Just then, a cool breeze blew in his face, bringing Yuan Ming to his senses.

He looked ahead and saw that the forest had suddenly opened up, revealing a ten-zhang wide green-black river flowing in front of him.

The water was murky, with rolling waves and a strong current.

Yuan Ming realized that he couldn’t fly over it with his strength, but he also knew that not crossing it would result in a worse fate.

He stepped on the branches of the ancient tree beneath him, using their movement to build up momentum.

He jumped and extended his uninjured arm to grab onto a branch on the opposite bank, but his strength was limited and he fell into the water.

Underwater, his injuries opened up and blood flowed out.

He struggled to climb out of the water, but the river was too strong.

Suddenly, he felt a sharp pain in his chest and shoulder, and realized that he had been bitten by piranhas.

“This is bad,” he thought.Ordinary fish do not usually attack creatures as large as him. The only ones that would launch such ferocious attacks are the piranhas.

Although there were fish biting Yuan Ming in other places on his body, those areas were covered with fur and had no wounds, so it was not a big problem.

As he reached out to grab the piranhas on his body, a large group of fish immediately bit him.

At the same time, a huge black shadow was swimming towards him from downstream in the muddy river water.

Yuan Ming knew he couldn’t delay any longer. After taking a breath, he immediately sank back into the water, grabbing the reef protruding from the river bottom with his hands and slowly making his way towards the opposite bank.

The black shadow in the distance noticed he was trying to escape and accelerated towards him.

Yuan Ming finally reached the shore and began to climb up, with the water behind him making a “swooshing” sound. The black shadow had caught up to him.

He couldn’t afford to delay even for a moment, not even daring to turn his head to take a glance. He grabbed the riverbank with both hands and jumped up with all his strength, just as the black shadow caught up to him. He landed on the opposite bank.

The black shadow missed its target and lingered underwater at the shore for a moment before gradually sinking into the water and disappearing.

Yuan Ming lay on the riverbank, breathing heavily. He reached over to his side and found that his blood storage pouch was still there, which relieved him.

Although he knew it wasn’t time to rest and relax yet, the strong feeling of exhaustion and the feeling of being drained after surviving a disaster made it difficult for him to get up for a long time.

After resting for a while, Yuan Ming finally sat up with great effort. It was then that he noticed that he still had piranhas hanging from his body, with black scales growing on them.

There were especially many fish hanging from the wounds on his chest and shoulders.

Yuan Ming grabbed a piranha and, enduring the pain, pulled it off his body. He looked at the creature and saw that it had a circle of saw-toothed teeth in its mouth, biting the air with a fierce expression that had not diminished in the slightest despite being out of the water.

He was about to throw the piranha away, but the “gurgling” sound coming from his stomach reminded him not to do anything foolish.

Yuan Ming laughed bitterly, “You bite me, I eat you. It’s only fair.”

With that, he endured the discomfort in his heart and stuffed the fish whole into his mouth, taking a bite.

The raw fish meat mixed with fish bones, fish scales, and a slightly fishy and sweet taste as he chewed it bit by bit, making a “creaking, creaking” sound. He then tasted a slightly fishy and sweet taste.

Yuan Ming thought he would feel uncomfortable, but to his surprise, he did not dislike the taste and even found it somewhat enjoyable.

A fish the size of a palm could not possibly satisfy his hunger, so Yuan Ming began to pluck fish from his body one by one and eat them.

In no time, he had taken off fifty or sixty fish from his body and ate them all clean, relieving some of the hunger in his stomach.

As he looked at the wounds on his chest and shoulders with blood stains, Yuan Ming suddenly realized something.Previously, the two green wolves chased after him relentlessly, the schools of flesh-eating fish in the water, and even the unknown black shadow in the water were all attracted by the blood from his wounds.

He quickly got up and dug up some mud from the riverbank, wiping it on his wounds to cover up the blood. Then he turned and left.

Staying in one place for too long in such a harsh environment before finding a safe place to settle down was not wise.

As the sun gradually sank in the west, the entire forest was cast in a huge shadow, welcoming the arrival of night earlier than elsewhere.

Yuan Ming carefully searched the mountain forest for a long time and finally found a cave half-buried underground less than five miles away from the river.

This cave was originally a pit with two boulders that had fallen from the mountain on top of each other, forming a roof.

Yuan Ming carefully examined it and found that the space inside was only two zhang in diameter. Although it was not spacious inside, it was enough to accommodate him.

The two boulders were tightly connected on top, but there were gaps at the front and back.

The entrance at the front was obvious, and the gap at the back was also two or three chi wide, enough for medium-sized wild animals to enter.

Yuan Ming searched for rocks of suitable sizes for a long time and brought them over one by one to block the gap at the back of the cave.

Afterwards, he searched for a long time but couldn’t find rocks of the right size to block the entrance. In the end, he brought over a lightning-struck old tree root from a distance and used it as a temporary door to block the entrance.

To be safe, Yuan Ming tied a vine to the old tree root and the other end to his wrist. If the old tree root was moved, it would definitely alert him.

After everything was done, Yuan Ming slowly lay down on the ground. Although he was constantly feeling drowsy, he forced himself not to fall asleep immediately.

He listened carefully to the outside movements while using his hand to draw on the dark cave floor, recreating his escape route and recalling the details of his fights with the black bear and green wolves.

After going over all of this in his mind, he began to try to remember the incomplete memory of himself performing martial arts on the square during the day.

“Who am I, really?”

With this question in mind, Yuan Ming slowly fell asleep.

In his dream, Yuan Ming appeared on the martial arts stage again, wielding a long spear and practicing a fierce spear technique.

On the edge of the martial arts stage, a blurry figure appeared vaguely, tall and mighty but with indistinct features, standing with arms crossed and saying nothing.

Yuan Ming stopped practicing and wanted to approach the person to see their appearance, but he heard a stern rebuke, “Don’t stop!”

In an instant, Yuan Ming woke up suddenly.

Sunlight shone through the gap at the entrance of the cave and onto his face. It was already morning.Yuan Ming felt as if he had only slept for half an hour, and the feeling of drowsiness had not completely dissipated.

However, he still propped himself up and sat up, subconsciously rubbing his eyes with his fluffy hands.

After regaining some energy, he untied the vines tied to his hands, and only then did he realize in surprise that the wounds on his chest and shoulders had healed and scabbed over.

He had originally thought it would take at least three or four days to recover, but it had only taken one night.

“It seems that when I transform into a fur-clad beast, not only do my strength and speed increase, but even my healing ability after being injured is enhanced.” Yuan Ming became more and more satisfied with his body.

At the same time, he became more and more interested in the “Blood Qi Technique” mentioned by Elder Hu Huo.

“Gu…”

“Not only do the injuries heal quickly, but I also get hungry quickly.” Yuan Ming got up, moved the tree roots blocking the cave entrance, and walked out.

The sun shone through the forest, the leaves were green, the mountain breeze was gentle, and the thin morning mist was gradually dissipating. The surroundings were filled with the ethereal chirping of birds, making it quiet and beautiful.

However, Yuan Ming knew that beneath this tranquility, there were countless hidden dangers.