The tiger flapped its wings and then flew up. As soon as it left, it stopped raining completely. Hezron looked at the flute in his hands. It still had the soft purple glow, and another hole. So he confirmed whatever happened just now was not a hallucination. There was a gigantic tiger with human-like front arms, eagle-like wings and a lot of tails!

He was now all alone; everyone else was dead. If the wolves came from the village, then there was nothing left there. Hezron sighed, he had cried quite enough. The decision he had made earlier, now he had to stick with it to the very end. He then decided to start walking.

The Beast King flew away at top speed, until it arrived at the summit of Mount Sun. Gathered there was the nine-tailed bear and the nine-tailed fox.

“Your Majesty, are you sure letting that human go was the best decision? He’s too dangerous!” echoed a voice, as the Beast King landed.

“Questioning my decisions so soon?” it asked with a sneer evident in its tone.

“No we do not dare to, your majesty.”

“Do not worry about the human. He is naïve. The naïve ones are the easiest to manipulate. It is only a matter of time before reality catches up. Besides, he’s not that dangerous to me”, replied the Beast King, with a loud laugh.

“What do we do now? There are more human settlements located just below the mountain. Should we attack them right now?” asked the nine-tailed bear.

“It does not make sense for all of us to keep attacking the humans, just one is enough. You will go and wipe out all the settlements below the mountain! When you have done so, we will leave this mountain and look for more of those powerful rocks. There might be another one like me somewhere”, replied the Beast King, looking at the nine-tailed fox.

“Why just him? We have a lot of beasts that are less powerful but just as effective at eradicating humans. Why don’t we send those instead?” asked the bear.

“Because it will be faster for him to move alone. Anyway, my decision is final! By the way, look for the white five-tailed dire wolf and send him to protect the human. After all, if I can control the humans through him, would that not be fantastic?” asked the Beast King with a strange gleam in its eyes.

“Yes your majesty”, replied the other beasts, as they prepared to leave the summit.

******************

“This is the second time we have been called here today! What is the issue this time, Gordon?” asked grand elder White.

“Before I answer that question, Schwarz, did you succeed with your mission?”

“Yes. I have the report that concludes that all our problems in the Tibetan area have been taken care of. The engineer, the monks and the robots; they will no longer cause problems for any of our operations.”

“That’s exactly what the problem is. We have discovered that the blueprints are fake!” spoke grand elder Gordon.

“What?!” exclaimed the other two in unison.

“Any idea how we can deal with this issue? The Rhizen Canon is too enticing; its power is just too much to let it go!”

“Well, someone had to be a smartass and kill the person who designed it!” said grand elder White, with a loud laugh.

“It’s not like I’m the one who made the decision! Do you remember who came up with the idea? Or who pushed it to me? White, you should own your mistakes!” declared grand elder Schwarz, with a hint of anger.

“Huh? Me? What did I do? Am I the one who ordered the use of a nuclear weapon to destroy a couple of monks and an old man?” laughed grand elder White.

In a few moments, sparks were flying between the two old men, and it was a matter of time before they exploded into a giant ball of flame!

“First of all, who provided the ‘blueprints’ for the Rhizen canon?” asked grand elder Schwarz.

The temperature in the room rose up a notch, followed by a tense atmosphere. The two grand elders were always at odds with each other, no matter where they were. If left to their devices, the two would destroy everything in the room! Any other time, grand elder Gordon would leave them to destroy the furniture in the boardroom. However, he was currently in a bad mood.

“That’s about enough you two! We don’t have time for this!” he declared, as he stood up, acting as if he was leaving.

“Where are you going? You’re the one who called this tribunal, remember?” asked grand elder White.

Grand elder Gordon didn’t reply. Instead, he simply continued leaving, ignoring the two who were at loggerheads. This caused the two other grand elders to be baffled. Usually, it was the two of them who acted petty and childish, not their fellow grand elder. However, something seemed to be bothering their companion.

“What do you think is his problem?” asked grand elder White.

“Is that a rhetorical question? Or maybe you’re just being sarcastic? Because it’s not funny at all”, replied grand elder Schwarz, with a cold demeanor.

Grand elder White frowned slightly, as he looked at the back of the departing grand elder. He then rose up to follow, after all there was no reason for either of them to linger around anymore.

“So what do we do? I’m not going to clean up after this!” started grand elder Schwarz.

His remaining companion simply shrugged his shoulders and replied, “I don’t know. I don’t even remember the last time I called a tribunal...”

“What does that have to do with anything?”

“Fine. I will tell some people to clean it up. Offering an explanation should be enough, right?”

“I don’t know. It’s your call. Do whatever you think is necessary. I wash my hands clean from this matter”, spoke grand elder Schwarz. He had long decided to continue going about his work.

***************************

Ryan woke up, and looked at the clock hung on the wall. It was currently 3:45 am. He quietly slid off from the bed, tiptoed out of the room and left the cabin. Despite having weights tied to his feet, he was still as agile and nimble as a snake. He made his way to a stream that was near the cabin.

‘It’s been three days already. Sigh, everything feels like one bad dream!’ he thought, as he arrived at the stream. He walked towards one of the nearest trees, and sat under it, ready to start cultivating. ‘Am I cursed or something? First, it was the incident with my father. Now this?’

He had woken up and realized that he was back at the cabin they had used to hide from the rain. Rose had explained what had happened, based on the information she had gotten from Dr. Paige, who had left earlier. While the Abbot was busy explaining how they were supposed to deal with their enemy, they were suddenly attacked!

There was an explosion, and no one noticed what had happened. The entire monastery had been destroyed, and by the time he and Myra came to his senses, the entire place had been reduced to rubble. Gonin thought it was weird that they were suddenly attacked just like that. The entire monastery was surrounded by an impenetrable shield, which could never have been destroyed by conventional weapons! There were also various early warning systems, which would have alerted everyone before the attack.

Rose speculated that the shield had been removed by an inside spy. But what kind of spy would commit suicide just like that? Another issue that Ryan found unbelievable was that they had an immortal robot sitting with them! As far as he was concerned, conventional weapons could not kill Myra, so why didn’t he fight against the attackers?

‘Well, it’s no use crying over spilt milk now, is it? Sigh, I promise grandpa, grandma, that this unfilial grandchild will do everything in his power to bring your murderers to justice! An eye for an eye? No! For every one eye of mine they took, I will take two! A tooth for a tooth? Not even! For every tooth of mine they’ve plucked out, I will pluck out two of theirs! Until I destroy Cerberus, I will not rest!’ he thought to himself, with fists clenched and gritted teeth.

He steadied his mind and entered a deep meditative trance. After a few minutes, he appeared in a space covered with deep white tiles. There was a path in front of him, and at the end of the path there were three scrolls enclosed in transparent, glass casings.

The first scroll had a purple glow, and the casing had engravings of four animals he had never seen before. Well, except for what looked like a tiger, he had never seen any of the other animals before. Other than the animal engravings and the purple glow, there was also the star symbol engraved right on the pedestal that held the glass casing.

The second scroll had a black light emanating from it. The casing had engraving of the character for Azure embedded within it. However, due to the black light and the transparency of the glass casing, it was quite difficult to read from where Ryan was standing.

The third scroll emanated a sinister energy that made Ryan’s heart leap after looking at it! There was something about this scroll, which seemed to be calling out to him.

As he was drawn to this scroll, space shifted again, this time he appeared in a place with lush green vegetation. The place looked familiar yet again. Everything seemed familiar to him, from the gigantic tree in the distance, to the path he was standing.

“Took you long enough. I had grown tired of waiting!” spoke a deep voice, which sounded neither angry nor calm.

Ryan looked around to ascertain where the voice had come from, but to no avail. He looked around his surroundings, yet he didn’t see anything. He simply sighed before answering, “Would senior please show himself? My eyes are but a mere mortal’s, they cannot see Mount Tai. They also cannot fathom the brilliance and awe--”

“That’s about enough. There’s no need for feigned praise. Have you seen them? The scrolls I mean”, spoke the voice.

“Yes senior. May I ask what they represent?”

“The legacies you must cultivate to reach the pinnacle of martial arts! Also, they will make you strong enough to take over a planet on your own, well, as long as no other Ascendant is on that planet anyways”, replied the voice.

“May I ask who senior is? And also, where am I?”

“I am Rogarth Secretwater. Do I always have to keep introducing myself every time?”

“Wait, Rogarth? Why didn’t you say so? So, where am I? And where are you?”

“You are in the Dream plane. This is the second time I’m explaining this! As for me, I’m everywhere. Do not concern yourself looking for my physical appearance.”

“Why am I here then? And what about the scrolls?”

“Well, I just wanted you to know what the future holds, in regards to cultivation. Currently, your strength is lacking, you cannot even start practicing one manual”, replied the voice with a soft sigh.

“But--”

“But what?”

“What about all those preparations we were making?”

“They’re not going to waste. Right now you need to break through to the second level of cultivation, Dragon Strength! At this level, you will have strength that rivals a dragon!”

“A what?”

“Dragon. Never mind what it is, as long as you know that you’ll have unrivaled strength, on this planet at least. You will be able to move mountains, carry ten times your weight and so on. However, breaking through to the second realm of cultivation on this planet is going to be even more difficult than starting. Are you sure you’re prepared for this?”

“I’m ready! When do we begin?” asked Ryan with excitement.