Chapter 25: 10 Years Of Secluded Meditation
Untamed Forested Mountains
2 years later
After Sera Hawke entered the Sentinel Gemini Doc to assist and supplement her secluded meditation to enter the Core Formation stage. most if not all of the surrounding plant and animal life around the Stone City started coming back after 2 years of being silent.
The entirety of the Stone City and the Flying Fortress has been put in a passive mode eve since Sera secluded herself. Even her subordinates are currently enjoying a peaceful and lazy life aside from the routine monster hunts there was nothing much else to do.
It was unfortunate that after 2 years of seclusion that the wife and husband Lydia and Peter Sera’s cook and gardener has reached the end of their lifespans and perished. Even with the cultivation methods increased the durability of their bodies their lifespans remained the same without breaking through the Foundation Establishment stage.
Bellato saddened by the passing of his parents could do nothing but direct his sadness and frustration into the beasts of the forsested mountains. Without the backing of the Golem Army he sustained grievous injuries but because of the advanced medicines on the Flying Fortress he would be soon healed only to repeat the cycle until he eventually came to terms with the passing of his parents and calmed down.
Ever since the establishment of the Stone City the monster races in the surrounding area have always been wary of this new force that took part in their territory. The first an the successive beast tide came to be as a primal alliance to drive this new foe out but the golem army proved too powerful or rather too numerous for them to handle. After continuous defeat they left the area and returned only now that the Golem Army has been put in a passive stance.
Despite the new found peace with the local beast tribes they still took the initiative to stay away of the Stone City as they recognized the master of this Stone City the De Facto Boss of this area.
The Stone City stood silently along with its guardians until the awakening of their master.
Eastern Continent
Alliance meeting
5 years later
“as one of the main designers of the invasion plan I would like to say that the Crescent Blade Sect would take the first batch of the Blood Harvest on behalf of my father! ” said confidently by the young Musashi
This statement was met with furious roars of indignation as his Sect is not the only one under the threat of the unstable Dragon Veins.
“shameless!! do you think people really fear your father!”
“the Crescent Blade Sect is not the only rank 1 Sect in this Alliance!!”
“a Core Formation brat does not have the qualification to throw their weight around here!”
With Musashi’s statement the Alliance representatives voiced their own worry that they could not a share of the Blood Harvest for their own unstable Dragon Veins.
A Spirit Severing Elder presiding of the Alliance meet sighed and said “calm down everyone we won’t get anywhere with all this noise”
“as per agreement signed by all participants in this alliance you all will only get a portion of the Blood Harvest depending entirely on your respective sects contribution. And currently it is indeed the Crescent Blade Sect who ranked first in their contribution as they faced off the Grand Wizards and Elite Magic Knights of the Continental Isle”
Although it is true that they did ranked first in contributions some are still angry and “harrumphed” at Musashi.
Musashi then stated “we lost a lot of our own Elites of inner sect disciples and Sect Elders in the fight against those Elves and the cursed weapons of the Dwarves”
Eventually the Alliance Hall then regained its peace.
The presiding Elder now continued to say “unfortunately not every participant of this alliance is going to get a portion of the Blood Harvest”
The Alliance Hall was quiet for a moment stunned by the sudden announcement.
“WHAT!?!?” as multiple representatives of the second and third rank Sects exclaimed
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“SILENCE!!” shouted the presiding Elder making the Alliance Hall quiet again
“as I was saying, there are just not enough Blood Harvest for the entirety of every participating Sects. The first reason is that the remaining forces of the Continental Isle have put an extreme defensive stance, the entire area in their respective Kingdoms have been littered with traps and prearranged locations for magical bombardment sending our own forces would be suicide and even if we use cannon fodders once they are lost we would be forced to retreat and we could be faced with a devastating counter attack”
“the second reason is that we still fear that the Beast Kin from the Western Continent could still be preparing to intervene in this war and we cannot under any circumstance let our guard down lest we face their vengeful ferocity head on”
“in 5 years time we would withdraw our forces and claim what we can with the Blood Harvest and divide it amongst the high contributors of this invasion to the Sects that would inevitably face their Dragon veins going dormant would instead gain financial support from the Alliance for the next 1,000 years”
“just 1,000 years that nothing! We have invested resources and manpower in this endeavor too!” shouted by the other Sect representative
“yeah! 1,000 years that’s barely 2 generations. With the loss of our Dragon Veins our sect would slowly wither without its assistance”
With a sigh the presiding Elder said “fine fine, 5,000 years is the maximum that we can offer if your descendants still can’t pull their own weight with this pressure looming above their heads then your Sects deserve to wither anyways” he said with a stern voice
“t-t-that is acceptable”
“hm hm acceptable”
At this point many Sect representatives have already formulated a plan to shrink down their factions as to nurture less but more elite disciples. But by shrinking the amount of disciples to be nurtured many factions could target them thinking that they have become weak
Some have yet to be reconciled and have raced back to their Sect to tell their leaders the calamity that could befall them, others simply stood there like a wooden chicken knowing full well that their factions could loose their current standings in the cultivation world.
The second rank Sects could still endure the loss of their Dragon Veins since there would be the promised support of 5,000 years from the Alliance but their main strength came from their deep foundations of being a former first rank Sect that withered overtime.
The real victims are the third rank Sects who could barely have a status in the cultivation world as they really pulled their resources to invest in the invasion thinking that they could reap a big reward. But all of those were mere hopes and dreams dashed by reality as they were dunked in cold water as they realized that even first ranked Sects could barely get a profit in this invasion.
The third rank Sects could only swallow their anger and accept the 5,000 year assistance from the Alliance. It was the Sects and other factions that were against the invasion and were only forced to send a meagre amount of manpower as per the Alliance agreement that actually profited in a sense that none of their core members were lost in the war against the Continental Isle.
These factions were surviving veterans of the war against the Western Beast Kin 800 years ago. These veterans learned first hand the amount of sacrifice and resources devoured by wars and would rather not participate in these kind of events unless absolutely necessary.
At the end these factions were still faced with disappointment as they would have to return to their respective Sects to report that they would have to face the reality that their Dragon Veins would go dormant for unknown amount of years. And they could only rely on the 5,000 years of support they would get from the Alliance.
It was a harrowing for most of them but it was a welcome test for a select few as they believed in challenging adversities and reap the rewards as they excel through the hardships. These select few confidently believed that this method is the real path to the peak of cultivation.
Continental Isle
3 years later
The human alliance, the Dwarves and the Elves are all pushed back to their last of the main territories they have left. The alliance of the Continental Isle could not afford to fight head on against soldiers who only knew how to die as the commoners of the Lavant Kingdom flooded the front lines even the traps laid beforehand became useless very very quickly as tides upon tides of soldiers triggering the traps until it eventually became useless.
The first one to retreat were the Dwarves after their gunpowder stocks ran dry they could no longer maintain an effective defensive perimeter from the trenches. Though they are not heavily relying on gunpowder for their survival they still chose to make a strategic retreat since their goal was to buy time and not to face the enemies head on in a bloody battle that could leave them crippled even if they won.
Despite the advancements on Matchlocks, cannons, Golem Army, flying ships and flying fortresses the Dwarves still relied on cold weapons and magic since these weapons have been proven and tested to be still effective despite the new advancements in weaponry.
The second to retreat was the Elves despite their physical strength and magic ability that is capable of rivaling the Eastern Cultivators they were still forced to retread since they Elves has always been few in number since time immemorial they are also slow to reproduce a side effect of their longevity or perhaps natures way of making the world balance.
Even without the newly formed armies of the Lavant Kingdom the main forces of the Eastern Cultivators has always targeted the Elves not only for their bloodline but also for the riches they have accumulated throughout the Eras.
Most of the Spirit Severing Elders presiding over this invasion has always marked the elves in check due to their prowess and also because they are the only faction that could face the Eastern Cultivators one for one sometimes even more.
And lastly it was the Human Alliance of Kingdoms, who suffered the most casualties as they even forced the untrained commoners men,women,young and old as long as they could swing a weapon they were deployed in the front lines in hopes to stop the flood that is Lavant.
Their struggle was eventually useless as the strength of cultivators taught by the Eastern Immortals revealed their devastating power in the battlefield. The Human Kingdom Alliance was a traditional magic and sword kind of army but faced with the untrained Lavant citizens they could only run away back to fortified territory as they could not face them head on.
It was finally the last year of the Blood Harvest and the time has come for the Eastern Cultivators to return back home to the Eastern Continent along with their haul of war trophies and most importantly Blood for the Blood Sacrifice.
The people of Lavant Kingdom never saw it coming. It was on that fateful night that when they were tired from the earlier battle that they were supposed to eat dinner and rest but before they knew what was going on the Spirit Severing Elders presiding over the invasion unleashed an invisible force crushing all the bones in their bodies.
On that night not a single Lavant survived as their former allies and teachers harvested their blood for some unknown ritual in a distant land. Aside from the people who followed Duke Arman no Lavant survived the war.
“finally we get to go home” said General Yohmu with a heavy sigh
“indeed, this venture was quite taxing and to think we incurred heavy losses and barely made profit” said by another
“as long as we can fix the Dragon Veins its worth it”
“haha right! Right! Of course how can we forget that”
“These damn people surely did not make it easy on us! My Sect lost a quarter of our forces here”
“yes, the battle at Kaladia City sure was a strange one. It was not that there were powerful wizards over there at the time but they still managed to hold out for so long in the siege”
“hmp! It was because our main forces were being held back by the Dwarves and the Elves pay no mind to them mortals ptui!” said one Elder with contempt
Untamed Forested Mountains
Inside Gemini Doc Sera Hawke has been continuously guiding the magical energies throughout her entire body along with the occasional injection of magical serums by Gemini Doc. In these 10 years Sera has no knowledge of what was going on the outside world as she continued her attempt to breakthrough the Core Formation stage.
Eventually the magical medicines she prepared beforehand are finally used up, it was also at this exact moment that with the final assistance of the medicine taking into effect that Sera suddenly opened her eyes spewing bright light and opened her mouth to shout a soundless scream.
Gemini Doc ejected her as Sera continued to fly high into the sky and make an attempt to breakthrough the Core Formation stage. In just a few seconds the dark clouds are finally done forming and without warning rained down bolts of lightning strike down at Sera Hawke.
At first the lightning strikes were thin but eventually after several waves each strike became as large as a human torso on the eighth lightning strike Sera was struck down to the ground vomiting blood, parts of her body were visibly charred.
Despite being weakened she shouted “RIOT!!”
One of her Sentinel Riot came to life and charged towards Sera in mach speed breaking the sound barrier as it sped through towards its master. Just as the last lightning bolt strikes Riot opened up its body to protect her.
Riot spread its arms as if to embrace the lightning blot with thickness the size of a tree. Riot was originally created to suppress crowds with lightning shock to stun the crowd and protect Sera but after arriving in this world Riot and the rest of the Sentinels eventually received the much needed magical upgrades.
The lightning bolt struck Riot but as if like a lightning rod Riot stood straight unharmed as it absorbed the lightning and converted it to its own energy while the excess energy were simply dispersed in the surrounding are.
In a few minutes the dark clouds disappeared and tranquility returned to the surroundings. Riot opened up revealing Sera Hawke with her body already healing up in an unprecedented rate.
“ahhh! The great outdoors! Finally I have become a Core Formation stage” she said with a tired but bright smile only to suddenly realize that the more powerful she became the more weak she felt.
With the increase of her strength come along with her senses and she is sensing powerful and terrifying auras emanating from the deeper reaches of the mountain forest.
With a sigh she thought to herself “it is time to leave this place”