Looking down from the top of the large tree, all Draven could see was an endless sea of green, with the occasional bird flying between the branches. There was no sign, no break in the canopy, that pointed toward the direction of the 36th Stronghold.
With a dejected look on his face, Draven climbed back down and explained the situation to Alexandria. "There is no path visible from up there. We can only take a gamble and choose any one direction to walk forward."
Alexandria nodded in understanding, and without further discussion, both of them began walking in the direction they thought was most likely to lead to the stronghold. Fortunately, they did not encounter any demon beasts on the way, even after walking quite some distance.
"Brother Draven, look! There is a tree house!" Suddenly, Alexandria noticed a structure built high up in a large tree and called out to Draven, who was walking a few paces ahead.
Turning around, Draven also noticed the wooden house nestled in the high branches. They both walked towards the base of the tree, and Draven began to climb up the tall trunk to see if anyone was living inside.
The tree house was a significant distance from the ground. It was a simple, single-room building with only some ordinary hunting gear like arrows and bows stored inside. Draven also noticed a thick layer of dust coating the floor, which clearly meant no one had been here for a long time.
"It is a temporary shelter left behind by some hunters. It is already getting dark; we can spend the night here," Draven called out to Alexandria from the tree house.
During the night, most of the ferocious predators would be active, and traveling through the dark forest was the last thing any hunter who knew the jungle would ever do.
Alexandria did not have much knowledge about hunting in the wild, but since Draven had spoken, she did not say anything and started climbing the tree using the rope ladder Draven had thrown down for her.
With the combined effort of the two of them, the small house was cleaned in no time. They moved all the weapons to one side to make enough space for two people to sleep inside comfortably.
By this time, the sky was already dark, and both of them were hungry and tired. Draven was still okay due to his robust vital chi, but Alexandria was already like a withered flower, her face pale. She kept swallowing hard, likely from thirst as well.
"Stay here. Since there is a hunter shelter here, there will be a water source somewhere nearby. I will go and check. By the way, do you happen to have any empty containers in your storage ring?" Draven asked her, so he could bring water back.
Alexandria shook her head as she licked her dried lips. "Master Hunter John told us we would only be hunting in the outside boundary of the Devil Swamp Forest, so I did not prepare any other necessities."
Draven looked at her speechlessly. She was clearly a novice with no genuine survival skills. Any normal cultivator with a bit of knowledge about the wild would carry at least a week's rations inside their storage ring. After all, this was a real forest crowded by powerful demon beasts; no one could predict when someone might get lost in the jungle.
As for why Draven did not have any such arrangements at this moment, firstly, he did not have his storage ring with him. Secondly, he had been running away from the police after killing those six people; if he had waited to buy necessary supplies, he might have been inside a jail cell by this time.
Climbing down from the tree house, Draven went in search of a water source in the periphery of the area first. After some time, he saw footprints of some wild animals leading in a certain direction through the forest. Looking at how this path did not have any wild grass growing on it, it was clear that it was a frequently used route.
Sure enough, following the footprints, Draven soon saw a clear mountain stream with shallow, flowing water. There were also several wild guava trees growing by the side of the stream.
Draven's eyes lit up when he saw this. He cut down one of the smaller trees and quickly carved out a wooden mug with a small sword he conjured from his sword intent. Then, with a large wild leaf, he folded it into a makeshift bag to carry the wild guava.
After washing the wooden mug in the mountain stream, he filled it with the crystal clear water and plucked several wild guava to fill his leaf bag before hurrying back to the tree house.
"Here, drink some water first," Draven said, handing Alexandria the large mug of water to quench her thirst.
Alexandria greedily drank from the cup until she was full. Draven then handed her the wild guava fruits, and after that, he also sat down in the wooden hut, eating the fruits along with her.
After he had eaten his fill, Draven spoke to Alexandria. "You can sleep whenever you wish. I will be cultivating all night, so pay me no mind." With that, he settled into a cross-legged position in one corner of the wooden house.
As for acting like a gentleman by letting the young lady sleep alone while he slept outside, Draven did not even consider that. After all, there were various venomous insects that came out at night, and it was extremely difficult to guard against them in the darkness. Furthermore, he was going to enter the Dream God Ring, so he could not stay vigilant all the time if he was outside.
Alexandria did not mind, though. After the ordeals they had gone through together, she had an instinctive trust towards Draven. If Draven asked her to jump down from this tree house, she might even do it without blinking.
After Draven closed his eyes, he immediately sent his spiritual sense towards his Dream God Ring.
[Dream God Ring]
[Dream Points: 1100]
[Life Span: 17/200]
[Innate Dream Walker Physique (Mortal)]
[Shadow World Behemoth Bloodline (Mortal): 0.005/100(+)]
[Chaos Divine Ape Bloodline (Mortal): 100%]
The first thing Draven noticed was that his dream points had now reached a staggering 1100 points, which was by far the highest he had ever earned. Secondly, even though most of the Wind Blade Mantises were killed by Draven's Asura Avatar, the points were still added to his Dream God Ring. Thirdly, his lifespan, which was previously shown as 100 years, was now shown as 200 years.
The last thing which had changed was the transformation of the skill recorded in the first dream slab into a special physique.
[Dreamer Slab: 1]
[Ultimate Demon Physique (Mortal): 0/1000]
The points needed for the advancement of this physique were also different from the usual style of the Dream God Ring, where he only needed just 100 points to advance anything to perfection. Draven had a strong feeling that this happened because he had broken the limitations in his body and stepped into a higher realm.
Even though it was still shown as the Mortal Realm, according to the information that appeared in his mind when he awakened this physique due to the infusion of ancient dragon blood essence, his body would be equivalent to a peak level Ascendant Realm cultivator if he pushed this physique to perfection.
The next thing he saw was the appearance of the complete Asura Battle Body Forging Art and the addition of three more dream slabs.
[Dreamer Slab: 5]
[Asura Battle Body Forging Art (Mortal): 100/300]
[Asura Blade Intent: 100/100]
[Asura Spear Intent: 0/100(+)]
[Asura Seven Sense Mantra: 0/100(+)]
...
[Dreamer Slab: 6]
[Mirror Spirit Heart Sutra (Mortal): 0/0]
...
[Dreamer Slab: 7]
[Heavenly Star Core Formation Scripture (Mortal): 0/0]
...
[Dreamer Slab: 8]
[Paper Man Puppetry (Mortal): 0/100(+)]
...
Of the newly revealed dream slabs, the first technique was the Mirror Spirit Heart Sutra. Its method was drastic: it required the cultivator to shatter their own inner world and then rebuild it by absorbing a Mirror Spirit Heart.
This process would forge a new inner world centered around a transparent core, devoid of any elemental alignment, known as a mirror core.
Because these mirror cores held no inherent elemental attribute, a practitioner could absorb and utilize any type of elemental essence for their cultivation, regardless of its kind or how pure it was. This ability also allowed them to advance to higher realms, just like a standard elemental cultivator. However, this versatility came at a cost. The mirror cores themselves possessed zero combat power, as their neutral state meant they could not directly empower any elemental attacks.
In essence, this technique was perfectly designed for vital chi cultivators who excelled in body refinement but were held back by a poor-quality elemental core. Such individuals were often trapped at a low realm because their souls were too weak to match their powerful bodies. This soul weakness stemmed from their inability to undergo the soul metamorphosis that elemental cultivators experienced with each breakthrough. The Mirror Spirit Heart Sutra offered a path to rebuild and strengthen the soul through this unique inner world for such people.
This technique was the perfect solution for Draven's current situation, as it could rebuild his destroyed inner world. The only problem was that he lacked the essential Mirror Spirit Heart, without which he could not even begin to practice it.
The next technique, the Heavenly Star Core Formation Scripture, described a method to absorb elemental seeds into the body to form Heavenly Elemental Stars. These stars would then radiate pure elemental essence, enhancing the performance of elemental spells by drawing power from the elemental core they were linked to.
This method, however, had a significant drawback. The elemental essence infused into the heavenly stars had to be extremely refined and pure. Any lesser quality essence would corrupt and damage the delicate heavenly star core. Because of this, from that point on, the cultivator was forced to only absorb highly pure elemental essence into their core.
The mechanism was straightforward. It was akin to a high-performance engine that would be ruined if fed the wrong fuel. When channeling energy, even the minute quantities of other elements and impurities present in lower-grade essence would contaminate the exquisitely refined heavenly star core.
But this was not a problem for mirror cores. Since the elemental essence inside them had no attributes, there was no risk of contamination to the Heavenly Star Core. However, it still required elemental seeds, which Draven did not have at the moment.
The last technique, Paper Man Puppetry, was a skill to make puppets by using paper souls. These paper souls could then either move on their own or control other dead creatures or creatures with weaker cultivation than them like a puppet.
There were also three more techniques that appeared in his mind: the Ghost Puppet Creation Scripture, the Chaos Lotus Scripture, and the Nether palace manifestation Technique. The first one was a puppetry technique, the second one was a chaos elemental technique, and the last one was a darkness elemental technique. But the dream slab did not record them, meaning they were not up to the standards of the Dream God Ring.