and it took him a few tries to kill the snake.
It was quite sad to watch really. This was all for the greater good though! Although it was a quick fight and was no help in that aspect he was able to improve his dodging ability ever so slightly.
It also opened him to the fact that the opponent does not accommodate you. They will not wait for you to strategise. It is a very rough environment but good for Li to learn the rules of the jungle.
Leaving the carcass of the snake for the inhabitants of the jungle to feed on Li went back to his little cave to recalibrate his mind to the true nature of the wild.
He was convinced that he had learned nothing but on this little journey he has embarked on he has learned valuable life lessons and what better way to swallow information than with a little cultivation.
It didn't bother him that he wasn't a prodigal son of the heavens or that he had any special body that he knows of, he was just happy to be able to cultivate.
It was the one activity in the world that he truly enjoyed and no one could take that away from him, Not even his parents.