Paul tossed and turned on his grass bed, he had a nightmare.
In his dream, he relived the betrayal, torture, and taunts that his father's family threw at him.
He saw them laughing and mocking him, telling him the truth that hurt more than the worst lie.
The worst part of it was that for years he helped them, gave everything for the family and what he got back was humiliation and death.
He woke up all drenched in sweat and disoriented for a few seconds until he managed to remember that this was his shelter and he entered the new world again after going back in time.
It was already the morning of his second day in the wilderness and right now he needed a bath and some food.
The first part was easy, he could just bathe in the river but getting some food?
That was a little bit harder.
Since he already needed a bath he decided it was a good time to move forward with his Qi cultivation.
The body cleansing stage, wasn't named like that for nothing.
This was the stage that with every level removed some impurities from the body leaving a cultivator covered with a black sticky substance all over his body and it stank to high heaven.
By a sheer stroke of luck, his bathing plans solved his food problem as well.
When Paul wanted to enter the shallow part of the river to cultivate in it, he saw a few decent-sized fish near the shore.
He immediately converted his mana into electricity and released it by putting his hand into the water.
The shock was weak and only covered an area around two meters from him but it was enough to stun the fish for a while.
Paul quickly got into the water and threw his catch onto the shore before the fish had the chance to regain consciousness.
Still, he only managed to get four of them before the stun effect wore off and the rest managed to escape.
Putting his cultivation and bath on hold for now he used his rock knife to kill, gut, and clean the fish before storing them.
-Now it's time to do some cultivating.
He thought to himself, happy that he had some food now.
Paul sat down in the water in a place that aloved his body to be submerged, leaving only his head on the surface.
The cultivation started naturally for him as he had all of his experience from the past and soon he gained his first level.
Now he was a real dual cultivator again.
The water was cold but refreshing and it immediately washed off the impurities that were ejected with each level that he managed to break through.
Paul stopped his cultivation after reaching level 7 of the body cleansing stage.
He could have gained more levels if he continued but he wanted both his cultivations to be balanced.
The reason for this was simple.
The higher his Qi cultivation level was, the stronger his body got and it could withstand more mana channeling through it.
On the other hand the higher his mana cultivation was, the stronger his mind got loving him to focus easier and channel more Qi through his body.
The problem was that if his cultivation in one of these energies were to surpass the other by a large margin, then he would gain levels way faster in the weaker one but his foundation might get affected that way and hinder his progress in the future.
The next thing on the to-do list was to cook a fish and then look around the place to make sure he wasn't a neighbor to some vicious beast or even worse to a spirit beast.
While walking he found some common herbs in the forest but since he wasn't an alchemist, there was nothing he could do with them so he just collected them and tossed them into his storage space.
Even if he could not use them, he could still sell them and he would need money once he went to a town.
The common herbs that he found weren't anything special but they would still earn him something.
While walking he was paying attention to his surroundings, looking for any sign of animals or beasts but so far he found nothing.
This had slightly put him at ease since there were no signs of the beasts in the surroundings and also on the river shore which he checked earlier.
There was a good chance that he wasn't residing in any beast territory.
With that in mind, he returned to his camp and continued his cultivation.
This time he decided to cultivate both energies in the river as it was easier than taking multiple baths.
He cultivated alternating between mana and Qi to keep the balance and before the evening he managed to achieve level 10 in both.
-What the hell have I been doing in my previous life?
He asked himself as at this time in his past he hadn't even started to learn cultivation.
Back then he had no idea that cultivation was the most important thing in this world and whoever was stronger ruled.
Whether it was in the wilderness or a capital city, the more powerful you were the more respected you were, and if you were strong enough or had a powerful backing then you could do whatever you wanted and no one dared to get in your way.
Even spirit beasts that had some intelligence usually avoided the powerful cultivators since if they showed themselves then it was a death sentence for them.
However, strength could also become a curse as most people from powerful families and clans were doing their best to recruit such people into their clans.
If the recruitment went well then all was good but if it failed then the individual that rejected them had to be eliminated to prevent him from joining their enemy clans and they weren't picky about their methods.
This world had laws created by men but they only applied to the towns and cities and even there, the supreme law was the law of the jungle.
Paul was brought back from his thoughts when he heard incoming footsteps and there were many of them.
He quickly put on his clothes and readied his spear as it looked like he would have some uninvited guests.
A moment later he saw two goblin females, both were injured and they were running from something.
That something turned out to be a herd of blood rabbits.
These beasts were at the minimum twice or thrice the size of a normal rabbit and they had three retractable claws on each of their front paws.
They were called blood rabbits because their favorite method of hunting was to injure their prey and wait for it to bleed out.
Also unlike a common rabbit, they were omnivores and they preferred meat over plants.
Add to that their persistence along with their numbers and you have a deadly combination.
-Shit.
Paul cursed.
He knew that since the rabbits saw him then he was now also a target and these beasts would not rest until he was dead or he killed them all.
Fortunately, this was a small herd of barely over half a dozen beasts, if it was a large herd then he would have to take his chances in the river as it was his only way of escape and it offered better chances of survival than fighting thirty or more Blood rabbits at his level.