Unexpectedly, Drake was extremely slow at first.

He could hardly ‘feel’ the mana around him, which made it hard to collect. Once he did collect it, most of it would just return to the environment on its own refusing to stay in the inner realm. Only less than one per cent of the mana he collected would stay in the inner realm.

Drake kept trying and trying but soon became very frustrated. His frustration made him lose concentration and break his cultivation technique. This made him suffer backlash and he started coughing.

Backlash occurred when someone doesn’t perform a cultivation technique or summoning properly. This would cause the mana that was being used to temper the mana core or summon something, to suddenly go out of control and cause internal damage, creating a backlash.

Luckily, he wasn’t using any advanced techniques, so the backlash wasn’t too great.

Drake looked at the sky. Unknowingly, a few hours had passed.

Ray was sitting behind him reading a book. He saw Drake suffer backlash, but he didn’t mind it as if it was something he expected.

Drake was very annoyed with himself for losing concentration, but it was very difficult to build the focus again.

So, he instead asked Ray, “Master Dragmoor, when I gather mana, most of the energy escapes back into the environment. Is this normal?”

Ray looked up at him and laughed, “Of course! The world’s mana is repelled by the unique mana of your mana core. It doesn’t naturally like to enter your body. How could cultivation be so easy? Welcome to the first and biggest hurdle of cultivation! Haha”

Ray laughed heartily as he remembered the day when he encountered the same problem. He too was frustrated. Then the figure of a middle-aged woman appeared in his mind and he broke into a smile.

“Only a genius like my master will be able to cultivate with no backlashes from the very beginning.” Ray nodded repeatedly as if he was agreeing with himself.

‘What’s up with him and his master?’ thought Drake, but then decided to ask something else.

“Master, it’s not that I’m being impatient, but for curiosity’s sake, I want to know. When do you think I will be able to use mana for my first summon?”

Ray stopped laughing and his expression became serious, “That completely depends on you boy. Think about the backlash you feel now. If a similar mishap occurs when performing a summon, the pain would be far worse. I will not let you attempt any summons until I’m satisfied with your progress!” Ray’s tone was firm.

Drake had expected such a response, so he didn’t mind. He was not a rash individual either and knew he couldn’t rush these things.

Ray’s expression then changed. “Of course, if you are like my master, then you can start attempting summoning within a few months. After practising for just a few weeks, you will be able to succeed with your first summon. If you are like my master that is!” Ray beamed with joy as he talked about his master.

‘Does he have some weird complex?’ Drake wondered, before deciding to ignore him.

Drake calmed himself down and took a deep breath. He slowly started building his concentration again before activating the Return of Spring Arts once more.

A week later.

In the village meeting hall, Holt Reynard was seated at a table with several others. Drake would recognise one of them as elder Zhao Gaumond, who was the head of the village’s hunting groups, and also his swordsmanship instructor. He was among the strongest in the village after Holt himself, but unlike Holt, he ventured into the Beast Woods almost every day and was constantly on death’s door, giving him a dangerous aura.

Zhao was a tall, strongly built male who always wore tough battle armour. His armour carried a few scratches and dents, but looked polished and well-maintained. None of the blemishes would severely affect its durability. Though he was almost fifty years old, his well-built physique made him look like a man in his thirties.

On the right side of Holt sat Myra Wan, she was the head of the elven village, and Ray Dragmoor’s master. She sat with her eyes closed, wearing a flowing white gown, exuding a wise and graceful aura. Despite her actual age being close to five hundred years, she only had slightly wrinkled skin, with a middle-aged appearance. She looked very good for her age.

Behind Myra were her two female attendants, dressed in the attire of an ordinary maid. Next to her sat Byron Zumond, who was an old man carrying a cane, with white hair and a long beard. He was the head of the village Leon to the southwest of Jain. Due to their proximity, these three villages often interacted and tried to maintain good relationships with each other.

“The demons are really becoming uncontrollable!” the person who spoke was another man from the Leon village. He was a village elder with similar responsibilities to Zhao Gaumond.

“That’s right,” Zhao agreed grimly. “Recently, the demons have started becoming more and more aggressive, and even the outskirts are becoming far more dangerous.”

“What could be the cause?” Holt asked. “What have your investigations revealed?”

Now it was Myra’s turn to move.

She took out a large scroll and unravelled it on the tabletop. It was a detailed map of the section of the Beast Woods close to their villages. Everyone’s attention was drawn towards an area of the map, which had been circled in red.

“There seems to be a concentrated outflow of demons and onis from this region,” she spoke slowly. “Something there is causing them to leave their territory and scatter wildly. This is causing various forces to clash and engage in combat. The wounded can no longer stay in the deep parts, so they flee to the outskirts, causing them to become more dangerous.”

“As time progresses, the number of demons being evicted from their territories is only increasing and doesn’t seem to be slowing down whatsoever. If this continues, I estimate that in around two years, even the outskirts might get filled up. After that I’m afraid…” she couldn’t bring herself to say it but everyone knew what was on her mind.

If there was not enough room in the woods to house the demons and onis, they would naturally turn to outside the woods, and attack their villages. Hordes of demons could start attacking their villages directly. This would cause them major losses, if not make the villages extinct.

Onis were a race that mysteriously came into existence a million years ago. They lacked intelligence but had great strength. They were categorised into classes depending on their strength: servant class, warrior class, commander class, tyrant class, and nightmare class. Additionally, each race of oni had a unique ability. If one ignored this ability, then their strength was equal to a mage at a similar realm, but including it, their strength was often greater.

Demons were ordinary animals who were corrupted by the onis’ aura and transformed physically and mentally into powerful, ferocious beasts. They were categorised into classes in the same way. Onis were rarer than demons, but they were always stronger than a demon of the same class due to their unique abilities.

Although demons and onis reproduced rapidly and were very aggressive, they were also territorial, so they wouldn’t leave their areas under normal conditions. As long as others did not infringe on their territory, they wouldn’t needlessly bother other races, except those that they preyed on. Therefore, many other races which were weaker than them, could survive alongside them.

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However, now, something was causing these demons to leave their homes. This spelt bad news to all these villages and the lives of everyone within.

“I don’t know what’s going on exactly, but we have to find out,” declared Holt.

Everyone wanted to find out, but the only way to do so was to personally investigate. But who in their right mind would volunteer to go?

There was only one area marked on the map, but it was deep in the territory of the woods. If there were no obstructions at all, a one-way trip by foot would take two weeks.

But this was the Beast Woods!

They would have to be careful to avoid the territories of powerful monsters. Despite that, they will likely have to engage in many battles every day, and therefore also have to take breaks. Additionally, the Beast Woods were huge, covering roughly thirty per cent of the entire continent! Their maps only charted a fraction of the outskirts, so only half of the distance to the marked location was actually mapped in detail. They didn’t have information about the rest of the path.

Considering all of that, it could easily much longer for a round trip.

That was assuming everything went smoothly.

The outskirts were just home to small animals. If anything, weak servant class demons might occasionally be spotted, but it was the safest part of the Beast Woods. Afterwards, more powerful servant class demons and onis would quickly start appearing. Beyond that point, warrior class onis and demons would start showing up, and going even further, one was likely to encounter commander class demons and onis! That was the zone in which the area was marked!

The only people in their villages who could face commander class demons were people like Myra, Holt, and a few other of the villages' elders, but they couldn’t leave their villages for so long and go personally.

Holt inwardly sighed. He knew the thoughts these people had. Of course, he too did not want to go. It would be best if someone else volunteered. He had a family to take care of… but who didn’t? Everyone had families. But if they didn’t do this, then the consequences in a few years would be unimaginable.

Myra didn’t sit back down yet. She looked at everyone in the hall one by one. They all averted their gazes, ashamed to look at her eyes.

“There is only one solution,” she said aloud. “Each village will put together a small group of three of their best and most experienced hunters. In one month, the group from each village will meet up here before making their way to this spot,” she said as she pointed to the marked region.

None of them wanted to risk sacrificing the talented people of their village. There was no guarantee that the result of the investigation would be helpful.

What if the problem was something that couldn’t be fixed?

If some tyrant or nightmare class oni had shown up in those areas and was scaring away the rest of the onis and demons, not only would the expedition group be in great danger, but even if they made it back, what use would such information be?

Even if the three villages worked together, defeating a tyrant class demon was beyond them. They could only abandon the villages and start over somewhere else.

But no one could disagree now. Either way, this had to be done. They needed to know what the cause was, at least to decide whether to stay and fight or run. If anyone objected, they would be seen as a coward and would damage their relationship with the other two villages.

So, although everyone thought about it, no one mentioned anything. They could only helplessly nod.

Afterwards, they began discussing who the best people to send were, what tools they should be given, what route they should take, what supplies to give them, and a lot more details.

This was a dangerous mission and many things had to be considered. Not only that, but they had to make sure that all three villages were making equal contributions and weren’t trying to leach off the others.

After several hours of a tense discussion, the meeting was finally adjourned.

Holt respectfully saw all the guests out before heaving a huge sigh. He couldn’t help but look towards his mansion.

In the garden of that mansion, his son Drake was putting all his efforts into cultivating. If Holt didn’t take such risks now, was it not akin to risking his children’s future? If the village got attacked, would Drake not be in danger? How could he consciously put his children in danger?

Although he loved everyone in the village, he would rather send out a few people on this mission and risk sacrificing them, than risk anything happening to his entire family.

This should not be the thoughts of a village chief. A village chief should be impartial, but…

Screw that! I am first and foremost a father, Holt thought to himself.

He would prioritise his family.

Later that night.

“Father I must go!” yelled Elwin, standing in Holt’s room.

He had just heard the situation from Holt and immediately asked to go. Of course, Holt sternly refused.

“Absolutely not!” Holt stated plainly. “It is too dangerous, and you are too young. I will not let you go no matter what!”

What a joke! He was trying so hard to suppress his regret of sending out precious villagers on such a dangerous trip because he was glad that doing so would protect his family.

Now his own son wanted to be on this expedition! How could he ever live with that? It was impossible.

“But father! I am already proficient with the sword. I have gone on various hunts and raids; I have even fought against servant class onis. I have grown so much – you should know! If I don’t go, how can I broaden my horizons? I am supposed to lead this village in the future am I not? What will the people think if I sit safely in the house while they risk their lives? Would they really accept such a coward as a leader?” Elwin stated one point after another in hopes that something would make his father change his mind.

But Holt was just as adamant as him.

“It is precisely because I know your skill that I am saying you are incapable of going on this trip,” Holt replied plainly.

Elwin was taken aback.

Holt had never had anything but praise for Elwin yet now, that same Holt was saying that Elwin was not good enough.

Wasn’t this a blatant lie?

Elwin was furious, but how could he argue if his father refused to acknowledge him?

“AH! Father if you don’t let me go, I will never forgive you!” he screamed, before storming off to his room.

‘You can hate me, but I would rather you be alive and hate me than be dead,’ Holt thought to himself as he watched his son slam the door shut.

Meanwhile, Astoria was reading through a book in the village’s treasury.

She secretly watched Drake begin his cultivation journey. When he suffered a backlash, she wanted to go and help him, but didn’t know how. If she had also formed a mana core on her seventh birthday, she could have guided her brother and helped him cultivate. But she couldn’t do that now.

Despite being his big sister, Drake was always smarter and more talented than her. There was nothing she could ever do to help him, which made her feel like a failure. In fact, he was the one who was always helping and looking after her.

‘But not today’, she thought. ‘There is still something big sister can do for you.’

Cultivation was a long and arduous journey. In fact, purely cultivating non-stop was inefficient. There were various elixirs, pills, and other such resources which could help in a person’s cultivation.

Some pills could temporarily boost cultivation speed, while others could help recover from backlash, heal injuries, recover mana, improve their ability to sense the mana around them, and so much more.

Astoria placed the book down before picking up another one and skimming through the pages.

The number of pill recipes recorded in the village treasury was small, and all of them were hard to make from scratch due to the required ingredients being hard to find around here.

The elves actually made most of the pills that were regularly used by the villages, but they were expensive to buy. So, the few pills they had were in the possession of Holt and some other high-ranking elders for their use.

The moment she saw that Drake had formed a mana core, she made up her mind to find a way to obtain some useful pills for him. This was the only thing she could do to help.

That’s why she was in the village treasury now, looking through the various pill recipes they had recorded. However, as expected, none of them would be easy to make en masse.

Sigh… it seems I only have one choice.

There was one pill that was easy to make and widely used - the Zenith pill.

It could help a cultivator immediately get into a state of high concentration and maintain it for a long time while also improving their ability to sense mana. Especially for those starting their cultivation journey, this could save a lot of time.

However, the only problem was that this pill was only produced in the village of Leon. They not only kept the recipe to themselves, but they also never sold the pill to outsiders.

‘But that doesn’t mean I can’t try to get it,’ she thought to herself.

There were some maps on a shelf that gave her directions to Leon. She quickly took one map and left the treasury.

Quietly, Astoria packed some supplies and left a note in her room saying that she was going on a journey. She told her family to not worry and that she would be back soon.

Astoria knew that her father wouldn’t let her go on her own if she asked, but this was something she felt she had to do, so she left anyway.

As Astoria silently sneaked out under the cover of the night, Hazazel was standing under the shadow of a large tree in the garden. He watched Drake cultivate several metres in front of him with a contemplative look in his eyes.

At this moment, a loud thunder boomed across the sky and rain started pouring, making his short black hair slightly wet and fall in front of his eyes. Lightning flashed and lit up a portion of his face, making him appear like a villain.

The rain and thunder broke Drake’s concentration and forced him to stop his cultivation technique improperly. Drake coughed as a drop of blood flowed down his cheeks before being washed away by the rain.

Ray advised him to go inside and cultivate, however, Drake found that this place was great in helping him sense the mana around him. Mana wasn’t evenly distributed everywhere, some places had thicker mana so cultivating there would be easier and faster.

He spent a few minutes recovering from the backlash before sitting down, closing his eyes, and beginning to cultivate again.

‘Drake…’ thought Hazezel. ‘How far will you go?’