Days passed quickly, and while Wu Guang was preparing himself for his sudden revival, as well making use of the glyphs that Chen Deming carried, elsewhere things also were going towards the final. The final of both the war and of what would be later known as the 'Three Hills Sect' coup.

________________________________________________________________________

Deep inside the Sect's grounds, Headmaster Teng's residence.

If someone visited even once the chambers where Teng De, the official headmaster of the 'Three Hills Sect' received his closer aides and some select elders, they would recall being immediately shocked by a few things.

The lack of decoration or even any piece of furniture. Except one, an enormous throne carved from the shell of a giant 'Primal Crab'.

The crude stone used for the flooring, columns, and walls.

And the lack of any runes, with even the lighting being provided by just a few dozens of torches. Torches that every day were replaced by the only servant in the entire residence.

But if someone entered right at this moment, the shock would come from far a different thing. That being that the throne was occupied by someone who was not the owner and that the latter was kowtowing on its base while slightly shivering.

"Have the preparations been complete?" A deep, hoarse, and somehow muted sounded from the figure on the throne. The speaker was almost impossible to see, with most of the torches burned long ago.

"Yes, Master. Both parties of guests have been prepared" Teng De answered in a slightly trembling voice, without even raising his head.

"What about the location?" The sitting man, if the voice pitch was to be believed asked with a slight tinge of dissatisfaction.

"The Blue Tree City main square as Master had instructed. I also requested for the official heir of the late City Lord. Outer circle disciples already cleaned and prepared the stage"

"That's good. And the burial procession route?"

"Prepared"

"Will?"

"Zhao Zhihao has finished and put it into the treasury"

"I see, has Chen Deming reported?"

"Twice, he is sure that he's dead now. The body was probably dissolved or destroyed, but he has found a Storage Ring and most of Wu Guang's possesions"

"Will he come back?"

"No, he sensed some kind of foreign aura near the spot and will follow it. Probably into the Great Mountains"

"Has this been confirmed?"

"Yes, my senior disciple confirmed that there is such trace and that Chen Deming aura traces follow the same direction"

"Mmm. What about the other three undesirables?"

"The Zhen brothers last report came yesterday, the Eagle Kingdom capital has fallen and only the White Palace defenders remain"

"Do we have anything from the other side?"

"The Prime Minister is presumed to be dead, and he has not contacted us since three days ago. If he's alive, he would already do so to ask for help. As instructed, I had promised him that since the start"

"I see, it would be for the best if he already arrived in Diyu. What about the imperial dog?"

"He remains as before"

"Continue keeping an eye on him. If he suddenly awakens, activate the orb again"

"Yes, Master"

________________________________________________________________________

Eagle Island, Capital City, Port.

Different from most of the islands on the plane, Eagle Island had one of the calmest, easy to navigate, and easy to shore coastline waters. Because of this, the main port of the Kingdom was almost solely used as a fleet base, with only a few piers for receiving important visits free of the usual military ship.

With the beginning of the war, this had not changed, on the contrary, even the few special piers were reconfigured for the heavy-duty that soldiers, supplies, weapons, and other military implements required from them.

Currently, the situation still was the same. Except that no moored ship sail and flag sported the swords of the army, the rune-canon of the navy, or even the proud eagle of the Kingdom itself. No, now only black sails and the red 'Empire' character could be seen.

And not only over the port, or the surrounding city, no, this blood-red character over black could be seen mounted on almost any tower, fortress, castle, wall, and gate on the entire island.

With the only exception, or now, being the White Castle, which had proudly been overlooking this land for over 300 years.

"Minister Chen" A soldier enclosed in deep black armor, closed helmet, and carrying a wide array of weapons exclaimed and stood to attention as an old, short-statured man in common grey robes landed near him.

Chen Jiahao acknowledged the man and motioned for him to be at ease.

"Lead me to him"

"Yes, Minister. Please follow me" The soldier almost immediately turned around and after walking for a few dozens of paces, opened what could only be a sewer's hatch.

***

A pair of hours later, the same hatch was opened again, this time from the inside, and Chen Jiahao and the black-armored soldier reappeared.

"Let's go" The minister said in a low voice

"Yes" The soldier agreed and the two of them slowly began walking towards the southeast, where the enormous construct of the White Castle could be seen...

________________________________________________________________________

Half-Island, Wildlands, Boundary Pass Northern side, Clan's Checkpoint.

With no Eagle Kingdom soldiers remaining on the island, the allied forces that had been guarding the pass and patrolling the surroundings were disbanded.

The Clansmen returned to their respective clans, the rogue cultivators mounted a small camp near the shore, and the remaining guards were allowed to occupy this group of thirty-something buildings that served both as a checkpoint and as a garrison.

Apart from the guards, who only numbered about two hundred in total even including Body Realm cultivators, there was a group of similar numbers, but with far different treatment.

Anyone who had participated, and survived the savage clashes with the Wang family and the criminals from the 'Inverted Tower' orchestrated by the Eagle Kingdom would immediately recognize and probably spit at this group of cultivators. Cultivators not even allowed to go of the six small house-like buildings they were crammed into. And indeed, how could be the treatment different if they had escaped combat? No matter what their Lord had commanded, any decent cultivator would have doubted that someone in his sane mind would send them to the pass while a battle was happening just a few miles nearby.

Albeit they could not be considered entirely guilty, they were still treated as deserters and confined into their temporal prison, to wait for the decision that would decide their fates.

Apart from these two groups of guards, one's heroic and others disgraced, there was a small group formed by the surviving Sect disciples, who occupied a single building and a small house used as a base by Rui Qingkai.

And now, a tall and wide figure, covered with a rune-cloak and not allowing itself to be seen or sensed by any of the cultivators around was approaching this base of the probably most powerful cultivator present in the Wildlands.

*Screech*

Half-opening the single door, the figure ascertained that there was no one in the first, and only room of the house and entered, closing it tightly behind itself.

Inside the barely fifty square feet room, the figure ignored everything and moved towards a rug, which after being moved aside revealed a hidden trapdoor.

Rui Qingkai indeed was not present in the house, and in fact, he was nowhere close to it, currently checking Elder Chen's last known location on instructions from the Sect. He wasn't careless as to leave his house undefended, but the figure easily had avoided the people walking outside, and even more easily prevented the traps on, in, and even around the trapdoor from activating.

As the figure jumped into the hole that the now opened trapdoor revealed, it landed just a few moments later on the rocky surface of what could be considered a basement.

This basement was a small natural cave, with barely six feet from wall to wall, and with the ceiling being equally low, the figure, which easily reached seven was forced to hunch as to avoid touching the house's floor, which doubled as the roof for the cave.

"Hmm, there is it" The figure murmured in a barely audible whisper, and carefully approached the only item in the cave, a rune-engraved altar placed against the wall opposite to the opening.

After checking, and temporarily freezing a few traps, the figure's cloak rustled and a small, silver-colored message glyph landed on the altar. Afterward, the figure chanted some kind of spell and touched the altar, which began brightly shining.

This bluish shine, a clear indication of the runes being activated lasted for just a few moments. But as it receded, the previously silver glyph had changed its color, turning golden.

Just a minute later, the figure left the building in an equally careful manner, and again avoiding the eyes and senses of the present cultivators left the area entirely, all while moving towards the east.

***

After slowly walking six or so miles, the figure picked up his pace and then took flight, continuing his run while walking on air.

________________________________________________________________________

Eagle Island, Capital City Outskirts, White Hill.

Chen Jiahao stood on the lowest part of the hill which housed the proper castle while waiting for everything to be assembled before giving start to the battle that would probably, and hopefully be the final one of this war.

He had left explicit orders of not being distracted, and so when a cultivator dressed in the red-embroidered robes of the War Ministry called out to him, he turned with visible anger in his normally calm face.

"Do I need to behead someone to make my orders being listened to?" Albeit he knew that his orders were always complied with anyway, Chen Jiahao was annoyed enough to enforce the first part of his words in any case.

"I am very sorry, Minister"

"Aha, I see, but what did you approach me for?" Hearing the reason would not hurt before actually beheading someone, Chen Jiahao inwardly smirked as his emotions returned to normal.

"You had instructed us before to bring any message marked with the name 'Chen Guang' immediately, no mat..."

"Chen Guang?! Give it to me" Chen Jiahao didn't even allow the man to finish explaining. And as soon as he received the scroll, one sent via a transmission formation, he immediately unfurled it.

A few moments later, the minister's aura savagely flashed, making the man that had been just been spared from beheading fall down while bleeding from his seven orifices.

***

"Commander Chou! Take your men and arrest every member of the so-called 'Three Hills Sect' unit sent to help us"

"Yes, Minister!" Commander Chou, who was not part of the army, but the actual War Ministry Punishment Division did not ask for any clarifications, and as soon as he acknowledged the order, he disappeared from the spot, rushing towards 'Brightfort', a big fortress a few miles to the east that the aforementioned unit had been garrisoning as to free imperial soldiers for the looming battle.

"I'm sorry about that, I will see that you are properly rewarded for my blunder" Chen Jiahao half-inclined his head to the man that had brought him the message, fully ignoring the latter's attempts to void the matter.

Afterward, the War Minister took out an empty scroll and using his qi as ink wrote something on it before wrapping it up and applying a seal of qi and a mix of his blood.

"Black Empire, Palace, His Majesty Eyes" He voiced in a paused manner while passing the scroll to the man, and watched as the latter turned, no, jumped and quickly began to run towards the army camp, where the transmission formation between the Empire and the Kingdom had been set up.

________________________________________________________________________

1st day of Spring

"Let's set off" An energetic, but tinged with grief voice from a tall, middle-aged man dressed in a white robe broke the silence and heavy atmosphere of a strange group consisting of several dozen men and women, dressed in a variety of Clan's signature leather robes, 'Three Hills Sect' disciple robes, and common clothes.

And following these words, the entire group began moving towards an extremely tall, green-colored stone wall...

***

"How many years it had been since I left My island?" A voice whose speaker could be not seen resounded in a vast, majestically built, and even more richly furnished room. A single moment later an icy breeze swept across the room, one that anyone would find empty...

***

"Let's set off" A young and cold voice broke the silence of the solitary peaks topping the Great Mountains. And a moment later, two human-sized figures, both covered with concealing rune-cloaks were surrounded in the aura coming from a third, similarly concealed, but far bigger figure and began moving through the air...

***

"How many years of planning, scheming, and preparations will be tested today?" A half questioning tone sounded in a barebones room, one that's sole furniture, adornment, and detail was an enormous throne.

"Begin!" The same voice, coming from the covered in shadows throne resounded, this time forceful and infused with qi to reach the recipients even while they were not present in the room, or even in the same area as the speaker...

***

"Forward!" A commanding voice from the skies ordered.

"KILL THE ENEMIES!" A chorus of voices was its answer...

***

"Stay strong! Kill everyone! Don't let the treacherous bastards tread upon our sacred grounds!" Several dozens of voices sounded almost in unison, accompanied by the sound of gongs, bulges, and the shouts of

"KILL!" "KILL!" "DEFEND OUR LANDS!"