Azalon sat on the mountain peak absorbing the Energies within the Spirit Core of the Thunder Horned Stag. Time flowed on as Azalon advanced in his cultivation and managed to acquire his third Spirit. Slowly three days passed by. These three days, Azalon shut himself off from the outside world and solely concentrated on refining the Energy in his body. Even though the place he was currently at was dangerous, he had confidence in his brother’s capabilities. With Hank’s cultivation at the 4th Level Spirit Condensation and his Crimson Spear Spirit, he could easily ward off whatever came near them.

Hank was standing guard observing the surroundings for any threats from the Beasts. He had been on alert for the last three days. At first there had been no Beasts that approached this area as they were all frightened by the Tribulation Lightning as well as the powerful aura of the Thunder Horned Stag. But they soon sensed the demise of the Beast and they flocked in hope of salvaging something from the corpse of the Thunder Horned Stag. If they can consume some meat or even bones of the Stag, it will provide some massive benefits. This was the same as to why humans hunt the Spirit Beasts. It’s just that humans can utilise the power within the corpse of a Spirit Beast more efficiently!

At first the Beasts were reckless in their attacks, but under the powerful retaliation from Hank, the low level Beasts ran away but occasionally Hank would often see Level 4 or even Level 5 Beasts roaming near the mountain top observing them. Hank dissected the corpse of the Thunder Horned Stag, but since he didn’t have any storage devices, he had no choice but to leave the meat and bones out in the open. That was the main reason for the current predicament.

Hank glanced at his brother who sat still like a statue and felt his rising aura. He remembered the incident three days ago. He still couldn’t get over the numerous shocks this little kid has given him!

Even though he sensed a Level 5 Beast that was about to advance to Level 6, he didn’t expect the Beast to be the Thunder Horned Stag. This particular Beast was said to be the descendants from a powerful Primordial Level Beast Demon Antelope of the Ancient Era! If you want to understand what the term, you have to know about how the Beasts of the continent were categorised into.

As far as Hank’s knowledge Spirit Cultivation was divided into 6 realms named as: Spirit Novice Realm, Spirit Sense Realm, Spirit Condensation Realm, Spirit Core Realm, Nascent Soul Realm and The Spirit Sage Realm. As for what Realm exists above the Spirit Sage Realm, no one of the Shandra Continent have managed to see such figures for a long time! But there are rumours that there were some immeasurably powerful people within those Royal families and such. Even his Academy was rumoured to have a secluded expert within it who protects the Academy from the shadows. As such, the powerful existence of this continent became the Spirit Sage Realm out in the open.

As for the Beasts, they were classified into Classes 1 to 7, which were equivalent to the cultivators from the Spirit Sense Realm to that of the Spirit Core Realm. The next stage Beasts possess basic intelligence and even cultivate like that of humans! They were existences that were the true nightmare of the human race apart from the Demon Race!

Desolate Level Beasts, Chaos Level Beasts, Disaster Level Beasts and finally the Primordial Level Beasts, the most terrifying and powerful Beasts! It was said that once a Primordial Beast appears, there exists only a single path to whatever stands in its path. Destruction! Annihilation! Extermination! Words couldn’t describe the damage that a single Primordial Beast could create. But the Primordial Beasts were almost rare in this world that there were only two or three encounters within all these tens of thousands of years.

That was the reason as to why it was rare to see a Thunder Horned Stag with enough purity of its ancestral bloodline after all the countless generations over the passage of time. That was why the reason that this Stag could trigger the Tribulation Lightning during its evolution was something that made it a priceless treasure trove! Elemental Tribulation is something unique for the Primordial Beasts and their off springs! That was also why he was excited when he saw the Stag. The Primordial blood in its lineage will awaken once it reaches Level 7 and then it will only be a matter of time before it becomes a Disaster Level Beast itself! Every part of this rare Beast was a treasure, especially its Spirit Core, meat and bone marrow.

But he had underestimated the power of this beast. Even though it was weakened greatly by the Tribulation Lightning, it was still something that he couldn’t handle all by himself. Just as he thought about giving up when he saw the Spirit Core fly out with the Soul of the Stag in tow as he knew he couldn’t kill it, Azalon managed to turn the tide. He suddenly issued a series of weird commands to follow to the number of steps and the durations between the strikes. Even though he had confidence in his brother, still Hank felt sceptical in his heart. But he was then shocked to see the events occur just like his brother anticipated, and they managed to strike down the Spirit Core of the Stag!

Hank didn’t know how he did it but his heart swelled with pride and love for his little brother! He knew that his brother was different from the other children. He was the only child in the family that took the initiative to greet him and in time, they became closer than real brothers. He watched as the combined attack damage the Spirit Core and managed to injure its Soul. It was somewhat regrettable that they couldn’t recover the Core of this rare Beast; the other parts of the corpse were even more valuable than the Core!

But just as he was about to rejoice in the fortune they managed to obtain, Azalon suddenly swallowed Core along with the Soul! Hank almost fainted from shock!

Directly swallowing the Spirit Core of a Beast was the stupidest thing that a cultivator could do. A Spirit Core was the most important part of a Beast. It represented the source of the strength of the Beast, its most essential component of its body. And there exists a huge difference between the Spirit Beasts and humans. A human couldn’t withstand the violent nature of the Beast imprinted within the Spirit Core. Generally they would slowly absorb the pure Energy within it while discarding the violent energies so as to not damage their body. But Azalon swallowed the Level 6 Spirit Core along with the Soul that reached Level 7.

He spread out his Spiritual Sense carefully observing every single thing going on within his brother! Using his acute perception, he sensed the cultivation of Azalon slowly rise as he refined the Energy within the Core. Just as Hank was about to relax, an immense beastial aura spread out from Azalon. He sensed Azalon’s consciousness slowly crumble under the suppression of that beastial aura.

“Shit, I knew this would happen. A Level 7 Soul is not something Azalon could manage with his meagre strength.” Hank’ expression sunk as he injected his own spiritual sense into Azalon trying to defend Azalon’s consciousness from the attacks of the Soul he swallowed. But he soon realised that even his spiritual sense couldn’t stand up against that Soul as his spiritual sense was knocked out as easily as a sheet of paper.

“No, no, no. this can’t be happening. Why did he have to be this foolish? If he swallowed only the Core, we could have done something, but this Soul is too powerful. Is there nothing to save him?” Hank’s emotions quickly changed between panic, sadness, anger, and regret that finally changed into despair as Azalon’s consciousness came to the breaking point.

With his heart in turmoil, Hank didn’t register a small flash on the chest of Azalon as a small and beautiful Fairy appeared. The Fairy laid her tiny hands on the forehead of Azalon, and her body flashed bright silver startling Hank. He turned his head and he saw small silver strands flowing from the Fairy into the middle of eyebrows of Azalon, Hank was once gain shocked as he could sense that the Fairy was protecting the last thread of the consciousness of Azalon from that Soul.

A short moment later, the beastial aura vanished suddenly as quickly as it appeared. Hank’s mind became numb from the torrent of emotions of emotions he felt within these span of moments. In fact, the number of emotions that played out on the face of Hank was more than what he experienced within his entire life till today.

He watched the Fairy lower her hands and laid down beside Azalon after lightly kissing on the nose of Azalon and closed her eyes. It seems that the spirit exhausted all he energy in that previous incident. Hank collapsed onto his knees as he wiped the sweat on his face. He slowly heaved a sigh of relief as he sensed Azalon’s consciousness slowly recovering.

If anything happened to his brother, Hank could only die with regret. Especially after the miraculous encounter he had that Awakened his Petrified Spirit allowing him to cultivate. And not just that, Azalon even had dual spirits with one being the High Fairy Spirit!

It was three days before and from then on Hank took up the guarding position as his brother cultivated. Being awake for three days was nothing for a cultivator of Spirit Condensation Realm, but the mental strain over the three days wore Hank out. His eyes were slightly bloodshot and he had to continuously rotate his cultivation base to reduce the burden he was feeling. It was at this time that Azalon opened his eyes.

Hank suddenly felt movement behind him and hand clutched the Spear attached to his back and he injected his Spirit Energy into the Spear as he turned around. Red lines swiftly spread on the Spear and the temperature of the surroundings rose under the influence of his fire affinity spiritual energy. But he suddenly paused as he saw the eyes of his brother that were tightly shut these past three days.

The moment Azalon opened his eyes, the figure of Hank crouching with his Spear in his hand came into view. His heart felt warm as he saw the bloodshot eyes and his tattered clothes as he knew that his brother was the one who guarded him all this time, even though he didn’t know long he took. Before he could let out a smile, his vision shifted suddenly as the world flew past him with frightening speed. An excruciating pain blossomed from his lower abdomen and he crashed against a large rock rather violently.

His bones would have broken under the impact if not for the recent increase in his strength. But his organs shook as blood rose in his throat. He lifted his head and stared incredulously at the now distant figure of his brother who still had his fist tightly clenched.

“Cough… Cough… Hank, what… what happened? I could have died from that punch, you know! You didn’t go mad and mistook me for a beast, right?” Azalon shouted loudly as he coughed out blood.

“You are calling me mad, you idiot! You are the one who is really mad here. No, you are completely crazy. What the hell were you thinking when you swallowed the Spirit Core along with the Soul? Huh? Almost died? Be grateful that I am not beating you to death right now. Do you even know what I had to go through these three days? You… you… Haahh… haaahh” Hank was panting and he started yelling even loudly than Azalon and he almost sounded hysterical. His whole body was trembling as he tried to control his temper.

“Three days? It took three days to refine that Spirit Core? Hmmm… Ah, I reached the 5th Level! Hank, I reached the 5th Level right now!” Azalon ignored Hank’s reactions as he inspected his body and shouted with glee. Hank’ face contorted as he watched Azalon jumping around with excitement. Hank’s figure flashed once and agonising cries spread out from the mountain top for a long time.

“Humph… This should teach this kid a lesson for making me worry. Crazy… this kid is really crazy…” Hank snorted as he released his frustration that accumulated these past days and he bent down picking up a small Fairy that was sleeping on a patch of grass. At a distance, Azalon’s body was covered in black and blue hues and his entire body was twitching uncontrollably...