A few meters after leaving Leaf City, Ye Qiu said to Xia Rong: "Little sister, you'll go to the southern part of Leaf City, near the river. I'll go to the northern part, in the forest. This is more productive this way."
Xia Rong had accompanied Ye Qiu more than once when he went to pick medicinal herbs. Even though she did not know much about them, she had remembered the ones he had collected and it was an easy task for her to pick them on her own.
"Let me go to the forest."
Ye Qiu shook his head.
"How can I let my little sister go to a more dangerous place than me? Don't worry, I'll run away if I was to encounter a beast."
With reluctance, Xia Rong had no choice, but to go to the southern part of Leaf City, near Leaf River to collect the medicinal herbs. Ye Qiu was slightly stronger than her and she did not want to disobey him.
Leaf Forest, at five li from Leaf City, was a large forest with various magical beasts. The most ferocious and dangerous ones inside the forest were: the spirit beast gorillas, the infernal tigers, the spirit firefoxes, the thunder-claws wolves, the deadly venom snakes, the demonic giant spiders, and the strongest of the lots, the demonic 9-stars saber-tooth, the king of Leaf Forest.
Even an expert martial artist at Flower Realm would most likely become one of those beasts' appetizer if he was to encounter one without being able to leave a single scratch on them. Fortunately, most of those beasts only roamed in the deepest part of the forest.
According to the legends, told by the story-tellers, those beasts were guarding endless legendary treasures that an ancient God had left there after returning into The Heaven Realm, the world of the immortals, a world that ruled above this one, The Forgotten Realm.
"Alright, this should be enough for today."
At the top of a hill, a few meters near Leaf Forest, Ye Qiu closed the head-sized brown pouch filled with medicinal herbs. The number of medicinal plants within the pouch was enough for him to concoct at least, without any failure during his concoction, around fifty lesser health potions.
"Huh...?"
When Ye Qiu was about to walk down the hill, a sudden sound came from the bushes not far away on his side.
"——infernal tiger?! What is he doing here?"
The scarlet crystal-like scales, its black stripes releasing a large amount of qi, and its most distinct feature, its burning tail. Ye Qiu could not misunderstand the beast who came out from the bushes, it was an infernal tiger, one of those beasts that one did not want to encounter by any means.
"From its size, it should be a young one, at least not an adult. But what should I do...?"
Adult infernal tiger or not, there was no way he could outrun a tiger. Fighting it was not an option either; it was his instinct telling him that he could definitely not defeat this beast.
While Ye Qiu was thinking of a way to escape from the infernal tiger, the latter did not wait for him to make his decision, the ferocious beast charged at him.
"——Fast!"
Ye Qiu's reaction was fast as he quickly entered in a fighting stance, the moment the infernal tiger moved, concentrating his qi into his fists, but he not as fast as the wild beast, closing the gap in less than a breath of time, jumping at him as he opened his mouth, showing its sharp fangs.
The collision between both was in a matter of seconds and Ye Qiu tried to catch its open jaws, preventing the infernal tiger, to bite him with its fang —— he had underestimated the strength of the latter.
"Aaargh!"
The infernal tiger closed its mouth, breaking both Ye Qiu's hand as a loud painful scream resounded, his blood squirting in the air. However, what the tiger had not anticipated, was the strength of its jump, sending Ye Qiu several meters away, and it was far enough to expel him out of the top of the hill's perimeter.
The hill's perimeter was not large, but it was high. The height between the hill and the ground below, at the hill's foot, was at least hundreds of meters. Falling from such a height was, beyond doubt, certain death.
"Is this really the end? Just like this?"
Ye Qiu gritted his teeth. It was extremely frustrating, he hated himself, being so weak, without the strength to protect his own life. He had believed that with perseverance and willpower was the only two factors one required to achieve his purpose; it was a lie, it was not. Luck and talent. They were the two other important requirements that he did not have and it caused him to fail, once again, it was also the same in his past life.
'This world is unfair —— No, both of the lives I had were unfair.' He thought.
Why people who reincarnated or transmigrated to another world had cheat-like abilities or talents but not him? Why did he have to try so hard, but miserably fail?
'I'm that desperate, to the point of blaming the world for its unfairness…...so pathetic.'
At that moment, the memory of both lives, on Earth and The Eternal Realm, filled his mind. There, he saw Xia Rong, smiling at him with an innocent face. Her little sister, the only family member he had during his whole lifetime, the one he had considered as his other half.
He could not die, not yet, he still has someone waiting for him. This was the first time he had such a person, someone important, and he was also important to her. He had to return.
"I——Ye Qiu, will reign over the three realms and spread my name and the Ye Dynasty! You who is toying with my life, you better remember this!!"
Shouted Ye Qiu, he was refusing his fate, as he lost his consciousness. His body was approaching the ground and it only was a matter of seconds before it crashed onto it.