Trees were incinerated into ashes, the ground charred. Heat waves dissipated into the surroundings, causing the temperature to rise sharply. The surroundings was void of any life forms.

In the middle of the crater was a spherical ball of black mist, which levitated slightly above the ground while giving off a mysterious aura. Time to time, strands of dark mist could be seen flowing into the sphere.

Under the cover of the night sky, a colossal lion with a purple mane prowled towards the sphere. Its body was glazed in black scales which occasionally reflected the moonlight and its claws were incomparably sharp. When the sphere was within jumping distance, it pounced towards the sphere and its face was filled with a look of surprise when it passed through the sphere without any bit of resistance.

When the lion landed, it decided to observe the mysterious sphere at a distance. At that moment, the sphere started to distort and expanded in size. After the soundless transformation, a Shadow-colored lion was formed, slightly radiating coils of black mist.

Startled, the lion let out a few thundering roars that were imbued with qi, as if telling the enemy that it was no pushover. Upon coming into contact with the pure white qi, the strands of qi invaded the Shadow lion's body, causing it to become fainter. Seeing that its qi attack was effective, the lion continued its assault with qi roars, causing the Shadow lion's black body to fade.

It was at this moment did the Shadow lion felt something. It felt that its very existence was threatened, it felt danger. Based on its instinct for survival, its first reaction was to flee, yes, flee as fast as it could. Trying out its body for the first time, it tried to feel its legs as it saw the lion using them to pounce at him. After it felt its legs, the Shadow lion immediately escaped in the opposite direction, away from the lion.

When it saw that the Shadow lion was escaping, the lion quickly gave chase as its pride would not allow another lion of the same species to threaten its authority in the forest. Upon sensing that the lion was slowly decreasing the gap between them, the Shadow lion's footwork became frenzied, causing its speed to decrease drastically. Yes, it panicked.

However, its flight for survival allowed the footwork to become in sync again and this time, it put in its maximum effort in running. After several hours of fleeing and chasing, it noticed that it was out of the forest and in the distance was a large wooden structure.

As it got closer to the structure, the Shadow lion noticed that its path was blocked and using its somewhat meager amount of intelligence, it recalled the how the lion pounced on itself by crouching down before straightening its leg. The Shadow lion attempted to mimic the jumping motion while running and it flew into the air for a short while before coming down.

However, since it planned to jump over the gate, it needed to put in more power in its legs. As it neared the gate, ferocious roars could be heard directly behind it. The Shadow lion exerted all its strength into it legs and leaped over the gate. It was a success.

***

Dark Forest Village. Dawn.

It was named that way due to its location beside the Dark Forest. The Dark Forest was home to the sacred profound lion and it was rumored to have slain a core formation upper stage cultivator due to its sacred bloodline despite the slight disparity in strength.

The villagers stirred at dawn and dutifully carried out their daily activities. The children trudged to the village school while the adults opened their stalls or went to work in their laborious jobs. The village guards patrolled the streets to maintain order while some of them went to guard the village gates.

Today's gate duty was in-charged by Tian and Tu, both of them were at Soldier Rank 1, the lowest of the lowest rank. The village gate guards was the most relaxing job as bandits and trade did not flourish in this desolate location.

"Hey Tian, wanna go to the brothel later? I heard The Fragrance Fairy is gonna dance later." Tu asked while leaning against the gate.

"No. I'm married and we are currently on duty. Be alert." Tian, a man of few words, gently sighed in displeasure at his partner's lust.

"Awww...I was just teasing you. Don't come then..."

"AH!" Tian screamed and pointed.

"I say, you don't have to interrupt me right? Huh...AH!" Tu wanted to rebuke Tian when he was interrupted by Tian's shout, but as he glanced at the direction that Tian pointed in, he shrieked along as well.

"Q-quick, inform Righteous Sword Sect using the seal. I will gather the troops!" Tian broke out of his stupor and made a decisive call of action.

Too traumatized to say anything, Tu nodded hastily before running towards the seal in the guard post. 'Holy crap, to think that not just one but two Sacred Profound Lion would appear... My sweet Fragrance Fairy, please bless me with your bountiful blossom!' With that thought in mind, Tu clumsily bit his thumb and dripped his blood into the seal and performed a chant. The seal lighted up and Tu quickly transmitted the message across. The other party agreed and eventually, the light in the seal faded away.