"Ancestor.. why don't you go outside and inspect the family situation." Set said worriedly when he saw me lost in thought.

Ever since the wanderer left after getting my title, I haven't left the house once as I was busy either reading the books the wanderer left for me or adjusting myself to my new body. More precisely, I haven't even left once after waking from my seventy years of hibernation.

To begin with there is nothing outside the main house apart from the trees and grass, as it was built near a forest that I was granted by the kingdom. And since I liked quiet places, I had forbidden the family members from building any village or town near to it. So there are no other human settlements apart from the house in a 3km radius.

"Why don't you go visit Noir, Ancestor. He must have missed you a lot. During your seventy years of seclusion, every year, on the day you entered seclusion, he would come without a miss and stare at your room for the entire day."

I should go and visit the little guy, unless I want to hear his whining for the coming days for leaving him in the dark.

"Did the little guy grow up during the last seventy years?"

"He did grow an inch or two, but you know him Ancestor, he wouldn't allow us to touch him." Set said tiredly.

"Speaking of growth, what are your chances to advance to heaven realm?" I asked as I stood up.

It would be best if he could advance to heaven realm early. How old was he anyway,76? It's not a bad time to advance, that is if he can grasp the turning point for his advancement.

"I haven't found my turning point yet. I have been thinking of going on a world travel to find my turning point."

"Well, good luck on that.."

It's not like I can provide him any more advice, all the experience I had during my advancement to heaven stage was written clearly in my journal which I gave him.

The house has been renovated many times ever since it was built a century ago, so I needed someone to help me traverse it. The house itself is three storied made entirely out of wood and stone. Looking at it brings memories of the old times when all my friends were alive.

The moment I exited the house, the sunlight along with the wind brushed against me. A vast green plane with few trees embedded in it entered my vision after my eyes settled to the light. And behind the house stood my destination; a large forest.

"Set"

"What is it Ancestor?"

"I can fit in the family just fine."

"What ar-"

"So you need not worry about me and should start to prepare for the travel that you postponed tomorrow itself."

Even though he is trying to hide it, I can see that he has already reached the peak of earth realm a long time ago. He should had left to look for his turning point long ago. The only reason he hasn't left yet is because he believed that I was still alive and I wouldn't have anyone besides me when I wake up.

"Ancesto-..."

"Say Set."

"Y-Yes A-ncestor?"

"Why did you became a practitioner?"

"I-I-"

"You know little Set, you may think you have more than enough time now, but the higher you reach, the more you will regret wasting your time in the past." I said as I reached out my hands towards the sun.

"...."

"Start your journey tomorrow itself." I ordered him firmly without giving him any chance to talk back

"Yes Ancestor."

"You can go back now, I can manage things on my own from here onwards."

After leaving Set on to his device, I started to move towards the forest. This plot of land along with the forest, located in the outskirts of the kingdom was something I asked of the king when I was bestowed the title of marquis.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

One of the main reasons for the request was to keep the family away from the politics of the nobles.

The society of nobles is not something you can enter half-assedly, One moment of carelessness and you will ruin your entire family.

Just like always the number of wild animals that I can sense here are little. I started to walk towards the west direction of the forest.

This forest does not contain many ferocious carnivores animals. So when a black object started to dash towards me, it didn't took me any thinking to know it's identity.

The little black object stopped right in front of me to reveal a black pup of one and a quarter feet length and half a feet height. It kept staring at me in a questioning gaze with it's black pearly eyes.

"..."

"..."

We kept staring at each other's eyes without any sound.

"Woof, woof.." The silence that lasted for a while was broken by the pup.

"I know, I know... I became small. You don't need to remind me that, Noir."

"Woof woof.."

"What? Now I can't make fun of you as a little kid because I'm a little kid too?!"

"Woof" the little thing nodded it's head.

"...."

His cheekiness hasn't lost one bit.

I found the little thing as a baby during the subjugation of a 7-feet wild black dog who was guarding an earth spiritual tree. Back then after the main army killed of the giant dog and took control of the spiritual tree, I along with my team were the ones who were given the duty to clean up the battlefield. The men under me found the little guy a little away from the spiritual tree knocked out from the after shock of the battle between it's parent and the army.

Since I felt sorry for the little guy and none of my team member wanted it, I took him in. A dog is a faithful companion and beside as a child of a spirit beast, it too had a high prospect for aura. Spirit beasts were rare, as only a one in thousand wild animal can practice aura but none wanted them as it took centuries for them to yield the power of a human realm aura practitioner.

Taking the little guy did give me a treasure though. The little guy had a seed of the earth spiritual tree in it's mouth. Although the seed was not priceless like the spiritual tree, it nonetheless was a treasure for a human realm practitioner like me.

"I will think about it, for now why don't we go and visit the little sapling you have been guarding."

"Woof"

If anyone from the outside sees this, they may think that I can speak the language of dogs. But in reality it's just my long years of familiarity with him that allows me to understand him.

Noir nodded and turned around leading the way towards the sapling.

As we entered further in to the woods, the earth elemental aura in the atmosphere started to drastically increase. Thinking about how big the tree would be now after growing for the last one century makes my heart race a little faster. After all Spiritual trees are rare existences which are instantly taken by the authority up on finding it.

"woof"

Noir sounded himself up on reaching a twenty feet long tree with brown leaves. My mind went blank for a second and my heartbeat started to race as the tree looks similar to the one I saw on the expedition right down to the height and density of the earth elemental aura covering it.

It worked, my hypothesis really worked.. Normally a spiritual sapling takes half a century to germinate and takes four to five centuries to reach mature state. During my decades of study, I found out that the growth of a spiritual tree is not only directly related to the intensity of aura but also to the existence of spiritual beast.

The spiritual beasts pulls the aura in the surrounding closer to the spiritual tree and in turn the spiritual tree takes the aura and releases its respective elemental aura which is beneficial for the beast.

For that to happen there should be extremely dense amount of aura. This is my second reason for picking a forest in the outskirts of the kingdom where there is no spirit population.

"Woof"

Noir's voice brought me out of excitement as he wanted to say something.

He ran towards a hole near the tree and instantly came back with a round ball in his mouth.

Wait.. that's not a ball, the earth element aura surrounding it is extremely dense.

"Don't tell me it is a -"

"Woof woof"

Noir puffed his little chest in pride before nodding.

"A Spiritual fruit" I murmured.

I see, no wonder the nobles and royals went crazy whenever a spiritual tree was mentioned.

"woof"

"You want me to have it?"

"Woof"

Noir replied my question with a nod.

"Hmm.. thanks for the gift but at my current level I have no need for these things."

Lord realm practitioners use the aura from their soul, so I have no need for this at my current level.

And besides even before I entered the Lord realm, the aura I practiced was of neutral nature, so a earth spiritual fruit is of no benefit to me.

"woof"

Noir pushed the fruit even upon refusal.

"You want me to take it as a gift? But isn't it more useful to you as a earth spiritual beast?"

"woof"

"You have more with you?"

This brat, no wonder he is giving it to me without any hesitation.

"Then I will keep it" I pulled it into the pocket in my sleeve.

"I'm going on a trip, do you want to tag along?" I asked on a whim without expecting a positive answer but.

"Woof"

What?! you are coming? Then what about guarding the tree?"

"Woof"

"You have it covered?"

"Wooooooh" he howled after nodding to my question.

The ground started to shake a little as something was charging towards here. Ohh!.. A subordinate? so he does has a backup plan for these situations. I wonder what spiritual beast is it? A Wolf? A fox? or a fellow Dog?

The tremor started to slow down as it reached closer. The moment I saw it's large figure my lips started to twitch.

"Seriously?!"

I can't believe it! Of all the things out there he can choose from, he choose something like this.

"Woof"

Noir barked with a hint of pride.

Yeah, he deserves that pride, as what stood before me is a six feet tall bear