As the day of the ritual starts drawing closer, tension and arguments between neighboring towns, tyrants, and the states started to diminish. Due to the continent scale event required a total cooperation between states to make it a success, a temporary truce had been made among states, with the royal family heir placed on the sacrificial altar to honor the truce.
5 Days before the ritual starts, the participants finally gathered throughout the central border, where the 500 Acres of land is free from any state's rules. Close to 10 Million participants are seen within this area, where the 500 acres of land immediately looked so packed. Vendors are seen everywhere, trying to earn a large profit due to the tight supplies of medicinal products and the outrageous demand.
4 Days remaining, the Royal Family from their respective state appears within their own direction, but none of them entering the free ruling area. While for West, the Ming cult finally made their appearance when the end of the 4th day is near. Leading a total of about 500,000 cultivators, the Ming Cult march along the way, and entering the free ruling area first.
For the last 3 days, Instead of focusing on what will happen among those who gathered, Altima spent most of his time concocting medicine nonstop. With every additional Life preserving medicine he concocted, one more life could be saved during the critical moment. Holding up on this mentality, Altima quickly exhausted himself after concocting pills without rest for a total of 3 days.
Awaken by the attendant assigned by Yang Wu Di, finally the Ritual Starting time is here.
The group immediately prepare themselves, ready to charge into the spatial realm when it's opened. As they expected, with the spatial realm entrance suddenly appeared out of thin air, a large number of cultivators quickly charge into the spatial realm, where a stampede quickly happened!
"I would never imagine, after so long, we are still not able to peacefully combined our strength and face this upcoming challenges together."
Yang Wu Di express in regrets.
Seeing the stampede happening in front of his view, where the cultivators started to quarrel and fight among each other, just to obtain the right to enter the spatial realm first. Within two hours, although the main force of cultivators from different factions had thoroughly entered the spatial realm, the numbers dropped from 10 Million cultivators into only 8 Million cultivators left.
If anybody wished to asked, "Where are the remaining two million cultivators goes?"
It's simple, they had either turned into minced paste due to the reckless stampede forced by the back of the line or killed due to the greed within the ruthless cultivator, who tried to take advantage during the havoc by reducing the number of competitors.
"Let us proceed!"
Yang Wu Di passed his order along the ranks, where the Wu Di Royal Army charge in unison, entering the huge spatial realm opened before them.
Within a few blinks, the group finally entered a huge land, which doesn’t look like a bridge at all.
"This is totally a different ecosystem compared to any spatial realm I encountered before!"
Altima speaks to himself, but quickly gain his own composure and proceed with the remaining Wu Di Royal Army by his side.
After making a headcount, the number of Wu Di Troops which had been transferred to his side amounted 50,000 in total. Among the 8 brothers, none of them had been transferred to the same bridge Altima is located. With the troops gathered together after salvaging nearby remains, and gathering medicinal herbs and some demonic beast treasures, the group of 50,000 divide themselves into 10 different teams, with 5,000 members each.
The 10 team will be arranged as the vanguard team, and the back support team, where they will proceed along the path in the formation of 5 arrows spread along the path. In the same time, Altima will take the lead on the middle arrow position, so the information and reports could be delivered without delays.
With the reports came from Mobi's interface, Altima starts their journey.
"Report! The Left flank encountered the demonic Tree Stump beast!"
"Report! The Right flank is swarmed by a large number of corroding Slugs!"
"Report! The center troops are attacked by some subterranean Worms!"
"Report! The Support team encountered a large number of pointy ears Demon!"
"What ? Pointy ears Demon ?"
Altima immediately shocked with the final incoming reports. Through Mobi's interface, he had himself prepared for the first 3 reports as he is trying to adjust and prepare his team to reveal the incoming assault from the different sides. But unexpectedly, the Pointy ear Demons is totally invisible from his Map Scanning report.
"Have the 3 centers rear team to lead the assault in repelling the Pointy ear demon forces!"
"Vanguard team, upon clearing the enemies, immediately retreat by an acre distance from the clashing points, and start building our retreating camps. Spread your team into the spider web formation, and scout the terrains while waiting for my return."
Immediately, Altima move from the center vanguard, leaving two captains in the Dao Stage to take control of the temporary command. Within the time span of 15 minutes, Altima finally reach the battle point, where 3 teams of troops totaled up to 15,000 troops, is having a difficult time handling the sneaky pointy ear demons.
"Brother, can you scan the status and information on those Pointy ear Demons ?"
Altima sneakily speaks to Mobi, and the result came almost immediately after Mobi cast his interface actions on scanning the characteristic of the Demons.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Lowest Grade Ancient Elves (Dagger) - Ancient Heritage Elven Tribe
Characteristic: Aggressive and sneaky nature, often launch a sneak attack towards unprotected targets, and love stealing shiny metallic materials from target they kill. Usually found together in a group of 5 to 10 members.
Weakness: Due to the sneaky and cowardly attitude, this Dagger wielding Elves had literally no defensive strength at all. As long one have good speed to match the elves speed, they can easily dispose of the elves without any difficulties.
Threat Level: 5th Stage Master Practitioner of Zen Tier
"I see, so that’s the ancient elves which are totally extinct from the Lan Shen Continent. Brother, can you try to interpret and translate their language ?"
Altima quickly tries to persuade Mobi to translate the language the elves use to communicate.
"What the HELL!!! Are you treating me as a translating device ?"
Mobi, immediately burst into anger, after listened to Altima's ridiculous request.
"Brother! If we can communicate with them, perhaps the production of better metal materials is possible! You will have more access to better quality food too!"
Altima immediately tempts Mobi with the knowledge he used to listen to his life as Matilda. He is hoping that this elven tribe will be familiar with the stories during his past life.
Without delaying, Mobi quickly translates the language used by the elves, and soon, even Mobi himself felt the loss after he manages to translate a portion of their words.
"Why they keep saying this same word again and again ?"
Mobi felt weird and his brain is filled with questions.
"What did they keep on saying ?"
Altima, getting impatient, quickly question Mobi on his results.
"The elves keep saying (Why is all this beast have no fragrant taste at all ?) word to each other."
Mobi speaks out the translated words he had in hand.
"Brother, try to check their diets."
Very quickly, Altima and his troops manage to surround the Ancient Elves, but yet to take actions as they have not received further instruction from Altima.
(Why are you attacking us for ?)
Altima speaks in the Elven Language. Broken but still manageable to be understood.
(We starve! Human walking. Many foods!)
The elves replied, but luckily, Mobi manage to translate fast enough for Altima to grasp their language proficiency.
(Let us exchange! We human will give you foods, while you will give us something else we wish.)
Altima replied, and had the soldiers gather up the provisions available within their spatial rings. In the same time, Altima withdraws numbers of fresh fruits, dried goods and edible meats from his spatial inventory.
(Food God! So many foods, Bring all the useless things out from your holes!)
The oldest elves quickly shouted on the others. Immediately, all the elves scattered to the nearby forest, digging for treasures before they return to the center where Altima just captured all of them.
Placing the foods on the table, and assigning ten captains in handling the exchange, many elves started to surrender their crude spatial tablets (Unrefined Material which is important to mold a spatial ring) in exchange for fruits and dried edible goods. Out of Altima and the other soldiers, the Elves actually prefer herbs, fruits, and dried goods as their diets, instead of meat.
As the exchange goes on, Altima, sitting on one side trying to communicate with the eldest elves, which known as "Ta-Ruk"
(Ta-Ruk, there is plenty of fruits and medicinal herbs all around this forest, it is a totally different ecosystem, why would you elves be starving ?)
Altima cannot control his curiosity, so he asked.
(Kind Lord, we are only the lowest existence among the elves, to manage to eat, we must gather at least 5 stone worth of food before we are allowed to have one meal.)
Ta-Ruk sadly reply.
(Who is the one that sets this kind of rules ?)
Altima questioned.
(The Hierarch of Elves Tribe. The elves are one of the largest tribe in this route. If you go ahead, there is a total of 5 different Elves tribe located along your way. We are the lowest existence among all of them.)
Ta-Ruk continues.
As the two continue exchanging information, soon Altima find out that their way the elves is groomed is slightly different from how the human does. The elves grow according to a ritual, whereupon one elf member among them reach their strength to break through their shells, the ritual will begin.
Incantation will be repeated, and blessing from the heavens will fall to the member. Bath in the light of gods, the elves will receive a rank up, where they will break from their current cocoon of Lowest-Grade body, and ascend into a higher and stronger body.
Once a while, some of the elves with good potential could gain two ascending, where from the Lowest-Grade body, they ascend into the Medium-Grade or even some on Intermediate-Grade body. Due to the longevity of the elves far exceed the lifespan of other races, the elves grows to be sneaky and sly, just to protect themselves until they reach the moment to ascend.
(Ta-Ruk, Would you like to join my legions ? If you willing to pledge loyalty to me and my brothers, I will make sure we will not mistreat your kinds, but in exchange, your elves tribe must be standing alongside with us throughout our journey to conquer the world.)
Altima quickly throws an offer to Ta-Ruk, due to two reasons.
Firstly, is because of the ecosystem. The elves tribe currently are still not well groomed with newer technologies, as well as in the term of agriculture, architecture, and culture. Grooming and growing a new tribe could ensure Altima himself to be hailed as one of the most important people as the tribe grows.
Secondly is due to the ability to speak with nature. The elves tribe often being mentioned when it comes to the being one with nature. Excellent in agriculture and plantations, Altima expect them to help him grow his Personal Cultivation Farm plantations, taking over the Goblins job and allowing the produce of the Farm to get bigger and better.
(Will we be mistreated like currently ?)
Ta-Ruk asks an important question. He himself, out of all the other elves, had been live within this spatial dimension for at least 2000 years. Throughout his time, he had seen so many incidents where they had been hunted and tortured by the higher ranks elves due to their incompetence to provide sufficient food source.
As the tribe needs to ensure that they have enough people to ensure their tribe stays alive, strong and fertile male, often being treated as the mating tool for the female to keep on conceive. The female elves are all expected to start giving birth upon reaching their maturity, which is around 20 years after birth.
Currently, Ta-Ruk leads a total of 3000 elves, where 500 of them is female and 2500 of them is male. The male is tasked to gather food sources from the forest, and slay nearby beast to ensure the safety of their camps, while the female is expected to keep giving birth every 6 months, to ensure their camp keep growing stronger.
(You won't need to worry about this. Follow me to my spatial Realm.)
Altima stands and lead Ta-Ruk to a secluded side, before both of them entered a spatial portal.
Within the portal, Ta-Ruk is totally amazed by the balanced ecosystem and fertility of the land, where abundant resources, herbs, and fruits are planted all around the large piece of land. Strong Yin and Yang Energy is released from the direction up north, while the goblins working on the mountain located on the west side. On the south, plantations grow without any limitations, creating a specialize flora and fauna, while on the east, a large number of wild beast graze along the grassland without worries.
Immediately, Ta-Ruk pledges his loyalty and the fate of his tribe to the hand of Altima, without any additional question asked. As they both return to the bridge once again, Ta-Ruk quickly convinces his brethren on following and pleading loyalty to Altima.
Without wasting any more casualties, Altima manages to absorb a total of 3000 Ancient Elves, and quickly allows all of them to enter his Private Cultivation Farm to assist in its production.
From this moment onwards, one could expect what path Altima will walk across.