<h4>Chapter 195</h4>


    A few dayster, word spread that the entire Order of the Blue Dragon, led by theirmander, Grace, had been deployed to the Spriggan front lines. Anyone with even the slightest ability to read the situation could sense that the Cardenas family was going all in.


    There was no logical reason to deploy the entirety of the Order of the Blue Dragon to a single frontier if they just wanted to maintain the current status quo, especially when they were concentrating their forces against the Spriggans. This move couldn’t go unnoticed.


    —The Outer Gods and their worshippers, who project their power from the otherworldly dimensions.


    —The elusive Void Deities, difficult to locate andcking immediate threat despite their existence.


    —The Demoniacs that had to be annihted beyond the Hell Gate.


    Even if the Arcadian Empire were to mobilize its entire military strength, eliminating these threats outright was impossible. Perhaps the Void Deities could be dealt with, but they didn’t pose the same danger. Unlike the Outer Gods and Demoniacs seeking to consume the Middle Realm and humanity, the Void Deities merely longed for the return of the ancient era.


    <i>It’s just as Commander Demian said, </i>Leonard thought to himself.


    He pieced together the information in his mind as he stood outside his quarters early in the morning. With not just the family but the entire empire mobilized, the sheer volume of information was overwhelming.


    The Arcadian Empire’s decision was baffling to any observer: a non-aggression treaty with the Celestials, an attempt to annihte the Spriggans and reduce the four-front battle to a three-front battle. Their determination was beyond anyone’sprehension. The Order of the Blue Dragon’s deployment was just the beginning.


    Information about the additional deployment of two more Knight Commanders hadn’t yet been made public.


    <i>Commander Wade and Commander Audrey—two of the most seasoned and powerful Knight Commanders, almost godlike in strength. If they’re heading out, even a fool would recognize the stakes.</i>


    Two Knight Commanders, backed by two full knightly orders of elite troops.


    Arcadia was not merely pushing the front lines forward; they were staking their very survival on this gamble. If the punitive force were to be annihted—or even severely damaged—it would cost the empire far more than the eradication of a single frontier.


    “But if the news of victory returns... then even the Order of the Green Dragon and the Jehoia family’s forces could be reassigned to other fronts,” Leonard murmured, lightly grazing the hilt of his sword with his hand.


    As if resonating with his fighting spirit, the de let out a low hum.


    The storm clouds of war were swelling. This was on an entirely different scale from the war with the Blood Cult in his previous life. The Spriggans, mutated by the power of the World Tree Yggdrasil, were formidable foes, but this was still just a prelude. Leonard instinctively knew that the real battley ahead.


    “Hm.” Sensing a swift presence approaching, Leonard turned toward it.


    <i>There’s something familiar yet slightly unfamiliar about this presence. Who could it be?</i>


    He had received word that the Order of the Green Dragon would send someone to guide him, but there had not been any mention of who it would be. Thanks to his Dragon Eyes, which granted vision sharper than an eagle’s, Leonard identified the figure as soon as they entered his line of sight.


    “That’s...?” His eyes widened as he saw a girl with long hair riding atop a wolfrger than a tiger.


    It was only natural for him to be surprised.


    It was Heather, No.3, who had once been the leader of the apprentices from the branch families during their training days. She appeared before him after several years, now far more mature. Her height, now nearly five and a half feet, and her long limbs gave her apletely different aura.


    “Ah! Leader!” Heather waved enthusiastically when she recognized Leonard a few momentster.


    <i>Leader, huh? </i>Leonard mused, chuckling softly at the familiar title. He then nodded.


    For Heather, the impression Leonard had left on that outdoor training day had to have been monumental.


    The wolf she was riding halted with ease and tilted slightly. Heather, riding without a saddle, leaped gracefully into the air and twirled several times beforending. Her movements resembled acrobatics more than martial arts.


    “Leader! It’s been a while! How have you been?”


    Despite having blossomed and grown older, Heather approached him with the same casual and friendly demeanor as she had when they were younger. Had Leonard been an ordinary young man, he would have possibly felt his heart race at the sight of her newfound maturity.


    But with his uniquelyposed mindset, he responded calmly. “Well, saying everything has been fine would be a lie.”


    “Hahaha! That’s what I thought! I’ve heard about you so many times that my ears hurt! Everyone’s curious because I told them I trained with you!”


    As the two exchanged greetings, the wolf, left out of the conversation, let out a pitiful whimper.


    @@novelbin@@


    Since the day Leonard engraved its soul with the Beast Soul Essence Bond, he had be more than just the wolf’s master—he was its parent. While Heather had spent years with the wolf as a friend, if Leonardmanded, the wolf would leave her side without hesitation.


    Leonard had no intention of doing such a thing. He patted the wolf’s snout, carefully examining its condition.


    <i>Its growth is incredible. At this rate, it won’t take even ten years for it to mature into a high-rank spiritual animal. Traveling with Heather seems to have positively influenced its development. </i>


    Among the spiritual animals he had seen at the Nanman Beast Pce, none had grown as quickly as this wolf. While the amplified effects of cultivation methods in this world certainly yed a role, the wolf’s inherent spiritual nature had to have created a synergistic effect.


    Impressed by the wolf’s progress, Leonard was reminded of an old memory. “Heather, have you given it a name yet?”


    “Huh? No! For some reason, it keeps rejecting any name I try to give it.”


    At her words, the wolf barked and shook its head, as if agreeing. It seemed to remember, too.


    <i>“If you grow strong enough to follow me on my journey, then on that day, I’ll give you a name myself.”</i>


    Though circumstances had prevented Leonard from taking the wolf with him, it had faithfully trained all this time, climbing to its current level.


    Admiring the wolf’s diligence, Leonard said, “Your fur is as ck as the night sky, and your character is wise beyond what a beast should possess. How about I call you Wise Wolf? In the local tongue, that would be Xiang.”


    At this, the wolf—now Xiang—responded with an excited howl.


    “Awooooooo!”


    The howl startled nearby people, but most of them were seasoned warriors, so no realmotion followed.


    “Wow! So it was waiting just for you to name it!” Heather eximed in awe, vigorously scratching the fur at Xiang’s neck.


    Overjoyed at finally receiving a name, the wolf wagged its tail enthusiastically.


    Leonard was quite pleased, and he soon turned his gaze toward Heather. While the growth of the wolf he had seen for the first time in a while was remarkable, it paled inparison to Heather’s.


    Leonard, who could discern her current level with his Dragon Eyes, asked, “Have you broken through to the Transcendence Tier? I hadn’t heard about that.”


    If anyone else had heard this, they would have doubted their ears. Even William, the son of the Red Dragon Commander, had only recently reached the Transcendence Tier. Apart from rare exceptions like Leonard, very few had advanced so quickly. Yet it seemed that Heather had not only reached the Transcendence Tier but also stabilized the flow of her power, which was extraordinary.


    Heather’s eyes widened in surprise. “What?! Oh, um, that’s not quite it... It’s a bit hard to exin...”


    It took Leonard some time to calm her down and get a proper exnation. When her story was pieced together, it went something like this:


    —Her talent for magic exceeded her martial skills, allowing her to reach ss 6 before reaching the Tenth Degree of the External Force Tier.


    —She disyed an affinity with two elements and had contracted intermediate-rank spirits of water and wind.


    —However, as a magic swordsman, her power had be chaotic and disjointed. To address this, she tried to find a way to integrate her three abilities.


    In the end, her attempts were half-sessful and half-ventured into unknown territory. What she achieved was a power that was neither the Transcendence Tier, or ss 7, nor the level of an advanced-rank spiritualist.


    This was the reason Heather had been scouted by the Order of the Green Dragon and struggled to exin her current level.


    “Can you show me?” Leonard asked.


    “Well, it’s not too difficult. Sure... I’ll do it.”


    “Sure.”


    Moving a few meters away from the wolf, Heather took a deep breath and directed her consciousness inward.


    <i>What’s this? Twopletely foreign energies are mixing together? </i>Leonard mused.


    Through his Dragon Eyes, he observed two chaotic but distinct energies surging within Heather. These were the pure energies of wind and water, roaming freely andpletely disregarding the natural pathways of blood and energy. Their movement defied the body''s normal flow, resembling the techniques of forbidden demonic arts, yet their flow also differed entirely from the flow of demonic arts.


    Despite their chaotic nature, these energies did not harm her meridians or cause energy deviation. It was utterly foreign and bizarre.


    However, what Leonard saw was merely the tip of the iceberg.


    <i>Whirrl.</i>


    The six rings engraved on Heather’s heart began to rotate in unison, elerating the flow of the two chaotic energies within her. They were then guided into her conception and governing vessels. Simultaneously, the conception and governing vessels’ cirction paths were activated.


    “Phe...”


    As Heather exhaled a long, steady breath to calm her body and mind, her eyes opened, briefly shing a light of ck and white. The density and quality of the energy emanating from her had unmistakably reached the level of augmented energy—a clear marker of the Transcendence Tier.


    “Heather,” Leonard began, shocked by everything he’d witnessed. “Not only did you use your internal magic circles to circte your aura, but you also manipted your contracted spirits inside your body? No, more precisely, you confined their influence within yourself to create a temporary bnce.”


    “You figured all that out at a nce? You really are amazing, Leader!” Heather eximed in awe of his insight.


    However, Leonard wasn’t merely impressed—he was shaken by the sheer talent and luck that had allowed her to pull off such a feat. If even a tiny mistake had been made, the conflicting energies would have disrupted her essence, energy, and spirit, causing her to suffer energy deviation and implode.


    <i>She might have seeded only because she didn’t know what she was doing. If she had tried to control her powers more deliberately, the three opposing forces would have shed, and she would’ve failed.</i>


    As the saying goes, “Luck ounts for seventy percent, skill for thirty percent.” In Heather’s case, her sess could be attributed ny-nine percent to luck. Still, martial arts throughout the ages had often been built on foolishness and recklessness, so it wasn’t entirely unreasonable.


    Summoning spirits within one’s body and wielding them alongside aura was an act of madness, even in this world.


    Leonard carefully observed Heather, who had unintentionally achieved a kind of trinity within herself, feeling a tickle somewhere in his mind. It wasn’t quite an enlightenment, but it was the spark of inspiration—an encounter that couldter lead to enlightenment.


    “Whew. For now, let’s head to the Order of the Green Dragon. Heather, you’re here as their guide, correct?”


    “Yup! First, we need to meet Commander Uluka!” Heather said, cheerfully hopping back onto the wolf.


    The wolf, Xiang, which now approached the level of a high-rank spiritual animal, had already surpassed the speed of a Transcendence Tier martial artist.


    “Leader, get on Xian’s back too! It’s superfortable!”


    Leonard hesitated and took a step back with a conflicted expression. Xiang wasrge, but riding alongside a teenage girl was bound to feel awkward.


    “I’ll be fine walking.”


    “But Xian seems to want you to ride,” Heather pointed out as Xiang lowered itself and growled softly as if urging him.


    Having neglected the wolf for years, Leonard found it hard to refuse. After a short pause and a sigh, he climbed onto its back. The wolf, which had seemed dejected moments earlier, perked up and leaped forward with powerful strides, leaving the ground beneath its paws far behind.


    <i>Boom! </i>


    In an instant, the wolf reached subsonic speed, racing through the Forest of Swords and arriving at a teleportation array in mere minutes.


    <i>...I can’t deny that this is more efficient than riding a horse. Now I understand why Heather is famous as the Wolf Knight.</i>


    Rather than Heather herself, Xiang was likely the stronger one.


    Leonard patted its fur, secretly in awe of Xiang’s strength.


    “Please wait just a moment. I’ll prepare everything right away,” said the mage in charge of the teleportation array.


    Unlike usual, this mage was someone sent by the Arcane Society, likely because the Wickeline lineage couldn’t go near the Spriggan territory. The mage, somewhat flustered by the sight of the massive wolf, hurried to prepare the Multi Teleport spell.


    During the wait, Leonard turned to Heather, who was sitting in front of him. “Heather.”


    “Yeah?”


    “From now on, call me by my name. Others might get confused by the title. You’ve done it once before, haven’t you?”


    He was referring to the time just before the Blood Awakening Ceremony when Heather had called him by name.


    As the memory resurfaced, Heather beamed, her smile radiant. “Alright! I’ll call you Leonard from now on!”


    The teleportation array instantly activated. The radiant magic engulfed the boy and the girl facing each other atop the wolf, as if wrapping them in its embrace.


    <i>sh!</i>


    When the light faded, no one was left in their ce. Leonard, a bloodline member already considered a quasimander within the Cardenas ranks, had thus been dispatched to the Order of the Green Dragon.


    This was only a month before the looming battle with the Spriggans.