A large gold and black coloured serpent slowly descended from the tree. It was the same snake Relic had met before, Diana! However, she was different than before. Her eyes were cold and piercing. Her scales were flared up, making it look like there were thousands of sharp knives on her body. She no longer carried an aura of elegance, and instead had an aura of battle.

Jiro and Diana stared off each other and everyone immediately felt the tension.

Simultaneously, Relic and Cornelius had an abrupt change in expression as they figured out what was going on.

“I thought I smelled the stink of a worm.> “ Jiro spoke in his beast tongue. “For a minute I was worried, but who would’ve thought I would run into a failure instead.>” He sneered.

Diana bared her fangs and encircled Jiro in an instant.

“” She chuckled. “”

Jiro let out a ferocious roar while Diana let out a large hiss. They both seemed ready to murder each other at any second.

“Okay, that’s enough.” Cornelius suddenly appeared between the two. “I know your kingdoms don’t get along but you are both guests in my home. I hope you two can keep your prejudices outside.” He said sternly.

Diana immediately calmed down and retracted her aura. “I apologize, I let myself act unseemingly.” She seemed to be a bit embarrassed. She then happened to notice Hana at Jiro’s side, looking a little bit apprehensive. “Oh, who is this cute little girl?” She asked with a smile. “Hello, my name is Diana, what is yours?”

When Hana heard Diana’s angelic voice her expression immediately turned from slightly anxious to being excited.

The world of spirit beasts were still fairly new to her and after becoming friends with Jiro, one could say she didn’t really fear spirit beasts anymore.

“My name is Hana! How come you can speak human language?” Hana suddenly asked.

Relic chuckled seeing Hana’s child like expression.

“Human speech? It’s not really a hard thing to do especially for divine spirit beasts like me. At birth, we already have the capacity to understand the human language. However, whether you are a normal spirit beast or a divine spirit beast, we have to transform into arcane beasts before we are able to use human speech. ”

“What is the arcane?” she asked.

“The arcane level is the next stage for Spirit beasts.” Relic suddenly interjected. “You can think of it as something similar to Cultivators and their cultivation realms.”

“Wow!” Hana suddenly looked down at Jiro. “Did you hear that, Jiro? If you continue to cultivate we can communicate together!” Hana was so excited she embraced herself around Jiro’s neck.

Diana looked at the pair with slight confusion and was just about to say something when she suddenly saw Relic with a finger pressed against his lips. He was telling her not to say anything.

What Hana didn’t understand was that Jiro was already an arcane spirit beast. However, because he had a damaged core, he lost many of his abilities other arcane beasts would have.

Jiro only nodded in humiliation. It was one thing for her to do this when it was just them, but she was now doing it in front of one of his enemies!

“Ha, that’s a good look on you.” Diana laughed. She turned back to Hana with a smile. “There is one more thing Spirit beasts can do to emulate you mortals.”

Diana large body suddenly shined as she spoke a few words of incantation. She shot back up into the head of the tree and a large light flashed through the entire cave. The light was blinding, causing everyone to look away for a brief second.

When the light subsided, only the sound of the tree resulting could be heard. A few moments after, a gorgeous woman descended slowly from the tree.

The woman was absolutely stunning. Her silky gold and black hair waved effortlessly through the air. Mortals who looked into her large round eyes would immediately become enamoured in their beauty. Her left eye was of a pure gold colour, untainted by any filth; while her right eye was red like fresh blood. Everything about her seemed perfect, as if she was a goddess descending from the heavens themselves.

If there was one thing that seemed out of place, it would be her baggy robes she wore which was obviously too big for a women of her figure.

Hana’s eyes sparkled at the descent of this woman. Even Cornelius couldn’t take his eyes away from her. The only ones who were unaffected by her appearance were Relic and Jiro, who had a look of disgust.

The woman landed in front of Hana and spoke: “What do you think?”

“Y-you are… Diana?” Hana asked hesitantly.

“Yes.”

“Wah! You are so beautiful! “Hana instantly touched Diana’s smooth, flawless hands. “Are you a goddess, maybe a princess?!”

Diana smiled.

“You are correct, I’m a princess. I’m the 22nd daughter of king Ramone, the ruler of the divine beast forest.”

Relic was shocked when he heard her words. He didn’t realize she was actually the daughter of the Snake Beast King. The Divine Beast Forest was a region which spanned for millions of kilometers and was home to the many diverse spirit beasts. Heaven’s Peak resided within the Divine Beast Forest and Relic had actually met its king once before. Relic quickly questioned what Diana was doing here, and even more importantly…

“How could the king allow one of his own daughters to fail their awakening?” Relic frowned.

Hana was giggly with excitement. Today had been the most interesting and exciting day she had felt in a very long time. She continued to stare at Diana’s beautiful face when her gaze suddenly landed on to her loose fitting robes. “Are these the robes princesses wear?” She asked with intrigue.

“These?” Diana looked at her robes and then back to Cornelius. “No, these are the clothes of my savior. We Divine Spirit Beasts rarely go into our human forms and when we do, we normally don’t pack any human clothes to wear. I showed my human form to Mr. Savior once but he told me to never do it in front of others without any clothes on, so he lent me his.”

“Mr. Savior?” Hana turned to the mayor who looked a bit red.

Hana had more questions but Cornelius suddenly interjected. “Ah, I think that’s enough for questions for now. Princess Diana, I think you should continue to rest. Although your external wounds have healed, you are still recovering internally.”

Diana sighed. “Yes, you are correct, I should continue to rest. But I wish you would drop the princess and just call me by my first name.”

She shot back up the tree where she transformed back into her 119m long snake form.

Cornelius then turned to the two children. “I have somethings I need to take care of now. Treat this place as your own.”

Relic and Cornelius looked at each other momentarily and nodded.

“Douji, Dougu, let’s go.” Two dog beasts that were resting near the tree got up and barked happily.

Cornelius rode on top of one and together, they quickly left the cave.

After Cornelius left, Relic quickly turned to Hana.

“Hana, come have a seat, I will teach you the basics of cultivation.”

“Yes!” Hana responded with great enthusiasm.

She quickly sat down, fidgeting with excitement.

“There is a lot to learn so I will be teaching you little by little. First let’s talk about what cultivation is. Simply put, cultivating is the process of collecting and storing the heavenly energy around you in to your dantian. The principle behind learning cultivation is trying to achieve the Dao. The Dao has been discussed since the first cultivators began to cultivate and there have been many theories as to what it is. Some have said the Dao is the truth; the truth of life, of people, and of the universe. While other have said it is merely ‘the way’, how you interpret that is completely up to you. Finally, some believe the Dao is the source of all things and the end of all things.”

Hana nodded intently.

“Whichever the case, the Dao is the driving force of all cultivators and it is the understanding of the Dao which allows us cultivators to do amazing things.”

Hana continued to nod understanding but Relic could see she didn’t really understand at all.

“Haha, don’t worry about it too much. I just wanted to give you a bit of insight on it before you started cultivating. All I want you to know is that there is no clear path towards the Dao nor is there a true goal in the Dao. The true path lies with you and the path ends when you decide to end it.” Relic said.

Hana nodded and began to ponder Relic’s words.

After letting Hana think on his words for a few moments, Relic walked towards an empty space and spoke: “Hana, I want you to observe me carefully. The cultivation method I’m about to show you is a series of movements used to make a connection to the heavens. ”

Relic calmed his mind and stilled his body. Everything around him was quiet. After a few moments, he suddenly exhaled and slowly moved his body.

Hana immediately became enamoured by her brother’s movements which looked like a performing piece. It had a beautiful form and seamless transition from one stance to the next.

“I wanna do it!” she said to herself.

The set of motions Relic was performing was called the[ dragon’s breaking point ]and was divided into 8 sets. The [dragon’s breaking point] was a cultivation technique used by the ancient supreme sect, Heaven Sunder Sect, in order to cultivate the heavenly energy around them.

Diana, who was resting with her eyes closed, suddenly snapped up and turned to Relic’s area. Her head stuck out of the enormous tree with a wide mouth dropping down. “H-how can this be? Why is the heavenly energy moving towards him?!” she questioned in astonishment. Diana was a princess and was well informed on a great number of things.

Cultivation was divided into two parts, first was the cultivation of heavenly energy, and second was the cultivation of the Dao. Cultivation of heavenly energy depended on the cultivation technique an individual employed and the talent of the individual. Together, they determined a cultivator’s ability to cultivate heavenly energy.

Diana had seen how cultivators cultivate before and they would normally cultivate heavenly energy (Qi) in Qi rich areas, or by absorbing spirit coins or spirit stones. You would never find a cultivator in lands low in Qi. Heaven’s Peak had an adequate amount of qi, but it wasn’t enough for cultivators to spend large amounts of time in. Thus, she was shocked to find Heavenly energy swirling towards Relic. As a 119m arcane spirit beast, she was equivalent to a spirit realm cultivator. However, her actual power was much closer to the golden world realm as she is a divine spirit beast.

She could feel the heavenly energy was attracted to Relic and was slowly moving towards him. This was the first time she had ever seen anything like it!

At the same time, Relic had just finished the first set of the [dragon’s breaking point] technique and had already began the second set. Heavenly energy began to swirl around Relic more ferociously.

By the 3rd set, Jiro could now also feel the heavenly energy swirling around Relic and was a loss of words. “How is this possible!”

At the 4th set, the heavenly energy became a bit more tyrannical and even Relic’s aura changed.

At the 5th sect, the tyrannical aura began to affect its surrounding. The grass beneath Relics feet was pushing outwards in all directions. The tree rustled in the windless cave. Relic could also be seen panting and perspiration began to fall.

On the 6th set was the slowest Relic had ever moved. His entire body was soaked and steam and heat radiated from his body.

The 7th set seemed to revert everything back to normal. The heavenly energy dissipated and the tyrannical aura surround Relic disappeared. However, that was only what Diana and Jiro could feel. Relic was currently in excruciating pain, affecting his entire body, but he showed no change in his expression or movements.

The 8th set consisted of a single movement. At this point, Relic was truly calm as he lifted his dominate hand over his head.

At the same time he chopped down, an aura of pure destruction suddenly encapsulated his hand.

WHOOOSH!

A powerful attack launched from his hand and smashed against the cave walls resulting in a slight tremble around the entire mountain.

Diana and Jiro both gulped down their saliva in shock. Questions were blazing through their minds as they processed what they were seeing. “I’ve never seen a cultivation technique like this…” Diana mumbled.

When they turned back to Relic, he had already entered into a meditative state in the lotus position.

….

Relic’s mind was calm and his surroundings were peaceful. Yet, not all was the same as it was before.

All around him were white threads which dangled from the Heavens. These were the heavenly threads of cultivation!