Relic quickly struggled from her naked embrace and turned to Hana.

Cornelius was also quick and covered Diana with a set of his clothes in an instant.

The transition was so seamless one would question if they actually saw what had happened or if they just imagined it.

“H-hana, don’t misunderstand I…”

Hana dived towards Relic and embraced him tightly. “You are safe…”

Relic stilled for a moment before his gaze turned soft and a smile appeared on his face.

“Yea… I’m glad you were aright as well.” Relic did not hesitate to return the hug. He truly valued this sister of his who had taken care of him when he could not. Although his thoughts still consisted mostly of his master, his sister still had a place in his heart.

The two remained in that position for several minutes before Hana finally let go. She then reached for his hand and dragged him towards Cornelius.

“Teacher!” She stared at Cornelius with a look of determination and vigor.

“Hana, what is it?”

“Please help us find Jiro! That man who captured us trapped Jiro in a disc and then dropped him somewhere in the forest. Jiro must be scared.” Tears began to well in her eyes but she managed to hold them back.

“Hmmm…” Cornelius waved his hand and a cracked disc appeared in his hands.

“Is that….”

“I noticed it the moment I came rushing after you two. I had never noticed this item before in the surroundings so I causally picked it up and was planning to investigate it later.”

He proceeded to snap the disc in half. A ball of light escaped from the cracked piece and landed on the ground. It slowly took on the form of a large peacock in front of everyone’s eyes.

Jiro slowly opened his eyes to see a blurry figure running towards him. He was immediately frightened and extended his wings to block but the figure was able to slip past him and lunged itself towards him.

Jiro braced himself for the attack but soon felt two small arms wrap around his neck. He looked down to see a familiar girl who was rubbing her tears and snot all over his feathers.

“Jiro, you’re safe!”

Jiro looked up and saw the familiar people all around. “(What happened, wasn’t I captured by Yan Wen?)” He asked astonished.

“(I’ll tell you everything later. Hana has been worried for you the entire time even when she was captured herself.)” Relic responded.

Jiro looked back down on Hana and couldn’t help but feel a bit different towards Hana. “Hmph, I guess not all humans are bad.” He lowered his neck, giving her a tiny pat on her head as if to say ‘thanks’.

Relic creased his eyebrows slightly at the scene while a warm smile appeared on both Cornelius and Diana’s face.

After several moments, Hana returned to Cornelius and gave a bow to him. “Thank you.” She then turned to Diana and hugged Diana’s waist. She trembled seeing the scars on Diana’s body which caused her to embrace even tighter. “Does it still hurt?” She asked.

“I’m fine,” Diana smiled. “Little Hana, if only everyone was as sweet as you.” She bent down and embraced the little girl. Finally, she turned back to Cornelius and asked, “Mr. Saviour, I’m a bit exhausted. Does your offer still stand for me to rest in your immortal cave?”

“Of course!” he immediately answered. Their eyes locked on one another and they shared a brief moment. Everyone else turned their gaze away except for Hana, whose eyes sparkled with excitement.

“Are you and teacher together?!”

They immediately blushed red and turned away from each other.

“N-no.” Diana simply answered.

“Let’s head back.” Cornelius said. “Dougu, up!”

Dougu barked in response and rubbed itself at Cornelius’ legs. A green wind qi began to surround it and it rapidly grew over 200m in size.

“Wah…” Hana stared in amazement at the gargantuan dog beast. She had never seen anything so amazing in her entire life. Her expectations of what cultivator’s could do kept increasing and made her want to pursue cultivation all the more.

“Hana, let me help you up.” Diana said as she embraced Hana. “Hold on tight.”

Before Hana knew it, she had already ascended well past the height of Dougu. As a resident of Heaven’s Peak, she had peered over the edges of the mountains many times and had seen the beautiful forest scenery one could only see at such a height. However, what she was experiencing now was an entirely different sensation to her.

As the crisp night wind blew against her body, her eyes widened at the vast green forest, unobstructed for her to see. In the distance she could see dozens of buffalo beast sleeping close to one another as they huddled for warmth. She could see a long river stream which sparkled in the moon light. She saw new sights she had never seen before and it left her breathless.

At that exact moment, a bright light suddenly shined from the corner of her eye and she saw the sun rising in the horizon. “So beautiful…” she murmured

Diana smiled but did not say anything.

The two soon descended on to Dougu’s back. Relic and Cornelius quickly came up as well followed by Jiro and Douji.

“Let’s go!” Cornelius ordered.

Dougu howled once and steadily began to head back towards Heaven’s peak..

…

Dougu travelled at a relatively slow pace for the group on its back. Sitting near the top side of its back were Diana and Hana who were happily chatting with one another. Jiro chose a random area where he could rest, while Relic and Cornelius sat the furthest back; an invisible barrier which prevented what they were saying surrounding them.

Cornelius and Relic sat side by side without talking. The silence did not seem to bother either of them as they simply stared off in their own direction.

Finally, Cornelius summoned out a flask of alcohol and took a swig of its content before handing it to Relic. Relic similarly downed the contents of the alcohol. It was bitter with a fruity after taste. As the liquid reached his stomach, a soothing sensation could be felt throughout his body.

“Sorry, this was my entire fault.” Cornelius suddenly spoke. “Your fight with the Yan family happened directly outside of my immortal cave but I couldn’t even sense it…” he clenched his fist.

“What happened?”

Cornelius sighed and said, “I let my internal demons get the best of me. After you two left, Diana also had chosen to leave at that point. As old as I’ am, I never felt such crushing pressure in my heart after she left. I went into meditation after in order to ease my mind but I didn’t expect myself to dive so deep into meditation that I unconsciously went into secluded meditation where all my senses cut off from the world. I hadn’t realized what had happened until after I opened my eyes.”

A brief silence occurred before he continued, “It’s quite humorous isn’t it? A golden world cultivator being so flustered and demoralized because of a female he had met not so long ago. ” he gave a pitiful laugh.

“I understand.” Relic simple stated.

Cornelius was stunned at Relic’s simple answer, but as he saw Relic’s countenance, he simply nodded in understanding.

“This is good wine.” Relic took another swig of the flask as the mountain appeared in their view.

….

Back in the Yan estate, several people, who had both youthful and old appearances, were seated below the patriarch. They were all dressed extremely well and from the appearance of their robes, people would naturally associate them as the highest level of power within the clan.

They crowded around in shock as they heard the patriarch relay Yan Wen’s words pertaining to a girl who could easily help them cultivate to the immortal realm.

“If such a girl truly exist she could topple the entire structure. Such an item must belong to our Yan Clan! Even though the truffle operation failed, this is a thousand times greater!”

“Rightly so, elder Wen used his life to get this message to us so it must be true. We should act now. ”

The clamours of the elders began to rouse the hall.

“But to go against Cornelius of the twin destructors. Can we even win?” a man wearing low hanging spectacles, asked.

The entire room went silent.

“Cornelius, the man who once chased down and killed a half step to the immortal ascension cultivator despite only being in the early golden world cultivation realm.” The patriarch muttered.

That name was once infamous and had reached the ears of all the major powers on the continent. The only reason no one talks about him anymore was because he had retired several decades ago and haven’t been heard since.

“Wasn’t Cornelius also a part of the beast calamity sect? If we were to attack him, won’t we have to face them as well?” an elderly woman asked. A drop of sweat ran down her face.

“This girl, if she truly is as my brother has said, then she is worth everything we can throw at her. However, such a treasure would be unable to stay in our hands even if we managed to get our hands on her.” The patriarch stroked his beard for a brief moment. “I will have a talk with the heads of the Zhao Clan and the Liang Clan.”

“What! Patriarch, we have been rival clans for generations, how could we possibly trust them?!” a younger elder spoke.

“Resume your duties, I have already decided!” The patriarch vanished from the hall and all the elders looked at each other with worries on their faces.