The enemy forces soon reached the castle wars as soon. as they reached a scholarly man in white robes could be seen floating out from the midst of the army radiating an aura of vast might, like he could destroy everything it could be seen, that he was at least at the transcending mortality stage cultivator or above because only a person who comprehended the power of the world could use it to float, as soon as he came out he shouted with a booming voice

"I came under the orders of general Stefan. to give you a final chance if you desist and surrender you would be spared .but if you still continue with your resistance you shall be killed without mercy"

"Hahaha Edward you and what army or do you think that your ragtag army deserves to stand, before the army of the great sky empire you overestimate yourself?" snickered a bald muscular man who could be seen on the castle wall radiating the same aura of might as the scholarly man in white robes

" Try and attack this wall and you will all be massacred, so I advise you to turn back and run back to your mommy's"

"Since a path had been shown to you, but you still want to take the path of destruction then I will oblige you men attack "immediately seven more men radiating the same aura as the scholarly man, but to a lesser degree and various siege ladders and engines were brought out then they started attacking the fort

"Prepare yourself and hold your positions show, this cowards the might of the sky empires and we shall obliterate them for the empire" the bald muscular man shouted with five more people with the same aura as the bald muscular man appeared on the wall "hold your formations"

Thereafter pandemonium descended as the enemy moved to batter the gate and try to force it open, and also tried to capture the walls with archers shooting at them to stop them and the power of this archers was tremendous .if not for energy cost of shooting this arrows were just too taxing to the mental and energy reserve of the shooter ,or they would have been used to win this war with just the archers.

But alas it was not a perfect universe and soon the archers was exhausted and the enemy army, soon reached atop the castle wall where a chaotic battle began it was a brutal and tiring battle and, as this was going on the transcending mortality expert were also battling in the field as James saw them he couldn't help but be amazed by the might of the transcending mortality experts.

As they fought all kinds of color could be seen shining around them, which was the various mysteries they comprehended. James through the past few months he had been going to the library in the castle knew that in order to breakthrough from the transcending mortality to the earth realm you have to comprehend a complete mystery which you use to form a totem in their sea of consciousness and propel the individual to the earth realm.

What was surprising to James was that the bald muscular man was glowing with a red light and was fighting, with both the scholarly robed man who was glowing with a blue light and two others who were glowing with yellow lights and, they were barely holding on because they were defensive experts who focused on the water and earth mysteries only, this stopped him from rampaging on their soldiers ,this showed James that quality is always better than quality because by all rights the snow empire forces should be dominating them, but because of the bald muscular man the war was at a stalemate and it was in the hands of lower soldiers to decide the tide of the war as the battle continued.

It got even more chaotic and two men in James fathers company died and their unit was assimilated into other units as the number of people of people, that should be in a sky turtle formation should be a minimum of five to a maximum of fifteen so the units were divided into seven people per unit.

When the number went below that it became very weak combined, with the fact that the snow empires formations were more profound than the sky empire the war at the lower level was not going so well for the sky empire, but they were holding on because of the home ground advantage soon a bugle was heard from the enemy side, after which the scholarly man shouted retreat and the enemy calmly and orderly retreated.

The bald muscular man turned and said some platitudes and then turned and left tiredness could be seen in his eyes by the high-intensity fight, As James looked at the battlefield he couldn't help but swallow dryly as how ferocious the battle was and couldn't help, but think how the fights that he had been in until now had been just child play, he couldn't even fight properly as all the soldiers between both side were at peak houtian stage and he could only hold on, because his father and Mr. Bernard was protecting him he couldn't help but feel the need for strength so that he would not be pushed around .

"Son how are you are alright" Sir Eric was walking to James side with worry in his eyes" how was your first battle in a war different right".

"Yes father I am okay," James said while waving his head "is battle always this intense".

"Sometimes but is not really that bad the truly bad days are when the earth realm cultivators attack the battle is pretty chaotic, during that period because the mere aftershocks of their battles can kill tens of xiantian experts in a go you should thank god you had, this as your first fight come let us prepare for viscount Evans banquet to celebrate another victory "Sir Eric said then turned to his men and gave them some orders and then he and James went to their quarters to prepare for the banquet since only nobles or high tier officials in the army could attend the banquet.

Time moved and soon it was evening, so James and sir Eric both went to the banquet as soon as they got there they saw at least twenty one important personage ,that was radiating the same aura of might as the seven men saw at the last battle, which meant they were all transcending mortality experts and hundreds of because sir Eric has been to this kind of banquets before he was not that surprised.

But since this was James first time here he couldn't help ,but stare as if he was a boy who came to the city for the first time, this was surprising because the capital didn't send reinforcements and, the duchy didn't support this army much for this army to have twenty plus transcending mortality experts and hundreds of late and peak stage xiantian experts was baffling to James, since they were just minor nobility and his father was just a captain in the army they had to wait until all the bigwigs went in before they could go in.

"Father I didn't know there was so many transcending mortality experts in our region how come" James whispered "and how come there are so many xiantian"

"Well son this is all on account of viscount Carey, I don't know the detail of his deal with the transcending mortality but about the late and peak stage xiantian experts he promised them that if they performed meritious deeds, during this war they will be knighted and granted nobility. this was too good to these experts as you know how hard it is to usually obtain nobility usually especially in the raindragon duchy, because of the nature of our clan but this is a once in a lifetime opportunity as this will provide them with something to protect their clan and also grant them access to more resources, which might help them break into transcending mortality and make them a major character in the region, this brought out the hidden reclusive experts in the region".

"But father I don't really think that is a good idea as the snow empire is strong now, but they haven't brought out anything, that could help them conquer two empires before they could react and, if they really did that this man would most likely die and I think they know it too ,so just fighting this war is going to be hard talk less of rendering meritious deeds during the war

"that is almost impossible and a death sentence" James was shocked because as he had already read from the library and also from personal experience cultivation doesn't just evolve the body and energy ,when someone breakthrough it also help cultivators connect to the part of their brain that remains dormant most of the time which give which gives rise to a more powerful soul that is used to control the evolved body and energy he even thought that the most important aspect of cultivation is soul cultivation, but aside the point cultivation improves the intelligence of a person by a large margin although it didn't increase wisdom practically all cultivators should have deduced what James and Sir Eric's has deduced

"Yes son they have come to the same conclusions that we have, but as the saying goes birds die for food while men die for treasure so, even though they know this could be their death sentence they can't help themselves nobility could provide them and their descendants, with a lot of things and protection from danger, although they are cultivators a person from a noble family can kill them without repercussion ,but if you try to kill a noble you have to check if your status is enough to protect you from the imperial clan and it's just too attractive the chance to make more breakthroughs in their cultivation breaking into the transcending mortality stage will make one of the major figures of the empire "Sir Eric said while sighing to himself

"Even though my participation in this war is more forced I to wish to gain merit and obtain something from this war so I can understand their pain"

After sir, Eric finished saying that they both fall silent, with each person retreating to their own thoughts, soon all the important personages had arrived then James and sir Eric also went into the hall as their name was called from the guest list.