A giant stone hand suddenly snapped its arm toward Li Yun’s head. By instinct, Li Yun ducked onto the floor, narrowly escaping the sweeping impact of the statue’s back-swing. Instead, the force created an air blade that rippled through the empty temple. 

Li Yun rolled sideways to the right side of the temple’s wall, giving him distance and the side view of the statue. The statue turned to look at him. Despite its quick attack, the statue’s movement and reflex were relatively slow. It charged toward Li Yun, who dodged again out of the way. Li Yun sighed in relief and quickly thanked Fatty Fang for all the evasion training. Although the statue was a lot bigger than Fatty Fang, its speed was a lot slower.

Li Yun breathed in and out slowly to calm his heartbeat. He needed a clear mind and steady heart if he was going to get out of this strange situation. From his vantage point, he saw the statue’s attack connected with the column, splintering the wooden column in half. From above, the beam slightly drooped, only supported by the other columns and rafters. The roof was about to collapse at any moment.

Li Yun dashed to the next nearest column, and waited for the statue. He was confident that he could dodge the next attack, but he had to be careful because the statue had only used one basic attack. There was a likelihood that it was waiting for Li Yun to lower his guard and perform a deadlier technique.

The statue’s bulky legs moved once again toward Li Yun. Instead of a sweeping attack from his arm, the statue used both arms and pounded down toward Li Yun. 

With both sides blocked, Li Yun retreated back slightly to avoid the impact. Instead of running, he jumped and kicked the head of the statue, testing out his kick’s strength. The kick landed on the statue’s forehead, but it was literally like hitting a stone wall.

“Well, that was an obvious failure,” Li Yun thought. He quickly readjusted, bent his knees and propelled himself toward another column. The idea looked better in his head, but being out of practice, he loss balanced and fumbled his landing. “Should head back to the gym and learn how to land properly.”

He fell slightly forward, but broke the fall by twisting his body to hit the bottom with the side of his butt. If there was one thing his body instinctively from his wushu and sanda training, it was how to fall properly. When learning any type of wushu, falling and takedowns were expected as defeat. It was the start of any type of proper training. Like with ice skating, it was important for instructors to teach the students how to fall properly and minimize injuries. 

“Ugh-” The pain gathered in his butt was making him question his situation. It felt too real to be a hallucination. 

He crawled back up and leaned onto the column with his head facing the statue. The statue was already close by and attacked Li Yun again with a strong arm swinging across His body. Ducking down, he rolled out of the way and quickly dashed out of the temple. The statue once again completely smashed the column. With two columns down, the beams and rafters cricketed and moved violently out of its interlocking dovetail connection. 

Li Yun ran until he was safely outside, and peeked back to see if the statue was following him from behind. Unfortunately for the statue, it was too slow to avoid the collapsing beams and roof. Running a bit further out and hiding behind a tree, Li Yun surveyed the temple ruins from a safe distance. He wasn’t sure if the beam itself was heavy enough to subdue the statue. 

There was an unusual silence after the rumble settled to the ground. 

False statue defeated.

“Eh?” Li Yun was beginning to wonder if he was really going insane.

Li Yun returned back to the ruins after receiving the message in his head. Inside the temple ruins, the only thing remaining was a small glowing stone statue. The large statue had either shrunk or disappear. Li Yun cautiously touched the statue, and the item immediately lost its glow.

“Do I really need to carry this?” Li Yun grumbled, the statue felt like it weighed like 10 kilo. 

Suddenly, the statue disappeared. Li Yun looked around, and even tried to see if there was some type of inventory, but it never reappeared. Giving up his search, he looked around the surrounding area. It was obvious that he wasn’t in the bamboo forest. 

With his eyes adjusted to the darkness, what appeared in front of him was a densely packed forest made from species and varieties of hardwood he had never seen before. Even with his extensive research in botany, he wasn’t sure if he was still in China. He searched the rumbles for a way to get back. Moving to the center of the temple, there wasn’t any unusual sensation he had felt before. He moved around in search of another vortex. As the last resort, he used spirit detention again, but nothing happened.

He faltered to the ground, rested his head on the splintered wooden column, and attempted to regain his senses. The aches and pain from his butt and back were subsiding, but the thought of not being able to return frightened him. He shook his head, that line of thinking wasn’t going to help him get back.

His head turned around slowly to screen the surrounding environment, it was too quiet. It was the type of silence that enhanced any sort of whispers and movement of the wind. Looking up at the sky, wondering if he could see the moon, but there wasn’t anything but the stars. As he recalled the simple astronomy map, he wondered if any of the stars looked familiar, but it was difficult to tell with the tall canopy blocking the complete view.

~whoosh

His head snapped toward the direction of the trees, but as the breeze passed away, the forest settled down another eerie silence. His hearing was sharp, so every time the wind rustle of the wind through the leaves, it put him on high alert.

“Hoo-”

 Another strange sound, but from behind, which quickly chilled Li Yun to the spine. He turned around, but nothing but the bushes and the low-growth trees. His heartbeat was pounding in his chest, much more intense than his fight with the stone statue. There was nothing more frightening than staring at the unknown and fighting his own mind, thinking about what other possible monsters were hidden in the darkness.

Ah damn, he shouldn’t have watched Fan Geng play the Woods. Now all he could think about was the dismembered bodies surrounding him and waiting to devour him. He should rest and nap, hoping that day will arrive, but his body remained tense and on alert. Every time he closed his eyes, the movement of the forest seemed to be closing in on him. Even the trees moving against the wind looked like an army of tree monsters.

The safest place he felt was in the temple, but it also felt like being trapped in an empty nest above the cliff. He wasn’t going to find a way back by not moving forward. Looking ahead toward the trees, there wasn’t a path, not even a narrow opening. From behind, two yellow pairs of glowing eyes appeared, staring straight at him.