"Sir!... Baron Kui has taken the knee, he unconditionally surrendered his property and troops to us after a brief skirmish."

"We are still battling with Sir Shang in the flat lands though, they are attempting to hold out behind their walls, we expect victory within the hour, their walls cannot withstand the blast of your black orbs, their soldiers are shaking like leaves after every explosion."

Almost on cue, numerous booming explosions rang out, followed by muffled screams and shouting in the distance ahead.

A slim middle-aged noble dressed in white fluffy furs had just given his report to Fu Qian, his name was Jin Xamei and he was the head of a minor noble house in the area.

He was a man who had grown increasingly bitter and disenfranchised with the capital's politics, he was left to languish in obscurity on a piece of unprofitable land because he wasn't a high born noble.

This reshuffle after the king's ascension was his chance to change his fortune, a chance to gain prosperity by capitalising on the rampant disorder in the region.

A chance to bring glory  and pride to his long maligned noble house.

"Lets head over there then." Fu Qian said turning his horse west.

A long line of horses trotted across the snow side by side, Jin Xamei was leading Fu Qian and his troops through the rugged and icy terrain towards a heavily fortified stronghold.

The silhouette of the structure up ahead was getting clearer and clearer. Fu Qian pulled to a stop and the rest of the troops followed suit.

"Shao Law, Fu Jianu, take squad ten and follow Xamei, work together to take down any xiantians who refuse to surrender. Spare those who take the knee. 

Qin Li is already there, he will back you up if you run into any problems and our elites will clean up the rest. If worst comes to worst, Hartley and Zhi Ruo will make an appearance, but let's hope it doesn't come to that."

Fu Qian issued orders to his captains, who then sent runners to inform the troops of the plans.

 The forces of the western hills, backed by the troops of several local nobles, closed in on the last pocket of resistance in the west.

Shao Law and Fu Jianu acknowledged their orders silently, galloping off on horseback behind Jin Xamei, with a squad of mounted soldiers closely following. 

Pattering hoofs dug up clumps of mud from the snow laden earth, flinging out specks of dirt as the herd of advancing horses left deep prints in the frozen ground.

The mounted group raced across the wide open white wilderness, producing a noise akin to rumbling thunder, trampling over the sparse and dying foliage directly in their path. 

Minutes later they arrived to the sight of a massive gate with high walls on each side.

There was a rocky cliff with a steep drop to the west. While the white icy wilderness stretched to the east as far as one could see. 

Archers dressed in helmets and silver armour, manned the full length of the high fortified walls. Taking cover behind the concrete battlements, peeping out to fire arrows when required.

Qin Li and the four newly converted xantians were already on the scene, protecting the elites of the western hills from the volleys of arrows raining down from the walls of the stronghold.

 When the falling arrows were close, a spectacular array of elemental power broke free from the new xiantians of the western hills.

Qin Li was training the three males and one female, their robes flapped majestically as they unleashed  their strength, blasting the swarms of arrows aside, the impact with the fletched projectiles, produced a kaleidoscope of colourful sparks in the world of white as the arrows disintegrated.

The elite infantry troops armed with Alrick's black orbs, pressed the button on the weapon, bringing forth that familiar sizzling sound that signified the volatile liquids within were mixing..

Using this opportunity, they ran within range and tossed the black orbs atop the eight meter-high walls.

 Boom! Boom! Boom!

One by one the explosions sent tremors trembling through the earth, a cluster of archers were blown clean off the wall, dug out from their position behind the thick battlements by an unexpected explosion.

Unfortunately for them, there was no safety to be found even behind their concrete shield. 

Chips of masonry and shattered stones went flying out like bullets. Leaving deep gouges on the snow-coated wall.

 Tumbling clouds of dust billowed out as panicked cries came from the wall.

 A red blotch was left in the archers former position, pieces of body parts were scattered in every direction, this brought the smell of blood floating through the cold air.

The miserable screams of the shell shocked defender's lingered on longer with every new explosion. 

Body parts and pieces of armour were flying off the wall, landing in the snow below with regularity.

In the eyes of those stationed to defend the walls, this was destruction and slaughter of apocalyptic proportions. 

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None had seen anything like this before.

Thick black smoke rose up with every detonation that rattled the wall, impeding the defenders vision and draining away their will to fight. Some scrambled down the walls trying to surrender, others fled into the frozen wilderness from pure fright.

A third layer xiantian expert appeared on the wall trying to rally the troops, he resorted to threatening them when the scattering troops paid him no heed.

 As far as the frightened men were concerned, their lives were more important than protecting that old noble.

Before the expert could lose his temper, a glowing yellow arrow came pinging at him.

He moved left between the battlements, the arrow slammed into the wall with a yellow flash. 

A couple meters of the wall shattered and sprayed out like sand, shaking the entire structure with a massive boom. 

Whiz! 

Another glowing arrow was spat from Fu Jianu's bow before the expert could adjust, landing two meters to the left of the first shot.

Boom!

There was another flash of yellow, and another boom. An impressive hole was punched through the thick wall, sending debris raining down on the other side.

More black orbs quickly landed in the area causing a pandemonium of explosions.

The bedraggled third layer xiantian expert was seen escaping down the wall faster than everyone. Disoriented as his ears continued to ring from his close proximity to the blasts.

A revolution was taking place in the west, only a few stubborn old nobles were still putting up some futile resistance, the last of the bunch was about to be overrun...

***

The wind chill was like a knife cutting through the air, everywhere was dyed white, drooping icicles clung to the branches of the naked trees lining the street. 

Scattered debris were being cleared by an assortment of soldiers on patrol, the remnants of the capital's power struggle was evident, those who fought a losing campaign paid the price with their lives.

 The dead were frozen stiff, piled to the side, awaiting to be burned or buried.

Mayhem had been rife, spreading through the opulent regions like wildfire. There was no conscience or leniency in the pursuit of greater riches and power. Everyone was trying to leverage maximum profits from the disorder.

Carnage reigned for several days, plumes of smoke kept rising from countless places, coiling towards the sky like giant black serpents.

The streets remained mostly empty.

Civilians and commoners weren't targeted, the ruling class would need people to rule over when things settled.

Even so, most stayed in hiding, risking starvation by only coming out to scavenge what they could.

The atmosphere across the entire capital was as dour as the frigid weather...

Meanwhile the peaceful western hills was functioning like clockwork, most citizens were oblivious to the degree of carnage happening, going about their daily chores as usual.

The smoke trails rising to the sky across the capital, gave them an inkling of the discontent beyond the walls, but they couldn't imagine the changes taking place as it didn't directly affect them.

Hartley sat in the lotus position in his cultivation room. His awareness was stretched to his maximum capability, keeping an eye on the assault happening in the west while monitoring the situation in the rest of the capital.

Zhi Ruo was shadowing the operation in the western region, just in case any high level experts were lurking in the weeds, if needed, he himself would be there in seconds.

There was an unwritten rule that saints shouldn't meddle in the conflicts of mortal men.

Though most didn't know he was a saint, Hartley still stayed hands off in the operation, entrusting Qin Li and Zhi Ruo with the protection of the others.

But if something was to go wrong, there was no way he would stand by and watch his people die.

Instead he delved into his cultivation to pass the time, he couldn't go into his inner world because he had to keep an eye on things, so he opted to cultivate his spell-weaving.

His control over the black energy had been improving steadily, his biggest problem was that he still had to artificially summon the black energy.

This could only be achieved by exerting enough power to break the threshold of tolerance for power on the plane, that would cause the black energy to erupt into existence to return balance.

Hartley wanted to directly summon the black energy, this would verify that he was moving beyond a silver tier spell-weaver towards becoming a gold tier spell-weaver. Someone more attuned to his element of choice.

Hartley slowed time with state of focus then practiced his finger gestures. 

For the first time Hartley noticed the crudeness of his finger gestures in comparison to the beast-men, or the people he'd duelled in the pocket dimension.

There was 16 basic gestures, some requiring the use of one finger, others required five.

 One needed to be able to execute 8 gestures in one motion in order to summon the elements from nothing.

He hadn't had a chance to concentrate on improving his spell-weaving since his return. 

His transitions between gestures were crude at best, missing the fluidity and finesse of the better spell-weavers.

After practicing a few hours, a smile crept across Hartley's face, he had the ultimate cheat code to correct his flaws, time manipulation...

****

Chaos continued to rage as the ambitious nobles squared off, each competing to secure resources, destroying anything they couldn't keep hold of, depriving its use in strengthening the other side.

A single carriage travelled untouched and unaffected from the south, the chaos on the streets seemed to melt away with its approach.

Warring factions came to an immediate truce once the white carriage was recognised.

 Soldiers and nobles stood to the side with reverence, ensuring the vehicle's easy passage.

The carriage made its way northwest, heading in the direction of the western hills. The team of four wild beasts dragged the beautifully crafted carriage along. Crunching through the snow on the winding roads, carrying only a single passenger.

Hartley blue eyes flashed open in his cultivation room, a hint of a smile tugged at the corner of his lips.

His perception recognized the embossed insignia on the doors of the special carriage, it was a sword and a hammer crossing each other to form an X.

"House of Smiths," Hartley said to himself.

The carriage wobbled over a hidden pothole, rattling lazily as it crested a hill. Every visible tree around the area was dusted in white, with no leaves hanging from frozen branches.

"Stop," a voice instructed the driver of the carriage in the middle of nowhere.

The carriage rolled to a stop in the deep powdery snow, the door opened then a foot sank ankle deep into the snow.

 A skinny old man who could be described as feeble stepped down from the carriage.

"Return," he told his driver, "I'll make the return trip alone."

He stood ankle deep in the snow wearing a fur coat over his white robe.

He watched the carriage do a u turn, leaving neat trails in the snow as it went down the hill, soon the white carriage couldn't be seen against the white background.

The old man turned, his ear-length hair barely moving in the frigid wind.

He faced the north and spoke, "I came in my personal carriage so you would see me coming."

"And what brings you to my neck of the woods?" A grey robed figure asked as he walked casually over a mound, leaving his footprints trailing behind.

"My subordinate relayed some curious suspicions about you, I paid extra attention to his story because he returned with two missing limbs."

The skinny old man dressed in white spoke mildly, then continued, "don't worry, that debt shall be repaid in kind."

The grey robed figure let out an exaggerated sigh, his demeanor dripping with mirth and sarcasm.

"So he survived, that Zhang Yi is truly a cockroach." 

The person in grey spoke without caring too much about the old man's veiled threat.

"So, you are Hartley from the western hills." The old man smiled as he sized up Hartley.

"So, you are Patriarch Zhang from House of Smiths." Hartley answered and smiled back.