Chapter 35: Hidden Dangers
Eastern Continent
Metal Sect
It has been over a decade now since Sera Hawke made a show of force to the free cities north of the Metal Sect. And it has been a resounding success. The free cities, starved of resources were only too eager to join the Metal Sect with the promise of breaking through and reaching the Foundation Establishment stage.
Aside from Sera and her original force hiding inside the Flying Fortress, none of the disciples of the Metal Sect have reached Core Formation level since Sera has been regulating the resources for those who are only worthy of them.
This is despite the fact that the Metal Sect is hurting for more Core formation experts and even more so at least one Nascent Soul expert to guard the Sect from powerful foes. But Sera Hawke is not worried about that at the moment since she had planned to make the Metal Sect look weak looking from the outside.
By increasing the number of Foundation Establishment stage disciples to reach over a hundred thousand even several third rate factions would have to think carefully if they really want to push on with their offensive. Since the resources on the Metal Sect could not even produce a Nascent Soul expert many factions would have to think that attacking the Metal Sect would not be worth their time and effort, to them the Metal Sect is just another one of the many Sects declining and would soon be forgotten in the pages of history.
Because of this thought process many of the third rate forces decided to ignore the Metal Sect and instead focus on their own recovery in this dangerous times. But not all of them ignored the Metal Sect, some felt that the Metal Sect is still worth fighting over.
But the problem for them still remains, and that the Metal Sect still has over one hundred thousand Foundation Establishment level disciples. Even though they are quite low level there are still a shit ton of them and the numbers alone gave them pause on their plans.
Somewhere in a undisclosed location
“hmmm aren’t their numbers a little too high? I thought this is a dying Sect?” said one of the conspirators in the shadow
“even more so that we should attack!. I heard that most of the original disciples of the Metal Sect left after the appointment of the new Matriarch. She definitely inherited something from the previous Sect Head”
“regardless of their situation we still must proceed with caution. After all we cant lose too many disciples on our own respective Sects, compared to the Metal Sect’s rabble ours are true elites”
“you know I don’t like too much scheming. Why can’t we just kill the Matriarch and break their will to fight as you said they are just a bunch of refugees that wanted to stick around to feel safe. Trust me if their so called Matriarch is dead they would scatter to the wind”
The shadowy gathering of conspirators became silent for a few seconds as looked at each other second guessing their plan to attack the Metal Sect.
The silence war broken with a sigh.
“if we don’t even have a clear goal or a plan why do we even bother thinking of attacking them?”
“tsk tsk tsk, I am inclined to agree. First we should think of a goal and make a plan for it after all we don’t want a shattered mess even if we win… that would be a real tragedy”
“hmp! You guys make the plans just call for me when you are done scheming and point me where to attack. It’s just a dying Sect without even a Nascent Soul expert!!”
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Metal Sect
A person with a Sect Elder’s uniform could be seen running towards the Matriarch. His pale face indicates something serious has happened. In the recent years the temporary Elders that Sera Hawke has hired from the original disciples of the Metal Sect has decided to become full time Elders despite only having the cultivation level of peak Foundation Establishment disciple.
When they saw the future prospects of the Metal Sect under the new Matriarch they quickly changed their minds and decided to work harder to earn the right to become fully fledged Sect Elders.
Rushed knockings could be heard on the door as the young Sect Elder nearly bashed the door open.
“come in” said Sera in a bored and annoyed voice
“Matriarch bad news! We are being surrounded!” he said with each second his voice being more frantic
After hearing the frantic young Sect Elder she only raised an eyebrow as she pushed a button to observe the Sect’s surrounding from a holographic screen.
Technically speaking they are really being surrounded but, the “enemies” has yet to even cross the borders of the Metal Sect.
Sera exasperatedly said “you have got to be kidding me… right? They are not even attacking or blocking us why are you so worked up”
“B-but Matriarch this is a clear provocation to the Metal Sect! If we let them slide this time they will surely escalate the provocation and by the time a fight breaks out we would already be put on a passive defense.
“ha! Let them do what they want as long as they behave themselves we won’t lift a finger on them don’t worry I will triple the Golem patrol, even if they really attacked we would not be caught by surprise! And if you have time to worry about distant troubles why don’t you train more huh!?”
After shouting the young Sect Elder out of the room Sera focused on the holographic image.
She sighed and said “I was really hoping that peace would last longer tsk tsk tsk” as she shook her head
The image shows that not only they are creating fortified positions they are also tunneling deep underground according to the seismograph. Most likely these people are thinking that they are being so sneaky, unbeknownst to them Sera Hawke is already preparing for a vicious counter attack.
All of the Mechanized Jet Fighters and Knight Golems are only on the level of the Peak Foundation Establishment stage, considering the fact that there are at least over 50,000 of them by now Sera Hawke is quite confident that the current Metal Sect could overpower any of the third rate factions without further backings from the bigger Sects.
But this did not mean that Sera would let her guard down and be content on the current situation. The giant mech prototype has been long completed towering at the height of fifty meters and with the weight of around twenty five thousand tons of heavenly and spiritual metals.
It has at estimated strength of around mid Nascent Soul expert in pure physical strength. Unfortunately all of its other magical abilities are simply at the level of the peak of the Core Formation stage, a lot of the cutting edge technology that Sera have on board simply could not be integrated with magic properly and would need further improvements in the coming years or even decades.
Something that Sera Hawke does not have at the moment but she had a sudden spark of enlightenment.
“wait a minute…. why am I thinking that this is like a battle of annihilation, clearly these bastards are intending to rob the Metal Sect not destroy it to ashes! All I need to do is inflict enough damage to their forces and they would be forced to retreat”
For now the enemies surrounding the borders of the Metal Sect are less than ten thousand therefore Sera is currently not worried of any sudden attack or any skirmishes coming from the outside forces.
But that does not mean that she is going to stand by as her enemies are preparing for an attack. Sera is also preparing her Golem armies, the Flying Fortress is already at the altitude of twenty thousand meters above sea level.inside are all of Sera’s forces of 100 Core Formation level cultivators led by Bellato and supported by thousands of Mechanized Jet Fighters covering the sky.
While on the ground Sera intends to lead the over one hundred thousand Foundation Establishment level Sect disciples plus tens of thousands of Knight Golems as shock troops, canon fodders or whatever they could do to them the Knight Golems were like throwaways and can easily be recycled, reparied and or rebuild as long as there are materials.
Somewhere in a undisclosed location
“so, how are the preparations? Have we been discovered?” said nervously by one of the shadowy figures
“why are you so worried they don’t even have a single Nascent Soul expert! Would you relax already and just focus on your part of the plan” one of them replied from the shadows
“don’t underestimate the Metal Sect. If we are going to do this we might as well do it right we have made plans and the preparations are underway… strike the rabbit as if it’s a tiger” said another
“say, we have been a little too cautious with this Metal Sect do you know some information that we don’t huh?”
With a sigh the shadowy figure said “ a few thousand years ago one of the Sect ancestors said to be wary of the Metal Sect. According to him the Metal Sect had enough resources to become a second rate Sect but didn’t for some reason”
“huh!? but why? If they could achieve the rank and status of a second rate Sect why didn’t they push through, did something happen?”
“we don’t really know the full details but we do know that they once purchased high quality materials that would even bankrupt most second rate Sects, to purchase materials to what we estimated a sealing formation”
“hmm, you think they are hiding some kind of a secret? But that’s normal isn’t it?… I mean it would be a lot more suspicious if they did not have some sort of secret”
“No no no, you don’t understand. For a third rate Metal Sect to have that kind of wealth and be still functioning for several thousand years is beyond suspicious. We already thought back then that the Metal Sect was a branch of some first rate Sect as a form of a hidden card or something, but after all these years the Metal Sect only struggled bitterly with their own strength”
“if we are going to strike now is the time., considering the fact that very few of the original disciples remain in the Metal Sect as it has been taken over by a new Matriarch as it’s Sect Head”
Sighing and shaking their heads they unanimously agreed that no matter the secret of the Metal Sect they would eventually uncover it after they have pried open it’s shell and divide it’s bounty awaiting them.
Metal Sect
Sera Hawke made quite preparations as much as she could but people still noticed the movements and preparations being made such as: combat drill, midnight raid practice, evacuation plans, regrouping plans, counter offensive plans and the such.
A few of the Metal Sect disciples hundled around the table as they rest and eat their meals after the training drill.
“guys surely I’m not the only one noticing these movements right? Something bad is about to happen”
“Shhh! Do you want to get in trouble!? don’t talk about it all we need to do is to train hard, look around you all these people here in the Metal Sect are former refugees who has been chased away from their own land. After finding this paradise do you think they would just leave without a fight”
“i agree, all we should do is follow the Matriarch!, there have been movements from the skies lately a lot of those flying metal puppets have been patrolling day and night non stop judging by the looks of things it won’t be long before war finally erupts”
“right right! Since we have no other place to go we might as well stand our ground and fight!. after all last time I checked the disciples of the Metal Sect numbered around one hundred thousand Foundation Establishment.
The disciples of the Metal Sect knew something is afoot but kept quiet rather than speculate, they could only follow the arrangements of their Matriarch and continue their training. Meanwhile nobody notices that magic all over the world are slowly yet steadily declining due to unknown reasons.