##**Chapter 21 **Invincible Connate Divine Art**##
Before Kabir Sinha could respond, Yuvraj Chauhan immediately spoke up. "It's still early. And the number of bone beads we collected isn't enough to secure first place. We obviously need to keep moving."
Devansh Kapoor examined the map carefully and nodded. "According to the map, we're still within the designated safe zone. We can continue forward for at least another ten kilometers without encountering any significant danger."
Kabir Sinha opened the map on his phone to verify, then nodded with certainty. "He's right. There aren't any Legendary-stage creatures marked around here. We should be fine if we push ahead a bit more. We need enough bone beads to secure first place for Guide City. Anything less is unacceptable."
Vivaan Sharma felt the pressure building inside his chest. He had to stop them. If they pushed deeper and encountered the Skeleton General, even one death would ruin his overall exam results. He didn't aim to enter high society, but he still wanted admission into a reputable university. If his teammates died, even excellent grades in other subjects wouldn't matter—his options would drop to lower-tier institutes.
That wasn't acceptable.
"Kabir," Vivaan said quietly, "do you believe in the sixth sense?"
Kabir raised a brow. "What are you trying to say?"
"I mean," Vivaan continued, choosing his words carefully, "ever since I was young, whenever I was about to encounter danger, I'd get a strange, uncomfortable feeling. It's vague, but it's never baseless. And just now… I felt it again."
Yuvraj scoffed. "Just admit you're scared. Don't use your sixth sense as an excuse."
Kabir examined Vivaan closely. Then he turned toward Devansh Kapoor.
Devansh thought for a moment. "But the bone beads we have aren't enough for first place. Going back now might be a little premature."
Clearly, he favored moving forward.
Seeing Kabir hesitating, Vivaan quickly added, "Kabir, please trust me. This feeling doesn't happen often, but when it does, trouble always follows. If I were simply afraid, I could just run back to the entrance and wait for you all. I wouldn't need to warn anyone."
He continued, "And like Yuvraj said, Guide City is a small place. There aren't many strong high schoolers. I doubt anyone else will dare move past the designated zone to hunt Skeleton Soldiers. We already have enough bone beads. We can return to the allowed zone and collect more safely. First place is practically guaranteed without risking our lives. We only get one life. There's no harm in being careful."
Kabir hesitated, then slowly nodded. "You make a fair point. All right—let's head back first, then we'll move elsewhere to hunt more Skeleton Soldiers."
"Tch, what a waste," Yuvraj grumbled. But he didn't dare disobey Kabir's decision. He turned around reluctantly and started walking back.
Devansh followed as well, walking calmly beside Kabir.
Vivaan had already begun retracing his steps. But after only a few steps, Devansh suddenly gasped sharply.
"What's that?"
Everyone froze.
Vivaan, Kabir, and Yuvraj turned their heads toward Devansh—only to see sheer horror on his face as he stared at a nearby ancient structure.
But in the instant their attention shifted—
A cold glint flashed.
Two jade daggers appeared silently in Devansh Kapoor's hands.
Before Kabir could react, the jade dagger in Devansh's left hand shot forward like a venomous serpent, plunging straight into Kabir's waist. The entire blade slid in without resistance.
Everything happened so suddenly that Yuvraj didn't even understand what was going on before the second dagger slashed toward his neck. He managed to instinctively retreat, but not fast enough—blood spilled instantly as the blade grazed him deeply.
"Devansh… What the hell are you doing!?" Yuvraj cried out, clutching his bleeding neck in terror.
But Devansh ignored him completely.
His eyes were fixed on Kabir's wound with an icy, calculating intensity.
He had inflicted that injury himself—he knew exactly how deep the blade had gone. Kabir should have been bleeding far more heavily. Yet the flesh around the wound compressed unnaturally, restricting blood flow almost entirely.
It was nearly impossible for someone stabbed that deeply to bleed so little.
A cold smile formed on Devansh's lips.
"I didn't expect the infamous womanizer of the Sinha family to have actually mastered a Primordial Energy Art that requires strict purity—the Invincible Connate Divine Art."
Vivaan's heart constricted in shock when he heard those words.
Invincible Connate Divine Art.
He knew that name. Everyone who studied Primordial Energy Arts did.
Unlike Companion Beasts or Primordial Energy Skills—which could be obtained by killing dimensional creatures—Primordial Energy Arts could not be learned through crystals. They originated from ancient human cultivation systems—Chinese qigong, Japanese ninjutsu, powerful martial arts from lost eras. But without dimensional crystals in ancient times, those arts couldn't reveal their true potential.
Only after dimensional creatures appeared—bringing with them Primordial Energy Crystals—were humans able to revive and advance those ancient arts.
Primordial Energy Arts determined a person's advancement. Crystals alone were not enough. Without cultivating a proper art, one could never break through to the next stage. For example, even if Vivaan absorbed thousands of dimensional crystals, he could not become Legendary unless he elevated Ascetic Meditation to its next realm.
But each Primordial Energy Art had a limit.
Ascetic Meditation could help Vivaan reach Legendary stage—but no matter how much he trained, it could never take him to the Epic stage.
Across all known Primordial Energy Arts, fewer than twenty could elevate a human being to the Epic realm.
Invincible Connate Divine Art was one of them.
And it had one of the strangest requirements of all:
The cultivator had to remain a virgin.
Losing purity meant losing the art—permanently.
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