What is an immortal?

Just at that moment, a cool breeze hit Yuan Ming's face, and he sobered up slightly.

He looked in the direction of the breeze and saw that the forest ahead suddenly cleared, revealing a river about thirty feet wide in front of the tree line.

The river water was somewhat murky with rolling waves, indicating a strong current.

After estimating the distance, Yuan Ming realized that with his strength he couldn't possibly leap across. Glancing down, he saw the number of Green Wolves chasing him had increased from two to five.

"Jumping might kill me, but not jumping... will definitely kill me, and even more miserably," Yuan Ming knew he had no choice.

He stood on a horizontal branch of the ancient tree below him, bouncing up and down, gathering strength from the oscillation of the branch.

One bounce, two bounces, three bounces...

"Let's go."

With a low shout, he launched himself off the springing branch as his bent legs suddenly exerted force, catapulting his body forward.

In mid-air, he stretched out straight with his uninjured left arm as far as possible, reaching for the overhanging branches of an ancient tree on the opposite bank.

Unfortunately, his strength was limited, and with his injuries, a twenty-one-foot leap was the limit; he couldn't possibly reach the branches thirty feet away.

Yuan Ming's body fell downward with a "splash" as he hit the water. After struggling and splashing twice, he was submerged by the rolling murky waves and disappeared into the river.

Seeing this, the Green Wolves on the opposite bank howled in frustration for a long while before turning away, one by one.

...

In the murky river, Yuan Ming's body was swept to the riverbed by the undercurrent. He was repeatedly smashed against the jagged rocks on the riverbed, causing the wounds on his shoulders and chest to burst open. Crimson blood spilled out, drifting away like strands of red silk.

Enduring the pain and the suffocation of nearly drowning, Yuan Ming desperately grasped the rocks at the bottom of the river, struggling to crawl back to the surface, greedily gasping for air.

The river, mixed with dead branches and leaves, continuously splashed against his face, blurring his vision.

Yuan Ming wiped the river water off his face and saw that he was less than six feet from the riverbank. However, there were no rocks in the middle of the river for him to climb, and rashly entering the water could likely result in being swept back to the bottom by the undercurrent.

As he was weighing up how to make it across, a sharp pain suddenly struck again in his chest wound.

Yuan Ming didn't pay much attention to it, planning to dive back down and follow the rocks at the bottom of the river to the other side.

But then, the wound on his shoulder also began to throb intensely. The pain started in one place but soon became widespread. Even areas that weren't injured started to hurt, and that's when he realized something was wrong.

Taking a deep breath, Yuan Ming sunk his body, braving the rushing water to open his eyes underwater. As he looked at his body, a chill ran down his spine.

There, latched onto his chest wound, were nearly a hundred hand-sized fish, all twitching their tails frantically as they squeezed into his wounds, viciously tearing at his flesh.

"Damn, these are piranhas!"

Ordinary fish usually wouldn't attack such a large living creature, so the only fish known for such ferocious attacks were piranhas.

Although Yuan Ming had fish biting elsewhere on his body, these areas weren't wounded and were covered by fur, so they weren't as concerning.

He reached out to pull the piranhas off himself, but before he could get close, a swarm of the fish bit onto him.

At the same time, a vast black shadow was gliding toward him from downstream through the murky water.

Knowing he couldn't delay any longer, Yuan Ming resurfaced to take a breath and immediately sank back down. Using the rocks jutting from the riverbed, he painstakingly made his way toward the opposite bank.

The distant black shadow, realizing his attempt to escape, accelerated, closing in on him.

Finally reaching the base of the opposite bank, Yuan Ming started climbing upwards. As the water behind him broke with a "whoosh" sound, the black shadow caught up.

He didn't dare hesitate or even glance back, gripping the riverbank with both hands, he made a forceful leap upwards. In the nick of time before the black shadow caught him, he jumped to the other side.

The shadow ended up lunging at empty space, lingering beneath the water's edge for a moment before its figure gradually sank to the bottom and disappeared.

Yuan Ming lay on his back on the riverbank, his chest heaving wildly as he panted heavily.

He reached out and felt beside him, discovering that the Storage Blood pouch hadn't been lost. Relieved, he finally exhaled.

Although he knew it wasn't time to rest and relax, the intense feeling of exhaustion and the relief of narrowly escaping death made it hard for him to get up for quite some time.

After resting for a moment, Yuan Ming struggled to sit up. Only then did he discover that his body was still covered with piranhas, their scales black.

The fish were especially plentiful around the wounds on his chest and shoulders.

Grabbing a piranha, Yuan Ming endured the pain as he yanked it from his body, and held it up to his face. He saw that the creature's mouth was full of serrated, needle-like teeth, snapping at the air. Its ferocity did not diminish even outside of the water.

About to throw the piranha away, the "growling" from his stomach reminded him not to do such a foolish thing.

Yuan Ming made light of his suffering with a chuckle, "You bite me, I eat you—it's only proper to return the favor."

Having said that, he endured the discomfort in his heart, stuffed the fish whole into his mouth, and bit down hard.

The raw fish meat mixed with bones, spines, and scales was crushed bit by bit, making a "crunch, crunch" sound, and soon he chewed out a slightly fishy and sweet taste.

Yuan Ming had expected to feel unwell, but to his own surprise, he didn't find the taste repulsive; in fact, he even kind of liked it.

A palm-sized fish was far from enough to satisfy his hunger, so Yuan Ming started picking them off one by one from his body and eating them.

In no time at all, he plucked about fifty or sixty fish from himself and ate them all, which alleviated the hunger in his stomach somewhat.

As Yuan Ming looked at the wounds on his chest and shoulder, which were bleeding again, he suddenly realized something.

The two Green Wolves that had relentlessly chased him, the piranhas that swarmed toward him in groups, and even the shadow in the water that he still didn't know what it was, were all attracted by the Blood Qi from his wounds.

He quickly got up, scooped some mud from the riverbank, and smeared it over his wounds to cover the Blood Qi, then turned and left.

In such a hostile environment, staying in one place for a long time before finding a safe haven was definitely not wise.

With the setting sun sinking increasingly westward, the whole forest was cast in a massive shadow, welcoming the night earlier than other places.

After a careful search in the mountains and forests for a long time, Yuan Ming finally found a half-buried cave not five miles from the river.

This cave was actually a pit with two large boulders that had rolled down from the mountain leaning against each other on top, forming a makeshift roof.

Yuan Ming checked carefully and found that the space inside was only about sixty square feet; not spacious but just enough to accommodate him.

The roof formed by the two boulders was airtight on top, but there were gaps at the front and back.

The entrance at the front was self-explanatory, but the gap at the back was also wide enough—at three to two feet—for some medium-sized wild animals to squeeze in.

Yuan Ming searched the woods for a long time to find rocks of the right size and carried them over one by one to block the gap at the back of the cave.

Then, after another lengthy search, he still couldn't find a rock large enough to block the entrance.

In the end, he dragged over a large, lightning-struck tree root from afar, using it as a makeshift door at the entrance.

To be on the safe side, Yuan Ming tied the tree root with a vine, the other end tethered to his wrist. If the tree root were moved, it would surely tug at him and alert him to any disturbance.

Once everything was done, Yuan Ming then slowly lay down on the ground. Even though drowsiness kept hitting him, he resisted the urge to sleep right away.

He listened for noises outside while drawing with his hand on the cave floor in the dark, reconstructing the escape route he had taken so far and recalling all the details of his fights with the Black Bear and Green Wolves.

After going over these in his mind, he tried to fully recollect the fragmented memory that had surfaced during the day, of himself in the Martial Arts Arena.

"Who am I, really?"

With that question in mind, Yuan Ming gradually drifted into sleep.

In his dream, Yuan Ming appeared again in the Martial Arts Arena, wielding a long spear and performing an aggressive set of spear techniques.

On the edge of the arena, a vague shadow emerged, tall and majestic but with blurred features, standing with hands behind his back, silent and aloof.

Yuan Ming stopped his practice, wanting to approach and see the face of the figure, but then a furious shout stopped him: "Don't stop!"

In an instant, Yuan Ming abruptly awoke.

Sunlight streamed through the cracks of the cave entrance, hitting his face—the day had already dawned.

Yet, Yuan Ming felt as though he had only slept for half an hour, and the feeling of drowsiness had not completely dissipated.

Still, he propped himself up, instinctively rubbing his eyes with his fuzzy hands.

Once he recovered some energy, he untied the vine from his wrist and to his surprise, he found that the wounds on his chest and shoulder had already healed and scabbed over.

He had thought it would take at least three or four more days to recover, but it turned out that just one night's sleep was enough.

"It seems that when I transform into a Fur Beast, not only do my strength and speed increase, but even my recovery ability after being injured is enhanced," Yuan Ming thought with increasing satisfaction of his body.

At the same time, his interest grew in the "Blood Qi Skill" that Elder Hu Huo had mentioned.

"Gurgle..."

"Not only do wounds heal fast, but hunger also comes swiftly," Yuan Ming said as he got up, moved the tree root blocking the entrance, and stepped outside the cave.

The mountain forest was bathed in sunlight, the leaves lush green, a light breeze blew, and the thin morning fog was gradually dissipating. Only the ethereal chirping of birds filled the air, creating a tranquil and beautiful atmosphere.

But Yuan Ming knew beneath this tranquility lurked countless dangers.