In a nameless world,

atop a mountain surrounded by mist, was an old, time-beaten temple.

Creek! came the sound, followed by a loud thud!

Arthur stood in front of a door, or what remained of it, after pushing it open, half of the old wooden door fell off while his hand was stretched mid-air, with the door's handle in his grasp.

" How long has it been since the last time someone has been here? " he thought.

Thinking so, Al watched his steps as he carefully moved around, getting out of the temple and investigating his surroundings.

The temple was seemingly abandoned a long time ago, but what about the surroundings,

" …The air here is thin!.. " he thought, although he noticed it even before going out, after seeing his surroundings he understood why!

" We are at the peak of a mountain. Well, that's kinda obvious, but the spiritual energy is a bit thin, at least compared to the Average energy density of the Myriad Dao World. ".

Arthur moved carefully, a weak stream of spiritual energy revolved around him as in some sort of protective energy armour, alas the energy of a Mortal Awakening realm is most of the time too weak to be of use.

After almost two hours of looking around, Arthur had roamed the small area of the mountain's peak and descended the mountain for a considerable distance before he was faced with a dense layer of mist that left him with no more than 5 meters of visual range, along with the rising eerie atmosphere Arthur decided to return to the temple,

As he was on his way back, Arthur started arranging his thoughts and what he needed to do, " ... .of my tasks reaching the peak of the Mortal Awakening realm is most important, I have enough rations for a month of travel…. ",

" … Once Charlotte's condition stabilises, we should descend and figure out where we are... "

…

Arthur came back to the temple and entered the hall where he and Charlotte fell from the spatial crack.

Just like when he left, Charlotte was still in the same position, in a deep meditative state, healing her injuries.

Charlotte's weak aura had grown more stable while the previously deep wounds had stopped bleeding and partiality healed, some of the less severe ones had completely healed, however, that was all on the surface.

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On the other hand, her hidden injuries wouldn't heal any time soon, unless with the help of a healing treasure but at the same time, it wouldn't hinder her activities, at least as long as she didn't exert herself, all in all, Charlotte's recovery was a matter of time.

With nothing to do and being subconsciously unwilling to dwell on the event happening, Arthur returned and sat in a meditative posture.

What followed was another cultivation session,

Three hours later, Charlotte opened her eyes, her aura retracted as she stood up, as in tandem the aura around Arthur, revolved then increased in density slightly, promoting from the 1st to the 2nd Order - Mortal Awakening realm,

In a familiar and practised manner, the spiritual energy around Arthur retracted inside his body.

At the early stages of the mortal realm and after sensing the spiritual energy a cultivator would nourish their body with energy, then followed by forming the dantian to step into the 1st order finally.

Arthur felt the change in the surrounding aura, moments later he opened his eyes to find Charlotte tempting with a crystal tablet in her hand.

"Can you get in touch with anyone?" he asked.

Charlotte shook her head and replied, " I couldn't it's not working. ".

"..... I tried the treasure map I have, but it's not working, considering its range... We are not in the Myriad Dao realm.".

Silence filled the atmosphere, Charlotte's hands on the tablet froze and her expression changed multiple times.

A short while later, Arthur said...

" come to think of it, it's a miracle we survived that spatial crack, not to mention our state at the time, not even someone at our peak state should have survived.....", Al said

....

Two days later.

After accepting their situation, Arthur spent the past two days cultivating without wasting a moment, and as he was merely re-cultivating with the experience and the tempered body of an Origin realm cultivator his progress was as fast as it could be.

After achieving the peak of the Mortal Awakening realm in one day, Al spent the whole of the next day compressing his dantion and refining his spiritual energy with the standard of the origin realm.

Such a step would grant him a foundation better than anyone else.

Arthur stood outside the temple, holding a short sword as he descended the mountain accompanied by a brown-haired, green-eyed woman.

The current Charlotte's aura had declined once more but the weak and sickly feel to it had disappeared, sacrificing a few levels she managed to heal her injuries. The current her had gone from the 5th Order Origin Ascension realm at her peak to the 4th Order Core Formation realm,

Basically from a pinnacle powerhouse to an average-level expert in a minor world.

Such a drop in status would have drastic effects on the person's mentality but neither she nor Al who faced the same thing seemed to care much about the drop in cultivation

A moment later, the duo started descending the mountain, and slowly the scene around them started changing, from the barren, desolate and rock-filled mountain peak, dry weeds started appearing, followed by increasing greenery that could be seen in the short distance below.

Just as the duo passed through a pile of dry grass, the grass trembled and a small creature shot toward Al's face.

Startled, and almost in a spontaneous manner Al swung the short sword in his hand and hit the incoming small shadow.

Clank!

Squeeeeeeeeeeeeek!

What followed was the sound of a metal colliding and the pained squeak of a…

Squirrel? A palm-sized, small Squirrel, covered in dark grey, almost black fur, hid behind a rock and squeaked menacingly in its attacker's direction.