True Soldier Units

In the west, the Forbloffende Traes Sect's soldier units fought for the first time. Not only did they have more cultivation base than the majority of any other First Step organization, they were also incredibly well-prepared. They even built many array formations of all kinds under the enemy's watchful eyes. Yet, not only did they fail to recognize and detect them appropriately, they also couldn't deal with them immediately.

The array formation intricacy was such that they could only try breaking them apart by force, not intellect. This was even for the enemy Conflagrate realm cultivators, who were called in after repeated hours and failures to even break through the gaps and get close to the base.

As the night passed, the enemy armies in the west, trying to destroy the Sect’s westernmost base, beginning with their loner base at the extreme, thought they had it surprisingly the hardest. However, in the east, things weren’t better for the other territories’ armies.

For starters, there were more array formations, many more.

The western bases were many less, and the land they needed to blockade was much less than in the east. However, each base had at least more than 10,000 soldier units, with Todoro at the far west extremity and Pretieta stationed in the middle of their blockade.

The westernmost base was farther away from the other bases. On purpose. The enemy tried taking it down fast, which would undoubtedly cause a sense of defeat to appear in the Sect bases. However, the result of that was as such. The situation only got worse as more reinforcements arrived and even those from the south also launched attacks. However, in the end, the base’s first layer of protective array formations was mildly damaged, nothing more.

But in the east, there were more bases, and more people inside them. Even then, when the enemy found out they were discovered, their bodies lit up, and charged at the base, they realized. Some were running forth nonstop, prepared and more than ready to go all-out and destroy the Sect’s people, as soon as they showed up.

Unfortunately for them, not even knowing how to distinguish right from left, when they saw a silhouette appear before them, with their comrades beside them, they struck out. Only several kills later, when those people heard shouts only from behind, noticing they weren’t being helped by their comrades behind them, did the killing stop.

Turns out, they were the most susceptible to illusory array formations. When the bases noticed this, they employed some of their array formations, immediately making those people run faster before slowly turning around to face their comrades. It wasn’t just one or a few out of a hundred. Otherwise, it would have been simple to just kill the ‘rogue’ ones.

In the end, the enemy was halted for a dozen minutes, taking down those tricked cultivators who couldn’t do anything else but to concede and be dragged to the rear. Their mentality proved a difficult weak spot they hadn’t thought of before, but that didn’t stop them from keeping on.

They charged at the base, but found more and more array formations. Not only were some of their troops affected by illusory array formations in the same way as before. There were other illusory array formations made for groups, slowing and separating small cliques from the rest of the charging troops, basically thwarting any vanguard they had planned.

Protective array formations would also trap some enemies at times, but the real, deadliest ones were the trapping array formations. As soon as one person activated them, even hundreds of their comrades would blow up or perish under the toxic gas, corroding their skin and attacking their blood and brain.

When the enemy finally arrived a few hundred meters before the easternmost base, they were met with many people up in the 30 meters tall walls. What’s more, however, was their stance. It was as if they had been waiting for such a moment.

Thus, when a dozen auxiliary units lifted their hands and covered their bodies with Power Energy to throw things at the close-enough enemy, the latter watched, taking a breather as their eyes’ contents expanded.

With just a dozen throwing 2 or 3 identical items through the air, before the enemy knew it, hundreds of their people were in brutal danger. Things akin to balls ‘disengaged’ and revealed countless tiny crystal shard-like objects flying towards them.

The auxiliary units’ most abundant cultivation base was from the peak of the Phrenic realm. The Inner Disciples ranged from the Spirit Gathering ream to the Conflagrate realm, but they were much less than the Servants and Outer Disciples in each base, naturally. Thus, most could only use Power Energy to boost their bodies and set the timer of their rollers.

After the first demonstration, the base went all-out, sending rollers and other projectiles, from small rockets, far away from what military rockets could be considered, to pre-inscribed array formations. The latter were thrown in devices, exploding when touching the ground and acting with the last wisp of Spirit Sense connecting them to their owners.

When they exploded, they sent dust everywhere, infinitely cutting the grass on the floor and leaving only torn fabric and bloody stains in the air or already fallen to the ground. They blasted in a 10 meter radius, leaving the nearby enemies helpless to respond in time. The enemy couldn’t react at first, too shocked by the barrage of tools and devices that they had to retreat.

As they retreated, wanting to form a firm foothold and prepare a charge again, they were once again backtracking to the hidden array formations, which seemed still full of energy. It was only hours later, when they were reinforced after calling for help, that they moved forth.

This time, they were prepared. Knowing the Sect’s methods, at least here, they coordinated with the other territories’ armies in the south and launched a pincer assault on the easternmost base. However, the results were the same.

When they arrived a few hundred meters before the base, without any waiting or respectful battle cry, the base sent countless projectiles in their direction. This time, the enemy Spirit Gathering realm and Conflagrate realm took the vanguard, charging ahead and stopping whatever projectile could hurt them. At least most of them did.

Javelins with a shaft under their head that would reveal 4 sides of a hidden compartment before blowing everything around a 5 meter radius with wind blasts were caught bare hand by some. Chains that carried gravity array formations to make them heavier without suffering such laws were bashed away by others.

The enemy spent an hour before getting close to the base ‘safely’. Those safety measures still costed them tens of thousands of lives, while the troops atop the walls were alive and kicking. And when the enemy Spirit Gathering realm and Conflagrate realm commanders challenged the Sect’s equals, they received a cold shoulder each.

Although some Inner Disciples wanted to have a go at it, their comrades stopped them. It was prohibited, especially in a situation like this. Even if they knew they’d destroy the enemy. The sanctions were severe, which no Forbloffende Traes Sect person would willingly suffer.

Thus, still knowing their place in the battle, the enemy commanders ordered the charge as a much closer battle unfolded. The auxiliary units still didn’t exit their bases, but the enemy didn’t care, as they formed battling formations and hurried with tools and devices of their own. More projectiles came down their way, while even more array formations were activated this time.

Furthermore, the number of trapping array formations, with killing capabilities, exponentially increased, leading the enemy to fall hundreds by hundreds shortly after. Slowly, as the enemy persisted and fought to reach the barrier, hour after hour. They finally gave up when they realized the base walls alone had 5 protective array formations barriers.

Like this, the first confrontation, from an actual conflict between the Sect and the Vrida Region’s territories, commenced and finished in less than half a day’s worth of time. From the night to the mid-morning, the enemy near the walls on the easternmost and westernmost fought. Late in the morning, they could be seen retreating to whence they came from.

During the afternoon and evening, the auxiliary units didn’t celebrate, remaining on guard. After watching until the next day, their people finally echoed in celebration. Cheering at their victory over the puny territories!

But things wouldn’t just end there. No. Because, when the day after arrived, under the morning lights, a prepared enemy commenced their first lasting siege in this confrontation against the Forbloffende Traes Sect’s blockade.

They reunited, pondered, and devised before finally sending millions of troops out. Of course, this time, they wouldn’t just mindlessly send them to the easternmost and westernmost bases, but all of them.

When the enemy publicly marched from their territories and headed to Sect’s blockades. They even collectively informed the Region of the Sect’s actions, of placing anything and anyone under their eyes, forming a tyrannical blockade to demand for riches.

With their morale high, they spread their numbers throughout the bases’ faraway surroundings. Then, 2 weeks after they set off, the bases were assaulted.

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At first, the enemy armies approached the easternmost and westernmost bases, catching them in another battle where both sides remained in a stalemate as the enemy brought more defensive tools than anything else. Although their defensive capabilities became practically null, and their hopes to destroy the Sect bases gone down the gutter, their survivability drastically improved.

From hundreds of enemy troops falling every some seconds, only dozens and dozens met their ends in the easternmost base’s battlefield, while only half the original enemy casualty rate remained in the westernmost. To the latter, the enemy sent much more than just numbers, even sending their elite troops to fight them. Of course, these weren’t just for that base.

The fight continued for 2 hours before the bases received surveillance information from the south and north respectively. They watched as slightly smaller, more compact, and disciplined armies marched towards every Forbloffende Traes Sect base.

The Sect was prepared, and they all got to their feet, ready to begin their battle. But looking at the enemy numbers, although it wasn’t too much of a problem with the array formations forcing the enemy to focus their attacks and slow their advancement, it would still shake the base’s foundations in the east.

The west had it a little worst. They only had close to 200,000 soldier units and several tens of thousands of auxiliary units. Although they could still brazenly resist the enemy in the westernmost base, hundreds of thousands spread throughout the other bases, even a couple of million enemy troops overall wasn’t a misconception.

However, the Sect neither retreated nor backed away into their base. The engineers inside continued checking the surveillance systems and used their communications systems to relay this news to their base’s fellow troopers and other bases. Similarly, they decoded the enemy’s energy transmissions and more easily from their Universal Conveyance from farther away.

Both cultivators and engineers shared workload in the systems’ personnel since the start of the day’s battles. Now, as things were about to get heftier, they became busier, with other personnel needed at their side to lift some burden from their bodies.

The other bases were forced into a pincer attack situation, where it looked like several ant colonies moved from the sides to intercept immobile black sugar dots in the middle of green. They worked together to close in on it, but the ‘sugar dots’ defensive mechanisms were difficult to overcome.

But the enemy, like before, was persistent. The battle continued, continued, and continued. At some point, even citizens had to help the cultivators throw their tools and devices, letting them accumulate Power Energy around their arms before helping them into a throwing motion.

After 3 days of endlessly battling, with the bases’ protective array formations falling one after the other, with only 1 or 2 remaining, the enemy retreated. They had become overly exhausted.

At first, they suffered greatly still while making no actual kill on the Sect’s side. But they improved and adapted to the Sect’s strong and weak points. During those 3 days, there was a point in which the enemy learned how to work together and reduce their casualties to only several of their comrades falling every few seconds.

However, it only lasted a third of a day, as the Sect members were far better at adapting and reading the enemy. In fact, as soon as the enemy was amidst discovering those better methods, the engineers and Conflagrate realm Inner Disciples were already motioning to act against it.

From then on, the enemy continued to accumulate physical exhaustion. Although their minds were also receiving burdens and tolls, it was nothing compared to the exertion they employed to keep the battles going and at least topple 1 Sect base down.

But while the reduction of their casualties was where their major focus was, the enemy’s exhaustion overlapped far too much. On the last day, the enemy fell quicker than even in the first confrontation, losing thousands of soldier units every few seconds at times from how terribly tired their troops were.

The enemy had no choice but to yet again retreat. They were awfully helpless to the Sect’s resilient and impenetrable array formations. They weren’t impossible to break, but they had to deal with either the Sect’s plethora of items or their ‘true’ soldier units.

After retreating, the enemy realized this far too obvious difference. The Sect’s soldier units were in the west, while the east was… protected by ‘weaker’ soldier units? It was a strange notion, but it was simply impossible not to take notice.

And after collecting information, of how the western soldier units showed blackish smoke here and there amidst their battles, and the strangely higher capacity to recuperate stamina, energy, and mentality amidst battle. Furthermore, the tactics they employed to experiment their efficiency were rendered useless, initially thought to be defective.

However, the tools and devices to block Spirit Sense and deviate energy bouts functioned as intended when they tried it among themselves after returning from battle. Thus, there was only one answer to all these doubts. The Forbloffende Traes Sect’s enigmatic Art!

Before, they had thought of letting things go. While they were enraged for their many losses, although each territory used no more than 20% of their troops in this coalition, they didn’t want this to continue. The losses that just a few battles caused the territories’ overall forces to diminish by 15% were too dangerous.

Anyone could turn to each other and eat the rest of the cake, as long as it was easy to take a bite from it. If they had that much trust in each other, they wouldn’t have waited to act against that Dynasty after long enough to allow it to build a relationship with the forest people.

Thus, when the Sect made them lose so many troops, they would rather wait and see after a while. They would perhaps plan a bigger plan of action after a while, if they wanted to try their luck. But now that the Sect’s Art has become notorious, and its results more or less exposed before them, they wouldn’t just think about it. They were going to act.

The territories finished their assembly with the steel-like determination to put a stop to the Sect’s growth. However, that would be a bit too… uncertain. After all, for such an Art to exist, from a possible Supreme classification, no organization would share that with even the other organizations of their territory for no reason. The ‘hunt’ for the Sect’s enigmatic Art had silently begun.

They set a near date to begin planning again before concluding their meeting. On the other hand, the confrontation reached an intermission, where the soldier and auxiliary units would have a breather for at least several months.

As the news reached everywhere, the Vrida Region felt the waves of transformation spreading throughout the Region. The forest people were ecstatic. Their already good point of view of the Forbloffende Traes Sect began gaining more light and meaning, nearing their older generations’ view on that Dynasty from before.

The rest of the north and center were astounded. Was the new organization that much? Really? They didn’t notice it. All they could think of the Forbloffende Traes Sect was how good they were in completing their missions. It was satisfactory for both parties. Besides, the Sect didn’t prohibit its members from getting nasty. Gaining popularity among the younger generation, be it cultivator or not.

However, it was a whole, different matter for the south. One that would immediately cost the territories dearly, and from then on, more and more.

The southerners received this news first, becoming absolutely ecstatic to have their mini overlord face off the north without scruples, and they even won! They felt like their sight cleared, and before they knew it, a vast quantity of the remaining unoccupied south sent delegations to speak with the Sect.

Since it was in a situation, the delegations had to travel from their settlement or area to the center, where the Forbloffende Traes Sect’s blockade didn’t stop them from reaching the inner territory’s southern entrance.

The delegations were more or less coming to the Sect at the same time. Some watched as other groups of civilians brought cultivators and non-cultivators to their meeting, so they could give the Sect’s testing grounds a try. The majority of the delegations came here alone, although it did go through their minds at least once. Cursing themselves for not being thorough, they entered the Sect for a meeting.

After the first batch of settlements’ delegations went to the Forbloffende Traes Sect and wore contented expressions, the second batch walked out of their settlements to also have a talk with the Sect. Nevertheless, this was basically formally finding a way to become the Sect’s territory.

Since the Sect couldn’t send people to the rest of the South, the civilians did the move themselves. It wouldn’t cost them anything anyways. They brought many people from their settlement. Those from cities were especially so, leading even a few thousands from afar. All of which were young and capable, and some with confirmed cultivation capabilities.

The testing grounds had gone back to what they were decades ago, with only a few Servants cleaning here and there and puppets to keep security tight. The examinees took their paper and pen and wrote it down before the array formations worked the procedures automatically.

While this happened, the forest people also wanted to have talks. Of course, they were more careful this time and sent their younger people, of which probably more than 50% might fail the testing grounds, but that would do.

However, when the forests first send their people directly to the Forbloffende Traes Sect inner territory, the blockade didn’t open to them and denied them passage, also warning them of no next times. This was a surprise, but it reminded everyone of the various rumors regarding this blockade. It was either the Sect’s greediness or their response to being bullied.

Who could tell which was true? Especially when the happenings leading to this were way too fast and unexplained. It was difficult to believe either side right away. Even the forest people were cautious, unlike the southerners, who threw themselves to the Sect’s arms and were contented just to be taken in. But that’s what time was for, and that was all the Vrida Region would require.

Thus, the large groups of forest people took a long detour. It couldn’t be avoided if they or a few of them became conflicted due to this. The Sect has its rules. Anyone outside the Sect is either an enemy or a neutral party. There’s no in between. Such is one of the so-called Sect creeds.

One group of people after another toured around the blockades from the western and eastern forests. Even then, there were some forest people who wanted to check their relationship with the Sect for no particular reason.

On one such occasion, a young civilian walked to the Sect inner territory, vertically carrying a large, rectangle backpack. His head was low, but he had already seen the base several tens of kilometers before him. It was getting darker, when a footprint lighted up before his right foot. He frowned and looked up, only to see a group of a few soldier unis rush towards him.

He sweated a little and stopped, putting his arms up and kneeling on the spot. The soldier units didn’t take long to reach him, merely 1 minute on their flying tools before surrounding the civilian with a third of a circle formation before him.

“You have viol- why are you here?!” The speaking soldier unit suddenly halted before immediately questioning the civilian. The latter looked at that person and recognized those eyes behind the resplendent black helmet. The civilian stood up, with the other soldier units taking 1 step backwards with their official’s gesture. “Cousin?”

“This is no place for civilians. Get up and retreat! If you want to attempt the testing grounds, detour like everyone else!” The soldier unit yelled. The civilian frowned and looked at the former, “Why? We know each other. Can’t I just cross through here?!”

“Piss off! If you’re seen around here once more, you’ll be dealt with on the spot!” The soldier unit rudely shouted. The civilian widened his eyes before becoming apprehensive. He couldn’t tell, but the soldier units surrounding him carried a scary, bloody, killing aura. He backtracked and nodded, but he didn’t look like he’d detour. His path was towards the forests.

…