Four days passed in the blink of an eye, Yesterday the news was out in the open, and the base was covered in a heavy atmosphere. The army of the Grand Lake Empire could arrive at their doorstep at any time.

Some might argue what was the need for the war, why can't just top leaders fight it out among themselves, and what was the need to involve lower realm cultivators.

The problem was that no one saint in this world, the above reasoning was rational but humans were not. The other reason was that the commander of the base was a stage 4 cultivator, and his opponent was bound to be in the same realm, the power of a stage 4 cultivator was not something that this place could withstand.

But there was one more thing stopping the guys at the top. According to the agreement of peace signed between the two empires in 2090, there could be no conflict involving the stage 4 cultivator.

This was done to avoid unnecessary escalation of conflicts between the two empires.

The war was going to happen between the cultivators in the mortal realm, the cultivators at stages 1 to 3 were called mortal realm cultivators.

Dawn was minding his own business, training at the gym regularly, trying to break through, as expected he wasn't making any progress. it was impossible to cultivate faster on your own without being supplemented by extraordinary treasure.

Cultivation gave the power to overturn the earth and move mountains and seas, if it was easy earth would have long been overturned.

On the final day, every combatant was ordered to assemble in front of the main gate of the camp. Ten captains were standing in rows behind the members of their unit in a neat line, a group of 50 people at the body refining realm.

Dawn looked around him only to see body-refining cultivators all around him, Dawn couldn't find any cultivator in the channel construction realm, he found this situation quite strange.

While Dawn was gawking around like a monkey in a zoo, Commander Dennis appeared in front of them, Dennis scanned the people with a piercing look in his eyes, and his aur changed from an easygoing man to a valiant general, he spoke in a voice filled with dignity and unquestionable authority of a stage 4 cultivator " cadets of the northern base camp you have been given the opportunity to fight for the nation and fight for the glory of the empire, leaving your name in the history books for all eternity".

Dennis's voice was enough to ignite the fire of passion and feeling of nationalism in the hearts of young hot-blooded cadets. The speech of Commander Dennis continued for 10 more min In those 10 minutes Dawn understood what a leader truly was, he was astonished by the oratory skills of Commander Dennis.

Commander Dennis was able to manipulate these young girls and boys into forgetting what was truly important, their lives Nothing was more important than that and will never be, Dawn was clear about this.

Dawn didn't care about the river empire or honour, he wasn't living in the day and age where other people wouldn't accept him in fact they would welcome him with open arms if he decided to reveal his talent.

While Dawn was thinking about all sorts of things speech of Commander Dennis continued and towards the end he added some benefits like now they would able to take any of the techniques from the treasury hall of the base and the top 3 would be awarded with special privileges and benefits, finishing his speech the commander roared" glory to the empire".

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The crowd roared back with an even louder voice,"Glory to the empire".

You might wonder how the top 3 people were going to be decided, by the kill count obviously.

The group of more than 50 people marched steadily, from what he could tell they were going to fight like barbarians, Dawn couldn't believe all this sci-fi tech and they still had to fight like brutes.

Dawn sighed and looked toward his teammates, they didn't seem to be affected by the earlier speech, dawn was relieved at least he didn't have to deal with fanatic teammates.

Dawn looked toward Captain Nios who appeared calm, Dawn was most worried about him, after all, he was from the royal family, Dawn hoped he wouldn't make the situation difficult for him.

He asked Ellora if she knew why there wasn't any cultivator at the channel construction realm present among them, Ellora only smiled toward Dawn and didn't say anything which left Dawn confused," dammn why is she acting all mysterious, can't she just tell me the truth that I will find out eventually", Dawn thought with frustration.

Dawn looked toward the sky, which was sun shining like always fulfilling its never-ending duty, the weather was good compared to his previous outing, he didn't feel cold today, although the temperature was still below zero, the sun rays reflecting off the snow created a mesmerising scene.

This was highly contrasting considering the mood of the people. Dawn was able to able to deduce where they were going to fight from the direction they were travelling, their battle was going to happen between the mountains, Dawn guessed.

Dawn stopped thinking and prepared himself for the upcoming event. In half an hour, Dawn was staring at the people of the GrandLake empire wearing green armour which was similar to him to protect themselves from the cold, the people on the GrandLake side numbered in hundreds led by the person in a green long coat with a thick beard and bald head with one eye missing, his name was Duma was the the same stage as captain Nios.

Dawn realised they weren't in a good situation, he looked around him, and seeing the ugly expression on his teammate's face, he realised he wasn't the only one who thought about it, they were in deep shit after all they were outnumbered, only some miracle could help them.

The captains took the lead in calming down the situation, captain Nios spoke with a booming voice "Everyone calms down, don't worry we can still win this war after all we just have to fight one more guy"

Captain Nios downplayed the entire situation, the troops of the GrandLake empire started hurtling insults towards dawn groups to provoke them, "pussies of River empire" " Go back to your mother and come back after drinking more milk" all sorts of insults were thrown toward them.

While looking at this scene, Dawn frowned, he thought they were trying to bring down morale and gain the upper hand. At last the situation when someone came forward, Nemo shouted "How dare you talk to your father like this, come here and let us discipline you".

Hearing Nemo's voice everyone laughed out loud from the northern base camp, regaining their lost face in the process.

Duma watched a young boy from the River Empire destroying his plan, he was assigned this mission by an important person in the capital, Duma was clear about the consequences if he failed the mission, which is why he decided to go all out from the start, outnumbering his opponent.

Duma wasn't going to let these River bastards get the upper hand, he raised his hand and bellowed, "Attack", the ground beneath his feet cracked, and he shot like a supersonic missile towards the River empire, the air around him ignited instantaneously by the force tearing through it.

"You seem to be in a hurry my friend" Captain Nios stepped forward to stop him in time, Duma grinned madly and shot a punch toward Nios filled with power to shatter mountains, snow around him melted and evaporated, and Nios met his punch with his own.

"Duma the demon of the north always wanted to fight you, let's go to a better place where we can unleash our power to our heart's content", Nios spoke and flew toward the sky, Duma followed after him.

Dawn looked toward the power displayed by that Duma guy in awe, Dawn eyes burned with desire, Dawn wanted such power for himself, the power made his heart palpitate in fear. Dawn if tried to stand in front of such power he would be instantly obilirated.

There was an iron rule in this world no one could jump the realm to fight higher realm opponents, there had never been such instances in the past, and the chance of such things happening in the future was slim.

Not only Dawn but others were also awed by the sheer intensity of the power even Lucy and Ellora had burning desire in their eyes, only such power can give them the freedom to do whatever they want.

Ellora came out of her stupor and looked at everyone and spoke, get a hold of yourself and make a x formation with me at the centre. Everyone followed her words she seemed to be the smartest of the group, Dawn and Lucy were at the back with Nemo and Ajanta at the front, they moved forward cautiously.

Dawn knew this was going to be an important moment in his life, which was going to decide his future and the course which his life was going to take.

Dawn was glad that most of his opponents were at body refining rank one, after all, they were young people who had started cultivating four -to five Days ago, Dawn was a rank two body cultivator, he could use this fact to his advantage. Dawn didn't want to work with these guys, after all they would hinder him, he could wipe out all these 100 people alone.

Suddenly Dawn's group was surrounded by 10 people from all directions, Ellora had an ugly expression on her face,