Rex looked at the remaining seven women, and they were all peak A class. He did praise the Lunar sect a bit since they had a decent power level, for being a women only sect. Any woman who married, or engaged in a relationship ussually left the sect and joined whatever power was behind their partner, since no man was allowed to join the Lunar sect. He then looked at Linjin wit ha neutral expresion on his face and spoke
"Should we speak here, or are we going to a more secure place?"
"There are plenty of protection and defensive arrays around this hall. No leak is possible." the sect master responded. Both she and her two elders were tense. They could not sense it beforehand, but now in the presence of the man they all had the same question in their minds 'Why cant I feel his aura?'
"As you wish. It has come to my attention, that Lunar sect is opposed to the war currently happening with the Land of the nice divines. And I believe that you must have at least heard about the extermination of the White lotus sect?" His words made Linjin and the two leder ladies frown.
"Is it not just a rumor?" one of the elders asked. They had heard some rumors, but there were no concrete confirmation, and they had just recently sent a few of their high ranking members to check on the validity of the rumors.
"It is most certainly true. And very soon the Tyrant dragon sect will cease to exist too." his words caused a few of the women at the table to gasp, and caused a scowl to appear on the tree powerhouse faces.
"What is the source of your information, and how would they be destroyed, and what do you know about the demise of the White Lotus sect?" asked Linjin. She had a somewhat bad premonition about the possible answer she might recieve, and it turned out she was correct.
"The demise of both sects, while innitially for somewhat different reasons, in the end will be traced to a single cause." Rex responded calmly "Just like White Lotus, the Tyrant dragon will be anihilated by a mercenary going by the name of Neo." his words caused the two elders to abruptly get up from their seats and half draw their jian swords.
"Relax, if I wanted you dead, there is nothing you can do to prevent it, so sit down and maintain civility. I am here to reduce the amount of blood I have to shed. Too much bother." Rex spoke in the same calm manner, and there was no change in his facial expression. With a somewhat strained expression, Linjin Yun asked Rex
"And what is the purpose of your presence here, and why disclose it to us? Did you not asume the posibility of hostilities after such a declaration?"
"Its rather simple. I have been hired to end the ongoing war. And the destruction of a few of the main warmongering sects should to the trick. However I find it bothersome to have to end most of them, so my reasoning is quite simple. Your sect is quite opposed to the war and hold a decent reputation within your grand council. So, once I exterminate the Tyrant dragon sect, all you have to do is point to the destruction of the two sects and emphasize the reason for their demise, and hopefully with that the war ends. If not, I will simply take out another sect, then another, then another untill the war comes to an end."
The ten women around the table were flabergasted. The sheer balls and confidence the man had to announce such an action was beyond belief, and neither his voice nor facial expressions betrayed any emotions, making it harder to read the man. The two old crones spoke silently to their sect master as they whispered in her ear, communicating and planning their next actions. Then as if remembering something he spoke once again
"Sorry, slipped my mind." a small akwardness apeard on his face "As for the reason I am telling you this. You values and phylosophy as well as standarts are high enough for me to not have the desire to purge this place, and I need someone to inform your council."
"Even if it is true that your group, where ever they are, is responsible for the end of the White Lotus sect, there is a stark difference in the power of both groups, as well as the Tyrand Dragon sect. What makes you think we would allow you to return to your group to get on with your plans?" asked the sect master. They had to gauge the man in front of them to determine their next action.
"This is why I like women in negotiations." Rex spoke as a slight smile appeared on his face "Most men would probably be be lunging at me to restore their honor or something. You however are vigilant and cunning enough to try and attain as much information as possible to maximize your options. However, you got something seriously wrong. There is NO group, just me." and with that a very powerfull mana wave passed through the building.
"Do you not wonder, why cant you sense my presence? Or is the thought of that reason so alien that you have denied the posibility?" Rex then sat in silence, waited and enjoyed as the expressions on the women faces changed from shock, to bevilderment to eventually fear as the realization that they were dealing with SSS class started to consolidate in their minds.
The higher the class the bigger the difference between each of the stages or classes alltogether, adn since the strongest of them were mid Ss class entities, it was realonable they could percieve high and peak SS class, possibly even someone in the innitial SSS class. There however was the probles, once someone is classified as SSS there is no longer a clasification scale further, so two different SSS class people could be anywhere from entirely equal in their combat power to a point where they could not even be considered to be on the same class.
The two elders sheated their half drawn jiang swords as they realised that this was not a matter to be solved by swords, if they wanted to remain alive, and in a tacit understanding among each other they sat down at the same time. Then Linjin spoke again after a moment to compose her thoughts.
"So it would be our task to inform the coucil and innitiate the end of the war once Tyrant dragon sect is no more? Is that all?"
"Well, I suppose the name of the sects that are against such decision could also help, if the result is still not peace. It is better to slaughter the warmongers after all. " Rex replied with a light smile, that caused goosebumps on the skin of the ten women. The man in front of them spoke as if he was talking about small and annoying chore, not the end of a large sect.
"Any other glaring questions you are dying to ask, and can I count on your efforts to end the war as soon as possible?" he asked as he felt that he probably would not get much out of the distressed ladies right now. 'Maybee after Tyrant dragon sect if finished' Rex though.
"We will do our best to minimize the lifes lost in this meaningless conflict, so if you could delay the attack on the Tyrant Dragon sect, we might be able to...."
"Nonesense. We both know that would be a waste of time. No one would listen unless they clearly knew their ass was on the line, and I am going to give them exactly that- a clear sign."
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Linjin sighed. She had tried to reduce the casualities to a minimum by opposing the war at the very beggining, and when that failed she used her sect people to save as many lives as she could, and she would do so again. Life was never just black and white, and she had always worked hard to avoid having to make decisions in the wrong shades, but the fate would just not allow her to. She cupped her hands as she stood up and lightly bowed to the man
"Understood. We will do our utmost to reduce the unnecesarry bloodshed."
"Do you have anyone near the Tyrant dragon sect right now you can contact, in case you want someone to witness the demise of theirs to better paint the futility of te econtinuation of the war?"
"No, that will not be necessary. The destruction of the sect alone would suffice, and I dont want any of the young ones to have to witness the savagery that would take place there."
"Any ather questions?" Rex then asked, seeing the lull in the conversation
"If we may, what did the kitsunes offer that could entice one such as you to act?" It was clear to Linjin that the contractor of his were the kitsunes since they were the ones cultivators were at war with.
"Their pride." His words caused another gasp to be heard. This time it was a collective gasp from the two elders. They were old and experienced enough to understand what his words meant. kitsunes had bit their pride and offered some of their noble princeses to the man- an act they would do only in the most pressing of maters, since it was quite big blow to their pride, and the tow also knew just how ethereally beautifull their best women could be. Any hope of outbidding the man was impossible, so they quickly whispered in the ear of their sect leader.
"I see." A slight aphrehension could be seen on her face "Thank you for at least trying to limit the lives lost in this conflict." she then spoke while cupping her hands and slightly bowing. She still had to maintain her dignity as a sect leader after all, and it did not seem as if her actions had offended the man.
"I will be on my way then" Rex spoke "I have much to do after all. Road to travel, sect to end. Have a nice day." he finished, got up from the seat he had taken, and left the building. Outside there were the few disciple girls waiting for him who had delivered the message innitially.
"You did a good job. Thank you." Rex thanked the girl. He noticed she was your average sect disciple, nothing special at all about her. And as he was pondering how should he reward her, the sect leader and the two elders came out of the building, the other seven ladies soon folowing.
Rex pulled out a few killso of meatfrom his ring, and helf it in the air with his mana controll, then pointed at the girl.
"I like well manered and obedient girls. Use this, make a proper meal, and enjoy it together with her and the few girls who were working the gate today. They are smart and well behaved, and that should be rewarded."
One of the grandmas raised an eyebrow, then almost started salivating at the sight of the meat. That was earth grade. She hurriedly took the meat, bowed and spoke respectfully
"It will be done." Rex nodded and then dissapeared. Only the three SS class women barely registered the speed at which he moved, eliciting goosebumps over their skin.'If he decided to attack their sect, they were all as good as dead' is what the trio though, then sighed in relief that the man was reasonable, seeing the contract he had taken. Then the garnd elder who took the meat quickly started to make preparations for their special meal. There was enough meat to share among the two grand elders, sect leader adn teh few girls working guard duty. The idea did not even cross her head to not do as the man had told, and not share it with the disciples it was intended for, she liked being alive after all.
Rex was moving with inhuman speeds towards his next destination- the Tyrant Dragon sect, where the second part of his plan would take place. It took him a few more days to stumble upon a rather lucky encounter, that would speed up his future travels by a lot. He was crossing some sort of a forbidden zone- a large territory that was teaming with all sorts of monsters and mutated beasts. It was a very large mountainous zone, adn as he was crossign one of the mountains he encountered a rather interesting sight.
He saw a fight between a mutated grand eagle and a group of some sort of snakes. The eagle had a few wounds on its body, and it was clear that it was slowly loosing ground. Not far from the combat area there was a ransacked nest with destroyed eggs. Rex could see the place up on the cliff where the nest had stood before. Deciding to speed up his travel, he quickly used his full arsenal of abilities to dispose of the snakes and at the same time branded the eagle, who, upon the death of snakes slumped on the ground. It was exasuted and was fighting purely fuelled by rage and adrenaline, and once hsi archnemesis and target of his revenge was no more, the rush was over and it fell to the ground, not even trying to resist the branding.
Rex used the recently killed snakes to heal up the eagle and disperse the numbing poison coarsing its veins, then ordered it to eat as he gave it a few dozen killos of earth garde meat. The grannies would probably vomit blood if they saw his actions. He had just casually given the creature multiple times more meat than he gifted them, and he did not even flinch doing so. Few dozen minutes later, once the eagle finished its feast, it departed from the mountains, since it had nothing left there. On its back stood its master, and they were flying with great speed towards the Tyrant dragon sect.
And even if the eagle was only S class, it was a being not only capable of flight, but one that specialized in it. One had to point out that humans and any other humanoid creature were inherently weaker than monsters and mutated beasts, since their bodies were heavily adapted for their specializations, and mana natturally strenghtened their bodies. It was the reason why earth grade and higher was so insanely beneficial to consume. Sadly the mana density outside the dungeons was not rich enough in the air to allow creatures here to be nourished with maan enough to not only attain their power class but also enhance their meat to the required mana saturation, so only deep floor raids could yield earth and heaven grade meat and other ingridients.
The eagle was a flying beast, adn so it could fly for long distances at a speed Rex could not achieve reliably, since on earth he would be affected by the terrain of the lands he is traversing and other annoying distractions. Flight on the contrary held no such drawbacks, and the only real drawback of being seen was also not an issue since he was powerfull enought to not have to worry about the possible ambushed and other annoyances.
So in another few days of travel Rex reached his destination. A grim looking mountain, covered in some sickly looking trees by the standarts of earth. From what he had learned, those were called iron leaf trees, since they gave off metalic sheen from the leaves, and looked as if they were all made of some sort of metals. The trees in question absorbed metal and that is what gave them their unique appearances, and their leaves were often harvested to extract the metal within. Then some time later, once the harvested leaves had been replenished, it is done once again. The trees also dont need much in the way of maintanence, so they are quite good culture to be grown.
Further up the mountain Rex saw multiple houses. No doubt the tree keepers lived there. Then further up a small villages could be noticed, since in more places than one streams of smoke could be seen rising into the sky- a clear sign of humanoid activity, with a very few exeptions. Closer to the peak, the place where Rex was currently cloning in to, was a sort of a walled large settlement- the Tyrant Dragon sect, and not too far, on the other side and at the foot of the mountain there was a city where the disciples and servants of the sect went to resupply, and have fun.
The eagle kept circling around the sect high in the air. Rex was thinking of the best way to deal with this sect. It was not too much different from the Lunar sect. It had two more SS class and some six more S class entities in the sect either taking part in the daily life of the place or training some sort of medititive art in their own private quarters. Rex reasoned that those guys must be performing the old practices of secluded cultivation, that was so prelevant in the xianxia novels he had read in the past on earth. Guess that fanatic that introduced them to this way of live was not all too bright or he found something that could be a valid reason to practise in such a way. With the few minutes he had dedicated his mind to the cultivation practises and the rest of their culture, his brain came up with the logical conclusion, that the effect and efficiency of such exercises did little to nothing to trully strenghten and develop ones personal power.