Leif was sitting on the bank of a turquoise blue as he was wiping his sword which was stained with blood.

Near to where he was sitting there lay the body of a gigantic snake. Its head was cleaved at a strange angle while its body was shining with bright violet light.

There was a trail of blood that leads onto the lake and the terrain was in a complete mess as if a great battle has taken place.

"Urgh.."

Leif took in a deep breath. At this point, Leif could only be said to be unlucky. After running away from the forest he encountered a horde of mutated beasts.

After a lengthy battle, he was forced to flee from their combined attack. He was already quite injured before he once again encountered a mutated beast.

But this time he encountered a ferocious metamorphosis snake with a bloodline.

The battle was long and difficult. Fortunately, it was something that broke through only quite recently and its realm was not yet stabilized if not with his limited experience and meager fighting skills he may have gone done against this beast.

But now he was facing yet another dilemma of choosing an element to match his fighting power.

The 'path' was just a pathway to find a greater goal. So it was absolutely necessary for finding something that could be the main fighting force to charge towards it.

Many martial artists mainly choose different martial techniques of different elements to specialize in as they reach the 'first ring'. They do this as a shortcut to obtain real recognition of the elements in nature.

As a result, techniques relating to rarer elements are rarely seen as they are simply too hard to make.

But for people like Lief who are on their own unique path, such a thing was just a matter of choice.

There were 4 major things required in the advancement in the great path.

One was the need for path energy, the second was the advancement of the elements chosen, the third was the comprehension of profundities while the final one was the need for a powerful body to contain this.

Ultimately it is the fusion of elements and the profundities of the individual's path energy that will result in a stage where everything would be completely harmonious.

Giving birth to a unique lifeform not similar to any that had existed before it. The path gave each and every organism a unique identity. It was the legendary stage of 'unity' heard of in legends.

"I will take the element of ice and will master the profundities of time," Leif said softly. He had an innate closeness to ice and he chose time as he was someone who was deeply obsessed with the past and deeply desired to live in the past.

As he was pondering the lake changed color and a large mouth was by the very second closing in on him.

Even with his instincts, Lief was only barely able to dodge this.

He rolled down and took out the blade he was holding and without any hesitation slashed it down.

Slash!

His saber landed on the blue-colored reptile that pounced on him just now.

With its gigantic body, it was unable to avoid this strike. Its head rolled and stopped near Leif's feet.

He now knew the dangers of traveling in this terrain and why most people traveled in groups.

Without wasting any more time he rushed out from the vicinity of this lake.

****

In a region quite far away from where Leif was currently, a black-robed man was running weakly before stopping in his tracks and grimly looking at the silver armored guards surrounding the entire street.

Many common people were silently observing while admiring the white-robed man standing in front of the guards.

As he started walking towards the weak man, many cheers erupted.

"Long live Noble blade Arnfinn! Long live the protector of the weak and destroyed of the evil!"

The man calmly waked up to the man before speaking one word.

"Kneel."

The weak man had terror on his face before he obediently kneeled.

The white-robed man then calmly instructed, "Arrest this criminal and take him in for questioning."

After showing his righteous heart and magnitude he watched as the man was taken away before mumbling, "Now I will be able to find out what happened exactly."