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'The Ancient Battlefield.'
'Or rather the Ancient Graveyard would be a more appropriate name for this place.'
As for the history of this location, it was the same as its name implied, a battlefield of ancient times that is also the graveyard of many powerful cultivators of the past.
Now due to the passage of time, only thick and very tall trees that could only be described as gigantic trees could be seen.
A thick forest with many mountains sitting still along with the giant trees.
Occasionally Arthur and the other disciples would see the battle of some spirit beasts below.
There was even a flying spirit beast that attacked them but was killed by one of the elders before it could even come close.
This expanse of land was only a part of the great land that was the center of battle during the Great Realm War.
But after the splitting of the continent, the Ancient Battlefield was split among the five of them.
When the great fusion of the continents shall happen in the future, this land would be the connecting boundary to the others.
Also, when powerful cultivators want to attempt to travel to other continents, they will have to cross this land to get to the Endless Seas.
And it is not an easy thing to fly across this land that is filled with many mighty spirit beasts.
In this place, the treasures of the cultivators who died in the past were buried with them.
It could be said that this was a place that was filled with the great legacies of those cultivators, and we're fortuitous opportunities for those that were lucky enough to find them.
But that will not be so easy anymore as, over the tens of thousands of years that have come and gone, this place has almost been sucked dry of its treasure.
So only very few obscure treasures can be found but it is highly unlikely.
'This secret realm we are entering, I wonder if I may be able to get some personal benefits?' Arthur wondered.
The elders controlled the flying beast to descend to the top of a mountain.
*Thud!*
"Come down everyone," The Great Elder of the Heavenly Sword Sect instructed as he did the same.
'Hmm, we did not go in too deep as I thought.'
Arthur noticed that they were only close to the middle part of this forest.
"Gather around."
"We will be camping here for a while until it is time for the secret realm to open which will not take too long. In the meantime, you should prepare your minds for the task ahead."
The elder from the Alchemy Association addressed everyone with a serious expression.
"Although we know what type of secret realm this is, we can not be a hundred percent sure of any dangers that you will be facing, so when inside, you will have to be cautious all through."
"That being said, aside from retrieving the various spirit herbs you will find within, your primary objective will be to protect the members of the Alchemy Association."
"They will also be the ones to instruct you on how to retrieve certain spiritual herbs as some would be damaged if they are not harvested properly."
"This means that you all will have to cooperate with each other. We have a few hours left before you will be entering the secret realm, familiar time it would be good to get familiar with one another."
The elder finished saying what he needed and Arthur and the rest received storage rings where they would store the herbs that they found.
But to not be unfair the sect's great elder promised that for the spirit herbs that they find, they will be given a great discount if they want to purchase it with contribution points.
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When they finished explaining things to their disciples they left them to their own devices and went to survey the area, to make sure that there will be no outside interference.
After the elders left without the flying spirit beasts the members of the Fire Spirit Sect approached the Alchemists.
It was not just them, even some of the guys from the Heavenly Sword Sect went over too.
They did so not just to get acquainted with them but also due to the beautiful maiden who was the daughter of the President of the Alchemy Association.
Only Arthur and Mark stayed aside and the two girls with them.
While Mark went to meditate in a corner, Arthur decided to have a small conversation with the girls, Julie and Aselia.
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At an unknown location.
In a cave, a certain group gathered. They were men and women with unique appearances.
Unlike any normal human, some parts of their bodies were that of animals.
Most of them had a tail, and some had a few scales on certain parts of their body. A few even had cat-like ears on their head.
If anyone was here they would recognize this group of people as part of the Beast Men Race.
The Beast Men are a race of human and beast hybrids that are shunned in the world by many humans due to their history.
In the early years of the past, there were only two races on the continent, the Human Race, and the Beast Race.
The Beast Race was the race of spirit beasts that roamed the continent in the past and they had the greatest population.
Back then mankind was very weak in comparison to them and they only occupied a small portion of the continent.
At this time, some humans decided to surrender themselves to the members of the beast race and gave their most beautiful women as brides to the scions of the Spirit Beast Race.
When a spirit beast reaches a high level of cultivation, through a sacred ritual that is performed by the leaders of the Spirit Beast race, they can take human form.
But only the direct descendants of the most powerful Spirit Beast with the strongest bloodline can partake in the ritual and attain human form.
At this time, a member of the Spirit Beast Race proposed the idea of fusing the bloodlines of the beast race and that of humans to create a hybrid that will be the best of both races.
With this, the children born from the union will have a human appearance and intelligence from birth. Unlike low-leveled beasts that have low intelligence when they were weak.
And so with their superior strength, they captured some human tribes and forced them to surrender, and as for those that resisted, they were killed.
And that was how the Beast Men were born.
The Beast Men were now tied to the Spirit Beast Race and ignored their human heritage and attacked the members of the Human Race and made them their slaves.
The Beast Men were more powerful than the humans and had a very powerful bodies just like that of spirit beasts.
Along with the ability to use martial arts techniques, combined with their hereditary attack methods, the human race was driven to a corner.
But in these hard times, a great personality appeared amongst the members of the human race and became the pioneer for the rise of the members of the human race.
With him, many lands were conquered and slowly he drove the spirit beast race to extinction, and the Beast Men were not spared either.
But when the human race had conquered most of the continent, he decided to allow the existence of the Beast Men races much to the confusion of the others.
He said that the Human Race needed someone to keep them on their toes so as not to become too arrogant.
Because of that, the members of the Beast Men race recovered, but to a limited extent. They attempted to fix things with the human race but all attempts were not successful.
In the end, they came to a stalemate and the Beast Men ended up occupying only a fourth of the continent's territory.
Back in the cave, a few young men and women stood amongst the older beast men. There were ten of them and they listened to the instructions of their elders.
"Many years ago, during the last Great Realm War. Our ancestor helped a weakened cultivator to set up a secret realm."
"This cultivator rewarded our ancestor with ten tokens and told him that he can send his descendants to the secret realm when it opens in the future and we will be able to acquire a lot of resources that will be helpful for our cultivation."
"The time has come for the secret realm to open and I will be sending you ten inside to go and retrieve as many spiritual herbs as possible."
"But be careful as you are likely to meet members of the Human Race as the Alchemist set up this secret realm to find a successor."
"If not for the limitations of our race you would have a chance to become the successor to a very high-tier alchemist."
"As you go in, avoid getting into any conflict with the members of the human race, but that does not mean that you will bow your head too, understood?"
"Yes, Elder!" The ten young beast men nodded seriously.
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