Even with a rock lodged in his anus the money soldiered on, roided up on surging adrenaline, he managed to run with his life and leaking anus on the line.

Yun Fei wanted to collect the gorilla as it was essentially as strong as the bear he had fought previously; however, to give up the wooden crown, which he regarded to be at least a peak Foundation Establishment realm treasure, was absurd.

Yun Fei took off again, slowly but surely catching up to the injured monkey.

On the end of his rope, the monkey could only curse himself for provoking such a dark star for a measly leg of venison.

Feeling it harder and harder to breathe, gasping for air, it felt lightheaded, and in a moment of fatal carelessness slipped on a moss covered branch falling to the ground, and with a plop sound it suffered a piercing pain stab into his back while in the air.

When the monkey had fucked up its landing, the closely following Yun Fei refused to miss his chance and scissoring his dagger between two fingers, he flicked it with blinding speed, burying it in the monkey’s back with a satisfying thump.

The splash of the falling body alerted Yun Fei to his position in a flooded swamp surrounded by trees much larger than normal. Surprised that he hadn’t noticed the change in scenery, he moved to drop down.

Suddenly a compelling feeling of danger assaulted him and he changed course midair, gripping the branch to swing himself as far as he could, hoping to avoid the ominous premonition.

A gaping maw emerged, snapping into the air and smashing into the branch he had just been standing on.

As the mouth closed and then turned to meet his gaze, he saw a pair of vertical pupils staring at him greedily. The glare of the hunter was paralyzing with killing intent.

‘It’s a fucking snake! How can this be?! How could it escape my notice?’ cursed Yun Fei, gulping down his fear.

The girth of the snake was something akin to a tree trunk, and its whole length couldn’t be witnessed in the marsh.

Yun Fei didn’t dawdle and made a beeline for his dagger, which was thrust in the monkey’s back in the water.

After grabbing the dagger and snatching the crown from the corpse, quickly stowing away the object of this days’ surprise ridden events, he stretched his body trying to catch a clear glimpse of the true size of this serpent. The body of the snake was entangled in the trees and slithering behind its head, which was as big as half of Yun Fei’s height, its flickering tongue and amber iris made for a terrifying but beautiful sight, as its wet glistening scales shone different shades of light.

In no mood to admire the view, Yun Fei knew that he didn’t have any chance to escape, let alone win if he tried to fight it head on.

Gathering his potential, he unhesitatingly used Ruler’s Jolt. The serpent’s eyes became cloudy, but it still was moving slowly towards Yun Fei.

‘Our power levels are too different, I cannot cow it. Is this the end of my destiny...?’ thought Fei as he hopelessly tried to turn back and swim away.

The rapidly approaching eyes suddenly regained their clarity and reflected in them was no greed, and only a remnant of dread. The serpent had never felt something like that before. Like an absolute god demanding obeisance to the order of heaven.

The snake, now much more careful, did not want to eat Yun Fei and just lashed out with its tail like a whip.

The tail lashed, skimming the water, slamming Yun Fei and sending him flying through the air for some distance before he skipped on the water a few times as he crumpled against a tree a mile away from the marsh.

After resting for a while and making sure that the serpent was not in pursuit, he got up, groaning as he supported himself on the tree, bloodied and broken, he held a broken and thoroughly crushed left arm as he limped away.

‘Too strong, I am no match for it right now’, reflected Yun Fei, half expecting to be swallowed up by that disconcerting bite along with its repulsively dislocated jaw.

‘I must find that gorilla’s corpse, it had some amount of cultivation. I need energy to heal my arm. Being injured in a forest is not safe…’

Using vines, some cloth and a stick to make a temporary splint, he climbed a tree and tried to ascertain his position in the forest.

After climbing some more trees and identifying the part of the forest where he felt the gorilla had died, Yun Fei finally reached the spot after an excruciating foot-slog.

The gorilla was still lying on its back with two holes in its body; exactly as it was since Yun Fei had left it.

He looked around the place and finally found a place of shelter under a very wide tree, its roots creating a natural canopy.

Yun Fei sat under the roots of the giant tree, roasting the gorilla’s meat by a campfire. Picking up the crown of tendrils that had caused him no end of troubles, he began examining it in detail.

The vibrant green roots and vines were intertwined in the shape of a crown and it gave off a very gentle glow, calming the mind.

‘My head feels very clear, there is no stress and even the pain from my injuries is not affecting my thought process in any way.

This really is a great thing, if it works for calming the mind and reducing the effects of pain, it should really have a significant effect on the cultivation of the eye technique.’

In the next couple of days as he rested and regained his strength, he thought deeply in order to find a strategy against the snake.

Although Yun Fei’s left arm was incapacitated, he did not stop absorbing Qi to increase his cultivation and also wore the crown while cultivating.

Yun Fei found out that the technique had started progressing rapidly compared to when he was in the cave. There were two reasons for this.

One was that the Qi concentration was getting higher and higher as you moved towards the swamp.

The other was the root crown, this treasure was proving to be an invaluable help as it took him into an almost trance like state which had the wonderful effect of reducing the pain that he felt in cultivating the technique, making him able to keep it going for much longer periods of time than before. It also helped increase the speed of his cultivation allowing him to pull in more Qi.

He felt that with the crown helping him, he was able to pull at least triple the amount of Qi that he could draw without it.

‘The obvious way to increase my chances of hunting the snake is to increase the cultivation of my eye technique and also the cultivation of my body.

I finally understand the effect of the first level of the technique, my field of view and situational awareness keeps widening, I am able to see with a strange sense, with a lot of clarity, the things behind me and even things that are blocked by opaque objects.

This should increase my fighting ability and movement skill considerably.

The Qi that is used by my body makes it more durable and agile, improving strength, speed and all bodily abilities. If my cultivation was at a higher level back then, my body wouldn’t be hurt so easily even by that snake’s whip.’

Yun Fei’s mind was racing as he deliberated how he could increase his chances for a head on fight with the reptile.

‘A head on fight is a very difficult area for me to close the difference between my combat strength and the snake’s in such a short amount of time.

The beast is too fast and strong for me to fight at close quarters, the sole possibility of winning depends on how well I can seize the element of surprise and deal that worm a crushing blow.

The best way would be to attack from a distance at night, while it slumbers. My arm took the direct brunt of his last strike, and the flesh and bones are completely crushed. It will take them a fortnight more to heal.’ thought Yun Fei.

‘I need a weapon, a long ranged weapon. Strong and precise enough to cause severe damage at first contact. Considering my stellar eyesight, there is only one option. I must build a bow.’

Having made his mind up, Yun Fei began his project and started gathering supplies for the task.

‘It must be a powerful bow, those scales did not seem easy to pierce. I saw a grove of iron-wood trees near the edge of the forest... Those would be perfect for the body.’

Iron wood trees were a species of large hardwood trees that were often used to craft spear shafts for martial artists, with sufficient strength they were exceedingly limber while at the same time, providing a terrifying tension.

Yun Fei chopped down one of these trees with some hard work, carving it into a thin board that tapered at both ends while the centre was rounded in order to form a serviceable handle.

Consumed in his task, Yun Fei tested the power and finding it lacking thought, ‘The power is good but I still do not believe it will threaten the snake with a serious wound, I should warm the wood and give it a recurve.’

Warming the wood using boiling water, Yun Fei fashioned a curve of a small diameter bending backward.

For a finishing touch, he used the cross section of a deer’s horns to fashion a pair of pulleys attached to the ends of the bow, where the string would circle around a free rotating pulley before attaching to the opposite limb.

These helped shift the transfer of strength from an obtuse angle directly perpendicular to the apex of the bow.

He stringed it using the twisted tendons of the gorilla, which had been strengthened by the Qi condensed in them forming the ideal strings for this powerful bow.

Yun Fei smiled looking at the strung bow and congratulated himself for a job well done as he picked the tense string which let out a resonant ‘Twang’.