Forest Depths

The morning after the club fair, all members of the wilderness exploration club gathered at the club's official building.

"Welcome, everyone, to the wilderness exploration club's orientation. For many of you, this may not be your first foray into the wild expanses that lay beyond our cities, but be warned, the wilderness here is not like the ones outside of towns and cities. It is untouched, untamed, vicious.", said the club president.

"My name is Shi Fang, but you all may call me President Shi. Today, I will be the one to lead you beyond the confines of this school, and naturally I am the one that will ensure your safety. However, life and death is not a certain matter in the woods, so be careful. Any moment could be your last", President Shi warned.

Flares were presented to all of the members in attendance. Yan Guang walked up and picked up one of them. From the looks of it, it was a kind of firework that was more compact and colorful.

After a slight pause, President Shi continued, "If you are at any point in lethal danger, light the wick and your seniors will arrive as soon as possible."

"If there is one cardinal sin not to be committed when undertaking an expedition, it is going alone. For this reason, everyone, please form groups of three.", President Shi instructed.

Members immediately began forming into cliques, with people who already knew each other prior forming teams. Yan Guang, as a complete outsider, was about to feel discouraged when he saw another group of two that needed one more person.

Yan Guang quickly introduced himself to the two, finding out their names as well. The other two, Kong Hao and Pei Yi, were also both students who didn't have any connections before joining the sect. 

Although his group was formed by happenstance, Yan Guang was content with at least finding a group. At least he wasn't one of the poor students who were left alone.

Following President Shi out of the club building, everyone soon headed towards the main gate of the school which was also the exit point.

At the gate, the president merely had to show his own identity card for the guards to let him through.

At last, Yan Guang was out and about in nature again. The air felt much fresher outside, and more beneficial for his cultivation. If he ever had the chance to go into seclusion and live a peaceful life somewhere, he would want to find a spot deep in nature.

In some ways, that was what martial arts was all about, having the strength to freely traverse the mountains and seas without a care in the world.

However much he enjoyed being outside, Yan Guang quickly came to his senses and stayed on guard. Anything could happen in the woods, as the president had belabored to them right before.

President Shi's booming voice rang out once more at that moment, "I will only be guiding you till we reach the outskirts of the school's reaches. Beyond that point, you will be left alone to explore freely."

It didn't take long for them to reach the point President Shi described. Before releasing them into the wild, President Shi reminded them that they had to return to this place by midnight or else there would be a search effort made. However, the chances of surviving the night in this environment were, to say the least, unoptimistic.

Yan Guang and his teammates watched as each team slowly trickled into the seemingly endless forest in front of them. The trees formed a canopy so thick that it seemed as if it was already dusk inside.

After some time, it came their turn to enter, which they promptly did, leaving the last signs of humans behind as they ventured into the foreign environment.

"It's my first time being this deep into the woods. How about you two?", asked Kong Hao.

"I come from a family of hunters, so I have a little experience knowing my way around these sorts of places. What about you, Yan Guang?", Pei Yi questioned.

"Well, I've done some adventuring here and there but I've never gone quite so deep into the woods.", Yan Guang replied.

The other two seemed intrigued at the mention of adventuring. It wasn't a job many did, as it was seen as a job for vagrants without a fixed home or job. After all, it gave no salary, no benefits, and no guarantees. It was the quickest yet also the riskiest way of making a living.

Pei Yi, as the most experienced of the trio, taught the two a few tools of the trade, such as marking where they had been in order to not get lost and identifying the tracks of animals.

It was the first time Yan Guang realized his inadequacy in general knowledge. Perhaps he had simply been hyper-focused on martial arts till now, but he had neglected coming to know the other professions that were prevalent in this world.

He had forgotten that there was no GPS, no clock, no convenient invention to reduce the brainpower needed to know the world around them. Everything had to be done by hand, and that was exactly what Pei Yi was teaching him.

After an hour of wandering in the forest, they still hadn't spotted anything noteworthy. Somehow, there was not a single animal apart from some small critters that they were able to find.

While at first it seemed normal, the very fact that things had been 'normal' for so long was in itself abnormal. They were in the depths of the forest, a place where anything could happen, and yet nothing did.

"Guys, wait up. I'm tired from all this walking. Can we rest for a moment and catch our breath? It doesn't seem like we're making much progress in our exploration anyway.", Kong Hao muttered in between breaths.

To be a third-rate martial artist and get exhausted from walking, Kong Hao could be said to be quite middling in skill. However, walking in the forest was different from walking across a paved road. The shrubbery and thick grass as well as curved terrain made crossing distances in the forest much more difficult than usual.

"Right then, we'll rest here for a while and regain our bearings.", Pei Yi stated, casually taking on a de-facto leader role.

Yan Guang simply listened and agreed. Despite his strength possibly being the greatest among them, he wasn't interested in being the leader. After all, there were no benefits to taking on such a cumbersome task.

The trio then sat down and rested, with Yan Guang beginning to meditate to regain some internal force.

It was at that moment that things started to go wrong.

Kong Hao, who was peacefully resting, screamed at the top of his lungs.

Immediately, Yan Guang and Pei Yi were put on alert and looked towards Kong Hao's direction only to see nothing but a trail on the ground.

He had been dragged away.

The two quickly dashed towards the direction the trails led them, reaching a small clearing in the forest. The greenery had died away in this area, leaving only the mud to color the surface.

In the very center of this clearing was an enemy Yan Guang did not even think was real.

It was a man-eating plant!

Yan Guang watched the plant's vines coil around Kong Hao and raise him up higher towards its equivalent of a mouth. Thankfully, he hadn't yet been hurt.

"Help! Please, get me out of here!", Kong Hao yelled in panic as a look of sheer terror was plastered across his face.

"Hang on, and try to mobilize your internal force! We'll free you!", Yan Guang shouted back as he sprung into action.

"Yan Guang, cover me! A minute should suffice!", Pei Yi communicated as he retreated backwards, seemingly foraging for something in the ground.

The vines of the monstrous plant, seemingly recognizing the addition of two new hostile intents in their vicinity, began to lash out at Yan Guang and Pei Yi.

Gripping one of the vines tight, Yan Guang pulled with his entire body's strength, dragging it out of the plant's body.

*This is going to be tricky, huh*, Yan Guang thought to himself. Although he had fought against many beasts and a couple martial artists, he had never fought an ent before.

Deep down, he was shocked by the fact that such monsters actually existed. He remembered seeing something like this in a movie once before, but he never thought he would end up fighting one to the death.

Yan Guang formed an internal force barrier to repel the vines and began to push forward to the trunk of the plant.

As he drew closer, the vines increased their aggression towards him, solely focusing on him. Their attacks seemed disorderly and frantic, like a desperate attempt to stop him from getting closer at any cost.

All of the vines converged onto him and began to wrap around him, threatening to entrap him similar to how Kong Hao ended up.

"Screw off!", Yan Guang yelled as he expelled a major portion of his internal force, instantly repelling the vines far away from him. Taking advantage of this movement, Yan Guang advanced further and was almost able to touch the trunk.

Yan Guang steadied his breathing and activated his Rising Blood Breathing, focusing all of his power to create a burst of strength.

Every muscle and tendon in his body contracted and expanded in unison, producing a loud cracking noise as his fist impacted the trunk.

This was 100% efficiency in action, a punch that embodied the words Bodily Harmony.

However, the effect was less brilliant than Yan Guang imagined. Sure, a few chips of wood had blasted off into the distance and the plant's trunk was cracked, but it was nothing that affected its immediate combat ability. In fact, the attack only seemed to anger it further, increasing its viciousness.

Yan Guang looked up as he saw Kong Hao about to be swallowed. Right now, attacking the trunk was a dead end. He had to save his fellow student first.

Grabbing the vines that were trying their best to hurt him, he propelled himself into the air with a strong tug.

Like Tarzan, Yan Guang swung from one vine to another, pushing his flexibility to its limits as he approached the Venus flytrap-like mouth of the ent beast.

First, Yan Guang swung back and forth, slowly gathering momentum.

Then, on the final swing, he gathered his internal force into his foot, delivering a kick straight to the mouth.

To his and the plant's surprise, the same cracking rang out once again. This was his second 100% blow of the fight, and it was a kick, unlike the punches Yan Guang had practiced oh so much.

This blow seemed to affect the plant somewhat, as it spat out Kong Hao, who was about to be devoured.

Unfortunately, it wasn't going to let its new enemy escape so easily. With Kong Hao now abandoned, its next prey was Yan Guang.

Before he even had the chance to revel in his successes, Yan Guang was already surrounded by all the vines the plant had at its disposal. It was going all out.

Combined, they seemed to form a cocoon around Yan Guang, leaving him with no empty gap to escape through.

Although barely audible, Yan Guang managed to hear Pei Yi's shouting through the small cracks in the plant's vine cocoon, saying "Brother Yan, watch out for the fire!"

All of a sudden, the vines loosened and released Yan Guang into the pit of fire below.

Yan Guang's mind raced with thoughts of what had happened in the few seconds he had been in that cocoon. Filling in the gaps, he realized that Pei Yi had likely created fire and used it to burn the plant.

However, the more pressing point was that he was about to fall into the roaring flames below.

Reaching out with his leg as far as possible, Yan Guang barely managed to touch the tree and kick off of it with his foot using all the strength he could muster.

Fortunately, this deviated his fall just enough, allowing him to escape the fire.

Landing on the ground, Yan Guang quickly rolled away from the plant in case some part of his clothes had ignited.

He was quickly helped up by Kong Hao who expressed his gratitude for saving him.

Looking back at the ent that had almost managed to defeat him, Yan Guang could only feel a sense of satisfaction as he watched it burn.

The fire slowly spread from the base of the trunk to some of the vines and eventually the mouth. Instead of frantically waving its vines around as it had before, however, the plant seemed to form a shell once again using its vines, trying to protect something.

This intrigued both Yan Guang and his teammates. What was there of such great value that the plant had decided to give up its own life to protect it?

No one approached the plant yet, as they dared not fight it while it was on fire.

"Thank you once again, Brother Yan! If not for you I'd have ended up as the food for a plant! How shameful!", Kong Hao expressed emotionally.

"The credit goes not to me, but to Brother Pei. If not for his quick thinking, I'd be at a loss for what to do.", Yan Guang replied, shifting some of the credit.

"What I did was nothing special, Brother Yan. It was simply common sense. Plants are weak to fire.", Pei Yi responded.

The three conversed as they watched the flames rage on. They couldn't leave yet, both because of their curiosity and because they didn't want the fire to spread.

This matter pertained to one of the rules of the Wilderness Exploration Club. Although some killing and environmental damage were due to the course of exploring, students were required to try their best not to unnecessarily destroy their surroundings.

No matter how strong a martial artist was, one was ultimately still dependent on nature for nourishment. It was based on this principle that martial artists disavowed each other from destroying too much of nature.

Naturally, this applied to them burning down the forest as well. While Pei Yi was well within his rights to destroy the man-eating plant for attacking him, destroying the forest surrounding the plant was considered overkill. So, they had to stand guard over the tree to ensure it didn't light the whole forest ablaze.

Yan Guang meditated the whole time, slowly gathering more internal force. He had expended much of it in the fight and needed some time to recover anyway. As no beast would approach the smoldering mess that was in this area, it was a perfect place to rest.

After around half an hour, the ent had finally lost all of its vitality and was burnt into a block of charcoal.

It was only at this point that the trio finally started to approach. Rummaging through the ashes of the tree, they soon found what resembled the shell that the vines had formed.

Seeing it required brute force to break it open, Yan Guang unleashed one punch, crushing the outer layers of soot and revealing the inside.

The crevice inside of the burnt mess was actually glowing, and the source was three orbs.

Cracking the covering open, Yan Guang was finally able to clearly see what was inside. The 'orbs' were, in actuality, fruits.

That's what it was protecting, its own offspring. I didn't know plants could have parental instincts, Yan Guang internally remarked.

Kong Hao's face lit up with joy as he rejoiced, "These are actually spiritual fruits! We got really lucky this time!"

Yan Guang silently recalled the motto of the adventurer's guild.

Fortune did truly favor the bold.