CHAPTER 2299: POTENTIAL UTILITY

Once the news of the creation of the Water Sect spread through, the upper echelons of society began maintaining a hawk's eye on any activity that involved the newly created sect.

And they found plenty of it.

A huge chunk of land purchased in the name of the Water Sect.

A bank account opened in the name of the Water Sect.

These were activities that could not be missed even if one wanted to.

"Looks like he's finally getting around to making his sect." Rael skimmed through a few reports that detailed his son's activities.

Admittedly, he was surprised that his son decided to go through with it at this point in time.

They were in the middle of a war with the East Panamic Alliance.

"Then, again, I suppose there is no real reason he can't do it, as long as he can tolerate the pressure that he will experience."This text is © NôvelDrama/.Org.

The war for allies was going to be a slow, grueling competition that would take its time. Alliances were seldom forged in mere months.

The East Panamic Treaty Alliance was an extreme exception and even it had been in the making for quite some time.

The Kandrian Empire and the other three Sage-level powerhouses were going to spend their days making offers to hesitant potential allies, especially Sage-level nations and large Master-level nations. The highest bidder and the one who could inspire the greatest confidence in their victory was going to be the winner of any battle over any given ally.

Considering that, Rui's decision to endeavor in something as complicated as creating one's own sect in the middle of war was not particularly bad.

"If anything, it could be used to inspire greater hope in the Kandrian Empire's future."

A sect was a like-minded group of Martial Artists with similar Martial Art. Thus, Rui's sect painted high hopes that other Martial Artists could have capabilities similar to his own.

Rael was particularly eager to utilize the creation of the Water Sect to speed up his progress, although he didn't mind if the war took longer.

After all, all the Kandrian Empire needed to reach a higher realm of power was time.

The more time the Kandrian Empire had, the better things worked out for him anyway. The number of Martial Masters would increase, allowing them to gain an advantage in the long

run.

Furthermore, with much of the Sekigahara Confederate's Masters dead, it was possible for the Kandrian Empire to outpace the rate at which it got new Martial Sages, especially with the manifold at its disposal.

In other words, he simply needed to wait.

He put aside the reports detailing his son's sect.

Interesting as it was, he had more important things to take care of. His attention returned to a report filed by the Sage Lauren of the Royal Army.

[No traces of any crystal ore of any sort at the location of the Mellow within a thousand- kilometer radius.]

He was a man of few words.

Emperor Rael heaved a sigh. "That's a shame. I was hoping that we would be able to find the rest of the Transcendent esoteric substance. But, I suppose that was hoping for too much." Ever since he learned of the ability of the alien specimen to produce a manifold, he had been curious about the underlying esoteric substance responsible for such a phenomenon. Both Rui and the Divine Doctor had informed him that the crystal shard was most likely a fragment of a much larger crystal that was possibly buried extraordinarily deep somewhere in the Beast Domain.

One of Rael's hopes had been that it would be in the same place that the shard in their possession was found.

In the Mellow.

However, even thorough searches by Martial Sages seemed to be yielding nothing.

Not even the Elder Tree was able to detect the existence of such a large crystal boulder anywhere.

"Ah well, I was getting too greedy."

He knew that that was the case, but he couldn't help it. If they were able to find and utilize such a priceless resource, it was game over then and there. It wouldn't matter what the East Panamic Alliance did; they would never stand a chance.

But alas, he had to play with the cards he was dealt, which were still extremely good, of course, but still challenging.

He gazed at a map of East Panama that highlighted the locations of the four Sage-level powerhouses as well as those of the Sage-level nations and powerful Master-level nations. On top of that, his eyes fell onto the Kingdom of Meitia, which was some distance west of the Kandrian Empire on a map.

It was the ally of the East Panamic Treaty Alliance that was closest to the Kandrian Empire. As such, the alliance currently intended for it to serve as a military and Martial base from which they could mount the eventual second assault on the Kandrian Empire after the war for allies

was over.

It was far too tedious for the Martial Artists of the three powerhouses to mount a charge from their nations to the Kandrian Empire and hope that they converged at exactly the same time. While the Sekigahara Confederate was crude and crazy enough to do so, Prime Minister Edward was far too refined in his military strategy to resort to such a travesty. Thus, the East Panamic Treaty Alliance sought to have its own military base as close as possible to the Kandrian Empire.

Naturally, Emperor Rael had no intention of tolerating that.

And thus, it served as one of the many zones of Martial conflict between the Kandrian Empire and its enemy alliance. A war that had begun as a direct frontal assault upon the Kandrian Empire was now spreading across the entirety of East Panama as Emperor Rael protected his allies from the promised attacks of their enemies while impeding his enemies from forming bases near the Kandrian Empire or from winning the war.

The war for allies was still in its earliest stages, having remained in a steady deadlock, having yet to reach the zenith of its intensity.