Early morning rays of sunlight laid on Haiyang’s face. The soft warmth caused his eyes to twitch before slowly opening. He was slightly groggy but felt good nonetheless.

He jumped out of bed and ran outside. He sat down basking in the morning sun going over a few thoughts and plans. He let out a small sigh but his eyes lit up! They shone with determination.

He looked down and wrote a few things in the dirt. A crude character for forest and crude character for train. If Shizi makes out the characters Haiyang surely didn’t know.

Slowly Haiyang started walking out of the courtyard constantly looking back at the house. At the gate, he gave one more sad look before he turned his head and started to run.

He ran through Lan Clan Manor, through the market, and the outer wall gates. He avoided everyone who was out and about.

At the gate, Haiyang looked out and saw the forest that was still dark not yet touched by the low hanging sun. With a deep breath, he readied himself for all the possible dangers. Then, he took one step through the gate and took another. WIthout stop step after step, a walk into a jog, into a run, and finally into a sprint.

He sprinted and sprinted passing the tree line. Weaving in and out of the towering trees heading farther and farther in. Passing by a plethora of flowers of all colors and bushes with all types of fruit.

Running for almost five minutes at full sprint Haiyang finally came to a stop. He looked around and saw that he was pretty far into the forest. From his experience with the forest and the few maps he had seen in the study, he knew that he was only in the outer ring.

The outer ring was mostly for normal beast and plants. There are a few occasions in which a demon beast or spirit herb pops up but that pretty rare.

The secondary inner ring was Haiyang’s destination. There were many more spiritual herbs and demon beast. The ruler of the secondary inner ring was a sixth qi condensation level. Much stronger than Haiyangs current strength but he didn’t plan on fighting them.

Slowly Haiyang started to walk again. He moved at a very slow pace constantly checking around him for anything that could be a threat.

He traveled and for half the distance it took him twice the time. There was more than one occasion in which he ran and hide in a bush because of a small sound or rustle of leaves.

There was one point where he heard something in a bush and ran behind a few trees. Turned out it was only a small brown rabbit. He laughed at himself a lot for his constant foolery.

He continued in such a cautious way until he reached the secondary inner ring. At that point, it was a little past noon.

Haiyang could tell when he crossed the line into the secondary inner ring. The trees turned darker, taller, and the smell was different. He could feel a heavier presence in this part of the forest too.

Slowly he moved forward this time straining his eyes and ears for any sign of danger. He also spread out his qi making a small area of “sight”. He figured this out by trying to find qi in the air. He was using it now to feel for a tree with higher amounts of qi. It was like a detector for higher and lower qi points.

Walking farther and farther in Haiyang kept up his state of awareness. One hour passed since he left the outer ring and his head suddenly shot up. He smiled when he saw a tree that gave off qi greater than the surrounding ones. This was clearly some type of spirit tree.

With light silvery bark and very green leaves, the tree stood contrasting the surroundings. Standing wide almost a meter in diameter and tall of a height of at least 40 meters. It was dwarfed by the surrounding trees but it was clearly of higher quality.

His smile faded as he saw a wolf laying down underneath it. His ears raised high and fur stood up.

The wolf was gray with a white underbelly. It’s eyes green matching the leaves of the trees perfectly. Haiyang couldn’t tell from its laying down position but it was at least a meter and a half from head to tail. It was twice Haiyang’s size! He noticed that the wolf only gave an aura of a peak second rank qi condensation cultivator so this brought Haoyang some comfort. Haiyang was at least that strong so he wasn’t too scared.

Slowly Haiyang inched forward from behind his cover of the bushes and trees into the clearing surrounding the spirit tree. As he moved he kept his tail low and his fur straightened making him appear bigger. He fully extended his claws covering them in yang qi making them orange and sharp.

The wolf seemed to notice him as it opened both eyes staring at Haiyang. Slowly it stood up revealing it’s almost meter tall height. Its muscles were bursting with power Haiyang could feel from meters away.

Slowly Haiyang inched forward toward the wolf keeping up his awareness. He started to ready a seal in his right front paw.

When Haiyang was within three meters the wolf quickly crouched then exploded forward. Raising its claws up and covered with pale green qi.

Haiyang quickly stepped to his left as the claws came rushing past him. They just barely nicked his side. Only a small bit of blood but nothing he would worry about.

Haiyang raised his right paw then slapped the wolf’s back leg as it flew by.

The wolf landed behind Haiyang sliding a good meter before stopping. It tried to stand up but it’s right back just wobbled before collapsing. Almost as if it couldn’t make any strength.

Haiyang raised his paw and shot another seal toward the wolf. It flew straight and fast toward the wolf’s front leg.

The wolf tried to move but its back leg slowed it down! Unable to move out of the way in time the seal struck its front leg! Collapsing under the weight of its own body it stared at Haiyang as it tried to pull itself up.

Haiyang walked up to it and looked down. He did feel bad but he knew he had to do it. Raising a yang qi covered claw high he swung it down toward the wolf’s head! It hit dead center and Haiyang could hear a small boom and an almost exploding like impact. Then there was the sickening sound as the claw pierced the head.

Yang qi flooded through the skull of the wolf. The qi burned through the entire skull and the body slumped into the ground.

Haiyang collapsed soon after. He laid down basking in the small bit of sun poking through the trees as he recovered a little bit of strength. He wasn’t physically exhausted but the mental exhaustion hit him like a truck.

Tens of minutes passed Haiyang got up and inspected the body. He could feel a slight wooden aura coming from the wolf’s head.

Haiyang slightly cut open the skull revealing the burnt inside. Covered in burn marks and surrounded by a black was a small green gem.

Haiyang had some idea what it was and quickly grew excited. His idea was it is a beast core and if he was right they should be good for cultivation. He smiled wide as he deftly picked it up with his mouth and ran over to the tree.

Covering his claws in wood qi then quickly started to dig. He dug a small hole big enough for his body and then down.

After almost an hour of digging Haiyang finally came to a stop. He made a small burrow of sorts. There were four “chambers” one at the entrance, one for sleeping and cultivating, one for food, and finally one for treasures. He put the beast core in the treasure chamber smiling.

All the chambers all had an order to them. The sleep and cultivation chamber was closest to the tree to get the best effects of wood qi. The food and treasures one were farther away just in case the tree could absorb such things. He smiled at his handy work before going into his sleeping chamber.

He started to meditate pulling in the wood qi from the tree. The quality and quantity was about the same of the Copper Crowned tree back at the Lan Manor.

As he examined his body he made a discovery! More of his taiji symbols started to stabilize before he worked on them. Haiyang didn’t know how it happened but he could guess. It was probably due to the use of their qi that caused them to stabilized more.

Yet a guess is a guess and not worth the pondering too much on it. So he always did and that would be cultivate until he felt tired.

He cultivated for what felt like hours before the wood qi finally depleted. He sighed but just went to sleep waiting for the wood qi to regenerate.