There were seven kingdoms on the Grayhell continent.

“So the Falcon village is located deep in the Thousand beast mountains.” Said as he looked at map Frank had left him.

The Demonic sword sect was the closest.

The Blue moon sect was further north.

It was his first time gazing at a map that depicted the continent he lived in. Before, he never had the need for such a map as the dragon, Arkul, could find his way back home from anywhere in the mountains.

“The demonic sword sect is near the Thousand beast mountains. I should start there.” Thought Allan.

They reached their destination in four days.

He left Arkul outside of Gold sword city and walked towards the city.

It could hunt on its own and wait for him to come back.

Gold sword city was the nearest city near the Demonic sword sect. He was sure that he’d get more information.

He had abandoned the idea of hiding under a mask and fearlessly kept walking towards the city.

On the way, he was greeted by many awkward glances.

He was dressed too well to be walking around without an escort or mount. At least that was the impression he gave everyone who saw him.

At the entrance of the city, he was asked ten demonic cores of the 1st tier of the human realm to enter.

He paid and then entered.

He went to the nearest inn and booked a room.

The next day he asked the innkeeper: “Know of any way to enter the demonic sword sect?”

The innkeeper looked at him incredulously and said: “Only the geniuses nurtured by the wealthiest families can enter. There is no other way in. Besides, they are the only ones that can afford to pay for the expensive tuition and everything they need inside the sect.”

Allan pondered for a moment and said: “So, as long as I have enough beast cores, there is no problem at all.”

He left the city and went to find Arkul.

Together, they left for the Thousand beast mountains.

They hunted for weeks.

Arkul could be compared to a 7th tier Immortal realm human in cultivation.

Most of the work if not all, was done by Arkul and Allan insisted on getting Immortal realm beast cores.

As they concentrated on their hunt, on the last day, an angry and powerful roar was heard.

Allan said to Arkul as he jumped on the saddle: “That’s our cue. We’ve trespassed on the territory of the Golden Ape King. Let’s leave now.”

As Arkul was about to fly away, it suddenly stopped.

A cunning smile could be seen on the dragon's face as it ran towards the source of the roar.

Allan was shaking disbelievingly as he could not believe that the cowardly Arkul was about to anger a demonic beast close to the God realm at the 9th tier of the Immortal Realm. Two tiers above it.

“What are you doing? You are running towards our deaths.” Allan said as fast as he could.

He was deep in the thousand beast mountains and could not leave without Arkul. Without his dragon, he was nothing but an easy prey for any normal demonic beast.

Arkul ignored him and kept running.

As Allan thought that his final hour had come, he was shaken by the following vision.

A giant golden ape with a height of five meters was fighting what looked like a crocodile eight meters long.

The battle was fierce and both fighters were bloodied. They could barely stand.

“Two God realm demonic beast....” Said Allan as he could not believe it. The records in the Falcon village of every creature that was at the God realm were periodically updated, but there was no mention that the Golden Ape king had broken through the God realm.

Breaking through the God realm allowed for a beast to acquire tremendous physical strength.

For the demonic beast, it was the physical strength that was enhanced. In all cases, demonic beasts were stronger than humans of the same realm. They could not cultivate in arts to be able to develop an inner world of their own which forced them to focus more on their physical strength.

A demonic beast’s demonic core was the weird version of an inner world if compared to humans.

Humans could store their primordial energy in their inner world. Beasts stored it inside their demonic core. The core could also be considered as the soul of the demonic beast as it also contained soul energy on top of primordial energy.

The reason the demonic beast cores were the current currency was because of their soul energy that was needed to stabilize one’s inner world in the Immortal Realm.

But that was it for the demonic beasts. Humans could create worlds and objects for themselves inside their inner worlds and could, in the later stages of the Human realm, summon their creation in the form of spells.

Allan took a second to understand Arkul’s intentions. It wanted the beast cores to attempt a breakthrough to the higher tiers.

“You plan on finishing them off on your own? They might be weak right now but they are both in the God realm...”Allan said.

Arkul flew in the air and launched several fireballs towards the fighting beasts.

The Golden Ape king and the crocodile then found out that there was a new enemy that had appeared to take advantage of their weak state.

It was the worst thing that could happen to them in this situation.

A scarlet rain of fireballs then started falling on the two demonic beasts.

The red fire just added to their injuries and they soon collapsed on the ground. They were struggling to fight even before Allan and Arkul had arrived.

Allan who was spectating from his saddle was screaming words of encouragement to Arkul.

“This was easy. I’m so lucky these days.” Allan said.

The dragon who always did all the work did not find the time to complain and plunged towards the two corpses and immediately gouged out the demonic cores from their skulls.

Arkul ate one and then gave the other to Allan.

“Thanks, old friend. Now It’s time to leave. It’s a shame that we have to leave the corpses behind. My storage pouch is too small to contain them.” Allan said. He was regretting not having stolen a storage ring from his clan before he left.

Arkul flew as fast as it could towards a desolate mountain and then opened a cave big enough to hold it.

It was planning on absorbing the core it had just eaten.

Demonic beast could absorb the primordial energy on their own or just eat another beast’s demonic core for its pure primordial energy and soul energy. Sometimes, it was possible for a Demonic beast to inherit the characteristics of the demonic beast the core belonged to. It was faster and more rewarding. They had it easy as all they needed was to endlessly absorb primordial energy and temper their bodies and cores.

The humans could not afford to do the same. Everything was based on their inner worlds. Ignoring the inner worlds and only focusing on the body when you could do both was stupid.

The only advantage the humans had against the demonic beast in a fight was their inner world as they would be overwhelmed physically.

Minutes after Allan and Arkul left a group of four then arrived before the corpses.

“This is the Golden Ape King and the Nether Lizard. Both dead. They almost mutually killed themselves before a third party slaughtered them." The one leading the group, Arthur, said.

“It seems we were too late. Their cores were taken a few minutes ago.” Another named Davis said.

Arthur said “Take everything valuable on their corpses and divide it among yourselves, I will give chase to retrieve the two cores. The lingering auras in the surrounding tell me that the lucky bastards are quite weak.”

Arthur then summoned yellow translucent wings on his back and flew in the same direction Arkul had fled in.

As Arkul was busy absorbing the soul energy from the core of the Golden Ape King in the cave, Allan was at the base of the mountain rummaging through his storage pouch with his spiritual sense.

“Found it.” said Allan as a sword appeared in hands.

He then started awkwardly training with it.

Minutes later, Arthur arrived looking at the scene of him training.

“Where did you learn such sword techniques?” Said a laughing Arthur as he flew closer to Allan.

Allan appeared to be struck by lightning as he turned around.

Wings.

An art that could conjure wings from an inner world.

Anyone that could conjure anything out of his inner world was at least a 7th tier Human realm.

Those that could fly for long distances were in the Immortal Realm as they had more primordial energy.

“Don’t worry little brother...I’m just looking for a beast and a human at the Immortal realm...hum? A 4th tier human realm in the middle of the thousand beast mountains?” Arthur was dumbstruck.

“Who are you?” Arthur asked.

“My name is Allan Kreel.” Allan truthfully said but kept his family name a secret.

“What are you doing here when you’re so weak?” Arthur asked.

“...” Allan could not find a way out and simply said: “None of your business.”

Arthur ignored him and closed his eyes.

After a dozen seconds, he said: “It doesn’t make sense...one of the cores is with you and the other is not far from here. You are too weak to even be near a dying God realm beast.”

Allan thought: “Sh*t. He’s here for the cores and Arkul has yet to emerge.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. Please leave me alone.” Allan said but inwardly he was cursing and praying that Arkul finished the absorption of the core so he could flee far away from this dangerous human.

“Just give me the cores and I will leave you alone.” Arthur said. He was also thinking that the situation was a strange one.

The youth in front of him seemed unafraid despite the obvious gap in strength. It was also inconceivable to find a 4th tier Human realm alone in the middle of the Thousand beast mountains. The poor fellow would just become prey to the demonic beasts.

He had felt two auras and one of those auras was in the late stages of the Immortal Realm.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. What cores?” Allan tried to lie. He was thinking: “Damn Arkul. He could have waited until we were near Gold sword city or outside the mountains to absorb that core.”

“You should know that I’m being generous by asking. I can see that you are unafraid of me and that is because you have a helper in the late stages of the Immortal Realm. Correct?” Arthur pointed his index finger to the sky and a yellow sword appeared above his head.

The sword was three meters long and was made of a yellow energy.

Arthur then said: “I’m gonna ask one last time. Give me the cores!”

Cold sweat had assailed Allan’s body. He knew that he had no choice and finally said: “Alright. But I only have one demonic core. The other is with my friend.”

Allan then produced the core and threw it towards Arthur who caught it.

Arthur looked at the core and smiled he said: “You’re lucky you met me. Others never take the time to ask questions. Now bring me to your friend.”

Allan was inwardly laughing at the poor Arthur as he thought about his revenge. He thinking that Arkul was probably on par with Arthur as God realm cultivators were rarely seen. In his mind, Arthur was in the Immortal realm and Arkul was invincible in that realm.

He purposely took his time showing Arthur the way to Arkul’s cave.

When the time came to actually climb towards the cave that was at least a hundred meters above them, Allan said: “You see that cave over there? That’s where he is. You can go on your own, it will be faster.”

Arthur said nothing more as yellow translucent wings appeared on his back. He flew all the way to the cave in a few seconds.

As he arrived, he found himself face to face with a red dragon.

Arkul was asking himself many questions. He immediately decided to start a fight and ask questions later. Allan’s safety was a priority. It had to know if he was safe or not.

As it felt bad for leaving Allan unprotected in the middle of these mountains, it went nearly mad as it breathed a scarlet fire towards the shocked Arthur who thought he was about to face a human before he arrived at the cave.

A yellow spherical shield appeared around Arthur who was ejected out of the cave by the fire.

The yellow shield melted in a second followed by the yellow aura that appeared to protect Arthur’s body.

Arthur was charred black as he lifelessly fell on the ground a hundred meters or so below the cave.

Arthur’s body started regenerating as he painfully tried to stand up.

“Haha...A dragon...Who would’ve thought...I get to fight a dragon today.”

A yellow armor appeared on his body.

Wings followed as they appeared on his back.

A dozen three-meter long sword appeared as they spun around him.

His regeneration finished as his preparation for the fight ended.

As Arkul slowly came out of the cave and flew in the sky, he appeared to be frantically looking for something, completely forgetting Arthur.

Allan then screamed out: “I’m fine but he stole the demonic core you gave me. He also wants yours.”

As if relieved, Arkul then concentrated at the twelve yellow swords coming toward him.

Arkul roared as fire appeared around its body turning it into a fiery dragon.

The yellow swords melted as they touched the fire.

“A 9th tier Immortal realm Dragon.” Arthur said. “Could it be that it just ate the other core?”

“If the others were here, we might have a chance but I alone am not enough to deal with it.”

Arthur was also of the same realm as Arkul. But Arkul was a demonic beast that overwhelmed him physically.

“This is a dragon. They have a fire domain that melts anything under its level. The only reason this dragon is not using it is probably because of that Allan kid. If it does, everything in the area will be destroyed. If I call my inner world’ domain in this fight, it’s not guaranteed that it can withstand the dragon’s fire domain.” Arthur thought.

The two just stayed in the air and looked at each other before Arthur decided to retreat: “I have one core. Maybe I will have a chance at ascending to the God realm. Even if I had a hundred of these cores, it would not mean success. It’ll be enough for me to consolidate my inner world.”

He then flew away as fast as he could.