“Break!” a thunderous voice echoed throughout the area.

Two menacing dog beasts suddenly appeared on top of Diana. They immediately chomped down on the black chains with enough force that one could hear the cries of metal breaking.

Crack …Crack

Within moments, the chains broke apart and completely unraveled off of Diana. The dog beasts came before her head and licked some of the blood off her still head.

“Mn…” a silent exhale of breath happened to escape her mouth.

…

A droplet of sweat ran down Yan Wen’s head as his gaze locked with the eyes of the mayor in front of him. Yet, there was no semblance of fear on Yan’s Wen’s face, instead an arrogant smile arose.

“Mayor of Heaven’s Peak, this is a surprise. Have you come to see us off? There really wasn’t a need to do so.” He said with an arrogant tone. “However, I must ask, why you have chosen to free the beast I have just captured.”

Cornelius stared coldly at Yan Wen before taking out his weapon. No words were needed to convey the murderous intent directed towards Yan Wen. The essence of wind converged towards his weapon and he chopped down towards Yan Wen.

A blade of sharp wind shot forth, growing larger and larger as it travelled towards Yan Wen.

Yan Wen smirked and retrieved his black chains back into his robes. He then shot out two dark red chains out to meet the wind blade.

Boom!’

The clashing of the two attacks sent out a shock wave which affected the surrounding forest. Trees were left bare, spirits beasts were blown through the air, and even the carriage which was protected, was blown several meters away.

Douji and Dougu stayed where they were and continued to protect Diana.

As the remnants of the blast subsided, a smile could be seen on Yan Wen’s face. “I finally understand what the treasure was that caused that divine blessing. It was that girl, right?”

“Such a treasure… even you can’t expect to keep it all to yourself, right?” As he spoke, he made a hidden hand gesture behind his back which caught the attention of one of the Yan family’s guard.

The guard nodded and the Yan Family carriage immediately shot away from the two powerful cultivators.

“If you want the girl back you will have to go through me. However, it won’t be as easy as you think!”

Yan Wen shrouded himself with the energy of a golden world cultivator and stared at Cornelius’ expression, hoping to see the shock on his face. However, Cornelius cold expression had not changed even a little. A frown appeared as he suddenly whipped the chains outwards to the side before collapsing them to each other by the end of the red chains. “Combusting Sun!”

Ting! The ends of the red chains clashed, producing a small flicker.

BOOOOOOOM!

In an instant, a flash of light engulfed a 3 mile radius in all directions. Extreme heat quickly followed, destroying everything caught in its path. Yan Wen stared with awe at the dome of fire which now stretched across his vision like the burning sun. “So, this is the power of a golden world cultivator.” He laughed heartily.

“Mayor, you underestimated me and chose not to lift a finger! No matter how powerful you are, if you aren’t at least a half-step to an immortal ascension, then you will at the very least be severely injured! Serves you right for your arrogance!”

Yan Wen quickly bolted from the area, following the direction the carriage took. He knew even if his attack caused severe damage to the Mayor that it was not enough to kill him. The mayor was somewhat of an oddity to him. The Mayor was someone who chose to end their cultivation journey in order to stay and protect his people. It was irrational and irrational cultivators were the hardest type of cultivators to deal with; especially those who would throw their all for others.

“At the very least I should be able to keep him occupied until we make it back to the clan.” He muttered to himself.

Suddenly, Yan Wen noticed the sky growing brighter. An orange light soon filled the skies above and shined down below. He turned his head back and was quickly left speechless.

….

In the center of the fire dome was a spiraling fire tornado which was spinning viciously upwards towards the sky. As it spun it extinguished the flames which were spreading across the green forest as well as shrinking the fire dome.

After a few moments, the fire tornado dissipated and all that was left was the charred remains of the green forest. In the center stood Cornelius, completely uninjured. A whirling green energy surrounded Cornelius as if the wind was dancing around him. He lifted his hand and rubbed the head of Douji, the white dog beast. “Kill!” he suddenly said. The whirling green energy quickly surrounded Douji, causing it to grow larger and more menacing than before. In a matter of seconds, it had grown above 200m, towering over Diana.

If one were to gaze at Douji, they would say he looked like an ethereal beast who serves a god. He howled once before disappearing from the space in an instant.

….

“d-d-d DOMAIN!” Yan Wen stuttered. His eyes bulged out in disbelief. The colours drained from his face and he soon became as pale as a ghost.

“AWOOOOO!”

The sound of a dogs howl sounded in everyone’s ears, causing Yan Wen to tremble even further. He suddenly seemed to recall the two dog beasts which appeared out of nowhere and snapped his black chains as if it were butter.

A name struck out in his mind at the same moment he could see the 200m tall dog beast in the distance.

“Cornelius of the twin destructors!” He screamed. Yan Wen immediately caught up to the carriage and ripped off the roof.

“E-elder?”

The Yan family disciples all looked at Yan Wen dishevelled face in confusion.

Yan Wen payed no attention to any of them and instead reached over to grab Hana and Yan Mu.

Hana tried to struggle out but to no avail. Relic could only stare as his sister was being taken away.

Wasting no time, Yan Wen ripped through the air with the two in his arms. The carriage was soon left all by itself with the remaining people.

“Why did the elder leave us?” one of the guards asked. “Was he able to defeat the mayor?”

“Of course, he could probably take care of that small town mayor without breaking a sweat. He must have been getting antsy about getting back to the clan.” another said.

The actions of Yan Wen stirred quite the confusion that no one even thought about looking behind them. No one, besides the calm gaze of the boy tied in chains, noticed the salivating dog beasts behind until the warm breath of the beast tingled at their necks.

The last thing they saw could only be the description of a moist cave.

Crunch!

….

“How could it be him? Why is he here? It can’t be him…It can’t be him….” Yan Wen quietly mumbled.

“Uncle, what happened?” Yan Mu was frightened seeing the look of despair on his uncle’s face. “Could that Mayor have done something to uncle while I wasn’t looking?” Yan Mu contemplated.

Yan Wen zipped through the air like a bolt of lightning. He was burning through his qi at an alarming rate, even damaging his meridians in the process. He was simply too scared to even slow down even for a second!

He was soon able to see the edge of the green forest which bordered the beast territories and human territories. “A-almost there…”

He had been too preoccupied previously to check if the beast was still on his tail. The Yan clan wasn’t based too far from the beast territories and he knew it would only be a short distance away once he crossed the forest. Feeling a bit more ease, he begun to turn his head only to see a large eye staring right next to him. “I-impossible…”

The ethereal dog beast chomped down at the three of them; however, Yan Wen abruptly stopped mid-flight and shot upwards to the sky in order to avoid it.

The beast followed closely behind and quickly caught up to Yan Wen.

“How did it get so close without me noticing?!!!” Yan Wen’s countenance was awful, sweat perspired all over his body. “I need…I need a distraction.” He looked down toward the two people in his arms. Yan Mu looked at his uncle fearfully while Hana continued to struggle even to this moment.

“Sorry, Yan Mu, in your next life, you should try to be a bit more reserved in your actions.”

“U-uncle?”

With a quick qi blast, Yan Mu was jetted away from Yan Wen and Hana. Douji gaze immediately turned to the flying Yan Mu and chased after him.

“UUUUUNNNNCLLLLEE!!!!!” Yan Mu screamed just as he was about to be engulfed by Douji. Yan Wen turned his gaze and bit on his tongue. “No matter what, I will get this girl back to the clan!” He spat out some blood which caused him to visibly age. His aura suddenly grew exponentially and he flashed towards the edge of the forest even faster than before.

They quickly made it to the edge of the green forest and Yan Wen could already a city in the distant. This city was owned by the Zhao clan, which was a rival clan of Yan Wen’s clan. Under normal circumstances, Yan Wen would not bother visiting such a city but with such a fear some beast on his tail, he had no choice but to do so. He didn’t believe Cornelius would dare make an enemy of a powerful clan which rivaled his own.

However, just as he was about to exit the beast forest, a large paw appeared in front of him and swiped him back several hundred meters. The force of the swipe caused no injury but it still took several attempts for him to steady himself. “Y-you…” He panted. “You were just playing with me?! You could have caught up to me this entire time but you chose to play with me first?!” Yan Wen was turning insane. As he stared at the large dog beast causally strolling towards him, he suddenly felt like a baby trying to go against a full grown adult. He had thought after crossing the golden world threshold, he would at the very least, be able to hold his own against the mayor. Now, he understood that it was never the case.

“I-I see now that I should have never tried to cross paths with you, Cornelius of the twin destructors.“ He spoke to the beast in front of him. Douji seemed to ignore him and continued walking towards Yan Wen. “This girl… She is something even rarer than the legendary pill of immortality. The white bridge within her dantian space allowed me to step over the obstacle which had plagued me for over 20 years, in a single cultivation session. I would surmise that even someone from could step onto the immortal ascension realm with ease if they were to cultivate within her dantian space.” He sighed.

Yan Wen proceeded to hold Hana in front of him by the scruff of her neck. “I will apologize of behalf of my nephew who started all of this. I will return her to you and after I leave, I will not tell anyone about her or what happened to the disciples of my clan. If you will just let me go I will swear on it on my spirit contract!”

Douji stopped right in front of Yan Wen. Its warm breath blew against Yan Wen’s face.

When Yan Wen saw Douji stop, a smile had appeared on his face. “Then…”

Crunch!

Yan Wen lowered his gaze to find the girl and him arm missing. Blood poured out of his arm causing him to writhe in pain.

“ARGHGGGG! Damn you, I’ll kill you! I’ll…”

He couldn’t even finish what he was going to say before a single swipe from Douji sliced him into pieces.

Douji payed no attention to the minced meat that fell to the ground and disappeared as it headed back to Cornelius.

….

Within the main estate of the Yan Family, within a special court, a man sat solemnly on his chair as he listened to the voices coming from the communication crystal in his palm.

…“I-I see now that I should have never tried to cross paths with you, Cornelius of the twin destructors

... The white bridge within her dantian space allowed me to step over the obstacle which had plagued me for over 20 years, in a single cultivation session. I would surmise that even someone from could step onto the immortal ascension realm with ease if they were to cultivate within her dantian space.”

…“ARGHGGGG! Damn you, I’ll kill you! I’ll…”

The man closed his hand and sighed. He stood up and took a large breath before he shouted, “ALL ELDERS CONVENE IN THE MAIN HALL NOW!”