Swoosh! Swoosh!

Voosh! Whoosh!

~Huff~ ~Huff~ ~Huf~

The sound of several figures bolting through a dense jungle permeated the entire area…

The heavy pants of a youth who seemed like he had been running nonstop for the past 30 years could be heard within this dense, wet jungle…

He was only a little below six feet in height with an almost golden skin which had been put to shame by the vast amount of dirt that now covered his handsome figure from head to toe…

If one didn't know any better, one would think that these seven figures in bamboo hats and straw strewn cloaks were trying to kill this youth out of sheer jealousy of his handsomeness…

These figures chased this youth like as if he had stolen their kidneys, and with the pace at which they were catching up to him, it was pretty obvious that should the youth land in their hands, they were going to rip him into shreds…

Jumping over broken tree branches and scattered rocks, the youth whipped out a blow-horn and gave it the blow of his life;

Moooo!

He blew so hard that his lungs became utterly devoid of any air…

Roar!

The figures chasing the boy heard the youth's call for help as they roared angrily and renewed the determination with which they were chasing him with…

The youth slid beneath a two feet thick tree trunk as he ran for his dear life, but the figures chasing him simply ran into the massive tree trunk and blasted it into splintering shards…

The youth saw this and almost cursed his predecessors for blessing him with the worst luck any living being had ever had, as he renewed the ferocity with which he fled for his life…

He knew these people; they were the savage, beastly natives who inhabited this jungle…

These humans who have turned beast, would occasionally venture into human habitations, kidnap their females, both young and old, and used them to breed and multiply, before eating them and leaving their bones to their dogs…

This youth's name was Ji Dara; the greatest coward ever known in the land of the living…

He was weak and had a negative talent value for cultivation, and over the years of being bullied and threatened, he had managed to develop a new superpower;

Fleeing!

Dara could basically flee faster than some of his mates who had started cultivating, and as a result, the village head tapped into his strength and always used him as bait whenever they are out hunting for food or setting up ambush for the Oban's…

The forbidden Kingdom of Shangri La, was what anyone would call, the perfect desolate land, or as some of the citizens call it;

The Abyss Of Hell…

In this kingdom, they have four seasons, just like the modern day earth, except that, their timeframe is a hundred times slower than that of earth, which means a year on the modern day earth, is simply three days and a half in here…

Their seasons are split into Famine, Pestilence, War and Death, and the reason was because the kingdom was situated in the worst part of the entire Planet Jok…

Contrary to what everyone believes, Planet Jok is one of the most prosperous planets in the world, and it was all because of a single reason, the entire planet was actually the eye of a fallen god…

But the inhabitants of this planet didn't know that, as they have never produced an expert strong enough to venture out into space and have a look, but if one were to do so, they would notice that every other part of the planet were golden [The Sclera of the god], except a continent sized part which was grey [The Iris of the god], and finally the Kingdom of Shangri La which was pitch black [The pupil of the god]…

There was never any sunlight in Shangri La, and the only time they enjoyed any brief moment of light is the month of light, a single month when the eye of the fallen god faces a bright star in the opposite end of the universe…

As a result of this total darkness, there were limited food source as 99 percent of all plants in this kingdom had no sun to grow and die, but as for those which manage to survive, they were either poisonous, murderous or diseased…

Since the day the overlord of Planet Jok had discovered Shangri La, he had turned this specific kingdom into a prison ground; a place where those who have committed grave offences are sent to, or those with incurable diseases, and finally, those who were unlucky enough to be considered unworthy to live within the light [The golden part of the god's eye]…

Then since there was no food source, and even very sparse water source, every single inhabitant of this kingdom had resorted to eating raw flesh and drinking blood for water…

Due to all this factors, their seasons were spread into Famine [which was almost all year round and caused by the lack of sunlight to grow food];

Pestilence [caused by lack of nutrition which affects the population's immune system and makes them easily targeted by diseases];

War [which occurs during the month of light when food could be finally grown, and all tribes battle and kill each other to lay their hands on the little food other tribes have managed to grow];

Then finally, Death [caused by the eventual outcome of the war…]

The dead corpse from these war would then decompose and spread deadly diseases into every part of the kingdom…

But deep within this land of terror, was the Village of Sang; a village which was lucky to have a knowledgeable expert who was banished by the Imperials of the Kingdom of Jok, who then fled to the depths of this dark lands and began to help the few inhabitants of this lands who were still sane…

When this man arrived at the dark lands, he gathered the few people he could find, some of which were cultivators who were termed too weak by their clans and banished to the dark lands…

He had these men dig a 300 feet deep, and 100 feet wide trench around the entire village…

After they were done digging, he had them fill in these pits with the corpse of those who had dies from the wars, and lit these pits on fire, giving the Village of Sang a nickname;

"The island surrounded by fire…"

The fire from this ever burning pit gave light and heat to the village and its crops, whilst serving as a defense system against every single threat that was out there…

Thus, the Village of Sang became an oasis within the entire grey and black region of the entire planet, and due to this, every banished individual and families who were still sane always sought for this oasis as their only means of survival…

But being at the center of the black region of the planet means that they would have to brave through difficulties, mishaps, and terrors just to reach the oasis...

After setting up a full village which was about 10,000 population strong with more than 60 percent of them being in their youths, the [Man named Ji] set up a task force which would do a regular sweep of about ten miles around the village to find any survivors which they could rescue and bring into the village…

This was the same mission Ji Dara and the rest of the scout group were currently on…

They had arrived within this dead wet jungle and discovered a family of six who had been trapped by the Obuns [The human gone monster who have survived in this death land for ages by feeding on raw flesh and drinking blood…], and though, the man who seemed to be the head of the family was able to slightly fend them off with his little cultivation power, the Obuns simply outnumbered him, and this was where Ji Dara came into play…

He was sent to distract these human-monsters away from the family which consisted of four toddlers, a husband and a wife…

Ji Dara was to lead them as far away as possible, and when the family had been rescued to a safe distance, the rest of the group would find him as long as he kept blowing the horn in his hand…

But they never made a plan about what he should do, should he run into more Obuns, which was exactly what had happened…

Crank! Crank!

Clang! Chang!

Two of the Obuns chasing Ji Dara got within striking range and sent two long chains with a massive metal block at the end hurtling towards Dara from behind…

These chains moved faster than Dara and before he could evade, the heavy metal block at their ends slammed into his back;

Cough! Cough!

Blergh!

Dara was sent flying about ten feet ahead as he coughed intensely twice, before throwing up a mouthful of blood…

For an ordinary mortal, such an attack from a vicious weapon as this could cause massive injuries, and when such an injury is then coming from a cultivator, little needed to be said about how much injury Dara [who had no cultivation] had sustained at this point…

But since there was still the probability of living up ahead, Dara picked himself up and continued to flee…

But after fleeing from these dozen or so human-monsters, Dara came to a dead end; a cliff he never knew existed…