“Ah, sh**!! Sh*! Sh*!” Li Yun continued cursing and running as the two giant pandas with glowing yellow eyes charged at him. “This can’t be happening!”

Li Yun sprinted away, trying to keep his path as straight as possible but it was impossible with the way the terrain was laid out. The branches and bushes were an absolute nightmare to pass through. His hands pushed away the branches blocking his path, and ignored the pain as the thorns scratched the thick lining of his bomber jacket and into the surfaces of his hands. He had yet to realize the temple ruins disappearing behind the forest canopy.

Thud, thud, thud!

The thundering sound of the giant pandas paws continued to pound the forest floor. Li Yun picked up his pace, recklessly colliding into the bushes. There was no use to avoid them, he could only charge through them.

It wasn’t just the low trees and bushes, the terrain was uneven and rugged. He missed a low elevation change, almost falling down completely if he hadn’t grabbed onto a nearby vine. His hand tightened around the vine and pulled himself up. The vine snapped, but his feet were already stable and ran in the opposite direction of the charging pandas.

Li Yun noticed a clearing, but quickly stopped as soon as he approached a cliff. Looking down, it looked like a five-meters drop to the ground. There were more bushes down below that could break his fall and a tall beech-like tree that he could reach if he lowered himself down the side of the cliff. He quickly grabbed two vines, twisted them together, and lowered himself down the cliff. As he approached near the branch’s elevation, he gauged a 3 meter horizontal gap between him and the branch. He pushed his feet onto the cliff, gaining enough force to propel himself outward. His foot landed on top of the thick limb, but the force of the pendulum swing forced him to pace toward the trunk.

Thump! The wood echoed as Li Yun slammed into the trunk.

Despite the pain, Li Yun was thankful he was still alive. His body was sore, but he didn’t break anything. He looked back to see that the two pandas had stopped near the cliff. They stared and growled at him from above.

“What the hell is this place?” Li Yun pondered.

First, he was attacked by a moving statue, and then two giant pandas rushed out to attack him. He didn’t know of any pandas that aggressively attacked without provocation. They probably weren't even pandas, but some type of mutated spotted bears. Their speed was a lot quicker than the stone statue and the only thing preventing them from reaching him was the cliff. As much as it was hindering his movement, it also slowed down the pandas.

He took another look at the cliff. There wasn’t any sign of the pandas. He contemplated returning to the temple using the pandas’ destroyed path, but he wasn’t sure he wanted to deal with the two pandas; if they could easily uproot the bushes from the ground, he was sure they could rip him apart.

Li Yun wasn’t sure how he managed to escape, but he didn’t want to go back. Was there any way to return to the temple? He looked ahead toward the opposite side of the cliff, but there was nothing other than more trees and bushes.

He lowered himself down to a sitting position, rested his head on the trunk, and inspected himself. The jacket and jeans were ripped and torn, but protected most of his body. However, his hands had a few bloody markings. It wasn’t hurting before, but seeing them made his body twitched in pain. Luckily, he didn't have a mirror to see if there were scratches on his face. Well, he did have a reverse mirror if he used his phone. He changed his eye's dilation, and took out his phone. There wasn’t any reception, and the phone stated that it was only 3am.

He sighed. He had a feeling there wasn't any connection. His backpack had a bunch of medical kits, including scalpels he could use as a weapon if needed, but only as a last resort. Fleeing was probably the only thing he should focus on.

As soon as he put away his phone, he felt toxins entering his blood system, but his body wasn't neutralizing them like usual. It was not something he had encountered before. Whatever toxin was in the thorns of these plants, it was much more powerful than the ones he had encountered. His breathing was harsh and he felt his blood pressure elevated higher than usual.

He decided to remain on the branch and wait it out until his body could clear out the toxin. Typically, after a toxin entered his bloodstream, his meridian did two things. First, it ordered his immune system to destroy the toxins. However, if the immune system failed to destroy it quickly, his meridian would absorb the toxin.

The strange toxin inside his body was somehow blocking his meridian. He didn’t know that was even possible.

Inside his body, a battle waged on between his immune system and the toxin. The lymphatic node inside the lymphatic vessels trapped the toxin. The body classified the unfamiliar toxin as dangerous and began the process to destroy it, but it was going to be a long time before it cleared out.

Inside the dantian, the meridians were going crazy and the channels fluctuated, fighting their way back. It felt painful like hell. Li Yun had never felt so much pain.

“I should use Zuowang,” he decided to meditate and focus on unblocking his meridians. Unfortunately, he wasn’t exactly sure how that was done. Was it a matter of willing his meridians to unblock itself? Ever since unlocking his body's ability to see meridians, he had not truly understood all of its capability.

Entering the meditative state, he saw his meridians and dantian actively working to re-enter his physical body. The toxins blocked all the channels entering into the body systems, causing the meridians to create a massive buildup of energy trying to force its way into his body. It was like a traffic jam at the intersection, and it was the reason for his unusual pain. It wasn’t a physical pain, but a spiritual pain alarming him that something was wrong with his meridian.

The pileup of energy from his meridian was creating more blockage. He needed to instruct his meridian to stop sending more energy. What the meridian needed to do was not to continue pushing, but create a constant wave of coordinated attacks on the toxins.

Li Yun sucked in air and energy, and then breathed out forcefully. He repeated the cycle, hoping his meridian could follow the rhythm of his breathing. What he wanted was to draw the energy back into his dantian, and then pound at the blocked passage like an oscillating hammer.

As he continued breathing, he sensed the meridians slowing down the energy and quickly rearranging their strategy to copy his order. The energy immediately withdrew to the dantian, and as though on command, it burst out. Li Yun felt a bit of pain every time they attacked the blockage, but he also felt some energy leaking to his body and removing parts of the toxins.

He repeated the breathing method until his body regained strength.