Elmar’s wings started to retreat as he touched down on the garrison’s city wall. His tail and scales also retreated and his horns shortened.

“Your Highness, I’m assuming the talk didn’t go well” said a woman in a thick fur coat, as she approached Elmar from one of the towers. The woman had draconian features, however, she lacked the classic feature of draconian scales under the eyelids.

“Eliza, why ask a question, when you already know the answer.” Muttered the Draconian Crown prince Elmar, as his transformation back to normal form completed.

The woman named Eliza looked at the crown prince, his bare chest full of wounds. She Immediately handed him the leather robe she had prepared in advance. Elmar looked at the wounds he sustained from Ukara’s sword, the frost essence preventing them from fully healing, he grabbed the robe and put it on.

“She defeated me in open combat. Her spiritual path was supposed to be at the incarnation realm like me. But somehow she managed to leapfrog the avatar realm and directly reached the transformation realm in one go. It should be impossible.” Stated Elmar, his voice full of confusion.

“Your highness, according to our spies in Frost City, Ukara once again visited the inheritance grounds of her ancestor, The Path Walker Halfrist. The first time she went in, she gained the Frost Dragon Shard, perhaps this time she gained something left by Halfrist, related to the Spiritual path.” Said Erika in a nonchalant tone.

“Whatever she gained from there increased her strength immensely. If I want to make her mine, I must succeed the throne, and gain the ancestors blood inheritance. What is the current state of my siblings.” Asked the Prince.

“The forth prince is currently headed towards the Goliath desert on a fool’s errand, and the 3rd prince and 2nd princess are still in the royal capital. However, the fifth prince has disappeared, he was last heard from during his trip to the Lantian Ocean.” Replied Erika.

“Send someone to the Goliath desert, I want to know what 4th brother is up to, and tell our spies in the capital to keep track of the whereabouts of my two siblings, and who they meet. As for fifth brother, leave him be, he has never been interested in the throne.” Said Elmar as he turned towards the central spire and jumped off the city wall.

In a large room, paved with stone and lit with hundreds of candles, sat a young woman. She was seated on mat in the very center of the room, her breathing heavy, blood trickling from the corner of her lips.

“Uhhh” blurted Ukara as she felt an intense pain ripple through her spiritual core.

Ukara was the daughter of Freyaz, the former lord of frost city, one of the 9 great human cities in the Icy Mountains of the Luna range. The Luna range was home to the descendants of Halfrist, her ancestor. It was a territory as large as the entire Draco kingdom, and although it shared a border with both the Draco Kingdom as well as the Raavi empire, it was barren and without any significant natural resources. Nevertheless, it was home to the humans, and it was also the perfect environment to practice the essence path.

Her father Freyaz died while trying to complete the essence path, just like all the other great city lords before him, and she at the age of 16 became the new city lord of frost city. As the new city lord she was allowed to enter the inheritance ground of her ancestor Halfrist together with the other 8 city lords. She told everyone that she found the Frost dragon Shard in the inheritance ground, but that was a lie. The shard was given to her by her father, but he never explained its origins.

“I pushed myself too hard, it may take a week for my core to heal” Said Ukara as she saw the state of her core.

“but it is also a good thing, as that fool will finally stop chasing me for some time.” Said Ukara as she stood up.

“I’m already at the peak of the incarnation realm, using the spirit mist to fool Elmar came at a cost, and I lost a level, but this is still better than the alternative.” Said Ukara as she put on her robe and headed towards the exit, as she left, she released a wave of ice energy, putting out all the candles in the room.

“You have to slowly absorb the energy from the shard, as most of it is bad for you, it’s too chaotic. Slowly circle the energy around your core, let it filter it for you.” Said Chief Ipnak, as he watched his 3 disciples cultivate using Spirit Shards.

“Seriously old man, when did you become so generous, you’ve only ever given me a shard every other week, and today you give out 5 spiritual shards to each of us. Don’t tell me you robbed the village coffers or something.” Said Haruki with doubt and excitement. With this many shards he would be able to reach level 7 soon, maybe even half way to level 8.

Enri was upset, this was her first time seeing a spiritual shard. She was still having trouble visualising her core, so she hadn’t even begun to absorb the energy it contained.

“Enri, don’t be disappointed, you just have to concentrate, the Spiritual Core is a part of you, its not going anywhere” said Ipnak calmly as he sensed Enri’s aura.

Koren too was having trouble, but his problems were not with sensing his core, he had that bit down with a little help from Hope. He had never directly absorbed energy from a spiritual shard before, as his grandpa was never able to acquire a wind type shard for him. He didn’t know that it actually contained two types of power, one being pure elemental power, and the other being energy with a chaotic nature. For others, Chaotic energy was invisible, but Koren could see it just as clearly as the earthen yellow spiritual energy.

“hah, don’t worry Koren, I can clear all the chaotic energies for you, you can absorb the shards just by holding them in your hand for a minute.” Said Hope as she saw Koren having trouble.

“Thank you big sis, It’s a lot easier now” said Koren as he felt the energy become purer.

“Oh and you should take a look at your display, I made some changes based on what Ipnak said yesterday. I think you will like them.” Said Hope with a slight grin.

Koren immediately activated the display, for a moment, the edge of his pupils glowed gold.

Name: Koren

Spiritual Path: Level 4(75%) {Realm: Spirit}

Human Path: Level ?? {Realm: ??}

Harmonization: None

Elemental Power: 25 (Interchangeable)

“T..This?” said Koren confused and shocked.

“I not only changed the display, I even added to your body’s cultivation path. The so called human path is actually my idea of integrating the Dimensional core with your spiritual core. I’m sure this will allow you to create a new unique cultivation path.” Said Hope with some excitement in her voice.

“If I do that, won’t I lose the opportunity to cultivate the spiritual path?” asked Koren, obviously concerned.

“Ahh Koren, the spiritual path is not your path, it’s the worlds path, it is only there to act as a guide. Just think about what Ipnak said, Draco and Halfrist both were born without the spiritual path, they created their cultivation systems on their own. You have the spiritual path as a guide, which is a huge advantage. Once we successfully establish the Human path, it will triumph every other path in existence.” Said Hope with confidence.

“However, I still think we should wait and see how the other paths are cultivated, I will learn from them, and then attempt to create my own path.” said Koren.

“Koren, slow down, you are taking in too much energy from the shard” said Ipnak after he noticed how quickly the shard was beginning to dim.

“Sorry teacher, I will be more careful.” Said Koren as he slowed his absorption down.

“Patience is key when using spiritual shards for cultivation. If you are too hasty, your core will absorb the chaotic energy, and there’s no going back from there.” Said the Chief.

“I did it, I can visualise my Spiritual core.” Said Enri excitedly.

“Good job Enri, now that you can finally visualise your core, I will help you with the purification and absorption of the spiritual shard’s energy.” Said Ipnak as he walked over to Enri and put his palm over her head.

Koren could see the flow of Energy inside Enri’s body, he could see the energy being filtered out with the chiefs help, but then he saw the colourless chaotic energy flow towards his body. Not just from Enri, but from Haruki as well.

“Don’t be surprised Koren, this energy may be chaotic for others, but I can turn it into fuel for the Armor, since it can’t function on regular elemental energy.” Said Hope as she felt Koren’s confusion.

“The Guardian Armor’s power reserves were almost zero back when you first activated it. Now they are around 0.00000011 percent. “Said Hope as she reassured Koren.

“This is too slow, we can’t train properly in front of others or they will think you’re a freak. Tonight we will go and look for Spiritual beasts, and use their shards to practice.” Said Hope, showcasing her displeasure at Koren slow cultivation.

“Good job Enri, you need to eject the chaotic energy out of your body, it’s like a poison, if it stays in too long, it can cause irreparable damage” Said Ipnak as he felt the chaotic energy leave Enri’s body.

“Teacher, can I take the shards with me to practice on my own.” Asked Koren.

“No, you mustn’t absorb the energy from a shard without me around, as I could help if any issues arise. You’re to inexperience Koren, cultivation deviation is a huge problem.” Replied Ipnak, however just as he was about to continue reprimanding Koren, Sappa walked in.

“Teacher, We have received replies from the two other villages, they will restock their reserves and join us at the border 3 days from now.” Said Sappa in a single breath.