Group One had to wait for the others to gather near the Rift.

While they were waiting, another group of Transcendents came their way through the Undead Secret Realm's new entrance. They successfully came to the Heavensend Continent this way and they were ready for action.

“Returning to this place sure brings back memories.” Among the group of Transcendents, Long Wu looked around and found their position just by the surroundings.

The group of Transcendents that arrived in the Heavensend Continent was the Transcendents from the Transcendent Academy.

“Looks like we are in the right place if you say that much.” Hecates said to Long Wu. Long Wu nodded in affirmation while also sensing the surroundings, wary of anything coming their way.

“This is near the wilderness area where the reach of the Qin Empire is considered far. Exercise caution.” Long Wu reminded.

Hecates agreed by reminding the rest of the group about the possible danger this place might have.

Long Wu then sensed some lifeforms approaching them. He unsheathed the dagger from its sheath that was on his belt. He also circulated his undead element to increase the effectiveness of his senses.

‘Large! This is not from the giant beast…and there are also vehicles…they are…’ Long Wu realized that they had crossed paths with the people from possibly the military of the Qin Empire. But he was sure that at this moment, they should be integrated into the Cerulean Defense Force.

Long Wu stood silent as the area was actually in a plain and the people who were moving through the forested area soon would come to this place. The plain was good enough sight that Long Wu was captivated by it.

But now he could faintly hear the sound of the vehicle's engine roaring and some smaller beasts scurrying away.

‘Ah, right. They are supposed to come with us.’ Long Wu remembered that there were communications between the Transcendent Academy and the Cerulean Defense Force.

Soon, even the Transcendent group could see that there was movement from the forested area and realized that the movement was toward them.

There were armored vehicles as well as what Long Wu could see as artillery. Soldiers moved by flanking the armored vehicles and artillery in the middle, it looked like they were escorting the necessary arsenal for the Star Battle.

Then the two met and stopped their movement. Long Wu realized that there was someone who got off the armored vehicle and stepped forward to meet them.

“Honored Seniors from the Transcendent Academy, I am Peng Huai. Who among you is the leader of the group?”

Long Wu sighed as he had to do his side job, being a translator to Hecates. Hecates was assigned as a leader for the group of Transcendent from the Transcendent Academy and Long Wu would provide his assistance as a good translator in case the two groups had a language barrier.

But he had noticed that the one called Peng Huai was looking at him strangely, as if he knew about Long Wu. Of course, Long Wu also realized that this person was the one attending his appointment as an Imperial Tutor.

But they had only exchanged a glance and nothing more so Long Wu hoped that Peng Huai would know what to do.

“Ah, we just arrived here. It is good that there are people who are familiar with the terrain here.” Hecates answered while Long Wu was the one who relayed it to Peng Huai.

Because of this, it needed a few minutes to establish good communication between the two groups. Long Wu just did what was required of him and also discerned what kind of prowess the group led by Peng Huai had.

The infantry held many kinds of weapons. Most of them were rifles, some of them held assault rifles, while a minority held a machine gun. At least all of them had three grenades for their personal use, as well as wearing a thin but durable armor on top of their military clothes.

Their boots were also the ones that could handle the most harsh terrain, something that made Long Wu glad. Because it meant that the preparation was thorough, and he should trust the judgement of the General of the Cerulean Defense Force.

After some light sessions, the two groups merged and moved together to the desert area where they were supposed to go.

Four hours later, after moving in the searing desert environment, the merged group finally saw what was supposed to be a Rift. It spread as if the sky above was just the canvas it was painted on. The transcendent was seriously using their sense to scan the Rift while the rest could only look in awe at the size of the Rift.

“The 123^rd Unit of the Cerulean Defense Force has arrived along with the Transcendent Group from the Transcendent Academy. Please give us your approval to enter the perimeter of the Rift.” Peng Huai gave the status of his group to the HQ.

“Granted! Please contribute to the cause of the three races in this Star Battle!” The end of the communication channel was giving permission after confirming with the ones at the Rift.

“Please be warned that the Undead Race will arrive. They are behind us and will arrive shortly.” Peng Huai added.

“That will be arranged. Over.”

Peng Huai informed Long Wu about their situation and knew that the group was the fifth one to arrive at the Rift.

Then a Lieutenant was coming to arrange the group a place where they could stay. Peng Huai then arranged his units to be placed near the Transcendent group since they would be moving as one.

There was a lot of movement in the temporary base near the Rift. Long Wu could see that there were people who had to bring something covered with lots of protective materials as they moved to the restricted area.

“Imperial Tutor Long, if you're wondering what that thing is, I can tell you.” Peng Huai walked to Long Wu after seeing him staring at the people who were moving something.

“Oh, you knew about that item? Is it some sort of our trump card?” Long Wu asked to see what kind of knowledge this person had.

“It is a Bio Weapon developed to counter most living beings. Since there is a necessity for a transcendent energy called Ether to be the reactant, we almost put it on hold. Only after confirming that our atmosphere has the Ether that we push forward with this thing.”

Long Wu understood a little. It looked like the so-called Bio Weapon would be deployed first and foremost since he received the intel that their opponents had set up a trap right at the other side of the Rift.

“Is that so? So we let the weapon do whatever it pleases on the other side of the Rift, creating some kind of area for the Transcendents to create the established zone there. That’s the plan, right?” Even Long Wu realized what kind of plan the Headquarters of the Cerulean Defense Force were doing.

“As expected of the Imperial Tutor, you can guess that much just from this information.” Peng Huai could not help but praise him.

“It is simple but effective. The Bio Weapon is not that effective against the Undead Race or even the Transcendent with the Necromancer’s Trait so you probably will be deployed right away to the battlefield.” Peng Huai said. He was just an ordinary human who did not have a trace of transcendent energy inside him, so he was respectful toward Long Wu no matter what.

This weapon had been developed for the last five years and now the time for it to be used had come.

Then there was a notification that all Transcendents had to report to the Lieutenant, who was the temporary highest position in this place. It concerned the execution of the next move that they would launch.

It was decided that the weapon would be launched first and the Transcendents would follow soon after. Their task was to clear any aggressive and hostile beings on the other side of the Rift, Glings or Elves.

Long Wu checked himself. He called the process Self-Introspection. It was where he checked the flow of his undead element as well as his core. His core was on standby if he did not want to utilize its power but when he did, the core would spin clockwise.

He tried to do a simple warm-up, he circulated the undead element in his body as well as spinning the core. He unleashed a bit of his power but it caused black color to invade the colorful canvas called the world.

The other Transcendents were also doing it, yet results vary. Some of them emitted strong pressure, yet some had weak pressure.

Long Wu had the biggest pressure as the other Transcendents looked at him as if looking at a monster.

“You are good. Should we spar sometime in the future?” Hecates was coincidentally beside Long Wu when the Transcendent Group released their energy to check their condition.

“No, thanks. I am not exactly good at holding back just yet. Perhaps after I manage to control my undead element better.” Long Wu refused politely with a valid reason he had.

After all, most of his life was spent fighting the people responsible for his condition to the death. When he encountered them, he showed no mercy and killed them straight up. Or he would torture them to get more intel about them.

So he did not know how to hold back at all. He could only deal lethal blow one after another or severely crippled the others.

“Is that so? Well, at least you will show your excellence through this battle.” Hecates did not mind and even thought that the battle ahead would be interesting.

“Right.” Long Wu replied shortly since he was done adjusting his power output.

Then there was the Lieutenant in question, standing in front of the group of Transcendents. He looked normal but internally, he was full of worry.

‘I have never managed Transcendents. Their pressure alone is enough to intimidate someone like me, but I need to be firm and make use of them. To do that…’

Having a special loudspeaker in his hand, he raised it and spoke.

“Listen up! The Transcendents here are the ones who will participate in the Star Battle and you all know it. So all I can say is that do your best since your contribution will be greatly beneficial not only to our civilization but also to yourself. I wish you luck! Dismissed.”

All the Transcendent were loudly shouting something like a war cry. Long Wu felt like those transcendents wanted to boost their own ability this way but he did not reject their way.

Then the containers that contained the Bio Weapon were moved to the front of the Rift. Some procedures needed to be done before the Bio Weapon was properly deployed.

After that, the Transcendents moved right behind the containers. They were the ones who had to activate the Bio Weapon.

Long Wu was in front of the group; he was the one responsible for activating the Bio Weapon. After passing through the Rift, Long Wu pulled the small switch right beside the containers one by one and launched the containers to the far front.

Suddenly, the containers leaked something like a green-colored mist. The mist started to gather around the containers and the other side’s enemy suddenly made their move.

Along with that, the Transcendents were prepared for this and engaged the incoming enemies. Long Wu was the very first one to be targeted since he was at the forefront.

He saw that there was a Gling who approached the green-colored mist. Soon after, its flesh started to rot and peel off from its body. The creature cried in pain but Long Wu strode toward it with his footwork enhanced by his undead element flowing in his body, the core in his body started spinning.

Long Wu instantly recognized the weakness of the creature in front of him. He unsheathed the dagger and slashed toward the part that he recognized as its neck. The swing of the sharp weapon, along with the empowered undead element, gave it enough force and sharpness to cut through iron and steel.

As expected, the creature’s body and head were separated cleanly by the slash. Long Wu did not have time to see the handiwork of his slash before he shifted his body slightly to avoid a projectile attack that came at him.

‘If this creature is a Gling, then the one who launched the projectile is the Elf.’ Long Wu quickly assumed things since the attack from the supposed Elf did not have a special effect like corrosion or bounce off to another target.

Long Wu spread his senses and discovered that right behind the wall of the Glings, there were a dozen creatures that Long Wu recognized as Elves. They held their bow and nocked the arrow, ready to launch another attack.

‘This place is in the middle of the forest but the accuracy of the projectile is pretty good.’ Long Wu sensed that the forest could even better aid the Elves in launching an attack since they somehow could use what Long Wu assumed to be Curved Shot.

It was a shot that made a curve in its trajectory. Despite being normally impossible, the help of transcendent energy could do that and Long Wu was sure that the Elves were also Transcendent just like him.

He then flicked his wrist as a gust of wind suddenly appeared and blew the green-colored mist toward the direction of the Glings and the Elves.

The Glings who formed the defensive wall had to experience excruciating pain as the mist touched them. The Elves, however, had to shoot at the group of Transcendents that appeared from the Rift. They could not stop since the reinforcement was on the way.

But the Transcendents knew that they had to establish a territory in the enemy land. They followed Long Wu’s movement and blew the containers and the green-colored mist to form a perimeter.

The fallen Glings then became nourishment for the Trancendent since they could gather some undead element as well as using the corpse as cannon fodder.

“Arise!” one of the Transcendent said before he channeled his undead element to the Glings' corpse. Suddenly, the flesh fell down and rotted while the bones moved as if being summoned. Then the undead skeletal figure charged at the Glings who faced another Transcendent.

The number of Glings was so many that even though the group killed them like harvesting leeks, they kept coming like a tide.

Then the other Transcendent also used their undead element to raise for them a helper, a simple skeletal figure which could fight in their stead. The Transcendent power had to be used at the right time to give the enemy the heaviest lethal blow.

The more the Glings sent their members, the more the Transcendent had a source of power as well as helpers for free. The tide of battle suddenly shifted so fast that now the Glings were the ones who were getting overwhelmed by the sheer number of skeletal undead from their fallen.

The stark difference between the cannon fodder Glings and the skeletal figures was that the skeletal undead had Undead Fire in their eyes. At this time, the Undead Fire in the eyes of the skeletal undead was blazing, intense in burning.

Long Wu finally used the opportunity created by the skeletal undead to circle behind the wall and sneak up on the Elves.

Long Wu then sped up as he finally found his first target. An Elf on the branch of a tree, who was preparing to shoot the arrows at the Transcendent of his group.

Long Wu covered his presence using the undead element but then the elf realized that something was coming and changed his target. He shot directly at Long Wu’s hidden location.

Long Wu moved forward while evading the arrow by calculating its speed and trajectory. He got closer and slashed his dagger at the neck of the elf. The elf was defending himself using the bow. Surprisingly enough, the bow could withstand a slash from Long Wu.

But that was all it could do, as cracks appeared on the bow. But to the elf, that was enough time to use another trick up his sleeve.

He exhaled a blue mist which caused Long Wu to stay away from it since he felt danger from the mist. It looked like the opponent had something to rely on other than their ranged attack. But this caused Long Wu to lose his target.

He used his senses and realized that the Elves were retreating. Of course, they occasionally shot one or two arrows at the group while retreating to make sure that they could slow down the movement of the pursuers.

“What a pity.” Long Wu realized that he lacked the specific intel of his enemy and that caused him to be caught off guard by the enemy’s trick.

He did not pursue the enemy since it would be quite counterproductive. Instead, he returned to the vicinity of the Rift where the group had created a territory for the soldiers of the Cerulean Defense force to establish their presence here.

One of the Transcendent reported the situation to the Cerulean Planet’s side and after getting the permission from the HQ, the Cerulean Defense Force began to enter the Rift and started to build a fortification from the edge of the green-colored mist which still resided in the perimeter.

Armored vehicles, equipment, and men were gathered at the established territory. The soldiers were wearing their equipment as well as helmets so that they would not get injured by some stray projectiles.

They were nervous since they were in the enemy’s world but also felt safe and hopeful since the Transcendents they had only heard in the news were helping them in Star Battle.