Whilst the Western Continent experienced turbulent changes, the High Humans in the Eastern Continent continued to prosper under the rule of their Queen.

Despite the Queen’s lack of knowledge, she was just way too smart. She had been able to steer her fellow High Humans onto the path of supremacy fairly quickly and not only that, their ability to create wasn’t lacking in the least.

Not only had they managed to build primitive homes made out of wood and thatch, but they had even had even learned how to make a few pieces of furniture, for example a bed made from the hides of various Beasts.

Normally it was very hard to harvest the materials of Nature such as wood, you would only be able to grab things like broken off twigs and sometimes branches and that was if you were lucky. But the Queen was smart enough to realize that she could use these rarely found branches and such as tools to obtain more materials.

The High Humans would crudely slam their branches onto harder objects like stones with the purpose of getting it to snap. When they accomplished this, a sharp edge was created and many possibilities were now open.

This is how they dug holes all those years ago but now they used them for many different purposes. In fact, one of the activities they used them for was fighting. Indeed, they used broken wood branches as weapons.

Now, this couldn’t be compared to the Blood Fiends who were using the much more dangerous stalactites, but that was something they had found due to luck. Unlike the High Humans who were swiftly developing the idea of crafting. Soon they would make better tools than broken branches.

In fact, it was these broken branches that allowed them to subjugate various Beast Clans and rapidly expand their territory that consisted of half the Southern region of the Eastern Continent.

But it wasn’t only their tools that made up their strength. Because of their great intelligence, not only did they discover how to use tactics in battle, but they had something that most of the World was missing… martial arts!

They weren’t like the Barbarians who only know how to clobber with their fists nor were they like the Blood Fiends that would only know how to stab with their stalactites. The High Humans had actually discovered how to make specific maneuvers with their weapon to inflict the most damage!

And naturally, the Queen was the greatest in this regard. For her, calculating the distance, angle and velocity in order to create the most perfect strike at the most opportune time was as easy as blinking. The Queen was a terrifying and unrivaled existence that would definitely take a main seat at the summit of the World.

On that note, the Queen had managed to break through to the 3rd Stage of the Mana Refinement Realm, almost catching up to the Queen of the Elves, Titania. This was a result of her very own personalized cultivation technique that she was currently developing and improving every day.

For now she called it [Path of the Sun] even though it had nothing to do with the sun. But it was indeed suitable for people with Light Elemental Mana (Mana formed from Light Essence instead of Magical Energy).

She was also able to revise the cultivation technique that all Enlightened Beings were given and create an improved version that was more compatible with the High Human race that even children could use. This caused their average cultivation to be at level Stage 5 of Body Refinement Stage with the most talented being at Stage 8.

Speaking of children, the High Human offspring were so talented and smart that they were able to begin cultivating at the average age of 4. Five being the latest and three the quickest.

On a side-note, the Queen was currently creating a language after gaining inspiration from the Monkeys. The way they made different kinds of sounds consisting of screeches and howls as they looked at each other before performing certain actions made her think they were communicating somehow, something that embarrassed her greatly when she thought of her own race’s inability to converse.

But that naturally didn’t last long, she was soon able to form words that had specific meanings, plus, they sounded much nicer than the crude sounds that the Beasts made.

The Queen is indeed intelligent.

…

[Southern Continent, Central Forest]

In an unknown location of the forest was a pond surrounded by verdure. A black scaled Rhino entered the scene through a bush seemingly intent on taking a drink. It was a powerful Stage 6 Magic Beast.

The Rhino calmly ducked it’s head and lapped up the water in big gulps. Beautiful trees and bushes, a bright sun and a clear spring. It created a wonderful scene of nature.

But that was only how it looked.

Anyone actually here would be able to notice the tension that was so thick that it was almost tangible. Something was seriously wrong with this place.

For starters, it was completely quiet. No chirps of birds, no sounds of insects, no sounds of squirrels running through trees and bushes. It was completely silent save for the sound of the Rhino drinking water.

Second was the faintly noticeable blood stains that could be seen here and there. In fact, in every direction you looked, you would be able to see blood stains if you focused. Even more suspicious was the random piles of… ash? But it was so fine-grained and dust-like. What could burn to this extent?

Something was clearly wr-

RSHSHSHHSSHSH!

The sound of rustling leaves suddenly broke out, destroying the fragile image of peace. The Rhino was no longer alone and there were now 5 strange creatures surrounding it.

They looked like tiny yet humanoid beings with green skin and large wrinkly heads, they had black beady eyes, jagged teeth and sharp claws. Out of the 5, 4 of them were at the 4th stage of the first realm with the last one being at the 5th stage. He was also the tallest standing at 80 centimetres tall. Clearly, he was the leader.

The Rhino snapped up it’s head in fear but when it saw their low cultivation levels, it snorted in anger. A group of trash dared to confront it? But although the Rhino was full of rage, it didn’t make a peep. It knew better than to make a commotion and draw unwanted attention to itself in this god-forsaken forest.

As the Rhino contemplated on which ‘insect’ to attack first, the 5 creatures suddenly sprang at him.

Clearly, they weren’t afraid to make the first move.