32 Upper Region Battlefield

It was only in the last month that Deon learned of the rapidly developing intel that had been gathered regarding Jing Mountain's upper region.

When Deon voiced his doubts to Commander Reana, bringing up the unusual lack of natural spirits on the mountain, she explained that it was recently discovered that over half of the mountain's spirits, and almost all of the higher class spirits, were located in this upper region.

Because this discovery was quite recent and exploring the upper region was slow, dangerous and difficult, the majority of these spirits should still be here.

When Deon then learned about the upper region's South East battlefield, he almost cried with tears of joy.

The upper region was a place filled not only with rare, naturally formed spirits, but also with lone explorers and small groups hoping to find something big.

Was this place made specially for him?

Deon was stronger than any mortal, even most shamans in this small land were far below him, but he still couldn't overcome vast numbers.

Even a mortal could bring Deon down if they were a member of a ten thousand strong army.

As for shamans…

Deon was confident that he could kill any late stage 1-Star shaman without difficulty, he even believed that most peak stage 1-Star shamans would lose to him, and that no lone 1-Star shaman would be able to kill him easily.

However, even those late stage 1-Star shamans that he considered below him, if they formed a group with 10 to 20 equally powerful members, then Deon would be forced to flee. A group like this, or one slightly larger, would also have a good chance of killing him if he wasn't careful.

There was only so much a single person could accomplish in a full blown war, but the battleground in the upper region was different. Even the largest groups formed by shamans numbered just 25, whilst most split down into teams of 10 or even less.

There was the worrying issue of the 2-Star shamans being present here, but Deon happened to know about another rule in the upper region, a rule that applied only to 2-Star shamans…

2-Star shamans weren't permitted to form groups!

Well, it was a bit more complicated than that, otherwise a 2-Star shaman would be breaking the rule just for accidentally running into another group from their kingdom.

Basically, 2-Star shamans were not allowed to leave their base camp in a group, or to return in a group. They would also be breaking the rule if they fought alongside others from their kingdom. They could guide weaker shamans, heal them, or even carry them back to base camp and leave them outside the walls, but they couldn't fight alongside their comrades.

That wasn't the most important point though. Most importantly, 2-Star shamans were not allowed to initiate conflict with enemy 1-Star shamans! It was fine for them to battle other 2-Star powerhouses, and it was fine for them to fight back if an ignorant 1-Star shaman attacked them, but that was it.

These rules may seem easy to twist and get around, but the generals of the two kingdoms regularly met and ensured that the treaty was being followed properly by both sides. Any conflict between 2-Star and 1-Star shamans would be thoroughly investigated by both sides, so those 2-Star shamans wouldn't carelessly break the rules.

Knowing all of this, Deon stepped into this upper region, this utopia of a battlefield, and grinned fiendishly as he looked up towards the sky.

He had been training and holing himself up in various matters for too long…his body was starting to get restless, as was his ancient demon spirit. This spirit was so evil that Deon could feel its desire to kill, even after he wiped away its consciousness.

Well, that suited him just fine.

As a peak stage 1-Star shaman, the only way to ascend further was to refine the core spirit into a 2-Star spirit. Whilst others would go about this via conventional means, usually refining their spirit in a cauldron, the ancient demon spirit could only be refined through slaughter.

Kill, slaughter the enemy to refine the spirit! The more powerful the being Deon killed, the more ferocious the slaughter he engaged in, the more power his core spirit would absorb! The more living beings he killed, the further the ancient demon spirit would grow!

Kill, kill, then kill some more!

Whilst he had hoped to kill immediately, Deon was painfully reminded that for the most part, this upper region was just an inhospitable place where life struggled to thrive. However, it was also these conditions that made it possible for a vast range of rare spirits to form.

The ground here was covered in rock. Deon briefly looked back at the 1st unit camp, a sturdy wooden structure that was built to such a grand scale and with such speed that he wondered how the 1st unit managed to do it. Behind and below this camp was the charred black ground, but up and ahead, the rocks became dull grey in colour.

Deon continued walking forwards and picked up a rock to examine it. His sharp eyesight allowed him to see thousands of tiny metallic glints. This wasn't just dead stone, it was all metal ore!

He looked around and blinked. This entire area was all covered in some sort of metal ore. No matter the metal, this much ore was surely worth a lot. Even so, it seemed that nobody cared to hang around this place, they all travelled further up the mountain.

The hills were steep and flat land was now basically non existent. Even just walking up an ordinary steep hill was a nice break compared to the time spent scaling the sheer cliff faces. These cliff faces were also coated in metal ore, but this ore crumbled from the cliff as he grabbed ahold of it, making climbing very risky.

Thankfully, Deon's strength and agility allowed him to climb such cliffs without much trouble. After scaling up three similar cliff faces, he pulled himself up and found that the landscape had changed.

"Grass…? No, this is…" Deon bent down and plucked a blade of the turquoise grass. His eyes widened and he looked around in shock.

"This is all moonlit grass! There must be tens of thousands of blades here!"

He was stood on a small, relatively flat surface, below the cliff that curved around this land ahead. The whole platform was covered with moonlit grass, a precious resource used in refining spirits.

A single blade of this grass would usually cost 2 merit points from the kingdom's catalogue. Each blade was considered a precious resource, yet it was growing here, like…like grass!

Deon bent down and plucked a few handfuls before placing it all into his storage ring. He didn't need any more than this so only took around a tenth of the grass before climbing up the next cliff.

This cliff was more sturdy, but also more jagged, whilst the angle made it irritating to climb. He was forced to climb a couple hundred feet further East as he ascended, then finally reached the top and groaned as he pulled himself up. He landed on his stomach and rolled across, then stared up blankly for a moment.

Suddenly, Deon froze. He slowly turned his head to the left, away from the cliff and inwards towards the land he just fell onto. A wry smile crept onto his lips as he saw a group of 4 men and 2 women all staring dumbly at him, clearly caught off guard as they ate their meal around a fireplace.

Thinking about it, it day had turned to night without him realising it. Deon was so caught up in exploring the upper region that he didn't notice that he had been exploring all day…but it was no matter.

Swoosh!

Deon leapt to his feet, then didn't hesitate to dive in and attack the nearest person. A sword which emitted an evil aura appeared in his hand, then just as quickly as it appeared, the black blade took the life of an unlucky overweight man who still had a meat skewer sticking out of his mouth. Even as his head fell from his body, the meat skewer remained clenched between his tough teeth.

"Fat Ted!"

"Bastard, you killed Fat Ted!"

"Fat Ted was such a kind and gentle soul…you Restari are all scum!"

The other 5 expectedly became enraged. They all immediately prepared themselves for battle. Based upon their body movements, Deon could tell that they intended to fight using spirits, all of these Fan Kingdom soldiers seemed to be adept at using spirits as weapons.

'Finally, proper shamans!' Deon thought to himself. Although he was always surrounded by 'shamans', these were just people with the most basic of shaman abilities, allowing them to lord over the mortal soldiers.

However, nobody who entered the upper region was an unknown character. Only elites entered this place, even the weakest of soldiers here were late stage 1-Star shaman!

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