Maxine was going through school registrations at her new middle school with her mother. The only reason they were there physically was because her mother didn't want to do it online. Maxine hadn't thought this was necessary to even go to school since she could quite literately go to a library and in mere hours study all the way up to the twelfth grade. However her mother insisted that Maxine have as normal of a life outside of her activities as an essence cultivator. It was a pain, but Maxine indulged her mother as she reviewed the events of the last week. 

After she had given General Cullens a call last week that some ant colonies were in the process of becoming essence beasts, Maxine got recruited by General Cullens to track down those ant colonies since her spiritual sense was far more accurate and sensitive than any of the essence detectors that the military had. She had found over twenty ant colonies within two hundred miles of her house that were showing signs of absorbing essence and eliminated them. Fortunately, they paid her two thousand dollars per ant colony that she discovered and destroyed, which was much a much appreciated source of income. However she had to use one of their handheld devices to confirm the fact that they were absorbing essence as proof before she actually destroyed the ant colony.

Maxine had scanned each of the ant queens that were absorbing essence for future reference. She never knew when such information might be useful. Unfortunately, ants weren't the only insects absorbing essence. She had found a wild bee hive that was doing it as well. It had nearly made her jump out of her skin in fright. Ants could at least be manageable with napalm if they became essence beasts, but bees couldn't since they could fly. However she had left that bee hive alone and didn't tell anyone about it, but she destroyed four other bee hives before she notified General Cullens about them. She had wanted to control the bee hive through it's queen.

Maxine had also released the Four-Tailed Fox back into the area that she caught it in. It had given an oath that it would try to convince as many of the beast tribes that it could to play nice with humans for now as a sign of good faith while Four-Tailed Fox negotiated peaceful terms. Maxine knew that the Four-Tailed Fox didn't need her to translate during those negotiations since she heard it speak. Although she had warned the Four-Tailed Fox that a speaking fox might take humans awhile to adjust to. However she still knew that the apex predators like the bears would need a more forceful hand.

Maxine pulled herself out of her own thoughts and decided to ask Hellen a question yet again because she still had trouble believing that it was possible, "Are you sure that I can control that Queen Bee before it becomes an essence beast?" Hellen had warned her that it would take a seal-type spiritual mark to do it. Maxine had been trying to master it this entire time with little success since it had to be so small. The biggest problem was that if she used too much strength to her spritual mark, it would kill the Queen Bee.

"Yes, it is theoretically possible, but you must have near perfect control of your spiritual sense for that," Hellen responded, "I expect that you should be able to master that spiritual mark within the next week or so." 

"If you say so, mom," Maxine said to Hellen, "But this is way harder than anything else that I have ever done. That includes those blade techniques from before." It wasn't a lie. Maxine had already mastered the Flowing Water Blade and was in the process of imprinting it onto her muscle memory. 

"That's not surprising since those blade techniques were bronze and iron ranked respectively," Hellen said, "The spiritual mark that you are trying to learn is at the very limit of what an iron stage cultivator can handle and borders on silver stage in difficulty. However your soul is stronger than normal so, it should still be within your means to learn." 

"Well it doesn't feel that way," Maxine said.

"It shouldn't, but remember the most difficult trials can result in the greatest reward," Hellen advised, "If you can cultivate that bee hive sufficiently, it could very easily be another ultimate trump card, like your dragon essence armor." Hellen wasn't wrong. A swarm of copper stage bees would be dangerous even to Maxine since their stingers could potentially pierce her essence armor and poison her.

"I know. That is why I am trying so hard to learn this spiritual mark," Maxine responded, "I want every capability to defend myself."

"I know, Maxine," Hellen agreed, "It doesn't look like we can talk anymore for now. Claudia has finished up your pointless school registration."

"Don't be like that," Maxine said, "She only wants me to live a normal life."

"That isn't possible and you know it," Hellen said before she cut the spiritual sense connection between them. I know that all too well, but it still gives her a sense of normalcy.

"We're all set for your classes," Maxine's mother said and handed Maxine a sheet of paper, "They said to go to the website on this sheet of paper to get your class schedule."

"Alright, mom," Maxine said, "I will look it up when we get home." She knew it would be a pain once she got into classes. She is a celebrity and would make most of the teachers nervous with her presence. She wouldn't blame them either. It was a rather scary prospect to teach a student who could rip apart a tank with her bare hands.

"Good," Maxine's mother said, "Let's go get Silky and head home." Maxine followed her mother out of the school. She was secretly thankful that she wasn't being sent to her former middle school. If she went there again, she knew that it would bring memories of her half-eaten classmates' bodies littering the ground.

As they got outside, Maxine saw the blonde pretty boy watching her with a pleased smile on his face from the other side of the street. This is the second time this week that I have seen him. I want to know why he is following me and why the hell does he have that smile on his face? It's creeping me out. Maxine used her spiritual sense to see if he had anything on him that could reveal why he was following her, but to her surprise, she couldnt detect him with her spiritual sense. What the hell?! She didn't understand what was going on, but for some reason, she felt a resonance in her blood while she looked at him.

"Mom, I can barely sense that blonde pretty boy across the street," Maxine said to Hellen using her spiritual sense, "Do you know any techniques capable of doing that?"

"Yes, it is used by the Shadow Lords. It is similar to the masking ability that you use, but it is far more advanced. I am surprised you were able to detect him at all," Hellen responded and felt some concern eminating from Hellen, "They do not teach that technique to outsiders."

"Any idea why a Shadow Lord is watching me?" Maxine asked.

"Yes, actually," Hellen responded, but her tone contained a hint of anger as she continued, "He is watching us to see if his race's long-term experiment is successful. One of those beings forced our ancestor to be his mate in order to see if they could spawn something that their entire race desired."

"And what is that?" Maxine asked curiously, but felt angry that a Shadow Lord in her ancestry was a rapist.

"An entity capable of becoming their ruler," Hellen responded, "Don't worry too much about it. When I was around your age, they observed me as well. He won't interfer with your life and should stop observing you after you breakthrough into silver stage. Supposedly there is some kind of sign that is going to happen during the breakthrough from iron to silver when that person is their ruler, but it hasn't happened in all the generations since our founder. However I am curious how he knew that you have the Shadow Lord bloodline." 

"I think I know the answer to that," Maxine said and she felt that she had Hellen's attention, "I could feel a resonance in my blood when I looked at him. He probably felt the same when he saw me for the first time. But that's only a guess of mine."

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

"Possible, but I will ask your father to see if he has any ideas. I will let you know as soon as I do," Hellen said calmly, but Maxine felt something akin to worry. 

"Alright," Maxine replied and sat down in the front seat of her mother's car before they drove to Emily's house to go pick up Silky. Her mother had done that to keep Silky from being bored while they got Maxine registered for school. 

Maxine felt that traveling in a car was unbearably slow. However she tolerated it since her mother didn't have Maxine's ability to run at super sonic running speed. It simply gave her more time to practice in forming the seal-type spiritual mark. If this were only the size of a coin, it would be so much easier, but because it has to be on an insect, this seal has to fit on the head of a small needle. I can't use too much spiritual sense either and it's really complicated as well. She had only managed to make it once by the time she got home with her mother, but she knew that she had imbued too much spiritual sense into it. Damn it. I either use too much or not enough. Too much will kill the queen bee and too little results in the seal unraveling. 

Maxine got out of the car once they got to Emily's house. She went up to the front door and knocked. Silky immediately opened the front door with a happy smile on her face.

"Hey, mama," Silky said cheerfully.

"Hey, sweetie," Maxine said as she knelt down and hugged Silky. Silky returned it happily.

"Mama, Mr. McKenzy has essence," Silky said after they separated. Silky's statement had confused Maxine since the older someone starts to cultivate the harder it was to do it. In theory, he shouldn't be able to cultivate at all considering his age.

Maxine extended her spiritual sense and scanned General McKenzy. Silky was right. He had two strands of essence in his body. It wasn't enough to enhance his strength, but it would make him feel healthier and more energetic. However she was still amazed. He must have possessed an immense talent for it to be able to absorb any essence at all. If he were still in his youth, his strength may have already surpassed her own without the use of essence cores.

Maxine guessed that Emily had taught him. It didn't bother Maxine at all that Emily did that. She would have done the same in Emily's place. In fact, Maxine had already determined her mother's talent in essence cultivation and her mother had absolutely no talent at all. It would take at a minimum of one hundred copper essence cores for her mother just enter copper stage. Maxine had no idea how much it would take her mother to actually reach bronze stage, so that Maxine could extend her life. That was assuming that her mother could cultivate at all.

Emily appeared behind Silky. However she looked alittle angry as she looked at Silky. "Silky, you know that you are not supposed to open the door when you are at my house," Emily said in an annoyed tone.

Silky shrank alittle as she replied, "I am sorry. I just wanted to see my mama." 

"I know Silky, but you were with Emily right?" Maxine asked Silky.

"I guess," Silky said, "But I rather stay with mama."

Maxine thought Silky's behavior was adorable as she hugged Silky again and said, "I know."

"She doesn't like it when she is separated from you," Emily said, "She kept looking out the window to see if you had gotten back."

"I know it upsets her, but I don't want to be swarmed by overzealous reporters any more than necessary," Maxine said, "A few of them harrassed me while I was getting registered for school." It wasn't a lie either. However there wasn't a mob of reporters like she had expected when she went to get registered for school. Instead there were two reporters asking her if she intended to finish school. She didn't mind answering those questions since they appeared to be harmless in nature. It also gave her free opportunity to tell everyone that she was going to teach others to cultivate. Unfortunately they weren't on live television, but she doubted that the newscasters could resist putting it on the air. So she expected to get contacted soon through email address that she provided. She had made that email just for that purpose.

"Just don't do this too often," Emily stated, "What will you be doing about Silky while you are at school?"

"I will be leaving one of my shadow clones to keep her company," Maxine answered.

"Why didn't you do that today?" Emily asked. 

"Both of my shadow clones are a bit occupied," Maxine said, "But one of them should be available when I am at school." One of her shadow clones was in the process of teaching the villagers in the shadow world how to cultivate and the other one was in the process of gathering herbs in the surrounding forests with a few of her Shadow Wolves since Guan had finally agreed to give her a beginner's book on alchemy. He was in the process of writing it in english to make it easier for Maxine to understand it.

"Good because grandpa said he would be busy while we are at school," Emily stated, "Although I don't know what he is planning on doing though."

"It's his business in any case," Maxine said and heard her mother honk the horn to her car, "It seems mom is getting impatient. See you later, Emily."

"Bye, Emily," Silky said sweetly as the both of them started to walk to the car.

"See you two later," Emily said as she waved to them from the doorway. 

Maxine and Silky got into her mother's car and they headed home. On the way home, Maxine started to fiddle with the seal-type spiritual mark some more, but she didn't make much progress.

Once they were home, Maxine went straight to her room and Silky followed her. She made certain that no one was watching as she used one of her Shadow Wolves as medium to form a portal to the shadow world. She wanted to check on the progress that the villagers were making with her own eyes instead of through her shadow clone. 

Maxine walked out of the cave and gazed apon the familiar black and white landscape as she jogged to the village. It took her only moments to reach the edge of the village. When she got there, she observed as her shadow clone was teaching all of the children and teenagers in the village how to cultivate. This whole thing was an experiment to see if they could use the same cultivation techniquie that humans could. So far, it seemed to be working and the cultivation of the young villagers was increasing quite rapidly with no obvious side-effects. But that was just on the short term. Maxine had no idea what any long term side-effects would be.

Maxine knew that the villagers were extremely grateful to her since she had protected them from the bandits and had shown instances of devotion in their eyes in recent days. Talia, the girl she saved from being raped, was an especially good student and gave Maxine a gaze of worship on more than one ocassion.

Maxine had a feeling that they would do nearly anything to appease her if she were just to ask. Maybe I can have them grow medicinal herbs for me. The growth rate of those herbs would definitely be faster in such an essence rich enviroment and I don't think that I will even have to be insistent about it either.

As if on cue, the village elder, Canis, approached Maxine's shadow clone. He appeared to be in a good mood. She decided to broach the subject of establishing a medicinal garden near the village and ask them to tend to it while she wasn't available.

"Greeting, my lady," Canis said respectfully, "Do the young ones still meet up to your requirements?"

"Yes, they do," Maxine replied through her shadow clone and was slightly annoyed since he had asked that same question for the past few days, "And I don't need them for anything in particular at the moment. I am simply teaching them to do this so that they have the strength needed to defend themselves." Maxine planned on teaching them fundemental spear, sword and bow usage after they mastered her cultivation technique.

"Your generosity knows no bounds," Canis complimented, "Are you certain there is nothing that our humble village can assist you with?"

"Actually, there is," Maxine responded, "I sent one of my comes to go collect herbs and their seeds. I wish to use the seeds to establish a medicinal garden near your village. Would you and the other villagers be willing to tend to it while I am away?"

Canis' eyes lit up with a strange light as he answered, "It would be our pleasure, my lady."

"Good," Maxine answered, "My main body is nearby. Bring the crippled villagers here. I can give them medicine in a few moments to regrow their missing limbs. Just be certain to provide those villagers ample meals afterwards. That will speed up the regrowing process." She had enough of the Troll's Blood Sap to give to all of the villagers that lost limbs since there were only five of them. She had a constant supply of one dose every few days since she discovered that tree.

"Thank you again, my lady," Canis said as he bowed his body at the waist towards her before he left at a jog to get the crippled villagers. 

Maxine stopped focusing as much on her shadow clone and she approached her shadow clone to wait for the crippled villagers to approach. For her the village youths, it was a confusing scene to see both Maxine and her shadow clone standing side by side. 

Maxine noticed movement coming from deeper within the village and saw the maimed bodies of the crippled villagers. Most of them were missing one arm, but there were a few missing a leg. Maxine felt a trace of guilt that she couldn't suppress when she saw them. If only I came to their rescue faster, they may not have had to loose their limbs, but I can still make it right by healing them. After they reached her, she went to each one of them and fed them a dose of Troll's Blood Sap. Not one of them hesitated or refused to take it once it was offered. It was an immense sign of trust on their part.

Just as Maxine gave the last crippled villager a dose of Troll's Blood Sap, one of her Shadow Wolves had spotted a group of fifty soldiers of some kind with an average of bronze rank 8 strength approaching the village. They were all mounted on some kind of strange horse with three horns and six legs. It was obvious that this was some kind of patrol, but they didn't display any kind of heraldry or markings to reveal who they were affiliated with.