Naath and Brutus were walking towards the first aura of an early first level muscle strengthening beasts that they felt. They were currently a few hundred feet away from it when Naath told Brutus to stand back and simply watch so he could learn from it. Brutus nodded and followed Naath just to the edge of the foliage nearest the beast’s aura. Once at muscle strengthening in this forest, beasts would claim a territory and any other living creature that entered was killed and used as food for the beast. The foliage ended before the beast's territory started.

The second Naath walked past this line where the trees abruptly stopped being so thick a furious roar sounded out. In the next instant, there was a 10 foot tall gorilla with silvery-white hair in front of Naath swinging its fist downward. Naath dodged to the left without even thinking about it, the fist missed him by less than an inch. The shockwave from the fist slamming into the ground sent Naath skidding back his feet digging trenches into the dirt, he looked up at the silver-haired ape, a look of surprise on his face.

He knew that beasts in the muscle strengthening realm were on a different level than bone hardening beasts. However, knowing and experiencing first hand are two very different things. Naath began to examine the silver-haired gorilla and looked for the best way to beat it. It was also muscle strengthening so the energy contained in its body made it so that even using his true void energy, he would only give it shallow wounds and maybe some bruises. To confirm this he charged forward and enveloped his fist in true void energy putting all the force he could muster behind it. The gorilla ignored the attack completely, it was one of the beasts at the top of the food chain here. Its defence was high even among the other muscle strengthening beasts after all.

Naath’s fist made contact, however, what happened next made him even more shocked than before. All this punch had accomplished was giving the gorilla a bald spot on part of its body.

Naath asked “old rune, what is this thing?”

The rune said “it’s called a silverback ape, it has remarkably high defence, each of its hairs is like an iron thread. It also has astonishing attack power as you have already found out. It’s an all-rounder beast, but its weakness is its overconfidence in its defence.”

Naath nodded and said “thanks.'' before unleashing a barrage of true void covered fists on the ape.

Naath had to stop after only landing six punches, he felt the energy in his body had reached a limit. Naath swore under his breath, this was a weakness of the true void arts until he reached the eighth stage. His body could only handle so much energy, once it reached that his true void arts could absorb more but he would damage his body and meridians. Naath backed up and tried to think of other ways he could get past the ape’s defence. While Naath was thinking the ape charged at him again and this time swiped to the side forcing Naath to jump upwards.

Once Naath was in the air the ape showed its teeth in a devilish grin, Naath immediately knew what was going to happen. He swore under his breath again, he couldn't control himself in the air. The ape swung its other arm and slammed Naath back into the ground. He slid across the ground a dozen feet before reaching the edge of the territory. He got back up and felt sore all over his body, he looked at the ape again looking for a weakness. When he did he realised the ape now had seven bald spots where it had no defensive fur. Naath smiled just as cruelly as the ape had earlier.

Naath straightened all of his fingers putting his hand into the shape of a blade. He charged forward again and using his hand covered in martial energy to make it like a blade he thrust into one of these bald spots. Blood flew out from the ape’s body and it made a furious roar having actually been injured. The ape backed up and looked at Naath wearily now. Naath no longer hesitated and went on the offensive, however when he got close the ape would swing its arms to ward him off. He smiled at this and managed to dodge his way into the range of the ape’s torso again thrusting his hand in another bald spot.

Another spurt of blood ran out from this spot, the ape roaring furiously once more as it was injured again. Now the ape looked at Naath with a hint of fear in its eyes and backed up slightly looking like it was going to retreat.

Suddenly Naath heard the rune speak up saying “Naath let it go, this beast is more trouble than it's worth, even its meat tastes terrible. It has no use to you dead or alive, simply ignore it and move on.” Naath nodded and waved Brutus over, Brutus came out of hiding and walked next to Naath as they exited through the other side of the ape’s territory.

Once they were out of its territory it was more forest for the next few hundred feet until the next beast’s territory. This time Naath decided to send Brutus into the infinity gourd and use his true void body's ability to sneak through the beast's territory. Naath was able to do this successfully and in less than a few minutes they had passed through another five territories. Naath estimated that they were only a few more miles away from the edge of the forest, it wouldn't be long now before the two of them were able to escape this hellish place. Naath stopped in between the territories of a few beasts deciding to rest and have a meal. He summoned Brutus out and the two of them sparred and ate.

When they were done Naath once more moved through a few beast territories in secret. Ten minutes later Naath stopped in front of a particular beast's territory, he did not stop because of his soul sense, nor because of the martial aura of the beast. He had stopped because his instincts were screaming danger as he approached this beast's territory. After stopping at the edge of the territory he used the echoing soul technique to get a better idea of what his instincts were screaming about.

When Naath saw what the beast was he instantly understood why his instinct told him he would not be able to sneak through this beast's territory. From what Naath could see it was a giant bat three times the size of himself.

The rune spoke up involuntarily yelling “A darkness element devil bat!? Naath, run! Run far away from this thing! Only light element energy cultivators or buddhist cultivators can possibly fight that damnable thing!”

Naath stopped for a second caught by some of the runes words. “Old rune, did you just say buddhist cultivators? As in the heavenly buddha, peace, prosperity, and all that?”

The rune paused realising something and he said, “ah that's right! Wait, why are there buddhists in your world too? That’s odd, your world is clearly from a completely separate plane of existence. Hmmm let’s go ahead and look into this at a later date, this bat is more important! Didn't you hear me?! Only a light element or buddhism element cultivator can fight darkness element beasts without being an entire three small realms above it in cultivation!” Naath shook his head and climbed a nearby tree to the top standing in the sunlight.

He ran his true void arts for a moment and absorbed the light’s energy. The rune spoke again saying, “ah right, I forgot you can replicate any energy you absorb. Ah the heavens have truly sent a monster here this time around, that poor bat.” Elder Gui who was above Naath secretly watching all of this and spoke under his breath saying, “this brat, I thought he had good luck? Why did he run into the king of this forest?”