James was currently traversing the forest to reach his target.

After taking the mission, Gus had contacted him. Hearing that he had taken a peak stage Azure realm beast contract, Gus was furious, but James remained adamant in his decision.

The only reason why James took this mission in the first place was because he needed a breakthrough and only through such a life death challenge would he be able to advance.

It was either a make it or break it challenge for James. He left for the teleportation gate soon after getting ready. Upon reaching the base he bought a few necessary pills and ointments.

This time he spent not only on medicines but also on other hunting gear. Through completion of missions he had gained a good amount of money. The mission was tough and he wanted to be well prepared for it.

While buying he saw a person entering the base, it was a girl from his batch. She had a tomboy look and her right hand and sword were covered in blood. Her body seemed to have slight bruises but her eyes were still fierce.

She was Jane Dorsa, the number one fighter in their year. Nobody had been able to best her yet in combat, her sword skills were simply too amazing.

Looking at her James could only nod in admiration. He wished to beat her someday, but till yet the chance hadn't shown up.

Jane looked around and upon seeing James, she looked at him once and moved towards the portal. She must have come here back from completing a mission thought James.

It was common to meet students of the academy inside the forest or inside the base as they all came here to do their missions.

As he saw her go back, he looked towards the forest.

' Let's do this' thought James and he left the base.

The weather hadn't really changed inside. The forest had that heat plus humid air flowing through it, James was again sweating as he traversed across.

It was an evergreen type of forest where there was constant rainfall in some parts, apart from the hot and humid weather.

This time he had to enter the third layer of the forest. It was his first time carrying out a mission in the third layer.

He had previously wandered into the the third layer to see around. But what he saw was that he was too weak to travel around yet. The third layer was filled with beasts of the mid and peak of Azure realm.

The beast he chose to hunt, 'The Fanged Bear' was a peak stage Azure realm beast however, it was one of the weakest peak stage Azure realm beast as well.

Normally he wouldn't dare to challenge a peak stage spirit beast as he himself was in the early stage. Even if he could match the creature in strength or speed through some amazing techniques, he would still run out of qi and lose the fight.

The peak stage beasts of any realm had more qi than any beasts below it. He chose to fight with the Fanged bear as it was a peak stage but a weaker one at that.

Apart from this the Fanged bear was weaker in terms of speed compared to other beasts of the same stage, however, it had more strength compared to many beasts of the same stage.

But it's speed made it lose out to many beasts.

James was confident that he would be match the peak stage spirit beast in speed. During the past months he had been trying to reach the mid stages of Wind Enforcer by controlling his rate of speed while in motion.

He has had some success with it and has been able to have a bit of control over his speed boost from the technique, however, he was still lacking that extra bit to master the mid stages of the Wind Enforcer.

His sword techniques had been coming off well as he had been able to produce a qi wave while striking out with his sword. For now he was trying to conjure more qi waves and more deadlier qi waves.

But this required the use of a lot of qi, which needed for him to breakthrough to further stages.

He passed small ponds, tall trees, and many beasts that he avoided. He didn't want to gather their attention as he did not have the strength to go out fighting many Azure realm beasts together.

Finally after an hour of travel he reached the third layer of the forest. The third layer started from the fifteenth kilometer from the perimeter of the forest and went till the fifty fifth kilometer.

The layer had many beasts outside of James's capability, so he needed to be careful. He now had to search for the beast. He looked at the info available from his watch.

A hologram appeared in front of him showing areas where the beast has been sighted before. James took a look and headed to the one near him.

The fanned bear liked honey and fish and so was normally sighted in areas with a bee hive or a pond. After a little while he came across a pond but it was empty. There were no beasts around it and the area was quiet.

It suddenly struck James that there must be a powerful beast inside the pond that rules over this small area.

Generally spirit beasts divide areas amongst themselves. The strong ones divide hunting grounds, keeping a small area for themselves to prey.

If a beast enters the area of another, then it is taken as a challenge and the owner of the area fights to keep it's land.

They also stayed within their area and the size of the area commanded by them would depend on the strength possessed by them. The size of the area was a symbol of the residing spirit beast's might.

James stayed away from the pond as he had an ominous feeling from it.

Suddenly he saw two eyes amber eyes looking towards him from the pond. There was a small movement as the creature approached stealthily.

James always had an acute perception. His constant training in the forests made him instantly take notice of the sudden movement. He quickly moved away and jumped over a tree.

Seeing the prey move, the creature quickly moved towards the shore. But as James climbed above the tree, it stopped and didn't come out of the water.

Years of hunting had made it wise enough that it knew that it had lost its chance. The creature didn't wish to show itself as it may warn other preys and so went back inside.

Through the shallow water near the shore, James was able to catch a glimpse of the creature as he looked down when it had charged.

James was horrified at the sight of the creature. It was a Steel Crocodile. A horrifying peak stage Azure realm existence. It was one of the strongest spirit beast within the Azure realm.

The beast was said to be a terrifying existence in water and it was advised to fight it on land instead. It's body was exceptionally hard, making it difficult to hurt it. It's jaws were powerful enough to rip most spirit beasts apart.

James was lucky to have noticed it's movements, otherwise he wouldn't have survived the encounter.

He looked at his watch and headed for another region. Even while traversing on trees he needed to keep a careful lookout as many beasts such as snake type beasts would curl around a branch waiting silently to charge at a prey.

Apart from the snake type spirit beasts there were many avian type spirit beasts as well. Beasts like the Golden Eagle just with its claws, could tear James apart.

James reached a small area within the forest. There on a tree he saw a bee hive and just below it lay the Fanged Bear.

Blue fur covered it body and a hard spiked armor like shell adorned his back. It's brown claws looked menacing as it licked honey.

( looks like arzuros from monster hunter)

Having found his target James observed his surroundings. Seeing no other danger present, he took out a gun and aimed at the Fanged Bear.

The gun did not have any special characteristic. It was a normal gun used by low level cultivators which could fire both qi bullets and material bullets.

The academy gave one weapon only, others had to be bought. The gun had cost James quite a bit as his income was still quite low. It was a normal gun.

However the bullet inside was special. It was an expensive investment and he had to get it right as there was only one bullet inside.

The bullet was called Poison Shot. As its name suggests, the bullet was coated with a poison. Once it strikes a target, the poison will seep inside affecting the beast's movement.

On the Fanged bear James estimated that it wouldn't do much apart from a chance of slowing it down and weakening it a bit. But every advantage helped as the beast far outstripped James in power.

Such material bullets didn't work on spirit beasts of the Emerald realm. However, they still had their use on Azure realm beasts, although with limited effects.

James pointed the gun and aimed at the bear specifically on its red eye. The bullet would not be able to pierce inside the bear's body as it was known for its strong defense.

The only area where he might have a chance was the red eyes of the beast. If he successfully injures ones of it's eye, he would also have an advantage during the fight.

He controlled his breath and aimed steadily at the bear. Clearing his mind and solely focusing on those red eyes, he felt that there was suddenly nothing around him.

The world around him blurred and all sounds were ignored. His breath calmed, all he could see where the deep red color of the eyes.

His index finger moved and the bullet left the gun with a bang travelling towards its target.

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Notes - Hey all :) I had an exam today got another on Saturday. But since it is on Saturday, I was able to write a chapter today! Also I would like to say that the novel is getting a cover art soon! I might be able to update it with the art today. I'll be making an announcement through a chapter when it happens.

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I posted the chapter again as previously when I had posted it the rrl update had many bugs which made the chapter unreadable due to strange formatting and various coding lines in it. Plus comments came in 2x instead of once getting repeated for no reason. So I have posted it again this time all looks well