Chapter 23: Prepared For The Future

Lavant Kingdom

It has been 30 years since the competition for the disciples to race against each other to improve themselves after breaking through the foundation establishment stage. Over 100,000 of them competed against each other intently so much so that they sabotaged their rivals going as far as beating them up.

This event did not escape the notice of General Yohmu and the other Elders but they let it happen anyway as a way to sharpen the disciples and separate the wheat from the chaff so to speak.

40 years has passed since the Kingdom of Lavant became somewhat peaceful after the Immortal Cultivators imparted their knowledge to the common people which amounted to several millions or perhaps even tens of millions. The Kingdom only grew more powerful each passing decade and the children back then are now all grown adults.

It is at this time that King Draken Lavant IV insinuated that the armies of Lavant has been replenished and with the ways and techniques of the Immortal Cultivators the Kingdom of Lavant could finally attack the nearby Kingdoms again.

General Yohmu was in thought as he weighed on which is more productive. Either stay and make the people of Lavant Kingdom become stronger for the Blood Harvest or to use them to attack the other Kingdoms to gather more blood.

It was not a hard choice to make so to speak as the Eastern Immortals only needed blood for the sacrifice and more is always better. this is especially true since there are only 10 years left before the deadline and yet the beast and animal blood they have been using as a tribute back at the mainland of Eastern Continent has yet to fix 10% of the Dragon Veins.

General Yohmu finally came to a decision and allow another joint offensive strike to the nearest Kingdom of Rosario. The plan was clear and simple preemptive strike the joint armies of the Lavant Kingdom and the Eastern Immortals scattered and surrounded the Rosario Kingdom before the initial attack to avoid any leaks.

Although the higher ups of the Lavant Kingdom do not know why they need to kill each and everyone of their enemies in battle they also did not care since it does nothing to affect their lives. There were some soldiers that wanted to take surrendered prisoners but they were eventually executed by the Eastern Immortals and after that became common occurrence they never asked again about their purpose as long as it would not affect them negatively.

In just a week after the surprise attack in which could only be described as disgustingly effective. The Kingdom of Rosario along with its citizens has been erased from the face of the world and only to become a memory as apart of history.

In less than a week the Kingdom of Rosario crumbled without any reinforcements from the allied forces several millions of people, soldiers, Magic Knights and even Wizards perished within its borders as all types of emergency messages calling for help has all been intercepted.

Continental Isle

Alliance meeting

the destruction of Rosario Kingdom only came about after 1 month when the trade caravan entered the Capital City only to be welcomed by a smoldering ruin of its former glorious past.

The news shocked the Alliance of the Continental Isle. After 40 years of being dormant the joint forces of Lavant Kingdom and the Eastern Immortals strikes again. And once again they feared on whether they will be next to be attacked, the veterans 40 years ago are either too old or still injured to fight.

On the other hand the Dwarves and the Elves have not replied to the summons of the allied forces for meeting they only released a statement that this war would end in about 10 years and all they have to do is hold their borders as tightly as possible.

When the human lords heard this statement of course caused a huge ruckus.

“WHAT!? what were those long ears thinking!!! at this perilous moment! If we go down they would only soon follow!”

“hmp! Those short stumps aren’t any better either just because they know they are safe under their mountain strongholds”

“well. Let’s stop arguing for a moment and consider that maybe there is a plan being hidden from us to avoid leaking”

“What kind of plan would be needed to hide from allies there are no traitors here! We all are suffering from this invasion and most of our personal wealth and forces are half spent in the past 50 years or so since that damn Lavant started harassing our borders.”

“hmmm. Now that I think about it there is no way that this invasion could have happen in just a short period of time at least not when Lavant started harassing the border regions of our Kingdoms.”

“that’s right I suspect this plan has been cooked up for at least 3 generations AT LEAST! Otherwise there is no way those arrogant Eastern fools would even think of making a joint strike against the Continental Isle”

“but still why would the Lavant Kingdom agree? How could they trust those Eastern fellows so absolutely without a thought of them being betrayed?”

With a sigh one of the Kings in attendance said “its probably the cultivation methods.”

This that said as if an enlightenment struck the entire room as they realize the thought process of Lavant.

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“of course! That damn cultivation method they so jealously protected! Not wonder the Lavant soldiers suddenly got more powerful all of the sudden!”

“i think we are being side tracked. What purpose does that make? This information does not help in the current situation at all!”

“.……” the crowd have gone silent as they too realized that the conversation is indeed being sidetracked and filled by unnecessary information.

“what else can we do? If the Dwarves and Elves are holding tight to their borders then so shall we”

With that the Alliance Meeting has been adjourned. Soon after their individual forces created several layers of heavily entrenched defenses that should the first layer of defense be breached they could easily retreat to the second layer without running for too long.

This method is nothing more but a stop gap to their problems. If the war does not end after 10 years as the Elves has said then the allied forces would have to seriously abandon their territories and create a formal unified front against the invaders. Unlike what they are doing right now which nothing more but a convoluted mish mash of soldiers who fight individually.

Even in this urgent moment faced with a powerful common enemy of theirs these Kingdoms still could not stomach to create a united front fighting as one. The reason for this is quite simple and petty each Kingdom would simply not relent authority to one another. Like who leads the unified army? Obviously each Kingdom feels that the sole Leader of this unified army should be from their faction. And because of this until the very last moment they still could not act in a cohesive manner.

The Lavant soldiers has undoubtedly become at least twice stronger because of the cultivation techniques given to them by the Eastern Cultivators alongside the new recruits from the recent decades they not only outnumber the alliance now they also outclass them. It is estimated that a single Lavant soldier could fight five of the allied soldiers from the Human Kingdoms.

Untamed Forested Mountains

Sera Hawke was 25 years old when she has arrived in this world. Now 49 years has passed since the war started and currently she is 74 years old and had it not been for her breakthrough to Foundation Establishment stage she would be a frail white haired old woman right now.

Her breakthrough earned her an extension of 100 years in her lifespan and the next stage in cultivation the Core Formation stage should increase her lifespan by another 200 years. Back on the Eastern Continent Core Formation experts are as numerous as the trees in the forest though not exactly easy most cultivators could achieve Core Formation stage even with a poor talent.

Sera wanted to push the boundaries of her experiments and see how far can she go in this road that she took. She already know that her body being an otherworlder would not be as compatible to magic as the natives of this world but with her knowledge and by experimenting she found it extremely curious on just how far can she push it.

Currently Sera Hawke is oblivious to what is happening to the Continental Isle. She is no saint by any standards but she would also not allow harm upon the innocents in her immediate vicinity but if the said issue becomes problematic and endangers her safety Sera is not going to hesitate to run away without care for the others.

Though it might sound cruel and selfish Sera’s mind is hardwired to her ultimate goals in life and that is self preservation and to find her peace.

In the past Sera was not necessarily a coward that would run away without a fight, but she would run away should the odds weigh heavily against her her ambush on the abandoned mines is one and her escape on Kaladia City is another.

With her current wealth and resources she has concluded that she can make a breakthrough towards the Core Formation Stage in around 10 years as long as she shower her self lavishly with precious medicines.

Wasteful as it may sound her body was not really compatible with magic to begin with so it would take more resources if she ever want to progress on a stable face in comparison with the Eastern Cultivators of the Eastern Continent in which she intends to visit.

She had planned to make a small army of Core Formation level Golems but reality just hits her hard. The materials for creating a single Core Formation level Golem is not only rare it is also staggering since she really have no spell model for that powerful of a Golem.

Her Sentinels are considered at the pinnacle of Foundation stage but that is just bout it. Fighting Core Formation level would be out of the question and if she is reading it right from the collection of books she got from slayed cultivators Eastern Continent may be in a wild wild west kind of governance if it would be compared to earth.

Basically you can only stand up for yourself if you think are strong enough to enter a shootout and get out of it alive.

Sera looked over the Stone City from her flying fortress. Although it was not exactly modern art it still gave pride to her since she literally built this Stone City from scratch. She also knows that it would only be a matter of time before she left this place.

So Sera thought “ I think I’m going to reinforce this place so that I can have someplace I can return to if going to the Eastern Continent becomes to dangerous. At the worst of it is I die of old age”

With that thought in the following days Sera ordered the Stone Golems numbering over 100,000 to start inscribing defensive runes on each nook and cranny of the Stone City so that even if thee comes a beast tide this City could still stand fast until her return.

She has already laid down basic infrastructure for this City to be self sufficient even without her as the Golems would maintain it according to her orders. There are different facilities that could grow precious plants, raise useful beast until they are adult enough to harvest, the Golems could also repair themselves on the factories should they be damaged in combat or otherwise.

Sera has made plans should she managed to live past her expected lifespan by say… 1,000 years, this Stone City would serve as her back up in case trouble finds her in the far future should she need a hiding place.

Currently aside from her continuous study in Narud’s Library she is leisurely experimenting the prospects of her hybrid cultivation method with magic. In essence magic and the energies from “heaven and earth” should be practically the same BUT with some subtle difference.

One of the examples were the Eastern Cultivator’s “Dao” in which according to some books are the basis and the root of the powers the Cultivators come from. Like the Dao of time in which a time cultivator would get their powers.

“maaan… that is some deep shit right there! I don’t think I would understand the concept of these things. In any case I am already good, my lifespan is already above 100 years old and I don’t really intend to chase longevity THAT desperately”

Indeed, most cultivators or rather most intelligent lifeforms on the cosmos would be madly chasing that chance to live longer if not Immortality itself if it was available. As Sera was perhaps from another world, dimension or even perhaps universe that her logic and thought process does not revolve around chasing longevity or Immortality like the natives of this world.

The Beast Kin of the Western Continent could live for thousands if not tens of thousands of years simply because of their race’s innate ability, the mages of the Continental Isle on the other hand have been fumbling about how to get longer lifespans except for the Dwarves and Elves, the Eastern Continent however are indeed humans like most are in the Continental Isle but took a different path.

Humans on the Eastern Continent took the road of assimilating the bloodlines of superior beings like Elves and Dragons alike to gain their natural prowess and that includes lifespan, magic affinity and other concepts that may be completely alien to the common human perception… but the point is that by doing this they only have more to gain from it and no loss.

All these concept of power struggle and ambition is currently alien to Sera Hawke. By nature she wanted to find her peace but seeing as this world is far from being peaceful she ultimately wanted to gain more power for herself so that others with ill intent would not approach her.

At this point in time the Stone City on the surface is being reinforced by defensive runes while the underground facilities are basically mimicking the surface BUT all of the walls, ceiling, floors being made of stainless metal.

As part of her plan for the future Sera created the underground section of the Stone City to be made mostly of stainless metal not only because it’s sturdy but also for her comfort. Stone is solid and all but over the course of time it would fall into dust and Sera is planning to put technology here underground dust and technology don’t really mix well together. Magic preservation are only things of luxury that some pompous nobles could afford and spend willy nilly without care for the world.

Sera is already guaranteed to enter Core Formation level with the amount of resources she has in her possession right now within 10 years as long as no other problems crop up. As for her army Sera already has things in plan for that by creating a massive army of Knight Golems and variants of the Sentinels.

Her land army is already covered but air force is practically non existent. She has been planning on whether it should be a Golem or just a magical version of jet fighters from earth both has its merits. Jet fighters are made to rule the skies and fight at mach speeds, the blades of its wings might as well be as sharp as a sword in those speeds. A Golem variant on the other hand would be more versatile in most cases but kind of a jack of all trades and master of none.

Lavant Kingdom

Somewhere in Lavant Kingdom Duke Arman and his loyalist quietly faded away from the limelight and unless the King himself ask for him none would likely eve remember him to exist since in the past decades he has antagonized most if not everyone on the King’s court.

His growing distrust with the Eastern Immortals did not make him any friends of the current generation of influential people and nobles of high society. with this he has become more and more isolated which ironically worked even more in his favor one of the contributing factors on how he got his wealth and loyalist out of the Capital without being noticed in fact.

“since the rest of the Continental Isle is not willing to trade with us those precious minerals from the ruins of Kaladia City can be easily mined without people caring. This is more true now that Rosario Kingdom just got extinguished, the joint forces of Lavant and the Eastern Immortals are still processing the aftermath of that battle after which they would sweep through the next Kingdom”

Duke Arman does not know what the future holds for him and his loyalists but all he can do for now is to make preparations for any if not all of possible outcomes that he imagined. Though he does not know why the Eastern Immortals would suddenly become friendly people to even the commoners and teach everyone cultivation somehow a bad feeling emerged from the bottom of his heart that led to their situation right now.

Should he be proven wrong in his assumptions he would be a traitor to the Kingdom BUT should his fears be anywhere near correct then at least he have saved some of his people.