Just when Yun Qingyao was severely overexerted, and she had to consider resting for a bit, a bigger problem arose.

From the nearby bushes, a rustling sound came. Yun Qingyao’s expression changed. Growing up in the mountains, she couldn’t be clearer about what this meant.

The forest she was in belonged to primeval jungles, with many wild animals living on the mountain, including some fierce beasts. Since the ecosystem here was basically untouched by humans, it remained in a very primitive state.

The people of the Yun Sect had a relatively fixed route when coming down the mountain. This route was carefully selected, and one of the bases for determining the route was to avoid contact with the beasts of the forest.

That’s right, everyone in the Yun Sect is a Martial Artist, their physical abilities incomparable to ordinary people. You could say each one was like Wu Song, but humans are inclined to avoid unnecessary trouble, so the routes chosen by the people of the Yun Sect generally avoided the areas where fierce beasts were active.

Many fierce beasts like wolves, tigers, and leopards inhabit this primeval forest, though their numbers are quite low.

Tigers, such fierce beasts, have become rare animals globally. Even in the remote Ten Thousand Mountains of Southern Yunnan, the number of tigers is very low.

Yun Qingyao’s impression of tigers was few and far between in her lifetime. The last time she saw a tiger, she was a ten-year-old girl, following her master into the deep mountains to gather herbs, encountering a striped tiger.

At the time, her master chose to avoid the tiger, telling her to learn to coexist peacefully with the beasts. These beasts were not their enemies. Like them, the Yun Sect lived in seclusion in the deep mountains, and so the people of the Yun Sect had a feeling of mutual sympathy with the beasts of the deep mountains.

Their chosen route down the mountain avoided the areas where the beasts roamed. Because of this, Yun Qingyao hadn’t considered encountering a fierce beast, due to a kind of habitual mindset that made her overlook this potential danger.

So now, suddenly discovering the traces of a beast, with a beast moving nearby, Yun Qingyao was surprised, caught off guard.

It turns out there are exceptions to everything. Even on a route traveled many times, unexpected situations can still occur.

Yun Qingyao didn’t think too much about why this usually safe route suddenly had the appearance of a beast. She didn’t have the time to consider this problem.

At present, she must quickly find a way to escape, especially in her state of physical exhaustion.

If she currently had her cultivation, facing one or two fierce beasts wouldn’t even make her furrow her brow, because with her strength, no beast could threaten her. The problem is, in her current state, even a lone wolf could see her perish, becoming a delicious dinner for the beasts.

The thought of becoming a beast’s dinner filled Yun Qingyao’s heart with fear, a sort of primal terror.

According to Darwin’s theory of evolution, humans’ ancestors were monkeys, who initially lived in the mountains and forests alongside fierce beasts. Monkeys spent most of their time in trees to reduce encounters with fierce beasts.

But later, the wise monkeys descended from the trees, evolving into bipedal ancient humans. These ancient humans came to the ground, suddenly faced with threats from land-dominating creatures, needing to confront various fierce beasts much stronger than themselves.

For survival, ancient humans were forced to become stronger, but physical evolution always had limits. No matter how much humans evolved, they couldn’t be stronger than lions, but humans had something more advantageous than any other animal: intelligence.

To survive, ancient humans began to rapidly evolve and develop their intelligence, becoming ever more clever. Humans learned to use tools, set traps, and engage in group combat. Through these means, humans defeated other beasts and even domesticated them. Humans, whose bodies couldn’t match lions or tigers, managed to stand at the top of the food chain through the overwhelming power of intelligence, ruling the earth.

However, even though humans ultimately stood at the top of the evolutionary tree, and even though humans have now entered an advanced technological civilization where a single missile can move mountains and fill seas, the shadows of past hardships living under the threat of beasts are still etched in human genes, this primitive fear hasn’t disappeared and remains until today.

The strengthening of humans began with learning to use tools, from using sharpened stones to immensely powerful missiles. The path to human strength hasn’t changed—it’s through tools. Essentially, a sharpened stone and a world-destroying missile are the same thing: a tool.

In humanity’s long evolutionary history, the continuous enhancement of tools has been humanity’s primary development strategy.

But simultaneously, humans have been attempting another endeavor: strengthening themselves, focusing on their bodies.

Despite millions of years of effort ending in the realization that self-enhancement wasn’t fruitful, sticking to enhancing tools was more pragmatic, but countless diligent souls never abandoned the path of strengthening humans themselves.

Even if reality is harsh, humans indulge in pleasant fantasies, leading to fantasies like Western superpowers or Eastern mana, reflecting humanity’s dream of strengthening themselves.

A weak person bitten by a spider gains superpowers and transforms into the wall-crawling Spider-Man; this is the Western fantasy of self-enhancement.

Practicing a cultivation technique, obtaining mana capable of destroying worlds, achieving immortality; this is the Huaxia People’s fantasy of self-enhancement.

Normal humans merely laugh these off, knowing they’re fantasies, meant only for entertainment.

But this doesn’t mean humans haven’t gained anything on the path of self-enhancement. In fact, there have been gains, such as the emergence of martial arts.

Ordinary people can achieve a relatively strong physique through regular physical exercise, and by practicing martial arts, they can go further, gaining formidable skills.

At one time, martial arts flourished in Huaxia. In the era when tools were still cold weapons, self-enhancement brought great enthusiasm, but as tools entered the hot weapon era, tools grew stronger, and people’s enthusiasm for self-development waned.

Therefore, martial arts’ decline became an almost irreversible trend.

Now, only the Hidden Sect still inherits the powerful Huaxia Ancient Martial Arts. These inheritors maintain the belief that strengthening themselves is more important than anything. They have a primal fear of physical weakening.

So now, with Yun Qingyao’s Dantian sealed, she has a feeling of anxiety. When a beast appears, that primitive fear belonging to ancient humans is activated within her.

At this moment, a wild boar emerged from the bushes.

"Oh my god!"

Yun Qingyao involuntarily screamed and instinctively turned to run, while the wild boar, noticing its prey, immediately snarled and charged towards Yun Qingyao.