"But despite that amount of subtlety, these new batch of help were still discovered and the 20 Intern protectors sacrificed their lives to ensure that the core court disciples that came with them entered the land of stones…"

"We wandered miserably all over the land before stumbling upon this place, and immediately, we got a boulder to roll over its entrance to hide it from others as we then set out to start rescuing the rest of the 150 core court disciples scattered all over the land of stones." Jun Tao explained…

"We were able to gather only 150 of the 180 core court disciples who entered the land of stones, and we brought all of them here, and explained the situation we faced to them, and thus, we decided that we were finally going to bid our time and figure out how large the Diamond Crust Mercenaries were, how the operated and how deep their information influence is within the Empire, and though it took us four solid years, we still found everything out, and now we have all that information…"

Min Hong and Gong Yi had long since changed the way they looked at Jun Tao [who is actually their senior as they are from the same sect], he had truly done something incredible, and though they had suffered massive amounts of casualties, but no one could blame them, after all, they never knew they would be up against Saint Stage experts in their supposedly simply recon mission…

"The Diamond Crust Mercenaries were created by four of the top ten strongest Super Clans of the Dogon Empire…

"Furthermore, these Super Clans seemed to have created two more mercenary groups just like this with the sole purpose of causing more friction between our Empire and our three neighboring Empires, and we don't know if the one here was the first and how long the other mercenary groups have been causing havoc…" Jun Tao continued;

"Thus, about three days ago, we decided that no matter how many of us dies, we must get this information to the empire, but apparently, we have also had a spy amongst us, and just after we stepped out of our hide out, we were instantly welcomed by Fao Hai and 100 men, and since we had no resources to cultivate over this four years, I was still the only person who was at the Peak Nascent Soul stage, and though, we had once decided to gather all the resources all 153 of us had in our possession to make me breakthrough into the Saint Stage which would greatly help our mission..."

"But those who came never had it in mind that they would be staying for over four years and as a result, the resources gathered were tragically far from what I needed to merge my nascent souls into a Saint Soul, and should I fail at doing so, I would die and the tiny hope we have of completing our mission would die along with me…"

"Thus, I resisted the urge to do so and we left and then the slaughter began, and the rest of us fled, but we couldn't even get far because they were prepared and they had someone from the inside giving them the information they needed; Huang Pi…"

"I and Teng had also personally planned to sacrifice his last nascent soul; the Flame Nascent Soul, to escape should anything happen, and use the excuse of meeting with Gu Ming the leader of the Mercenary group, and fleeing as fast as possible to the Dogon Empire, but we had no idea Hung Pi had already been turned, and the weapon which I relied on to buy Teng the little amount of time he would need to escape was taken from me…"

Jun Tao gave a deep, helpless and sad sigh when he reached this part of his statement;

"I wouldn't lie, I am already exhausted from everything I have faced in the last five years and I was ready to die to save me from the life draining experience, but since you have given me a reason to live, a light in my darkness, as long as you are willing to, I will go to any extent to ensure that our mission is accomplished…"

Everything clicked within Min Hong's head, from why Teng had cursed with so much hatred when Huang Pi betrayed him, to how fast he was fleeing when Fao Hai attacked him, and why the rest of the group didn't respond when Jun Tao was betrayed…

If anyone lived underground for four solid years in order to make a grand escape or fulfil a mission, and their four year old planning and waiting was thwarted minutes after it began, they would also lose all hope…

So, it wasn't that they were too scared to talk, but rather because they didn't see the point or a positive outcome from doing so, and what were the odds that Min Hong's group would have taken the mission and actually arrived just in time to help them out?

Min Hong thought of these things and also realized that if he was in their shoes and had to face three Nirvana Stage experts, he would also be unable to any more than Jun Tao had done, and that was with him alone in context, excluding the Realm of Creations, Daniel and Little Fei and every other external assistance…

"But now there is a rumor that an expert with a Nirvana Stage technique had surfaced within the land of stones, and the leader of the Diamond Crust Mercenary is planning on recruiting him, or at least asking him a favor to kill me, so as to get rid of all the problems completely, and if he achieves any one of the two, then we will be in real trouble…"

Jun Tao spoke as Min Hong went deep in thought…

A Saint Stage expert with a technique with the power level of a Nirvana Stage expert is no small matter, and even the three talismans he had got from the corpses of the East Wind Empire soldiers sent to come take him couldn't stand up to the power of a Nirvana/Samsara stage expert…

Even Min Hong himself would have to put a lot of effort to fight or defend against a Nirvana stage technique, thus, he also understood how grim the situation was…

"Tell me about the Diamond Crust Mercenary and this place, and from there we will devise a way to solve this problem…"

Min Hong ordered as Jun Tao took about ten minutes to arrange and summarize all his information in his head before revealing;

"Obviously the DCM are the strongest group in the land of stones with three Saint stage expert and about 1,000 man strong army, with the weakest amongst them being in the Dan Formation stage…"

"Then we also have the top ten Saint Stage experts within this land who will do anything to ensure that another Saint Stage expert doesn't join their ranks, even to the extent of assigning a spy to every single person that enters the Land of Stones…" Jun Tao began;

"Then we also have the Cornerstone Clan who have been forced to separate and banished to the opposing edges of the land of stones by the DCM to prevent them from revolting against the mercenary group…"

"The Cornerstone Clan in it prime was about 800 experts strong and they were all in the Dan Formation stage, since this place had little to no resources and they only benefitted and gained resources by working with the merchants who pass through this are to do business with the Dogon Empire…" Jun Tao explained…

"Thus, if we were to prepare for the worst case scenario, we would have to prepare for eight Saint Stage expert, a possible Nirvana Stage expert, and a thousand Dan Formation/Nascent Soul experts, and that is excluding all the ones you have just killed including Fao Hai…"

Jun Tao finished and relaxed into his chair whilst Min Hong and Gong Yi began to whisper amongst themselves;

"We only have a single original Saint Stage expert; the Princess…" Gong Yi began;

"In truth, the strongest expert I can handle with my current battle prowess is a 5 Star Saint Stage expert…"

"Xiao Gui could still handle a 4 Star Saint Stage expert whilst Ki Ting an handle a 3 Star Saint Stage expert and Rin Chen can handle a 2 Star Saint Stage expert, and the rest of our group can at most hold their own against a 1 Star Saint Stage expert…"

Gong Yi revealed the truth whilst Min Hong added;

"I have resources and talismans that can go against that supposed Nirvana stage expert, but that means I won't be able to help you all…"

"Though I don't know if it is even possible, but let's just say the ten of us can handle these ten Saint Stage experts, the max Jun Tao can handle even without considering the fact that he had just entered the Saint Stage shouldn't be more than 15 Nascent Soul experts at most, so what will happen with the rest of the Nascent Soul experts and the innumerable Dan Formation experts in their ranks?"

Gong Yi asked Min Hong with en expectant expression on his face; apparently, he had subconsciously taken Min Hong to be the best mind on their side at the moment…

Min Hong also felt stumped by the entire situation as he went deep in thought [Or at least all the 100 plus people around him thought he was doing…]

But Min Hong was simply conversing with Little Fei and Daniel, keeping his promise of involving them in as much of his life as possible;

"So, what do you guys think?" He asked;

"Well at this point we can be safe to say the only other party that you might be able to convince to join your cause is the 800 corner stone clan members, but they are all in the Dan Formation stage…" Little Fei offered his own insight;

"Even if all 800 of them agree to join us, and we add it to the 100 men in this place, that would still only amount to 825 Dan Formation, 75 Nascent Souls, 10 Saint Stage, and you who could battle a Nirvana stage expert."

"If you compare that with the 830 Dan Formation, 170 Nascent Soul, 9 Saint Stage, and 1 Nirvana stage expert of the DCM, you will notice we are already at a strong disadvantage in this battle." Little Fei gave a logical explanation…