"Are you talking about the ants, brother? Little sis went there to deal with it. A messenger came back earlier saying it was being controlled" to which the youth asked: "What did she do?" and he was answered: "Burnt the forest to scare the beast back. She's finishing the stragglers with her forces and should join back with us later"

The youth nodded with appreciation. This little sister of his was smart enough. The ants would have been a huge ordeal if they hadn't acted in a hurry. He was forced to divert quite a lot of his forces away though he only sent out the weakest ones under the fourth stage of refinement. Using an indirect approach like burning the forest was a very good idea. It prevented useless deaths of those cultivators while accomplishing the mission.

Still, it had been a close-call. This was tens of thousands of beast we were talking about. If not for the quick reaction... As he thought about it, he couldn't help but curse at Jun-Ho. After capturing a few of the Empire cultivators, they learnt a lot. Only Jun-Ho was left of the royals on the other side. One died, one left the area and one was on the run, soon to be killed. It became obvious that those ants were Jun-Ho's presents.

As he thought of that guy, his killing intent rose inside the tent. Startling a few elders and making his younger brother laugh. As he looked at him, this brother of his said: "Thinking about Jun-Ho? Should we go find him?"

If he could, he would really like to go find the fucker and pay him back but it was unlikely. Soon Jun-Ho would learn of the situation too. He would leave the area. That guy was smart, he would not stay here to die in some hopeless struggle. So, he answered his brother: "No, we won't be able to during this war. But we're still going to move towards their castle city. Let's take down as many of those bitches as we can and plunder as much as possible before going back"

His brother laughed harder as he ordered a few other elders to move out and order the guys to prepare for pursuit and siege.

As for him, he kept thinking. There was something that didn't add up in all this. Why and how did the idiot bring his own crystal all the way here? This bugged him. He didn't like that he wasn't able to find the answer to this question. Sure, he had a few hypothesis but he really wished he could make sure...

Time went by and the next day, and an army reached the castle city of the Empire. It was Jun-Ho's. They couldn't help but to be perplexed at the desolate state of the city. As they entered and saw everything being devastated and abandonned in a hurry, they had a bad feeling.

Jun-Ho ordered his own to find and bring to him anyone they could find. And it didn't take long before they brought a weak cultivator to him. The guy looked ready to take his own life...but still answered his questions. As he learnt about what happened, his frown deepened. To think one died, one left and the other was sending everyone to their deaths...

It did not take long for Jun-Ho to reach the conclusion everyone reached: it was a loss. While he had diligently worked in hope to win, the other three fucked it up. Still, it remained weird that the crystal was stolen...Jun-Ho decided to go to the crystal room before leaving.

As he entered the room and saw the traces of blood, he couldn't help but sigh in disappointment. In mere months, they had lost so badly... What really hapenned here? He went to the altar and checked it. There was nothing, not a clue. He looked around some more before shaking his head. Nothing to be learnt from here.

As to who managed to steal the crystal and murder his own, he would certainly receive news of it after the border defense was completely finished. The guys were bound to boast and eventually, it would reach his ears.

He took one last look at the room before turning around. As he passed by one of his counsellor, he told him to spread the order: "All those above spiritual warrior were to leave right away and all others were to work as hard as they could to breakthrough and leave"

He was very much aware that even as a Prince, he didn't have the authority to allow those under the spiritual realm to exit without being labeled traitors. It hurt him to know that so many would die but there was nothing he could do. In the end, his own life was more important. And he didn't want to die here for nothing.

So, he left.

Only his sister survived along with him... He was glad she was safe. Oh, how hurt would his feelings be if he knew that this very sister was cursing loudly at him for surviving...

Before the night fell, Jin reached the nest area. Well, the beginning of it. It wasn't too hard to notice it as the forest was slightly different from there on out. There was a lot of yellow mucus all over the trees and the ground. Of course, Jin had zero intent on going inside.

Instead, he took out the deceased robe and put the crystal back in it. Then, he proceeded to take out some corpses of wild game he managed to hunt and preserved on the way. He cut them up and put them on the robe before rolling the whole thing in a bundle.

Once done, he picked the bundle and threw it with all his strength beyond the area. The blood would attract the beasts and with a bit of luck one of them would end up eating the crystal...

After being satisfied with himself, he left in a hurry while masking his tracks as best he could. From time to time, he would run while jumping from tree to tree, alternating between jumping from trees and running on the ground. But he never changed direction and went straight west.

After an hour and some, he climbed a tree and changed direction. He went full-on North, not even once going down the trees for hours. It was only until exhaustion knocked on his door that he stopped and tied himself to a tree to sleep.

The alternating run was to make the pursuers used to him going straight in a certain pattern. At the point where he changed direction, they might simply think he once again just hopped from tree to tree and keep moving straight... It was all done in case he was chased.

But the hot potato itself was no longer in his hands. He had done his best and was truly exhausted now. He ran for so long... He drifted to sleep in mere moments.