Wu Zhi woke up just in time to find a mad bear rushing towards him. He didn't even think, didn't even hesitate. As the bear lunged at him his reflexes took over. He caught one of the bears limbs trying to claw him, dodged to that side so the other claw missed him. He got right under the maw of the bear, he got so close it had no leverage to bite him. He was right under its chin when he pivoted and threw the bear over his shoulder with the limb that he had grabbed a hold of. The bear got smacked to the ground. Before it could re-position itself Wu Zhi pressed his advantage. He got up right behind the bear and put it in a choke hold. Flailing around with its strong muscles and sharp claws Wu Zhi didn't even blink. He stayed committed to the choke hold not letting go for even a second. With a one track mind he did nothing but maintain and strengthen his hold. The bear couldn't reach him as its limbs didn't go back that far. The most it could do was claw and scratch at his arms. It dug into his arms at a desperate attempt for him to let up his hold. But Wu Zhi was unrelenting, it was kill or be killed and Wu Zhi knew he had to go for the kill with his choke hold. His body stronger than any mundane man, enhanced with qi it took the bears attack in stride. Eventually the bear got weaker and weaker, until a tense minute passed as it went limp. "Huff, huff" Wu Zhi didn't feel all that tired physically but mentally he was strained. He had just got into an intense fight or flight mode without a moment to spare. Next time he would make sure that the places he was sleeping in weren't full of danger. With his foe vanquished all that was left was some blood from his arms and a big brown bear's corpse at his feet. 'It would be a waste to leave it' he thought to himself. He glanced over at his sword as a sudden idea made it's way into his head. He carved up the corpse like a butcher, he first bled the corpse getting rid of all its blood. After it was done bleeding he went to work. Carving out the muscles to eat later he got rid of all the internal organs. He then had a lot of work after that, carful to remove the bones keeping the skin and fur intact. He took a break in the middle of his work to feast on his prey. The bear meat was gamey but it beat food pills, they weren't really appealing after the first 3 months. He made a fire with the device that produced a spark with some qi - he was just going to call it a lighter from now on - and started a small campfire. With nothing better to use he had to impale the meat on a stick and hand roast it above the fire. It took sometime but it worked out well. When his meal was finished and he had enough of his fill, he decided to leave the rest of the work for tomorrow as it was already nighttime. Working with just a campfire to use as light was rather inefficient. This time he slept with no problems as he had probably walked into the bears territory without realizing it. He got up took a piss and went back to work. The job took a lot longer then he thought it would but by the time he was finished he was proud of himself. He had made himself a bear's cloak with the upper part of its skull resting atop his head its teeth covering his forehead as its mane draped his whole body. He had seen fictional characters wearing one of these things as it made them look like a badass. Now that he had one, it was everything he thought it would be. 'I bet if I had a mirror I would look like a bandit leader'. With enough time wasted he made his way back onto the road eager to kill this snake with his remaining time left.
The bear had left some superficial wounds on his arms, all he had to do was clean it with some water and that was about it. He had no idea if cultivators healed faster than regular humans but he had a pretty good guess. If he was right then they most certainly did and it probably got stronger the higher their cultivation level was. But then again this was just a guess, he most certainly had an information gap between his peers. He would have to do some studying when he was back at the sect.
As he neared the destination he heard the sounds of a stream coming through. 'It's the river' hopefully we wouldn't have to fight this snake in the water as it would be the worst case scenario. He spent most of the day trying to find the snake. You would think that a giant snake is easy to spot but the problem was the amount of territory he had to cover. The information told him the general direction and that it was by the river. However looking at the map the river was quite large. Given the high foliage by the river, if the snake had camouflage and didn't move, it might have given him a hard time. But through the corner of his eye he caught some movement to large to be caused by a regular animal. 'Caught you' he thought to himself.