The award ceremony that night was brief and uneventful. Hundreds of prizes of various qualities were handed out. Thanks to the numerous deaths of competitors both during the main competition and the ranking matches, a great many factions managed to step into higher positions and receive rewards beyond their capability to earn.

The ranking matches were mostly just for the purposes of filling all the positions from 1st to 26th, which were the only individuals to receive any compensation for their efforts in this trial. That’s not to say that everyone else received nothing. They were granted the opportunity to be awed by James’ magnificent visage, which he believed would be more than enough reward for them.

The top 26 contestants all received various prizes varying from martial techniques, to weapons, to trade opportunities. It wouldn’t be wrong to say that the top twenty-six prizes were very well received and everyone believed them to be of inordinate worth.

Naturally, the top three prizes were the most lusted after. However, two of them, the Brotherhoods assistance and the Velocity, both remained firmly in the hands of the guild. This was because in the ranking matches, Sword Girl overcame Betto’s powerful space magic and took second place.

Thanks to this, apart from the small spatial ring that was the third prize, the only other prize that James had any concern over was the 4th place, which happened to be his promise to custom make a weapon for said contender.

It just so happened that contender was Pigtails, whom James had flattened with a single strike in the semi-finals. After a huge party that spanned three nights and two days, Tech City gradually started to calm itself down again.

Or at least it calmed down slightly more than during the War of the Worlds. As a parting gift, each of the contenders that stepped into the top 50 received a golden ticket to become Seed members in the next War of the Worlds.

A week after the competition finished, James was receiving reports of small skirmishes happening between the borders of Soel and Hastoel. James wouldn’t let a chance to stir trouble slip by and set some infiltrators out to these areas to help raise tensions.

After having received reports from all of his minions ... err ... companions, efforts out in the field, James started putting a few more plans into action and laughing deviously for hours while he did so.

Imogine, the Pigtails girl from the Red Hearings faction, which even Jasmine had no knowledge of, had a strange expression on her face when she’d witnessed James just suddenly burst out into sinister laughter now and then.

She’d come to try and discuss something important with James only to rebuffed every time she brought up something unrelated to the artefact she wanted. Over the course of a week, James had sat down with her regularly to take her thoughts on what type of artefact she wanted.

Other than the occasional disturbing laughter and the spirit artefact, he didn’t seem interested at all in her origins. James was, of course, interested in the girl’s origins, after all for her to reach the heights she had in cultivation, naturally he was curious where she was from.

The whole time he’d been rebuffing her attempts to discuss other things with him, he’d actually been waiting for Jasmine to find out something about her background. At least then he’d have something concrete and have a better idea what her deal was. After all, the girl was a complete stranger and turned up out of apparently nowhere.

It was only when he was nearly completed her weapon, which was modelled as a chain sickle, did Jasmine finally locate information regarding the Red Hearings. James wasn’t surprised to find out that they were a Guild from the Gastalous Continent and they specialised in operations in and around the sea.

According to Jasmine, they had a rather interesting spirit artefact in the form of an ancient Galley, moored at a rather prosperous port city in the United Islands. With this in mind, a few rockets were launched from Tech City and quickly found their way over the coasts of Gastalous.

Although Jasmine had been doing some initial probing and mapping of Gastalous, this was the first time the Brotherhood had made any real effort to begin exploring the continent. As the Rockets fell to earth near the shores of Gastalous, everyone simply mistook them for meteors.

In actual fact, these few rockets were filled to the brim with drones. Inside were three types. The first being the standard flying Mk IV Drone that was now like a symbol of Tech City and could be found every 30 kilometres in Atsunari.

The second was a new prototype drone called the Cluster. It was actually more akin to thousands of little drones the size of flies, all stacked together inside a floating ball like hive cluster. These were the best for close reconnaissance and intelligence gathering in and around cities and towns.

The third drone type was the Mole. This drone is almost as common in Atsunari as the standard type. The only difference is that no one even knows that they exist in Atsunari. This drone spends all of its time digging around in the ground and probing for interesting minerals and other rare resources.

The most frightening part about all these drones is that, under the guidance of Jasmine, they’re basically fully self-sufficient. Within 3 months they’ll have created at least 3 ‘hives’ to reproduce more drones. By the time James even arrives in Gastalous, Jasmine will probably have mapped out the entire continent and have notes on every interesting secret from coast to coast.

As this was happening, another new drone prototype was silently being deployed into the oceans on Atsunari. James was well aware that only a small portion of the world is up here on the surface. All the most useful and interesting resources are most likely buried away deep under the earth or at the bottoms of oceans.

With this in mind, James would, without a doubt, begin exploring these places using drones. By the time James had completed Imogine’s chain sickle, all of these new drones had been deployed and were busy propagating and spreading as they fed back massive amounts of data to Jasmine, who strangely didn’t even seem to notice this huge increase in workload.

Also by this time, the port city that was home to Red Hearing guild had long since been infiltrated by an infestation of little metal flies.

-Guild HQ-

James sat opposite Imogine at his round table as he presented to her the finished product of the chain sickle he’d been working on for her. It was, in her opinion, a masterpiece in its own right. Even Imogine, who had met people far above her in cultivation, had never seen such a mystical spirit weapon.

This was James’ first product since he’d understood the mysteries of the folding fan and so it was filled with a great deal of effort on his part. The sickle blade was sharp enough to cut through damn near anything, and the chain had a simple cudgel style handle that could suddenly become as heavy as a mountain.

The most mystical part was the chain. Through trial and error, James had discovered a means to allow the chain to extend or retract infinitely. In its primary form, the chain sickle didn’t even appear to have a chain and simply looked like a sickle with a long handle.

Also, its ability to magnify water based skills was almost demonic, and at times it displayed truly bizarre properties when it magnified water attribute spirit energy. Often creating an unstoppable wave and other times a tiny jet stream powerful enough to slice through an entire city.

That was only the tip of the iceberg. James was rather proud of this artefact and was almost regretful that he had to give it away. He knew, however, that this was barely the beginning. Now that he’d experimented with new forging methods he had to consolidate his experience and master the new skills he’d learnt.

When that time came, his mastery of artefact crafting would reach a whole new level. Beyond anything the piddling little continent of Atsunari had ever witnessed.

After some brief comment and introductions to her new weapon, James sat down and looked at her expectantly.

Imogine was slightly startled when she realised that James was looking at her like a wolf preparing to devour a fat sheep. She frowned lightly and tightly gripped her brand new sickle, thinking that he was going to extort something from her despite this being a prize for her efforts in the competition.

“City Master James. Many thanks to you for your efforts in the creation of this weapon. I promise to take good care of it in my travels.”

This was more or less her way of saying, ‘It’s too late to take it back now. Mine!’.

James had a confused expression for a moment before he leant forward slightly and rested his chin on his hands.

“Miss Imogine. I’ve no interest in taking advantage of you over some trifling spirit artefact. I think it’s about time, you tell me why you came here.”

Imogine was momentarily surprised at his mention of such a powerful weapon as being trifling, but quickly regained her calm. She looked at James suspiciously for a moment, curious as to why he rebuffed all her attempts to discuss this before now only to suddenly bring it up at the end.

“It’s clear as day that I didn’t come here for your competition. City Master James, you’ve built yourself a rather powerful little guild here on Atsunari, but I’m sure that with your position you’ve come to realise that your powerful guild here is woefully incomparable to everywhere else in this world.

“I came here to recruit you. My Red Hearing’s Guild is the only one capable of crossing the vast ocean. It will most likely come as a shock to you, but my guild is actually from Gastalous.”

At this point, Imogine paused to watch the shocked reaction James had when he discovered he was being recruited by a Guild from one of the most powerful continents on the planet. However, the one to end up shocked was Imogine, when she realised that James hadn’t reacted at all.

‘He mustn’t be as profound as Senior Brother thought he was. He isn’t even aware of my continent or the difference in power. What a country bumpkin. It’s true what they say, you can teach away ignorance, but there’s no cure for stupidity.’

Thinking this far, Imogine went into a long explanation about Gastalous and all its virtues. She didn’t even need to play it up and exaggerate it because Gastalous really was a haven for cultivators in comparison to Atsunari.

After almost half an hour, she refocused her gaze onto James only to realise he wasn’t even slightly shocked or moved by her speech and was busily pouring himself some tea. It was like he wasn’t paying attention to her at all.

“City Master James! I’m not sure you realise the gravity of this situation. This continent is...”

James finally broke her long winded speech with a wave of the hand and a chuckle.

“Miss Imogine. I’ve been polite and cordial and let you ramble on and waste my time for almost an hour. My time is precious. Do not take me for a fool or some random lout. I am not ignorant of this world’s geography. Nor am I ignorant of the inherent differences between places like Atsunari and Gastalous. In fact, I would go so far as to say my understanding far surpasses yours.”

James sat back at the table with his cup of tea and in a very regal manner took a sip. Before Imogine’s embarrassment at being talked to in such a fashion could become anger, James continued.

“You may have been so polite as to act humble and gracious while you were here. But the total indifference and lack of sincerity are as obvious to me as the pages of a book. I can tell, that even though I beat your pretty little ass into a patty cake in the arena, you still look down on me as a lesser being because your background is so lofty and ideal while mine is non-existent.”

When he said this, shock registered in her eyes. James smiled like the devil as he calmly stirred his tea.

“Oh yes, Miss Imogine. I’m well aware of who you are and where you’re from. I also know that your purpose here isn’t just to recruit me. Your real purpose here is to try and pressure me into becoming a branch of your guild so that you have a new base of operations in Atsunari. I’m even so well informed that I know exactly what such a mighty and prestigious guild of the Gastalous continent wants in my backyard.

“Unfortunately, you can only act covertly like this, and come here to make promises and whisper me sweet nothings, so I’ll join you. If anyone above the palace realm leaves your ship, your competition will become suspicious. They’ll know that someone is trying to break the ancient treaty and is planning on stepping onto Atsunari once more.”

By this point, Imogine was shaking slightly. Her anger was rising like the tide, and her embarrassment was fuelling it to rise faster. The only thing keeping it in check at the moment was the memory of being smashed by James and flattened in a single strike. As well as the fear that he would start telling people what their true intentions were before they’d even started the initial steps of their plans.

“How do you know all this?” She couldn’t help but rasp out with a dry throat.

James’ smile grew wider, and he glanced over at her. “I know a great deal Miss Imogine. I suggest you go back and get on your boat. Atsunari is mine, and I’ll not let anyone trounce over here from another continent and start poking their nose in where it doesn’t belong.”

After saying this, James stood up and began to leave. Just before he walked out the door to the office, he turned back with a disgusting smile on his face, to see a thoroughly infuriated Imogine.

“Imogine. There is one last thing. If your Father can manage to survive the anger of my reply to your invitation nearly killing him, let him know I have a counter offer. If he offers you up to me on a silver platter, I’ll allow him to join my faction and become the first foreign offshoot of the Dark Brotherhood. In addition, no one will ever know that he had been setting up such a devious scheme.”

James then disappeared out the door. Just as he reached the elevator to head down to the lab, he heard the enraged scream of a wild young women coming from his office. He couldn’t stop himself from chuckling merrily.

-Port Charlton- Great Galley of the Red Hearing -

BOOM! BOOM!

The fierce sounds of huge blasts rang out in the port town and many bystanders watched on as parts of the giant Galley, moored offshore from the port, were blasted away. The loud incoherent ravings of someone echoed across the water and shook the windows and rattled the doors until they shattered from the force of the shockwaves.

It seemed the madness of the raving lunatic was directly affecting the atmosphere. Storm clouds started brewing overhead, and the waves of the ocean started violently seething in rhythm to the man’s rantings.

“The fucking punk! Fucking hick from the backwoods! Fucking...”

And so continued the rantings for a good hour. By the time his voice trailed off, lightning was cascading through the sky and rain was washing over the island in an endless violent torrent.

The waves from the ocean were so brutal that half the cities port had been washed away, resulting in thousands dead. The harbour had an ominous red tinge to the waters and was littered with corpses being rolled along in the waves like deadwood.

In the huge Galley ship, a large man built like a bull, with a barrel-like chest and bulging muscles, stalked back and forth in his captain’s quarters. Seated at the captain’s table were three men and a girl. Each of the men were dressed in the uniform of ranked captains, and the bulging muscled man was tightly squeezed into an admiral’s attire.

The girl was naturally Imogine, and in case it was difficult to guess, the admiral was her father, and the head of the Red Hearings. Of the three men, one was young, one was middle-aged and one was old.

Imogine sat in silence at the table, with her head lowered in embarrassment. The youngest captain seethed with anger while the middle-aged and oldest captain remained slightly more composed than the rest. Although it was easy to see that even they were frowning slightly at the dilemma they were in.

As he paced back and forth with a face filled with anger, the Admiral finally broke the tense silence of the cabin.

“How did he find out? I want to know exactly who leaked this information to him.”

As he said this, he swatted an annoying fly away and continued pacing back and forth. Due to his anger, the fly was disintegrated by the force of his blow. In response to this attack, another fly buzzed over and started flying around him.

Finally, the Admiral paused after swatting another fly. “Prepare the Raiders. We can’t let our intentions be leaked. Have them march to this free city and raze it to the ground. Bring me that boy’s head. Samson, I’ll leave this to you.”

The youngest of the three captains stood and made a salute. His face had a sinister smile plastered across it as he imagined slaughtering this stranger’s entire city. More so than that, he had longed after Imogine since childhood. For some swine from the lesser continents to demand her hand in marriage, he would never allow it.

“Admiral Shirl. You needn’t worry. Such a pathetic little backwater country. Even if this free city was filled with tower realm cultivators, they could never hope to oppose our raiders.”

The Admiral gave a curt nod, then sent Samson out to prepare his troops. He then looked to the eldest of the three captains.

“Sonsam. It’s impossible for anyone above palace realm to leave the ship, but that doesn’t mean our hands are tied. I want you to take the Maroona class frigate and return to the Guild. If this attack on the city fails for some unforeseeable reason, then we will invite him back to Gastalous and...”

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Before his thoughts could be finished, huge explosions started to ring out and the ship began to shudder and shake violently. In a matter of seconds, 8 massive flaming holes had appeared all over the ship.

This Galley was a spirit artefact refined by masters in forging. Not only that, but it was covered in array formations from head to toe protecting it and making it into a fortified floating castle. For something to deal enough damage to create a hole in the ship, let alone a hole nearly 100 metres in diameter it would need power equal to or even greater than a core realm practitioner.

James was actually rather surprised as he watched this in his spirit realm. He’d expected those 8 drones he sent in for suicide to create a great deal more damage than that. It just goes to show how powerful the Gastalous continent is.

Especially considering that the Red Hearing’s Guild is really just a small fry in Gastalous. It’s the equivalent of a guild created by true spirit realm and barrier realm cultivators in Atsunari. As attested by the fact that the Admiral is only a core realm practitioner himself.

James was greatly enjoying the show in his spirit realm as he watched the people from the ship running all over the place like panicked ants as they tried to stop the flooding of the ship and searching the horizon for their enemies.

The Admiral’s face was a sight to see as he received reports from the deck crew regarding the damage. When he heard that the majority of the explosions were focused on the Raiders that were preparing to depart the ship, a tight feeling enveloped his chest.

-Hastoel/Soel Border-

“Bring your arms to bear! Keep in formation! Arcane Cannon ... FIRE!”

KABOOM!

“Charge the cannon. Cavalry to the fore!”

On the border between the Soel and Hastoel nations, hundreds of thousands of lives were in a vicious struggle for life and death. Palace realm cultivators were locked in battle, releasing powerful techniques that churned the earth and split the sky.

Blood flooded the battlefield and coagulated into a sticky mess, slowly the march of the Soel forces.

Standing on a platform floating in the air was an Archbishop donned in the regal robes of the Order of Sun’s. The power of his peak tower realm cultivation carried his voice across the battlefield to every ear.

Down below hordes of spirit realm practitioners moved like a well organised machine in various formations. Cavalry donned in shining golden armour charged through the fields of blackened, charred earth and bloody mud.

Every wave of their swords brought forth death as the glorious three Sun’s light washed over them through the brewing storm clouds.

The Hastoelians were pushed back with every movement from the well-formed and disciplined armies of the church. The few Palace Realm generals that stood at the walls of a giant fort not far from the battlefield were too busy fighting and trying to one up each other for their orders to properly galvanise their men.

It was a one sided slaughter. This was just one of many incursions that had come without precursor or warning. More than 10 such battles were being waged across the western border of Hastoel.

Making everything worse was that the more people they conscripted to be marched to the border to their death, the more riled up and agitated the populous became. Due to the constant leaking of vicious acts and dirty secrets of the leaders and upper classes, the lower classes of Hastoel were already showing signs of an uprising.

As powerful as a cultivator at tower realm or palace realm is, they can’t escape the inevitable death that will follow if they’re swarmed by millions or billions of ordinary commoners. Making things even worse is that an underground resistance has been stirring in the shadows of the nation for months. They’ve been feeding endless propaganda to the civilians and worse still, equipping the entire nation with cultivation methods.

If it takes millions of commoners to kill a palace realm cultivator, then it would only take 10,000 barrier realms to achieve the same effect. Worse still, the cultivation techniques being fed to the masses are powerful and fast. In a matter of weeks, it’s possible for a regular nobody to reach True Spirit realm.

While the entirety of Soel was a well-oiled machine, with the church and populace working in harmony to achieve a single goal, Hastoel was a single incident away from civil war. The upper echelons were at each other’s throats, and the populace was verging on riots.

The only thing they had going for them in this sudden war, is that Soel doesn’t have the resources to maintain their armies. Half their casualties are just from starvation alone. Even a Palace realm cultivator can’t survive without any food forever. In fact, although cultivation can lower the bodies needs such as sleeping and eating. It can’t eliminate it entirely.

Perhaps the only cultivators that can escape those needs are the legendary immortals told of in fairy tales.

Soel has been starved almost half a year now. Although a palace realm can survive without sustenance for a few months, they aren’t gods. Worse still, only a few thousand of their army was actual even in the palace realm.

As this border war was kicking off, hundreds of thousands of civilians and cultivators were being enlisted by the Emperor of Yori. Everyone in their army passed through Tech City like an automated factory line.

Walk in one end an ordinary cultivator in daoist robes and humble bearing. Walk out the other side of the city decked to the nines in Mk2 Combat Armour, Mk3 Arc Cannon, Mk2 Arc Pistol, various protective talismans and other assorted items.

There were even regiments of armed combatants riding in vehicles with tacked tank like constructs sporting huge cannons and railguns. Hundreds of Imperial soldiers left the city on air boards and tens of thousands piled into Mk3 Big Berta’s being piloted by Brotherhood guild members.

These Big Berta’s were bristling with rail guns and had the endless hum of a powerful shielding array. There even managed to be 3 Velocity Gunships crews. Although these ships and their crew were only on loan to the Empire, they instilled fear and awe in anyone who witnessed them.

Among them, was two Gunships of a different design. This Gunship was smaller than the velocity but maintained a similar shape. One had the symbol of a skull with a scythe on it and was painted pitch black. The other was white as white can be and had a Knight on a golden steed wielding a lance.

All these forces were equipped and sent out to the borders of Yori Empire over the span of a month. They didn’t do anything. But they sat there looking like an ominous threat towards anyone stupid enough to attack the empire.

Seeing this action, Hastoel and Soel both began to have a strange feeling deep in their gut. Being led by tower realm practitioners, they had with them the wisdom of thousands of years of experience. By the time they realised there was something suspicious going on in Yori, it was already too late.

-Excerpt of Master Historian Gilligan- The History of Ancient Religions -

It was a dark day in the history of Order of Suns when the Demon King’s loyal dogs stood at the border of what was called, at that time, The Yori Empire. In all of its ancient and powerful history, the Order surely never believed that their downfall would come at the hands of what everyone believed then to be a ‘mere boy’.

It was the year of the Dragon in the ancient calendar. 17th Day of the 2nd Month. The drums of war had already rung out along the Hastoel and Soel Border for months. Although it has never been proven, it’s now believed that the Demon King was the curator of the sinister plot to starve Soel to the verge of extinction and the unrest within the Ancient Nation of Hastoel.

This lead to the inevitable battle fed by the primal instinct and need for food which threw the Order of Sun’s and the Hastoel Aristocracy into a heated war; inevitably wasting their resources and manpower.

When the Demon King finally unleashed his dogs, they rushed out into the fields of these two Great Nations and filled the earth for three hundred kilometres in blood. Thanks to the Demon Kings mastery of artefact forging and his ability to automate the process, his army was nigh unstoppable.

At first, the great Order of Suns was filled with disdain for the actions of a piddling little nation like Yori. It was their lack of foresight that led them to underestimate this opponent initially. It wasn’t until the battle of the City of Orphans that they realised their mistake.

The powerful war artefacts of the Demon King rolled over the established battle front of the Order in a matter of days. When Saint Merry, renowned at the time for having a heart of gold and rescuing an endless number of war orphans, rose to hold back the tides of the invading army, she was instead torn to pieces by the very orphans she saved, when the Demon King offered them food and benefits in exchange for the Saint’s life.

The city of orphans later got the name of City of Little Devils, when the Demon King established a school here that trained and brainwashed these young children into vicious warriors and assassins.

It was only after this battle that Soel finally took the invasion of its lands seriously. They pulled back their forces in the territory of Hastoel, which was at the same time being invaded by the Yori Empire, and assembled a grand army near their capital city. The City of Light!

Before the Pope could announce a Holy crusade to purge Atsunari of the Demon King, the Yori Army had already pushed the battlefront onto their doorstep.

-City of Light- Yori Camp -

James ran for his life. He rapidly sprinted through the empty command camp as sweat poured from his brows. His face was locked in a tense scowl, and his blue robes were in tattered disrepair. The light of various torches scattered around the camp flickered in his worried eyes.

A horn sounded in the distance, and the rumbling of hundreds of pairs of feet stamping the ground echoed out from every direction.

James froze for a second and assessed his surroundings. In a wooden spotting tower off in the distance he saw the glare of the moonlight from of a pair of binoculars peering back at him over the railing of the tower.

“Tsk! Those bastards! Who’s been teaching them all these tricks?”

James started running again. Another horn sounded out and shadows flickered in every direction. Behind him nearly a hundred meters away, torches were blown out by a mysterious wind bathing the camp in darkness.

James glanced back and grimaced. “Jasmine, how far is it?”

“400 Hundred Meters James. It appears you’re in a bit of a bind this time.”

“Like hell! If they catch me, even if I regret every day for the rest of my life, it’ll never be enough regret.”

James broke into a sprint. Shadows on every side flickered, and torches went out in every direction. As he rounded a tent, he saw the command tent only a few hundred meters away. Without delay, he sprinted for his life.

The horn grew more and more frantic, and the rumble of feet hitting the ground increased its tempo. Rocks began to launch out from the shadows as they shot towards James with a whistling sound.

James dodged a rock, spun and deflected another. He ducked and rolled forward before sprinting forward again.

‘Only a hundred meters. I’m nearly there!’

Just as he stepped forward to the last hundred meter stretch, another rock whizzed out from the darkness. James sidestepped to avoid it, and as his foot touched the ground, the earth started to give way.

‘Fuck! It’s a trap!’

Before his weight was fully on his stepping foot, he dropped his weight and launched himself to the side with his other foot, jumping over a hole nearly a meter wide.

He wiped his brow with some worry then jumped up and continued running. More rocks came and every second step was a trap. 30 meters. 20 meters. 10 meters. He was almost safe.

Just as he was reaching out for the flap of the tent, a shadow blurred from the side. James raised his arms up to block the unexpected attack. Then remembering something, he grinned slyly and just fell back like a block of wood before it could touch him.

Like a plank, he shamelessly hit the ground on his back as a little girl with long green hair shot over him. She was dressed in a black tank top and shorts. Her feet were wearing a pair of rugged looking boots, and her face was filled with shock as she passed through the air over top James.

Just as she hit the ground and turned back to grab at him, he even more shamelessly started rolling through the dirt like a worm as he disappeared under the flaps of the command tent.

“Damned shameless uncle! Stupid old man! Have you no shame! Crawling around in the dirt just to win a bet! How is that befitting your stature?”

James’ voice resounded out from the inside of the tent. “What’s shame?! Can I eat that? Can I sell that? You lost fair and square. Now round up your little army of trouble makers and scram back to your tents, or else Uncle’s gonna come out and we can play the game who screams ‘uncle’ first.”

The green haired girl pouted with an angry face and stamped her foot in the dirt. “Damned stupid Uncle!”

With that, she spun and started marching off towards the darkened area of the camp. As she walked towards the darkened area, hundreds of baby-faced youths from every age between babies, and young teenagers walked out of the shadows comforting the green haired girl with pleasantries.

James released a tense breath and finally relaxed on a chair in the command tent. All the generals and commanders in the tent, nearly a dozen of them, all watched James with wry smiles on their faces.

“Those little devils are going to take a hundred years off my life. Jasmine, how could you let me make such a gamble with them? They’re going to follow me around like a shadow for the rest of my life.”

After James said that, he glared fiercely at the generals from the Yori Empire seated in the command tent.

“And you lot aren’t making it any easier! Who the hell taught them all those tactics? Huh? Spotters ever hundred meters! Pitfalls! Leading me into traps with rocks! Don’t try and deny it! I know it was you lot!”

As if by some pre-discussed agreement, the generals and commanders all gave a simultaneous cough and pretending to be discussing something of great importance.

James’ eyebrow started twitching violently at this scene. Before he could rouse himself up from his chair to start meting out punishments, Jasmine poured cold water on his flames of ire.

“It’s your own fault, James. If you hadn’t made all those promises to those orphans just for the amusement of watching them shred that old saint women, then you’d not be in such a tight situation.”

James had no choice but to smile wryly and accept that he was the maker of his own demise. Back at the city of orphans, because of his sick sense of humour, he’d made all sorts of promises to the thousands of orphans that the old saint had taken in to feed and protect.

One of those was a bet. If even one of those orphans could catch him outside, he’d adopt them all. To sweeten the pot he’d even boasted lavishly of his position and everything he could offer them. He even said that whenever they wanted to challenge him they could come find him and he wouldn’t even use any spirit powers.

Thanks to that, they ripped that sweet old granny to shreds and then followed the army for 50 kilometres in an effort to try and catch him. Making the situation worse, the Empire’s forces all took a great deal of joy in the competition and were feeding these kids and teaching them all these dastardly tricks to try and catch him.

What James hadn’t counted on was that girl with green hair. She was the descendant of some ancient elf clan and had a little experience with cultivation. Although she was still in the barrier realm, and was only 12, she was stronger than a man not using any spirit energy.

The reason James could maintain an advantage over her was that he’d just started body cultivation. His method of body cultivation was derived from all sorts of data compiled by Jasmine and was without doubt rather profound.

Unfortunately, he’d only started a few weeks ago when he realised he was going to need it to escape these little devils without using spirit energy. Even worse, because of its profundity, it was incredibly difficult to cultivate quickly. This meant that the elf girl’s cultivation was going to be faster than his bodies.

If he lost this bet, he was going to suddenly be the father of a few hundred orphans.

‘Hmm. Should I just cheat? They’d never know if I used my spirit energy.’

The moment he had this thought, Gold James refuted vehemently.

~You want to cheat against a little girl?! Have you no shame? Have you no conscience?~

James’ True Spirit looked at Goldy with an odd face. Moments later they both burst out laughing madly like Goldy had just told a hilarious joke.

-City of Light- Battlefield -

Outside the City of Light was a vast field that was once filled with crops and grazing pastures of every kind. After the great calamity however, the area around the city for as far as the eye could see, was only dirt. In the six months since the beginning of the great famine, the area around Light City had been turned into a barren wasteland covered in dry dirt.

The parched earth was filled with cracks formed from the earth drying up and splitting like aged skin. What few rivers and streams that ran through the landscape were now both murky and polluted or completely dried up.

It seemed as if nature itself had turned its back on this land and condemned it to purgatory. Only James knew that this wasn’t the case at all. This was the result of very precise and targeted bio-warfare. In less convoluted terms, this was what happens when huge amounts of pesticides were poured over an area of land every day.

No one ever realised that every time it rained the grass would die and the trees would wither. They also never seemed to realise that heavy rains followed the appearance of the Ghost of Famine. This was why they prayed for rain to bathe the land, rejoiced when it came, and then cried themselves to sleep at night when everything just seemed to keep getting worse.

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Just for some amusing plot, James had poisoned the earth of an entire nation.

Nonetheless, the damage is already done. In the centre of the barren lands stood a tall and proud city. It spanned for kilometres in every direction around a central point. This point was a Cathedral that stood out from the city like a great stone mountain.

Its size and majesty loomed over the lands and put to shame every building beneath it. Seated as the throne of this nation, the Cathedral dwarfed everything. Even the real mountains and valleys seemed to be put to shame by the presence of this building.

It seemed ancient and resplendent at the same time. The walls were clean and well maintained. The windows reflected the glory of the three Sun’s high in the sky. The entire structure looked like it was carved from a single stone.

In the barren wasteland, east of the city, was an army with tens of millions lined up in a single mass formation. Their praying and chanting rumbled across the landscape like a single voice.

Opposed to them was an army that was a midget by comparison. It sported only a few tens of thousands of troops. Barely enough to be considered a Corps. This Corps wasn’t set up in a big elaborate formation like the army from the Order, but instead somewhat ragtag and separated into various battalions.

On a war of this scale, it was almost unheard of for two armies of such disproportionate sizes to meet like this. However, it could be seen that one army was frightened and somewhat nervous, while the other was simply standing there staring at the opposition like a tiger eyeing a fat sheep.

Among the Yori Empire’s army was various tank constructs that hovered a few meters off the ground along with buggy’s sporting railguns and thousands of men mounted on hoverboards.

James stood at the fore-front of the Yori army surveying the formations of the Order of Sun’s army.

“Jasmine, have you figured out what their formations can do yet?”

“I’m afraid not James. I can only tell that it draws a huge amount of spirit energy from the sun. My best guess is that it uses light spirit energy to increase the power of the troops.”

“I see. Well then, let’s take away the suns shall we.”

James tapped his earpiece and simply said; ‘Go.’. With this command, two velocity gunships shot through the sky far above, trailing long jet streams and spewing a mysterious green gas from behind.

The faint booming sound of the sound barrier being shattered could barely be discerned from the landscape, but to the tower realm practitioners of the Order, it was like someone clapping next to their ear. They all looked up at the same time to see the little black dots that were the Gunship’s as well as the thick green gas pouring out of them.

Although they hadn’t the slightest idea what they were doing, just the fact that those flying death machines were here was a precursor to an uncountable death toll. Feeling that the enemy had already made the first move, the Arch-Bishops and the Pope all started their rousing speeches to get the morale of their army up and prepare for battle.

Seeing this, James smiled like the devil and tapped his earpiece again. “Mechanised Infantry, say hello.”

Earth shattering booms rang out as the few hundred tanks among the Yori Army all raised their cannon barrels to the sky and fired the opening salvo.

Back in the Order’s camp, Pope Solaris had just gotten to the height of his speech. He could see the fanatical light gleaming in the eyes of his men as his brainwashing sermon pushed them to new heights and brought out their courage and killing intent.

Unfortunately, just as he was getting to the part about the Light of the three Suns shielding them from harm and how even if they die they’ll be embraced in the next realm by the three sun’s ... massive explosions started ringing out overhead their formation and drowned out his voice.

The ammunition from these tanks wasn’t designed for creating a single large explosion. It was instead designed to wreak havoc on the battlefield and cull lives by the thousands. They exploded about 100 meters from the ground and rained razor sharp shrapnel for hundreds of meters in every direction.

With everyone distracted by the Pope’s stirring sermon, the controlling nodes of the formation had failed to react in time. The formation was too late to protect them, and thousands of soldiers were slaughtered by the spinning shrapnel.

The lines of the Order’s army were filled with screaming and crying. Even a few palace realm cultivators had taken hits and were out of action. In this single attack, James had snuffed out that spark of hope and fanaticism that had been growing in the hearts of these men.

After this, the battlefield grew quiet for a short time. The Order’s army was filled with indignation at this dirty sneak attack. Unfortunately, there was nothing they could do to dispel the shadow of doubt that it created in the hearts of their men.

As such, they decided to strike fast and hot. They would march forth and decimate this pitiful little army from Yori. With the power of their formation, there was nothing that could stop them. Even if they were facing a few ancient core realm practitioners, as long as the formation held, they would be victorious.

Seeing the Order marching towards them like toy soldiers, James almost fell over from shock. He called over a few generals from the Yori Army.

“What are they doing? They’re just going to march towards us like lemmings?”

The generals all gave James a strange look.

“City Master James, what else could they need to do? The power of the Formation of Light is as ancient as the Order itself. It’s a heritage from great figures back in ancient times. What else would they need to do?”

James just looked at them like idiots.

“Sighh ... I suppose in an age of cold weapons and ancient formations, these sort of tactics are all these people really needed.”

James peered out across the wasteland to the rapidly approaching army. It was clear that they were moving quite fast considering they were mostly made up of True Spirit and Barrier Realm cultivators. He suspected that this speed was part of their formations power up effect.

With this in mind, he decided to probe the formation again. He fired another salvo from the tanks. As he expected, the moment the shrapnel made contact with the enemies, a bright flash would appear about 5 meters above their heads and the shrapnel was disintegrated.

With that in mind, James just stood there watching. Seeing James just standing around watching the enemy rapidly approach, the generals were getting rather worried. Unfortunately, every time they made to give orders to the men, James would override them.

Every now and then, he would have them fire some tank shells at the oncoming hordes of angry churchgoers. By the time the Order’s army was less than a kilometre away, they felt assured that the Yori Empire had simply over-estimated themselves.

They thought to take advantage of Soel’s weakened state from the recent famine, only to come here and be devoured. However, it was at this time when their fighting spirit was slowly climbing back to its peak, when something completely unexpected happened.

‘BOOM!’

“ARGH!!”

“Oh heavens! Save me! Someone savarghh!!”

‘BOOM!’

“GARGHHhhh...”

“It’s a trap! It’s a trap!”

“Fall back! Retreat!”

‘BOOM!’

The army of the Order was being engulfed by huge implosions and explosions from front to back. Thousands of explosions resounded across the landscape and engulfed nearly half the Order’s army in an instant.

During the last few days, before the Yori Empire had even reached the City of Light, Mole drones had been digging away in this huge barren landscape, filling it with spirit bombs. James had just been waiting this whole time for the Order to properly position their troops right in the middle of this minefield he’d been setting up before he detonated them.

With the Order now in disarray, James gave the order to attack. By this point, everyone noticed a strange phenomenon occurring in the sky. That weird green gas had been slowly forming clouds, which were now forming monstrous storm clouds.

It was only now that the process seemed to be knocked into overdrive and the clouds formed at a tremendous pace. The three Sun’s glorious light was slowly blotted out.

Rain began to fall as the army of Yori charged into battle. Arc Cannons filled the battlefield with their resonating booms, and rail guns spewed death in every direction. Small pockets of the Order tried to pull together and reform their formations only to discover the formation working only half as well as normal.

The handful of Tower Realm monsters that sat at the top of the food chain in Soel could no longer sit back. They rose into the sky like great deities and started firing off martial skills like dance moves. Tanks were split in half by laser-like beams of light, and hundreds of Yori’s troops were crushed under a manifestation of a godly palm with the weight and size of a mountain.

Waves of flame billowed out and washed over the skies, sending troops with air boards falling to the earth like flaming meteors. The battlefield was now a mutual slaughter as thousands died from the Yori Empire for every ten thousand that died from the order.

Seeing this scene, James finally called in his champion.

One of the tower realm Arch-Bishops was rearing up to release a giant spear of flame towards a company of Yori Soldiers when he suddenly exploded in mid-air. As his battered, broken corpse fell from the sky, a black gunship shot past with an ear-splitting sound in its wake.

A few of the buggy’s sporting rail guns passed through the muddy battlefield in a zigzagging fashion, mowing down enemy troops as they passed. All the while, the rail gun mounted on the buggy was honed in a tower realm cultivator trying to evade the fire from the multiple buggers in the sky.

It only took a brief moment of distraction before he was clipped by a molten slug and then moments later his body was shredded to pieces and rained down a blood from the sky.

James didn’t seem to be paying too much attention to this for the moment. Instead, he was focused on the City of Light. Like he was waiting for something. His face was stern and his arms crossed. His finger was tapping at his elbow betraying his impatience.

The battle carried on for nearly an entire day. The rain grew heavier, and by nightfall the mud was a mixture of blood, earth and water. The last few remnants of the Order’s army were being hunted like animals for sport by the Yori army’s air board riders.

James stood on the battlefield and surveyed the quiet city in the distance. Finally, he turned around and his gaze landed on the very indignant looking Pope Solaris, who was staring death back at James. This once powerful and regal pope was now in very sorry shape. He was missing an arm and his body was filled with wounds seeping blood into the muddy earth.

“You’re a monster! The Order of the Sun’s shall exist on forever. No matter how hard you try, our religion is as stable as the Sun’s themselves. You are but a single trial, and the ancient powers of our belief will eventually return you to hell!”

James didn’t seem even slightly fazed by the Pope ramblings. He glanced back at the City again with a frown then looked down at the kneeling Pope.

“Old man. Where is your Dao Protector?”

Solaris seemed slightly surprised that this young pup knew what a Dao Protector was. By his standards, James had barely dipped his toe in the ocean that was the world of cultivation, how did he know about Dao Protectors?

Solaris’s face became tinged with a hint of madness as he looked at James.

“Heh. The Pious Saint, Markus The Bright. He was here. However, the great famine struck the nation too quickly. Too severely. He left for Gastalous to visit the floating City of Three Sun’s. The holy land and originator of our sacred texts.”

James cocked an eyebrow as he tried to remember if they’d discovered any information on this place yet. After a while, he only found a few notes of rumours and conversations from the drones in Gastalous. The drones had barely even covered one ten-thousandth of that massive continent yet, so James wasn’t surprised that he had no concrete information on them.

Seeing James’ odd expression, Solaris seemed to think that James had grown worried. His madness grew slightly more exaggerated.

“Hahaha! Fool! You might have conquered our nation for now, but when the Pious Saint returns he’ll bring with him the anointed armies of the Holy City. Armageddon will come to Atsunari, and you will be the focus of all enmity! HAHAH!”

James looked at Solaris like he was an idiot. “Jasmine, start monitoring for that old Core Realm fellow’s return. Let’s lay a few traps for him.”

James then walked up to Solaris with a sinister grin.

“Old fanatic. I don’t mind being the one to tell you. But your Dao Protector most likely understood that the situation was beyond his control and chose to flee. You clearly haven’t learnt of the secrets of Atsunari yet. You see, Atsunari was once a very crowded and prosperous continent.

“It has secrets hidden on it that even the most ancient and monstrous existences of this world covet. However, because of that, the outside world warred over this little rock in the ocean for aeons. Millions of generations warred like children in an attempt to take sole ownership of Atsunari.

“In the end, they realised that as long as everyone covets it, no one will be able to claim it. As such, the greatest powers of Ascension stepped in and formed a pact bound by an oath of heavenly law. No faction, no power, no entity may move onto the continent of Atsunari unless they were born here.

“There are some trivial rules and conditions for this pact, but essentially, anything above the palace realm can never step foot on Atsunari unless they are a resident. If your Protector ever returns, then he will most likely be returning here to die.”

By now, James had been standing in front of the rather distraught looking Solaris for a while. He then reached out a hand and placed it on Solaris’ head. After shocking him unconscious, James had him transported back to the lab for ... reasons.

After which, a very short siege on the city began. Out of spite for religion in general and the creation of monuments to any sort of religion, James obliterated the Holy Cathedral of the Order. Due to its sheer size, the monstrous building brought down half the rest of the city with it.

-Hastoel- Capital City, Sunderoaf -

When the war between Soel and Hastoel started, an uprising in the shadows of Hastoel began to gain a great deal of momentum. The aristocracy was too busy dealing with the war and flinging shit at each other that the endless numbers of citizens disappearing from their territories was overlooked.

Once forced conscriptions started and even the regular commoners were forced to march off to war with nothing but some crappy leather garments and pitchforks, the rebellious elements gained a huge amount of support from the people.

Strangely, they never moved out to act. Though the voice of dissent towards the aristocracy rose, the rebels remained in hiding. The aristocracy only realised what they’d been waiting for when Soel suddenly pulled out from the war at their borders and troops from Yori began marching across their lands towards the capital.

The rebels rose up from the shadows and marched out with the Yori Invaders proclaiming that the Yori Empire would annex the people from the suppression of the aristocracy. Apart from those that were actually a part of the aristocracy, the people threw down their weapons and welcomed the Yori Empire into their towns with wide arms.

The march through Hastoel was rather short, and only a few pockets of resistance were met. By the time the Yori’s army was on the doorstep of the Capital City, Sunderoaf, millions of irate citizens had banded together to support them.

The Council, which was the ruling body of Hastoel and made up of the oldest and strongest aristocratic families, was forced to rally their own houses into action to force back the invaders and quell the rebellion.

Like a mighty giant among men, Goliath stood at the fore-front of the Yori Army alongside the alluring beauty Jessy. When thousands of palace realm cultivators surged out from the capital with blood lust in their eyes, Goliath simply charged forward to meet them.

He wasn’t as much a scheming and shameless tactician as James had been. In addition, because the Hastoel aristocrat families weren’t even remotely as united as the forces from Soel, it was much easier to handle them with the overpowered fire power from the Yori Army.

Nonetheless, unlike the battle at the City of Light, this battle lasted for days. Blood was shed from both sides like rain and washed through the surrounding land like rivers. Of everyone, Jessy had the easiest and the hardest time in this battle.

Every time someone was about to gang up and attack her, it somehow devolved into a gang rape. Or more appropriately ... a gang being raped. Her cultivation soared during this battle as palace realm after palace realm cultivator was sucked in by her allure and sacrificed their cultivation to her.

Even if they knew, the desire she spurred on in these cultivators was like an invisible shackle, taking away their free will and forcing them to submit to their baser desires.

On the other hand, Goliath was the most powerful component of the battlefield. His Wrath aura seemed to pervade the entire battlefield like the sickly hands of madness. The millions of citizens that followed the Yori Empire into battle were fed by their rage and indignation at the aristocracy.

Being in the range of Goliath’s wrath energy, it only fuelled their madness more. They became completely unstoppable. For every one that died, two more rushed forward to take their place.

Goliath’s aura alone reduced these normal people to beasts without common sense. They simply threw themselves into the battle like meat shields, as they mobbed cultivators like a horde of zombies. Goliath himself wasn’t any less frightening.

With every swing of his massive war hammer, someone died. Even the tower realm cultivators that joined the battle much later were somewhat dubious of that hammer.

Overhead, a single man velocity with a knight wielding a lance painted on the side, shot through the air and targeted any tower realm or palace realm cultivator that was stupid enough to try and take flight to use height as an advantage.

This battlefield was far more gruesome and brutal than the Soel battlefield had been. The Yori Empire suffered severe casualties as they pushed the battlefront forward closer and closer to the city.

Finally, on the 5th day of battle, something changed. An incredibly oppressive aura burst out from the city like the walls of a dam collapsing. The fighting spirit of the Hastoelians rose to the highest point and the madness inducing Wrath energy that had been floating through the battlefield was washed away like dirt in a flood.

The rebels all felt fear grip their hearts, and the Yori Army all had solemn expressions. Everyone realised that this was most likely the Core Realm Dao Protector of the Hastoel Nation. Actually, it wasn’t just one, but two core realm auras could be felt weighing down on the battlefield.

Goliath looked off into the distance and noticed two glowing silhouettes rising up over the city. The light of the sun seemed to dim slightly under the radiance of their auras. When he realised the Hastoelians had finally made their move to eliminate the Yori Army, he tapped his earpiece.

“James, they’ve come.”

No reply came on his com implant. Goliath’s face grew grim and tense. The grip he held his war hammer with grew tighter.

Overhead, the two silhouettes rapidly flew towards the battlefield from afar. It took less than a minute for them to cross the distance to the battlefield. They were both old men. One with a bald head and thick tanned skin. The other with long white hair flowing down his back and a weathered, wrinkled face.

Their eyes were like a perverts as they surveyed the battlefield and everyone felt a chill run up their back. It was like they were stripping everyone bare with their eyes. As they looked about, they both enjoyed the feeling of power they had as everything became quiet. Both sides began to pull back and the fighting began to stop.

That was until they both heard a sound that didn’t belong on the battlefield at all. They both looked in the same direction only for their face to slowly form into a frown.

“Oh God, YES!! Don’t fuckin’ stop! Pump harder you little bitch!”

In the middle of the battlefield, a young woman sat on a strange pink bed, sandwiched between two palace realm cultivators pumping in and out as if their lives depended on it. The scene was completely out of place in the middle of

war.

The two core realm experts were baffled. On the other hand, all the warrior from the aristocracy were eyeing the vigorous humping of the young woman with very mixed expressions. They all knew that it was a honey trap. Anyone that approached that floating pink bed would be engulfed in their lust and eventually consumed.

Jessy had her legs and arms wrapped around a very robust and strong looking middle aged man whose huge dick was pumping in and out of her sopping pussy. Behind her was a dark skinned Hastoelian that was wearing the armour of a general. His hips were like a blur as his dick rubbed in and out of her tight little ass. She was covered in sweat and had a look of ecstasy covering her face.

In contrast to her look of bliss, the two men looked slightly gaunt and like they were very, very worried. They both felt their cultivation starting to leave their dantian and pool into their nut sack were it was strangely converted into something else.

The more it changed, the more frantic the need to cum became. Their bodies were completely out of their control as their cocks and balls swelled well beyond normal. Finally, they couldn’t control it anymore. Jessy’s cunt and asshole both tightened like a vice and almost seemed to be making a sucking action.

The two cultivators felt their cocks being sucked in like they were fucking a vacuum and then blissful release finally came. Their dicks unloaded for almost an entire minute as Jessy screamed her satisfaction to the whole world.

This process was short, but with the battlefield in a silent face off and everyone’s attention focused on this spot, it seemed to be drawn out from a minute to an eternity. Everyone watched on somewhat horrified as the robust, strong bodies of the two men seemed to become thinner and weaker with every pump of the hips.

Finally, they both fell back and off the bed looking like two sacks of skin and bone, completely empty of everything, even their life. Jessy slowly stood up from her delirious joy and started looking for her next target as the cum from the previous two still dribbled down her legs.

Only now did she realise, as she stood before the eyes of everyone on the battlefield, in all her glory that something strange was going on. Her slightly murky eyes became clear as she looked around. Then her eyes stopped on the bald core realm cultivator up in the sky.

She smiled bashfully and bit her bottom lip as she looked him directly in the eye. A strange smell permeated the battlefield as every man and women for 1000 meters felt their loins stirring. Anyone who made direct eye contact with Jessy felt their knees buckle and they fell into the mud and dirt with their hips thrusting uncontrollably.

The Core Realm cultivator felt his dick grow hard just from that look alone. He almost couldn’t control himself as he started moving towards Jessy. Before he made it even a few meters, the old white-haired Core Realm cultivator shot in front of him and blocked his sight of Jessy.

At this moment, Baldy suddenly came back to his senses. His heart almost burst as is went into overdrive and filled his body with adrenaline. ‘Great Heavens. What a powerful soul attack. I was almost sucked into the illusion and consumed by my lust. What kind of evil perverse power is this?!’

He let out a sigh of relief at his companion’s quick reaction and assistance.

“Old Jerroh. My thanks. That little witch is truly some kind of demonic cultivator. I’ll kill that bitch first.”

Only when he finished talking did he realise that Jerroh, the white-haired Core Realm expert, seemed to be having trouble breathing. As he moved forward in the air to grab him, he saw a heart-stopping scene from over his shoulder.

Jessy was on her knees with her face and breasts pushed into the bed. Her right hand was reached back through her thighs and vigorously pumping her fingers in and out of her snatch as her moans echoed across directly towards Jerroh and Baldy.

“Please, I need it so bad! Ohhh. Pleaasee ... fulfil me!”

Everyone on the battlefield watching this scene felt their blood surge. Their sex drive suddenly went into overdrive as every nipple, clit and cock suddenly became as hard as steel. Even those old core realm bastards couldn’t control their bodies’ reaction to this little play.

Suddenly, Jessy rolled over with her legs spread wide open as she continued to play with herself and massage a breast while her hips pumped up into thin air.

“I need someone! Anyone! Please!”

Suddenly, another strange aura seemed to fill the battlefield. A light blue velocity slowly descended from the clouds up in the sky, as Exsue’s Envy spirit energy sprinkled down like rain. Suddenly, despite the deterrent of the Core Realm cultivators presence. People started madly rushing towards Jessy.

Suddenly, Goliath’s wrath energy spread out like a red blood mist over the battlefield again. Everyone felt their anger rising.

Those old Core Realm cultivators that thought they’d quelled the battlefield were baffled. They were suddenly feeling all sorts of strange emotions. For a cultivator of that level to so easily be swayed by their emotions is incredibly difficult.

Before they could fully figure out what was going on, the black and white Velocity gunships shot out of the clouded sky like two needles. They both came from different directions at supersonic speeds. Those old Core Realm cultivators weren’t dead logs. They had lived for a long time, and as soon as they felt the killing intent pouring off these two strange flying artefacts, they moved to split apart and do battle.

The 6 railguns on the two gunships honed in and fired. Huge booms rang out in the sky as the positions of the two old cultivators were filled with smoke and flames. The two gunships suddenly pulled up and shot away back into the clouds.

Jerroh, the old white-haired man, shot out of the sudden explosion in mid-air like a missile and smashed into the ground. Baldy was a little better off as a few defensive artefacts fell from the sky and shattered like brittle old parchment.

The blue velocity flown by Exsue started firing off precise shots at the still air born Baldy. Seeing the situation in the sky suddenly becoming very dangerous, Baldy rapidly fell back and moved to reach the ground, so he had better mobility.

Jerroh slowly rose up from the dusty crater he’d made when he was blasted into the ground. His body was peppered with red burns and bleeding holes from the magma and shrapnel of the railguns shells.

He was covered with dirt, and his hair was a mess. His intricate robes were ripped and in tatters, and his eyes were red with madness. Unlike Baldy, his rage was almost palpable, and he launched back into the sky to try and destroy those flying artefacts that had surprise attacked him.

His rationality was already being affected by the strange auras covering the battlefield.

James stood on a hill off in the distance as he watched the battlefield devolving into a one-sided slaughter. The Hastoelian army was out of sorts from the three auras. Many were driven mad and began to slaughter their comrades.

Thanks to the huge amounts of backstabbing and public ridicule of one another, many of these aristocratic families already had very poor relations. With the sudden onset of the Sins on the battlefield, they lost all reason and began to attack each other.

James smiled like the devil as the Yori Army once more began their march towards the capital, slaughtering everyone. The effect of the sins auras on their comrades was slightly less severe. Instead, it was more of a bolstering, and all these negative feelings were focused on the enemy instead of everyone.

Jessy was having the time of her life as a mountain of people swarmed onto her floating pink bed. Almost as quickly as they reached her, they fell back onto the ground as a withered empty husk of their former self.

James turned his attention back to Jerroh who was shooting into the sky like a comet. Just as he was rapidly approaching Exsue’s orbiting gunship while dodging a stream of railgun fire, a black gunship once again emerged from the clouds above.

Before Jerroh could react to its immense speed and sudden appearance, he was once again blown out of the sky. This time, before he even reached the ground, the white gunship swooped down and shot him in mid-fall.

James was stunned by the resilience of these old Core Realm cultivators. Even that giant Golden Crow was blown out of the air with a single volley of a gunship. For this old white-haired fellow to resist three volleys in a row was astounding.

Unfortunately, his foolish actions and loss of reason was his downfall. As his body once again collided with the ground like a missile, Exsue’s gunship zipped overhead and dropped something. From the distance James was standing at, that object just looked like a glittering little dot.

However, the moment it made contact with the ground, a huge explosion suddenly shook the battlefield. Everyone watched on stunned as giant flaming meteors seemed to form out of nothing in the sky and plunged into the crater made by Jerroh’s fall.

Dust billowed out in huge clouds and filled the war front. Baldy, who had watched this from a distance as well, was shaking with rage. ‘How is this possible?! Just what power has stepped onto the Atsunari continent and granted all these strange and powerful artefacts to such a weak little guild? They even have the capability to kill a Core Realm cultivator! What the hell’s going on here?!’

Finishing this thought, Baldy made a very tough decision. He decided to abandon Hastoel and return to his guild in Gastalous and report this information.

Before he even turned around to flee, he felt his groin aching again. His dick was like a spring trap almost making an audible sound with the speed it rose to attention. Baldy smelt a strange smell, and suddenly fear gripped his heart.

He slowly turned around to see a pink bed floating only ten or so meters behind him. His eye’s suddenly locked with Jessy. He then had the strangest feeling. A feeling that he hadn’t had since he was just a little tower realm cultivator and first travelled to Gastalous.

It was the feeling of someone seeing through him. Looking into this soul. Unlike with meeting those ancient cultivators on Gastalous, this wasn’t as invasive and oppressive. Instead it felt like it was just an invitation. A flirtatious wink and a promise of things to come.

Without his control, a little piece of his mind was unintentionally opened up like a book to those beautifully clear green eyes. He felt all his dirty fantasies and secret lust’s pour out through his eyes and get gobbled up by Jessy.

Baldy was now very frightened. Just as he was moving to run, a flash of light appeared in his peripheral vision and Jessy was suddenly dressed in a very tight leather one piece. In her hand was a long black whip and tied to her waist was a thick riding crop.

“Come!” commanded Jessy.

Baldy felt his will and resolve deteriorating and fading away like sugar in hot water. He fought it with all his willpower and made to run again.

‘CRACK!’

The loud cry of the whip striking the air sounded next to him. Jessy wore a serious frown and like a master rebuking a slave began poking at Baldy’s secret longing.

“You little scumball! You dare disobey This Mistress!”

Baldy couldn’t stop the subconscious groan that escaped his lips as his knees nearly caved in underneath him. He wanted so badly to kneel down and beg this lady mistress for his punishment.

He was frozen in place. No matter how hard he willed himself to run he couldn’t move. His most secret and most powerful desire was right in front of him. He knew he had to run, but he just couldn’t bring himself to leave.

Jessy continued to play the role of the strict mistress.

“Do not continue to disappoint This Mistress you pathetic little slave toy! Come here now and receive your punishment!”

As she said this, a huge amount of lust spirit energy suddenly exploded out from her like a heavenly law. Baldy couldn’t stand it anymore. Even though he was an ancient and powerful expert at the Core Realm, even he couldn’t completely deny his soul’s most powerful weakness.

His knees finally failed him as he stared at Jessy’s feet and started crawling towards her like a dog.

James, who was watching this from far off in the distance shivered. “Holy crap! How fucking powerful is that crazy bitch?! She’s even pulled a Core Realm down into the depths of depravity!”

In his spirit realm, James looked very seriously at Goldy. “If she ever tries that shit with me, do you think you can counter it?”

Goldy glanced at him from the side of his eye.Hah! Counter it? Would it even be called countering it? If she tried that with me, I would craft a chastity belt that even the gods couldn’t take off. I’ll make her beg me to forgive her indiscretions. In front of me, the King of Sin, what is a little bit of lust going to be able to do?~

James considered it for a moment then nodded with a sly grin. “I’m actually half tempted to see her try me now.”

With the very unexpected submission of the Core Realm Expert, and appearance of James, Exsue and Harvy at the battlefield, the war started very quickly winding down.

At last, almost 5 months after the war of the worlds, Both Soel and Hastoel were stomped out from the face of Atsunari like weeds.

Everyone in all the other nations and alliances were shocked! At first, they’d thought that even if the Yori Empire had the assistance of the Brotherhood, which everyone readily acknowledged as a major player on the continent now, they’d only be able to push for a few tens of kilometres in every direction, barely expanding their territory.

Even if they were able to somehow reach the capitals of Soel or Hastoel, no one believed that they would be capable of clearing the final threat, being the Core Realm Dao Protectors that hidden away under the capitals of these nations.

Everyone was instead slapped in the face with surprise when news came that the two great nations had fallen.

The smaller nations that were along the outer borders of these two great nations started assembling their armies to push out and claim some land for themselves. Like starving wild dogs seeing a dying cow. What they forgot to realise though, was that these big fat cows didn’t just suddenly die. They were slaughtered by a mighty tiger.

Luckily for them, Artimus made the decision not to make enemies of all these other nations right now. First, he needed to settle on a little less land and consolidate his forces. Like a wise leader, he chose to forsake the immediate gain of more land under his banner and instead finish digesting everything he’s already got.

Besides, he was more interested in all the land to the north. During this very tumultuous period, everyone had expected Baquerro to rush to the aid of the other two great nations. Instead what they witnessed was Baquerro remaining strangely quiet.

When people went to investigate this matter, they came to discover a horrible truth. Baquerro had already long since been consumed by the Yori Empire. It was as if it had happened overnight. Even the residents of the country didn’t realise.

One day they were celebrating a great festival of the nation, the next it almost an entire 12 months later and every grand and influential individual that once sat at the top of the power structure of Baquerro had mysteriously disappeared.

In their place rose up the banners of the Yori Empire. All over the major cities were well armed and equipped Yori guardsmen. It goes without saying that this sort of shocking change caused huge waves of turmoil and rebellion to rise up from the populace of Baquerro.

All of which were very ruthlessly and cleanly wiped out before they had a chance to grow. Every city and town of Baquerro no longer had a leader in charge of everything. Instead, a great black cube structure was flown in by Big Berta’s and dropped from the sky, squarely smashing apart whatever building had previously acted as an office of governance.

It would then release hundreds if not thousands of drones, depending on the size of the city. Once that happened everything quickly began changing. Commoner and cultivators alike started begrudgingly relinquishing any feelings they had for the previous overlords of their nations.

The Black Cube was like a gift from the heavens. It spewed out cultivation and martial techniques. Its drones completely refurbished cities and towns from scratch. Once the cube came, it controlled everything to a very exacting degree and brought endless benefits to the towns.

Every one of these black boxes was an individual AI. They became almost as important for a city as the monoliths. This little program was something Kelly had thought up. This was because the idea of being able to control an entire nation solely through the use of computers gave her a thrill that was almost sexual in nature.

Artimus, knowing that it would be difficult to completely rule so much land, and well aware he can’t trust many people to control the governmental side of things, reluctantly agreed for James to trial these ‘Controllers’ in Baquerro.

He, without even a second thought, restricted James from dropping these things in the central area of Yori Empire. Last thing he needs is for everyone to become enslaved by James’ nefarious machines in his own backyard.

It was alright up north where his control was tentative for such a large area, but in the central part of Yori were his control was firm, he definitely wouldn’t allow for these outside influences to appear.

What he didn’t realise was, not only did these AI’s control everything in the city, they also acted as a Dark Brotherhood Guild Hall.

Naturally, in the aspect of the being a controller for the Yori Empire, these boxes maintained the law of the empire. Which was that the controlling party, as long as its allegiance is to the Empyreal Family, can dictate whatever laws it pleases inside its zone of control.

Therefore, every single one of the towns and cities in what was once Baquerro, and is now Northern Yori, was following the law as per Tech City’s Guidelines.

-Guild HQ- War Room -

James stood in the war room as he surveyed the latest updated map of Atsunari’s national borders. Upon review, he concluded that the general situation of the nation would need some drastic remodelling.

Atsunari borders final [https://res.wlpc.com/img/n/noddy/technocultivator/map47.jpg]

However, that wasn’t his problem. He was more than happy with his little City and for the moment didn’t long for the conquest of the entire continent ... That would come later.

However, he realised that due to recent events, as well as the location of his city, they were very much associated with Yori Empire. Which James didn’t like at all. He preferred to be considered a free agent.

It became blatantly obvious that Old Artimus, the crafty fox, had been using that perceived relationship to strong arm other nations and boost his own reputation. Something James most certainly did not appreciate.

Therefore, he started throwing out some ideas to Jasmine to see if any of them were feasible. In the end, Jasmine didn’t reject any of his ideas, only relentlessly shooting them down based on the cost or lack of resources.

So, James decided that it was about time he went on a little trip. By now, the Dropship/Mobile Base had been mostly completed and was missing only a few key components. After five months, although the Spatial Seed had produced a great deal of spatial spirit energy, it was insufficient for the quantities James felt he would need for the Dropship.

He also didn’t want to prematurely pull any of the energy out of the seed because he was hoping it would eventually become an Essence. Which by its very nature, would grow more space stone over time.

Thus, he assembled his team and went to visit the Black Lands.

As Exsue’s blue Velocity shot through the sky at supersonic speeds, James looked down and surveyed the black lands. Black flames filled his vision for as far as the eye could see. They lashed out and rose up like tempestuous waves of a stormy sea.

The further they travelled into the Black Lands, the higher and more violent the flames grew. Even with the protection of the Velocity’s shielding, James could feel the temperature rising. At last, they reached a rocky area with huge boulders scattered about like small hills. The moment the Velocity touched down, drones poured out from it and assembled shielding arrays to protect the ship.

As James climbed down from the ships, hanger door, he pulled out a spirit cube about the size of two fists, filled with complicated patterns that glowed brightly. Passing through the shields of the drones, a little bubble shield sprang to life around him and seemed to be sucking in the black flames.

Releasing his scrying field, James discovered little pieces of spatial stones scattered all over the place. Some far off at the edge of his ability to detect, while others were close by. None of them were near each other, and it almost seemed like they were fragments from a very large piece of spatial stone being blown to pieces.

As he travelled around collecting stone fragments, Fatty, Kelly and Jasmine also departed the ship and in a similar manner began to scry and collect spatial stone fragments.

Ever since landing, James felt a strange feeling in his gut. Like he was being watched. Even odder was that in his scrying field, the fire energy was nothing like any naturally appearing free fire energy he’d ever seen. It possessed strange properties that even James couldn’t guess at.

The further he travelled in the Black Lands, and the more he studied these flames, the stranger he felt they were. After almost a day of running around collecting rocks, James had almost 50kg of stones in a big sack over his shoulder.

As he watched the sun slowly preparing to settle onto the horizon, he decided it was about time to return to the City. Just as he turned around, he glimpsed something in his scrying field. It was almost indiscernible, but with the practice of San’s Inner Eye, James’ scrying had become a great deal more intuitive and accurate.

His body swivelled back to look behind him, but could see nothing out of the ordinary. Just as he was turning back again, it flashed for a moment in his scrying field again.

“Jasmine, Goldy. Did you guy’s see that as well?”

~Hoh yeah! That was definitely a face, right? A spooky ghost face in the flames right?~

“I too saw a face, James. You were not mistaken.”

James inspected the flames surrounding him for a bit longer then finally gave up and returned to the ship. Jessy, Kelly and Fatty were all waiting for him already. Their gains weren’t as extravagant as James’, but when it all adds up, it was almost a hundred times what they had back in the lab.

Just as James walked through the drones protective force fields, another face appeared in the flames. This time, it stayed there. Even as James turned around and looked at it with his eyes.

There, formed out of the flames themselves, was a ghostly face. Its eyes were empty and lifeless, and it just stared at James with a slack, empty expression. James felt a chill run up his back and cold sweat suddenly forming on his neck.

“Everyone in the ship, NOW!”

Fatty, ever the conspiracist and perpetually afraid of these sorts of alien ghostly things, didn’t even make a noise as his fat body seemed to jitter for a moment and then reappear in the ship hiding behind the bulkhead. It was the fastest anyone had ever seen him move.

Kelly and Jessy also didn’t have any intention of playing with some freaky spirit face and were quickly aboard the ship. Just as James set foot on the hanger door, he heard a strange low moaning sound from behind.

As he turned, with a blank expressionless face betraying his confusion at this situation, the ghostly faces expression slowly turned for disinterested and empty to agony and rage.

The sound grew stronger until it became an ear piercing scream. Slowly, another face formed from the flames. It too began to scream at James. It was then like a tide as more and more faces began to form from fire and scream at the ship from every direction.

James decided this would be worth investigating later, but right now it was just way too freaky. Especially with the sun’s setting and darkness starting to fill the sky. Without any more hesitation, he stepped onto the ship and was quickly followed by the drones.

The moment the drone’s shielding collapsed, the black flames started trying to reach out like tentacles and wrap around the ship. Hundreds of flame faces were now screaming at the ship, and the black flames became like a tidal wave trying to engulf it.

Exsue didn’t stick around to find out which of the ships shielding or the black flames would win in a struggle and punched the accelerator like a Mario Kart addict. The Velocity’s huge turbines became blurs and sucked in countless of those flaming faces as the gunship shot out with a supersonic boom, dispelling the flames around it with sheer force.

Everyone on board let out a little sigh of relief as they quickly gained some altitude and raced back towards the city.

Back in the area they’d just left, some of the black faces were gathered around watching the ship shooting off into the distance. A few of the faces that had been sucked into the turbines were slowly reforming.

“AHH!! Great fuckin’ Heavens! ARGH! My fuckin’ face! They broke my beautiful face.”

Slowly, the flaming faces seemed to coalesce bodies from the black fire and formed into flaming black spirit bodies. A few of them seemed to be having some trouble as huge amounts of flame were used to repair their disfigured ghostly faces.

One of the flame spirits had a rather solemn expression as she stared in the direction Exsue flew off in.

“Do you think they know?”

Another flame spirit with a big flaming beard stepped forward and placed his hand on the woman flame spirits shoulder.

“Kasarli, I doubt they are aware of anything. We’ve watched them all day. Apart from their incredibly powerful artefacts that protected them from the flames, they seemed very ordinary and were only interested in the spatial stones.

“Now that they know we’re here, they will most likely be more cautious coming back. If they return, we can drive them out. Just as we have for the millennia gone by since back then.”

Kasarli’s eyes remained trained on the distant skyline. She couldn’t help but feel that these ones were different. She wasn’t sure how. If anything, it was simply intuition. Her intuition also told her, that they were incredibly frightening.

Especially that brown haired youth. His eye’s when he looked at her didn’t contain the fear she’d seen in the face of everyone else that had been scared off from the black lands. Instead, they were ... beastly. As if he was looking at fresh meat.

At this thought, she suddenly felt a shiver run up her spine. If she could sweat, she would probably be feeling a cold sweat breaking out on the back of her neck right at this instant. Very much the same sensation James first had when he had watched her from the ramp of the velocity’s hanger.

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EPILOGUE - TO BE CONTINUED

With the Spatial Stones in hand, James now had that most important missing component of his Mobile Base/Dropship. Which he was now calling his Command Centre.

Having completed their mission, the sins, ghosts and knights all returned to Tech City for a short respite from battle. As of now, there were 6 Sins, 5 Ghosts, and 3 Knights. The latest additions to the Knights were Sword Girl, who was rather powerful in her own right, and Charles who was second only to Exsue in his piloting skills.

He was the pilot of the white Velocity Gunship sporting the Knight holding a shield and lance. His skill in piloting was abnormally strong. It seemed, his fanaticism for flying was so strong, that he suffered a cultivation deviation when he broke through the spirit barrier.

He’d formed something he called Flying Intent. According to him, it was somewhat like an extension of his soul energy. Its purpose was almost entirely focused on the act of operating something that can fly, whether it be machine, artefact or spirit beast. His Flying Intent affected the properties of everything he operated in the sky.

James also came to realise that Sword Girl had unlocked a similar strange power during her breakthrough. She’d unlocked Sword Intent. Which was focused solely on the sword and only the sword. It just went to show how strong her focus on swordsmanship was.

It was also the ability that allowed her to move so quickly and made her katana skills so masterful. In fact, it even helped her master sword skills at a much faster rate compared to others.

Once the war was over, everything started to slowly settle down. James didn’t plan to hold another War of the World immediately. After all, history of sentient beings in this world dated in the millions of years, and his lifetime certainly wasn’t going to be short.

With that in mind, he decided it was time to slow down a little bit. He was far too used to life on earth, where every day was a race against time to get things done as quickly as possible. His goal was to be so powerful that he would become undying. Impossible to kill.

He wanted to bath in stars and explore the universe.

He wanted to kill Gods and slaughter Buddhas. He even wanted to go explore these little hidden sub-dimensions called ‘planes’. Perhaps he could go to the heavens and rape some angels, or go to hell and play poker with the devil.

In the end, he was just bored and wanted to enjoy himself.

With that in mind, he decided to start planning some more wars between other nations. This time, with a longer span of time in mind. They say that the longer one cultivates a field, the sweeter the crops at harvest.

On the other hand, he wasn’t in a rush to leave Atsunari now. Not after the dirty little secrets, he’d been learning from the Gastalous continent.

He knew that there were some incredible things buried on Atsunari. As a local tyrant, with no one on the continent that could match him, naturally, he planned to claim these secrets.

Unfortunately, Imogine, the pigtails girl from The Red Hearings, wasn’t sent to become his slave girl. They’d thought he originally had planned to marry her. When they proposed he return to Gastalous for the marriage ceremony, he gave them a look like he was observing idiots.

After clearing up their misunderstanding, they tried to find every means possible to quell James. To their great discomfort, it seemed like they had a spy within their most inner circle that fed James endless information.

By the time they got the hint that it would be impossible to deal with James while he was still on Atsunari, the guild had already suffered so many losses they were no longer of interest to James.

Therefore, he simply cut them loose after promising to kill every member of their guild that travelled to his continent without his permission. He would extort a huge sum of resources from their guild in exchange for the few he did give permission to step on his continent.

Eventually, things began to slow down on Atsunari again. Until the next time James decided to make a move...

Which is another story all on its own.