Descending the mountain

Waking up in the morning, Wang Yu felt numbness all over his body, especially his arms.

"Wang Yu, you're always late. It seems as if you want to tire me?" Asked Qu Shi jokingly .

"Of course not, I'm just tired" Wang Yu opened the door, his clothes were scruffy.

"Tidy yourself quickly and follow me, they are waiting for you" Wang Yu then returned to his room and came back after a short time, they then went to their group.

The group went to the hunters hall, where Ah Shu entered it, coming back shortly after that while lifting two bags on his back following a dark skinned man. The man had a scarred face and a big body, as he seemed to let out a dangerous aura from the first glance.

"Hello everyone my name is Xu Fugui, I'll be your guide for this journey."

As it turns out, Fugui was a kind guy despite his somewhat scary appearance, he told them to ask whichever question comes to their mind.

After which, Ah Shu distributed the content of the two bags. One of the bags contained some robes which were distributed evenly among them, as the robes were made from special materials, they were incredibly smooth. The instant Wang Yu wore the robe he felt warmer.

"You should take care of this robe, it is very important for a hunter to have it, if not you'll have to wear a lot of clothes just to feel a little warmer outside the sect. Only people from hunter hall get those special robes " Fuigui seemed extremely proud when talking about the robe.

The other bag contained some dry food and water, the group distributed them before heading toward the gate to leave.

At the gate, there were many people waiting in line to enter the sect. Those people were wearing heavy clothes, only some were wearing robes like them.

Wang Yu finally understood why Fuigui was proud when he was talking about how those clothes were only given to their hunter association.

After leaving the sect the group headed east toward the Darkness Forest as they were going to hunt in the forest periphery. Before that though, they will have to descend the mountain range.

While doing so, Fuigui explained to them the principle of a formation " In a hunting group, those specialists of long range attack, in your case bows, should stand in the center to be able to concentrate and not be interpreted. Protecting them from the front or the sides are the vanguard, since they should be the strongest in close quarter combat"

And so, it was decided that Ah Shi and Ah Du were the vanguard, as for Wang Yu and Qu Shi they were the rearguard, of course Lu Min and Lu Fu were in the center. Besides that, Fugui also taught them how to differentiate between animals using their footprint.

According to him the first thing to do is to watch the track pattern. Some animals like deers or foxes have their rear paws/hoof land in the spot where their paws already fell in, some will have back feet in front of their front feet, for example rabbits and mice, and he also told them about some other patterns.

Having learned some patterns he also told them to look next for the size of the track. For example, within canines a fox print will be smaller than a wolf's, also looking for the number of toes is very important, bears have five toes while canines and felines have four.

The group started to understand many things about the animals, it was very important for a hunter to know about what animal they are tracking, it is very helpful when hunting and it can save their lives.

"Look, isn't that a hare?" said Ah Du, the instant Fuigui heard that he took his bow and shot at it as he didn't take time to think and acted immediately.

After making sure the hare was killed, the group made a fire and started to prepare to rest for the night. They had brought salt and spices, surprisingly Fuigui proposed to prepare the meal, it turns out that he was good at cooking as the meal was delicious.

The group took shifts in surveillance, they had to do it since there are many dangerous animals that live in the mountains.

Wang Yu and Ah Du took the shift together. Having spent some time with him, Wang Yu found him to be friendly, unlike his first encounter with him, in which he bumped into Wang Yu and made him fall.

"Wang Yu, did you finish the painting of my brother and sister-in-law?" said Ah Du jokingly. He had asked Wang Yu to make a painting of him, but since Wang Yu was so busy in training and the little time he got was spent painting Ah Shu and Qu Shi's fight.

"Don't make fun of me, each time I start painting, the next moment I find Qu Shi yelling and hitting the door for me to wake up."

Ah Du laughed when he heard that and told Wang Yu not to be discouraged "Wang Yu, it's normal to be tired training your first week, when I started training first, I would sleep all the time, it was my father and brother who woke me every time. So for you, just wait for three months at most. You won't consider those training as hard as you do now."

They continued chatting until their shift ended with nothing happening, as they then woke up Ah Shu and Lu Min.

At dawn the group set off to their destination the Forest of Darkness, after walking for around two hours they saw a sight they will never forget in their life. It was a beautiful sight at first with many long trees and lash vegetation, yet despite its beauty the group knew that this is the most dangerous place they have to enter as the hunters of the sect, even Fugui who has entered that place many times and who had been relaxed all the time started to get tense and serious.

"Now we will enter the forest as in that place, danger is everywhere, so the least mistake can take all of us to our tombs. So bear in mind that because of how special the Darkness Forest is, the animals that originate from there are stronger than those on the outside, last but not least, never scream or make any unnecessary noises."

Wang Yu started to shiver as he remembered about the existence of some monsters in the forest, those monsters according to Fuigui have the strength of immortals, only the sect immortals can fight against them, so meeting them is a death for the likes of them, unless the monster is uninterested in them.

Seeing the tense faces of the group Fugui smiled and said " Don't worry, I've been hunting for thirty years and I've never met any of those monsters after all we are only going to the periphery, so the probability of meeting them is close to zero"

The group nodded approvingly, as hunters they have to enter the forest anyway so fearing was of no benefit. Wang Yu was both afraid and excited, he may perish and if he survived he would have seen new things he has never seen in his life.

This is his dream, he has always been fascinated by the beauty of the world and would draw every new thing he saw or discovered.

Fuigui after seeing the group more relaxed ordered them to enter "Let's go, we have to leave the forest before dusk."

The group then headed deeper into the forest, a memory that Wang Yu will never forget.