The emperor of Biyakis knew that and so he decided to get ready and go in person to meet with the Dadiyan emperor.

But then news reached him before he could set out that the remnants of the Dikan empire that were hidden in the jungles had coalesced with an unknown army to attack his capital.

Celebrations broke out in Dadiyan on hearing this. Some of them that were closer to the Dikans counseled their emperor to send an army to help Dikan in taking Biyakis down.

The emperor didn't give in to that counsel. He instead closed his borders and limited movements. Since the continent was already at war, the best thing he could do was to make sure it never reached his doorstep.

But war tended to come uninvited, and in that lockdown state, news came to him that Biyakis had sent mercenaries to take down Dadiyan.

According to the now-popular Aminiya Times, Biyakis believed that it was Dadiyan that instigated the Dikan refugees to attack its capital. That was why they sent an army of mercenaries to deal with them.

Newsmen were normally careful with such details, so it was unlikely they would report anything that could jeopardize their safety in times of war.

But not this time.

Abdin kept frowning as he read on. He could find the owners of the paper, but who was pulling the strings behind the curtain? He might have to investigate it in a subsequent loop. Moreover, news like this that happened far away on the battlefield would take months before they were approved and published.

But not this time. Everything came faster and well organized, as though it were happening in the presence of the newsmen.

Abdin produced a fresh feeding bottle from his bag of holding and replaced the empty one for the baby before he lay down on his back with his face up.

It was clear that the Nànata and whatever allies they had were, for a reason not known to Abdin, trying to throw the entire continent into war.

There were five empires on the continent, including the Dikan empire that fell a few years ago at the hands of Biyakis. But these empires were no longer acting as empires. They were more like upstart teenagers in a cultivation sect. Else why would they had began to battle each other without any deep investigations?

Wars between empires take years to happen. The rulers would mostly rant among themselves. News outlets would spread trivial issues with much exaggeration.

But an outright battle would take years to happen.

For instance, the conflict between Biyakis and Dikan took seventy years before it actualized into a war.

This was because everyone counted the losses that would be suffered as a result of the war. And there were seasoned counselors. It was unlikely that they would let anything that could jeopardize their empires happen.

Therefore, it was quite surprising, how all the empires on the continent went to war on so short notice.

Abdin would never have imagined that even in a dream.

Five to six months had already gone by since he reset the loop.

He had previously died before he could witness all these. But, over the previous loop, he had still seen the army of Nànata, heard the voice of the man that called himself Kininura, and also saw Silver Mask together with the invaders.

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He had already smelled something amiss. So, he already knew that all these were conspiracies from both internal and external forces.

There must be help from people within the monarchies of these empires. Someone close to the emperors who could help kidnap the heirs with ease.

And also those that fueled and hastened the war. Some of them controlled what the newsmen published.

There might be some peacemakers, doing their best to calm the crisis. But they were overpowered.

He suddenly remembered something. Laluri had captured Juwaira. Someone must have sent her to do it. And it was obvious now that the slave was certainly not taking the princess back to Shurein.

So the ancient tribe of Nànata had all along planned to capture every Royal heir including the runaway Juwaira. They wanted to use that as bait for throwing the continent into war.

Abdin's baby chose that moment to start crying. He sat up and checked him, where he saw that the baby had soiled himself.

The man gritted his teeth. Cultivators didn't soil themselves. Would he not start teaching this baby some low-level cultivation methods so he could have some rest?

He shook his head after a while. An infant's body couldn't withstand that. He stood up, washed the baby, and changed him.

But the baby started crying as soon as he laid him back on the cot. Abdin was forced to take him out and gently rocked him. It took a while before the baby fell asleep and Abdin replaced him on the cot.

He looked at the baby and glanced at the four cardinal directions. There was no one watching.

He suddenly had an impulse to leave and abandon the baby there. He quickly stood up and walked west, but stopped after a while.

He slowly turned around and stared at the cot in which the baby slept. After some time, he returned, picked up the cot, and placed it around his neck.

The sleeping child was unaware of how close he had come to being abandoned in the middle of a forest.

Abdin wanted to see how things were going to unfold for the remainder of the loop and it seemed he was going to do it with a baby on his back.

His subsequent victory would be determined by how much he knew. He could use whatever he knew to amend the mistakes of the past. And his opponents wouldn't suspect that he knew all these. This would give him the upper hand.

Abdin left the forest and walked toward Nanila. The city was calm apart from the occasional death wails. There was no riot or any signs of impending attacks, unlike the capital which was very much in battle at the moment. That was if the newspaper was to be believed.

He returned to the house where he had found the child. He had long since made a pit and buried the child's mother, so he was all alone with the baby.

He went inside and locked the door, then went directly to the bedroom and kept the baby, before he stretched out to have some rest.

He wasn't sure how long it had been when there was a knock on the front door. He slowly opened his eyes and frowned. He had been waiting for months now for the woman's husband or their relatives to come and claim the baby, but he hadn't seen anyone.

And for all those months, he had also waited for the neighbors to come and take the child. But no one came.

But God had sent someone today. He did feel a little bit uneasy about having to part with the baby, but that was to be expected.

A child's upbringing was always the parents' responsibility, especially the mother's. But not for Abdin who was focused on his immortality. He joyfully ran to the door and didn't even wait to ask who it was, before unlocking it.

Two women stood by the door, a short man behind them.

Abdin had never seen them before, but he was certain they weren't related to the baby. After all, claiming a child never have to be done with a dagger.

Were they robbers?

"What do you want?" He asked, ignoring the dagger strapped to the man's hip.

The woman who stood closer to him moved even closer and pushed her nose up, sniffing him.

"I told you, this is where I scented it from," she said.

The two others frowned. They could also trace his scent, but it was his pol that made them wonder.

"What is your name, and where do you come from?" Asked the woman who was still sniffing him.

"You still haven't answered my question. What do you want? Who are you looking for?"

Both women were at the peak of the core formation stage, and they didn't even try to conceal their pol.

The man was scarier, and his spiritual sense was very similar to a Pseudo-Deva. However, his eyes were free of a certain red gleam present in the women's eyes.

The same red gleam was present in Laluri. The two women must be from the same tribe. Abdin wanted to know how they had found him since it didn't seem like a simple robbery anymore.