“Chief! Please have a look at this!” a maid shouted.

She was running across the lawn holding a note. She quickly arrived and passed the note to Holt.

It was the note left by Astoria before she left.

Holt read it and became extremely confused, before being filled with worry. What had gotten into her? Where did she randomly go?

Many questions popped into his mind but he immediately dismissed them. They didn’t matter now.

Holt dropped the note and dashed into the manor. He summoned some soldiers and had them organise a search party to look for his daughter. For all he knew she could be in danger. He was already endangering one son; he could not bear for anything to happen to his precious daughter for no reason.

Please be safe… he thought to himself.

By this time Drake and Hazezel had also picked up the note and read it. They were equally puzzled and worried. However, there was nothing they could do. They both felt helpless, they were still too young and weak.

Hazezel left and Drake calmed himself down.

‘She’s not stupid,’ Drake thought to himself. ‘As long as she doesn’t go near the Beast Woods, she’ll probably be fine.’

Thinking so, he started practising his movements again.

After some time, Holt finished giving orders and left the mansion. He walked back to Drake, trying his best to stay calm and not worry.

“Drake, you are already seven years old now. You have been practising swordsmanship since you were five, it is time for you to learn proper martial arts as well.”

Drake knew this was coming. Just like how most people began cultivating mana at the age of seven, it was also a good time to begin martial arts cultivation. Both Elwin and Holt also practised basic swordsmanship and hand-to-hand combat from the age of five, and at seven years old, they picked a martial cultivation technique and began cultivating it.

Unfortunately, there was no martial cultivation technique in the village repository that was suitable for Astoria and Hazezel so they could not cultivate anything.

This was a common situation. As with mana cultivation, there were an uncountable number of cultivation techniques that martial artists could use, but not all would be suitable for everyone.

Drake nodded in response.

Holt took out nine different scrolls.

“These are the best martial arts cultivation techniques we have, see which one suits you. If none of them does, I can bring out more, but they will be less effective.”

Drake looked at the scrolls one by one.

Although they were rolled up and he couldn’t read them, he could sense the mana that they were infused with. All of these scrolls were infused with a great amount of mana, some of them rejected him and some of them were neutral.

Drake’s eyes were drawn to one particular scroll. The mana around this scroll was the densest by far, but it was also flowing towards him as if there was something in Drake that was tugging at it.

He took that scroll and opened it up. Immediately, the mana of the scroll burst forth. Images appeared in his mind of a shadowy figure sitting in a meditative pose while absorbing the world’s mana. The mana was flowing through the figure torrentially, creating blue streak lines in the otherwise dark body.

A huge amount of information flooded his mind as he learnt the essence of this cultivation technique. After a long time, Drake opened his eyes.

Holt was surprised. “This technique definitely suits you,” he said, but had a strange expression on his face.

“Is there something wrong with this technique?” Drake asked puzzled.

Holt shook his head.

“This is the Twelve Star Supreme Body Transformation Art. It is the cultivation technique used by the founding ancestor of the village over a thousand years ago. He was… a mage emperor,” Holt explained.

Drake was shocked, he had no idea about this, but Holt continued.

“It is an extremely powerful technique but no one has been able to use it after him. It seems to have a strong resonance with your mana. So, I am pleasantly surprised that’s all.”

Drake was speechless. Maybe my true talent lies in martial arts instead of mana cultivation.

Either way, he had to cultivate both for the time being before specialising in one.

Martial arts cultivation was extremely painful and dangerous. If you absorbed too much mana, you may accidentally break down more of your body than intended, resulting in severe, often irrecoverable injury. In the worst case, you could even die.

However, with pain comes gain. When one cultivated properly, martial artists were very powerful.

Still, Drake didn’t care much for power. Previously he never liked the idea of risking his life just for trying to cultivate and gain more power. But given the strange occurrences in the Beast Woods, Drake had an ominous feeling in his heart. He had to become powerful so that he could at least protect himself and those around him.

Hazezel left Drake and started walking down the yard. Out of the four siblings, both Elwin and Drake were the most talented in their own ways. Hazezel and Astoria were average in most things. However, Hazezel used to have a problem which even most of his family didn’t know about.

No one except Drake.

He thought back to a year ago, when he was eleven years old, and Drake was six. Drake had saved Hazezel from almost permanently destroying his reputation and the trust that his family and peers had in him.

That too, would be a story for another time, however that incident left a deep impression on Hazezel’s mind.

He was grateful to Drake and happy for him, but at the same time, he couldn’t help feeling a little… jealous. Jealous that he wasn’t as talented as his brothers.

‘Little brother,’ he thought to himself. ‘How times are changing…’

…

At this moment, a young girl carrying a small backpack was trekking through the grassland. From the direction she was headed, one could deduce that she was going to the village of Leon. This girl was of course Astoria.

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‘Drake…’ She thought. ‘Please wait for me, I will do this!’

…

After receiving the martial arts cultivation technique, Drake went to find Ray Dragmoor.

He was in the garden, sitting in his usual spot underneath the umbrella. Ray was cross-legged on the ground and didn’t seem to notice his arrival. Drake hesitantly stopped when seeing this as he didn’t want to disturb his master and make him suffer a backlash.

However, he didn’t have to worry as Ray soon opened his eyes slightly without suffering any backlash.

Drake was wondering how he could be so in control but figured that he could also do it with enough practice.

“You seem to have something interesting in your hands,” Ray said slowly with half-closed eyes.

Drake looked at the scroll in his hand and replied, “Father gave me a martial arts cultivation technique. It’s called the Twelve Star Supreme Body Transformation Arts.”

Ray's expression didn’t change at all, he just closed his eyes and continued cultivating but his voice echoed in his ears.

“That is no ordinary cultivation technique. Be careful when you cultivate it.”

Drake bowed to Ray before taking a seat. He cleared his mind and started concentrating.

He wanted to cultivate the Return of Spring Arts for some more time first. Martial cultivation was more painful and dangerous than mana cultivation. The cultivation technique he had chosen seemed extraordinary as well. Therefore, he didn’t want any mistakes to occur when cultivating it.

He first wanted to cultivate mana to improve his concentration and willpower and just get used to cultivating before beginning to cultivate martial arts.

Thinking this, he calmed down once more and cleared his mind. This process still took him over an hour.

Finally, he began cultivating the Return of Spring Arts.

…

The route to reach Leon was safe as most of the demons and onis nearby all resided in the Beast Woods.

So, Astoria made quick progress. By sunset, the clouds started drizzling, but Astoria reached the village.

Her blue, hooded cloak was drenched. She had slightly drawn her hood back, revealing some of her gorgeous black hair which quickly became wet. Her blue eyes sparkled with excitement as she looked at the gate.

It wasn’t too large and surrounding it was just some wooden fence. At the gate, two guards in plated armour were stationed. Some people often entered and exited at will, they were those who worked in the surrounding farms or had left for hunting.

She was tired from carrying her heavy luggage all the way so she took a deep breath before walking forwards.

One of the guards was half asleep while leaning against the gate. The other guard looked around with the utmost boredom, showing that nothing interesting ever happened here. He gave a passing glance to Astoria and held his hand out. He was asking for the entrance fee.

Astoria knew this as it was collected in her own village as well. Apart from licensed farmers and hunters, people who crossed the gate would have to pay one bronze. It was like a toll.

After taking the money the guard didn’t spare her another glance. Astoria had prepared a range of lies and excuses to deceive the guards if they asked for her background but unexpectedly, it was very easy to enter this village.

Generally, people always stayed in their own villages. Only some people like Ray, or those with high statuses like village elders would leave and interact with other villages. So, the guard would have assumed that Astoria was from Leon.

Astoria entered the village to find quiet streets with shops closing for the night. In fact, people were hurrying away before the rain became stronger. The shops here just sold everyday items ranging from food, clothes, accessories, kitchenware, weapons, and so forth. There was no way she would find the pill recipe here.

This pill recipe was developed by the village leader of Leon from three generations ago. Not only was it useful for mages cultivating mana, but it was also useful for martial artists for the same reason. As a result, this pill was extremely popular from the moment it was discovered.

After beginning the production of the pill, the number of high-quality martial artists in this village also started increasing which increased their military might. If not for the fact that Jain village had existed since long before Leon, they might have even surpassed Jain in terms of military strength.

Naturally, this pill and its recipe were a very closely guarded secret of the village. The other villages had asked them for it, but they sternly refused. They didn’t even sell them the pills as someone might be able to reverse engineer the recipe using it.

She had no plan on how she was going to obtain it.

‘First thing’s first, I need to find a place to stay,’ she thought to herself, and started to look for the nearest inn.

The maps she had on hand only showed the route to the village and not the inside. She was hesitant to ask people as it may reveal that she wasn’t from the village. So, after an hour of mindlessly walking around, she finally arrived at an inn.

At this point, she was completely drenched as the rain had reached its peak.

Many people were walking around, laughing, drinking, arguing, and sometimes even fighting. However, she ignored all of them and directly went to the innkeeper to book a room.

It was worth mentioning that in this world, the currency was just bronze, silver, and gold coins. One silver was worth one hundred bronze coins, and one gold was worth one hundred silver coins. For two bronze coins, one could stay at a basic inn for a night, and for five bronze, they could stay for a whole day, all meals included. In other words, one and a half silver was enough for one person for a month.

She booked a room for a week with all meals included, paying thirty-five bronze in total. After this, she didn’t immediately leave. She was hungry so she ordered dinner from the innkeeper and sat at a table by herself.

Some people noticed her and were glancing at her curiously. They were all locals and didn’t know who she was. But judging from her looks and outfit, she didn’t appear like a commoner.

Astoria ignored their gazes and had her meal while also trying to eavesdrop on the nearby conversations, wondering if anyone was talking about the Zenith pills. However, she had no luck.

So, she quietly retired to her room after eating.

The room was very shabby, with creaky floorboards and one window, next to which was a bed, a table and a chair. There was a shared bathroom on the outside for her to use.

After her long journey, Astoria was very tired.

She changed out of her wet clothes into some clean pyjamas and immediately fell asleep on the bed. It was nowhere near as comfortable as her own bed, but she was too tired to complain.

The next morning, Astoria woke up refreshed. She quickly brushed her teeth, got dressed, and headed down for breakfast.

While eating, her ears picked up an interesting conversation.

“Hey, did you hear what happened last night?” a burly man asked his yellow-haired friend.

“Hear what?” the yellow-haired man replied.

“Jin Tong won against the Dave!”

“What? The Dave who has already cultivated the perfect stage tempered body?”

“Who else? That Jin Tong is really unbelievable. He should have already cultivated the middle-stage steel body now. He only became a martial artist recently, but he has already surpassed Dave who is his senior. Such progress is unheard of!”

“Sigh... We should be glad. Our village has yet another genius. We should go past the dojo this afternoon, maybe we can catch a glimpse of this Jin Tong. I really want to know what he looks like.”

‘Dojo?’ Astoria wondered.

If there was a dojo, there must be many martial artists there. So, there might be some zenith pills too. She might even be able to get her hands on some!

Thinking so, she finished her breakfast and quickly left the inn.

Astoria closed the door and looked at the relatively quiet streets and realised something. She still didn’t know any directions!

‘It’s fine. I’ll just wander around and explore the village. I should be able to find it eventually.’ Making up her mind, she walked away from the inn and turned down an alley.

Suddenly, two men approached her from behind.

“Hey, miss, you seem lost. Is there anything we can help you with?” one of them asked.

Astoria was startled and she immediately turned around. One was tall and skinny and the other was small and fat. They were both drunk and wore ragged clothes.

“Yeah!” the fat man continued with a rough voice. “Don’t worry, you can ask us anything and we’ll definitely satisfy you!” he chuckled while looking at Astoria with a lecherous gaze.

Astoria was only twelve years old, but in this world, it was already old enough to get married, similar to the Middle Ages on Earth.

She felt disgusted and immediately stumbled backwards.

“Ah thanks for your offer, but I’m fine!” she forced herself to hold back her disgust and avoid saying anything rash so as to not anger them. She immediately turned around and started walking away but they quickly jogged to catch up.

The tall man pulled her backpack, forcefully stopping her.

“Wait! There’s no rush. We were ju-st having such a ni-ce conversa-tion!” the man hiccupped. He was extremely drunk.

“Yeah, it’s rude to leave so suddenly like that!” the other one grumbled.

They were both approaching very close to her now and she could no longer remain calm. She immediately started running. However, they were both much older and faster than her and they soon caught up.

One of them pushed her from the back and she fell on the floor.

Her mind churned and her heart was in turmoil. She had grown up in such a safe environment, that she didn’t know how dangerous the world could be.

This wasn’t part of her plan!