The Supreme Commander of the Ku Kang Camp did not easily believed that the Saint Empire troops will scale their plateau with a bridge, of course. But, he did not remove the battalion of Imperial Warriors he posted at the southern fortifications.

Reynold believes that there simply isn’t anyway for the enemy to breach their north gate quickly, even if the blitzkrieg formation succeeded.

On the other hand, the Snowdrifts remained in the middle and did not follow the rest into the east and west lanes.

Perhaps, just as the charred man said, they really intent to build a sort of stairway up to the top of their plateau?

The Saint Empire army had slowly split into three groups, with a hundred thousand soldiers in each of the lanes, and the Snowdrifts’ two hundred thousand at the middle.

In war, there are certain rules of thumb that commanders hold sacred. When sieging against a fortified position, at least four times the amount of defending soldiers are required. Of course, considering the powerful fortifications found in this place even five times the amount will be difficult.

Moreover, there are over a million cultivators in the Ku Kang Camp. To have a fighting chance, Saint Empire would need to prepare four million but there are only a tenth of the amount here.

Additionally, they broke another rule of thumb when they split up their army when fighting against a superior force.

Looking at the opportunity, Reynold immediately sent down a command for his men to act.

The moment the last of Saint Empire’s army stepped within cannon range, a band of ambushers appeared.

These men and women are covered from head to toe with fearsome tribal-looking tattoos: The War God Tattoo.

Of course, the White Emperor wasn’t a commander by force of arm but because of his wits and talent in warfare, and he wouldn’t make the mistake of committing all of his units in the first attack. After all, the number of sacrificial pawns for using the War God Tattoo is indeed limited, as Esley and Kairos assumed.

This group of death warriors clad in white fur coat walked swiftly nearly invisible in the swirling snow.

“For the glory of Frosthral,” their leader muttered under his breath, as his subordinates repeated his words.

Their eyes had a crazed look, but they were determined to succeed. Their mission is to probe for any traps set by the Saint Empire army.

The way that they had marched slowly over in a parade manner was deeply suspicious.

As expected, as they came near to the rear of the invaders, a strange formation triggered.

They were about to prepare to change clothes out of their camouflage for the Saint Empire attire to blend in. Their aim is to walk deep into the enemy lines and unleash their greatest attacks next to the Saint Empire healers where it will deal them the most devastating blow, however, they quickly felt their life seep away. Before they even came close, their skin had shrivelled and their limbs were heavy and shaking.

“T… time… accelerator,” one of them breathed as he collapsed to the ground; it will be his last words. The path towards the Saint Empire’s rear had been trapped. If it was normal stratagems or runic arrays, these men under the effect of the invincible War God Tattoo will be able to break through it, but what they faced was no normal trap.

This is a runic array made specifically to accelerate their bodies’ internal clock and force them to age far quicker. The speed setting was specifically done to make a second as five whole minutes.

Meaning if they took sixty seconds to run out of the trapped area, their internal clock would’ve already passed three hundred minutes, or five hours.

Aging five hours would mean nothing to a cultivator, but for these warriors under the War God Tattoo, five hours is enough to kill them five times over. It is this same Time Element Rune that Kairos used to increase the implosion speed of his Immolation Finger previously.

The creator of this trapped area is not strange to guess. Of course, such a large project in this short a time is impossible without help. Kairos had specifically enlisted Von Cixton for this endeavour. As for when did he do that, both the victims and the soldiers protected by the time array had no idea.

A soul lantern on Reynold’s palm flickered and in seconds it dimmed. Within this artefact, there are countless small flames. If someone could look within it, they will discover that each flame is housed within a miniature Soul Lantern residing in this larger Soul Lantern.

The White Emperor glanced at it for a moment. Although his expression did not change, he was secretly astonished by the speed that a section of the flames went out.

“They died.”

His thoughts were quiet as winter’s night, the previous emotion spike was gone like an illusion.

The commander of the Ku Kang Camp had already accepted his loss and is already making plans on his next move.

Meanwhile, as the hundred thousand soldiers in each of the lanes started pushing forward, the cannoneers were forced to shift their focus back to them and away from the Snowdrifts. Even the White Emperor who knows that this is likely a plot to divert their attention had to walk into the trap, because otherwise, their gate at the north will soon be sieged.

As the attacks on the centre group weakens, Kairos snapped his finger. The three hundred founder members of the Snowdrifts, four thousand elite soldiers from their guild’s allies and supports, and ten thousand of the strongest barbarians, draw out their weapons that are covered with beautiful, inscribed glyphs. If studied closely, the glyphs are made of two or more types of runes that allows the user to summon the power of fire, frost, or lightning. A minor few weapon that had signs of being recently remodelled had more runes forming an intricate glyph that also included the power of Time, Space, and Metal.

Kairos had to lose a fraction of his cultivation each time he create a Star rune weapon. Over the last five years he had calculated that on average he made twenty weapons a day for a total of thirty six thousand weapons, and that is because his cultivation had been improving. At the start he could barely create five a day, but as his internal energy become stronger, he could endure sending more dragonlings out per day without harming himself.

Of course, if he wanted, he could do more than that, but it won’t be just slowing down his progress, his cultivation rank will start dropping and he wouldn’t risk that.

The only reason he could sustain creating Star Rune Weapons while still improving his cultivation is thanks to the accelerated training speed the Crystal Valve provided.

Granted, as this went on, he is now the lowest cultivation amongst his blood brothers – two or three minor stages below.

But he knew he couldn’t slow down. A single day that the Snowdrifts may go for war, he need to keep up the production speed.

Kairos sold half of all he produced in his shops. Not only is the income important, he did not want to give away the fact that his guild is amassing such powerful weapons. While his production speed seemed the same since the Gilded Snow shop had opened, no one – except his brothers - knew that the number of weapons he could engrave each time were dependant on how much cultivation he could spare.

Left with eighteen thousand Star Rune Weapons, his unit is equipped with over fourteen thousand, while the rest were given to Esley and his leaders.

The effect of this weapon is about to be shown for the first time on the world stage, and is destined to be one that will revolutionise warfare.

At first, the White Emperor Reynold was not bothered by these soldiers preparing to charge with weapons unsheathed. He is still in doubts that Kairos could create a way up the cliff without enough materials. Even if the consolidated number Time-space rings or pouches by two hundred thousand men could carry enough building blocks to make a stairway, it is impossible for them to build it under his eyelids.

Even if everyone summoned nicely cut blocks, it will just lay in a pile uselessly, and possibly crushed their own soldiers underneath instead be of any use.

He swiftly passed down a few instructions, and ten more groups of death warriors appeared on the Snowdrifts’ rear. Each numbering as many as the previous group that were killed.

This time, they will find the weakness in the Time Array left behind by Kairos.

As the ten groups of War God Tattooed warriors started probing around the exterior for traps, the Snowdrifts are now less than a hundred meters away from the cliff face, and a good distance to make a stairway for scaling a fifty meter tall wall.

Kairos shouted valiantly, “S1, B2, Beasts, CHARGE!”

The soldiers jumped into action immediately. S1, hands on weapon, B2, Bows ready.

And then, in the wide-eyed disbelief of Reynold, Esley - and generally anyone not privy to Kairos, Luciette, and George’s secret war strategies – the ground underneath their feet started trembling with great force.

“M… Mo… MONSTER HORDE!”

At the first warning of a scout, the Frosthral defenders felt their heart dropped into their stomach as strange creatures burrowing underground started pushing up rocks and created a flight of stairs wide enough for an army.

Cave Trolls.