When the hunter reported Paul's status to the matriarch, he could not have been more wrong.
The human was neither dead nor was he unconscious.
Furthermore, he knew how to swim and where the river would take him.
Additionally, splashing into the water made him regain his rationality.
The last attack from the hunter was proof enough that he had no chance of defeating the opponent as he was, and if he continued to try and fight, then he would die.
Especially with all the damage the hunter inflicted on him already.
He had a few broken ribs, a dislocated jaw, a broken nose, a broken right hand, and internal injuries, and most likely a concussion, which he needed to tend to as soon as possible, or no matter what he did, he would be a goner.
To make matters worse, his mana and Qi were almost depleted after his last attempt at taking down the hunter.
With all this, he could not even fight the current that was sweeping him downstream, and could only helplessly watch the golden pillar of light that took Fei Fei away.
As he predicted, the current took him to his old camp, where the river slowed down at the curve, allowing him to swim back to shore, which was anything but easy with all his injuries.
As soon as he dragged his wounded body out of the water, the darkness claimed him.
Paul woke up the next morning, feeling unimaginable pain, but the physical torture was nothing compared to the mental anguish of losing another lover to the upper realms.
However, he had little time to grieve his loss.
He needed to heal himself if he was to survive.
Using a bit of his mana, he checked his body, and he was in a much worse state than he had previously thought.
His Right hand was broken in four places, his ribs were not any better, and he would need to set them back before healing them. His internal organs were luckily only slightly damaged, but he still needed to address these injuries before they got worse.
His spine was also damaged, thanks to hitting the trees two times in a row; it was almost a miracle that he could still use his legs at all.
He lost seven teeth and had a dislocated jaw.
His nose was broken and dislocated, and he had a cracked skull along with a concussion, not to mention a lot of cuts and bruises.
If he sustained such injuries back on earth, he would need a visit to the ICU and would be lucky to get back to health within a year, if he even survived at all.
But here, thanks to the cultivation, his body became much sturdier, and its regenerative abilities were also nothing to scoff at.
Which was the reason he was even conscious right now.
Using most of his remaining mana, Paul prioritized healing his internal organs one at a time.
Which depleted his meager reserves in moments.
Not wasting time, he used Qi to set his jaw back in its place before drinking the mana potion and eating some recovery pills to hasten his healing process.
As soon as his mana was recovered, he got to work on his skull fracture as well as the concussion, which made him nauseous and was giving him a massive headache, making it difficult to focus.
Once that was taken care of, Paul focused on replenishing his Qi and mana while purifying it.
He was not out of the woods just yet, but the immediate danger was over.
Now he needed to recover as soon as possible and leave this place.
The giant spider was still alive, and if it was in the vicinity, then he was sure it would go investigate the golden pillar of light.
Which meant it would most likely find his scent.
It took him two whole hours to replenish and purify his powers.
This was way faster than ever before, which surprised him as much as his new levels; he didn't notice till now, as he was focused on healing himself.
He was now at level 99 of the bone refining stage, and he had no idea how this had happened.
-I don't have time to dwell upon this now.
He said to himself and started healing himself once again, starting with his spine, which was the most crucial and difficult to deal with.
The process was extremely painful, since he had to reset the bones that fell out of place, while pouring healing spells into them to remove all the cracks at the same time.
To add to the difficulty, he needed to be focused while resetting the spine bones, as one mistake might have left him paralyzed.
Not that he could not heal that with magic, but his body was damaged enough as it was, and didn't need more problems to be fixed.
After the spine, it was time for his ribs, and here it was not any better.
Paul had to use his Qi to move the broken bones back to their original spots before using healing spells to connect them.
The healing process was no different than a torture session, but it worked.
Slowly, maticusly, hour after hour, He healed his body a piece at a time, replenishing his energy as needed.
By the time He was done with all of his injuries, it was already night again.
The thing that took the longest was the regeneration of his teeth, since he had to regenerate them from scratch.
Exhausted after so much work, he only managed to return to his old camp and fell to the ground, falling asleep before he knew it.
The next morning, he woke up feeling much better, at least physically.
His mental state was far from normal.
-Don't blame yourself, kid.
A voice he recognized cut through the silence as he was doing exactly that, blaming himself for losing his woman.
-How am I not to blame?
Paul asked, feeling anger rise within him.
-I lost my woman, and got my ass handed to me so hard I bearly survived.
You were right, I'm weak, and thanks to that, I lost another loved one to some asshole from the upper realm.
He shouted.
-You did what you could, and even more, you fought with all you had, even going over your limits, to protect her.
No one could ask more of you, not me, not her, not anyone.
You put your life on the line for the woman you love.
The reincarnation soul said, trying to comfort him, but it didn't lie to do so.
-And the result was that I almost died, and she was taken away.
What right do I have to have women I love at my side if I can't even protect them?
Paul asked with tears in his eyes.
-What the fuck did you expect?
You went head-to-head with a dragon at the peak of the taste refinement stage, because that was the most of his power he could have used in this realm.
Not to mention that he had thousands of years of battle experience, while you became a cultivator less than half a year ago and are already at one step of reaching the muscle and tendon refinement stage.
-You were not outclassed in the talent department, far from it; you simply didn't have enough time to become strong enough yet.
And believe me, the moment you meet that dragon again, and don't doubt that you will.
Because I'm certain you want to get her back, and he will stand in your way.
It's not going to be you getting a beating.
The soul shouted at him.
-Now get up and get a move on.
If you want your women back, then you don't have the time to feel sorry for yourself.