When Deacon Xia was interrupted from his cultivation, he would normally call it a great insult, but he understood in this circumstance.

Every bell in every temple was ringing. It was an alert of the highest order.

It was a call to war.

An event of this magnitude hadn’t happened in three decades. Only when the marauding desert tribes had last swept through the area was the war bell sounded.

The odd thing today was the calm of the ancestor today as opposed to back them. Deacon Xia remembered the ancestors face that day, it had been seared into his mind by war.

The plans held this time were much more controlled. They had greater time to gather peasants from villages and make a more leisurely retreat. This time there were no isolated towns that needed to be left behind out of necessity.

Then Deacon Xia heard the ancestor bring up volunteers, he stood up and asked his questions.

“Honored ancestor, the time frame you've laid out is too lengthy. I myself will go delay the enemy to buy time for the civilians, but we need to hurry up the evacuation.”

A calming voice from a mature beauty replied to Deacon Xia.

“There is no need to rush. A delaying action is already being fought. We will send a response team and I'm happy to hear that you've volunteered to lead it.” The matriarch calmed him.

“I'm happy to provide any assistance for the sect, but I could be there in a matter of hours. More lives will be lost the longer I delay.” He worried.

“There is no urgent need. Take your time and pick a few hopeful disciples to mentor along the way. This will be an invaluable lesson for the younger generation.”

---

Deacon Xia and a small group of core disciples rode on a Golden Crown Eagle. They passed over fields and forests faster than any commercial jet.

Deacon Xia was beginning to feel like this wasn't the bitter war he thought it would be. It felt more like a mission.

This changed when the group came upon the long caravans of refugees fleeing the area. The poverty on display was absolute, these people had dropped everything at a moment's notice and ran for their lives.

There were less wounded and hungry than he had seen in other refugee groups, it was much better organized and supplied. There were spots designated for camping, fresh water and meals for everyone. Even if it was stale bread and a blanket on the ground, it was still much better than nothing.

The safety of the weak was also watched over by cultivators that had been assigned by Horned Rabbit Sect. They kept people safe from fierce beasts, scattered fire demons and thieves. They ran patrols along the column and herded the crowds like sheepdogs.

Deacon Xia had never seen such a well organized disaster.

The effects of the war began to show themselves. Forests were on fire, black clouds covered the sky and ash hung in the air like foul mist.

Solitary buildings like shepherds huts and woodshacks remained, but anything larger than a house was on fire or burnt to the ground already.

The oppressive atmosphere brought back old memories for Deacon Xia. His dark mood and the changing environment made the youths feel extremely uncomfortable.

The first enemies they saw were weak stragglers. It wasn’t worth their time to snuff them out, that would be handled by skirmishers and outriders. There were lone wolves with orange fur, rats, bats, and other weak demons.

The outer edges of the warzone had medical camps, supply posts and fields for mustering forces.

Alchemists and herbalists worked in the medical camps. They were provided basic herbs and paid with Knowledge Points and Knowledge Rank just like everyone else. The more people they healed, the more they were paid.

Supply posts had armor, weapons, talismans and other gear that was available for a quarter their normal cost. Common rank gear was freely given to anyone who was fighting.

The grounds for rallying troops had all different kinds of people there. Groups of practitioners wearing identical robes obviously came from the same sects, military units had matching armor and stood in organized ranks, loose cultivators wore anything from loin cloths to full regal costume.

Deacon Xia and his small group joined the waiting groups. The battle line would be separated into three parts with the strongest individuals deep in the dangerous territory around the crater. They were told to intercept any stronger demons, but let the weaker ones pass.

Next came the shieldwall. These people focused on containing the demons with defensive formations and held back assaults. From time to time they would let demons pass on purpose, the third line would prepare ambushes for these groups.

It was a battle formation that focused on containment and training. Specific types and numbers of fire demons could be asked for and the shieldwall would let those kinds of opponents through.

If the shieldwall started taking too much damage, the third line would join them until a powerful frontline skirmisher came by.

The whole operation gave Deacon Xia a surreal feeling. Was war supposed to be this organized? This safe?

Deacon Xia didn’t dislike this new method of battle. If the war of three decades ago had gone the same way, he would have more living friends.

The shieldwall would come close to buckling, but reinforcements were constantly streaming in from further and further away. They came from varying backgrounds that had never heard of each other, but they all came for the same reason, to gather KP and KR.

Only the strongest of the front line fighters saw the organizer of the battle. The little they did see of him was terrifying.

At the center of the hellstorm the capital had become were two small areas. The pillars with their fire on one side and a lotus of darkest blue obsidian stone on the other.

Fire raged around the formation, anyone below Heavenly Connection realm would be turned to ashes before they got anywhere near the two. The air inside the lotus formation was nice and cool, but the air outside was a caustic inferno.

Terra sat in the same place with her back to Ben. He sat facing the pillars, studying them from top to bottom. The fire demons that poured from the blue fire completely ignored him.

The most disturbing thing was the aura around the girl. Many Heavenly Connection Cultivators had a faint bloodline of their own. While extremely rare, there were people blessed by the heavens.

This girl was in another league altogether. Where other people had weak bloodlines that only supported their cultivation, this girls bloodline was seeping from her pores and visible in her breath. Her noble aura stood head and shoulders above the others in terms of purity and strength. She was a queen among commoners, a goddess among mortals.

The experts who answered the call to arms had never seen anyone with such a pure bloodline, and she was so young too. This limitless potential made everyone filled with envy. If they could bring her to their side their worries of the future would be over.

If she had any potential to join their enemies, she must be killed.

These thoughts and others ran through their heads, but they would soon find out that the nine year old girl was far out of their league.

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Ben was focused on the pillars, unaware of the change in attitude towards his disciple. He continued his study of the Blood Flame Formation. Little by little he deepened his understanding of the energy that made up his Heart Core.

The other three types of flames, Abyssal Fire, Void Flame and Eternal Fire, were all worthy of study, but he didn’t have the time now. He had an affinity with the Blood Flame, so it offered him the greatest immediate benefit.

‘Alice, if I’m reading this correctly, the blood of these demons can be the perfect elixir for me now. I’ll be able to refine it into Blood Qi for myself.’ He thought.

‘Technically, that should work. Be careful, it is demon blood. If you strengthen it too much it could throw your whole system off balance.’ She warned him.

‘I can harvest it, cant I? I’m still not even a Novice Alchemist, but I can store it for later or give it to someone else. Snuffles? She could only drink so much. Rupert? He can’t handle something so dense in Yang Qi. Nubbins? He should be fine with it I think.’

Ben stood up and looked over at Terra.

“I’ll be gone for a minute, just keep it up. You’re doing well.

As if on cue, the blue flames between the pillars flared and a head slowly pushed through.

It was the size of a small car. A bright red forked tongue flicked out of rows of serrated teeth. Small black eyes sat back behind a ridged nose. It was a Giant Flame Devil Python, the strongest demon seen so far.

More and more of its large body slithered out of the rift. Ben watched it grow longer. The demon was dozens of meters long. As it exited the rift, it eyed Ben warily.

He waited patiently as the snake fully emerged from between the two pillars. Mist began condensing around him. A more dense Qi from a ring on his finger reinforced the scant water attribute Qi. It would only last a fraction of a second, but that’s all he would need. He also fully activated his other cores to prepare the attack.

Ben leapt out of the protective lotus formation the second the beasts tail was clear of the portal. The high tier experts watching the fight only saw a trail of steam strike the back of the snakes neck then back off into the lotus again.

He had moved faster than the snake could react. There was a single stab into the spinal cord and a slash to the side to destroy the neural network of the beast.

The damage to the body was perfect. The snake was still alive and had an intact core and meridians. There was very little blood loss and minimal overall trauma.

The python was like a steer in a slaughterhouse, waiting for the bolt gun to pierce through the base of it's skull.

“Terra, would you be so kind?” Ben asked.

She raised a hand and ephemeral blue chains shot out and wrapped up the breathing corpse. The two pulled the mass closer to the obsidian lotus.

A short while later Ben was looking at a small pool of steaming blood.

“First, Snuffles.” He said.

The boar emerged from a interspatial ring. It had grown larger by several fold and was now larger than any wild boar ever seen on Earth. It looked as large as a ox and weighed more than a ton.

It no other change, aside from it's temper growing even more foul towards outsiders. It recognized Ben as it's benefactor and instinctively knew to not mess with Terra, but it showed complete animosity towards all others.

Seeing the delicious smelling blood, it began drinking it's fill. Moments later Nubbins joined it.

The two animals tustled back a forth over the pool. The boar tried blocking the pool from the rabbit, but the rabbit was quicker and stronger than the boar. It would ram a vulnerable joint, causing the boar to stumble to it's knees, then dart around it and start wallowing in the blood like a little imp.

The blood covered Nubbins and Snuffles drank their fill quickly. They ended up consuming the same amount of blood.

The two animals went back into a spatial ring and Ben drained more blood from the corpse.

This time he lay down in the pool and circulated his heart core to absorb the energy contained within.

His heart pumped harder and faster. His blood got richer as the Qi present there got denser. He felt his blood pressure rising.

The balance of energies inside his body began to grow chaotic. Having one core with a dominant oppressive Qi wasn't good for his overall health. If he wasn't careful he could develop cultivation deviation.

When he finished, his Heart Core had broken through to the Heavenly Connection Realm. He didn’t dare push it farther, as he was already starting to experience side effects.

His three other cores were all unable to operate at optimal capacity, his mood grew unstable and he knew he was more prone to aggression.

Ben rose from the pool dripping with blood. He looked around at the still active battlefield. The python had been dealt with, but the blue flame was getting larger and more powerful creatures were coming through. The human side was getting constant reinforcement, so both sides remained at a deadlock. The fire demons were unable to kill the humans, but they had near infinite numbers and their portal was too hazardous to approach.

The humans had to wait until some expert could close the rift and end the invasion. If Ben couldn’t deal with it, it would be like trying to hold back the tide with a broom.

He sat back down and continued his study. He would have to invest days of his time to understand the other three types of flames, time he didn't have. Instead he tried to understand the artifact as a whole.

The pillars were more advanced and profound than anything he had seen before. If he had the chance, he wouldn’t mind isolating himself away for a few months for study. No matter how small the detail, there was some nuance that would interest him.

He felt like a ancient european druid being given a modern encyclopedia. He could barely understand the letters, let alone the meaning behind the words. Given enough time, he would decrypt the artifact, but that was a resource Ben was short on.

He had other priorities at this point. The main one being securing this spatial rift. After all, it would be exponentially more difficult to return to Earth if this world was a wasteland.

The easiest way to draw this to a close would be with extreme entropy. Just drain the area of anything resembling energy. This would cause the rift to close due to a lack of energy and support. It was similar to removing the supports on one side of a bridge. Even if something on the other side of the rift kept it forcibly open, it would take 10 times the power and only allow weaker entities through.

On the other hand, the portal could be left open or even traveled through if a gateway was established. Ben would be able to exercise some control over the passage if he had the time to build properly. This would also take the longest time.

There was one other issue, greed. Ben was going to take this opportunity to gather another artifact on top of the one Terra was refining now. These two columns would find a place in his cultivation.

He would try to take this treasure for himself.