Dawn broke over the forest of Aermagh. As the sun slowly rose, the light broke through the foliage and awakened the creatures within to a new day.

Calla and Wisteria woke up that morning to find Braiten still cultivating. Braiten had connected a few laws the previous night, and he began to focus on trying to connect more. He knew that as long as he understood the connections, his future speed would rise until he hit a cultivation level that required more comprehension.

Throughout the night, Braiten’s cultivation level had increased by two, bringing up his cultivation to the fourteenth level of the advanced cultivation tier. Braiten was so caught up in his observations, study and thoughts that he completely lost any sense of time.

Braiten was brought back to the world when noon hit. He saw the Changelings happily chatting away under a nearby tree while eating some fruits. Finally noticing the time, Braiten approached the couple and apologized. From there, they began to prepare to move off into the ravines.

***

A short time after entering the ravines, the three companions were beset by a pack of fifteen dire wolves. It seems like they were on the hunt as they prowled the outer regions of the ravines for easy prey despite belonging to the middle areas. A single dire wolf was equivalent to an advanced cultivator of the hundredth level. Together as a pack, they were much stronger than a single expert cultivator.

Seeing that the entire group was surrounded, the trio did not act carelessly and fell back into a defensive position. Braiten began calculating how to limit some of his magic. If he was alone, he could have prepared several spells to wipe out at least half of the wolves instantaneously and injure the rest, but for fear of friendly-fire, he could not use such wide-ranged magic.

Just as Braiten was about to form his spells, Calla moved closer towards Braiten while still on guard and whispered, “Let Wisteria and me take care of these beasts. Then you can think about how best to adapt to fighting as a group later on. Just watch our backs.”

With that, Calla moved towards Wisteria and clasped one of her hands and moved it to an outstretched position. He placed his other hand on her waist while Wisteria moved her free hand to his shoulder. Their poise would be perfect at a ball.

With this pose, the couple swayed to a tempo that only they could hear and rapidly approached one side of the beasts. With that, the dire wolves began to charge at the separated team, with the majority focusing on the couple. Braiten erected a fortified pillar of earth below him, causing those that were targeting him to smash into it and fall into a daze. Following that, blades of wind and water sliced down from above, instantly beheading the three dire wolves that targeted Braiten.

Meanwhile, the Changeling couple danced between the battle wolves. Their movements sharp but graceful. The qi that radiated from the couple melded together and it seemed like they were one entity.

As they slowly became the center of the battle, Calla twirled Wisteria and their qi formed the shape of a vortex for an instant. That vortex took the shape of a thin whip, slicing across the wolves that surrounded them. That move maimed four surrounding beasts.

Following that, Calla and Wisteria joined their arms together in their starting stance and stabbed their clasped hands towards one of the dire wolves. This time, a spear appeared and killed the wolf that they aimed at.

The other wounded animals fell back and four more took their place in surrounding the duo. This time, before the couple could attack, the wolves charged in a coordinated manner. The wolf in front of the couple pounced from above while two attacked from the sides. The last wolf got ready to lunge as soon as the one in the air landed.

However, this coordinated attack was not in the least effective. Calla dipped his partner while facing the three attacking wolves, and Wisteria’s leg stretched out. A shield that covered all three angles of attack was erected from the combined qi. This was followed by a sword that extended from Wisteria’s leg that sliced the remaining wolf.

Soon after taking care of the wolf, the couple felt like they had enough of feeling for their opponents’ strength. They kicked up the tempo and flitted through the battlefield. Every twirl, every leg sweep and every arm extension was followed by a weapon forming and killing or maiming a wolf. The remaining ten wolves were quickly taken out one by one.

By the end of it all, the couple was left in their starting pose. Their breathing slightly quickened, but they showed no signs of any fatigue. Braiten floated down from his observation platform and approached the Changelings.

However, before Braiten or the couple could say anything, a nest of harpies swooped down from above and attacked them. The harpies strangely did not radiate any killing intent but exuded fighting spirit instead.

The attacks aimed at the trio were not aimed to kill, but seemed to test how they would react. Braiten dashed forth and parried three harpies. As he did so, he saw a black ring around their necks. Braiten’s eyes flashed in recognition as he stomped on the ground, causing a spike of earth to emerge from under his foot. Braiten used the force of the spike’s emergence to launch himself towards the Changelings.

As he neared the Changelings and saw them striking out with killing blows, he shouted out, “don’t aim to kill! Defend yourself seriously but strike as if you were challenged to a friendly duel. These harpies are controlled by a friend.”

The couple was surprised for a moment, but changed their attacks. Most of the weapons that they formed with their qi were blunt weapons and the strikes aimed to either incapacitate or to cause the harpies to falter. However, the aerial maneuverability of the two harpies striking at the couple was giving them a little bit of trouble.

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After a few exchanges, the Changelings transformed as they fought. They began to take the appearance of imps but kept their human size. The couple then took to the air and began fighting the harpies separately. They still fought like they were dancing, but this time, they tackled the harpies one on one.

Braiten nodded upon seeing Wisteria and Calla’s killing intent fade away, replaced with a competitive spirit instead. Braiten then focused on the three harpies that were targeting him. They had patiently waited for him to confirm his friends’ actions before he shifted their focus back to them.

Following that, the three harpies attacked Braiten in unison. Two attacked occasionally from above, while one of them tried to distract him from the ground.

Sensing that there was a group of Daemons watching the battle, Braiten habitually fell back into his fighting style that hid his magic. Braiten encased his arms in water and he increased his defense and speed with enchants.

Braiten was parrying the harpy on the ground when one of the aerial harpies struck out. Braiten quickly parried the blow, but instead of withdrawing his arm after parrying, he grabbed the harpy’s claw. Water flowed across the harpy’s leg and formed a shackle. Braiten then clasped the leg with his other hand with a sweeping motion. As he did so, a chain shot out of the ground and merged with the shackle. Braiten quickly enchanted both the shackle and chain’s durability before pulling the harpy towards the ground with a touch of gravity magic.

With the harpy on the ground, Braiten quickly shot out and knocked the harpy out. As soon as he did that, there was a sound of applause coming from the group of observing Daemon. The four other harpies stopped fighting upon hearing the clapping sounds. Three of them flew towards the Daemons while the one who was fighting Braiten on the ground grabbed the unconscious harpy before following the three.

Aethelbeorn emerged from the group of Daemons. He grinned and waved as he approached Braiten and the two Faeries.

“Sorry about the rough welcome. My subordinates did not believe when I said that there was a Human at the low cultivation tier that could fight a harpy and make me recognize his strength. I figured that this would be the best time to do it. To think that you would head here so soon after our parting!” Aethelbeorn said as he laughed boisterously and slapped Braiten’s shoulder a few times.

“Introduce me to these two fine warriors as well, Braiten. I see that they are not Humans but are some strange denomination of the Faerie race,” Aethelbeorn directed a respectful gaze at the two Changelings.

Braiten smiled slightly and spoke while gesturing to Wisteria and then Calla, “Aethelbeorn, these are Wisteria and Calla. They are part of the Faerie race. Forgive me for not disclosing their denomination because it is supposed to be a secret even among the Faerie race.”

Turning to face the Changeling couple, Braiten gestured towards Aethelbeorn, “this is Aethelbeorn. One of the noble warriors of the Daemon race. I hope you guys would get along well.”

Wisteria and Calla nodded their heads and smiled. They shook hands with Aethelbeorn and said a few greetings to each other.

Afterwards, the four of them were led towards the squad of Daemons. The Daemons welcomed Braiten’s group with open arms. The males were as boisterous as Aethelbeorn while the females maintained a stoic attitude. They said several things that Braiten was curious about, one of which was of him wielding such a weird martial art and how the Faeries’ 【Dance of Armaments】 martial art was fascinating. Soon, however, the three of them were whisked off towards the Daemons’ dwelling.

The trio was brought deeper into the ravines. They were escorted and protected by the Daemon troop. With the troop radiating their qi aura at the expert cultivation, monsters and beasts did not dare to approach.

In an extremely deep part of the ravines, the trio was brought to a cave in one of the ravine cliffs. They were then taken along a winding path through the maze of tunnels within. After some time, the group reached the Daemon hometown.

Upon reaching the Daemons’ hometown, Aethelbeorn announced in a booming voice, “welcome, friends, to Zrerton. Home to us, Daemons, and a safe haven away from the monsters and beasts of the ravine.”

===

Author’s notes:

A short chapter this time around. The next chapter will be somewhat information and possibly dialogue heavy. I hope that the dialogue won’t be too much, though.

I just realized that I made a huge mistake in the past chapters. I should be typing the races with a capital letter in front, such as Daemon, Faerie, Imp, Peri, Changeling and Human. It is only when human is used in a non-racial context that it would be a small ‘h’. I will go back through the previous chapters to change it.

By the way, can you guys guess where I took the Changeling’s fighting style from? I’m sure all of you avid manga readers definitely know what I’m talking about. Guhehehe.

To those who tried guessing what the new concept was in chapter 11, the concept should be more obvious now.

Update to info compilation 1: Added the martial cultivation section and will be adding some more info tomorrow.