The forest was quiet, in that way that only a thriving forest full of life can be. The drone of insects, the rustle of leaves, and the calls of birds filled the air, layering over and blending with the distant rhythmic crashing of waves against the shore. The world was 2 layers of verdant vibrant green, separated by the mottled brown trunks of trees, natural behemoths that even 10 men couldn’t wrap their arms around, stretching upwards as if to pierce the clouds with their branches. Sunlight filtered through the canopy held aloft by the leafy titans, painting the green of the forest floor in shades of yellow and gold. In clearings, between the crowns of majestic trees, the rolling clouds could be seen, dancing and drifting across an endless canvas of pale blue. Occasionally, in gaps between trees, the silhouettes of animals could be seen, some appearing as little more than shadows flitting through the underbrush, while others were clearly visible behemoths, making nary an effort to hide, for how could they? Everywhere, from the treetops to the bottom of their roots was full to the bursting with plants and creatures.

Suddenly, the forest that was practically overflowing with the movement and ambient noise of living creatures fell silent, nothing daring to so much as breathe too loudly. The silent stillness lasted for a few moments, before it was broken by the sound of ripping, and a jagged vertical tear appearing in the center of a clearing. The serrated edge of the tear slowly traveled up on one side and down on the other, and the inside of it was blue, the purest blue imaginable, the very essence of the color blue. The tear slowly widened, becoming an elliptical arched portal with precise smooth edges, retaining the dreamlike blue that was still undisturbed. The blue within the portal rippled, like when a stone is tossed into a still pond, before a figure came hurtling out of the portal like a fastball at the bottom of the ninth inning. The figure smashed directly into the base of a tree, turning about half of the base of the trunk into a storm of shrapnel, and sending the remainder of the titanic tree crashing to the ground, throwing dirt and smaller parts of the undergrowth into the air, blanketing the area in dirt, leaves, and twigs.

The figure, who was now embedded into the stump of the fallen tree, groaned and tried to extricate themselves from their wooden prison, to no avail. After a few moments of wriggling, with a dash of limb flailing, and a lot of yelling, the figure went still once more. Hesitantly, the forest began to move once more, slowly, until once again the dull roar of life blanketed the area. But for the clearing where the figure lay entombed in a tree, and the immediate vicinity, which were empty and silent, the forest was awake and active as if nothing had happened at all.

Night had fallen, and passed uneventfully. Even the setting of the sun could do little to dampen the liveliness of the forest, it merely heralded in a different set of noises and creatures. And still, even the most daring of the creatures that stalked the night dared draw too close to the recently fallen tree, where even then the moonlight revealed a figure sticking partially out of the stump, like some sort of unnerving statue. And if not for the gentle rise motion of its chest, and occasional slight repositioning, a statue it could be. It was not until morning broke that this changed.

As the first rays of dawn’s light streaked across the dark sky, the figure jolted into an upright position, or at least as much of one as possible with half of its body still stuck inside of the tree. It stared off into the east, watching the sun begin its day’s climb. The brilliant morning light scarcely pierced the cover of the thick canopy yet, and shadows still reigned in the forest, though the light was slowly and surely gaining ground. The creatures who lived in the darkness of the night had already retreated to their hideaways, and the sounds of the creatures of the day were beginning to fill the air. The ambient sounds of life rose to a crescendo, but were abruptly cut off when the forest fell silent once more. Every living thing within earshot could feel something wrong, could feel the abundant energy in the environment being pulled violently towards one spot: the clearing where the figure was still trapped, raising its arm. The energy swirled around the figure, fading into view as it condensed, a smorgasbord of every color imaginable, turning increasingly blue the closer to the figure it was. Around the clenched fist held aloft, the energy took on the deep blue hue of the ocean, and roiled around the fist like the frothing waves of the stormy seas. The energy swiftly condensed around and into the figure’s fist, the rest of the energy rushing back out into the forest in a nearly tangible wave. The figure stretched and strained to hold their glowing fist even a fraction of a centimeter higher, then cried out as they smashed it into the tree that bound them, shattering wood and causing a small explosion of dirt and splinters.

When the cloud of debris settled, the figure was free of their wooden prison. In fact, most of the rest of the stump was simply gone, turned into shavings and shrapnel that coated the nearby plants. The figure, on the other hand, was spotless, save for some rips in their clothing, which glowed lightly around the rips before the clothing slowly weaved itself back together. They ran their fingers through their hair, dislodging a wood chip that had landed on them. The figure stood stoically for a moment, before their voice echoed through the forest.

“GODDAMN SON OF A BITCH THAT HURT!! SHIT!” The figure, whose clear baritone voice revealed to be a man, cursed, in obvious pain. “Gah, I knew putting that much power behind that technique would have some consequences, but just what was that tree?! There was no Qi left in the stump, especially after I sucked it all out, so how in the hell was it that tough?” He clutched his hand, which was an angry red color and already showing signs of bruising. Considering he mainly focused on cultivating his body, and used a technique that greatly multiplied the force of the punch, the fact that any of the stump survived, and even caused the punch to hurt him, was astonishing. It was also concerning, because it meant that the concentration of ambient Qi was rather high in this forest, which also means that there were more powerful demonic beasts in the area. And judging by the toughness of the tree, and how much Qi he pulled in to free himself, the man could tell that the beasts here would be very troublesome. Even a rank 4 demonic beast would be problematic, and would be able to force him to fight for his life, to say nothing of rank 5 demonic beasts who would view him as either a nuisance or a snack. It would be in his best self interest to leave the forest as soon as possible, but there was a slight problem with that plan: he had no idea which way would lead him to the edge of the forest, sandwich directions would just serve him up on a platter to the beastial rulers of the forest, who might very well be on their way to his location anyways, as his technique wasn’t subtle in any sense of the word.

“Do I wait, and hope that I can reason or bargain with a powerful demonic beast, or simply try walking in one direction? Ugh, I can’t fly yet, my cultivation would have to reach Core Formation to do that, but I can climb the trees and leap from branch to branch, they should be sturdy enough. I just have to hope that none of the local beast kings are monkeys. Alright, the sun rises in the East, so the shadows point West, so I will head east, towards the sun, and hope I don’t get disemboweled!” the man decided, before crouching down and launching himself up into the trees. Staying in the middle to lower branches, he quickly made his way east.

Deep into the forest, where the trees grow so thick that the forest is in a perpetual twilight, was a cave. The cave looked like little other than a decently sized sinkhole, but for one thing: the piles of bones and skeletons that still radiated some of the might they possessed while alive. The only living things that dared approach the cave were plants and fungus, which practically danced in the abundant fertilizer provided. No vibrant buzz, nor mating call, nor even a rustle sounded within several kilometers of the cave. The sole noise, a horrible scraping sound, that could be heard reverberating up from the depths, like rusty nails on a chalkboard. Suddenly, the noise ceased, and another large bone came flying out of the pit to land on a nearby pile. This time, instead of further ear murdering scraping, came the sound on claws scratching at stone, and the gentle thud of something gargantuan moving across the land. A large head, halfway between that of a serpent and that of a crocodile, peeked out of the cave, and with a mighty inhale that shook nearby trees, took in a great quantity of Qi. The creature paused, and seemed to feel something interesting in the Qi, a touch that hadn’t been there before, but still carried a hint of familiarity: the Qi smelt of the sea, and in the way that only a sea dragon coud, but only faintly, like a young one, or something with a weak bloodline.

The beast hauled itself out of its cave, snaking between trees in all its horrifying glory. 20 meters long, 8 in diameter, with a long serpentine neck and thick, powerful legs, covered from the tip of its powerful tail to the end of its angular snout in thick, dappled green and blue scales. A Greater Plated Forest Drake, a demonic beast born as a rank 3, with the potential to be up to the peak of rank 5, and the capacity to compete with weaker rank 6 demonic beasts and equivalent realm cultivators. Even with a weak draconic bloodline, it was a regional hegemon. But if it could find and eat other creatures with draconic bloodlines, it can purify its own. And so, scenting the air with deep breaths, it took off, racing between thick trees and plowing through the small ones, towards the east, where the faint trace of dragon on the Qi was strongest. It may not have been able to smile with its mouth, but it more than made up for that with the light in its eyes.

The man, who was still using the branches to move, felt a sudden chill run down his spine. After spending 5 years in that roided-out excuse for a bootcamp that called itself a sect, he had gotten intimately familiar with malicious attention from powerful individuals. Hell, his own master was a renowned sadist, beloved for her ability to produce quality warriors, but feared for the sheer intensity and unrelenting work ethic that practically oozed off of her. Members of the sect said that if she couldn’t make you into a warrior, it’s because her training killed you. Point being: he knew his way around unsavory intentions. But only with other people, who at worst would kill him and loot his body, as one does. This felt more like looking into the maw of a massive beast below your ship, and knowing that there was no way to escape.

He brushed the feeling off, knowing that it would only get in the way of his primary goal of escaping the forest, and his secondary goal of reaching the coast. His master didn’t throw him through the portal from the sect just for fun, but because she was impatient about him setting up a branch sect on the planet. Definitely not for fun. There were a few other members of the sect that had been recruited during the period of time where their old planet would be changed to fit into the new universe, the new multiverse they had found themselves thrown into. All of them had communication artifacts, but they exchanged specific usage conditions with grossly extended range. In this case, as long as the artifact was in salt water, preferably sea water, but any salt water, it can connect with any other artifact also in direct contact with salt water. While mildly aggravating at first, it will help the spread out disciples find various possible locations for the branch sect, and coordinate to get to the best one. After that, was just the actual physical building of the sect, but that wasn’t something he had to concern himself with, as his specialty was combat, specifically against demonic beasts. So, his primary jobs were to protect the craftsmen while they built, and hunt so that there was enough food for the forming branch sect. Sometimes they even overlapped!

None of that mattered though, at least for the moment. He couldn’t smell any salt in the air, or feel the sea in the Qi. He felt plenty of water, but no forest can really flourish without a water supply. So far he had only come across miniscule streams, nothing that he could follow to a large body of water. If he found a river, he could use that to help orient himself, follow the flow, hopefully all the way to the ocean. And since his techniques are boosted near water, especially the ocean, hopefully that would help him either evade or fend off that malicious presence he felt earlier. He was praying to avoid it, but with his track record, it was inevitable that it would cross his path.