Difficult Path

"Everyone is fine?" Bai asked looking at his surrounding, the only people alive, being some 100 people that surrounded him.

"We are fine, but everyone else..." Chenxiang answered with a terrified face looking at the desolate place.

"Third brother!" Xiao Wu teleported near Tang San, assessing his condition. Tang San was fine, the last attack being more of a distraction than anything, he was only a little in shock due to Xiaogang's change and slaughter of both side armies.

"Shit!" Bai blamed "We fell for their plan. Since the start, they planned to cluster the maximum number of people inside the fortress to activate the formation. For what or why they did? I don't have any idea."

Bai opened his Mind Eye, observing his surrounding "There's nothing to do here and it seems that the headquarters were attacked. Let's regroup for now and find the situation" Bai deducted "Let's return! We will join the left army and regroup!" Bai ordered to the surrounding soldiers.

"Yes!" They shouted in unison, their faces were completely pale, they were scared by such deathly attack and thankful for they being alive thanks to Bai.

Bai's group left the fortress and controlled the outside army that was full of chaos due to the sudden death of the people in front of them and at the headquarters, the commanding line becoming shambles.

Bai used his spirit suppression to force them to calm down and stay still. Then, he went towards the camp. Bai wasn't moved at all by all the death and cries in his way. A great number of people had died in this battle, but Bai just accepted them as only a loss of numbers. With all the death that Bai had seen, he had turned kind of immune, just accepting and going forward, especially soldiers dying in a war.

However, this thought wasn't for everyone. If someone loved by him died, he would explode in anger as they were the most important for Bai. Now, his only concern about going to the camp was to assess the losses of the explosion there, nothing more as he already knew that his grandpas Rong and Xin, and all his family were at the clan. It might seem cold, but it was in what Bai had become with his experiences.

Reaching the camp, Bai could see a 30 meters craters where the main tent stood before, surrounded by flames and debris from an explosion. For what it seemed, it was a normal attack, even if a powerful one, nothing similar to the bloodsucking formation.

Bai was forced again to calm the soldiers that were running like headless chickens around, and command them to help the injuries and put out the flames.

Bai jumped over the crater, he could sense some life in it. At the bottom, he found some charred bodies, but he focused on one of them, the bulkiest one. Seeing the burnt armor, he recognized the corpse as Marshall Ge.

Bai lowered a little his head in sign of respect and approached the corpse, carefully setting it aside, revealing what was hiding with his body. It was Xue Beng. Marshall Ge should have detected the attack in the last moment and used his own body to protect the emperor. For Bai, someone with such a high loyalty only deserves respect.

Xue Beng had his hair completely gone, burns all over the body, with a highly visible at the right side of his head. Even with these wounds, he was alive, only unconscious. Bai focused his Life Intent over Xue Beng, the painful look on his face relaxing, his life not being in danger anymore, but the burn over his head persisted.

Xue Beng opened his eyes, fright and shock in them as he looked the surrounding "What happened? Marshall Ge jumped at me and then I heard a loud explosion and the world became black."

Bai explained the actual situation to Xue Beng, advising him to not let himself be swallowed by grief and anger, that he must think before act.

Xue Beng was mad with such losses and how vicious was the Spirit Empire. However, he showed the good traits of an emperor and decided to not act rashly, being controlled by the anger, and keeping his cool.

Xue Beng and Bai left the crater and Xue Beng made known his survival, calming the army who would have received a great hit losing one of his heads. With the officers that were alive, he restructures the commanding line in a simple and quick manner as it was the best way now. he focused on regrouping his forces and count the loss, making an accurate report of the battle. Bai was a little surprised by how great was his response, realizing that he had grown to be a fine emperor or that he was really good at bluffing before at the academy.

The report was finally completed three days later, the rest of the army regrouped. The allied army forces accumulate to a 50% loss, 10 of the highest rank officers killed in the last explosion, making this battle a great loss and a slaughter for them.

On the other hand, the Spirit Empire had also great losses. 100% of Spirit Empire's army in Jialing Pass had died or surrendered, Jialing Pass Fortress instantly falling to the allied army's hands. With Jialing Pass's fall, they had lost their strongest defense against the allied forces. The path over Spirit City now opened to attack.

Making this battle difficult to decide a clear winner, with great losses from both sides. The final outcome undecided yet. The allied forces now can attack the Spirit Empire, but the Spirit Empire had still to show its hidden strength.

Finally, Xue Beng decided to rest for 5 days, letting the soldiers recover their minds from the losses. Then, command a direct attack towards Spirit City, preparing scouts to avoid any other hidden attack.

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Bai opened his eyes finding himself surrounded by swords. Instantly, he realized that it was Sword God's place, the already familiar silhouette appearing in front of him.

"If you had accepted our offer. Nothing of this would have happened" the Sword God said "You are already prepared, you only need to accept our high priestess offering to be reborn as the Sword God"

"I already said that no" Bai stated calmly "I won't sacrifice my mother for you. I will find another way to become a god, with or without your help"

"You do not know a thing" the Sword God seemed a little pissed "To activate an inheritance, a great deal of faith and power are required. That's what high priests are for, they are a concentration and storage of our faith, having enough energy to activate. That why a groomed her."

"My mother is not an object to be sacrificed. I won't change my mind, you're not worthy." Bai said determined "Leave! I will find another way."

"Ha!" the sword sighed giving up, knowing that he would be unable to convince Bai like this "There is another way for you to take our inheritance. However, unlike the high priestess's sacrifice, this one is much more difficult and dangerous, with high probabilities of you dying"

Bai lifted his eyebrows curious "What would it be?"

"As we said, faith and strength are needed to start the last trial. Without the high priestess's sacrifice, the only way to reach the necessary requirement would be killing Hei Qi. He had robbed me a great deal of the strength left in your plane, killing him and recovering all our fragments would let us help you with the inheritance. However, it did not finish with Hei Qi, Hei Qi alone being insufficient as you would lack the necessary faith."

"So how can I obtain this faith?" Bai asked, for now, putting aside the fact that he needed to beat Hei Qi, most probably in his domain.

"You should take over an already concentrated faith from a god. Moreover, this faith must be related to swords or we won't be able to work with it." the Sword God informed, instantly making Bai think of two different people "Of course, this is mostly impossible. Killing Hei Qi and robbing another god would be close to suicide. You should simply take the high priestess's off-"

"So it's that" Bai interrupted "I get it. I won't sacrifice my mother. I will take the other option"

"You should think about and analyze the best option" Warned the Sword God.

"I already decided. I'm prepared, I won't sacrifice my mother nor any of my loved ones. I will take over my destiny and follow my own path."

The Sword God sighed "Such talent wasted. It could have been so easy" He lamented "Yours is the choice. Do not regret it"

Bai found himself being expulsed from the mind space "I won't" he said before disappearing, leaving only the Sword Gods silhouette surrounded by countless swords.

"Fool!"