Chapter 3: Excitement!
Zorai felt something snap inside his chest the moment the humming bunny slammed into him. It was like getting hit by a hammer made of fur. His body lifted off the ground, flying like a thrown rag, and crashed ten steps away.
He hit the cold forest floor hard. The dirt was wet, full of the smell of old leaves, and dry blood, maybe his own. He felt like his ribs were screaming. Breathing was hard. Each inhale felt like sucking in fire.
I'm not dead… is it because this bunny isn't strong? he thought, his vision spinning. Then why do I feel like my lungs cracked? Like my heart's floating?
He tried to stand. Just a little. But pain shot through his chest like a spear and pinned him in place. Blood gushed from his mouth, warm and metallic.
"Mild? What bullshit is that?" Zorai cursed silently, his eyes shaking with fury. "That thing is evil. Straight-up demonic. May the elder who called it gentle get eaten by his own shadow."
The forest seemed too quiet now. A low humming echoed. The bunny was approaching. Its small paws tapped against the earth, soft but rhythmic, like a beating drum dragging him closer to death. Every step made Zorai's heartbeat louder, faster, like a bull trying to break out of his chest.
The mutated rabbit stopped five steps away.
Its furry face twitched in what almost looked like a smirk. Its mouth opened, showing sharp white teeth—clean, polished, and proud.
Zorai stared, his eyes twitching. I misjudged it… I thought its detection range was smaller. No… I was careful. I did everything right. This doesn't make sense.
As if mocking him, the bunny turned its back and raised its tail.
That was when Zorai saw it. A bright red and green streak. Mutated fur. Something rare and dangerous making his stomach dropped.
This… this isn't a normal demonic beast.
It was a mutated variant. The kind that even trained cultivators feared because they broke the rules of their lineage. They acted smarter. They acted crueler and they don't just fight. They hunted.
Suddenly, his pain faded.
But not because he healed.
No.
The fear inside him became so heavy it crushed the pain. It buried it under a mountain of death. His legs wobbled as he forced himself up. His whole body trembled. But his eyes didn't leave the beast.
He couldn't run.
He knew that now. The humming bunny was faster than anything he could match on foot.
He had only one option left.
Fight.
With shaky hands, he reached into his ragged cloak. Inside was a small pouch. From it, he pulled a single red and green pill.
This wasn't some medicine you could just swallow.
It was a high-grade pill. One meant for Foundation Establishment cultivators. People whose bodies were already refined, who had rivers of qi flowing inside them.
Even those in Mortal Tempering needed help from masters to use it safely.
But Zorai was not a cultivator.
He was barely surviving.
Normally, he could only break tiny pieces off and swallow crumbs. Any more, and his weak body might explode from the inside out.
Yet here he was, pill in hand, heart racing, death five steps away.
And he didn't hesitate.
He looked at the bunny, then at the pill as if weighting his choice.
He felt something deep inside his chest. Not just fear. Something else A
and it was like a drum beat, not in his ears, but in his soul. A heavy thump. Then another.
Finally he understood the feeling in his heart. It was...
Excitement.
Yes, you heard him right!
Excitement! Despite standing before death he was feeling excited about it!
Though death stood in front of him, so did the doorway to cultivation. Ryuk knew the truth. If he failed here, even if he survived, he would forever remain a mat for others to walk on or a loser with no destiny. But standing so close to crushing that cursed fate filled him with an overwhelming thrill.
It was like he was destined to always go against faith and what it has in store for him. It was like this was his destiny.
He swallowed the rest of the pill in one gulp. Then, he pulled out his two stone-edged arrows and gripped them like daggers as he start feeling a warm wave spread from his stomach. Like fire and ice together. It didn't kill him instantly like he expected but he was feeling as the fire and ice like wave spread in his stomach, muscles and arms, a kind of energy he never experienced before slowly occupied his body and was still increasing seemingly looking for more space to occupy or it will burst out.
*Although this energy is dangerous for me but if I succeed here then it doesn't matter. I believe if I awake my inner Qi and even if it faintly flow for just a second, it will create a part for the rest of the energy running rampant to flow. This is it! This is the moment! Hahaha.*
Ryuk chuckled in his mind.
He remembered that the Xin family had given him this pill as penance after the brutal disfigurement he suffered. Many of those involved were members of the three great clans, and the Governor of Green Doe Village had personally intervened. The Xin family had handed him the pill to avoid further punishment but never imagined he would actually survive using it.
Ryuk coughed out a chunk of coagulated blood. His heart and brain felt unbearably heavy. This was a high-risk, high-reward moment. It was natural to suffer mental strain. After all, what kind of human willingly walks through death's door?
The energy surged through his body. Every cell seemed to boil with power.
He focused entirely on the bunny, now only three feet away.
Then, with every ounce of will inside him, Ryuk roared in his mind.
i must succeed!