The next day.
Daniel woke up in his room to the sound of knocking.
He got up from his large bed, and went to open the door bare-chested and wearing only his pants. His long hair partially covered his sleepy face.
When Daniel had started to earn money by various means, he had begun to modify his tastes in clothes and food, but now that he had been in prison for two and a half years, he had gone back to the the state of mind he had in his earlier years.. When he would not worry about what he wore.
Now, he preferred to wear practical clothes instead of expensive ones.
Once he opened the door, he found Alesia standing behind it. Of course, he had sensed her the moment he woke up, but for him, it wasn't that big of a deal to open the door in that state.
Naturally, for Alesia, it was a big deal. She had never seen a man half naked. She looked at Daniel's athletic body with embarrassed eyes, and said with an extremely embarrassed tone "T-the leader of the Lones family wishes to see you.. You.. s-should put something on."
Daniel couldn't help but smile at Alesia's reaction. He moved his long hair away from his face, and responded "Tell him I'll be there in a minute."
Alesia, slightly irritated by Daniel's smile, nodded at him and turned to walk away. As she walked away, she couldn't help but peek at Daniel's well defined body once more.
—–
One hour later, Daniel appeared in the hall where the leader of the Lones family and his son, whose names were Bohs and Brenn, were still waiting patiently.
During the hour that Daniel had made the members of the Lones family wait, Vael, head of the Bizac family, had joined Bohs and Brenn along with his daughter Gris in waiting for Daniel to show up.
Of course, making both leaders of two powerful families wait, was Daniel's way to test their resolve. He was already aware of why the two of them were here, as he could see their expressions, hear their voices, and observe them at all time within the castle.
Daniel decided to make a quiet appearance, teleporting right in front of them.
The moment he appeared, the two family heads stood up from their chairs along with their children. Then, they looked at Daniel with embarrassed expressions.
The first to talk, was the head of the Bizac family, which said "We are here to apologize for last night's behaviour. We know that we are guests here, and we should have behaved more politely with our host."
The reason why the head of the Lones family was here, was because he had remembered the moment when he had woke up after being knocked unconscious the first time. Before Jerigh knocked him out again, he had felt the power of Daniel's martial cultivation.
When he woke up the second time during that very night, he had inquired about his son's encounter with Daniel. His son had recounted how Daniel was boasting about having found a method to cultivate both paths.
One thing that almost no one knew about Bohs, was that when he was a child, he had always dreamt of being a spiritual cultivator. The workings of mana, the connection of the spiritual plane, the ability to teleport, and so on.. They were something he had always dreamed of achieving.
Unfortunately, he was born in a martial cultivator family. He had been forced into learning the way of the sword, and to be a perfect example of martial cultivator.
These dreams had been deeply buried deep down his heart, but now that he had learned that a way to practice both paths had been discovered, those feelings had resurfaced.
Of course, he was resigned to being a martial cultivator now, but that didn't mean that he wouldn't have liked to see his children and family members chose something different if they wanted to.
Due to this new view on Daniel, a mysterious and talented young man, he had decided to swallow his pride, and observe him for a little longer.
He took a step forward and said "My son and I apologize for our rude behaviour. Please, accept this small token of apology."
Once his words finished, a sword appeared in his hands.
Jerigh, which was hiding in the shadows behind one of the large columns, put his hand on the hilt of his sword. Ready to unsheathe it at any moment.
Daniel immediately recognized the sword as an enchanted sword of the perfect quality, and therefore much more valuable than a simple perfect tier sword. He took a step towards the armed Bohs, and took the sword right out of his hands.
Vael, Brenn, and Gris were deeply confused. They couldn't understand why Bohs would give such a valuable sword to someone who was a spiritual cultivator.
It was only when the sword started to glow with pale blue light, that their jaws dropped.
Gris had, of course, told to her father about Daniel's boasting. So, all four of them were aware that Daniel had claimed to have found a way to practice both paths of cultivation. What shocked them, was that that seemingly ridiculous rumor would be confirmed as true right in front of their eyes.
Vael immediately took a small box from within his spatial ring, and handed it over to Daniel while saying "This is a welcome back gift from the Bizac family."
What he gave Daniel, was a white pearl. This white pearl didn't appear special, and yet, Daniel could feel powerful healing essence being emanated from it. It was a healing pill of the ninth rank.
The two family heads awaited for Daniel's response, but Daniel said nothing. He put the two items into his spatial ring, and then, he opened a normal spatial portal that lead to the territory occupied by the wood elementals, and the forest beasts.
Before going through it, he turned to look at the shadow where Jerigh was hiding, and said "Jer, please invite the rest of the family heads to the territory of the wood elementals." He then turned to look at the four of them. and simply said "Follow me."
—–
When Daniel appeared on the other side, he was in a large camp made out of tents.
Unlike the earth elementals, the wood elementals did not have a suitable place to live. Now, Daniel could have created a small territory for them to stay in with his low level wood treasure, but since his comprehension of wood was marginal, and considered how many the wood elementals were, he decided to create their territory with their own perfect wood treasure instead.
The large camp was divided into three parts. One for the Insecta, one for the forest-dwelling beasts, and one for the wood elementals.
The camp of the elementals was currently filled with both earth and wood elementals, which in the past two months, and become increasingly closer with each other.
Buriath himself was sitting in Leffe's tent, and the two were chatting peacefully.
The moment Daniel appeared in the divisory point of the three camps, everyone immediately felt his arrival.
Numerous leaders approached the middle of the camp. Amongst them, were humanoid beasts and insects which represented their own tribes within their larger group.
Humanoid beasts of all kinds could be seen. Large men and women with browned yellow heads of hair and sharp nails, people with pitch black skin, thick tails and yellow eyes, people with extremely thin limbs and multiple sets of eyes, and many others.
Standing at the front of this group of leaders, were Nieba and Prea.
They had surrounded Daniel quietly, as they were aware of the reason he was there.
Leffe came out of his tent along with Buriath, and together, they walked towards Daniel.
Once in earshot, he said "Are you ready to start?"
Daniel turned to look at him and said "In a few minute."
For the next few minutes, Daniel waited for the rest of the family heads and powerful cultivators to arrive.
Once everyone was present, he waved his hand, and in a moment, the time sphere locked within one of the training rooms appeared in his hand. He looked at Leffe and said "Begin your demonstration."
Leffe looked at him with dubious eyes and asked "Which concept?"
"All of them."
—–
With the help of Buriath, which turned himself into a large patch of rock and soil, Leffe turned into an immensely large tree.
He changed his form, shape and size constantly. He went from being a sapling, to a majestic and towering tree the next moment.. The colors of the leaves changed constantly.. One moment they were bright green, and the next they turned orange and brown, before falling down on the ground.
Every moment of life and death of all sort of tree in the world was shown to Daniel. It took him a full day to comprehend it, not because it took him that much time, but because that's what Leffe needed to show the entire spectrum of wood essence.
What Daniel did not expect, was that by spectating to the demonstration of life and death of a tree, he would be able to learn something about life and death essence.
The two concepts he had learned were useless to humans, but if he ever wanted to reach a perfect comprehension either life or death, unless he managed to find a life elemental or a death elemental born from perfect treasures, he would need all the small concepts he could get.
Just like he had done for the earth essence, after Leffe finished making him familiarize with all the types of wood there were, he constructed a large tree with his own spiritual essence, and started to mix it with other essences.
From mixing wood essence with fire essence, he learned combustion. After adding water, earth, light, and darkness, he comprehended nurturing. By pairing it with wind essence he learned wood essence's part in creating gases that made air breathable to humans.
A few hours later, Daniel had finally reached a point in which he could fully comprehend the profundity of the perfect wood treasure. The essence it emanated was feeble, but extremely clear to him.
It was only after reaching a perfect comprehension of wood essence that Daniel was able to feel the peculiarity of wood and water essence, when compared to all the other types of essence.
Only the essences of water and wood contained a bit of the essences of life and death, and were able to host and create different types of life.
Every single one of the observers were looking at Daniel in a state of shock. They didn't really expect Daniel to be able to do something like fully comprehending an essence he was not adept to, in a mere day and a half.
Daniel stood up on his feet, approached Leffe, and said "I'm ready. Hand me the treasure."
Still baffled by Daniel's otherworldly talent, Leffe did what he was told to do.
Daniel walked back to the middle of the camp, and after observing the wood treasure, he started to push spiritual essence into it in a constant stream.
Layer by layer started to form, composed of hundreds of different types of wood, covers of leaves and entwined branches, and finally, a layer of seemingly indestructible bark.
When Daniel completed the creation of the wood sphere, the faces of Leffe and the rest of the wood elementals, lit up in joy.
Instead of giving it back to Leffe, Daniel put the perfect sphere on the rocky ground, and locked it in space, causing the ground to immediately start to tremble.
In the next few moments, blades of grass and little sprouts started come out of the ground. They then turned into saplings, which continued to grow until becoming threes as high as fifty meters.
These trees started to grow all over the pocket dimension, and they would have probably covered the city in vegetation, had Daniel not momentarily decreased the wood essence output of the wood sphere.
In the blink of an eye, the pocket dimension had turned beautiful. Thick forests, fertile soil, minerals everywhere, breathable air and large clear lakes.
