Several hundred kilometres away from Redster, at the borders of the forbidden forest, several army barricades were there and several people could be seen chopping down the large overgrown trees. The expedition for mining energy crystals had been going on for two years already. The kingdom army had already reached the crystal vein a year ago. They had extracted quite a lot of crystals which were used for placing formations on all the military forts surrounding the Atrexia kingdom. Under the noses of other races of the light empire, the humans had managed to bolster their territorial defences to whole new levels. Upon further investigation, it was found that there were multiple crystal veins that lay crisscrossed in the area. Thus, the army kept on cutting down the trees and clearing the forest to mine even more crystals.

It was also known from experience that excessive cutting of forest resulted in monster tides where waves and waves of monsters would emerge from the forest to run amok in the civilian territory. To prevent mishaps, multiple layers of encirclements had been created by the army to stop all monster waves. As the army was busy cutting trees, a loud whistle emerged from the forest. This was the signal from the scouts indicating an upcoming monster wave. The entire camp suddenly showed a flurry of well-practised motions as they donned their pieces of equipment and weapons and got themselves arranged in a formation. From the quick reaction, it could be seen that these were all veteran soldiers experienced in handling monster tides.

As the battle formation of the army was settled, howls could be heard from the direction of the forest. There was around 500 metres distance between the army and the tree lining. As howls grew louder, the earth rumbled and quacked! One would feel the vibrations hitting their heart as if declaring the advent of calamity. But the soldiers kept calm and got ready in battle positions. As soon as the beasts emerged from the forest, shields were put forward and multiple lines of shield-bearers laid out a multi-layer barrier of sorts surrounding the clearing. Warriors having swords and spears were mixed in between the shield-bearers. Each shield bearer was like an immovable mountain - each of them in the king stage of body cultivation. All the warriors with spears or swords were filled with a bloodthirsty aura that would cause normal civilians to be suffocated and unable to breathe! Even Michael with his unbending will would feel his mind tremble if facing the killing intent of these elites. As the beasts emerged with rampage they ran towards the defence line haphazardly. As the beasts ran forward, the distance grew shorter and shorter between the two sides. As soon as the beasts crashed into the first defence line, some rapid changes occurred. The shield bearers towards the end of the line started running at inhuman speeds to encircle the beasts and they started surrounding these beasts in a multi-level barrier of shields! The attack unit of soldiers immediately took action stabbing the monsters with spears and swords. A cacophony of different monster sounds emerged throughout the camp. Each strike of the attacking soldiers was deadly and filled with the power to drill mountains.

The monsters were a unique race in Aterna. They were definitely not intelligent and were controlled by instinct. In fact, they could be considered the mad - cousins of the beast race. They would also have some cultivation though it was mostly due to absorbing natural/environmental energy. While Aterna did not have much energy left, there were still energy-rich areas such as near the crystal vein in the forbidden forest. Thus, monsters would usually evolve in these areas. Most of these monsters were in the knight or king realm. It is important to know that monsters and beasts were blessed by the plane with many natural endowments. Thus, a king realm beast would easily take on a human emperor realm expert. This was the primary reason why the beast race was one of the strongest races in the light alliance even when their natural talent for cultivation was much lower. There was a famous saying in Aterna :

The beast race does not have weaklings!

Well, the same could be said for monsters. While monsters gained rudimentary intelligence as their cultivation grew, it was not wrong to say that monsters were a blight on the land and were only interested in mindless slaughter and destruction.

While the battle was going on, a few people were keeping a larger look at the situation. Leonor Rageberg, Harris Bimbleton and Kamal Windsor were standing on a cliff some distance away with some other noble scions taking in an ariel view of the situation. This was already the 12th monster tide that they were facing in the past two years. All these young geniuses were already superb commanders as could be seen from the discipline shown by the army even while facing the monsters. After a few minutes, it became clear that the tide would be contained easily. Thus, all three heaved a sigh of relief. But, just at that moment, a howl erupted from the jungle with such power that the entire area shook! Even the noble scions found their ears ringing and terror emerged in their eyes. With extremely fierce aura, a rhinoceros monster appeared from the tree line toppling down the trees. It was as big as a one-storey house.

Peak - Emperor Realm!

While the monster had not broken through to saint realm, it was still a pinnacle existence. With its power, it could probably take on both Collins and Sitara together and still come out as the victor. To kill it, they would need someone like Emperor Atrexia or a peak saint. Needless to say, the army did not have any experts of such calibre. After all peak experts like that were very valuable to the race. They would not get involved with the army as long as the race went to war. The inexperienced scions started panicking while the three prodigies started thinking about how to salvage the situation. Even saving half of the army members would be a miracle. While they were thinking to use the communication tool to the capital, another person approached from the back of the army. He was dressed in a shabby black robe, clear for all to see that he was not a soldier. But, the power in his body was no joke. Saint realm expert! To be accurate, he was in the mid saint realm. This was one of the prominent experts of the kingdom - Dracus Ming. He was a commoner from birth and had cultivated to the saint realm. Needless to say, he was pretty arrogant about his accomplishments. He had another title - the greatest martial artist in the kingdom. He was also the martial-arts instructor of Prince Ronald. He was a vagabond by nature and travelled around the kingdom seeking inspiration. As soon as he emerged, his speed increased to a whole different level. He shot like a bullet from over the soldiers in the battlefield charging at the rhino monster. Saint experts could sprint at speeds up to 250 kilometres per hour for small distances. This made it look like he had appeared out of nowhere! As soon as he reached the rhino, his figure vanished! The saint realm experts had an extremely powerful strength in their body and thus, could have instantaneous acceleration. He soon reappeared directly above the temple of the monster sending a kick to its skull. The impact caused all four feet of the monster to be depressed in the soil by a full metre as a huge dust cloud exploded! The ground shook upon impact.

The soldiers heaved a sigh of relief while the commanders sent the report to capital as fast as possible. The new communication devices were another improvement to the Atrexia kingdom in the past two years. They used nature energy crystal for their functioning. These were research-products of High Priest Mubal. It was clear for all to see how important energy crystals were. The capital immediately sent the nearest saint as re-enforcement. But it would still take around a quarter of an hour for him to reach. Meanwhile, Dracus was having to fight for his life. He would use his martial arts to use acceleration to lose the monster's attention and try to hit it at vital spots. But the beast was too sturdy! Even with all his attacks, it was only lightly injured. The impacts would send shockwaves in the air. The battle raged on as a man and a monster fought each other and held each other off. In around 10 minutes, all the remaining monsters were slain and the soldiers immediately retreated. They started packing the camp with incredible efficiency and running off in different directions. After all, they would be needlessly killed if they got close to the fight. Thus, they would use different routes to return to the nearest military fort. This would also give the saint expert more freedom.

Just then, a shrill cry was heard and a few hundred metres high in the sky, a huge bird flew overhead. Just after that, a figure wielding a staff dropped from the sky right on top of the rhino monster plunging his staff into the spine of the monster! The impact was like the detonation of a massive bomb! Dust clouds rolled in circles as the earth rippled like water. One could see circular waves forming on the ground spreading like a ripple in the ocean. This was a peak saint of humanity. The fort guardian of the nearest fort.

After that, the two saints working together managed to kill the monster for good. But even with two experts, it took another 10 minutes for it to be killed. And thus, a high-level battle came to an end.

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Michael celebrated his 5th birthday a few days ago. The court decided to evaluate his talents in both martial arts and soul arts before deciding his combat direction for the next two years. After all, if the human crown prince could not get into the elite batch, it would be pretty shameful. Thus, it was decided that both Dracus Ming and Mubal Khafka, the pinnacle experts in both fields would judge his potential. And today, both had arrived at the Rageberg castle for this very purpose. But, it seemed clear that they did not like each other very much.

Mubal : Oh! If it isn't the high and mighty Dracus martial god who had his ass handed to him by a mythical astral beast.

Astral beasts were myths in Aterna plane as beasts that roamed the cosmos outside their plane. There were many myths surrounding these beasts but all of them claimed that they were extremely powerful - so much that people of this plane could never match their power.

While Dracus' eye twitched at the jab, he simply ignored the fellow. Even if the beast had peak emperor cultivation, its soul would not be more powerful than peak viscous soul. Mubal could have easily killed the beast with his soul arts. It should be known that all experts after reaching a certain stage learned to guard their souls. Focussing the entire power on defence, one could manage against a soul expert who had higher soul cultivation. For example, Dracus' soul was about as strong as mid viscous soul. So, a soul cultivator would have to be at least mid solid soul stage if he wanted to injure him. But it would be too easy for the high priest to do so. Important people in Aterna would often have soul guards - powerful defensive artefacts that could increase soul defences. Alas, the humans being a weak race, only the emperor had a decent soul guard. Even the weaker soul guards were given to perfect realm experts or important peak saint experts who served as fort guardians. It would be too long before Dracus had a chance to obtain it.

While the experts were talking, Michael came to the meeting room with Duke Collins, his mid-stage knight cultivation clear to see. His soul was in the second chapter of viscous soul realm, closer to mid-stage viscous soul. But the power was misjudged as late viscous soul realm.

Without wasting time with pleasantries, both experts moved to the training area with Michael and began testing him.

Mubal asked Michael to use a soul art he had developed personally, the illusion clone art. It would allow one to use their soul energy to form an illusion clone of oneself. Of course, the clone did not contain any power and was a misdirection technique. Now, Michael was a powerhouse of the soul in his previous life. Thus he was quite habituated in using soul energy already. Even though he did not know many soul arts, he was incredibly quick to learn. With his perfect persona blessing, he was easily able to form three clones.

Mubal's eyes turned wide as saucers when he saw the kid form three clones using an art that was obviously his own. To learn an art with the first description was simply too absurd. While the efficiency was a bit low as with his energy, creating 10 clones would be possible, that was hardly the point! This 5-year-old kid could use an art after just one instruction. Even the greatest geniuses Mubal had heard about from other kingdoms would not come close. Mubal's eyes started shining after thinking up till here. This was a heavenly genius of the soul.

Mubal concluded his test shortly. Following him, Dracus asked Michael to perform basic postures of the seven-styles-art. This was a martial art developed by Dracus himself through years of training. In fact, the youngest prince was also a follower of seven-styles-art. This martial art was quite famous in other kingdoms as well and had been recorded in the martial tower of the light tower. This was the reason Dracus' status in Atrexia kingdom was not much lower than nobles even though he was a commoner.

Michael had never practised martial arts in both of his lives. But, he had already decided to do everything he could to increase his power in this life. He was in fact, quite hopeful of learning martial arts. After all, there was quite a visual appeal to martial artists that soul cultivators lacked. The graceful movements and terrifying power were like a beacon shining on the battlefield that could raise the morale of everyone. This was the method of fighting that belonged to a hero! Thus, Michael had to learn it. But it turned out that making postures and changing them accordingly was quite hard. Michael activated his perfect persona blessing to force himself to finish the postures. But, it looked unnatural in the eyes of Dracus. He had never seen someone do martial arts this way. This kid had taken away all the grace and nature from the movements and forced the postures making them look robotic. This caused him to frown in response. He directly told Michael:

Dracus : Kid, let me be honest. That was horrible! You don't have any talent for martial arts. I don't want to waste my time with you as you descecrate my prestine art. I will not teach you!

Collins and Sitara who were standing to the side frowned upon hearing Dracus' poisonous words. Even Mubal was stunned at his words to a child. Michael was also bummed at this response. This was the first time since his rebirth that something did not go according to his wishes. But, he could not force things. So, he gave a wide smile:

Michael : It is of no concern sir. I will simply learn from someone else. I don't believe that as long as I give it my all, I would not be able to learn martial arts.

Michael's answer was like a slap to Dracus' face. In truth, Dracus did not like nobles. He as a commoner always had an antagonizing attitude towards nobles. He did like Prince Ronald as he was a prodigy of martial way and inheritor of his martial legacy. He could be said to be his legacy disciple. The kid in front of him was a noble and also someone who had stolen his disciple's thunder. Adding on the fact that he was not much talented in the martial way, Dracus already hated Michael. So, he decided to ruthlessly disturb Michael's heart so that he would not progress much along the martial way leaving an opening for his disciple to exploit later. But, Michael's will was already unbreakable. If he did not have talent, he would learn through his efforts. It simply did not matter to him what anyone else said or thought.

Mubal and Collins both felt that Michael had the heart of an expert. Even Dracus had to admit that the kid would be a troublesome enemy for his disciple. Before he could take another jab at Michael, Collins interrupted:

Collins : I believe that the testing has concluded. Maters, please come along with me.

With his interruption, the matter was settled. Both masters gave detailed reports to the court. The nobles were initially put off by Michael's lack of martial arts talent but the High Priest's praise caused them to feel relieved again. The High Priest was assigned as Michael's master. It was from then that Michael's daily routine changed into a constant cycle of cultivation, soul arts training and martial arts training. Michael decided to learn the basic military fighting techniques to start off on the road to martial arts. The basic fighting technique was something spread across the entire light empire and all soldiers learned it. In fact, it had three tiers for three tiers of soldiers. A foot soldier in the army would generally be in the knight realm. Thus, the basic military martial art was in line with Michael's current cultivation. As he did not have much talent in martial arts, he did not continue to insist on getting a master. He asked the soldiers and guards of the castle to teach him every morning. The training would continue for a few hours by the end of which Michael would be soaked in sweat. He would repeat all the postures thousands of time with his perfect persona blessing so that he could engrave the moves his body. Then he would practise the moves without activating his blessing. Michael would cultivate daily as well. His soul cultivation barely stopped throughout the day. As the Styx Soul Incarnation Scripture was extremely powerful, it was difficult to progress as well. Michael would also practise all sorts of soul arts with the High Priest in the evening. Here again, he would repeat the process several times and try to use it without his blessing. Thus, Michael training started in full swing.

Like this, two years passed. Michael reached the late stage knight realm and third stage of viscous soul chapter in these two years. He had also mastered the basic military fighting technique thoroughly. He was only lacking battle experience before being considered a bonafide soldier. He also learned many soul arts from Mubal, each extremely unique and powerful. Thus, the current seven-year-old Michael could be considered an expert considering his power. If he fought Prince Ronald, he would win without much suspense. Also, as the date of entrance examinations closed in, many forces around the plane started looking at Micahel's movements and waiting for the results to decide their future plans.