Cloudy Forest was one of the largest forests in the Amber Realm, its true size always a mystery. Only the strongest few of the whole Amber Realm dared to step foot into the core region. Still, most of them never returned. As a result, the core was considered taboo, and only the strong dared to explore the inner regions.
Most people stayed and hunted in the outer area, which was relatively less dangerous.
Cloudy Forest earned its name from the towering Cloudy Mountain, the summit of which was shrouded in clouds year-round.
The ride from Clear Cloud City to the forest took about two hours. Right outside the forest stood a camp built by the Crimson Empire. This camp served many purposes, like accommodating adventurers who entered or left the forest. However, the primary purpose of this camp was to monitor the forest for potential beast tides.
Yuan was very familiar with the camp as he was its frequent visitor. He left the horse at the branch of the renting company and calmly ventured into the forest. Red, perched on his shoulder, immediately jumped down as they entered.
If someone were to see Red now, they would be astonished to find that like an experienced predator, Red aura was completely restrained, not leaking even a hint. One needed to look closely to find him. Red began to walk in a specific direction, and Yuan followed closely behind, his aura restrained as well.
After 4 long hours of twists and turns, while avoiding the stronger beasts as well as other humans, the pair finally arrived at the entrance of Monkey Valley. Monkey Valley spanned three square kilometers and was surrounded by towering hills. The roars of wild beasts could be heard every once in a while, from behind the huge trees.
Entering the valley, they reached an open space where two one-room houses—one large and one small—stood atop sturdy trees. His mother recommended him this location, saying this place was safe for his current power level. Upon his arrival, Yuan found the valley beautiful and safe, deciding to build a small house there.
Yuan raised his head and saw a long-eared monkey dangling from a tree branch, munching on something.
As soon as the monkey spotted Yuan, it leaped down and arrived before him, passing him a green fruit. Yuan took a bite and his face cringed with sourness. It was sour, very, very sour, clearly unripe. He spitted before handing the remaining fruit back, only to see a monkey grinning at him, a look of mockery clearly visible on his face.
A look of helplessness appeared on his face. He knew the monkey was mischievous. He often wandered around in and outside of the valley, collecting all sorts of fruits wherever he went.
Yuan climbed up on a tree and entered the small house. The interior was very simple: a metrics, a chair, and a small table adorned the room. A bow hung on a wall beside a short sword.
Placing his backpack on the table, he leaped down. "Okay, let's practice." He said to Jojo, the long-eared monkey.
Jojo nodded, and they began sparring. It was a basic hand-to-hand combat, reminiscent of typical martial arts without any weapons. Ever since he learned he couldn't cultivate due to his blocked meridians; Yuan began focusing on training his body. After 3 and half years of hard work, his body was stronger than the average human, of course excluding cultivators.
As they fought, Yuan found himself on the defensive most of the time. Jojo was very agile, and despite Yuan's speed, he found it hard to land an effective blow. Occasionally, his punch would connect, yet dealing no damage to Jojo at all. Jojo was way stronger than him.
If someone witnessed an ordinary human fighting an Initial stage, Level 2 long-eared monkey like this, he would be shocked to his core.
As time passed, Yuan breath began to grow ragged and his speed decreased further, giving Jojo opportunities to land blows one after another. An hour later, Yuan lay on the ground, panting heavily, taking time to catch his breath. It took him a while to catch his bearing. As he got up and dusted off his clothes, he noticed Jojo grinning at him while Red was resting on the branch of a tree nearby.
He sighed. He knew he wasn't Jojo's opponent just yet or maybe never. His eyes dimmed slightly thinking about this. However soon, they were filled with unyielding determination once again. Even if his body stopped him now, he wasn't going to give up on his dreams just like that.
Entering the small house once again, he grabbed the short sword from the wall and secured it at his waist, then picked up a bow and quiver of arrows.
"Let's go hunt something for dinner," he said to Red and Jojo as he led them back into the forest.
It was only late afternoon when they ventured into the forest, but the sky was already dark when they returned. Yuan almost immediately hunted two large rabbits for dinner, but he spent most of his time capturing lower-level beasts and wild animals to evaluate.
Although it was quite dangerous hunting like this in the forest, with a little bit of caution and the presence of peak-stage Level 1 Red and initial-stage Level 2 Jojo, he felt pretty safe. Ofcourse, he never ventured too deep into the forest where his little helper would need to run for their own lives instead of saving him.
For the next few days, Yuan fell into a routine: hunting small animals like rabbits and deer for food while capturing others to evaluate. He found this kind of life peaceful yet fulfilling. He could now evaluate 2-star beasts with some difficulty and felt he could improve further with proper guidance.
10 days later, one day, Jojo suddenly stopped accompanying him into the forest. Instead, Jojo began to clean the open area near the houses, particularly the larger one where he lived. Yuan was puzzled by this change in his behavior, but he eventually joined in to help.
Only 2 days later, he discovered the reason behind Jojo's hard work.