《THE DEMONIC CELESTIAL》


 PROLOGUE

    It¡¯s sunset the sun was just going down and the skies were just blooming with color, it was a very pretty and moving sight. it was shining in the city of atlanta in one of the labs in its district b. James was thinking that the scientific experiment he was currently performing might prove to be, the biggest breakthrough in his scientific career and would advance the course of human history by millennia¡¯s he was trying to prove the existence of energy of the fourth dimension and how it can be used by humanity.


    The existence of the fourth dimension and harnessing energy from it had so much benefit for mankind in the areas of energy production, healthcare etc.


    This energy can even be used by the military to enhance its soldiers making them super soldiers as he was thinking this his lab system beeped telling him that his experiment was through and showing him the complete data of his experiment as well as how far along the experiment had gotten as James saw the results he was astounded and immensely happy with the result this experiment showed that harnessing energy was very possible he just had to iron out some kinks in the procedure then he was going to show this experiment to the world.


    This experiment would also shows that he was right and ,that the physical and chemical science need to be combined with the biological science in order to advance because this was how to truly advance in the sciences, As this experiment required the use of precious herb and metal in order to produce the solution which would open up, the consciousness of humans to the fourth dimension in order to heal themselves and enhance the human body.


    As he got the result he immediately called his best friends Andres to come, because he was his best friend and, he was the person financing his experiments, he was the only person who thought that he was crazy.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    "Ring ring hello Andres I have finally done It my experiment worked"


    "Really I will be right there" came the reply, then the lab system beeped ,that the call had been cut off fifteen minutes later, and James heard a ring from ,the lab''s security system telling him, Andres was at the door he told the security system to let him in a few seconds later Andre came in.


    " Hi Jamey just heard the good news how was the result, "Andres asked


    "Yeah I¡¯M finally done the results show ,it¡¯s possible I have run some practical testing and, the results just came back my metabolism, speed and strength have increased dramatically and the lab result came, back and there is no side effect, I just have to do more testing then we are set" came the reply.


    "Well done Jamey, I brought wine to celebrate this is the greatest day in, both of our life this would catapult to, the top will you get the glasses .we will have a toast to our success ".


    A few minutes later, they were both drinking when Andres proposed a toast to, their success and prosperity and success a few seconds, after the toast James started feeling dizzy he thought ,it was from overwork he was drinking when his lab system started beeping.


    "Error error user live status in decline believed to be poisoned ".immediately James heard, this he was surprised, but he was quite intelligent, so he quickly had an idea about who did this to him.


    "Why did you do this" he croaked.


    " I am sorry friend ,but it¡¯s just business u wouldn¡¯t have wanted your research ,to get into the hands of the Confederacy, and that¡¯s where the money is, sorry but I got to cut you lose but goodbye friend, you should know it¡¯s nothing personal, just business so this is gonna be painless so go in peace "Andres replied with coldness in his eyes a few seconds later the lab system beeped.


    "Users live status has dropped, to less than optimal levels, user will be dead in 5,4,3,2,1 the user is deceased" Andres looked at James corpse aphetically then he brought out his mobile then he dialed a number.


    "Hello Bruno I got a job for you, I want u to make the traces of someone disappear" seven minutes later James drive were all emptied and ,it was made to seem that he disappeared from the face of the planet never to be seen again.

 AWAKENING

    It¡¯s mid-winter snow is falling in a manor in the sky empire a young boy of about 15 years old with blue hair and a pale complexion the room he was in was decorated nicely but not too extravagantly showing that the family which lived here was well off but not too rich.


    Around the bed the boy was in their were 3 maid servant and 2 guards in front of this people was a man in leather armor while just standing there he radiated an aura of authority that can be felt by anybody around this was an aura which is cultivated by being in power for long time everyone ones eye in the room was focused on the bed with love and concern in their eyes.


    ¡°What happened¡± the man in leather armor asked no one in particular but the aura that he was radiating made it that he demanded a reply immediately one of the guard came forward bowed slightly and said.


    ¡°Sir Eric young master James was walking around the manor when he came across the knight in training you know what happens when he felt so frustrated that he asked to be brought a horse he then went riding a few minute into the ride he suddenly fell off the horse we rushed and brought him here then called the doctor he came and said the young master breathed in halesbane and thereby causing the young master to faint¡± .


    "Humph so it has finally started "mused the man in leather armor.


    ahh! came the sound of someone waking up immediately the eyes of everyone in the room turned back to focus on the youth on the bed when the youth opened his eyes one would feel a sense of confidence in his deep green eye along with this confidence was a sense of confusion this air that he radiated caused everyone in the room to be surprised because the young master always radiated an aura of depression and lack of confidence.


    ¡°What happened where am I¡± James croaked while looking around the room immediately one of the maids rushed to him with a glass of water young master you are in your room u fainted while horse riding so we brought back to the room in order to rest.


    ¡°Humph why did you behave like and run off riding like that u know a raindragon should always be forthright and should face a problem head on why then did you run away from your problem although you can¡¯t cultivate you should not lose the face of Eric Raindragon chief knight of baron Edwin ¡°said knight Eric.


    ¡°you should that the empire is in a flux and we have many enemies we can¡¯t show any weakness in word or in action you shouldn¡¯t have done that and I expect you to never do that again¡± immediately after he said that he ordered the servants to leave and then left himself.


    ¡°ahh what¡¯s up where am I what are all these memories¡±.


    James mused when he woke up he was very confused since the last thing he could remember was Andres poisoning him and then him dying then he woke up to see himself surrounded by people and in room that looked medieval in style after which that man in armor started scolding and as he was scolding him a flood of memories started entering his mind this memories as he sorted out the sudden flood of information in his mind some parts of this inexplicable situation suddenly made sense.A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.


    although it was a very weird kind of sense it turned out that he had been transmigrated into the body of a youth of the raindragon clan of the sky empire called James although he was very far removed from the main lineage which had control over the rain duchy in which he was in all descendants of the raindragon clan will be granted a nobility title but the grade of the title is determined by how far removed their bloodline is from the main family or how talented you are in cultivation or strategy.


    yes in this fantastical world there is a very well ordered system by which humans could gain unnatural strength by drawing energy from the heaven and earth and passing it through something called a celestial vein by which it would enter the human body thereby strengthening the body and soul what was disappointing to James was that he body he transmigrated in was born without celestial veins if he was born in a normal family it wouldn¡¯t have mattered because a large amount of the population also didn¡¯t have celestial veins and thereby couldn¡¯t cultivate


    But he was born in the great raindragon clan who couldn¡¯t cultivate is not destined to achieve much even in the entire empire and continent those who couldn¡¯t cultivate weren¡¯t really respected even if you are excellent in other aspects which was why the young master whose body he transmigrated into was so depressed


    ¡°Hmmm so I have been transmigrated while I cannot do anything about what happened with Andres I can try and live my life to the fullest in this second chance that life has given me¡± James murmured to himself


    ¡°I should first try and know more about my environs and about this cultivation stuff and what I can do about that¡±he started feeling sleepy so he decided to have a nap


    Early the next morning James woke up a few minutes after he woke up a maid came in and told him it was time to take his bath and then come down to breakfast a few minutes later he had his bath then went to the dining room where his father and his Uncle Sam were eating breakfast.


    These three were the last remainder of their part of the raindragon lineage. James through the memories he got he also knew that his mother died when giving birth to him and his father and uncle gave him all the love they could give him even though he couldn¡¯t cultivate this made him feel good will towards them because he didn¡¯t have a family in his past life his family died when he was pretty young and he started living with Andres family which was why he was good friend with him and trusted him explicitly.so even though sir Eric scolded him yesterday he couldn¡¯t help but feel warm in his heart.


    ¡°Good morning father, good morning Uncle ¡°James greeted.


    ¡°Hahaha good morning James how have you been I came back yesterday and heard you fell while you were horseback riding¡± chortled Uncle Sam .


    ¡°How are you James¡± said sir Eric solemnly ¡° I see you have gotten better from yesterday¡¯s incident you should know that what happened to you wasn¡¯t an accident the empire is in a flux because of the crown prince competition and the other lineage of the raindragon family is trying to overthrow baron Edwin in the confusion that is why they are attacking me and by extension you that¡¯s why I always tell you to keep your head so that nothing bad happens to you¡±.


    ¡°Yes father I have heard you ¡°said James apologetically.

 MAKING DECISIONS

    ¡° Father I also wanted to ask you to teach me mortal arts,¡± said James


    ¡°I want to get stronger even though I can¡¯t cultivate at least I would have a measure of strength to survive this turmoil I heard peak grade mortal martial artist are comparable to late-stage xiantian cultivators so I want to get that little bit of strength at least so father can you teach me martial art please".


    After James said this silence descended in the room sir Eric and uncle Sam was surprised they liked this version of James which was so determined this kind of character will allow anybody to succeed in life because it is wildly known that practicing mortal martial arts is very hard and painful it takes a lot of courage to practice it they liked that he did not falter even though life has given him a lot of woes he had the fortitude to try everything in his power to succeed even though he won¡¯t reach the level of respect as a cultivator he would reach a modicum of success in life.


    ¡°Great well-done son I like the way you are now a raindragon should always move forward never backward I like your fortitude good you should go to the repository and pick up any martial arts you want to train in, ¡°said Sir Eric while beaming proudly at James and Sam was also beaming too.


    ¡°Thank you, father, I won¡¯t let you down, ¡°said James


    After that they had their breakfast while making small talk and then they each went their way Eric and Sam to the baron castle where they served as knight and James to the library because he wanted to know more about where he was and about cultivation he found out that the world that he was in was called the gods world what was surprising to James was that this world was that this world that it was actually millions of kilometers in circumference which was mind-blowing to him because earth was just a few tens of thousands of kilometers.


    There was only one continent here which was called the divine continent which is surrounded by many islands the place where James is now staying in one of the islands but James was astounded because this island is as large as earth was, which made him wonder how people travel around since this world seemed to be in the medieval era as he read on he found out how because in this continent there are different occupation in which cultivator dabble in when they are at bottlenecks or to earn cultivation resource in this there is an occupation called arrays this kind of people use formation flags to summon heaven and earth energy in order to perform many miraculous tasks such as to bewilder enemies or to create something called teleportation arrays by which you can travel from one place to another.


    When James read he couldn¡¯t help but sigh in amazement as this kind of technology was even more developed than earth in some way since earth hasn¡¯t even touched on the edge of teleportation this made him think that all kind of all worlds have their own version of technology because he didn¡¯t think that cultivation wasn¡¯t magic but technology taken in another direction.


    He didn¡¯t even believe that he couldn¡¯t cultivate as he was someone who believed that where there is a will there is a way which was why he was one of the top biochemists of his time even before he was 30.


    He then turned back to his reading on this island that he was in had five empires and the empire in which he is in the sky empire is the third in ranking in term of military and size of territory .the five empires are rain, earth, sky, snow and gold empires in order of ranking under the empires there are varying degrees of nobility like duke, marquis, count, viscount, baron, and knights.


    After reading all this James decided to finally read about cultivation as brought out a thin books ¡®in the beginning heaven and earth was young and so was humanity in that period humans were very weak and demonic beast and fiend were always attacking humans and using humans as playthings then the father descended and provided cultivation techniques to humans and also taught them how to absorb the energy of heaven and earth in order to get stronger through this and humanity reproductive rate humanity along with humans high comprehension humanity ascended to being among the strongest race there are five major stages which are houtian, xiantian, transcending mortality, earth, heaven which are also divided into early, middle, late and peak the heavenly realm was the realm in which the ancestor of the empire are at.This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.


    The higher the level you reach in cultivation the higher the longevity you get from the heavens houtian-120, xiantian-200, transcending mortality-500 etc.


    This was why most of this empires ancestors were their founding fathers they could establish their empire because they were overwhelming geniuses of their time and because of the support they got from sects in the divine continent it is said there are higher level cultivator there and they are more advanced in arrays and artificial which provide them with terrifying weapons of war.


    Which was why the founding emperors who were also disciples of those sects could establish themselves and their kingdoms and that is also why the empires send them most talented youth to their respective guardian sects in order to strengthen their bonds as James read he couldn¡¯t help but sigh at how fantastical the world is and how much backing is needed in this world he was also glad that he was reborn into nobility otherwise the hardship he will face will be worse.


    He then decided to go to the martial arts repository to pick out martial art .when he came to the martial arts repository James was astounded by the number of books he saw there because of the level of technology he saw he didn¡¯t expect there would be this many books.


    As he started the reading the books he was very surprised at the amount of hardships that is needed in order to practice if he couldn¡¯t help but suck in deep breaths some of them even needed someone to seat on boiling lava the only way these martial arts could be practiced is through the use of spiritual herbs which is used to keep the body stable during practice which is why little to no people practice it because it is expensive and painful to boot


    Eventually he chose one of the martial arts called art of refining which uses the medicinal herbs in spiritual herbs to refine the body and a fist arts he picked it then left because he didn¡¯t need to report it because it wasn¡¯t a cultivation art so anybody could learn it most of the guards in the manor were also learning mortal martial arts unless you did a meritious deed for the family or a family member u wouldn¡¯t learn any cultivation arts .


    He went in to his room and read then read the complete manual in the first stage of the arts of refining the skin, marrow and bones are refined after all this is done the martial artist is comparable to a peak houtian cultivator then he is ready to move on to the second stage but it must be known the higher the quality of the energy used to refine the body the better the result that will come out of it after that will come to the second stage of the art is to refine the heart, brain, liver, kidney, and lung which will raise the strength of the practitioner to the xiantian realm .


    This was one of the main mortal martial arts human used to practice and humanity has been using it before the all father descended it was said that if someone could refine the brain the person could be comparable to transcending mortality cultivators but alas nobody could refine their brains so most of the practitioner who reaches that level died tragically.


    ¡°Sigh although I know that this art is dangerous I can¡¯t help the hand that I am dealt with although this is the case I will ask father to procure some of the high tier herbs in order to practice the art¡±


    James mused then he turned to the fist art it was kind of art with similarities to boxing on earth this kind of arts has three stage basic, expertise and transcendent which is also the level that other martial arts have as saw this he then decided to do some fitness training in order to have the body needed to practice he then decided on a regimen of exercise through which he could he would build up his body.


    After doing all this he decided to wait for his father to come back to tell him about the martial art he chose and if he could get him an instructor to teach him because practicing martial arts is dangerous and if he could get any help on how to practice he would appreciate it immensely.

 A LOOMING WAR

    It was late in the night before his father and uncle came back to the manor looking haggard and out of place, unlike his usual self which was very put together.


    ¡°Father what happened why do you look so haggard ¡°shouted James in surprise when he saw sir, Eric.


    As far as he had known sir Eric and as the memories he got from this body¡¯s owner sir Eric has always been a prim and collected man and would never let affect his image because he thought the way you present yourself is how much respect others give you and he always tried to enforce this behavior on James so he was very surprised when they came back looking at how they looked.


    ¡°Son the worst has happened the snow empire has attacked us and viscount Carey has ordered all his baron¡¯s to come together in order to find a way to defend against their assault and at such a bad timing the emperor has gone into closed-door seclusion and has come out since the past five years and the fight for the throne has been intensifying between the prince so that moving forces around could ignite a civil war the sky empires is at its weakest right now and this is one of the worst things to happens to us right now" .


    The only good news that came out of this is that we were always prepared for the snow empires assault so the tools to fight them are already prepared¡± uncle said while looking soberly which somewhat surprised James because he knew that his uncle was a very jovial and carefree man and for him to be so sober about the topic showed that the situation wasn¡¯t as simple as he just said and James understood why he was so sober all the other empires have been in existence for a minimum of 19,000 but the snow was just 500 year¡¯s old but it was now the fourth-ranked empire and when it first came into existence there were not just five empires but seven but the snow empires was so strong that it conquered the other two empires in such a short time that the two empires couldn¡¯t react before they were conquered.


    So James was also pretty scared because this war could make him lose everything even if he didn¡¯t die then they would have to move away from here which would lower their status among the nobility as a defeated nobility is almost not a noble anymore and since his family are just knights under baron Edwin it is more likely that they are going to die in service because they don¡¯t have that much support in either provincial or duchy capital so nobody would support them there so their only path was to fight and pray this war is won.


    ¡°Father you don¡¯t have to worry am sure that viscount Carey has a very good plan on how to win this war since we have been preparing for years and am sure they are quite ready to fight, ¡° said James jovially although he didn¡¯t feel like that inside,


    Anyway there was nothing meaningful that he could do to help the war as he did not understand the dynamics of war and especially the dynamics of war which involve cultivators who possess supernatural power and cataclysmic weapon the war could change drastically because of the addition of one person so even if he was sun Tzu if he didn¡¯t have the necessary information there was nothing he could do.


    ¡°James don¡¯t worry I don¡¯t think that the war will be serious it not like 500 years ago when the world was not prepared for the snow empire and we won¡¯t be caught unawares like the last two empires even though they are extremely formidable we are not going to lose this war¡± Sir Eric said encouragingly.so how your day have you chosen the martial arts you want to practice.


    ¡°Yes father I have chosen the art of refining to practice I would like to ask you for the spiritual herbs to practice it and if you can I would also like it if you can get a practitioner in it to instruct me on how to practice it and I also chose a simple fist art to complement it¡±


    ¡°Okay son and I hope you are careful while practicing the technique because even though it¡¯s the strongest mortal martial arts it¡¯s also the most dangerous so take care and I will tell Bernard to mentor you on how to practice it he has already refined three organs at the second stage so he will tutor you on how to prepare yourself and the circulatory route for practicing it¡± said Sir Eric


    ¡°Okay father thanks for your support,¡± James said while smiling, at last, he will start doing something because the last few days was disconcerting without doing anything because on earth he was someone who always had a plan and being idle and without direction made him uncomfortable.This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.


    ¡°Sure son the herb will be here in a week I want you to use high-grade herbs for it the high the grade of the herbs the better the result will be as I am sure you know I think you should go and sleep I and your uncle still have something¡¯s to iron out, I will tell Bernard to come and see you in the morning to go and rest I know the past few days must have been very stressful for you ¡°said Sir Eric while trying not to yawn anyone looking at him could see how tired he was James then said goodnight to both him and his uncle and then went to bed because he wanted to be ready tomorrow for the start of his training.


    The next morning James woke up to find out that his father was already gone and he left orders for him to have breakfast and then meet Bernard at the training field, he then freshened up and went to see Bernard as he came to the training field he saw a hulking muscular man backing orders to the knights in training as they were running and throwing stuff .


    As he saw these he couldn¡¯t help but sigh as their level of athleticism is comparable to top athlete on earth and they were not even houtian experts as houtian experts become knight squire, xiantian experts become knights and transcending mortality experts become barons and so on and so forth but it doesn¡¯t usually happen like that because if you don¡¯t have good backing you couldn¡¯t get this position.


    As the clan has grown so tremendous as they have over a 100 million in population and the positions and titles are scares and without connections you wouldn¡¯t get your own fief it would even be hard for you to break into the next realm in your cultivation like sir Eric he has been a half-step transcending mortality expert for fifteen years but because he couldn¡¯t get the necessary resources he couldn¡¯t break through into the next realm.


    ¡°Good morning Mr. Bernard I came on my father¡¯s orders, ¡°said James with his back straight trying to look prim and proper.


    ¡°Good morning young master so you have dined to join us, at last, I expect you to be here by the break of dawn¡± Bernard growled roughly.


    ¡°Yes, sir¡± saluted James although he was surprised he understood the need for discipline in every everything thing someone did.


    When Bernard saw this he couldn¡¯t help but be surprised and impressed by James decorum as most young master or people in power are mostly arrogant and wouldn¡¯t listen to good advice even if it is for their own good so the way he talked to him was a test and if he was unwilling to take criticism then he wouldn¡¯t teach him because mortal martial art is dangerous especially the art of refining if he was someone who was arrogant without having the necessary to back it up you could die so he didn¡¯t want to be the cause of death of someone.


    So he was very happy that he could listen and exercise patient they spent a few minutes with Bernard ordering the knights in training on how to continue with their training then he asked James to come with him to the north side of the training field this had weights, a track and a weapons training pit like the south side where the knights in training trained but it could be known at a glance that the training gear was better after they came there Bernard went to the shelf and brought out a pair of weight.


    ¡°So young master the first part of the training is for you to carry this pair of weights effortlessly and then we can move on to other parts of the training,¡± said Bernard while slightly smirking.


    When James heard this he was so surprised because due to the presence of heaven and earth energy even ordinary mortal bodies are strengthened to extraordinary level makings children¡¯s strength the equivalent of fully grown men on earth and because he was a noble he has been fed spiritual herbs since he was young his body has been strengthened to an extraordinary degree even though he couldn¡¯t cultivate his body was already at the threshold of the houtian stage so this was why he was so surprised when he tried to move the weight.


    ¡°Surprised huh the weight has been inscribed by a few arrays which increase the weight of anything it¡¯s inscribed on so this thing is actually five times the weight so once you can lift it effortlessly then you are ready for the next level of the training, ¡°said Bernard while smirking.


    So for the next week James spent most of his time using the regimen that Bernard had set out for him while this was happening the flames of war was starting to ignite through the region and there was widespread panic but James tried not be distracted by whatever was happening outside so wonderfully he was able to finish the first stage of the fitness training in two weeks which was formidable and the only reason he could do it that fast was because of his single-mindedness and his determination to get his life back on track.


    so he powered through the hardship and did it the second stage of the training was carrying weights like the one in the first stage all around the body and run throughout the track. through this, the practitioner of this will learn how to control their body strength which is what is needed the most in the art of refining as the medicinal aura will need to be tightly controlled so as to cause the least amount of damage to the body while strengthening it.

 FITNESS TRAINING

    It has been two months and a youth can be seen running through an obstacle course with such elegance and grace it looked as if he was a falcon flying through the nine heavens next to the obstacle course were three men who watched the youth going through the obstacle course pride could be seen faintly emanating from them, they were sir Eric, Uncle Sam, and Bernard.


    ¡°James control over his strength is just tremendous and is even on par with a xiantian expert control, ¡°Sam said while looking astounded this was surprising because the xiantian realm was a watershed for cultivators this is when you evolve and refine the body into a celestial body.


    This is the first true step towards becoming a cultivator in this realm spiritual energy is passed through the celestial veins towards the dantian and then passed throughout the body in order to refine it and if any mistakes happen the person cultivation might be crippled so to see that James control of his body has reached the xiantian stage without him even being equivalent to a houtian expert was pretty surprising.


    ¡°Yes and he even did it under three months which is surprising because I thought he would conclude it in three years with his level of fitness and I didn¡¯t even know you could have control of your body to this degree Bernard¡± chuckled to himself and beamed proudly looking at James he couldn¡¯t help but feel proud as James was his greatest student to date too bad he wasn¡¯t a cultivator or what he would he could have achieved would have been tremendous Bernard mused


    A few minutes later James was done running through the obstacle and then came toward his the three men watching him Mr. Bernard how was I he asked as he knew this was the final day of his training and he wanted it to be done to perfection.


    ¡°Was I good? ¡°asked James a bit nervously because if he still lacked something he would have to wait longer before true training which would push back his plans quite a lot?


    ¡°Congratulation young master James you have completed your fitness training and I must say you were simply superb your control over your body is at the xiantian expert level and as long as you keep that level of control you wouldn¡¯t face much hardship in mastering the art of refining but you should know that you shouldn¡¯t be too arrogant and lose your way ¡°Bernard said earnestly then he threw him a small book which looked like a diary and said ok and also takes this is a journal of my training in the art of refining I hope that with this and with the training that you got that nothing untoward will happen to you during your training.


    ¡°Thank you, Mr. Bernard, I very much appreciate what you have been doing for me and all the help that you have provided for me,¡± James said while trying and failing to look somber.


    He couldn¡¯t help but be ecstatic as these although it was a small thing showed that his life was finally coming on track and a trace of ambition and confidence could be seen between his brows even though I don¡¯t have the so-called celestial veins I don¡¯t believe that I can¡¯t cultivate, I believe that with hard work anything is possible


    As sir Eric saw the air of confidence that was radiating from James he couldn¡¯t help but nod his head in pride because he believed that in anything that life has dished to you a person should keep their head high and always try to move forward he didn¡¯t like the way his son was behaving before wallowing in depression and self-hate but now that he had brought his head out of the clouds he couldn¡¯t help but be proud of him and his achievement¡¯s.


    ¡°Mr. Bernard, I can¡¯t say how happy I am with the results of the training you gave to my son you go to treasurer kip and ask him to give you ten black gold coins¡± chortled Sir Eric a grin could be seen on his face which showed how good he was feeling since he rarely smiled in public and with his subordinate¡¯s .


    When the other people there heard the amount he said they couldn¡¯t help but be very surprised as ten black gold coin was a lot of money the currency of the alleged world is a unified currency which is managed by the number merchant company in the world the black merchant company this was a merchant company which spanned the whole world which showed how powerful it is the currency being copper coin, silver coin, gold coin, and black gold coins with a hundred copper coins equivalent to one silver coin and vice versa and a peasant family needs only ten silver coins in order to survive a year and even though a knight takes more for upkeep ten black gold coins was still a large sum of money.The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    ¡°Thank you, sir, Eric, I am glad to be of service to you and the young master,¡± Bernard said while chuckling elatedly he was also proud of James achievement and he was rewarded handsomely.


    ¡°You can go now I want to speak to my son in private ¡°sir Eric then turned to James as he finished saying this the hall had already been cleared in an orderly fashion when it was quiet in the hall again sir Eric just stood there looking at James for a few minutes without speaking as James was starting to get uncomfortable sir Eric beamed proudly


    ¡°Son I like how you out of the funk you have been in for the last few years because not being able to cultivate is not the end of the world, for example, five thousand years ago the prime minister of the empire Lancelot was a mere mortal but he still became the prime minister of the empire being under one and above many do you know how he achieved this it was through his powerful mind and his attitude to never let anything put him down he was even honored posthumously as state teacher which was the highest honor a scholar can achieve as during his tenure the sky empire moved from the seventh-ranked to the third-ranked empire and it was said that if he wasn¡¯t a mortal and could cultivate and had the added lifespan the empire could have unified this island in a few centuries so cheer up son and always move forward toward your goal¡± sir Eric advised while looking at James with love in his eyes


    ¡°Yes father,¡± said James feeling touched¡± how you are a father and the preparations for the war I haven''t been seeing you and Uncle Sam this past few month has the war gotten that intense¡±.


    ¡° Son the war has not even started except for some skirmish and ambush here and there but no real armies have been deployed we are just trying to evacuate the commoners around the region and I and your uncle has been just swamped with the workload, you and I know it¡¯s the peasants who always suffer during a war well I have to be going soon and I hope that you are very well prepared for the training that you are going to undergo I will make you a promise once you make to the refining marrow level of the art of refining I will take you to the waterfront if this war really intensifies then started leaving¡±.


    ¡°Really, father, you must remember your promise¡± James shouted almost jumping with joy to his father¡¯s back he then decided to go to the manor he first went to the martial arts repository where he has always been throughout the past few months he had already read must of the martial arts books and even all the cultivation books that the manor had the reasons he read this was because he was an erudite man who liked to be always prepared.


    While he was reading he found out that cultivation and mortal martial art had a lot of similarities the mortal martial arts looked like someone wanted to find a way to refine the body with spiritual energy just like how demonic beast and fiend did in lieu of just refining qi like has been the mainstream path.


    But perhaps because of lack of knowledge about the human body or simply like of skill the person or group of people couldn¡¯t even get the spiritual energy in their dantian to refine their body they had to use such a crude method as using spiritual herbs to refine it and it thereby downgraded the result of the techniques.


    Although this was just a hypothesis of James he was pretty sure that he was mostly correct on his hypothesis as the mnemonic chants and circulatory routes of the both of them flow in the same general direction although he couldn¡¯t understand some terms like dantian or celestial veins and spirit channels.


    But he believed that he would eventually make sense of it later after spending a few hours in the martial arts repository reflecting and reading through the martial arts after that he had his dinner and then went to bed he decided that he would be well rested when he started his training the next day so there will be no mistakes in his training.


    The next day James woke up at the crack of dawn took his bath and cleaned himself then he told his maid to go to the treasury and get the herbs that he would use for the training a few minutes later the maid announced that the herbs had been prepared after she dropped the tray he told her to leave and then picked up one of the herbs and started absorbing it according to the circulatory method he was surprised when he found out that the energy he felt was very familiar with this was the same energy he felt when he performed his fourth dimensional experiment he was so surprised that he almost hurt himself by going along the wrong circulation .


    The skin that he was refining got torn up and James looked as if he had been put through the shredder but he wasn¡¯t aware of his body condition because the kind of shock he got was kind of astounding and the possibilities were endless you could imagine when he performed his experiment back on earth his connection with the fourth dimension raised his body to the houtian level even without cultivation techniques so this can be a whole new path has opened for him.

 A SHOCKING DISCOVERY

    Although he was astounded he got his act together then got the maid to come and clean up the room once the room was cleaned up James sat in a lotus position and tried to calm himself down as he got his thoughts together and when he got his thought together he came up with a theory which has been running through his mind for a while.


    but because of the lack of a few elements he couldn¡¯t confirm his theory but with what happened today brought him the missing parts of cultivations his theory was that this world is full of crack which made energy from the fourth dimension to sip in here where it is called heaven and earth spiritual energy although it is a diluted form of fourth dimensional energy it still strengthened the everything around subconsciously and the amount of energy you absorb is determined by your affinity to connect with the fourth dimensional energy that is sipping out of the crack which was thereby causing a rapid evolution in the being body and soul.


    But what was funny was because of human intelligence they couldn¡¯t really connect to the fourth dimension but animal because of their lack of intelligence had great affinity with the fourth dimension thereby rapidly strengthening their body and soul to the level where they had a human level of intelligence and even higher whereby the all-father descended he could have been an alien whose civilization have reached the level of manipulating fourth dimensional energy or a native who figured out how to use dimensional energy and then used the a technique to make his descendants to be which was later called celestial veins which help human connect more with their subconscious thereby giving humans the ability to manipulate the dimensional energy that was sipping throughout the world thereby allowing humans to practice cultivation James mused.


    Although he could be off in his theory he thought it was more or less the truth and if he was moving in the right direction with his theory then his path to cultivating has just opened up for him, he couldn¡¯t help but sigh as the torrent of emotion that hit him and about the workings of fate and he couldn¡¯t help but reaffirm his belief that if you never give you would find a way.


    As he thought of this he asked the maid to bring him a piece of paper thereby he started writing down a few herbs and minerals to be brought to him since they were mostly mortal herbs and minerals without spiritual energy they were brought to him immediately the reason why he could call the herbs from off the top of his head was because during his free time he had been studying about the local flora and its properties he had this hardwired into him to also expand the knowledge he knew which made him one of the greatest mind of his time as he was researching this he found out that most of the herb and minerals on earth also exist here.


    Although he was very surprised he was also immensely happy because he planned that if he had hit a dead end in his martial arts training he would try to use fourth-dimensional energy to strengthened himself in this kind of strength-based world so he felt immensely happy that he could join both paths together.


    Although it is said that someone couldn¡¯t train in martial arts above the xiantian stage he believed that with his knowledge of fourth dimensional energy and his powerful mind he would definitely reach the peak of cultivation after getting the herbs he kept them in boxes and then kept then safely then dressed up and then asked the guards to arrange for a horse for him then he rode off to the barons castle because that was where the only glassblower in the barony was and he needed him to make beakers for him to produce the solution that would help his consciousness connect to the fourth dimension as he reached the castle he couldn¡¯t help but be astounded at majesty of it and the human ingenuity that just looking at it one would feel the history of it, although he inherited memory of this place from the body¡¯s previous owner nothing beat seeing it himself.


    ¡°Halt, your name and purpose of visit¡± barked the black armored guards with a insignia of a flower on their breastplate which was the barons personal symbol that stood at the gate as soon as he was a few meters from the castle gate looking at him as a pumpkin because of the way he was looking at the castle one as saw the way they were looking at him he didn¡¯t blame them because the previous owner of the body didn¡¯t come to the castle much so it wasn¡¯t surprising that they didn¡¯t recognize him.


    ¡°James raindragon son of chief knight Eric raindragon I am here on business purposes¡± James shouted back according to the way he got from his memory according to the way a noble is supposed to speak and showing them his father¡¯s signet immediately after they heard his name and saw the father signet they immediately behaved obsequiously and subserviently with him as soon as he saw this he couldn¡¯t help but shake his head in enlightenment.


    ¡° This is the power of authority even if those men are peak houtian expert and I am just a mortal they still have to be subservient to me because I have authority, power without authority is an empty shell if I have authority with power those guards wouldn¡¯t just apologize to me they would try to find a way to mend their relationship with me like for example if my father was a baron he wouldn¡¯t just be a half step transcending mortality expert with his talentThis story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    but because he wasn¡¯t a higher tier nobility he couldn¡¯t get the necessary resources and the needed techniques in order to break through to higher realms and this gate guard because of their lack of status might pause at the houtian stage for the rest of their life as he saw this he felt enlightened even though he had found a way to truly cultivate.


    But he should also find a way to grab authority because if you had authority you would also have greater luck and access to everything that came with it like in his past life if had authority along with his prestige as a top scientist maybe Andres wouldn¡¯t have really killed him that offhandedly as he did ¡°mused James while riding into the city.


    Although he didn¡¯t come to the castle much he still knew where the glassblower was because it was among the most important locations was in the castle because of how hard it is to produce glass so all the noble knew where it is situated this is one of the few non cultivation occupations which have very high status as grandmasters in glassblowing are comparable to barons,


    While he was walking he couldn¡¯t help but be surprised by the number of people in this city although it didn¡¯t reach the level of a city but the population was significantly higher than a town the effect of heaven and earth spiritual energy nourishing the human body helping in keeping the body healthy thereby making the people live longer could be clearly seen.


    A few minutes later he had placed an order at the glassblowers and was coming out he decided that he would try to move around the city to determine how everyone was taking the news about the war as he was looking around he found out that people actually wasn¡¯t that worried about the war because of the kind of faith they had for viscount Carey who is believed to be a war god of the empire it is with his help that the third prince who is his nephew could hold own in the fight for the thrown giving also that he is a late stage earth expert few people would dare attack a place he was guarding.


    Although the reason he was just a viscount was because he refused to be the raindragon duke and instead allowed for his elder brother to be the duke because he wanted to just cultivate but the power wielded was greater than any duke after hearing this he decided to walk around the castle for a while since he had been cooped up in the manor for a while as he was walking around the castle he passed the library whereby he decided to go in because he had read most of the books in the manor ''


    So he decided to go in he had always been someone who valued knowledge even any type knowledge as he came into the library the history of the place can be felt from the very wall of the library after showing his signet as a noble to the librarian since only noble or rich merchant could use the library he dived into the books in the library history, the sciences and so on and so forth he was so immersed in the books that he was reading that he didn¡¯t realize it was evening and the library was going to be closed as he tried to put back the book he was holding when a thick fell out of the shelf as he picked it up he saw written on the front page an understanding of rune¡±


    as he thought the title was interesting he brought the book and signed it out then got his horse and went home as he got home he saw his father and his uncle at the dinner table he was quite surprised as his father and uncle had not been on time for the past two months.


    ¡°Hi father, Uncle Sam I am quite surprised to see you here James said with a raised eyebrow ¡°is the war over


    ¡°Hahaha very funny son u are quite the joker¡± uncle Sam jovially chuckled ¡°we just came back early today because of the relocation has just been completed and we wanted to come here to see how the training went when we came back the guards told us you went to the castle after your training¡±


    ¡°So James how was the training did anything come u during the training¡± Sir Eric said you know that you should always tell us when you come upon any trouble in the art of refining u should know how dangerous it is so careful


    ¡°Yes father the training went well and if something does come up I will tell you and Uncle Sam¡±


    ¡°Okay then the real reason we came back is because we are taking most of the knights under me and the knight squires the snow empire have finally mobilized it armies so we are also mobilizing I and your uncle will not be back for a while since we will be needed by baron Edwin so you will be in charge here and Mr. Bernard and treasurer kip will help you in managing the manor so take care and behave yourself ¡°sir Eric looked somber.


    ¡°Yes father¡± James said while also looking solemn because the way the snow empire defeated the two empires the last war was just too fast that even though viscount Carey was a world-renowned strategist he couldn¡¯t help but be worried as the way they won the war showed that they must have received some inheritance which made them quickly groom a lot of experts since mortal used in wars are just cannon fodder and won¡¯t create a ripple in the grand scheme of thing.


    After that the three had a quiet dinner with everyone to his own thought then everyone went to their respective room each with his thought the next morning James woke up early to send his family off after eating their breakfast they said their goodbyes then his father moved out with the knights and squires under him while James looked on with worry in his eyes.

 THE FIRST TRAINING SESSION

    It been a week since James father had left for the war front although he was worried, he heard from the grapevine that the war hasn¡¯t really started and it was the only skirmish was going on and they were just testing each other out nevertheless James was very happy because he had prepared the solution for his consciousness to connect to the fourth dimension as the beakers had already been sent he then spent a few days fine-tuning himself to the slight difference in the chemical laws of this place because of heaven and earth spiritual energy after all the preparation his cultivation path could finally be started.


    ¡°I hope my conjectures are correct¡± James mused even though he was usually confident about himself but this could define the future path he then sat in the lotus position then he drank the solution which put him in a semi-lucid state as he connected to the fourth dimension he felt a sense of euphoria and completeness which he usually felt when he performed his experiments as soon as he felt the energy flow through him.


    he started practicing the art of refining as he moving the energy along his skin he felt his body being strengthened and toughened although he had refined his skin a little before with spiritual herbs before but now using fourth dimensional energy he could understand why it was said that with higher forms of energy you would get better result as the energy in spiritual herbs first the energy passed through the voids between the fourth dimension to here then was mixed in with the herbs properties which made the energy more impure and the principle of the art of refining revolves around using spiritual energy from the herbs to refine impurities out of the human body .


    but because this herbs also has impurities the body is not properly refined into a high degree with a lot of impurities still remaining he had a feeling that he was improving in strength and he felt as clean as newborn thirty minutes late he had to get out of his because his mind couldn¡¯t carry on its connection with the fourth dimension so he had to come out of his meditative state as he woke up,


    he knew this would occur as cultivation acts also had this feature after waking up he felt as if he was reborn anew and his strength, reflex, agility and motor skill has been increased by many folds and even the rate at which he was thinking has increased tremendously and also a large amount of black slug came out of his body which was the impurities.


    ¡°So this is the houtian stage I can really see the difference ¡°mused James this is the result of just refining twenty percent of my skin but am already this strong although I don¡¯t know how strong I am compared to most houtian expert and I don¡¯t have the toxin and wound caused by using spiritual herbs or other forms of practice to practice martial art which wound the users lifespan although they live longer than ordinary mortals but because of the wound caused by their practice they live less than their level equivalent in cultivation but through the method through which he used to cultivate the energy is not forced into his body which did not wound his body¡¯s internal system and there were no toxins in the energy thereby making sure there were no impurities in his body thereby keeping his lifespan intact.


    in fact, the amount of time he would need to refine his body has drastically decreased because if he used spiritual herbs he wouldn¡¯t have refined one percent of his body by now as the energy was mottled, although he could refine his skin up to twenty percent because this is the first time.


    later he would at most be able to refine it at five percent but this alone made him immensely happy because this meant that in a few weeks¡¯ time would have finished refining his skin as he thought it would take him three to six month to complete the refining with spiritual herbs, to him the effect was phenomenal ¡°


    ¡°I can see why people would be intoxicated with cultivation, ¡° James said while doing shadow boxing the feeling that someone gets from constantly improving in strength can be really addictive I can be called a superhuman if I am an earth¡±


    when he first came to this world he was at the limit of the human body pushing past that limit would mean that person has entered the houtian realm this meant that the person has entered another state of being what didn¡¯t know that the change in his body was more pronounced than a cultivators as what he evolved was his body but what other cultivators was just the energy running through their bodies although they would have immense strength while the energy is running through them but when the energy is running through their body is finished their strength will be dramatically decreased but the art of refining makes spiritual energy merge with the very body and toughen it creating a body filled with immense strength he had a feeling that if he could follow this path to the end he could destroy a planet with a punch,


    Nonetheless he also wanted to practice cultivation when he discovered fourth dimensional energy but he didn¡¯t understand esoteric terms such as dantian, celestial vein, spirit vein, and mind palaces written in the few cultivation arts that were in the manor and his father and uncle wasn¡¯t at the manor to explain it to him and even if they were here he didn¡¯t know how to explain to them he could absorb spiritual energy without celestial veins it will bring about questions he could not answer,Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.


    also if he told them and decided to use cultivation arts he would need to fashion out a new cultivation art for himself because the path of cultivation is that you first use your celestial vein to open your dantian this is the houtian realm you keep refining the energy and expand the energy pool until it changes to xiantian energy the percentage of energy refined to xiantian energy determine the stage a person is within the realm a person with zero to twenty-five present of xiantian energy is as at the early houtian stage, twenty-five to fifty percent is at the middle stage, fifty to seventy-five late stage and seventy-five to a hundred is peak after the transforming of the spiritual energy the practitioner can then break into the xiantian level at the xiantian level the cultivator will try to form a celestial body by refining his body, spirit and consciousness then he will try to open up his sea of consciousness which will propel the practitioner to the transcending mortality stage after this he didn¡¯t understand much about the path of cultivation since his father was just a knight if he it wasn¡¯t because they were members of the raindragon clan and was just an ordinary knight he wouldn¡¯t even have known this much.


    Because of all this reason he decided to focus on martial arts because it was less obscure and more straightforward than cultivation although it was painful it was his only good option.


    ¡°Humph although I will be done refining my skin in two weeks tops l should wait at least a month before showing that I had done it to avoid attracting attention to myself because it is always the tallest tree that is usually cut down although people know that I don¡¯t have celestial veins and thou can¡¯t cultivate they might just kill me just to find out how I did it since we live in chaotic times James mumbled to himself he couldn¡¯t forget how he got into this world and possessed this body was the boy was poisoned and died halesbane was a very dangerous poison and it was said to have killed a houtian expert before.


    his family thought that a miracle happened and he survived since they were preparing to mourn him when he woke up, after thinking all this he told the maid to prepare abate for him where he removed the slug caused by his cultivation session and after he came back refreshed he decided to start reading the book he got from the library an understanding of runes as he read the book he couldn¡¯t help but be entranced as this explained runes in a form in which James has never seen before what James knew of runes before was just that rune masters inscribe runes in weapons to make them sharper, stronger more heavier etc.


    but this book overthrew all his notions about runes because it said it can be used to attack, inscribed on the body to get some special property etc.


    James couldn¡¯t help but be dumbfounded as he read this he couldn¡¯t help but think that the person who wrote this was crazy but he still couldn¡¯t help but be entranced he was also wondering what this was doing in the barony library because although it had some outlandish theory the parts about normal rune making was pretty insightful and advanced.


    what James didn¡¯t know was that if he didn¡¯t have his breakthrough just now he wouldn¡¯t be able to read this as your soul energy will increase as you breakthrough realm but because he broke through with his fleshy body his soul was twofold stronger than that of a fellow houtian cultivator because the body is the container of the soul also because he was fusion of two souls his soul was five times more than a normal houtian expert making him comparable to a xiantian experts soul this was the only reason he could read the book .


    The next two weeks went past in a blur for James because he was mostly cultivating or pondering the mystery of runes shown in the book as he read the book and tried to understand it he couldn¡¯t help but be humbled by the scientific mind and genius of the person who wrote the book when he first came here although he respected some of the things they could do he still looked down on them as barbarians.


    but as he read this book he gained an understanding that this people were at earth level in some technology and even surpassed them in some areas but because personal power is more respected and one person could really overawe an army the sense of the collective which made earth what it is today had been long abandoned leaving this world in the dark ages in technology but those were just for commoners and mortals but if you were a cultivator the sky is the limit like it stated that a rune here can allow your flying vessel to move at 3000km/h which made it faster than most supersonic jet ,


    some rune could condense water from just the atmosphere etc. James was immersed but he did not forget to always practice his cultivation so it was not unexpected to him when he broke through as he completed his skin refining he felt as if he could lift a mountain but although he knew this was ephemeral he couldn¡¯t help but immersed in it.


    ¡°The manual said that a person who completely refined his skin is comparable to an early houtian stage cultivator who is about to break through to the middle houtian stage¡± James mused.


    ¡° I hope that kip has gotten what I asked him about if he had gotten it I would finally start inscribing experimenting with runes I know what makes cultivators strong is not just their cultivation arts it included their techniques and their weapons and other miscellaneous arts give a person an edge when adventuring or fighting for resources so he decided to use this rune making as his side profession, as he had nothing to do he decided to go and see kip as to ascertain the condition of the ingredient¡¯s which he would use to start practicing runes¡± so James decided to go to the treasury immediately kip and all his assistants immediately stood up and bowed.


    ¡°Greeting young master how are you today,¡± Kip said after bowing looking prim and proper James couldn¡¯t help but smile internally every time he saw kip because he was almost a perfect copy of Sir Eric¡¯s mannerism and dressing, You could see how much he worshiped sir Eric.


    ¡°Good morning kip I would like to ask about what I told you about¡±.


    ¡°I am sorry young master but those goods couldn¡¯t be procured because of the war as we are really disadvantaged in the war and most of the spiritual herbs and precious minerals has been appropriated by the army so those things can¡¯t be procured readily and in such quantity as young master asked for¡± Kip said apologetically.

 CHOOSING A FIGHTING TECHNIQUE

    "What we are losing the war," James said shocked because it had only been a week and some days since the war started and if they were already disadvantaged then it meant thing was really going wrong.


    "Yes young master the opponent had seven earth realm cultivators who periodical swept through the army they also had showing arrays which raised the battle prowess of their troops and reduced ours it was only through the ingenuity of viscount Carey that we are still holding up barely up but we have already lost a fifteen baronies and also fort milo which is the first major checkpoint" kip looked wrecked with worry and concern because they were just two forts away from fort milo and they would be next.


    What about the capital are they still not sending reinforcement? James asked also looking working worried.


    The battle between the princes has reached ahead right now and nobody wants to move their armies away from the capital because anyone who did that who be collectively attacked and annihilated.


    so we at a stalemate the heaven realm ancestors are not coming out which made this struggle more chaotic than it should have ever been even the third prince who the viscount is supporting and the raindragon main clan don¡¯t have troops to spare so they are prepared to abandon this region instead they are going to stop them at mount turtle-snake you know how defensible the fort there one man could hold back a thousand so it is more advisable to fight the war there.


    ¡°How is father in the army although he send me some letters he doesn¡¯t say much about what is going on there with him so what do are men there say ¡°Kip James looked pensive because he was worried about his father he could be used as cannon fodder since he was just a knight and didn¡¯t have any backing.


    ¡°The master and sir Sam are doing well I just heard that master had been viewed kindly by viscount Carey for his courage and ingenuity in the last few battles thus he had been made a captain in the imperial army,¡± Kip said pride could be seen rolling off him in waves.


    ¡°What father became a captain and is viewed favorably by viscount Carey then one good thing came out of this war James face was a mixture of pride and shock because the imperial army was the most powerful visible force of the empire and joining one was hard to talk less of being an official in it James believed that if his father survived this war doors will open for him but he couldn¡¯t help but shake his head and because he knew that his father was talented but not this talented.


    "I also have to strength myself this is a chaotic era and if I and my forces are not powerful enough we would most likely perish¡± James mused


    ¡±I should go and ask Bernard some question about my practice I have been practicing that fist art for months now but I am still not making headways in it I should ask Bernard what is wrong since to refine my marrow would take me more a month since then this is the only way to quickly increase my strength¡± James was a very decisive person as soon as he made this decision he immediately started walking to Mr. Bernard¡¯s quarter¡¯s a few minutes later he was in front of the door of Bernard¡¯s room since most of the knights squire and knight in training are either at the warfront or at their parents manor Bernard was mostly in his room or at the training field training with his giant hammers so anybody could find him without looking too hard for him as he came to his room and was about knock he heard.


    ¡°come In young master James¡± from the from the room he opened the door and came in.


    ¡°How did you know it was me from the other side of the door¡± James asked trying to hide the surprise on his face ever since he broke through he had a sense as if he was floating on clouds and barely a sound would be made as he was made a sound as he was moving around, although before he had the control of a xiantian expert but his body and mind weren¡¯t in sync because of the large disparity in-between them but now that he was a houtian expert the disparity wasn¡¯t that much with his control so there were no leaks in his aura too so he was quite surprised


    ¡°Young master when you break into the xiantian stage the seed which will form your sea of consciousness will form this will give you an ephemeral sense of your surrounding and because I have spent a long time with the young master your aura is imprinted in my mind but enough about that what does the young master want to talk to me¡± about Bernard said looking as stoically as usual.This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it


    ¡°Mr. Bernard I came to you because I have been having a problem with the first art I am practicing I have been practicing it for months but I haven¡¯t gotten a basic grasp of it what should I do¡±


    ¡°Hmmm, I see young master do you know that we have a saying that you don¡¯t choose your weapon your weapon chooses you so before choosing a fighting technique you should first try to find a weapon you resonate highly with then you should practice a fighting technique of that weapon¡±.


    ¡°Thank you Mr. Bernard I can see what they said about with an elders guidance that your cultivation path would be more smooth I have read all the book in the manor but I didn¡¯t see anywhere where they wrote this if you didn¡¯t explain this to me I would still be pouring all my effort on practicing that fist art¡±.


    ¡°It is nothing much young master you would have eventually have heard,¡± Bernard said with a smile on his face although he was a proud man he also liked being praised.


    ¡°Sir Bernard could you come and help me find the weapon I resonate with and also and also help me pick a suitable fighting technique,¡± James said this because he realized from this episode that he didn¡¯t know much of this world and asking the question would help him bypass some useless hurdle.


    ¡°Of course I would be glad to help you young master ¡°Bernard then got up from the lotus position and followed him out then they both went to the weaponry.


    ¡°Young master when you find the weapon which resonates with you, you will know because it would feel that a missing limb which you didn¡¯t know you had was returned to you and under that class of weapon the degree of completeness you feel will show which weapon which best resonate with you¡±.


    ¡°Yes Thank you, Mr. Bernard, ¡°James said while going around and touching the weapons as he was touching the myriad weapons he didn¡¯t feel anything and thought something was amiss when he touched the sword and felt the completeness that Bernard said he couldn¡¯t help but shout out found it.


    ¡°Good young master now try and find which type of sword resonate strongest with you that is the fighting technique which would come easiest to you¡±.


    ¡°Yes Mr. Bernard thank you¡± James nodded.


    Then he stopped moving about randomly and started touching only the swords as he moved along he felt different resonance toward the sword some were high some were low so had very low resonance to the point that it almost felt that he didn¡¯t have any affinity to it at all but when he touched the broadswords he felt a sense of completeness as if he was returning to a mother embrace and a sense of a vastness and earthiness which almost overwhelmed him, he had a feeling as if he had come home.it was only a few minutes later before he could come back to his senses


    ¡°What was that just now I almost felt I was under hypnosis ¡°James was shocked and a little scared because he valued his mind above all thing and that someone could take control over his mind made him feel quite insecure


    ¡°You don¡¯t have to worry young master this is just a mechanism which the father and the ancestors of humanity put in our bloodline to make the development of experts of humanity easier and faster by tapping into their subconscious mind and help them to find weapons for themselves based on character and inclination thereby making it easier to raise experts so young master there was no malicious intent in that state right now, would you like to come and choose a weapon with me now¡±.


    ¡°Yes Mr. Bernard can we go please ¡°James still looking quite a bit shaken hurriedly dropped the broadsword then immediately left the weaponry as if he didn¡¯t let go of that sword he wouldn¡¯t be able to let it go and y0u couldn¡¯t blame James as this was a soul technique which made someone feel goodwill and love toward something but if your soul is at a high level you could resist it or even completely shake if off but because James had a powerful soul the technique didn¡¯t have the complete effect on him which made him as if he was being controlled like a puppet which would shake anyone else up if it had happened to them


    A few minutes later James and Mr. Bernard were both at the martial arts repository after they came in Bernard first brought out some rudimentary broadsword techniques and then after he brought a tightly bound which in bold was written in front¡± boundless waterfall¡±


    ¡°After you practice those five fighting technique to the expert level you can then practice the boundless waterfall this is a fighting technique which has been written by an expert who has comprehended mysteries of the world and without it the practitioner can¡¯t break into the earth realm this technique will help you summon a hint of the mysteries which the maker used to fashion that technique and can also be used as a guidepost to that particular mystery when you reach the transcending mortality stage¡­ ¡° James said while looking apologetically at James because martial art does not have a path to reach the transcending mortality stage although the art of refining hypothesized a path nobody has ever succeeded.


    ¡°You don¡¯t have to worry about me Mr. Bernard,¡± James said with a light in his eyes he believed where other failed he would succeed and ascend to higher reams than that


    ¡°Well thank you, Mr. Bernard, I am off to practice this technique.

 PREPARATIONS

    The next few months was all a blur to James as he spent the most of it either reading the understanding of runes or refining his marrow or practicing the techniques that he had gotten from the repository with Bernard this five techniques would ensure that the practitioner would have a solid foundation as this could cover the five major paths of broadsword techniques although there will be many variations this will be based on a fusion of these five major paths,


    As James was practicing this technique he couldn¡¯t help but be intoxicated he had now mastered four of the five techniques to the expertise level and he sensed that he was close to the level of expertise in the last one even his cultivation was progressing at quite the fast rate and he was about seventy-five percent done with it this was surprising because other people usually spend years in between the stages while in cultivation,


    James knew the only reason why he could practice it that fast was because he was absorbing energy straight from the fourth dimension and not from the environment or from spiritual herbs which vastly reduced the amount of time needed to refine the body it also made his physique more pure and perfect although all these things we''re doing well but he had made no headway on his study of runes and he didn¡¯t think he would make much more headway in it without the necessary material to practice the runes as he had already reached the limit on what theory could do for him, `


    Aside from all this he also went to the city library to the city library at his free time to study herbs and their application as he was a top-tier bio-chemist he hoped he will use this to help to tip the war in favor which would bring his family status and power which would provide him with more resource for cultivation although there was alchemist in this world the kind that would surpass him in knowledge would not be on this island as earth has because of weakness used their environment to a terrifying degree.


    Humanity has even invented biochemical bombs which could massacre millions which was made from just mortal herbs and minerals although this was a cultivation world in which people have superhuman powers and that wasn¡¯t his focus mostly on the fourth dimension he believed that with the spiritual herbs on this world and with time he could bring about an absolutely terrifying recipe which would tip the war in their favor he had already come up with an outline to the recipe as he was using some of the herbs that were meant to be used for his training since he didn¡¯t need it he used it in training.


    although this wasn¡¯t how real alchemy was performed he still made great progress and he was nearing the final phases although he wanted to help the war in other capacities as well he knew that he didn¡¯t have much of a strategist mind and he knew this world had been in existence for trillions of years of recorded history and throughout this history the had been many wars that it had been distilled into an art so he knew that even if a general from earth came he would just add a different flavor to the war which may or may not impact the war that much because these people weren¡¯t backward their technology just took a different path which allowed for individual hegemony and so ignored the collective, the general would also be stunted by his lack of understanding to their tools of war which was why James decided not to pit his weakness against their strengths and thereby decided to build a biochemical weapon.


    ¡°Anna tell the guards am going to the warfront to join my father tell them to prepare themselves and also you should also prepare my stuff and tell Mr. Bernard that I am going to the waterfront and I know he will be excited will be since he had been rearing to fight but he had to take care of me which must be frustrating for him¡±.


    ¡°Yes young master I would go and inform them right away¡± she then rushed off to attend to his orders with admiration in her eyes as James had been sparring with the guards and had shown how powerful he was he had been comparable to the late houtian guard in strength which surprised everyone as he had just started training a few months back but he was already comparable to late houtian stage experts the reason he could fight those late-stage houtian experts was because just refining his skin made him comparable to a middle stage houtian expert even though he was just at the early stage combined with his powerful soul which granted him great control of his body he was comparable to late-stage houtian expert he could even fight more than three of them at once and still win ,


    these people saw his strength and therefore didn¡¯t care that he couldn¡¯t reach transcending mortality because transcending mortality experts are hard to produce and just one in ten thousand xiantian cultivators would breakthrough to it which showed how rare it to produce this kind of experts especially in this island so they were hegemons in their respective region most barons were at the half-step transcending mortality expert the same as knight Eric but he because he didn¡¯t he didn¡¯t have enough status in the raindragon clan he couldn¡¯t raise his statusYou might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.


    but with this war and that viscount Carey had noticed and acknowledged him then he would surely rise in power because viscount Carey was the most important member of the family under the patriarchs and one of the most important men in the empire and anyone sheltered by him is under a very big and strong tree which would shield them from the wind and rain so that the young master will only be strong as a peak xiantian realm expert was very strong for them because most of them won¡¯t ever break into the xiantian realm.


    ¡°I¡¯ve made all the preparations I can make from home if I still dawdle then the war got more out of control or they reach this barony the effect I would have on the war wouldn¡¯t matter because we would already be defeated nobles by then and getting back our land and honor among the nobility will be like ascending to heaven and even my research on the final phase of the weapon can¡¯t be done here it will need test subject as to complete it and what better test subjects than prisoners of war as the backlash would be minimal ¡°James mused although he was still a little scared to go to war he was still a little more excited fighting had to be hardwired into most living being and the more you fight the more you gain in even in earth although most of the large-scale wars have cooled down because the feudal system was gone different other types of wars sprung up in their place to fit what humanity considered to be the top of the food chain


    A few minutes later James, three of the guards,


    Mr. Bernard and kip could be seen waiting on the courtyard after which horses were brought to them this were this were some of the fastest horses the manor currently had although they weren¡¯t that strong and wouldn¡¯t be able to endure more than a few changes in the battlefield they had a lot of stamina and was more lasting which was what kip and Bernard thought was best for James as James was not trained as a knight and agility and endurance would more good for him at the battlefield .


    ¡°Young master there is the money for your upkeep for your journey and a map which shows the safest way to reach the waterfront the master told you to come to the third company under lieutenant commander Louis that is the company he serves¡±


    ¡°young master you should take care of your yourself because of the war destabilizing the region there has been a wide outbreaks of brigand group which has taking to looting this region we even have from reliable source which said one of the three of the major brigand group has two xiantian experts while the other two major groups had one as far as is known where they frequent are clearly marked on the maps so that you can avoid them¡± kip than gave to James a pouch as James opened it he found fifty black gold coins inside and a very detailed map showing the rest stops, possible danger points and how to avoid it James could see the effort that had gone into it and he could tell that it had probably been drawn by kip himself


    ¡°Yes kip I have heard you and I will keep myself safe and I also have Mr. Bernard with me and only a peak xiantian expert or higher can defeat him so I am not overly worried I refuse to believe that a peak xiantian or higher level expert would stoop to robbery I am even surprised they have got up to four xiantian experts in the first place¡±.


    ¡°Yes young master but eventualities might occur which is why I plead with you young master to always be cautious and try to listen to Mr. Bernard advice as he has gone to war under the master on baron Edwin¡¯s orders¡± kip couldn¡¯t help but literate because he knew what hot-bloodedness can cause along with the young masters sudden gain in strength he couldn¡¯t help but think that James would be overconfident in his prowess and thereby kick a steel plate and thereby die.


    ¡°I have heard you keep and I will take care of myself ¡°James said he could see the worry in kip¡¯s eyes and could infer where they came from but he was not a normal youth and wasn¡¯t overconfident because of his few spars with Bernard and his experience from his past life he wouldn¡¯t be hot=blooded as he was a scientist who believed that thought should be given to an action before being done


    ¡°We off take care of yourself and the manor ok¡± then he rode off with his party off to the war James couldn¡¯t help but feel as free as a bird with the rest of the household sending him off.


    A group of five men could be seen galloping along a grassland plain as they were passing near a small hill in the area a group of fifteen men with mismatched armor hailed them.


    ¡°Stop!!! You have to pay the tolls for using this road as it belongs to the mountain king gang¡± one of the men who seemed to be their leader and was missing two front teeth said while he and his gang chuckled evilly. The five men were, of course, James, Mr. Bernard and the three guards who were peak houtian experts.


    As James looked at this people he couldn¡¯t help but think of the saying which said if you spent too much time by the rivers you would get your feet wet although banditry was an easy way to make money it came with its own danger especially in such a world like this where people possess extraordinary strength you could come across an expert and thereby bringing calamity to oneself as was happening right now this fifteen men although they outnumber James group but James group were vastly superior in quality to the others because ten of those men were just highly trained mortals and four of them were early houtian stage experts and their leader the guy with the missing tooth was a middle stage houtian expert.


    This was found out by James and Bernard who had a seed of consciousness which could be used to check up on the amount of spiritual energy a person has thereby determining the persons general level of strength although this was useful this could be negated by using masking techniques to mask their respective auras.

 BANDIT INFESTATION

    The mountain king gang hmmm James mused he had gotten a report of the various brigand groups that have sprung up in this region and this mountain king gang was one of the better-known gang as it was one of the middle-grade gang with a late stage mountain expert named one eye as chief and three vice chiefs who were at the middle houtian stage, they were a great band of criminal who were both cautious and ruthless which was why they survived when the army sent soldier against them.


    ¡°It will be like other times do not kill them but capture them am almost through with my experiment and this would be the last batch okay¡± James ¡°mockingly smirked an air of ruthlessness in his eye


    When the bandits had this a vein could almost be seen popping out of their head ¡° you dared talk to the mountain king gang like that you will pay for this insult men attack and teach this men a lesson for disrespecting the great mountain gang¡± the missing tooth leader shouted then ferocious attacked with his men an air of bloodlust could be seen this aura alone would have made James hesitate in the beginning but the tempering in which they have had gone through this past week on their journey had steeled them and they were calm although this bandits are a group of people who swam through blood they couldn¡¯t resist James and his guards because of the levels and higher level of expertise and were quickly captured.


    ¡° Mr. Bernard I don¡¯t think this is merely a case of banditry because of displacement from the war since the number of bandits that we had seen was up to thirty groups in number with seven to twenty people in a group and there were three to five houtian experts in each group this kind of number is astounding ¡° James mumbled while frowning deeply as cultivators were mostly nobles and their talented retainer although there were commoners who received legacies from dead cultivators thereby entering the world of cultivation.


    ¡°Yes young master this seems suspicious there are too many cultivators and if not for our level of cultivation we would have died multiple times already something is fishy¡± Mr. Bernard was also frowning this wasn¡¯t just now that he found out as he had been having his suspicions for a while now he just did to get his young master worried which was why he did not say anything .


    ¡°Anyway we should not worry ourselves about the inner workings of these as we would gain no benefits only problems the kind of people that would be able to field the number of experts we are seeing are too hot for us to handle and if we put our feet¡¯s in such muddy waters we would sink ¡° James said with a dark smirk on his face while musing


    ¡°The nihility drug is almost complete I have almost ironed out all the kinks in the formula and by testing in it on those few criminals I would check if it was completed, the nihility drug was a medicine which he produced when it is breathed in by houtian stage experts it will first disperse his spiritual energy thereafter the scattered spiritual energy will gather in the veins and arteries that move to the brain thereby killing the victims although it is less effective on xiantian experts James thought that it will at least scatter their spiritual energy which will help tip the war in their favor as most wars are fought by houtian and xiantian experts with transcending mortality experts and earth realm experts as commanders.


    ¡°James was getting more and more worried about this wars as the way it was going was strange, the state of the emperor seclusion and the emperor''s ancestors silence and now this outbreak of cultivator as bandits he felt that if he let the war continue this way it would be dangerous to him¡±.


    ¡°Mr. Bernard we are going to take a rest here once am through tonight as my research is almost through we will go straight to the warfront without detours or pit stops okay I am worried about father in this war as the hidden forces in this war are very dangerous¡±


    ¡°Yes young master we would set up camp straight away¡± the three guards bowed and started setting camp.


    immediately after they left Mr. Bernard went to James and whispered ¡°young master I hope you know what you are doing as this could affect your heart which would reduce your control over your soul and you know the stringent conditions of the soul required for martial arts so I hope you don¡¯t block your own future path¡± a look of worry was seen on Bernard¡¯s eyes as he looked at James and he had reasons to worry as the screams he heard on James research tent was horrific and that he had also seen what experiment was about and how much it would help the war which was why he let him continue with it but he couldn¡¯t help but worry about him.


    ¡°I am okay Mr. Bernard and today is the last day of my experiments I have collected all the data I could need from the test subjects and I just want to verify some of the assumptions I have already made then being set and this won¡¯t affect my hearts as this is bandit and criminals who have murdered and pillaged throughout this land and that with their deaths they helped this region is their greatest redemption¡± cold light could be seen flashing in James'' eyes as he said this he was born on the streets and his parent left him so he had to take care of himself on the streets and he worked hard to survive until he was fifteen years old when Andre¡¯s parents adopted him because of his brilliant mind even after that he was very antisocial which caused to make very few friends .Stolen story; please report.


    But the lesson that the street thought him that when he was hit he should hit back ten times harder and that he should never let his guard down once he broke one of this rules his best friend killed him so doing this to this people absolutely won¡¯t affect him as he had a strong mental constitution and he hated people who kill and hurt people for no good reason although he was no saint he believed that if you did something you should do it with thought and doing it just for the fun of it was a pretty illogical and stupid thing to do and he hated stupid people the most he might forgive you even if you are murderer but he wouldn¡¯t forgive those who did stupid things and hurt other peoples plans.


    ¡°I hope it as you said young master I am off to train¡± then he turned and left. A few minutes later screams terrifying screams could be heard from James research center two hours later no new sound could be heard from the room James come out practiced his technique then went to bed.


    The next day they woke up early ate their dinner set their horses at full gallop then went on with their journey although they had more encounters with bandits they finished them quickly and without them needing to capture them alive their fights was fairly easy.


    Although the journey was odious and torturous on the third day they saw the rainbow mountain which was where rainbow fort was located and which viscount Carey has chosen to make his stand they then decided to set their tent although it was evening because this was where the imperial army it was safe because no one who dare act up in front of the imperial army and if anyone dared to attack someone in front of the imperial army will be wiped out along with clan, the next morning they continued their journey as they were two hours into their journey and as they were seeing the camp they heard a booming voice shout from the palisade.


    ¡°Halt show your identification and state your purpose¡± after this voice heard a group of black armored men with spears could be seen walking on top of the palisade James couldn¡¯t help but suck in his breath as he saw this man were all middle stage xiantian experts same as Bernard who was the third strongest person after his father sir Eric and Uncle Sam.


    ¡°This is the power of the imperial army middle stage xiantian experts are guarding its gate even though this is just a single division although this is because of the war I heard that you have to be at least a peak houtian stage cultivator and also defeat five peak houtian experts before you are qualified to join their auxiliary army to join the main army is even more odious to join alas I do not know the trials one has to go through to become¡± James said to no one in particular, then he brought his out fathers signet and shouted back


    ¡± I am James raindragon son of Eric raindragon knight of baron Edwin I am here to see my father can you inform him that I am here¡± James said politely to the black armored guards this was not like the guards at baron Edwin¡¯s castle this were very talented and powerful cultivators who had a chance of reaching the earth realm so along the resources of the imperial clan it is almost guaranteed that they would reach the transcending mortality realm although they would be sworn to serve and protect the imperial family they still had the pride of genius and with the support of the imperial family few organization would be able to do anything to them so they deserved to be arrogant.


    ¡°well then wait here I would go and send your message¡± one of the guards still looking as cold as ever then turned and went to the one of the watchtower where there as a communication rune that as located in the tower a few minutes later James could see his father and Uncle Sam along with a few soldiers could be seen walking to towards them at a brisk pace.


    ¡°son how I you kip told us you were coming but I didn¡¯t know you would make it here that fast with the bandit infestation come son lets go in and discuss more¡± Sir Eric said as soon he reached James


    ¡°James, it¡¯s good that you are here staying here with just your father is as boring as hell and with how stiff he is this place is almost making me kill myself you are my salvation¡± uncle Sam said with exaggerated gestures of boredom the other¡¯s couldn¡¯t help but laugh uncle Sam would always bring life to anywhere he was and James as glad that he survived.


    ¡°Yes uncle I will come with you and we will have fun, okay we will even prank some of the men I know how you like to do that kind of stuff,¡± James said while laughing.


    ¡°Remember that¡¯s a promise okay,¡± Uncle Sam said with seriousness in his eye


    ¡°Alright that¡¯s enough fun and games come son a banquet has been prepared to welcome you and to celebrate your breakthrough to the refining marrow realm within just six months although I couldn¡¯t be with you when it happened kip has been keeping me informed of everything and you are even defeating late stage houtian experts wonderful ¡± a look of pride could be seen on sir Eric eyes then turned and with James and uncle Sam next to him they set off, the banquet as a small and short affair which was according to the knights character after which he sent the men off and then turned to James


    ¡°Son I believe we have something to discuss¡±.

 THE REUNION

    ¡°Son I believe we have something to discuss¡± sir Eric said while looking James in the eyes ¡°first of all how was your journey the bandit infestation lately has been more rampant and they have been very insidious as of late that the units to capture and wiped them out hadn¡¯t been able to do anything them at all am happy you made it in one piece¡±


    ¡°Yes father I was also surprised to see many rogue cultivator¡¯s in this region I didn¡¯t know we even have that much rogue cultivator and that the three major gang has that many xiantian experts is highly surprising because they wouldn¡¯t get much resources as they would need in their cultivation as most people will travel along this region were ordinary mortal merchants and houtian cultivators which wouldn¡¯t have the necessary resources for a xiantian expert and they would really gain almost nothing for their troubles the only thing they achieved was causing chaos in this region which I think was their original purpose am I right father¡± James said with a thoughtful look in his eyes as they were on their way here he had been forming some theories about what was happening here


    But there was too many missing pieces and he had not been here too long and the memory he got because didn¡¯t have enough status lacked some critical information some pieces purely did not make any sense such as the inaction of the emperor and ancestors of the sky empire and the actions of the three major clan the azure clan, the solewind clan and the raindragon clans were weird especially the raindragon as this was their territory but they allowed themselves to lose such large swathes of land without doing anything viscount Carey was the only major figure of the raindragon clan to be sent to the war and the imperial clan just sent three earth realm experts to fight in such a major war and even though they are going to hold the enemy at mount turtle snake they would have lost three counties which was a huge loss to the empire since they had only eight counties and that was not a worthwhile trade and senseless to James.


    ¡°son this war is chaotic to me too as the four empires during the era of the seven empire and the rise of the snow empire when they saw the snow empire defeat the other two empires so quickly they signed a pact for mutual defense and even swore an oath to the heavens to help each other as well as they can and now when the snow empire is attacking us they didn¡¯t send reinforcement to us just sent us some provision which protect them from the effect of the oath but if we lose the war they would also be attacked and conquered in which their inaction makes no sense and also the inaction of the upper tier individuals from the empire is also surprising but this is not our problem to worry about as we can¡¯t do much all we can do is try to gain the maximum benefit for us and our loved ones okay¡± sir Eric said with a twinkle in his eyes he had no choice but to participate in this war as only very important and talented members of the raindragon clan and duchy were exempted even viscounts in this region were forced to join the war as viscounts were just not that important in the grand scheme of thing ,


    Except if you were a viscount with the same level of power as viscount Carey although a person who is as talented as viscount Carey would be sent to the divine continent, viscount Carey was preparing to go the divine continent after the crown prince struggle when this war happened and he decided to participate but other viscounts and those below them weren¡¯t given that choice so as sir Eric had to fight this war he decided to the gain maximum benefit for fighting that was why he tried so hard and put his life on the line so many times but it all paid off as he was on a fast track in his military career and had already been promoted to captain


    ¡± So I want to ask you an important question how did you cultivate the art of refining that fast I thought it will take you at least give or take three year in refining your marrow and you just took six months to reach that level which is astounding as the fastest person to cultivate the art of refining was the seventh prince three hundred years ago who refined his marrow in a year and half who cultivated it for its body strengthening effects and it is publicly acknowledged that the only reason he could cultivate it that fast was because he was already a xiantian expert and he could use his powerful seed of consciousness to control the medicinal aura in his body so how did you do it¡±


    ¡°Well father I don¡¯t really know how it happened I just started practicing it and the control of the medicinal aura came very easily to me I also asked Mr. Bernard and he said it might be because of the level of control I possess over my body or just an innate constitution which made me highly suitable for martial arts¡± James couldn¡¯t help but mumble in his heart that the reason he was practicing this fast was because of the pure fourth dimensional energy he was taping into and his powerful soul he wasn¡¯t even at the refining narrow level but because of the pureness of his body refined by unadulterated fourth dimensional energy he had the same strength as a person who refined his marrow.Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.


    His strength was even a little higher than that and he hadn¡¯t even finished refining in his marrow yet he was just eighty percent complete once he was done he will be comparable to late stage houtian level cultivators and hold his own even against peak houtian experts which cannot be said for ordinary cultivators as peak houtian expert were cultivators who has completely transformed their energy to xiantian energy thereby making their attacks vastly more powerful than late stage houtian and below experts most late stage houtian experts couldn¡¯t fight them at all unless they possess truly high class techniques or some unique constitution which provide them with a profound advantage against those in their level.


    ¡°Hmmm well it is very likely as one of the greatest impediment in cultivation or martial art is control you have over your body which is caused by how powerful your soul is whether in refining your body or energy a powerful soul can help you increase your speed in it and your control of your body is at the early xiantian stage before you started practicing martial arts I am that by now by your soul strength must have increased which in turn increases your control over your body and thereby your speed of cultivation well done this is your hard work paying off if you didn¡¯t work hard and get such control over your body you ¡± sir Eric said with thoughtfulness in his eyes ¡° how are the this situation at home¡±


    ¡°Everything has been great kip has been taking good care of the manor so it is in tiptop shape and the serfs produced a good harvest which might be the last harvest we will have if this war continues in the general direction that it is going while about the barony although the people in the barony are scared they still have a lot of faith in viscount Carey and they believe that he would win the war the rest concern the whole region is what you already know the bandit infestation the rest are not worth worrying about or doesn¡¯t have any direct effect on us¡±


    ¡°I knew kip would do well that chap has a proper head on his head and nothing will go wrong on his watch¡± sir Eric said with the utmost confidence in the decisions he made


    ¡°Well you can sleep in my quarters tonight and I will arrange somewhere for Bernard and the guards to bunk tonight tomorrow the guards and Bernard will be enlisted under my unit you however can¡¯t join the army because of your cultivation but you can follow me as my squire ¡°after that they had a bout of inane conversations and drinking then they both went to sleep James had decided that he would not tell his father about the nihility drug he would first check the way war is going to and see how it would best benefit before talking to his father about it .


    The next day sir Eric, James , Bernard and the guards went to the quartermaster and got them enlisted into his unit and also James listed as his squire which was done pretty quickly because he was a captain under viscount Carey after that they went to the cafeteria to eat their breakfast as they were eating their breakfast they had a bugle which signified an enemy attack so they dropped what they were doing and rushed to the castle wall with his father¡¯s men and manned their station in one of the formation which was mostly used by the empire known as the sky-turtle formation this was a formation which all nobles in the empire are expected to train their force in so that when they are called up with little practice they can join their forces seamlessly and defend the place they were defending because the sky turtle formation was mostly a defensive formation.


    Although it had some attack powers it is mostly used to defend a fort so Bernard and the guards could join seamlessly into the formations even though they had not practiced with the company before and James couldn¡¯t join the formation as he was not yet a peak houtian expert as that was the minimum level required to connect into a formation James knew even if he reached the refining bone level he knew couldn¡¯t use things like formation and long distance magic treasures because most of his fourth dimensional energy where saturated in his flesh to strength it instead of his dantian so he couldn¡¯t use his energy out of his flesh and use it to power formation and magic treasures so he could just watch as they joined into a formation and seemed to turned into a turtle with prickly shell.


    As James turned to look at the attackers over the wall he saw that the enemy was also in a formation of their own which took the form of a snow bear James couldn¡¯t help but sigh about how mythical this world is and also wonder how this was possible because as he was looking at the formation it looked readily like a bear although it was still blurry it was still more realistic than the sky turtle manifested by the sky empire which showed it was a more powerful James couldn¡¯t help but marvel at marvelousness of the fourth dimensional energy by combining the energy of a group of cultivators the power that was released was so wondrous he couldn¡¯t help but sigh about how diametrically different the technology of this world was because of the existence of fourth dimensional energy here they built wondrous thing such as this formation and also found a way to rapidly evolve themselves.

 BANQUET

    The enemy forces soon reached the castle wars as soon. as they reached a scholarly man in white robes could be seen floating out from the midst of the army radiating an aura of vast might, like he could destroy everything it could be seen, that he was at least at the transcending mortality stage cultivator or above because only a person who comprehended the power of the world could use it to float, as soon as he came out he shouted with a booming voice


    "I came under the orders of general Stefan. to give you a final chance if you desist and surrender you would be spared .but if you still continue with your resistance you shall be killed without mercy"


    "Hahaha Edward you and what army or do you think that your ragtag army deserves to stand, before the army of the great sky empire you overestimate yourself?" snickered a bald muscular man who could be seen on the castle wall radiating the same aura of might as the scholarly man in white robes


    " Try and attack this wall and you will all be massacred, so I advise you to turn back and run back to your mommy''s"


    "Since a path had been shown to you, but you still want to take the path of destruction then I will oblige you men attack "immediately seven more men radiating the same aura as the scholarly man, but to a lesser degree and various siege ladders and engines were brought out then they started attacking the fort


    "Prepare yourself and hold your positions show, this cowards the might of the sky empires and we shall obliterate them for the empire" the bald muscular man shouted with five more people with the same aura as the bald muscular man appeared on the wall "hold your formations"


    Thereafter pandemonium descended as the enemy moved to batter the gate and try to force it open, and also tried to capture the walls with archers shooting at them to stop them and the power of this archers was tremendous .if not for energy cost of shooting this arrows were just too taxing to the mental and energy reserve of the shooter ,or they would have been used to win this war with just the archers.


    But alas it was not a perfect universe and soon the archers was exhausted and the enemy army, soon reached atop the castle wall where a chaotic battle began it was a brutal and tiring battle and, as this was going on the transcending mortality expert were also battling in the field as James saw them he couldn''t help but be amazed by the might of the transcending mortality experts.


    As they fought all kinds of color could be seen shining around them, which was the various mysteries they comprehended. James through the past few months he had been going to the library in the castle knew that in order to breakthrough from the transcending mortality to the earth realm you have to comprehend a complete mystery which you use to form a totem in their sea of consciousness and propel the individual to the earth realm.


    What was surprising to James was that the bald muscular man was glowing with a red light and was fighting, with both the scholarly robed man who was glowing with a blue light and two others who were glowing with yellow lights and, they were barely holding on because they were defensive experts who focused on the water and earth mysteries only, this stopped him from rampaging on their soldiers ,this showed James that quality is always better than quality because by all rights the snow empire forces should be dominating them, but because of the bald muscular man the war was at a stalemate and it was in the hands of lower soldiers to decide the tide of the war as the battle continued.


    It got even more chaotic and two men in James fathers company died and their unit was assimilated into other units as the number of people of people, that should be in a sky turtle formation should be a minimum of five to a maximum of fifteen so the units were divided into seven people per unit.


    When the number went below that it became very weak combined, with the fact that the snow empires formations were more profound than the sky empire the war at the lower level was not going so well for the sky empire, but they were holding on because of the home ground advantage soon a bugle was heard from the enemy side, after which the scholarly man shouted retreat and the enemy calmly and orderly retreated.


    Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.The bald muscular man turned and said some platitudes and then turned and left tiredness could be seen in his eyes by the high-intensity fight, As James looked at the battlefield he couldn''t help but swallow dryly as how ferocious the battle was and couldn''t help, but think how the fights that he had been in until now had been just child play, he couldn''t even fight properly as all the soldiers between both side were at peak houtian stage and he could only hold on, because his father and Mr. Bernard was protecting him he couldn''t help but feel the need for strength so that he would not be pushed around .


    "Son how are you are alright" Sir Eric was walking to James side with worry in his eyes" how was your first battle in a war different right".


    "Yes father I am okay," James said while waving his head "is battle always this intense".


    "Sometimes but is not really that bad the truly bad days are when the earth realm cultivators attack the battle is pretty chaotic, during that period because the mere aftershocks of their battles can kill tens of xiantian experts in a go you should thank god you had, this as your first fight come let us prepare for viscount Evans banquet to celebrate another victory "Sir Eric said then turned to his men and gave them some orders and then he and James went to their quarters to prepare for the banquet since only nobles or high tier officials in the army could attend the banquet.


    Time moved and soon it was evening, so James and sir Eric both went to the banquet as soon as they got there they saw at least twenty one important personage ,that was radiating the same aura of might as the seven men saw at the last battle, which meant they were all transcending mortality experts and hundreds of because sir Eric has been to this kind of banquets before he was not that surprised.


    But since this was James first time here he couldn''t help ,but stare as if he was a boy who came to the city for the first time, this was surprising because the capital didn''t send reinforcements and, the duchy didn''t support this army much for this army to have twenty plus transcending mortality experts and hundreds of late and peak stage xiantian experts was baffling to James, since they were just minor nobility and his father was just a captain in the army they had to wait until all the bigwigs went in before they could go in.


    "Father I didn''t know there was so many transcending mortality experts in our region how come" James whispered "and how come there are so many xiantian"


    "Well son this is all on account of viscount Carey, I don''t know the detail of his deal with the transcending mortality but about the late and peak stage xiantian experts he promised them that if they performed meritious deeds, during this war they will be knighted and granted nobility. this was too good to these experts as you know how hard it is to usually obtain nobility usually especially in the raindragon duchy, because of the nature of our clan but this is a once in a lifetime opportunity as this will provide them with something to protect their clan and also grant them access to more resources, which might help them break into transcending mortality and make them a major character in the region, this brought out the hidden reclusive experts in the region".


    "But father I don''t really think that is a good idea as the snow empire is strong now, but they haven''t brought out anything, that could help them conquer two empires before they could react and, if they really did that this man would most likely die and I think they know it too ,so just fighting this war is going to be hard talk less of rendering meritious deeds during the war


    "that is almost impossible and a death sentence" James was shocked because as he had already read from the library and also from personal experience cultivation doesn''t just evolve the body and energy ,when someone breakthrough it also help cultivators connect to the part of their brain that remains dormant most of the time which give which gives rise to a more powerful soul that is used to control the evolved body and energy he even thought that the most important aspect of cultivation is soul cultivation, but aside the point cultivation improves the intelligence of a person by a large margin although it didn''t increase wisdom practically all cultivators should have deduced what James and Sir Eric''s has deduced


    "Yes son they have come to the same conclusions that we have, but as the saying goes birds die for food while men die for treasure so, even though they know this could be their death sentence they can''t help themselves nobility could provide them and their descendants, with a lot of things and protection from danger, although they are cultivators a person from a noble family can kill them without repercussion ,but if you try to kill a noble you have to check if your status is enough to protect you from the imperial clan and it''s just too attractive the chance to make more breakthroughs in their cultivation breaking into the transcending mortality stage will make one of the major figures of the empire "Sir Eric said while sighing to himself


    "Even though my participation in this war is more forced I to wish to gain merit and obtain something from this war so I can understand their pain"


    After sir, Eric finished saying that they both fall silent, with each person retreating to their own thoughts, soon all the important personages had arrived then James and sir Eric also went into the hall as their name was called from the guest list.

 A TALK

    As they came into the hall they saw so many nobles mingling and making connection James couldn''t help but think about the multiple purposes of this banquet as this could help build trust and friendship between the forces and also allow the nobles to make connection they wouldn''t have made any other way James couldn''t help admire the ingenuity of the person that thought this up James and his father then moved to a group of three men who were surrounded by an aura of valor dressed in red and black armor which was used to denote captains in the sky empire


    Hello captain Locke, Thomas and Larry, this is my son James, James this is Locke, Thomas, and Larry, they are captains in my battalion they are among the chief captains and are all half-step transcendent mortality experts who have rendered


    tremendous merits if they breakthrough to transcending mortality they would immediately be made commanders in the army.


    `


    "Eric you praise us too much"


    "Hello James how are you, you look as elegant as your father captain Locke said while smirking but morose


    "Where is Richard hasn''t he come, "sir


    asked while looking around


    "No Richard perished he was too close to where the transcending mortality fight was going on and was affected by an aftershock although he and his men defended against it their formation was disrupted which caused an opening with which they were attacked and massacred although will all knew that something like this could happen when it does happen I can''t help but be shocked" profound sadness could be seen in captain locked and the others


    After a few minutes of silence they branched into other conversation while waiting for commander garret who was the bald muscular man who was the chief commander under viscount Carey although he was also a viscount him and viscount Carey couldn''t be mentioned under the same breath first of all viscount Carey was from the main branch of the family and also an earth realm cultivator who was said to be the greatest talent the clan has seen in a thousand years a few minutes later commander garret came whereby the banquet started in earnest and everyone got to sit in their placing first commander garret sat at the head of the table and then the other commanders and transcending mortality experts and at a lower table were the barons, knights and rogue xiantian cultivator.


    "Welcome gentlemen this is to celebrate our successful repulsion of the snow empire forces although we have not yet won the war I believe that with determination and preservation victory cheers men to the empire and the emperor may he live forever cheer," he said this he raised his glass and toasted


    "For the empire and the emperor" the other commander and soldiers raised their glass and toasted back then the banquet kicked into full effect as they started making conversations this banquet was held for the express purpose of relaxing the troops and growing trust so no heavy stuff was discussed but this banquet was quite eye-opening to James


    Nonetheless gained much from his discussions as they were true movers and shakers of the region and the empire he gained more information about the empire and its environ along with other miscellaneous information from them than in all the books in the library the saying was true the man who travels is better than the person who read ten thousand books at home this was so interesting to him that he didn''t know how time passed and soon it was time for the banquet to break up although the party had ended James was pretty happy with what he had gained and it would help him in determining what directions to take in the coming day ,


    The following few weeks were quite monotonous for James as they involved him training his sword arts and when the occasional skirmish came he would join his father to go to battle the only break from this was when three earth realm cultivators appeared on the battlefield this was a revelation to James about what the human body can do he had killed a few hundred soldiers before an earth realm expert from the sky empire could stop him, with this sight of how callous James was more confident on his path to get more power for without it you meant nothing


    But this also helped him he had completely refined his marrow and twenty five percent of his bone and also he had refined his five sword arts he had also mastered the five foundational sword arts to the transcendent level he could help but be surprised as it only needed to be trained to the expertise level as training to the transcendent level in any art was very hard as that meant you have mastered the essence of that art but he thought that it made sense with the constant battle his sword battles arts were frequently being used and also his great comprehension because of natural intelligence and his powerful soul which made comprehending the five foundational sword arts very easy and he used the platform given by this robust foundation he got to the expertise level in" the bountiful waterfall" and this was a peak stage sword art which was very hard to master the five foundational sword arts weren''t ranked sword arts they were just meant for training but sword arts were ranked into unranked, mortal, earth and heaven level there was also fabled to be an immortal level, for the knight to have a peak stage mortal fighting technique was astonishing to JamesYou might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.


    But it was also the truth the only reason the sir Eric had that technique was because of a fortunate encounter he had many years ago it was this encounter that helped him reach the half-step transcending mortality stage was because this provided him with the cultivation technique which helped him to break through this level at his age because even with his talent without good cultivation techniques he would have broken through to his current level as an old man but with that fortunate encounter his life changed forever.


    "With my pure energy and my level of comprehension of my techniques I am equal to peak houtian stage experts so at least I have reached the minimum level to participate in this battlefield I have completely done anything that can be done in a short period of time".


    "I have gathered enough information about the war and I think I should tell father about my drug if it is used correctly during the war we might heavily damage their forces if not outright win because although we have less high tier fighters than them we outclass them In term of quality viscount Carey aloe could hold four earth realm experts by himself so although they were still disadvantaged against the snow empire but not overwhelmingly so if the Houtian and xiantian stage experts were defeated the war has been won in the sky empire''s favor unless a new variable came into place.


    that was what had James worried because of how long he had been in this world he knew that an earth realm fighter was more frightening than a missile on earth


    Because they have their destructive power and also can also move around which makes it frightening now to make two empires that has multiple earth realm fighter and even the more formidable heaven realm experts to be defeated almost instantaneously that the other empires had no time to react and also hasn''t been able to figure out how it happened was something that scared James but he can only move on with his plan even if it would not put an end to the war it would force the enemy to reveal their trump cards which would be a pretty good outcome for him.


    it would provide him with the status he needs''s in order to procure the resources he needed both for his runes studies and for his cultivation he had a feeling that when he broke through to the refining organ stage of his cultivation that he wouldn''t need mortal herbs but high tier spiritual herbs and other spirit material of it as because of fourth dimensional energy the plants here could live longer and also strengthen the properties of the herb.


    Very soon James was at his father''s office he saw his father poring over some paperwork you could see from him and from everyone in the castle that the lack of progress and being confined to this fort combined with the constant attacks on the fort everyone nerves were wearing the thing


    "Father you shouldn''t overwork yourself as this could affect your cultivation you should know that," James said ever since he came to this battlefield he had barely had any free time with his father as this drawn-out war was affecting the logistics of the army very heavily


    "Yes James son I know about that but the length of this war is crippling this regions and even the whole empires economy and added with the bandit infestation getting the necessary resource here is a hurdle, I think that if nothing changes soon something would break in our defense strategy" Sir Eric said deep worry could be seen deep in his eyes.


    "Father Can you tell the guards to get out I have something to talk to you about its important"


    "Son what is the matter is there did something happen"


    "Father I have an I idea I would like to see if you would contact viscount Carey I have something which could produce an excellent result in the war, if used correctly the war would be won in our favor"


    "What is this idea and how could it change the war this tremendously in our favor"


    "It not an idea in the full sense of the word you know how I have been going to the library lately I also developed an interest in botany I thereby developed a drug which can kill most houtian experts and scatter the spiritual energy of xiantian experts although it can''t do anything to transcending mortality experts I believe that if it is used correctly we will be at an advantage.

 A MEETING WITH COMMANDER GARRET

    "It not an idea in the full sense of the word you know how I have been going to the library lately I also developed an interest in botany. I thereby developed a drug, which can kill most houtian experts and scatter the spiritual energy of xiantian experts. Which I found from an alchemical formula I found there although it can''t do anything to transcending mortality experts I believe that if it is used correctly we will be at an advantage"


    "And you have tested this and you are sure it would work"


    "Yes father I tested it on the bandits on my here so can you get in touch with Viscount Carey father"


    "NO but I can get in contact with commander garret he had asked ,that the captains upward be allowed to see him whenever, they want as they might have good information ,when he is sure of our claim he can then get the information to viscount Carey come son lets go see commander garret" Sir Eric said with a calculating look in his eyes.


    A few minutes later they were at commander garret quarter ,the vast difference in class between him and sir Eric could clearly be seen, the building in which his office was in was ,the very well decorated two golden lions could be seen, at the entrance projecting an air of majesty and dominance .two guards wearing a blazing red armor with the insignia of the commander. which was a blazing flame could be seen an by the aura that they were projection it could be seen that they were both peaks xiantian experts.


    "Halt state your name and, purpose of your visit or you would be killed mercilessly" the guard voice boomed as soon ,as they were within three meters of the mansion.


    "I am captain Eric raindragon of the third battalion and I this is my son lames we have come here on important business, which concerns the war can you pass our message down, to him I would appreciate it," Sir James said politely.


    "Okay wait here I will pass to him wait here," one of the guards said gruffly then turned and went into the mansion a few minutes later he came out again"


    "The commander is currently busy and will see you in a few minutes come inside the mansion to wait for him "the guard ushered them in.


    As James and sir, Eric went into the mansion, the opulence of the owner could be seen by how the mansion was decorated with, Deerwood carpet from the earth empire ,and fireworm silk from the gold empire, could be seen sprawling all over the place.


    While sculpture of various great men of war and paintings of various war scenes made by a famous artist could be seen all over the place. You could see from the decorations, that commander garret was a proud man who liked showing off his power and prestige,This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it


    James couldn''t help but think about how extravagant the commander was being


    The guard guided them through the mansions passageway until they reached a courtyard where he handed them over to a beautiful maid.


    "These are the commander''s guest you should entertain them until he finishes with his business "the guard turned then left.


    "Good day sirs I am bright moon and I will be your entertainer for tonight will you like some refreshment and, which one would you if you are in need of entertainment like singing and dancing. it can be provided for you while you wait for the commander?" she said while bowing courteously without that much subservience you could see, the pride from being a maid under commander garret, could be seen clearly in her posture, while she guided them to where they would sit


    "Yes we would like some tea while we wait for the commander and there is no need for entertainer''s thank you we would like just to wait for the commander in silence, "Sir Eric said.


    "Would the commander the commander belong because if he will be I and my son would appreciate it if you could get us some reading material while we wait to thank you"


    "I don''t sir about the commander''s schedule, but what you requested will be provided to you" then left a few minutes later, the tea and some snacks and a book was brought to them.


    It was only a few hours later, before commander garret could come and see them as James looked at the bald muscular man he could see that worries about the situation of the war weighing down on him he seemed fiercer than he usually was and looked as if he could explode like a volcano at any second.


    "Hello, gentlemen sorry for keeping you waiting I had some very important work to do I heard from my staff that you had some very important news for me" a scowl could be seen on commander garret face as the most important thing to him now was about the war. as he knew some real information about the war and the benefits it can bring to him.


    "Well sir can you please tell your staff to go somewhere for a bit the information we are about to pass to you must be kept as confidential as possible" Sir Eric said looking very solemn


    "Hmmm is that so all", "you should move back fifty feet from here," he said without turning back although he wasn''t radiating any aura and he spoke mildly, but the majesty from years of authority in his stance brooked for no disobedience immediately after he said that all the staff immediately left.


    "Now they are gone you can tell me what the whole secrecy is about," he said radiating an aura as sharp and piercing as a sword.


    "Your grace we believe that we have something in our possession which could dramatically change the course of the war once you see it in our favor" Sir Eric said with a serious look


    "My son James will explain the rest since he was the one who built the weapon and therefore knows it best "all eyes in the courtyard then turned to James


    "Commander Garret my father is correct I had invented a drug I call the nihility drug its main purpose is it use the spiritual energy in a person''s body to kill the person".


    "It will first scatter the individual spiritual energy, then it will redirect the spiritual energy of the individual, thereby killing the individual, "he turned to both his father and the commander a look of utmost pride could be seen in his eyes.


    "But as a result, of my lack of skill and the ingredients it can only kill houtian experts and injure xiantian experts, but it can''t kill them. Because of the amount of control they have over their bodies? "He cautioned but even though it had this obvious flaws he could see the scorching gaze the commander was giving in his direction

 SHOWCASE

    Can what you say be proved?" a scorching gaze could see in his eyes although he tried to hide it he couldn''t, because he knew the real stakes of this war, Although this war could lead to him falling it could also be the greatest fortuitous event of his life.


    As James and Sir Eric saw the look in Commander Garret eyes they couldn''t help, but be surprised as this war, although it would have an effect on them it wouldn''t have much of that effect on the commander. If he was willing to pay a price he could come out of this mostly unscathed.


    "Yes commander I have already tested it" James replied with a cold calculating look in his eyes he could see the benefits, he could milk out of this if he played his card right. "When I was coming into the war front I had tested it on some bandits, and it was pretty much successful in most of them, although I couldn''t test them on a xiantian expert I am sure that my theory is seventy percent correct".


    "if this is true young man you will be rewarded", "this could be play a pivotal part in this war "commander garret said he did not try to make any more pretenses "what are the materials needed to produce this produce this poison, because if it is not readily available it will be hard to materialize the plan"


    "No commander garret they are just tiered one high-grade herb" James said this was the miraculousness of his drug this island also had this type of drugs, But they were usually expensive as they were made using at least tier three herbs, which made it unfeasible to be used on a large scale and was just on par James in term of effectiveness.


    "Alright then, I will get a prisoner of war to personally test your invention, then we will discuss the details of this partnership okay"


    "Yes your grace you can, make the arrangements we will follow your will" Sir Eric and James agreed because this was, just what they expected from commander garret if he didn''t test them out and, just believed them it would have very suspicious to them.


    He then ring a bell, immediately an old man dressed as a butler came" you called master what can I do for you sir?" he said while bowing" Yes Simon I would like for you to go to the dungeon"," and get two houtian and xiantian prisoner from there we have some use for them"The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.


    "Yes sir I would get right to it sir "said the butler while still bowing then turned around and left, A few minutes later the butler could be seen walking back with four people chained together and two guards behind them, the aura of radiating from the two in front was just dwarfed by Sir Eric''s, which showed that they were both peaks, xiantian experts,.


    James couldn''t help but sigh about the difference in their status as he could procure peak xiantian experts within, a few minutes of just asking for it as peak xiantian were mostly high tier middle class in any army in this island, so they were fairly important prisoners, so it could be seen how powerful the commander, that he could get them on such short notice.


    "Your Excellency I have brought what you asked for, "the butler said as soon as they came where the commander was, as the guards forced them to kneel.


    "Well done Simon, you can go but I would appreciate your silence, "commander garret said while looking squarely at Simon, to emphasize the seriousness of the matter at stake.


    "Yes, your excellency I will do as you say" although he was surprised, buy how seriously the viscount took the matter, he knew that there was, just something''s he shouldn''t pry his nose in. so he quickly turned and left with the guards.


    "You may now proceed, with the experiment" commander garret turned to James, once the butler and guards were out of earshot. "You should know the consequence of lying to me will be right" a ruthless look could be seen in his eyes, he still had his prestige and nobody should mess with him. If this happened with what face would he be left within his peerage in the empire, this chance was also too important for him and he could not miss it.


    "Your Excellency I am more of a man of action instead of the word, so I will show it to you, " James said then took a vial of bubbly red liquid out of his, then went to both of the houtian cultivators on their knees then poured the liquid down his throat.


    "We have to wait a few minutes before it takes effect," James said after pouring the liquid to the captive''s mouth, a few minutes later the captives, suddenly started convulsing while shrieking horrifically and holding their head and in seconds they were dead.


    When everyone in the room except for James saw these they couldn''t help but break out in cold sweat because to make a cultivator at peak houtian stage scream out like that was a terrifying thing as most of those who have cultivated to this stage had gone through tremendous hardship to get to their level which would give them a strong heart so to see them scream like that was chilling.


    After they died the two houtian experts were given the solution, although they visibly blanched and shock for a few minutes nobody died, they just lost control of their spiritual energy for three hours which surprised James because it was far longer than he thought it would last and they were peak xiantian experts, so if it was used on the early or middle stage xiantian experts, its effect will be even more profound.

 A NEGOTIATION

    "."Good, good" commander garret chuckled excitement could be clearly seen in his eyes


    "But I see one problem in this plan"." if we need to feed the enemy this drug, the plan could fail drastically, as this put too much variables and luck on the plan "the commander aired a concern of his although he was normally a risk taker and had a fairly fiery temper this war was too important to him so he couldn''t help but be cautious.


    "You don''t have to worry commander I have already designed one which could be propagated by air "James said with a slight smile on his face he knew that this would be brought up


    "How would we stop it from affecting our men can you produce the antidote".


    I have also devised the antidote, so that our side can use and avoid the effect of the poison".


    " I have covered all most of the bases that is needed to be covered pertaining to the poison we just need your help in procuring the herbs for it and its implementation" James then turned to Sir Eric because they both agreed, that he would handle the rest.


    "well done James you have done a meritious deed and shall be duly rewarded" commander garret chortled he was tremendously happy because this would change the way this war to his advantage.


    "alright I will tell the quartermaster to give you free reign over the herb and provide you with any assistance that you need in order to produce it "commander garret said this because he knew that most alchemists and potioneers did not like sharing their recipes.


    "No need sir I would give the recipe to you and even my notes while I was researching. The only thing that most important thing that we want is to remain anonymous. My father will negotiate the details of the transfer, I will now leave you both to the negotiation" he then turned and left.


    This was a plan he and his father thought up as holding onto this recipe might make them a target for assignation and their family couldn''t handle it, so they decided to just to give the recipe to the empire, thereby gaining the empires support and protection and also remove them from the spotlight, James understood the benefits of being low key.


    The next few days was very hectic for James and sir Eric as James had to teach the alchemist''s that the empire''s brought for him how to produce the nihility drug, it was easy to teach them because James made procedures to it to be as simple as can be, while sir Eric tried to negotiate with the empire by the weeks end they were both tired but satisfied by what they accomplished.Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.


    Although it was hectic James he didn''t forget to train in the art of refining and on his swordplay, which was very hard to do as refining bone was the final level of ,the first stage of the art of refining and was very hard to practice so even though he had pure fourth dimensional energy ,it couldn''t be easily and hastily done as the bones was, the most important in the art of refining ,as they were the foundation of the body if they were not properly refined the martial artist might not break into the second stage of the art.


    Although he didn''t progress much in the art of refining and his swordplay, he made tremendous progress on his study of runes, as an abundance of spiritual herbs was provided to him ''the understanding of rune'' had five parts and James had reached, the second part of it but what he gained was stupefying for him and also gave him some ideas for, the third stage of the art of refining,


    The benefit the alliance had on him was tremendous ,as he was developing well in all direction and the benefits of resources could be seen. As it was James was in a secluded room practicing the art of runes in his father''s new quarters when he heard a knock on his door.


    As commander garret had directly promoted ,his father to a lieutenant and made him an aide to the army, he had also promised his father a barony ,once he had discussed the terms with the main family, so he was pretty surprised because, he had told the maid, he was not to be disturbed. As he opened the door he saw the maid bowing


    "Young master I know you don''t want to be disturbed, but the master has called for you. He has something he wanted to talk to you about and that you should hurry" the maid said while still bowing, the maid was scared because the rise of this family was just too quick and everyone was talking about it.


    "okay you can go now tell my father I will be there shortly" James answered after musing to himself for a few minutes as his father had been very busy lately, he knew that he wouldn''t call him if it was not for a good reason , so he immediately quickly prepared himself and then went to see him.


    As he came to the hall he saw his father, sitting with a man who were wearing blue robes surrounded by guards.


    What got James thinking was the fidgeting manner in which sir Eric was behaving, this was a mystery to James because his father was a cool and collected person, who faced everything with a straight face, he didn''t even bat an eyelash while negotiating with the commander garret and his aides, although this took a while to explain it was only a few second.


    As soon as he came into the room his father shouted out before he could speak" well done son you are here, I want to introduce you to someone this is Mr. Jones, Viscount Carey''s chief butler

 THE MESSENGER

    As soon as he came into the room his father shouted out before he could speak¡± well-done son you are here, I want to introduce you to someone this is Mr. Jones, Viscount Carey¡¯s chief butler¡±.


    As he heard this he could see the reason for his father fidgetiness, the viscount¡¯s prowess was well known throughout the whole empire, anything that was connected to him was feared and respected because he had both personal and political power, he was the pillar through which the third prince could contest the throne and also it was because of his genius that the war had been salvaged


    ¡°Good day Mr. James, it¡¯s a pleasure to meet you I have had so much about you and your work for the empire, I must say Mr. James that your genius is very much appreciated¡± my alchemist said that even though the recipe was made up of tier one spiritual herbs and tier one spiritual mineral but the intricacy of the way it was combined together has caused a qualitative change in its effect, it was just genius,¡±.mr Jones said as he and James shook hands.


    ¡°thank you, Mr. Jones, for the compliment it was just luck,¡± James said while wondering what Mr. Jones was looking for him because Mr. Jones mostly never left viscount Carey side except on official business. So he couldn¡¯t help but wonder the reason that he came to see as it meant that he had a message for him from Viscount Carey and he couldn¡¯t help but wonder, as even though he had invented the nihility drug it was not of much importance to someone at the viscount¡¯s level.


    ¡°You are welcome Mr. James,¡± he said while unfurling a scroll, while the two guards behind him, brought forward a chest.


    ¡° I am here under the order of viscount Carey to confer unto you the title of a tier two scholar for your service to the empire and also you shall be given the sum of three thousand black gold, your work for the empire and the Raindragon clan are well appreciated¡± Mr. Jones read out of the scroll.


    When James heard, this he immediately bowed and received the edict with a palpating heart, because the title of a scholar was one of his short term goals, but because of the war, he was side-tracked. Once you became a titled scholar of the empire, you would be given free rein of the imperial library according to your tier, the resource would also be provided for you.


    This was one of, the three ways to gain status and resources in the empire, the three being through the battlefield, being born into nobility and scholastic deed and it could be said to be the hardest way to do so as the other two were fairly easy, as you could just naturally be born into a noble family and a chance encounter could make someone a hero on the battlefield but to be a scholar was a truly hard and tedious affair and most spent their life without achieving it


    The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation. James getting promoted to tier two scholar was a momentous new as there were six different levels. First the apprentice tier, which was where most of the scholars are, then the tier one to five scholars.


    ¡°Thank you, sir, I am honored by the grace the viscount had shown me, ¡°he said while still bowing.


    ¡°I am here to give the title deeds of a manor in fransescott to you this is a personal gift from the viscount¡±, he threw a scroll at James then nodded to sir Eric ¡°I will be on my way then, sir Eric goodbye and a good day to you¡± while getting ready to leave


    ¡°You are very welcome Mr. Jones, we are more than happy to host you in our humble abode and we do hope you would drop by again soon ¡°sir Eric also got up from his seat preparing to walk him out he turned to James and whispered.


    ¡°You can go now James I have some personal matters to discuss with Mr. Jones here¡± a worried and solemn look on his face


    ¡°yes father,¡± James said while trying to hide a puzzled look from his face as soon as he went out he held his ears to the door and tried to eavesdrop on their conversation


    ¡°Is our war situation really that bad ¡°he heard a voice which sounded like Sir Eric?


    ¡°yes the wars is not really going that well for us we have better quality commanders and soldiers than them but it is as if they have an innumerable number of troops¡± sigh ¡°this is turning into a war of attrition which we would clearly lose, we have already killed two hundred and fifty solider and they don¡¯t seem fazed at all¡± Mr. Jones voice could be heard with a sense of defeat to it.


    ¡°what how can that be even by the lowest estimate is to say that two hundred and fifty peaks houtian experts are dead since when are cultivators this easy to create in this island ¡° a surprised shout could be heard.


    ¡°No, they are death soldiers which were created from the inheritance which they found. it was through this inheritance that they got the weapons which helped them defeat the yellow and southern wind alliance with such speed, we got information from our spies that for the creation of this army they allowed the secret of the inheritance they got to be made public, you should know this is not a simple war from the way it is going¡±.


    ¡°yes, I can see some anomalies from the way the war is being fought,¡± James said admitting his suspicions ¡°can you tell me the reason for the war if it is not a problem?¡±


    ¡°I can¡¯t tell you the reason but this is a war which would decide the fate of the island and a very fortuitous event if you perform brilliantly in it, but it could also destroy which was why most of the major clans and the imperial family did not send their elites because they are preparing themselves and this war was not really in our favor¡±,


    ¡°You shouldn¡¯t have been told this but because of the appreciation the viscount has for you, so take care of yourself and goodbye ¡°sounds of footstep could be heard walking to the exit as soon as James heard this he turned and ran to his room while musing about what he heard,


    The next few weeks were like the lull before, the thunderstorm the war was at a temporary standstill, even the snow empires fervent assault had almost slowed to a standstill but a static charge could be felt all around the camp everyone from the generals to the errand boys could feel that the direction of this battle would be decided soon the battle which would decide their future was coming and everyone was waiting with fear, trepidation, and excitements in their hearts, on the third day of the third week the war finally started

 BATTLE PREPARATIONS

    As James woke up on that day, the sky was dark and cloudy as if a portent of things to come, as soon as James saw this he had a premonition that something important was going to happen today, something to change the fate of the island and everyone in it¡±


    ¡°this feeling, so this is the premonition that is written that cultivators get, but I shouldn¡¯t have felt it this vividly at the first stage of cultivation. ¡°Well, maybe the premonitions don¡¯t have anything to do with but with the soul level and connection with the fourth-dimensional energy. As James thought about this he couldn¡¯t help but be very interested in this theory.


    Energy has always been to known to transmit information like the use of light and sound waves in modern communication on earth so the fourth dimensional energy which permits this world as the transmitter and the soul as the antenna it would provide the information which would come across as a premonition which would come across to the individual clearly according to the soul strength and how great a connection the person has with the fourth dimensional energy.


    ¡° this is a great theory and their kind of spiritual body they have would increase their perceptivity, it seemed this is Darwinism at its finest the people who have better cultivation talent have a better of surviving as they would be forewarned in case of danger, and the better your talent, the more vivid the premonition¡±.


    James had read that there were four types of body which determine a person¡¯s cultivation talent they were mortal, earth, heaven, and saint body. The mortal body could only cultivate to the xiantian level under normal circumstances, while earth could cultivate to transcending mortality and heaven could cultivate to earth realm while the saint body nothing much is known of it as it is mostly thought as a legend, this was as long as resources weren¡¯t used.


    ¡°young master the lieutenant is calling for you, he has said for you to hurry¡± James bodyguard said while saluting and looking very prim and proper with an air of power radiating from him that made it known that he was an early stage, xiantian experts, this was a solider that had been gifted to James by viscount Carey as he was promoted to scholar tier two as his attendant, from this it could be seen how highly valued innovation was in the empire, and how important this war was.


    ¡°ok thanks for the message¡± James cut his thought process short he then turned and recorded the theory in his journal, this was a diary that James had been keeping which contained the details of what James knew in this world and all his theories.A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.


    When he came to his father office, he saw him and his subordinates with an air of sobriety around them, which made James think about the premonition he had.¡± Father I am here, is something the matter¡± James said while looking around.


    ¡°James son the final battle is upon us, it will be in the evening, you are being told because our chances were dramatically increased by your invention, you should go and make your preparation for it¡± sir Eric sounded somber he then turned to his subordinates ¡°Mr. Henry how are our preparations for the battle¡±


    ¡°Well, sir the men are very, well prepared and have also taken the antidote, as well have gotten their ration of spiritual herbs for healing, so we are prepped and ready for action¡± a burly and honest looking fellow named Richard who was also his father¡¯s second in command.


    ¡°good have them on stand-by for when the commander sends down, the order to attack, I want them to be up and ready understood¡± sir Eric barked while looking at his men carefully after the discussion, after his talk with Mr. James and knowing the sakes although he didn¡¯t have the full story he knew he and his family would gain immeasurable benefits from this war, he was also worried as his side was prepared to put high stakes in this battle, the opponent would also be prepared to do so too, which made this war far more dangerous than a normal war.


    ¡°Yes sir, we will get right to it sir¡± the men in the room saluted and then left in a hurry. sir Eric turned to James and with a serious look ¡°James son although we have your nihility drug which would reduce our casualty but this final battle is going to be chaotic as you know through a large amount of spiritual herb and tier one detoxifying pill the effect of the nihility drug can be reduced and even nullified, combined with their larger amount of expert¡¯s the battle isn¡¯t going to be easy. Because of the drug most of the enemy¡¯s formation would collapse, which could make the battle a free for all,¡± so son takes of yourself and be careful okay¡±.


    ¡°yes father I will be very careful and I have a modicum of confidence in myself as my skill in the¡± bountiful waterfall¡± has reached the expert level combined with my refining marrow strength I believe I could survive quite well in a head-on battle with a peak stage houtian expert¡±, as James said this he had an air of confidence in himself for all the progress he made since coming to this world and also he felt that soon he would break through the refining bone level, he would then be able to fight against early-stage xiantian expert making him an expert in his own right in the kingdom.


    ¡°Good son, I like the confidence, you have behaved like a true Raindragon man. in the case of any danger, avoiding it almost always compound it, as men we should always move forward not backward, well-done son¡± Sir Eric said as he was speaking an attendant rushed into the room


    ¡± Sir, the commander has called for you¡±

 BATTLE DAWNS

    ¡°Sir, the commander has called for you,¡± the attendant said while bowing with an armored guard from the commander¡¯s retinue behind him. As James saw the guard he knew that the final battle would finally begin.


    ¡°father, I would leave you, to go to your meeting with the commander, take care of yourself father and I hope we shall see each other in the end¡± James then hugged sir Eric tightly then turned and left, this battle would be the final battle that would determine their fates as those who survives these battle would be heavily rewarded and be provided with a lot of resources for cultivation and they were not sure they could both survive this as even transcending mortality experts could fall during this battle.


    ¡°Yes son, take care of yourself too okay¡± Sir Eric shouted as James walked out of the room with deep love and worry in his eyes, then turned and left with the armored guard.


    As James was in his room, he thought of the different ways he could prepare for the coming battle, he could come up with almost nothing, as his art of refining was at a bottleneck and it would be hard for him to make a breakthrough in it, as once he had done this he would have reached perfection on a major realm and tier one martial arts like the ¡®boundless waterfall¡¯ was hard to practice to the transcendent level for, first stage cultivators as they could only practice, unranked and tier one, martial arts.


    As he thought of this a light sparkled on his eyes whereby, he got up and went to the closet, where he proceeded to bring out a blood-red sword with sparkling runes, all around it, as lames saw this a sense of pride could be seen pervading through him.


    ¡°With this my strength, would dramatically improve although, this is just a peak unranked weapon but because of the intricateness of the runes it has the power of a peak tier one weapon with half a step into tier two level and because I am its creator I can use 120% of the power of the weapon¡± he muttered to himself while marveling at how mystical and profound the ¡®understanding of runes was.


    Although a lot of praise could be given to the understanding of runes the main reason, for his tremendous success in his study of runes, was James agile and inquisitive mind, which helped him decipher, the book without a teacher to help him practice it. So James had reasons to be proud, as rune making was one of the hardest crafts to go into and required, a high comprehension ability.Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.


    As a hint of profound mysteries needed to be added to the runes, even though the rune-maker might not have comprehended the profound mysteries but that was what made runes so fantastic, as you can follow a predecessor path, helping in the understanding of profound mysteries and it was also because of this that you can only become a tier one rune-master once you reach, the transcending mortality stage as you can use profound mysteries.


    As James, was thinking about, all this, he had a bugle when he and the other officers heard this, they couldn¡¯t help but shudder as they knew about the chaos that was about to occur, even the ordinary soldiers had a bad feeling with the strange ambiance in the air.


    James then put on his leather armor which was given to him as he was promoted to a scholar, this was one of the most important gifts given to scholars, in order for the scholars to protect as making armor type magical tools, are one of the hardest to produce as they required, the skin of demonic beasts and also a lot of precious metals and also a very skilled rune-master to inscribe the runes on it, the process was often dangerous and odious, so there were few armors made.


    James finished putting on his armor and his other gears, and then went to the castle wars to join up with his unit, once he reached there and looked over at, the enemy side a cold breath couldn¡¯t help but escape from his throat as he saw the vast sea of people, the enemy usually attacked with a large number of people but, for this battle it could be seen that they had brought out most of their cards.


    ¡°By the all-father, how is that possible¡± James heard a soldier standing near him exclaim as well as murmuring from the surrounding. The shock impact of the enemy tactics could be seen clearly as the soldiers, morale was visibly lowered by their display as this was going on. A bald muscular man with a fiery aura around him could be seen floating above the castle wall, this man was of course commander garret,


    ¡°brave men, of the sky empire¡±, his voice boomed while he paused and looked around the castle, as he did this, it was as if he was looking at every soldier individually ¡° you have seen the enemy, and their vast number¡¯s, but this our chance to show the island, even the whole world that the honor and valor of the sky empire are not to be undermined¡± he then paused again as he did, a loud and intimidating shouting could be heard all around the castle walls.


    ¡°The enemy may be large in number, but we have our valor and the homestead advantage and, I know we will be victorious, as when they charge up to the wall they would be defeated like the park of cards they are. So men are you with me¡± he shouted with a booming voice


    ¡°Yes!!!!!!!!!!!!¡± came the earth-shaking reply, as the moral of the men could be seen rising

 FIGHTING A LOOSING BATTLE

    As James was looking at this, he even felt his emotion coming to the forefront before, he shot it down, the level of the commander speech was nowhere near, the level of the politician on earth, who have turned it into an art, what made his speech have that kind of effect was the amount of emotions, that went into it. Although he had some ulterior motive in this war this was still his home and he loved his home, the other benefits were just icing on the cake. This kind of emotion resonated with the grassroots soldiers thereby raising their morale.


    ¡°So men charge with me for the empire, the emperor and for your families, we shall be victorious¡± he shouted with an air of fervor, around with the men around him echoing that fervor by shouting also. A few seconds later the bugle sounded and the scholarly looking man sir Edwin walked out from the enemy side.


    ¡°Soldiers of the sky empire this is your final chance to surrender or you would be mercilessly killed as you can see, there is no hope, in resistance, so surrender and stop any unnecessary deaths¡± the scholarly robed man spoke with a kind of hypnotic quality to his voice. Which made the soldiers at the houtian level and some xiantian experts, with weak souls, start having doubts.


    ¡°Humph¡± as soon as this sound was heard the doubt they heard was cleared abruptly ¡°Edwin do you think that your flimsy could shake the mind of men with me here, you are a still as always a dreamer¡± commander Garret barked anger could be clearly be heard in his voice.


    ¡° Garret do you really think, that you can win this, you are vastly outnumbered on all fronts, just save yourself the trouble and surrender¡± with a slight chuckle Edwin answered back¡± this process is unstoppable so do us all a favor and stop this okay¡±.


    As he said this, fifteen more transcending mortality experts came floating around him, while ten more came out from the sky empire camp. It could be seen that all the cards had been rolled out. Then bugles sounded and the battle started, first the siege engines like the catapult and magical cannon were bombarding the city walls with their projectiles while the defenders tried to defend with their divine archers and magical canon.


    But it was an exercise in futility as, how the enemy outnumbered them, in the number of combatants, they also had more divine archer¡¯s expert and more magical cannon. As James saw this he couldn¡¯t help but wonder where they got the resources to raise this number of divine archers and magical cannon, as the resources just to raise one xiantian stage archer is equivalent to the amount, it would take to raise ten normal xiantian stage experts, as they needed to put a lot of focus on their soul in order, to properly use their arrows,If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    So they usually had soul-force more than their usual level, as the battle was progressing any good spectator, could see that the sky empire was on, the path to losing as they were just outnumbered and outgunned, and that was how it happened, soon the enemy combatant was, at the castle walls and, the battle soon dissolved into a melee where they both used their formations to try, to overpower each other but the sky empire was clearly loosing and even in the transcending mortality experts area were not looking good. The sheer force of numbers overcame any quality difference, the two sides might have.


    If there were no enunciating circumstances, the sky empire will soon lose this war. As James was fighting with his unit, after a while he had some respite and looked around the battlefield, he found out that the battle was not really going in their favor and wondered why the army would bring out the big guns like viscount Carey personal storm-wind guard which was said to be one of the top ten division of the whole empire, the men fighting were just the normal troops, as the major troops of the major troops of the empire such as the divine guard of the imperial family and the Raindragon guard of the Raindragon clan, were not participating as the major clans were avoiding this war for some reason.


    As he was thinking of this he saw troops of men dressed in blue armor come forward and start attacking the snow empire troops and from the aura radiating from them it could be seen, that they were all late and peak stage xiantian experts, these men were the Stormwind guard the viscount personal guard, these men were trained by the viscount personally so they were more powerful than ordinary experts at the same level.


    Once they entered the battlefield, they stabilized the situation although the enemy had shock-troops too, the effect of the way of training which helped them produce such a large amount of cultivators, in so little time ended up producing sub-standard soldiers if not for their numbers they would have been defeated. But they just barely stabilized the situation as the situation was still not really looking good, as they just came to a draw.


    As this was happening, James saw a flash of light and soon something which looked like a serpent with wings which was known as a sky dragon flying above the city walls, while on the enemy combatant side a light flashed then a humongous polar bear with wings was seen flying, their aura was so tremendous that the soldiers could barely breath.


    As James, saw this, he couldn¡¯t help but a breath, deeply as he could see that both of this creature where creatures summoned from high-grade talismans, this was one of the many wondrous application of fourth-dimensional energy, as both of this animals looked very lifelike and the aura they produced were also real.


    A few seconds later, both conjured animals, started growling and attacking each other, the level of the carnage they produced was so unearthly, that James even with, his powerful soul couldn¡¯t well because of the soul pressure, their attacks were giving off. With the hills and other siege engines and even the city wall, were all destroyed as collateral damage in their savage fights,

 EARTH REALM WARRIORS

    "oh my god, what kind of strength is this", James couldn''t help but wonder as he saw this as this were not simple walls as they had been made using orichalcum and reinforced runes over the years so it was hard to even damage it, this could be seen as, even though the transcending mortality experts had been fighting on the wall for months, but there was no damage to the wall.


    as he was valued highly valued by the empire he knew that the talisman used to conjure, the sky dragon was a grade four talisman, which meant that the sky dragon was as powerful as an earth realm cultivator, but James couldn''t help but be surprised at the difference in power between, transcending mortality and the earth realm was too huge. Although transcending mortality experts was vastly more powerful than xiantian experts it was not to the level where lower level experts could be considered as ants, as from the level of power shown by the two beasts even, one hundred transcending mortality experts, couldn''t defeat them.


    "hiss!!!, is this the power of a completed profound mysteries, I can''t wait to reach, this level of power" James muttered to himself with an ambitious fire burning in his eyes, as they were fighting all the fighting that was going on below them stopped and the men retreated, without any talks between the two armies because, it was widely known, that before the mysteries and laws of the universe all were ants.


    The power of both conjured beast, was immense, but still at the end of the day, they were just conjured creatures and had no way to renew their energy, so although they spread immense destruction they were evenly matched, so both armies could only just watch as the beasts slowly faded away, as they both ran off energy.


    As the two armies looked, at each other, while preparing to restart the battle, when James and the rest of the troops immediately saw twelve men could be seen floating, above the battlefield, no one could, figure how, they got there, it was as if they had had always been there, they were giving off the same soul pressure as the sky dragon and the flying snow bear, showing that they were earth realm cultivators, they were the earth realm cultivator from both side, seven from the snow empire and five from the sky empire.


    "Carey you know, that this war is not really in your favor, although we all know the benefit the sunshine sect has promised for the winner and those who perform exceptionally well, but you shouldn''t forget who our, ancestor emperor is you know you can''t win this war, they just gave you this chance in order to give a sense of fairness and spice up this battle." A man with purple hair and purple robes radiating a visible air of coldness all around him. And by his aura, he could be seen as the strongest among the snow empire side.Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.


    "Brett, I understand what, you are saying but at the end of the day, this is my home and even though the clan won''t touch this war because of consideration''s but I can''t let it all go just like that", a scholarly looking man said what was surprising was there was no pressure felt from him, as if he was just a normal human being but from the enemy general speech and the position he was standing he was none other than viscount Carey, the most talented individual in the Raindragon clan and even the whole empire.


    "you know the truth at our level and what is required of us, so what we can call truly ours in this world is few and far between, if we are defeated in this war although the clan will not be affected by that much, but we will have to relocate from here to the divine continent. Although it is a haven for a lower level martial artist for higher level, at our level of martial art it is a bondage and a cage and we will also lose our heritage sigh!!!!" viscount Carey said with melancholy in his eyes.


    Although this conversation was going on here, the soldiers below couldn''t hear them, as they had put a silencing spell over, the area they were in as some of the things they were discussing should only be known at a certain level of power or else, it will only be a curse to its possessor.


    "Sigh if we are going to fight, we shouldn''t do it here, as there will be unneeded casualties from the aftereffect of our battles", Viscount Carey said a sense of sorrowfulness and desolateness could be seen in his eyes.


    "although I know that there is suffering, while at the lower level of cultivation, but sometimes I wish that I were them because knowing, what I know now, the joy that I usually get from cultivation is lost,"


    "Yes we are all in chains but there is nothing, we can do but make the best of it", the enemy general sir Brett answered back a shadow of defeat appeared on his face, which had been expressionless since he had to arrive


    "I also think we shouldn''t fight here, so I will do the honors and open a pocket dimension for our fight "


    Immediately a tear in space appeared and then the combatants entered into it. A pocket dimension was a place, which can be opened once one has completely comprehended a profound mystery and was the place where most earth realm experts and above fought their battles as if they fought in the main world it would sooner or later destroy the world.


    it was said the world was once one super a supercontinent but because of unrestricted fighting, from high tier experts, the island was formed because of breakup in the continent, so a meeting of the high-level cultivator called the divine conference was called, in which it was decided that earth realm cultivators and above should not fight in the main world, but in pocket dimensions.


    Sou, sou, sou the pocket dimension was the sound the pocket dimension made as it closed.

 BATTLE ROYALE

    As the earth realm experts left, there were a few minutes of silence as the soldiers and commanders tried to recover from the soul pressure after which, the commanders commanded the soldiers to go back into battle. As most of the major trump cards had all been shown, the battle was truly a free for all as units went against unit and soldier fought against soldiers. The feeling one would get from the battle was primal and animalistic.


    "Both sides have reached an impasse and a tie-breaker is needed, why Viscount Carey is not using the nihility drug yet," James mused as he chopped off the head of a peak houtian expert, that he was fighting.


    "huff, huff, this is not going well either way, although we have more advanced troops, the law of numbers is still against us" James was puffing with tiredness and this showed the rigorousness of the battle since James energy was very pure which made the amount of energy, he used in performing his techniques very negligible. So even though he was just at the first stage of his cultivation he could last as long as a second stage middle realm cultivator.


    James had always been a meticulous person so he had, instead of dividing, the cultivation realms according to their respective names like houtian, xiantian, etc. and refining the body he decided to instead divide it into the first stage, second stage, etc. because. He believed that all those were the same. It was just that the paths they took were different, which made the strength they can harness vary. He also believed there were more paths out there because of the legends of the allfather.


    Although in his theory, the allfather could be a native, to him it was more likely that he was an alien whose cultivation culture was more advanced than this worlds, came to this planet for some reason and helped this world start on the path of cultivation, so he believed other world existed because he came from earth, as he was thinking of this saw looked like rocket launchers fly into the air, then exploded whereby a fog soon started spreading through, the battlefield.


    "at last they are using the nihility drug, I thought that something must have gone wrong as they have not used this since the battle started, "James said while he sniffed the air "those alchemists really disappoint me, even after all the help that I have provided for them they still couldn''t get, the recipe right the product is still volatile."Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.


    "Although the people in this world are advanced, in some areas it is only because of the abundance of resources they have, and also the existence of fourth-dimensional energy. They couldn''t even do such a simple task, humph eve high school lab assistants could have done this with the kind of instructions I have given to them" James harrumphed with a hint of frustration and anger on his face as this was his first invention, in this world and he didn''t like how these people had bungled it and it had made him very angry.


    Also because, of the diluted product it would have no effect on xiantian experts, and a houtian peak with a very dense energy pool could shake off the effect and not die but just have his energy disrupted.


    "So this is why the empire didn''t use my products before, it is not much of a trump card if it will just affect the houtian stage experts and even then it could be shaken off by some, fuck what a bunch of useless idiots this is not good"


    A calculating look could be seen in James'' eyes. " this will not end well for us, the enemy has a tremendous advantage over us in numbers at the foot soldier level, the disrupting of the energy of the xiantian experts would have evened out the field for us, but now we have lost the advantage, no wonder they didn''t use it long ago,".


    As he was worried about this, he got distracted, whereby an enemy soldier snuck up on him and almost cut off his head with sneak attack, he then parried the attack and then stab the soldier in-between the eye, through the battle that had been going on for the past few days, he had gotten a feel to advantages of training, his foundational techniques as it gave his fighting style immutability and made even the most simple techniques have myriad changes. As he had understood the basics, of those techniques, so even though he was surprised he could still use a simple stab to kill the attacker.


    As soon, as he stabbed the soldier, it seemed a dominos effect had occurred, as most of the houtian, soldiers in the battlefield collapsed. Which led to the collapse of the battle formations, the houtian experts were the frameworks of the formations and the xiantian experts just directed the flow of energy in the formations. So once they collapsed the formations, also collapsed. Pandemonium issued in the snow empire''s army as these happened, as the military organization of their army collapsed.


    As they scrambled to reorganize themselves, the rain empires commanders, who have been briefed about the time in which, the nihility drug would be deployed immediately organized their army and counter-attacked the snow empire, the carnage which proceeded to happen in the battlefield was horrifying as because of the nihility drug most of the houtian experts were dead, but since they had more xiantian experts and some of their houtian experts also survived, as their back was against the wall, it was about their survival, they exposed their savagery and fought like beast.

 CONTROL TECHNIQUE

    In this battle, battle techniques and all add on people usually, used when fighting opponents were discarded, and only brute force and basic techniques like the jab, parry, cleave, flick, etc., could be used. As the enemy dropped all semblance of civility and turned into a beast as they attacked the rain empire when their weapons broke, they used their nails and teeth to claw and bite at the enemy force. Their savagery was daunting for the rain empire as wars weren''t fought like this and some of the soldiers hesitated, in their attack which was a bad decision as they were decimated by the enemy.


    As this was happening, Sir Eric and James Uncle Sam went to James side. the battle they have been fighting had cost them, they had lost most of the men in their units which made the formations, they were using to collapse so they were fighting without the power of their formation, and thereby lost track of James and could only find him now.


    "James, son I am glad we could finally we finally found you, thank the allfather that I and your father found you. We had been so worried that something disastrous, would have happened to you before we found you "tiredness and profound relief could be seen on uncle Sam face.


    "Son, your uncle is right, we were very worried about you, and you should never leave our side. That was one of the conditions, we agreed on for you to come to the battlefield" sir Eric scolded James, relief, anger, and exasperation could be seen in his eyes.


    "Sigh!!! Something, is wrong with, the way this war is going. In a normal battle, once they lose and they know that they can''t win, they would usually surrender. But in this case, they are fighting as if possessed which is pretty irregular" Sir Eric said a worried look on their face.


    "Yes brother, I even saw three transcending mortality experts fall, I also saw Viscount Jason fall, and he is among the top hundred transcending mortality experts in four Seasons Island, and nobles don''t usually give their lives for their country".


    As James, heard this, he started looking around and also found out, that something was wrong with the solider in, the battlefield as they looked as if they were possessed by demons with a crazed look in their eyes. James didn''t notice it before since this was his first war. But now that his sir Eric and Uncle Sam pointed out that this wasn''t, the way wars usually went, he could finally see the signs that something was wrong with them.Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.


    " father, is there a kind of cultivation technique that can control people, even transcending mortality experts could also be controlled by them, is there really such a mystical technique that can do this, that is very scary, " James said a look of genuine fear flashed across his face. He could stand firm in the face of death, but not being in control of his action, and life and death was a scary and disheartening thing.


    "Yes son, I have seen some cultivation techniques, which can control people. But it mostly works on houtian and xiantian experts, but to affect transcending mortality experts whose soul, have become one with the world. And also to affect Viscount Jason who is an expert, who has comprehended profound mysteries and to have an effect on such a large number of people is also scary to me too", Sir Eric said with a mystified look on his face.


    "Yes brother, what is worrying to me are the 50,000 cultivator troops that are being controlled like puppets, what kind of devilish technique is required, to do such a thing. Eric, this war is looking more dangerous and gloomier for us" Uncle Sam said to Sir Eric and James with shock and a hint of fear in his eyes.


    As this discussion. Was going on the battle entered, its peak so they were unable, to talk to each other. As the enemies, a life for a life tactic was very disadvantageous for the sky empire troops, as they were normal human beings and couldn''t match the ferocity of a death squad, which would fight on until death. The advantage the rain empire got from the ''nihility drug'' was nullified under, the death squad like actions of the snow empires army.


    This went on as minutes turned into hours, soon about half a day had passed, the fighting had reached a point where most of the houtian experts, of both side, were, mostly dead, because their spiritual energy couldn''t handle it, even some xiantian, with weak foundation, were exhausted of their spiritual energy and ended up falling. Hence most of the people who had reached, this point in this free for all, were all elites of the elites, their cultivation techniques and, also their fighting techniques were all top notch.


    As for James, the only reason he could survive was because of his father and uncles protection, coupled with the pureness of his energy, along with his solid foundation in martial art had made him last longer than, any houtian experts ever could. But he was already tired and he was on automatic, and his five senses were already failing him from the exhaustion.


    Toot!!! Toot!!!! This sound was heard followed by the beating of drums.


    When James, Sir Eric and Uncle Sam along with the rest of the sky empire, heard a bugle they couldn''t help, but look up once they looked up, what they saw shocked and terrified them, as they saw another army of the snow empire arriving at the scene. As the commander of the sky empire saw this, a sense of hopelessness and defeat dawned, as they ordered their troops to retreat.

 DEFEAT

    When the snow empire forces saw, the sky empire troops retreating, the commander rallied their troops and attacked, with the transcending mortality experts moving forward, as the vanguards of their army to stop, the sky empire troops from escaping.


    Whereby, as this was already happening and the transcending mortality experts, of the sky empire, saw the enemy troops, they tried to disengage from their opponents, but they were outnumbered by their opponents, even though they had a better foundation and thereby higher battle power than their opponents. But they couldn''t disengage in time and were soon swamped by the enemy.


    "what, the hell is this, are you guys crazy deploying so many troops, are you guy not afraid of the other empires attacking you, with the number of troops you have invested here" commander garret shouted with a fiery aura as an apparition of a half illusionary/ half real phoenix appeared behind him, which showed that he had cultivated his profound mystery and had almost, formed his totem which will allow him to break through to the earth realm.


    "Garret, it time to surrender, the other empires have already surrendered except the rain empire and the sky empire, had been annexed by the great snow empire, so I think you and your troops should do so too and save yourself the trouble" a man walked out of the, newly arrived troops the man radiated a calm aura and as he stood there, a half illusionary/ half real gigantic whale appeared behind his back, the whale behind him was almost real and it was even mooing to the moon, and swimming in midair, it was as if the whale was alive.


    " eternal wave king john even you are here, and what are you saying, that the other empires have been defeated that is impossible, just the snow empire can''t conquer, three whole empires at once" commander garret said with trepidation in his voice, as he looked at the man he called the eternal wave king, this man was the number one transcending mortality expert, in the four season island, he was head and shoulders above the rest of the other experts, although eternal wave king John was not a once in a thousand years genius, on viscount Carey''s level he was just a hairline below that so he was immensely talented.


    So, for the snow empire to send him, showed their utmost confidence, as they would never send a person such as eternal wave king John, who had a chance to break through to the heaven realm, to a dangerous battlefield which could end up with him dead, was usually avoided. And in such a chaotic battlefield, although someone could have unrivaled personal strength could end up, being swarmed to death.A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.


    "Ha! Ha! Ha! yes garret, the only reason you could last, so long under the onslaught of the great snow empire, was because our forces, was concentrated in the other empires, the reason we decided to put you guys, on the same level as our great rain empire, was because of the existence of viscount Carey" eternal wave king john chuckled confidence could be seen radiated from him.


    "We have already prepared something special for him, so we have brought four more earth realm experts, to make sure he and the other earth realm experts, that are with him are stalled until this battle is over. As we can''t kill him because of his position in the four god sect, so if you had pinned some hopes, on him to come and save you don''t, because he is definitely going to die and so are you. Men attack and destroy the sky empire."


    As commander garret and the soldier heard this, they felt as if a heavy stone had dropped on their chest, as the place viscount Carey had in their heart was almost, that of a god, and they felt that as long as he was there, nothing could go wrong, that was why even though, they were outnumbered their morale was not lowered by much. But the news, that they just got from, the eternal wave king was ominous, as they were already outnumbered in the earth realm battle, and for the snow empire to still send, four more earth realm experts to the battlefield made sure that, there was no way to overturn this.


    As this was happening James and his family members looked, at each other and knew that this battle was finally coming to an end since there was nothing which could change the path this war was going and trying to be like damming a river with your bare hands.


    "son, brother, it''s time to retreat out of here, the path of this war has been decided and it is not in our favor, so we have to get out of here fast, as if we are caught here we will be indentured. as it is not likely that the Raindragon clan, will pay the ransom for our freedom as we not that important, neither are we from the main family and they have to be careful, in the times of tumultuous change that was going to come. While the imperial family is finished who would usually redeem us," a look of frustration and trepidation could be seen on Sir Eric''s face as he forced out these words.


    When James, saw his fathers frustrated face, he could understand, his frustration as he had invested, a lot in this war and if it had gone in their favor, their family would have soared to heaven in a single step, but now everything was down the drain, and if luck was not on their side they might end up, as indentured servants.


    "don''t be so angry brother, we should keep calm and concentrate on how we are going to get out of here, you don''t want your son to spend, the rest of his as a slave do you, so chin up we up we got to get out of here" uncle Sam said to sir Eric trying to cheer him up from the blow, he just received.

 RETREAT

    "thank you brother, for telling me that this is not really the place to break down come on men, with James as the center, make a retreat, we have to retreat in a timely and orderly fashion" sir Eric mustered his ragtag group of men, while trying to retreat into the city, as the enemy had sealed up all other escape routes and were herding them to the city.


    When James saw the way, the retreat was going, he didn''t like it, as they were playing into the enemies hands and that wasn''t the way to go, but he didn''t want to say anything, in order not to reduce the already low morale and he was wondering why the enemy would not just use one massive assault. as they were retreating they joined up, with other retreating troops, soon the buck of the army was retreating together, as James saw this, he couldn''t quell, the anger that was rising in him.


    "The snow empire troops are not really, taking us seriously. They are treating us like animal, this is an outrage, let us face them and fight them to the death" one of Sir Eric''s lieutenant, shouted out of anger, as he shouted this statement, the other lieutenant and soldiers could be seen raising and growling with anger too, they were soldiers who have treaded through blood and blade. Although they feared death, when death came they would like to die with dignity, but the way the snow empire forces, was treating them was an insult and a breach of professional etiquette since most of them was nobility.


    "men, we shouldn''t get agitated and should always maintain a cool head, if we are going to get out of this alive, I know that this seems hopeless, but I believe that heavens always leave a path, so ignore them and raise your spirit men we will get out of this men, and show the men of the snow empire, that we won''t be underestimated and insulted" sir Eric shouted trying, to motivate the spirit of the soldier in his unit.


    Yeah!!! Yeah!!! Shouted the men channeling their fear, frustration, and rage into their voice, which made them sound like, a bunch of asuras come to harvest people''s souls. Their mighty spirit could be felt from all around them. With their new bout of courage and morale they attacked, the enemy forces with more vigor and great fierceness just like the snow empire forces were like earlier but without the lifelessness in their eyes that they had.


    As a result of their fierceness, which surprised the enemy forces and caused a moment of hesitation in their attack, which resulted in their is a hole in their formation, thereby giving sir Eric units and a few other unit to break out of the encirclement, another important factor which aided in their escape of the enemy was that most of the troops were deployed to hold down and kill the transcending mortality experts. But the sky empire had a reserve of three more experts at that level, which helped stabilize the fights at that level as because of the snow empire training style their experts were always, a few levels lower than experts of other empires, experts like eternal wave king was an exception.This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    So as soon they came although the snow empire forces still had an advantage in the ongoing battle, the addition of these experts made it hard for them to kill them. All of this added together with the fierceness of the soldiers gave sir Eric forces a chance to escape. As soon as they did so they entered into one of the mountains in the mountain range near the castle.


    Sir Eric looked around, as soon as they got to the mountain although he was not that familiar with this region, he had adventured in this region in his youth. which made him have little knowledge of the area, but sir Eric calm mind should also be praised as the direction which he chose to escape was perfect, this mountain had a very thick forest with many caves and very few walkable paths,


    There was also a lot of fog around here which made the visibility of the area very low. So once a group of people hid here it would be very hard to find them. "men although, we have escaped from the battlefield, this is the beginning of our troubles as most of our forces had been routed and we are right in the middle of enemy territory, so everyone start removing your armor and other paraphilias which would identify you as a soldier of the sky empire"


    "Yes sir" the soldiers answered with lowered voices, the adrenaline which helped them to escape had worn off and now the severity of the situation has dawned on them. so they were trying to find a pillar to support them and Sir Eric''s orders provided with that and they were thereby happy to follow his orders, as it gave them a sense of direction and he was also their commanding officer.


    Soon, the men were all divested of their armor and were soon in ordinary clothes, although the aura they projected was not of peaceful loving farmer that of those that have been through the grinder that is the battlefield, as sir Eric looked at them he couldn''t help but shake his head but there was nothing that he could do as things happened too fast.


    Although what they did could be considered as a form of deserting, they were already being routed and Sir Eric didn''t want James to be a slave. Anyway even though the war has not ended but he believed that the sky empire was over and done for. So he had no other choice as staying there will condemn him and his entire bloodline to slavery.

 STRANGE MOUNTAIN

    That night, the mountain was silent and poignant with agitation as the soldier''s nerves were tested with the long wait and none of them could sleep, as the night seemed as if it would never end. The most nerve-racking thing was that they were just a few kilometers from the battlefield and since they were able to hear, how it went and from the sound, it could be imagined that a massacre had occurred. As by the sound soon after they left the army was defeated and stragglers were being hunted down by members of the snow empire army.


    This was what was happening when, dawn arrived the next morning signifying, that it was a whole new day a few minutes later the sun rose. This was both good news and bad news for Sir Eric and his unit as light would give them more hiding options as trying to hide from pursuers while in an unknown place was very dangerous while also moving during the day would make it hard for them to hide their track.


    A look of worry could be seen on Sir Eric''s face, while he contemplated their options. They were now within enemy territory and going back to the territory of the sky empire was going to be hard, as they were at war and all path between both empires had been closed and carefully guarded especially rainbow fort and the surrounding rainbow mountain that had just been conquered were locked down and tightly guarded as their control over it was not stable and they needed to guard against the stragglers who would use a moment of inattentiveness to deal a very big damage to them.


    "Sir, the men are up, and list of our troops have been made we have seven xiantian experts and thirty houtian experts and they are ready waiting for your orders "Mr. Bernard said to sir Eric as he saluted to him, sir Eric second in command as well as assistant Richard died by a stray arrow, during the battle so Mr. Bernard was filling in for him good.


    "Good, how was the scouting team, what have they found out about this hill and any way to reenter, the sky empire." Sir Eric asked with a bit of anticipation in his voice.


    "No sir, they couldn''t find any way to reenter the sky empire and security is tight. Also, it had been found that the mountain contains seven tier three demonic beast and tens of tier two demonic beast. So they are trying to map out a path to go around it, but it''s likely to leads to the snow empire." Mr. Bernard answered Sir Eric while trying to keep his voice neutral but it was very hard for him.The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    This was because the ranking of demonic beast in the divine beat world was divided into tier one to seven corresponding to the seven major cultivation realms, so a tier three demonic beast was said to be equal to a transcending mortality experts but that wasn''t exactly, the case as they were usually more powerful than a cultivator of the same level but they were usually stronger than cultivator at their level. So it was a terror for Bernard when he heard that there was up to seven tier three demonic beast here.


    "what, there are tier three demonic beasts here and seven of them at that, in such a small mountain as this how is that possible, I can''t believe such a small hill can produce enough resource to support seven tier three demonic beast and tens of tier two demonic beast." Sir Eric was shocked this was more bad news for them they were now stuck between a rock and a hard place, and their chances of survival had been drastically lowered again.


    James was by Sir Eric''s, side, when this news was brought as Sir Eric, has not allowed him to leave his sight since they broke out of the enemy encirclement. As he was worried that something would go wrong in this environment and he wouldn''t be near to protect him.


    So when he heard this he knew that he had to say something as he had not only invented the nihility drug while he was in the rainbow fort he had perfected it, in a way that it could interfere with a transcending mortality experts connection with the world.


    which made it able to reduce the battle prowess of transcending mortality experts who has not comprehended profound mysteries, since he did not have much information of profound mysteries and how it works, and he also invented and studied some other drugs which have advanced his herbal and alchemical knowledge of this world as he had gotten a lot of resources and information related to alchemy in rainbow fort as a tier two scholar.


    "Father, I believe I can provide a way to get us out of here, I had not just been cultivating while in the rainbow fort. I was also practicing my alchemy skill and I have perfected it, although it is now made using tier one herbs and thereby required more resources in its production it can affect transcending mortality experts and I have some other drug which can also help us" James said disappointed


    although James said this with a hint of disappointment in his voice those that were around him like Sir Eric and Mr. Bernard were bamboozled to hear what James said as for them to hear that a pill made using tier one herbs could affect transcending mortality experts. If they had heard someone else say that they could do it they would have laughed at that person''s face but coming from James they believed him because of the talent he had shown in making the nihility drug, that imperial alchemist couldn''t reproduce completely even with a lot of training from the inventor of the recipe.

 SEVEN OVERLORDS

    As sir Eric heard all this a solemn and dignified look appeared on his face as he asked " well done, did you manage to find out, which kind of demonic beast the seven overlords are" this was one of the most important factor one has to know when fighting, as demonic beast do not practice techniques.


    Most have innate ability pertaining to their bloodline, so once you know which kind of demonic beast they are you could find out their abilities, which would make the fight easier.


    but this did not mean that demonic beast beasts should be underestimated because of the monotonous nature of their ability, the truth was that their innate abilities were powered by their bloodline, so the more pure the bloodline the more formidable the abilities would be. And also some creature had queer power and mind control powers like the three-eyed fox which are not really guarded against"


    "Yes sir we have the types of demonic beast, there are the three lower king''s which guard the foot of the mountain they are the swamp crocodile, the stripped python and the earth bull kings. Then we have the medium kings who guard the middle of the mountain they are the golden toad and two snow foxes, kings. Then we have the summit where the summit king, the fiery-eyed ape who is believed to have a hint of a high tier demonic bloodline lives" slit-eyed jack said showing why he is believed to be one of the best scouts in the army.


    "so you guys have found a path to the foot of the mountain" a hint of joy could be heard on sir Eric''s voice, this was very good use since after this report the chances of their going over the mountain was pretty low, so even though the snow empire was on the other side, it was still better as they would not kill and eat them since they were fellow human beings.


    "no sir, the xiantian level beast have never heard of anybody breaking out of the bewildering fog, to reach the foot of the mountain, as anyone that tries ends up back to where the fog begins and if anyone would know anything about how to get out of here it would be the seven overlords" slit-eyed jack said looking solemn as he knew the implications of the words he just said.


    "So you are saying we are currently in a void realm, what kind of power would build a void realm as large as this, you have seen how vast this mountain is how can such a void realm not been discovered. Even though it is on the border and there are few exceptional here. But when the war began a lot of high-level cultivators has combed around the zone, how could it not have been found "Sir Eric said with a look of extreme shock on his face.Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.


    This was not a small matter as void realm is where powerful cultivators of at least heaven realm build their immortal caves or leave their inheritance as it would preserve the inheritance for ten if not hundreds of thousands of years, although earth realm and below could also leave inheritances, but they couldn''t build void realms as for one to build a void realm a lot of precious material is needed so mostly powerful heaven realm cultivators would build void realms.


    Even so sir Eric, Mr. Bernard and the scouting team were breathless, when they heard this as they were experienced men, so a void realm of this size would mean that the person who left it was vastly more powerful than a heaven realm cultivator as although they have not been to the inheritance have been found but they had heard that it was a thousand kilometers or so, but this inheritance as far as they could see was as large as an entire mountain. As far as they could this see this might not even be where the main inheritance was just the entrance.


    "This is not the most important part of our situation, as this void realm inheritance is not something we can easily obtain. What is of more immediate concern to us now is the seven-tier three demonic, which as you all know is comparable to a transcending mortality expert while we don''t have any experts of that level?"


    "There is also the case of the fiery-eyed ape with it high tier bloodline which made it comparable to a half-step earth realm cultivator and the subordinates of the seven overlords which number in the hundreds, our chances of surviving this is dismal. Sir, we are both disadvantaged in both number and quality of experts" Sir Bernard said with a somber and dismal expression on his face.


    As this was heard, the xiantian level experts who were called into the meeting to decide their path moving forward couldn''t help but suck in cold breaths and a sense of defeatism couldn''t help but spring up in them. The reason that Sir Eric and Mr. Bernard did not hide this from them was because they were not his men before they came here so he did not have enough reputation to give them an order and they would not obey his orders to the letter.


    So he decided that it was better to tell them, so that the camp would know about the dangers of this mountain and so help to stop dissent from fomenting in the face of a common enemy, as it looked that their forces were the weakest in this mountain range and their cohesiveness needed to be rock solid if they had a chance of getting to the central inheritance from where they could get out of here, since it is widely known that that is where the exit was in void realm inheritances.

 VOID REALM

    "Son, do you really think it will have much effect on these tier three demonic beast," Sir Eric said with a twinkle in his eyes as James drug would help them solve the problem they were currently having.


    "yes, father I believe that it will have an effect on tier three demonic beast, although most of the cultivation of the demonic best tribe is of the fleshy body the major difference between transcending mortality experts and lower level cultivator were that they were one with the world, which helps them absorb energy constantly."


    "Thereby making sure that they are usually full of energy, but my drug will break their connection with the world although it won''t affect them as much as a human cultivator. But I estimate that it will reduce their power by three/fourth of their power along with some of my other drugs I think we can reduce its power by half." James said with a serious look on his face as he made calculations since there was much they didn''t know about the tier three demonic beasts. But the drug will put the tier one and two beasts out of the fight.


    "Well done son, we will wait until the scouts complete their investigations, since this mountain is too mysterious for it to be so close to the border and no one has killed all this demonic beast for resources is puzzling. Also for so many powerful demonic beasts to be concentrated in this small place, it really is not simple."


    Sir Eric was deeply puzzled as even if people weren''t after the demonic beast here for resource, to leave such powerful non-affiliated forces in the vicinity of a battlefield doesn''t seem like what any good general would do. But for this demonic beast to be here and forces on both sides not attacking them meant something mysterious was going on since sir Eric was a pretty high level in the chain of command, but he also didn''t hear anything about these demonic beasts.


    They were too powerful a force to be simply ignored and also not too powerful to be attacked considering the wealth a high-level demonic beast body would bring, so sir Eric felt that something fishy was going on but he couldn''t put his hands on it.


    "Father, there is another important thing you should note. You should have noticed that ever since the sun rose this morning, we have not heard sounds from the battlefield." James said with a puzzled look on his face, him and the soldiers with him not hearing the sound of tens of thousands of soldiers was deafening and frightening in its own way.


    When Sir Eric and Mr. Bernard heard this it finally dawned on them, what was happening, they should have figured this out sooner, if not for the fatigue and tension from the battle and escape which reduced their alertness, but once James pointed it out to them, the silence from the battlefield was puzzling and a bit frightening.This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    As it was highly impossible to make such a high number of troops quiet in such. A small period of time as the logistics needed for the number of troops on the battlefield was staggering, so even though the fighting had ended but for a large number of troops to make no sound at all, especially after their victory their morale would have been so high and they should be celebrating and also the sounds of the horses and demonic beast ridden by them should be very loud.


    "yes son, you are right I can''t hear the enemy troop and that is highly puzzling, also why is this fog still so viscous the sun is up but there is no reduction of the fog we are not even that high up the mountain"


    "Yes sir, the fog is one of the problems that we are currently facing as it is restricting our visibility and obstructing the scouting team investigations, it is even preventing the search team from going down the mountain, and hence we couldn''t find out what is going on with the enemy troops". Mr. Bernard said with a worried look on his face.


    "Where are we really, mysterious fogs and powerful creatures. The spiritual energy here also has a special quality to it "James muttered to himself. The spiritual energy in their surrounding although it was not higher than the outside it had a special quality to it, the only way James could tell the difference was because he had felt fourth-dimensional energy before, it was as if the laws of the world was contained In it.


    Although it didn''t directly increase cultivation, James believed that it would be of immense help in the future cultivation of everyone here, as when the spiritual energy entered their bodies state of existence was elevated.


    As he was thinking about this, the men who were sent to scout around arrived and bowed to Sir Eric, then a slit-eyed slender man, he had a look In his eyes which made him look like, he would rob and kill you without blinking his eyes but he was one of the most honest and trustworthy people in the army and was loved by all calling him old slit-eyed jack good-naturedly.


    he was one of the best scouts in the army, although he was not in Sir Eric''s unit when they were escaping the battlefield he got mixed in. so, sir, Eric appointed him as the head of his scouts, when he came forward he saluted sir Eric.


    "Sir we have scouted the area, although it was only a few kilometer''s uphills, we captured a tier two demonic beast it was through it that we found out about the seven overlords. Who are the seven-tier three demonic beast residing in this mountain, they each have at least a dozen tier two demonic beast and hundreds of tier one as subordinates, it is even suspected that the most powerful demonic beast has another tier three demonic beast as a subordinate." slit-eyed jack gave a report while trying to keep, it to the point and concise.

 FORMING SQUADS

    "sir have the scouts come back and disclosed the reason why we have not been attacked because as far as I knew most demonic beast a very territorial", Michel a middle stage xiantian experts who is known for his brashness in the army skeptically asked sir Eric, as he said this the experts around nodded their head in agreement. As this was what is widely known of the demonic beast is that they are very territorial.


    "That we don''t know we are still trying to properly scout the area a lot of things is unknown to us, and we have to slowly find out because I think this is the first time such a large void realm has been found, " Mr. Bernard said with a sense of resignation in his voice.


    "Now we are going to divide everyone into six units of five Houtians and one xiantian as their captain with Sir Eric as the general head any objections," Mr. Bernard said as an organization without a head was most likely doomed for failure as there would be anarchy. So Mr. Bernard put forth Sir Eric as he was the most likely candidate for the job as he was the highest commanding officer in the army and the most powerful as he was a half-step transcending mortality expert.


    "we will try to forage and hunt for some food and how to get out of here, when the scout is through with their scouting so I think we have covered everything" Mr. Bernard continued without waiting for their contribution, this was a decision in which they had to be domineering in, as if they were wishy-washy about it, their momentum would be weakened thereby undermine whatever they had done, if there was no named leader wielding the authority in such a dangerous situation there would be chaos and they would all likely die.


    After a few seconds in which no one said anything in dissent, the meeting devolved into the intricacies of the squad which were formed and the responsibility which each team had. Although it was just prefunctionary the preparations that they made gave them a sense of hope in this dangerous situation that they were all in.


    After a few hours, the preparations had already been made, and the squads had already been divided and setup, the decisions could only be made this easily because they were from the military and from the same army and the danger of the situation. Which helped them to move back to military order when faced with an unfamiliar and dangerous situation like this.


    But none of these was of any importance to James, as he was deeply fascinated with, the concept of void realm as this had touched upon the concept of creation, especially a void realm of this size, which is what could allow the creatures here to cultivate to the transcending mortality level.You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.


    As james found out during, his research at the city and in commander garret library, which he gave james rights although it didn''t increase his own personal power, but it did help him to broaden, his knowledge about this world and its various power and it was through that, He understood why this world could be so advanced, in some aspect`s and at the same time be so medieval in some other aspects.


    But this all boiled down to one thing, which was resources, firstly the imperial family and the major clans monopolize 90 percent of the resources, while the other 15 percent where held by minor clans, leaving only a 5 percent for rogue cultivators and commoners.


    The only way this status quo could be kept was through the restriction of the latest equipments, powerful cultivation techniques and heaven resources which would help them breakthrough realm like the cultivation technique, the art of refining which couldn''t get you to the transcending mortality realm and there was a high chance of dying when practicing.


    Although one of the major reasons for this was because, the art of refining was a martial art technique which was not a popular path, but most energy cultivation that are open to the general public also has this kind of problem, which made it hard for those with average talents to cultivate to a high realm if you are not in a main branch of a major clan.


    This was also why james was very surprised by this void realm, because most void realm were much smaller than this was and according to the records the realms were very unstable and cultivating in them was impossible but this realm was very stable and even showed sign of surpassing the main world and, by cultivating in this realm one`s cultivation speed, would be very fast and, it would also their state of existence would increase which would thereby increase their level of talent.


    So james immersed himself in his research, he had so many thing on his plate like his nihilty drug research, his void realm research and his research on demonic beast, that he couldn''t cultivate. but he had already started to stop his cultivation, as he started reading through the libraries of viscount garret.


    Although he didn''t through the advanced cultivation techniques, he read through some entry level cultivation techniques, and although they were mostly energy cultivation techniques, he found some major flaws in the art of refining, which meant that even with his pure fourth dimensional energy, he still wouldn''t be able to solve the hidden danger of the art of refining.


    So he decided that he would try to find more techniques, to reference and use it to refine and perfect his art of refining, but had even reach 1 percent of completions, which was because of the lack of a foundation to build on as he had not gotten any really advanced techniques and without it all he derive were techniques which were even much worse than the art of refining. Which was why he could devote most of his time to his experiments since sir eric didn''t assign him to any squads.James was just assigned as the resident alchemist, As this was going on james, sir eric and the troops didn''t understand the danger they were in.

 SAINT EMPEROR

    It had just been two weeks since James and the ragtag troops, had been lost in this void realm, and they had gradually gotten assimilated and scouted out the environment of the void realm. under sir eric directions seventy percent of the demon beast, except some very special demonic beast which is very sensitive and secretive and of course the rank three demonic beasts or the overlords.


    Which was why they felt confident about, their survival, and although they couldn¡¯t enter some region and also couldn¡¯t leave which created a somewhat dreary air around, but they were trained soldiers and although they were a ragtag group their military training held them together.


    It was during this that a stele appeared, and with its appearance was lighting and thunder, which raged on for three days and a force-field stopped the scouts from getting close to the stele and investigating, after the third day the thunder and lightning and also the force-field which was stopping people from getting near the stele abated.


    ¡°what do you think that could be Bernard,¡± Sir Eric said with a somber expression on his face lines of worry could be seen on his face.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know sir, but we would soon find out as soon as the scout we sent to investigate return¡± Mr bernards face was filled with worry too, the room where they were in, was filled with the squad leaders and their advisors with looks of worry on their face.


    As James heard this a deep look could be seen on his face, Although there has not been, any occurrence¡¯s since they came here, they had always been anxious since this was such a high-level void realm, it should still be a very dangerous void realm, even if it had been around for a long time, as even normal void realms could be dangerous to even transcending mortality experts, so James was deeply worried since he just got a new lease on life and he didn¡¯t want to die again.


    ¡°sir eric, commanders the scouts are back¡± the attendant announced from the door.


    ¡°send him in immediately¡± sir eric exclaimed a hint of impatience and excitement even dread could be heard in his voice, the same emotions could be felt from the commander¡¯s and also James, as this development could provide them the clue to get out of this void.


    Soon a young thin individual with black wavy hair tied in a ponytail entered the command tent, as he stood there he exuded an aura of nothingness as if he would disappear if you looked away from him, even for a minute.This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    James couldn¡¯t help but click his tongue, as he was astounded by what the people of this world could do with their techniques, as this technique of this young man could be said to be one of the unique techniques with mystical effects.


    As James saw this technique he could infer, who this young man was as he was very well known in the army, Adonis was an up and coming star in the reconnisance department. It was said that he had once entered base camp filled with three transcending mortality expert and escaped without being noticed and it was said he will soon be transferred to the regional headquarters.


    As James heard this, he didn¡¯t believe it at first as he had been around transcending experts recently and he was far more knowledgeable than he was when he first came to this world, so he knew what it meant to enter a camp with transcending mortality experts and come out un-noticed.


    The transcending mortality realm could be said to be a transformative realm for a martial artist, as according to what he read in sir garret¡¯s library the cultivator''s body, soul and energy will evolve and enter a new level of life, so James couldn¡¯t help but be impressed.


    As James was thinking about all these things, the young man adonis came in and bowed with an elegance that was more becoming of a scholar and said with poise.


    ¡°Greeting sir eric and also greetings to you too squad commanders, I have come with the report on the investigation on the stele sir¡¯s they are on this memory crystal¡± Adonis said while managing to look both surprised and beautifully elegant at the same time, while passing the memory crystal to the attendant who passed it to the commanders.


    He waited for a few minutes for the squad commanders to digest, the information contained in the memory crystal before he continued.


    ¡°As soon as the lightning strikes and the repulsion stopped, we immediately went to the site of the stele where we found out that there was writing on the style written in the ancient mara language¡± Adonis then breathed in as if the next part of the statement he was about to make still shook him.


    ¡° Although we have not completely translated the stele, but through the part, we have translated, we have gotten this void realm belonged to a saint emperor powerhouse, and this was a void realm he built so as to repay his karma with this planet as a result of him comprehending his emperor dao here.¡±


    ¡° what a saint emperor, what kind of realm is that, also whats a planet ¡± whispers could be heard all over the command center, as a host of new information was opened to the squad commanders in the tent and although they had read through the memory crystal , but hearing it from someone made them very excited and a faint trembling and gasping was heard all over the command tent