At least, if he died that way, he would still rest easy knowing he had sacrificed his life to ensure that two human beings might live on…

He looked to the lady and despite her smile, was drenched in cold sweat, and it was then that everything dawned on him as he asked;

“Where are we!?” He whispered as softly as he could muster…

“We are within the grey region of Shangri La…”

The lady answered as she led Dara towards the dimly lit room where they all sat like parents lecturing their son;

“This part of the Kingdom is the most dangerous, and this is because of there are higher availability of food here, than in the dark lands, thus, strong experts, beasts, and monsters have all moved here…” The man explained further;

“The Land of Light have chased them over, and the Dark Lands offer almost no feeding method, leaving the slightly habitable grey region as the hub for every living thing that wishes to thrive…”

Dara voiced his thought absentmindedly, as the middle aged couple looked at him in shock;

“That is a very smart way to put it… Which begs the question; how did you end up floating unconsciously in a river…”

The man asked with furrowed brows, as the wife also chipped in;

“But first you must tell me about yourself, I want to get to know you…”

The lady said with beaming smiles, as their bellies began to grumble…

“If there is more availability of food in here, how come you are both starving?”

Dara threw a question of his own rather than answering either of the two they have requested of him…

“Well, I can’t leave Chu’er here alone whilst I go out to hunt…”

“Moreover, the probability of me surviving out there hunting alone is also slim, thus, either go out to fetch some fruits and vegetables we can easily grab before the beasts and monsters come out, and we stay indoors, and quietly once they are out…” The man answered;

“Now that I have answered, I think it is your turn to answer one of the two questions we asked…” He added as he paid rapt attention to Dara;

“My name is Ji Dara, and I am from the Village of Sang…” Dara revealed as the couples eyes lit up…

If there was truly a village within the dark lands, then not only would they be able to live on, but they would finally have other people to associate with, but Dara’s next statement drenched their hopes in cold waters;

“I and my sister fell victim to a conspiracy hatched against us by that very village whom we had served all our lives…”

“My sister died in a bid to ensure my safety, whilst I got caught in a massive flood that was caused by an abnormal tornado, which spun to life out of the blue…”

Dara briefed and added some further minute details until the middle aged couple got a brief overview of what had happened to him…

“I’m sorry to dash your hopes, but do you mind if I lay low for a while here…”

“I can help with anything you need an extra hand with…” Dara quickly revealed

“Your meridians haven’t even appeared yet, so there is not much you can do to actually help…”

The man was already feeling reluctant to allow Dara stay, since he would only become a liability than a help;

“For instance I can do something with this place you leave in…”

Dara interrupted the man’s thoughts as the man stuttered;

“Wait-what!?”

“I know this house isn’t much, but it is still at least one of the top ten in this grey lands…”

Dara simply shook his head slightly and sighed;

“How many hours a day, is one safe to roam about in here?”

Dara asked, as the couple looked at each other with confusion apparent in their eyes, they weren’t sure where Dara was going with this question, but they still answered;

“About six hours…” The man replied as his wife added;

“Why do you ask?”

“Just give me three months, and I will transform your lives…”

He added with a smile as the couple’s frown deepened, and the wife for the first time spoke a little unfriendly;

“Have you come to mock out way of life, despite our efforts in saving your life?”

Dara understood that they had simply misunderstood his choice of words, which he was finding hard to pinpoint how it had changed in the space of a day;

“Alright, how about I start with this…”

Dara said as he brought out a massive grilled hind lap of a huge beast…

At least, that is what the size of this grilled and dried meat was telling them…

The couples took the meat from his hands and took a bite;

Blast!

Instantly, the taste buds of these couple was assaulted by the vein soaked flavor of all the spices that was combined to cook this meat, and after half an hour of wolfing half of the entire thing, Dara continued;

“We will start tomorrow…”

“We will all head out tomorrow, and whilst your husband search for food, you will search for any mountain or high ground where we can build our new home…” Dara added;

“I don’t think it is wise to forsake our shelter just yet…”

“What if we end up not getting a suitable high ground to build shelter, or get food?”

“Of course we will still live here for the mean time, but we only have a week max to get a place where these three aims can be met…” Dara cleared the man’s doubts;

“We will leave two hours for our journey to and fro, whilst searching for our desired area for four hours…”

“We will also be heading north for two days, then south for another two days, head west for two days, and the east would be a no-go area, since there is only the dark lands or people of my village who are most likely looking to kill me over there…”

Dara explained his plans, as they did a more thorough introduction about each other, before Dara left for his room…

Though, he didn’t trust the information these couples gave him 100 percent, but there were some of it which they couldn’t lie about;

Like their names where the man was called, Kun Min, and the lady was called Chu Lin…

They have been living together for about five years within this grey land, at a time where Kun Min was able to rescue Chu Lin from the grip of one stray Obun… 

Then he had treated her, took care of her, and giving her utmost respect, hospitality and shelter, something which sprouted the seed of love between the duo, until they finally reached where they were at this point…

Dara had told them that he would simply call them; Uncle Min, and Aunt Lin, a name which the couple both agreed to, instantaneously…

Dara sat atop his makeshift bed, as he rummaged through the little amount of information he could muster from the three memories he had within him…

From Dara’ memory, he got the architectural layout of how the ‘village of sang’ and its defenses were built, and from Sam’s memory, he obtained a way to build structures using brick and many other materials…

Then, from the memories of the dark soul, he got an insight into how to quickly force his meridians to appear by doing basic body exercises which he grouped into nine parts;

Endurance, Strength, Stamina, Speed, Blood, Bones, Tendons, Muscles and Flesh; a techniques that intends to build its user from this inside out…

As for the endurance stage, Dara obviously understood how he was going to go about it, and Sam’s memories which had some exotic ideas had the perfect method to achieve it…

Dara smiled in joy, at least, if he could achieve all these aim of his within three months, he would not only have established his safety and saved two others in the process, he would also have made every member of his dead family proud, and as a result, he was so ecstatic that his body found it extremely hard to summon or demand rest;

‘This will usher me into a new era’ He thought to himself laid there lost in thought…

Dawn the next day…

Dara opened his red eyes and revealed a beaming smile…

Today was the day he was going to start forcing his way into the path of cultivation…

He stood up only to meet the couple already packed up, ready, and eager to hit the ground running…

They set out, and as Dara had instructed, headed not in search for higher grounds…

“Take this, just in case you find yourself in danger…”

“That’s very thoughtful of you, Uncle Min… Thanks…”

Dara received the machete he was given and scrutinized it…

It was just as long as his elbow to the tip of his finger, very light and not too sharp, but who cares, he would sharpen it once he gets the materials needed for that…

Soon after, they reached a jungle area, and the man paused, looked towards the duo behind him and said;

“Be careful… We must all meet here in four hours, regardless if we found what we are looking for or not…”

Then he looked to his wife and gave her a hug, then left like a hunter who would never return until he has found game…

The wife also looked towards Dara and gave him a pat on the head before adding;

“You too be careful, unh?”

Dara shook his head like an obedient kid and parted ways with the lady whose task was to look for solid, and higher grounds within this jungle…

After the duo left, Dara looked to his front, and was already satisfied…

He could already see, many broken rock debris, massive trees that could be logged, and wet black soil all over the place, and since it is wet soil, that means they don’t really need water to build whatever it was they were planning to build;

“All that is left now is to find beast carcass, and any source of combustible materials…”

He muttered to himself with a smile as he charged into the jungle…

Meanwhile…

Back at the village of sang…