Immediately after Arbor disappeared, his five elders all released their strongest area of effect attacks that they could muster after leaving only a miniscule amount of their life essence left. A cloud of blood took shape above the city as half of Veon’s army was obliterated. As if they have a mind of its own, the blood mist along with the same black sand from the corpses flew through the air towards Veon and disappeared into his sleeves. Veon gave a quick smirk before speaking, “Typical of Haoshe’s disciples, hanging on to their life and being afraid to sacrifice for their goals. I can feel their souls just outside my reach. They will be dead soon. Kreiwu, that teleportation formation got disrupted and is now missing. Find him and kill him.”

All but four people vanished in an instant, leaving Veon, Kreiwu, Sul, and Katreena. “Lord Veon I app-”

“Did I say you could speak?” Veon had a hold of Katreena’s neck as he spoke slowly, “Due to your incompetence he got away. If you didn’t play your reckless games with that boy I wouldn't have to take part of your soul away. I presume that it will take you a couple millenia to recuperate. I don't believe that you can see the bigger picture here. As bad of a situation that boy was in, I felt nothing from him. Not even a sliver of death. If he gives me a bad feeling then you should be petrified” Veon tossed Katreens to the side before looking at Kreiwu and Sul,

“Since we have already come out of the shadows, initiate the take over plan. If you can find any blood of his and perform the necessary rituals. Let’s be meticulous and dispatch teams to every inch of this realm and hunt him down. Open the vault and distribute the necessary rewards to the disciples. I want half of this forsaken realm under my control within a millennium.” With that Veon vanished as if he was never there and appeared seated on his throne.

In a familiar forest a white light flashed as Pona, Sol, Telum, Volcan, and Thalli appeared disheveled on the forest floor. Immediately all five of them became cocooned inside a mixture of twigs and leaves. The five cocoons moved under the direction of Haoshe into a circular formation. “His strength is growing faster than I anticipated. I need to come up with some countermeasures before it’s too late.”

A nervous contenance overcame Haoshe as he inspected the five in front of him.“They overexerted themselves too much this time. I’m afraid that it’ll take a couple decades for them to recover by themselves.”

“It’s a good thing they got Arbor out of there in time. Although I don’t know where he is, he has a chance to live. The rest is up to fate as I’ve already intervened enough by bringing him here.” Haoshe’s expression changed to a more sorrowful one as he retreated back to his dwelling inside the tree. He assumed a seated position as and began feeling the cycles of rebirth happening in the universe. As the natural born God of Life, he has to ensure that no one attempts to defy the laws of the universe that are under his control.

In a distant place void of any signs of human civilization is a peaceful plain of purple grass that stretches into the horizon. Trees no taller than ten feet are scarce but easy to notice in the distance. A gentle breeze sways the grass and trees back and forth. The peaceful calm broke at the sight of a blinding light and dust that was kicked up. A small circular patch of grass disappeared as a young boy with an egg on his back appeared in the same spot. The wind swept the dust away within a minute and the area went back to normal.

Two days went by as the boy was still on the ground in a fetal position. Two days later a small rodent caught a whiff of his scent but was scared away when the boy moaned in pain. On the seventh day small sprouts of grass appeared to replace those that were displaced when he arrived. Another week went by as the grass had regained its original height and hid the boy.

On the twentieth day a hawk flying overhead noticed the peculiarity in the grass and decided on its next meal. It landed just a few feet away as it studied Arbor with curiosity. It inspected Arbor as it pecked different parts of its body. The hawk jumped to different parts of his body and made sure that the lifeless being was dead before digging in. Due to the harness around the egg, the hawk was unable to even get to its outer shell. Eventually it made a decision and pecked really hard at Arbor’s cheek, jolting him awake.

“Telum!” Arbor screamed as he woke. The blistering scream scared the hawk away.

Horrified of what he just went through, Arbor became extremely jumpy towards the swaying of the grass beside him. He sat up and hugged his knees. Rocked back and forth as he wailed and muttered incomprehensible words. His wide eyes twitched back and forth faster than his breath. Flashbacks of what he had experienced while being tortured played continuously in his mind.

Hours passed as Arbor had yet to move. Tears rolled down his face uncontrollably creating a wet spot the down length of his robe. Another hour passed by and Arbors eyes became crusty from the dried tears. With dull eyes Arbor slowly stood up and started walking aimlessly.

Miraculously, as Arbor walked the remaining medicinal energy from the god tier pill that Arbor ingested, caused his cultivation level to see vast improvements. Unfortunately, as his cultivation was still too low, he is only able to absorb the remaining energy from the medicine at an efficiency rate of less than one percent. Since he was already at the peak of the body fortification realm, he was unable to make any strides as a mental barrier was preventing him from breaking through to the Foundation Establishment Realm. His strength was growing by the second and that forced that wall to start cracking.

This process took place over the time of a couple days. During this time, Arbor's mental condition had improved as he became aware of his surroundings, the body tremors, and his agitation had stopped. A couple of days later Arbor had completely recovered but had yet to get out of a depressed state. The residual medicine had left his body.

It had been a week and half half since Arbor and company had started walking. In the distance he was finally able to see the outline of a mountain lush with blue and green vegetation. Falling from somewhere beyond the clouds. At the base of the waterfall was what appeared to be the silhouette of a city.