A few hours later, a refreshed bespectacled aunty walked towards the edge of the tsunami-affected area while deep in thoughts. A white fox with a pair of antlers followed closely behind, while a little black snake curled loosely on her neck like an ornament. She was wearing a slightly damp but clean yellow shirt and faded blue jeans. The extremely long hair had been braided multiple times to reduce the length, finally combining into a single braid. Now, her heavily braided hair only reached her thigh; half of its original length. She had tied them up with clingwrap plastic spanned into pliable tiny 'ropes'. 

Although she had wanted to cut it originally, at the end of the day, she still felt fondness towards her new long hair, especially when it was so thick and glossy after a good wash. It reminded her of hairs from shampoo commercials on TV as well as the princess stories that her daughter love so much. She never had such a beautiful hair before as it was very challenging to maintain. As she walked, her heavily braided hair swished to the left and right. Her posture was upright and full of confidence; the heavy weight of her hair was unnoticeable. 

"You said I should've become somewhat stronger? How strong? Like a Superman? Or like a Saiyan?" She asked her pet snake seriously while observing the ruined surroundings.

Who is Superman and who’s this Saiyan, Mommy??An expert stronger than me? Anyway, you need to test it out yourself, Mommy, as I'm not too sure. After all, you had absorbed the essence of a peak-leveled noble spirit beast which was slightly weaker than the me before my breakthrough. Although it was only a bite, you would've died from the over-abundant of energy. Puff! Just like that, you would've exploded into bits and pieces of shattered flesh! Kuro made a puffing motion with his mouth and flapped his wings to imitate how flesh exploded and scattered as he detangled himself from Hana's neck.

Hana could feel goosebumps appearing on her arms and neck as she shivered slightly. Thank goodness! This time, the aunty had learnt her lesson. She would definitely listen to the kids' advice especially when it is about new materials and ingredients. The environment around her was familiar, but not, at the same time, making her judgement to be extremely inaccurate most of the time.

Anyway, don’t worry. I’m pretty sure I have helped you absorb every ounce of it. Kuro explained proudly as if he had done an excellent job. His eyes habitually asked for pampering from his mistress. After getting a good rub on his head, he continued. However, I have mostly used the energy to nurture your soul through the Lightning Emperor’s Divinity Soul cultivation technique due to your very weak constitution. The strengthening of your body was from the indirect effect of the residues only.

Hana turned an inquiring gaze towards the frolicking little black snake in front of her, "Peak-leveled noble spirit beast? Is that how you guys categorized your strength level?" She suddenly realized she had no inkling of the word 'peak noble spirit beast'. It was the first time she heard exclusive information about wild animals in this vicinity. Her pets had never explained, as she herself was not interested to know more. But now, the situation had made her aware of powerful existences in this forest. She really needed to know more about them. After all, knowledge was power.

"Anyway, what is the differences between a spirit beast and a normal wild beast? Aren’t you all spirit beasts?" A train of additional questions spilled from Hana's mouth as she was getting more interested to know more about her boys. Since they were willing to explain, why not clear every up right now.

Kuro answered after he took a moment to organize his thoughts. Around here, generally all creatures are segregated according to their strength levels and bloodlines. Creatures who couldn't utilize the spiritual energy from the heaven and earth are just wild beasts. All spiritual beast could use the spiritual energy in some way. The strength of a spiritual beast is based on how many times it succeeded in transcending the heavenly tribulation. Because it was really hard, only a very small number survived, earning themselves the adulation and respect of the masses. The survivors of a single heavenly tribulation are hailed as a Noble.

Shiro added from the side helpfully. Aside from the wild beast, the most common bloodlines are the Spirit bloodline. A beast with this bloodline has the ability to tap into the spiritual energy from the surroundings and absorb it into its own body. That was why all of us are known as spiritual beasts in general.

Some rare spiritual beasts have inherited traces of special bloodlines from their lineage that enabled them to have special abilities specific to their species. Some higher tier and ancient bloodlines have the ability to store inheritance inside their bloodline which can only be accessed when certain requirements are met. Even bloodlines have grades too. The highest bloodline known to me is the Primordial Ancient bloodline. Once upon a time ago, the first ancestor of my clan was a Primordial Ancient Five-tailed Terra Glacier Fox. For me, I am a Mirage Glacier Fox with high level ancient beast bloodline, just a hair away from Brother's peak level ancient beast bloodline. I'm not sure who his ancestor, though.

Kuro rudely cut through Shiro's explanation to boast about himself in front of Hana while flailing his lower tail. He was hovering beside Hana while flapping his tiny maroon-colored wings. Hana secretly found that his action was very endearing and adorable. 

I am a Lightning Serpent, Mommy. As you can guess from the cultivation technique I imparted to you, the Lightning Emperor was the first of us all, as he was the one who created the cultivation technique. Lightning serpents’ main ability are electrical based while we innately possessed very strong soul power which were naturally refined by our own lightning. Previously, both the fox and I are Nobles, spiritual beasts who had gone through heaven's tribulation once. Now, I'm already at Lord-level after successfully passing my second heavenly tribulation, similar to the Crystal-veined stream Lord.

Naturally, since the old fogie had stayed within the Lord-level for a long time, he is undoubtedly stronger than us, but since our bloodline was on a different level than him, our actual strength was not that far off from him. Thus, if a fight is inevitable, we are sure that we can fight into a stalemate or even win if certain conditions were met. We can even fight for the spirit crystal lode, if you want, Mommy. It’ll be very beneficial to you in the future! Seriously! Kuro snorted with disdain when he remembered Lord Tittua's disgust towards their mistress. If Mommy gave them the green light, he’ll storm the place, right here, right now.

Hana immediately knocked her brazen little pet's head several times lovingly, "Don't you dare. We've fleeced them enough. It's better to obtain resources without a fight, right? We'll find more ways to milk out as much crystal as we can from them, okay? No need for violence. If it doesn't work, I'll think about it. We needed a proper risk-assessment first."

Kuro nodded happily before he continued after a short rumination. Anyway Mommy, simply put, a Lord-leveled spirit beast is one tier higher than a Noble-leveled spirit beast. Although it was just by one, there is a huge chasm between a Noble and a Lord as it was separated by a major heaven's tribulation. It can be seen from the fact that there is only one Lord-level beast in this area, which is the Crystal-veined stream Lord. I heard that in this area, the Crystal-veined stream Lord is the only spirit beast to transcend to this level around a thousand years ago, hence his ability to dominate over the crystal-lode at the peak of the mountainous area. Now there is two Lords! Kuro proudly twirled around the aunty.

"I see, I see. Surprisingly Ara's great grandpa is actually so old huh. His meat must've turned tough already. Tsk, tsk. Just like pension-chicken. (1)" Kuro and Shiro sweated from listening to Hana's comment. 

..What’s a pension-chicken? Shiro asked after a while when he saw Hana was thinking hard about something without explaining anything.

“Oh, where I lived, chickens were divided into two types. The layers are the ones whose function are to lay eggs everyday. The broilers are the ones reared for their meat. So, a pension chicken is an old layer chicken which is being slaughtered and sold after it cannot lay eggs anymore. Their meat was sooo tough and rubbery due to its old age! But my late old man likes it a lot. Hence, we had to eat every year during special celebration. It’s a nightmare.” Hana shook her head in dismay while drowning herself in memory lane.

The aunty added, “One time, our mom pressure-cooked the meat because she took pity on us little ones, they got into a fight because of it. Once he passed on, we can finally eat normal chicken!” Hana shrugged absentmindedly with the cheeky remark.

Kuro and Shiro nearly slipped again. This aunty sure knew how to trash-talk random people. Even her late father was not spared from her vile tongue!

Thank goodness she didn’t commented like this in from of the Crystal-veined stream Lord!

Author’s Note:

(1) Pension chicken = yeah, the sale of pension chicken is real. Some people likes it, some don’t. There are many kinds of chicken sold in Malaysia. The standard meat chicken (broilers), the black chicken (Chinese love this to make herb soup I think), the kampung chicken (free-range chicken, very good for soup), the organic chicken, the pineapple chicken (I don’t kid you, they’re fed with pineapple and tasted quite good. The meat was slightly sweet, and a little chewy than normal chicken haha, just started trying them last two months), the prebiotic chicken..and the list goes on. The difference didn’t come in the form of subspecies, but in the way the chickens were reared or fed.