"Sorry mama, but this life was just... just not meant for me._sigh_" Dan said as he was lying on ruble and all the surroundings were laid to waste. Life was slowly leaving his eyes and his breath getting heavier and heavier, he shed a year with a faint smile.
"Damn, even after all the preparations I followed to a painless and quick death, here I am... having the complete opposite of that, haha. Really hoped one bullet would come and do the job, take me instantly. But I am given the time to even do my obituary and say my goodbyes to this life...Argh...Its too painful._huff,huff_" the pain was visible from his facial expressions and he could only cope by gritting his teeth and swearing from time to time.
"But will I get what I desire, though?... I have to, I've had enough of this life."
"Oh? The pain is disappearing, is it finally time? Alright get on with it already, I've waited my entire existence for this."
After all that nonsense his vision blurred and ultimately went dark, but that little of his grew and he looked happy.
...
A moment later after dying his vision returned slowly and he was delighted for a second before his joy was robbed from him by the immense pain that followed awakening. He himself could confirm that it was way, way worse than what he felt a bit ago.
"Argh!!" a pained scream resounded.
"What the hell? Did I go to hell or something... ahhh!!" Dan's body was in agony and he felt his consciousness start to fade and vision blur again until it ultimately gave in after his futile struggle to stay away.
...
A long while later he woke up again and this time his body was no longer in pain, all he could feel was a bit of numbness and whole lot of stiffness. He felt strained.
Waking up with a jolt, his eyes snapped open wide with him gasping. He set up straight and strained his already strained body causing him so much sharp pain that his already stiffened body to tense up causing him to only let out a small squeal.
Waiting for the pain to go away he looked around to see where he was or what his surroundings were like and learn more about his situation and more importantly about his condition since he was not liking the way he was feeling.
The pain ultimately went past and he got up carefully to stretch his body. Doing all that stretching, he looked around to assess his surroundings and situation again but he could see the circular, lighter spot he could see from a bit away and it was accompanied by sounds of water crashing down, signifying a waterfall and he judged the spot to be an entrance to where he was.
"So I am alive, but where am I?" Dan asked himself curiously. He walked carefully and slowly towards the entrance and he eventually made it to the destination. Arriving at the opening he saw a waterfall infront of the cave entrance.
Stepping outside the mouth of the cave, he felt a bit of uneasiness that made him stop in his tracks to see why he could be feeling this unfamiliar feeling and he saw nothing that could do, but he saw something else. On the left side of the cave entrance, there was a small way going out of the waterfall.
Then Dan went on the small trail leading him from behind the waterfall to see what it was obstructing from him and he finally got to see his "location". Down below the waterfall, there was a huge pond and it was beautiful. There was a green glow in the water and it's illumination made it that more beautiful but a few metres beyond the edge of the pond was a dense and ghostly forest that scared him.
"Uhh... Yeeeah, no. I should come check it out in the morning cause this shit is scary... What is this place anyway? The Amazon?" Dan asked himself while turning back to the cave, but as he asked himself that there was a sudden hiss that was very aggressive and that uneasy feeling of his instantly amplified.
Turning to look back at the forest, he heard a set of footsteps shaking the bushes, but as soon as he turned he completely ignored the footsteps as his gaze was frozen upon a long snake that was immeasurably long... well it was not immeasurable but he could not see it's end and it was as big as a bus.
Seeing the snake, instead of feeling fear like any normal anybody would, a different emotion arose in Dan and it was so strong he was like he lost all sense of reason. All he felt at this moment was rage and was caused by the memories that surfaced in his mind as he recognised the snake. Then Dan started to walk towards the snake involuntarily and the snapped to look his way and it was surprised.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa... What the fuck is happening to me? This... this... all these emotions, I think I understand but I don't wanna die." Dan regained a bit of composure and it allowed him to regain control over his body, but it was after he took a couple of steps out of the waterfall. Looking at the slithering stlither, Dan he gained memories of the body and he found that it killed his mother... or precisely the mother of whoever his body belonged to and one of the reasons he himself was also dead, thus the reason there was anger towards the snake.
"Whew, oh lord. I'm not ready to die again yet." Dan was shaking at this point and he wiped off the cold sweat on his forehead, then he looked forward only to get spooked again.
"Pl-please don't mind me, I'm just a random nobody who want nothing to do with y'all's business, so please carry on and forget you've ever met me." Dan said while slowly backing up and sweating allover again.
At this point, it was like all eyes on me for Dan and the snake was looking at him more intensely and giving him a death stare because it felt belittled and looked down on by a small kid who had no cultivation or power whatsoever. So a measly kid who was not even 10 years old dared to show killing intent towards it? What made the snake angrier was that the amount of killing intent intimidated and scared it a bit before it saw who emitted it, but looking carefully, it recognised "Dan" too as they had met already and this prey that had once escaped it's clutches came back. So the snake launched an attack with its tail and whipped it at him.
_whoosh_ It's tail flew out of the forest.
"Should we save him?" a woman asked while observing Dan's situation with a man besides her.
"I guess, we cannot let the beasts do whatever they want to humans now, can we? But I must say, this kid, to have that much killing intent towards the Rocky Blood Boa. He has guts, hahaha... I'll handle i-..." _Booom _ The man besides the woman said to her, but a booming noise stop him as he wanted to go save him.
It was the the sound of the clash between the snake and a barrier that manifested around the pond, but only the outside seemed affected by the clash the two as the leafs and branches of the forest trees swayed violently but the water inside the barrier had only ripples cause by the waterfall.
"Hmm. Guess this place is not easy, as we thought." The man said to the woman and he was a bit surprised by what he was seeing.
"So it would seem. Many beasts are hunted around these parts but there has never been a report of such a thing. Even I know enough about this forest to know that this pond was not always here. Also, with the energy it exudes, it would already be claimed" said the woman as looked at this mysterious pond and the snake that was still attacking the barrier.
"Precisely. It seems that this barrier is pretty high grade, we also cannot enter... We should report back to the sect before others discover it, we do want competition for this pond, it is definitely a treasure." the man agreed with the woman and added his thoughts while taking out a medallion out of his sleeve.
"Okay, you do that and I'll handle this snake." the woman said as she walked forward pulling out her sword.