Arriving At The Endless Desert Division

Many days went by since the army Heian Ciemnosc was in departed the Wrath Nihility Academy.

On the third day, it was uneventful, from the early morning to the afternoon. Constant mild reports were being sent back to the army as Heian Ciemnosc and his scouting group advanced. It wasn't like anything the new scouts had expected. The land they traversed and the amount required was much less than they thought was needed. If memory didn't fail the new scouts' minds, this acclaimed team was destructive and shouldn't have any actual scouting experience. The official reports from the Academy, publicly published, don't lie!

However, here is the proof. The scouts were even more amazed when they saw the team leader, Heian Ciemnosc, let his team members do the reporting every 30 minutes or every time they passed by many dangerous flora or Fauna. Usually, only the team leader of someone they trusted would be allowed to have such privilege. But even the new scouts had the chance to report back to the army!

It wasn’t some kind of novelty, but it was rare, especially with unknown yet strong team leaders who were under pressure. Naturally, they had to show the report to Heian Ciemnosc, the team leader, before he allowed them to send it. However, even when the team leader ordered them to improve it, Heian Ciemnosc didn’t make the scouts write anything however he wanted. In this way, the hours were passing by with more tranquility and more harmoniously than ever thought.

However, when they were nearing evening, Heian Ciemnosc wanted to wait 10 more minutes before looking for a safe spot to let his team and scouting group take another break. They were between a large variety of dangerous flora and Fauna zones, almost like they were in the middle of a neighborhood with double houses set at the left and right as they made a street in the middle, stretching into 2 lines into the distance.

Heian Ciemnosc had discovered around 4 teams with cannons! Each of them was waiting for something and hadn’t noticed his scouting group yet. Heian Ciemnosc halted. But before the scouting group could have their backs slouch and their heads relax to have the rest they so much needed. Instead, Heian Ciemnosc ordered them to prepare as he sent a message through his medallion.

They were too far away for the message to arrive immediately. The commander might receive it in tens of minutes, but that was better than wasting a few hours even if he sent Aleksander back to relay the news. Besides, if he sent one of his team members back, they would lose the action Heian Ciemnosc was already machinating inside his head.

After planning for 15 minutes, the new scouts didn’t dare get to rest, afraid their bodies would become numb besides already being tired. Heian Ciemnosc then sent each of his small leaders out, having planned the attack as the evening descended. Each one was given a live-time general image of where the cannon they were supposed to attack could be. Heian Ciemnosc was cautious enough to believe these enemies would move from time to time. Something told him information about his capabilities was somewhat sent by the previous enemy cannon team.

Though that information could only be incomplete at best, it was enough to make the enemy become so cautious. Heian Ciemnosc almost thought about giving up a chance to strike them down and steal their cannons away because of the new scouts. But decided to go ahead and neutralize the threats after giving it a second thought. The enemy cannon teams seemed to form part of the same contingent from the enemy army in Heian Ciemnosc’s eyes.

They were working well together, and their communication was top notch. However, their radars were obviously limited, as Heian Ciemnosc’s 16,000-meter Spirit Sense range could detect them, but they couldn’t notice them. Any cultivator in the First Step could see well through trees and extensive vegetation with just their naked eye for a couple kilometers, and their radars could extend for hundreds of kilometers for the best-improvised radars.

However, with the short and limited time these people had spent in the Division, they probably only had about 10,000-meter range radars at best. Heian Ciemnosc had 2 teams of 5 approach the enemy’s right wing, where an enemy cannon team was separated from the rest. This enemy team was also the one furthest to the rear, so it would take some time for them to get in position. On the other hand, Aleksander’s team targeted the enemy’s left wing, where 2 cannons were near each other. But Violet and Esteban’s small would be attacking the closest enemy cannon at once.

On the other hand, the third cannon in the enemy’s middle-right wing was to be ambushed after they made the decision to aid their left or right wing. As for the fourth enemy cannon team, Heian Ciemnosc would take care of it. He was feeling bloodthirsty, after all. And didn’t want his newly slightly trained scouts to bail out after returning. The struggle wasn’t meant to be quick. The new scouts were tired, and the previous enemy cannon team had a few peak Crabsytinian realm cultivators. One single Concealed Ornament Team member couldn’t deal with it alone.

While the CO’s had to depend on their small team, they were also tired and somewhat anything but confident. When those two small teams to the left were in position, they sent a signal into the skies. It was dark, so it was more noticeable. Thus, the enemy could see it as well. A light shot from the ground amidst trees and bushes signaled for something to happen. It made the enemy immediately react nervously.

From the 4 cannons, 3 shot at where the sign came from in less than 2 seconds. Heian Ciemnosc wasn’t worried about the small team’s safety. He knew his team members wouldn’t just stand in one place and ring the alarm. There were gadgets and devices to do that. It was simple stupidity, thinking no one would be weary when ambushing the enemy’s artillery. However, the enemy still fired at that place, just in case.

As soon as the signal was given, Aleksander’s team dashed and pounced on the enemy. In less than 40 seconds, Aleksander received 4 bloody injuries on the sides of his abdomen. But all peak Crabstynian realm cultivators were taken down by him alone. The rest of his team massacred the remaining 20+ enemies and then rushed to aid the nearest cannon. Aleksander threw a couple devices, which instantly set a few pre-inscribed array formations Heian Ciemnosc prepared during the previous 15 minutes of preparation.

Those array formations were no joke. They could protect and act as surveillance in case anyone not belonging to the Academy tried to even come close.

After Aleksander’s team came to aid Esteban’s striking team, he effortlessly assassinated 2 peak Crabstynian realm cultivators. Then, the massacre of enemy cultivators ensued, leaving none of the enemies alive. Instead of rushing to another enemy cannon, Aleksander’s and Esteban’s small team cooperated to disassemble them. First, the enemy cannon team Esteban’s smaller coalition targeted, and then the one Aleksander’s team destroyed.

Meanwhile, on the enemy’s right wing, the two smaller teams took care of the enemy cannon team farther to the rear. On the other hand, Victor and Oleg’s small coalition surrounded the enemy’s right wing and scouted for any hidden enemies or escaping enemy cannon teams. When the last enemy team at their middle-right wing chose to simply flee, Heian Ciemnosc chased them with his Claws Out as if he was a lion jumping on its prey’s butt.

The entire ordeal lasted half an hour, and soon after, they reunited back to where Heian Ciemnosc had stopped them 10 minutes later. The cannons were disassembled, and the enemy had been exterminated. A few cultivators trying to flee from the massacre were caught by Victor and Oleg’s small team, and everything seemed fine.

However, just as their scouting group was taking their well-deserved rest and healing their injuries, mostly with their own pills, as the new scouts gained a few severe wounds, Heian Ciemnosc gave them the bad news. Another 2 enemy cannon teams were approaching from their far east and west. Their speed was slow, but they would catch up shortly after if they didn’t flee.

Heian Ciemnosc calculated swiftly, and should his scouting group move, nothing horrible would happen to the injured scouts or his team. However, these 2 enemy cannon teams not only had more considerable numbers, but they also had a much longer barrel for their cannon. They took turns to sit on the cannon’s mobile platform inscribed with an array formation.

With those prospects, Heian Ciemnosc was unwilling. Thus, the new scouts forced their wounded bodies up and adhered to their duty and the team leader’s orders. With resolute thinking that even if they died, they would precisely do what the Academy deserved in return for nurturing them, they got up without complaint. The scouting group then separated into 3 fractions. Esteban, Fengli, and Sakura’s small teams went together on the left. Aleksander’s team and Violet took the right, and Heian Ciemnosc took the middle, along with Oleg and Victor’s small team.

As the scouting group tirelessly moved through the night, Heian Ciemnosc showed first in the enemy cannon teams’ radars and eyes. He was shot constantly, but the trajectory of those shells, even as they were quick and almost invisible in the night, were effortlessly avoided by Heian Ciemnosc. The small team followed his every move like his shadow clones a few steps behind him, forming an illusion that Heian Ciemnosc was alone, but he was not.

A few times, Heian Ciemnosc had to leap into the sky and cleave in two those shells that gained size the more they traversed the sky. But in front of Heian Ciemnosc’s cultivation base and Claws Out, they were like tofu and his body like a hot knife. Even as the shell should’ve gone off and exploded, Heian Ciemnosc covered them with his dark Power Energy and kept those behind him safe from any explosion until they ran past them a few hundred meters.

Just when Heian Ciemnosc was about to reach the enemy team's cannons, the terrible trio’s small coalitions showed up beside the enemy’s right wing, engaging them and disrupting the management of that cannon. Heian Ciemnosc and the small team behind him followed suit, striking the same enemy cannon team. The enemy’s left wing couldn’t shoot since they were so close. As a result, they prepared to join the melee and save their fellow cultivators.

However, that was the moment Aleksander was waiting, and together with Violet, they struck the enemy’s left wing, immediately reducing their numbers by a third and with Aleksander harassing their mightiest members. Violet did well to protect him and the entire team, cooperating to rapidly destroy the enemy team. When they finished massacring the enemy, the other enemy cannon team was still struggling, so they went to aid Heian Ciemnosc and the rest.

At last, even when the right wing was attacked first, the left wing fell foremost. Of the scouts, 2 were heavily injured. But due to Violet’s work and tenacity, the rest were slightly wounded or somewhat injured at worst. When everything ended, the scouts were palpitating their chests like they couldn’t feel their hearts and lungs. They felt a little unbelieving to still be alive, but they were forced to stand up. Heian Ciemnosc notified them he was given the order to reunite with the army before taking off.

The reason was that they were already close to the last few thousand kilometers before they were allowed to use the transporting ship. Of course, Heian Ciemnosc was also ordered to do a final recognition before that since the army still had to march through their little ‘battlefield’ over here. Heian Ciemnosc even showed the official order to the new scouts, and they felt baffled by how uncaring their commander seemed to be.

Thus, after spending another 3 hours scouting past the enemy’s previous encampment, Heian Ciemnosc’s scouting group returned to the army. When they did, it only took Heian Ciemnosc a minute to relay everything his scouting group lived through. The commander didn’t stand a chance to stop him, and those second-in-command were helpless. Lastly, the scouting group was granted a few mentions of honor but nothing more.

Heian Ciemnosc was allowed into the ship beforehand to study the long-barreled cannons. But within the army’s heart, there were no heroes to look up to, and even if Lionel was targeting him, his team, and his achievements, he couldn’t condemn the heroes as biasedly as before. Those were Aleksander and Violet. Violet was slowly growing into the big sister within the army, and Aleksander, the cool, edgy guy who could get pussy as he gets bloodied in a mission!

Of course, there was this team leader, Heian Ciemnosc, who is, for some reason, their leader…

While the Concealed Ornament Team studied the 2 cannons’ versions, the rest of the scouts recounted their first shift, slightly striking the army’s heart and slowly raising the morale. Lionel and his second-in-command all tried befriending them and acting with solidarity. But everyone received strange and uncomfortable but still friendly reactions from the scouts…

When Heian Ciemnosc delivered the news of the 4 enemy cannon teams, he didn’t speak of his decision to attack or await a response. He hadn’t decided yet. But he had to send that message as soon as possible. He felt that was his duty as the team leader of the scouting group. So when the army heard Heian Ciemnosc speak about their victory and showed some more eaten- no, bony heads, they started believing in his capabilities more.

And when Heian Ciemnosc reported how they suddenly found powerful reinforcements yet still chose to fight them head-on, more or less, the army became intrigued by him! It was no longer wanting to know if he could truthfully fight 2 realms above his own or kill them. Now they wanted to see more about where his and his team’s limits lay… in a sense.

Thus, when the scouts, injured but being treated, recounted everything, the army’s morale was rising so much precedentedly that Lionel and his clique could only nod and smile with crossed arms to the student troops. Heian Ciemnosc and his team were instead busy recuperating and studying cannons. With the long-barreled cannon model, Heian Ciemnosc found a breakthrough in deciphering the enemy’s artillery.

Heian Ciemnosc didn’t forget to chew more than he could, however. Before returning to studying the cannons, he requested a Spirit Formation realm student in case there was one in the enemy’s ranks in the subsequent Divisions. After all, he could fight one in the first stage, but if more appeared, he needed an extra punching bag to deal with one of them or several…

There was good news, at least. The terrible trio, Esteban, Fengli, and Sakura, felt exceptionally close to a breakthrough. That meant even better times, as Heian Ciemnosc’s team would have its three first Spirit Formation realm cultivators. Heian Ciemnosc and the rest calculated that within the next 10 days, with more scouting missions and ‘situations’ happening, those three would truly successfully breakthrough!

Taking his Orangebreeding-based censers out, Heian Ciemnosc plagued their bedroom with wondrous flavor and scent while traveling through Divisions and studying the cannons.

. . .

Since they departed from the Academy’s territory and the army undertook this trip, 11 days have passed in total…

In the times that the army streaked across the sky in the transporting ship, many enemy cannon teams were sighted. But before the transporting ship could come into its firing range, it was already raining bullets onto the enemy, erasing them from existence. It only took about 5 days for the Academy’s forces to understand the enemy’s strategies. As such, whenever a transporting ship passed through particular terrain and distances from their landing, they became completely alert and even sent some cultivators with Arts or peculiarities for detecting movement and pure energy, just in case they could see the enemy before the ship’s radar could.

It wasn’t a simple detective app-like students’ behavior with their informative medallions. The commanders more or less chatted with each other through them in a channel supervised by the Academy. And within each army, the troops talked to their superiors with their observations and ideas, for as little or silly as they seemed. It was the same among student troops. They simply discussed in their free time whenever they could take a breather.

On the other hand, Heian Ciemnosc’s findings of the cannons were an outstanding complementation to the war effort for the Academy’s forces in general. The armies could now create smallish devices to identify a possible enemy cannon team nearby. Its range was around 20 kilometers, but it lacked specifications and details. It was merely a screen showing a difference in color where an enemy cannon could be. Still, they were strictly what the Academy’s force needed, and it came in handy in time.

While it was true Heian Ciemnosc had sent his findings without his name, it was signed up as the Concealed Ornament Team’s discoveries in the war… It would be some time before the commander figured things out.

As the army Heian Ciemnosc was part of traveled to the Endless Desert Division. The enemy suffered more. For starters, the transporting ship could see enemies faster and more efficiently. The ‘next’ Division after the Greentundra Division was the Groundpecked Division. Its lands were mostly minerals and smooth, steep, diminutive rocks, mountains, and ores. It barely had any vegetation above the surface, and only cities and Cities were avoided.

The scouting missions were the hardest, however. The enemy had a relatively less complicated time noticing them from thousands of meters away. But Heian Ciemnosc, his scouting group, team, and new scouts managed.

After the Groundpecked Division was the Ice Comet Division. This one was the easiest to travel via the transporting ship and for scouting. Heian Ciemnosc was immune to cold, and even though his scouting group wasn’t, they were learning from him to be stoic and mysterious. It also attracted girls more.

Many enemy team cannons tried to blend with the climate to ambush the Academy’s forces by letting their army walk in the middle of an ambush of murderous shells as expansive as possible. With array formations protecting their concealment and protecting them from the cold, thinking that would be enough. But this wasn’t a simple snowing period for the Ice Comet Division. It was a Division with piles of snow the size of cities all year-long.

As such, Heian Ciemnosc found several enemy cannon contingents frozen under the snow. Some even formed part of a group of hills. It was also a curious thing. It seemed as if there were more enemy fractions from their army as they closed in on the Endless Desert Division. Though some were frozen to death, several more enemy teams were alright, knowing how to shoot at them while being alive before being cut and eaten down by Heian Ciemnosc’s scouting group. Though he did all the eating.

In the late morning of the 11th day, the army finally arrived at the borders of the Endless Desert Division!

…