Winter snow melted; leafless trees stood bare. The air left Vera's skin dry.
Wet earth crunched under his feet as he walked. His eyes scanned across the forest looking for a green hue.
The forest's dull mix of grey and brown made it hard for Vera to tell where he was.
The crackling of bark permeated through the forest as woodpeckers carved through trees.
Sword Dog's whimpering sounded through the air; his tail wagged uncontrollably.
"You can't eat the birds... Wait till we find a demon of some sort." Vera spoke as he ruffled Sword Dog's fur.
His fingers pressed against Sword Dog's soft fur; its body held resistance.
A quiet smile crept onto Vera's face.
The winter months were reaching their ends. Demons that were hibernating would soon emerge from the earth. Vera just hoped Sword Dog could wait till then.
Especially after how much Ezra spoilt Sword Dog.
Ezra was quite the doting grandfather; whenever he was free, he would take Sword Dog to hunt on lands that teemed with demons. But now that they had left the mountain, Vera could only wait for demons to emerge soon.
However, Vera worried if the emerging demons would be enough.
Before I reached the native's third rank, Sword Dog could hunt peak-grade demons on his own...
Sword Dog grew as Vera did; now that Vera had broken through, Sword Dog had also changed.
"Will you be happy with just any peak-grade demon?" Vera asked as he scratched the back of Sword Dog's ears.
"Woof woof," Sword Dog barked as he circled around Vera.
Puffed cheeks broke through Vera's quiet smile.
"What's that supposed to mean?" The skin around his eyes wrinkled as he laughed.
A chorus of indignant barks and hearty laughs resounded through the leafless forest.
The two continued walking for another hour or so, until an unusually heavy step sounded through the air.
Vera's head swivelled to the source of the noise.
A demon?
With his incessantly wagging tail, Sword Dog stared at Vera desperately.
"G—"
Before Vera could finish the word 'go', Sword Dog had already dashed to the sound's source.
A blinding blue radiance illuminated the dull trees, as though they stood at the peak of spring.
Wind roared, and multiple trees crashed into the earth.
Winds that bore a biting cold brushed against Vera's skin. Soon the wind's ferocity calmed; the forest returned to silence again.
The sound of woodpeckers carving through trees returned.
With an unhurried pace, Vera walked to Sword Dog.
Blood seeped into wet earth; the scene was just as Vera expected.
"Not enough to even measure the change, huh..." Vera sat next to the disappointed Sword Dog and tried to placate him.
"Don't worry, I'm sure there will be more demons to hunt when we find the evergreens."
Sword Dog's pouting face grew bright again; drops of blood splattered off his sword as he ran around Vera.
Vera wiped the mud off his robes as he stood up and walked towards the corpse.
"An upper first-grade lycanthrope. Nice work, buddy; these guys are supposedly good fighters. The coat is also in good—" Vera's calm gaze widened; a vibrant green hue caught his eyes.
Vera knelt beside the demon's corpse and plucked a leaf out of its matted fur.
The leaf was fresh, not something that had caught onto the demon's fur a long time ago.
His gaze sharpened, and blood began pumping through his veins.
"Evergreen..." His head swivelled to Sword Dog.
"Buddy, track!" He ordered as he held the leaf to Sword Dog's snout.
Having taken a few deep sniffs, Sword Dog walked around the barren lands, trying to catch the leaf's scent.
His snout led him around many barren trees; with each step, it grew clearer in direction.
After a few seconds, Sword Dog stood in place, his tail wagging raucously.
"Woof"
A smile split open on Vera's face; his feet splayed, Vera was getting ready to run.
"Chase!"
Mud splattered into a mist as the two took off at speeds the very wind couldn't keep up with.
Their bodies turned to blurs that zipped across the leafless forest.
The layers of bark from trees were ripped off as they swivelled around the tree trunks; wet mud painted their cold exteriors as the two passed them.
"Damn, buddy! You've gotten a lot faster."
"Woof!" Sword Dog barked at Vera, full of pride.
Following Sword Dog's trail, the afternoon sun soon lay upon the horizon.
The forest's monotone scenery had a dim green hue at its far end.
The two were reaching the evergreens, the domain of the Qingqiao.
The sound of Vera's steps crunching against dried twigs turned to the sound of digging into wet leaves.
It had been a week since they left the sage's mountain, and today, they had finally reached the evergreen forest.
"Thank god, Grandfather dropped us off near the Qingqiao's domain. It would have taken forever to reach otherwise." Vera spoke as he looked around for a place to set up camp.
As he ventured through the forest, he chanced upon a small pond surrounded by trees and boulders.
"This should be a good spot. The occasional demon for food and the pond itself for water."
Sword Dog's ears stood up as it heard the word 'demon'.
"No, buddy, no demons here yet." Vera explained to Sword Dog as he started to set up camp.
Sword Dog's excited expression turned to a pout as he nudged his snout against Vera's legs.
I really need to teach him about things other than hunting demons...
Having set up a fire, Vera rested his back against a boulder; Sword Dog laid its head on Vera's lap.
Chewing on some jerky, Vera thought back to what Ezra had to say about the Qingqiao and the Jiao.
The campfire's warmth took him back to Ezra's study.
We were talking about the beast in the wave, weren't we...
As Vera took a sip of his whisky. Ezra spoke of what he had learnt about the beast.
"The beast seems to be a Kunpeng's descendant, most likely at the peak grade. I can't be sure, as most of its qi has dissipated." Ezra spoke as he smoked his pipe; tufts of smoke escaped his mouth as he spoke.
"How long will it be before the beast has been thawed?" Vera asked with a curious gaze.
"It was frozen to an extreme extent... As I am trying to maintain its body while thawing it, I assume it would take another year or so."
"So much for seeing a Divine Beast's descendant..." Vera remarked with a low sigh following his words.
Ezra looked at Vera with an incredulous expression.
The room's chatter stilled for a moment.
"What...?" Vera asked Ezra cautiously.
"Brat, what do you think the Jiao and Qingqiao are?"
"They are lesser divine beasts...?"
Ezra took a deep puff off his pipe; the smoke he exhaled exaggerated his long sigh.
"Firstly, in classification the beast we found is also a lesser Divine Beast. Secondly, and more importantly, lesser beasts that are close to ascension are thought of more highly than Divine Beast Descendants."
"Huh?" Vera looked at Ezra as though he were crazy.
"I won't get into the mechanics, but a lesser Divine Beast that ascends to the rank of a Divine Beast is generally more talented than Divine Beasts of its age. The Qingqiao and the Jiao are both talents selected by the main dragon and phoenix clans in the greater heavens."
Ezra put out the fire in his pipe and took a sip of his whisky.
"These two were born in the Greater Heavens and were sent here to mature. From what Dao Tian's brat told me, they are both trouble makers, much like himself. And... get that stupid expression off your face before I beat it out of you."
Ezra's explanation took him by surprise; so much so that his expression lingered.
A low voice permeated through the room.
"Do you think I won't beat you, just because I'm a scholar?" Ezra spoke as killing intent oozed out of his body.
"What?" Vera asked as he turned to Ezra.
Unfortunately, all Vera saw was the Divine Scholar's divine hoof flying toward his skull.
Just like that, his reminiscent thoughts morphed into a nightmare; Vera's eyes opened frantically.
The smell of burning wood brought him back to reality.
But the reality held a surprise for him; a beautiful young woman's face stood merely an inch apart from him.
The back of Vera's head crashed into the boulder behind him as he tried to make space between them.
Emerald green eyes, skin like jade, and beautiful brown hair. Her eyes were locked onto Vera's; a curious expression grew on her face.
"Why have you come to my forest? And... can I pet that dog?"
The third rank allowed Vera to see a person's power and its nature.
As Vera gazed at the woman, the forest grew a green phantom.
Beside each tree stood another made of qi.
Under the setting sun's gleam, the ethereal evergreens turned to a majestic sight.
Fading day formed a dim halo around the woman. Her presence and beauty made one thing clear to Vera.
She is the Qingqiao...