The Wandering Wood was a large and dangerous place. Honestly, anyone sane would avoid going through and take a detour, either with a flying spirit beast or circumventing the forest. Ming Ren hid his trail very well, and no one would expect someone at the 4th layer of the Body Tempering Realm to pass through this forest in the first place.

Therefore, the scouts and tracking teams of the pursuing clans only searched around and never went too deep inside. Even if they did, they wouldn't be able to find the cave or move in on Ming Ren without his Spirit Sense noticing.

Having Spirit Sense at the Body Tempering Realm was truly marvelous. While running through the forest, he was capable of scanning the surroundings for beasts and even precious herbs. Excellent herbs wouldn't be at the outer perimeter since it was common for hunters to be there, but even common herbs had their uses.

Ming Ren had so much knowledge on herbs that even if he never saw it before it wouldn't be hard for him to discover their properties. Every time he saw something useful he'd pick it up and throw inside the Space Ring.

'I can't really hate Yun Lin Xue after all, this wonderful gift was from him.." Having both Spirit Sense and a space ring was simply way too convenient!

Somewhere else, a recently awakened and extremely weak Yun Lin Xue felt pain in his chest and passed out again, as if he suddenly felt rage and humiliation out of nowhere..

Suddenly, Ming Ren picked up a Beast at the equivalent of the 6th layer of the Body Tempering Realm a few kilometers from him. It looked like a three meters tall four-legged lizard with green sturdy scales and three tails. It was known to hunters as the Scaled Greenbeast, and it had a formidable defense.

Ming Ren's eyes shone and he instantly kicked the ground with spirit energy, bursting forward with increased speed far beyond his cultivation base.

Ming Ren Style Arts - Flash Step, maximum power!

In a matter of a few breaths, Ming Ren was already beside the beast. It had sharp senses but his reflexes weren't that good. In fact, because of its superb defense, it looked down upon most other monsters and hunters. When it finally noticed him and rose its tail to attack, Ming Ren had already begun his advance.

His right leg stepped forward, firmly on the ground, and the left hand led the way. The right extended backward before surging forward, and internal energy once again circulated to the palm, completely concentrating his might at that point.

The might of a strike at the Peak of the Fifth Layer together with his strengthened body.

Ming Ren Style Palm Art - Collapsing Sky!

The palm hit, the beast tilted to the side in pain, its whole body shook vigorously and spurted blood, but it was not a deadly wound. The three tails attacked in unison, all from different directions. Ming Ren weaved dodging them gracefully, once more hitting forward, this time revolving the power of the Reborn One Breath Luminescence Art into the mix...

Peak of the Seventh Layer strength!

The palm hit once again, the scaled green beast let out a terrified scream then struggled and died, its inner organs damaged beyond repair. Although it possessed a terrifying defense, Ming Ren's palm strike transferred the entire impact to inside its body, causing internal damage as opposed to external and avoiding its toughness.

"The meat of a lizard-type green scaled beast at the 6th layer, definitely.. Fried lizard meat-on-a-stick!" Ming Ren flicked his wrist and the entire beast corpse entered his interspatial ring.

Without losing time he kept moving on, and this time found a bird-type beast resting atop a tree without a single worry in the world. It had a very long beak and his feathers looked like polished blades. It was called Feather-bladed Curlew, and this one was at the peak of the 7th layer.

Flying beast types were especially dangerous and easily escaped. If Ming Ren let it fly there's no way it wouldn't hunt him down after getting some friends to come over.

Once again Ming Ren used Sky Steps and got close. As soon as the bird noticed him, Flash Step exploded several times in a roll, landing on the body of the trees for a second to gain momentum. He appeared before the bird and a sudden beak came at an amazing speed.

Ming Ren Style Movement Art - Flash step, air version!

Quickly, Ming Ren kicked the air itself and disappeared from the beast's sight, landing on the branch next to it. The Feather-bladed Curlew wanted to attack with his wings, but it was already too late.

His fist looked slow and at the same time disappeared from sight. At first, it seemed to have no momentum so the bird didn't worry too much and was about to strike back. Before he could, Ming Ren once more revolved the One Breath Luminescence Art and this time he also briefly activated his Dragon Light Divine Physique, producing might much superior than the strike from before.

Ming Ren Style Fist Art - Clear Sky Fist, peak of the eight layer strenght!

The fist suddenly hit the bird's body, and this time it was a direct impact rather than internal damage. The bird's bladed feathers looked like frail glass as Ming Ren's fist shattered its bones from the impact, drenching everything with blood.

"AH, MY BIRD!!!" Ming Ren used too much strength so a lot of meat was wasted. Its feathers could also be used as refining material, just like the green scaled beasts strength.

The Feather-Bladed Curlew died, and Ming Ren instantly transferred it inside the ring, "...Roasted Feather-bladed Curlew, here I come!"

This scene repeated itself over and over with different species until the night started to fall and he had to stop before the ring was full. A low-grade spatial ring had a lot of space, but it still had a limit. Along the way, there were actually several groups of hunters, but none of them were too strong, and none belonged to the other bigger clans of the Bluecloud city.

He went in quite a bit from the outskirts of the forest but had to be careful not to cross any stronger beast or even those at the Spirit Sea Realm. The night was especially dangerous, but Ming Ren had ways to deal with it.

When his stomach couldn't take it anymore, he decided to stop and eat, but there was still a problem. He had no utensils nor spices! This bastard Lin Yue Xue, couldn't he carry at least a few? Did he ever go camping? Doesn't he know how good spirit beasts meat is to the body? What if he suddenly wanted to eat stew?

Those useless Young Masters, ah!

Somewhere out there, Lin Yue Xue had just woken up again but was already spurting out blood.

This was Ming Ren's first meal after waking up, and he even spent days without eating anything. He thought about it for a bit then headed in the direction of one of those hunter groups.

Ming Ren walked in the ground instead of hurrying through the trees and took out the Scaled Green Beast's body, carrying it on his back. He walked towards the group's encampment, where everyone was sitting around without a fire, so as not to attract any unwanted guests.

One of the hunters, a youth at around seventeen, was the second to notice Ming Ren's and drew his weapon, a greatsword. The other members followed, all extremely cautious.

This group had a total of five people, two youths, two women, and an elder. When the elder saw the young man carrying the green scaled beast at his back he was extremely surprised, even more so when he realized this youth's cultivation was only at the peak of the fifth layer.

The amount of strength a cultivator had varied a lot, so even if it was surprising, it was still possible for someone to carry the three meters tall beast.

Everyone here had at least peak of the 7th layer strength, and the elder even reached the peak of the ninth layer, so they all relaxed a bit once determined the youth was apparently alone. Even so, they didn't completely let their guards. It would be extremely unlikely that youth was truly here alone.

"Please forgive my intrusion." Ming Ren put down the beast and clasped his hands together, bowing slightly.

The elder nodded, "What brings you here, young man?"

Ming Ren scratched his head, "Below Ming Ren, loose cultivator. I killed this green scaled beast, but.. I have no spices nor utensils to prepare it properly. If elder and everyone doesn't mind, would all be willing to share a meal?"

They had been hunting in The Wandering Wood for a long time, but it was the first time someone actually walked up to them and asked to share a meal! How could their hearts be at ease? Anyone would think this was a trap!

Of course, Ming Ren knew what they were thinking, and they weren't exactly wrong. This world of cultivators was brutal. The elder was about to say something, but the youth other than the one with the greatsword went first.

"We have enough food here, we don't need anything else! Scram!" Caught a green scaled beast? Are you joking with me? Although its dead and we can't sense its cultivation, the green scaled beast is a monster at least at the fifth layer of the Body Tempering Realm.

Spirit Beasts were also much stronger than normal cultivators, and this one specialized in defense. Even their group would probably spend an entire day hunting it and depend on the elder's strength for the finishing blow. The green scaled beast defensive power might rival someone of several realms above!

'Damn, should I have bought out something a little weaker..? But I didn't hunt anything below the sixth layer..' Ming Ren was in a dilemma.

"Little Fu, cannot be impolite." The elder hurried and beckoned with the hand for him to stop. Although he presented himself as a loose cultivator, this young man's behavior and manners were definitely not lacking. He also wasn't the least bit afraid.

Also, with the surname "Ming" and not far from Bluecloud city, could it be..?

The reason Ming Ren chose this group was not random. He first observed them with his Spirit Sense and realized they belonged to a small clan from a town near Bluecloud. This clan had ties to his Bright Clan before, and even some marriage connections.

However, it was only a sixth-ranked influence with at most Spirit Sea cultivators, so they were always low-key. With some luck, Ming Ren might be able to learn a few things from them.

"Elder, how can we trust him? We should send him away or.. !" Little Fu continued.

"Little Fu, if you're that worried, how about we check if he is alone?" One of the girls raised her voice. She was beautiful and tall with clear eyes and long legs, wearing a white robe. Her long green hair fell to the waist, and her weapon of choice was a long and thin sword.

"Don't call me little Fu!" The youth barked, "Go ahead!"

The girl nodded and took a small jade token from her bag. She crumbled the token and a Spirit Beast appeared out of nowhere, a cute looking white and red rabbit with powerful looking translucent eyes. Spirit Sea Realm, third-layer!

Ming Ren eyes widened in disbelief. He would never think there was a Spiritual Beast Oracle in a sixth-ranked small clan!