Cultivating And Preparing

Heian Ciemnosc's team experienced breakthroughs. But even though Heian Ciemnosc decided to let his team members undertake dual cultivation with him, he wanted to wait after the terrible trio acclimatized to the Spirit Transformation realm and the rest were close to breaking through to it. Indeed, Esteban, Fengli, Sakura, and Violet successfully broke through. The terrible trio was nearing the Spirit Transformation realm 1st stage's peak as Violet had already started solidifying her foundation.

Oleg and Victor had broken through to the Crabstynian realm 10th stage. Aleksander successfully stepped on their tails and broke into the 9th stage, but those three were already at their peak. They had prepared thousands of Inferior Powerful Stones before the war, after their last mission with Heian Ciemnosc as a team. Naturally, their aptitude was much better than most students.

From the team, Violet had the best Spirit Sense. She didn’t need to make any effort for her Spirit Sense to grow to the maximum possible as soon as she broke through realms. Heian Ciemnosc further confirmed those thoughts after witnessing her breakthrough. The Spirit Formation realm wasn’t complicated to cultivate into or through. Her Spirit Sense became 200 meters long in range, amazing the rest of the team.

It wasn’t like Violet had a secret or an omnipotent item. This was just her aptitude, although Heian Ciemnosc figured her Spirit Sense talent also had something to do with her heart and ideals. In any case, Esteban had found himself a good wifey, and Heian Ciemnosc couldn’t wait until he saw them both getting all merry in missions to scold them. Since Elena wasn’t here to play around with, nobody could think of flaunting their lovey-dovey exercise in front of him!

As for the scouting group, it had become expanded to 147 members. Of these, 47 were talented, loyal, and promising fellas that Heian Ciemnosc and his team weren’t shy to show their bias to in public or within missions. Of them, 24 were the survivors of the Greentundra Division. If they were to hear themselves from the past, they would slap themselves so harshly they could break time and space. Even though time was gone.

It wasn't a coincidence the number of scouts and the promising fellas. Heian Ciemnosc was slightly teasing the new recruits, bathing them in harsh and exhaustive training while slowly brainwashing and converting those 47 to come to their Concealed Ornament Team. They were already in, but some extra brainwashing wasn’t inadequate. Naturally, Heian Ciemnosc wouldn’t employ his dual cultivation method with them. Only his closest subordinates can have such luxury.

From those 47, many broke to the peak of the Crabstynian realm 10th stage, while some broke into the Spirit Formation realm. From the other 100, they did increase their cultivation base but had short efficiency, and only a few increased it to the next stage. The Concealed Ornament Team, as a whole, now had more than 20 Spirit Formation realm cultivators. During the last Division, the Ice Comet Division, the scouting group was a terrifying force to reckon against the enemy cannon teams, unstoppable.

There were casualties in each Division, but in the end, from a few hundred that joined the scouting group, a few perished, and a few requested to retire to the army as standard student troopers. Heian Ciemnosc’s methods and cruel training became slightly notorious as more students returned to the main force. But instead of hoping that would diminish Heian Ciemnosc’s reputation, Lionel could only watch as the team leader was approached by more excited and emboldened student troops than before.

There was definitely some precaution for the students selected as new scouts for the scouting group. But there were also others who were thrilled to form part of the demonic training regimen. Heian Ciemnosc found dozens of worthy, promising fellas. A few of them died, but they did so with something to their name, which their fellow scouts reported back to the other students. It was a never-ending cycle. The commander became helpless as he noticed he couldn’t deny Heian Ciemnosc’s influence after putting him as the scout’s leader.

Who asked him to put his target into a position? The idea of letting Heian Ciemnosc die from the unknown enemy was alright. But attempting that against someone with just a bit of cleverness wasn’t that smart. In the end, the commander’s hopes were tarnished. And by the time he noticed Heian Ciemnosc’s ever-growing influence, he was already in the student troops’ eyes, and his image couldn’t be erased.

And, hell, he even had the sentiment that if he tried blemishing and incriminating Heian Ciemnosc, the army would frown at him and possibly turn against him… That wasn’t a problem. He could survive that, but the Academy wouldn’t be so naïve to let this master go unnoticed. It would be handled right away. But after thinking for a while, Lionel opted to not try some drastic measures. His job wasn’t an assassination, and he was the big boss around here. He had nothing to fear.

But more importantly, with the Concealed Ornament Team getting more powerful and finally expanding, taking as many opportunities in this war as possible to do so. Heian Ciemnosc faced more powerful enemies. Spirit Transformation realm cultivators started showing up increasingly more, especially in the Ice Comet Division. Naturally, he didn’t fight them alone. Nor did he choose honorable and famous 1v1 duels with his team and himself against the enemy.

After several assassinations, ambushes, and ganging upon the unsuspecting enemy with the strength of his scouting group, Heian Ciemnosc’s team consolidated their cultivation quickly and efficiently. As for his cultivation, naturally, with so many dishes presenting themselves to him, his cultivation base soared the fastest among the scouting group!

In the end, eating so many corpses of many Spirit Transformation realm cultivators, Heian Ciemnosc broke into the Ashes Soul realm 3rd stage in the middle of their scouting mission through the Ice Comet Division and was already halfway through before the 4th stage. He wasn’t the strongest from his scouting group, and a few ‘outsider’ scouts were at the initial later stages of the Spirit Transformation realm.

“... Woah, look at that! So much heat, the air is disrupted even though we are still on the cold side!” As the scouting team, and always taking Cari’s transporting ship at the vanguard of their flying-fleet formation, Heian Ciemnosc and his scouting group had the first hand on getting down the ship and stepping onto the land. When they landed, it was all plain. They landed on the snow and just a few tens of kilometers away from the Divisional border.

Violet exclaimed as the scouting group walked in the pale yellow, dirt-colored lands’ direction ahead. She was ecstatic seeing the change in temperature and sights. This snow-ruled division was monotonous, with so many fake mountains made of ice or snow and even both. There were fewer Cities and barely any city because of the harsh temperature. They also had to walk for longer with snow up to their waist. The only good thing was she and Esteban could snuggle while walking and fight together more closely.

“Yeah, we will have much more fun here,” Victor said after he walked up and touched a long tree with a twisted trunk that peeked into the Ice Comet Division through the border. The separation of snow and desert wasn’t a line, and the place Heian Ciemnosc’s scouting group was in had snow stretching a few kilometers into the Endless Desert Division. They had finally arrived!

Looking back a little, the scouts felt responsible for bringing the army here mostly secure, even if they lost some of their comrades or cowed and chose to remain safe, back with the main force. They felt some achievement. Of course, they looked back at their team leader’s back, whose entire blame for keeping the army out of danger rested on his shoulders.

“...” Heian Ciemnosc said nothing as all this happened. His team chatted with each other, the ‘new’ ones asking their sub team leader questions about how to traverse the following territory, and other stuff. It was all to relax a little. After all, entering the enemy’s terrain wasn’t the same as simply scouting to keep the army safe. He also sensed and understood the outsider scouts’ thoughts. But not everyone had enough potential or even talent to form part of his team.

In the future, perhaps, but not now. If anything, Heian Ciemnosc only allowed the best to enter his team so they could be well-trained first. Of course, if such possible candidates didn’t have good conduct or couldn’t develop loyalty towards him and the team, they wouldn’t be allowed in.

Though he was silent, Heian Ciemnosc continued to observe ahead with interest. His eyes could see farther than his current Spirit Sense without obstruction. An endless amount of hills of all lengths and diameters flooded the desertic land. Trees grew and made forests, but were very diminutive and didn’t form any oasis. There were many more Cities and cities in this Division than the previous 3 combined, and the pure energy in the air was only a few times worse than in the Wrath Nihility Academy’s Region.

“Let’s go in, start separating more broadly,” Heian Ciemnosc said before taking the first step into the Endless Desert Division from the Academy’s part since the war started. Sakura was second to step in, standing behind Heian Ciemnosc, quickly guiding her sub team members to follow the big boss inside. The rest of his team members followed suit, followed by the scouting group.

Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.

They quickly acclimatized to the new environment since the snow slowly disappeared from under their feet and only let the sand and tough dirt remain as the ground. Once they spent another few minutes traveling for a few kilometers, Heian Ciemnosc ordered the scouting group, and they dashed in after reporting to the army. They shot into the Endless Desert, passing a few steep mountains stretching into the sky and seemingly vastly embedded into the ground.

The scouting group’s shadow quickly left the borders and entered the southwestern side of the Endless Desert Division. Heian Ciemnosc’s orders were simple. The army would start by recuperating the northwest Sub-Division in the Endless Desert Division.

This Division had 3 Sub-Divisions. The one they were going for. First, was the Imp Eye Sub-Division, which covered the northwest. Secondly, the Care Sub-Division covers the Division’s southeast. And finally, the Watery Lands Sub-Division. Which is the Division’s center overall. It was also where the Academy’s information notified this army of the whereabouts of their ultimate target.

They had to go through the southernmost part of the Care Sub-Divisio before arriving at the Imp Eye Sub-Division. The army had to go through that much land without being obstructed, or at least without falling in danger. Thus, Heian Ciemnosc’s scouting group had a little extra job. It wasn’t only that, but before actually entering the Imp Eye Sub-Division to reconquer everything, Heian Ciemnosc was ordered to investigate and document his findings of 3 Cities in the reports.

This was so the commander could request the Academy reinforcements. The overall plan was to create a path for the Academy from the southernmost part of the Care Sub-Division to the Imp Eye Sub-Division. Then, after the army conquered the Imp Eye Sub-Division while protecting this improvised route and defended the Cities, the Academy’s forces could pincer-attack the Care Sub-Division. The important thing was to gain information from the Cities and then conquer them. The army would be stationed there after the Academy received confirmation that they were taken over. And once the reinforcements came, they could march into the Imp Eye Sub-Division.

After they reconquered the Imp Eye Sub-Division, the army would again request more reinforcements. By then, the Academy surely wouldn’t tell them no. They were short of manpower, after all. Then, the Watery Land Sub-Division wouldn’t be a problem.

Thus, Heian Ciemnosc set out rapidly. Knowing the army would walk slower and form a temporary base with the transporting ship as its principal defense line. Along with the cannons the scouting group stole and reassembled, they would be defensive until Heian Ciemnosc finished his mission.

After these 3 Cities were spied on and their information collected, Heian Ciemnosc and his team would receive a little break to siege the Cities. Although they might have to scout a little more in between each siege. Afterwards, they might return to scouting missions when entering the Imp Eye Sub-Division. But it was fine. His cultivation improved efficiently with many personal rewards with each encounter his scouting group had.

… Until dusk of the 2nd day, Heian Ciemnosc found the first City that would be besieged. His scouting group had already received confirmation of the army’s temporary base’s location and safety. Heian Ciemnosc dutily delivered back the route they took, and of which had the most enemy cutivators on patrol for the future action.

Heian Ciemnosc’s scouting group didn’t find many enemy teams, but when they did and couldn’t avoid them, they were cleanly erased from the world. Aleksander led most of the assassination on his own, quickly finishing the enemy in less than a couple minutes. That, and the anti-transmission array formations Heian Ciemnosc pre-inscribed, they continued rushing at an actual decent speed to their first target.

When the City was a few thousand kilometers away, Heian Ciemnosc inscribed a mobile array formation with everyone but him as the receptor and Heian Ciemnosc as the effector. With the thousands of Inferior Powerful Stones from their loot. The array formation could be kept active for several days. Heian Ciemnosc and his scouting group closed in on the first City. When they came close enough that his array formation would be detected, he left the scouting group with Violet, Aleksander, and Victor and dashed towards the City!

They were just a few tens of kilometers away. It didn’t take them more than several minutes to reach its walls.

Whoosh, whoosh, whooosh, whoosh. Tak tak tak tak…

For this mission, Heian Ciemnosc had to use a little something from the past. His ‘dark dome’ was somewhat employed. It wasn’t directly taken out from his body like before. Heian Ciemnosc simply effectuated it and used his dark Power Energy to cover his team members’ smallish devices and equipment. With that, under the night, they infiltrated the first City without even Spirit Rebirth realm cultivators noticing them.

However, this was draining Heian Ciemnosc’s capabilities quickly, even more so as he tried limiting it and spreading it to other people’s bodies, covering them with it. He had practiced before, with his Master’s help, but doing so and using his Spirit Sense to search for information made Heian Ciemnosc’s eyes and ears slightly bleed out before even a minute went out. He also felt his cultivation base begin to quiver.

However! Heian Ciemnosc was fast and determined. He only had to do this right once, and most of the information they needed was here. It would be enough to not have to intrinsically waste his body and tire the shit out of himself.

“...” - “...” Heian Ciemnosc glared at his members after finding a place just as they walked through some streets near the center, between alleys and corners, with Heian Ciemnosc’s darkness covering them. After receiving his glare, Violet, Victor, and Aleksander nodded and followed his every step. They could feel their team leader’s inner body revolting and suffering, but he was still faster and more agile than them.

They dashed through some sidewalls of buildings until they reached a certain distance from the central structure. Heian Ciemnosc jumped into the air. His Claws Out were visible, but they weren’t out on his own accord. He was really losing it. Without looking back, he hurried to the building where he discovered tons of documents and slips made of rock and wood containing information he couldn’t penetrate with his Spirit Sense and his ‘dark dome’ activated.

Thud- cre- slam!

Heian Ciemnosc entered the room. It wasn’t larger than Teacher Puru’s apartment. He slammed the door behind him and stumbled towards the drawers, took the documents and slips out, instantly read them, and put them back exactly how they were. He repeated the action as he went from desk to desk and from locker to locker. He opened them and took the things outside brusquely but returned them without any damage and with accurate precision.

Even as Heian Ciemnosc was suffering heavily under such taxing multi-tasking, he was still motherfucking Heian Ciemnosc.

Step, step- creak-...

Heian Ciemnosc was finished with reading through everything. But his mind was so fucked up right now he couldn’t even go through the information. He walked outside as his team members guarded but noticed they were somewhat stiff and tense. Before he could realize what could be happening. The door opened, and a young girl appeared. She looked about 16 years old, older than him, and had a pale face despite her cinnamon, light, creamy skin.

She was sweaty, but Heian Ciemnosc could at least identify her as a non-cultivator and someone without any teachings to be considered a citizen. She looked at him and was scared for her life as she saw his dark-bloody face and tremendously ferocious countenance.

Step, step, step…

“!” However, more sounds appeared. And Heian Ciemnosc, who was more attentive now, heard them. He glanced at the young girl, who was paralyzed and left the door ajar. She didn’t have time to respond before the pale, terrifying ‘young man’ before her disappeared from her eyes. She felt her hands, posed before her chest in weak defense, grabbed as her back was against something hard.

“AAAH!” Before she knew it, her legs were up against the sides of her torso, and her knees met the ground beside her head. Her pink, childish dress was lifted under Heian Ciemnosc’s frowning face, and he took out his manly object. The moment she saw it, she paled more than before and implored, “Please don’t! It’s too big! I can- I can’t!”

‘Lady, you were about to be raped and still don’t know how not to talk?’ Heian Ciemnosc looked at her speechless but didn’t stop his motions. With Arla’s previous training, he encompassed her vulva with his dark Power Energy and his glans. After ‘attracting’ them to each other like magnets, his glans was slurped in, and his dual cultivation method was employed directly. He was too heavily busy with other things in his head that he couldn’t help but instinctively start dual cultivation with her as he entered her.

“Aahwoo! Aah… Aaah!” Heian Ciemnosc could feel blood around his member as he slowly moved. But then fastened his movements just a few seconds before a middle-aged cultivator at the Spirit Birth realm hurried into the room with a frowning, unbelieving gaze.

“Err… senior? What are you doing here? The Academy’s army just entered, and we can’t be here without permission, so wh-” The middle-aged cultivator could only see Heian Ciemnosc’s cultivation was at the Ashes Soul realm but not at what stage. Since that was a whole realm above his, the middle-aged man’s complexion changed, and he acted subservient - but was interrupted by Heian Ciemnosc as he kept pounding the poor, sobbing young girl.

“Well, if someone didn’t let their pets out of their stores, I wouldn’t have been attracted here. What? Do you want to fight for her? Sure, I’ll tell the commander where it all began.”

“No, no!” The middle-aged man sweated bullets, and his gaze on the young girl became like one looking at trash before finally departing from her feminine and intimate features. He said right before leaving, “I saw nothing. It was my fault, hehe! Please, senior, have fun. She is a simple little girl from one of the families. She might be willing to bear children, haha! I’ll be leaving first.”

Flap, flap, flap… flap…flap…

Heian Ciemnosc continued ponding for a minute before finally stopping. He didn’t finish. He stood up and saw the young girl’s blushed face as she was torn between the traumatic experience and pleasure, the latter against her will, but her body stopped feeling pain after a while…

“...” Saying nothing, Heian Ciemnosc picked her up, tore her childish dress, and put his dark jacket on her before leaving. His mind felt a little freer. His cultivation base was now at the advanced level of the 3rd stage!

…