Tyler Shakely stood up from the ground, coughing blood a few times. Unlike him, Arthur was a body cultivator, so receiving a direct hit to the chest would have been nothing short of a lethal blow. It could have even taken his life if not for the inner armor he wore.
"Just you wait. I will show you what I can do to that little lover of yours," Tyler said icily to Alexandria.
He did not dare go against Arthur, since Arthur was not an easy target to bully. But Draven was an insignificant person in his eyes, so he directed all his anger toward him.
John frowned when he heard this. "I will give you guys a piece of advice, in light of us being a team. Draven is the type of person who looks harmless when he is standing at your side. But when you stand opposite him, that is a completely different story. That guy is nothing short of a nightmare."
Arthur and Alexandria looked at John in surprise. Unlike Tyler, both of them respected John a lot because of his status as a master hunter. After all, John's knowledge in setting up traps and tracking beasts inside the forest was not something any of them could compare to.
"Tsk, who are you trying to fool? A mere Mortal Realm cultivator. He may scare a weakling like you, but even my servants are a thousand times stronger than him. Nightmare?..... I am the one who is going to become his nightmare," Tyler said with a sneer on his face.
Arthur's expression hardened. He lifted Tyler by his collar and said frostily, "That guy is my savior. If you dare drag your family into this matter, I will make sure to show you we Phynics also have strong servants."
Tyler looked straight into Arthur's eyes coldly and slapped his hand away before walking off without even retrieving his spear.
Alexandria clenched her fist as she watched Tyler's retreating back without a word. If she were strong enough, she would have already killed this arrogant bastard long ago.
Arthur let out a sigh and bowed toward John. "Please forgive us, Uncle. We will cover the damage that happened to your shop because of us."
John waved his hand. "Draven already gave me more than enough money, so let us just forget about this matter."
Arthur remained silent for a moment before he asked John curiously, "You seem to regard Draven very highly, even after knowing our cultivation realm. Is he that formidable? Do even Ascendant Realm cultivators like us have to be afraid of him?"
John smiled. "Just ask around about the Butcher Demon. Then you will know who Draven really is and what that guy is really capable of."
.................
Back at Draven's home, Draven sat on the sofa in his living room with a blank look on his face. Due to the effect of the wine, he felt his head spinning and sleepy at the same time.
"Hey, brat, why did you let that kid walk away even after he tried to kill you?" Loki asked curiously as he stared at Draven.
Draven lifted his head and said with a foolish grin on his face, "Did you not hear? That guy has some powerful family backing him up. Furthermore, his master, Henry Light, was the one who referred Jessy to the Golden phoenix Academy, so I have to give some face to him too."
Loki squinted his eyes as he looked at Draven, who was wobbling left and right even as he sat on the sofa. "Why did you drink this much if your alcohol tolerance is this low?"
Draven's mouth twitched. He was only at the Mortal Realm, okay! The fact that even after drinking second tier wine, he could ride his superbike all the way from the wine shop to his house without causing an accident was already a miracle. And this kitty dared question his alcohol tolerance? If not for this guy being stronger than him, Draven would have kicked his butt already.
"I am going to cultivate. Do not bother me," Draven said in irritation and flopped onto the floor into a cross legged position.
Closing his eyes, he directly entered his Dream God Ring.
[Dream God Ring]
[Dream Points: 1100]
[Life Span: 17/100]
[Innate Dream Walker Physique (Mortal)]
[Shadow World Behemoth Bloodline (Mortal): 100%]
[Chaos Divine Ape Bloodline (Mortal): 100%]
[Astral Nexus Bloodline: 100%]
His Dream Points had increased to 1100. While this addition was correct if he only looked at the number of Mortal Realm beasts he had hunted in the forest, the amount of Ascendant Realm beasts he had hunted this time was far above that number. If he added them, the Dream Points should have been even higher.
"The souls of the Ascendant Realm beasts I hunted in the forest were not absorbed as Dream Points. It might be because I am only at the Mortal Realm," Draven frowned as he analyzed it in his mind. It seemed that if he wanted to absorb Ascendant Realm beast souls as Dream Points, he would first have to break through to the Ascendant Realm.
After looking at the array of skills listed on the dream slabs before his eyes, Draven's gaze landed on one of the skills he had neglected until now due to not having an elemental core.
[Dreamer Slab: 4]
[Inherent Technique (Mortal): 0/100]
[Chaos God Possession: 0/100 (+)]
[Chaos Divine Lightning: 0/100 (+)]
[Energy Conversion: 0/100 (+)]
"Chaos God Possession, a skill that could summon a Chaos God consciousness into one's body," Draven muttered thoughtfully. "What will happen if I push this skill to perfection without having an elemental core?"
Surprisingly, even after having this thought, his seventh sense did not throb, indicating there was no danger in doing so. Of course, if Draven had not been intoxicated, he would never have dared to do something so crazy. But now, with a reckless confidence the strong wine had given him, Draven unhesitatingly commanded in his mind: "push Chaos God Possession to perfection"
The next second, the scenery around Draven shifted and he entered a dream.
In this dream, Draven became an old saint who traveled from place to place, singing praises for his god, Lord Ruthra . This god Ruthra was not a cultivator who had reached godhood through cultivation. He was one of the eternal gods said to have existed even before this world was created.
The old saint was not so talented when it came to cultivation. Although he had the Chaos Divine Ape bloodline passed down from his ancestors, he had never truly awakened it. At first, he felt bitter anger over his poor aptitude. But with time, he released his obsessions and chose instead to wander the world.
It was during this trip that he met his master, an old woman who had devoted her life to the worship of Lord Ruthra. The old saint, a middle aged man at the time, was surprised to see her gentle nature, since according to his understanding until then, Ruthra was considered one of the evil gods by many. Even in the legends, he was depicted as a short tempered god given the nickname Destroyer.
Every other devotee of Ruthra the old saint had met until then had been an unreasonable person who would pick up a weapon to fight over minor problems, unlike this old woman who carried a gentle air about her.
Out of curiosity, he began following her. One day, she called him over.
"What is your name, child?" the old woman asked the middle aged man before her, who had been following her for days.
"Elder, my name is Harold Skywalker," Harold said respectfully.
"Why are you following me? Is something bothering you?" the old woman asked with a smile.
Harold remained silent for a moment, then knelt down. "I left my home a month ago. Since then, I have been idly traveling from place to place, searching for peace of mind. But I did not find that feeling anywhere. It is only when I am near you that my restless mind seems to enter a trance like happiness I cannot express in words."
"Do you want to be my disciple?" the old woman asked, smiling as she looked at Harold.
Harold hurriedly nodded. "I am willing to serve Lord Ruthra for the rest of my life. Please accept me as your disciple, Elder."
The old woman burst out laughing when she saw the fanatical look on Harold's face. "He is the lord of this universe. He does not need anyone to serve him. But we can surely ask for his blessings. He will not turn his head away from anyone who calls his name with devotion. You carry the blood of a creature born from chaos, and you still do not know who Ruthra really is?"
Harold blinked in confusion. "Is he not an evil god who likes destroying everything?"
The old woman flicked Harold's forehead angrily and scolded, "What nonsense are you sprouting? The chaos element, from which all other elements were later born, first originated from Lord Ruthra. After that, the four elements water, wind, earth, and fire gave birth to the eternal God of Creation, and the five elements lightning, space, darkness, light, and time gave birth to the eternal God of Preservation."
"Later, the God of Creation created living creatures, and the God of Preservation created millions of worlds in the universe for these creatures to reside in. But in no time, these creatures started fighting among themselves for supremacy, since all of them were born as eternal gods with unlimited power, almost destroying the worlds the God of Preservation had created."
"Both the God of Creation and Preservation were helpless, since these creatures were all eternal gods and wielded elemental power equivalent to theirs. In the end, they both went to Lord Ruthra and requested his help."
"Lord Ruthra decided to take the role of Destroyer to bring an end to this. He killed all the creatures who created trouble and created heavenly rules to monitor the workings of the world. The responsibility of enforcing these rules was given to the God of Preservation and the remaining eternal gods who had not participated in the rebellion."
"Later, the worlds became stable, and the world we see today slowly took shape over generations. So even though most consider Lord Ruthra the God of Destruction, in actuality, he was the beginning of creation, he is the maintainer of this creation, and of course, he is the only one who has the power to destroy it all."
Harold listened to the whole story with an amazed look on his face. "But why do most people who devote themselves to Ruthra's worship turn evil in the end?"
The old woman shook her head. "You still do not get it. As I told you, in truth, Ruthra is the creator, the preserver, and the destroyer. Because of this, the people blessed by him also show three different states according to their minds. They can be ambitious like the creator, serene like the preserver, and of course, ferocious like the destroyer."
"But no matter what your state of mind is, it will be at its maximum. The reason you felt an aura of peace around me is because my mind is now in the state of the preserver. But if my mind ever turned evil, the aura would be equally ferocious, like the evil cultivators you mentioned."