Within the small cave, Arbor’s breathing finally steadied after a moment of panting. After realizing that he had found himself on a completely different plane that the one the forest is on, he had a panic attack. Adding in the information that he just learned, he came to the conclusion that he is in solitude. He sat down and decided to cultivate and try his luck at breaking through to the next realm.

Arbors consciousness entered his dantain and was greeted by the familiar dark space. Even though Arbor was unable to see anything in front of him, he could feel that the space was boundless. Arbors silhouette sat down and closed its eyes. He began to circulate the essence through his meridians in a pathway taught to him by his elders. By the time the essence circulated through his body a handful of times, it had reached its max speed. At the end of the end of the next circulation, Arbor could feel his body brimming with power. His dantain started to pulsate as it sent ripples over every inch of his body. He could feel that something was trying to awaken inside of him.

Inside of his dantain, at the epicenter, a small light flickered in and out. Arbor is seated directly before the light. More and more essence was being poured into his dantain, the light started to become more stable. Moments later it flashed and turned over the inside of his dantain. Now it was a white slate. At the center of the white space is a small sapling and a newborn cub.

When one steps into the Foundation Establishment realm they truly step into the world of cultivation. Their lifespan will increase to around two hundred years. And they will see an overall increase in strength of about fifty percent.

The difference between the soul spirit that Arbor is seeing now and the one that showed during the ritual his seniors performed on him is simple. The one in his dantain is akin to an infant, while the other one is a fully matured adult. The Foundation Establishment realm is when one's soul spirit starts to grow into its peak state. And right now, Arbors soul spirit has just been born.

During the growth stage, two different things can happen. One, the cultivator can grow too quickly without consolidating their strength, which will cause their soul spirit to be weak the further they advance. The other direction is that they advance at a pace where they are able to fully maximize and control the strength within their body. An analogy of this is between filling up a balloon with air or with cement.

From what his seniors told, Arbor knows that he finally stepped into the real cultivation world. As he admired the tiny sprout in front of him, another magical occurrence happened. The egg that was sitting cuddled up next to the sprout suddenly cracked open and fell apart! Arbors eyes glowed with excitement. Instantly, his eyes opened inside the cave and summoned a luminescent pearl from his space ring and located the egg that he has been carrying around for months. What surprised him was not that the egg was already broken, but that it was empty! Whatever creature was inside of the egg is already missing!

Arbor frantically scanned the cave with hope to find his new friend. What felt close to five minutes passed by before Arbor finally noticed an odd feeling on top of his head. A glint of self disappointment appeared on Arbor’s face. His hands were met with a short coat of fur covered with a thin layer of a slimy substance. Once the small animal was in front of his face, he was greeted with a creature no bigger than both of his palms. A newborn brown animal with the body of a lion and the head and talons of an eagle.

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“It's a griffin!” Arbor exclaimed. “Wait, griffins should have wings.Where are this…” Arbro lifted up the newborn and gave a quick check. “Definitely a guy.” What confused Arbor was that he could not find his pair of wings! He started to rack his brain if he had damaged or shaken the egg too hard during the early stages of his growth that could have caused his birth defect, but nothing came to mind. Arbor tried not to let himself get worked up over and decided to find a way to help him grow his wings.

The little guy cleaned himself off before exploring the cave. Arbor watched in admiration as his new companion would run back and forth between him and every nook and cranny in the cave. It didn't take long before Arbor realized that he was looking for food! After breaking free from the egg, he is starving! Arbor quickly retrieved one of the few remaining pills he had left. At the first whiff of the fragrance emanating from the pill, the brown ball snapped its head around and appeared before Arbor's hand. Without the slightest hesitation it ate the pill.

“You need a name…little fatty? You appear to be a glutton.” The griffin shook his head in disgust.

“No, no, that is too common.” Arbor quickly replied. “Would Phantom Wing be too harsh?”

A caw filled with anger and self pity left the beak of its mouth. The young griffin looked down in shame.

Slowly, Arbor picked him up with both hands and studied him, “How about...Eos.”

His small little eyes seemed deep in thought for a slight second before he opened them and nodded in agreement.

The next day Arbor and Eos set off. Most of the time Arbor spent carrying a sleeping Eos, who is still digesting the medicinal pill that he ate. The rest of the time, Eos was running around the vicinity of Arbor who was becoming accustomed to his newfound power. Luckily he found out that he is able to conjure wood, vines, and grass with ease.

Due to the power of the medicinal pill, Eos power grew rapidly. As a beast, Eos’s cultivation and how strong he can become, depends on two different aspects. The first one is how long he can live for. He will naturally grow into his peak as long as he does not die prematurely. The second one is what grade of beast he is. As a peak ninth grade beast, Eos has the potential to reach the end of the second to last realm of cultivation by natural means.

During the next week, Arbor grasped his newfound powers, but had some unfortunate findings. The wood is fragil, the grass is useless, and the vines are too thin. He made the resolution to get stronger at all cost.

Two more weeks passed by in the blink of an eye. Eos had grown to three quarters the size of Arbor. Eos’s strength had reached the percentage compared to Arbor. Although, Eos is just as fast as Arbor. His quick developement is do to the pill Arbor had given him. Arbor had further refined his new skills with the instructions that his seniors had taught him. Their strength had increased by a quarter and he is now able to cast them at will. Thus, he began experimenting with how to combine all of his different abilities for whatever reason arises.

In the distance Arbor could see the end of the woods. Beyond that is a makeshift fort built out of rock, stone, wood and mud. Guard towers reaching fifty feet high, and walls no taller than half that height wrap surround whatever is beyond the walls.