[Central Continent, Holy Land of Snakes]

(2 weeks later)

The Holy Land of Snakes was famed for various reasons, some being its geographical location (the centre of the Central Continent), the unnatural size and lusciousness of its organic resources and the fact that it was an actual Sacred Land, filled with bountiful resources and leaden with magical energy. But these facts actually paled in comparison to the knowledge that this land was home to the most powerful entity on the Continent, Jörma the Devourer, along with the rest of her Snake brethren.

And as the name suggested, normally, only Snakes could be found on this land, with the exception of Human slaves that most powerful Beast factions owned, and on occasion, the Divine Dragons which could be considered their distant cousins.

But today, for the first time in history, a grand meeting was taking place within this land with all the most powerful races on the continent invited.

Giant snakes, blazing birds, winged dragons and serpentine dragons, icy furred deer, long-eared elves, large-eared Celestial Elephant Beastkin, golden monkeys and more. These amazing creatures were blazing with their natural auras and created a heart-palpitating sight that would shock anyone.

But despite that, they were not the main attraction. That achievement went to the humongous figures of the Celestial Beasts, Apis the Elephant and Jungo the Monkey King, along with Jörma, whose massive size wasn’t much inferior.

It had come as a shock to the entire Continent when it was revealed that Jörma wasn’t actually a Celestial Beast, instead being an Enlightened Beast who had only reached that size thanks to her prodigious bloodline, especially since that meant that she had an Enlightened Form, something that no one had ever seen. That would also make her like Gaia, the dragon goddess, since no one had ever seen her Enlightened Form either.

But on the topic of Enlightened Forms, although almost every being here was in the 4th Realm and almost all Beasts, nobody was using their Enlightened Form. Some would think that it would be a good idea to use them since it would work as a flex, proving to everyone what Realm they were in, but nobody was willing to do that here.

Everybody here had gone through the fires of war many times, causing them to become wary and cautious. So to come to a place like this and not be in their most optimal state for battle in case anything went wrong was simply foolish.

In any case, this allowed the dignity and might of their true forms to be seen, and some of them weren’t much less eye-catching than the 3 humongous beasts.

Raiko the Beast Emperor of the East, a continent-renowned figure known for his impressive might and dazzling looks. His impossibly golden fur and pure white underbelly, distinct from any other tiger and daunting height of 100m tall, which was comparable to the Crystal Dragon King despite the vast difference in the innate size of their species (no doubt thanks to his great achievement in Anatomy Refinement), made him a sight nobody could ignore.

Dodo the Guardian of the Dawn Forest and Progenitor of the Glacial Saint Deer Clan, an impressive sight with luminous white fur and icy antlers and hooves that perpetually let out a cool mist. Although he was smaller than Raiko, he was no less dazzling and certainly not weaker.

Gaia could naturally not be ignored with her brilliant scales of gold, height of 130+ metres and divine aura, the Crystal Dragon King was also a sight, Drako the Divine Dragon King, Lily the enchanting white snake, Hiculu the 4-headed poisonous snake, the 9 Flame Queen and the 2 rulers of the Phoenix race, even the Elven Queen with her prominent beauty and unique colours, especially considering she was wearing clothes, a novelty that most of those outside of the Dawn Forest were unaware of. The fact that she was so much smaller than the other hegemons meant almost nothing, all of them were startling sights to behold.

But of course, not everyone here was a friend.

For starters, the tensions between the 2 kinds of Dragons were almost a tangible thing. Gaia was naturally indifferent, but the 2 respective Kings were glaring at each other as if they would strike out at any moment. Too much blood had been shed between them and reconciliation seemed impossible, and If it weren’t for the fact that they were surrounded by many other predators, some who were more powerful than they, then they definitely would have fought as soon as they laid eyes on each other, grand continental meeting be damned.

There also seemed to be some tension between the Elves and the Golden Monkeys from the North, but nobody there was surprised. Something happened a few years ago which resulted in a feud of sorts and ever since then, news that a Golden Monkey had killed an important Elf or an Elf had killed an important Golden Monkey could be heard from time to time. Not that they knew why.

But going by the leering gazes and obscene wagging tongues from the Monkeys, as well as the frosty resentful looks from the Elves, it wasn’t that hard to take a guess or 2.

There were other pseudo confrontations taking place in the gathering as everyone waited for the last few groups to arrive, but for the most part, there was no confrontation as heated as the between the 2 species of Dragons.

But it wasn’t all bad. Some groups were merry with each other, especially those that came from the same region (of course, that’s if they were allies and not contesting for resources in said region), and there were even specific individuals that seemed to be exceptionally popular.

Raiko the Beast Emperor for example, appeared to attract more conversations and smiles from people than even Gaia. Sure, a big part of that was because the latter was extremely aloof and didn’t mingle much outside the True Dragon race, in contrast to the former who had journeyed far and wide, making allies and enemies all over the place- but it was still a great feat.

The Elf Queen was another person who was exceptionally popular in the gathering. She was passionately conversing with others who seemed to be absorbed by what she was saying and didn’t look at all bothered by the gazes from the Golden Monkeys.

“Queen Titania” came a feminine voice from above. The alluring and mesmerising yet deep voice immediately caused most of the other conversations to cease.

Titania looked up and caught the gaze of Jörma, all 3 crimson eyes trained on her own. She was a little intimidated but didn’t let it show on her face, keeping up her ‘soulful’ smile. But what the giant Snake said next caused her lips to involuntarily twitch.