One year later

Recap of previous chapter:

Wind was upset due to Xiao's shamelessness and thus he used 10 years of full moon and other methods to break her mind and fucked her to no end. Xiao was fed both ever-youth pill and love-drug. Wind was still frustrated and thus turned Xiao in a pet At the same time Xiao finally got impregnated by Wind and gave birth to a daughter who grew up rapidly. Wind named her 'Hua'. Wind then dual cultivated with Hua and Xiao for long. Later he told Calen to start performing resurrection spell. He had already made all preparations. He was going to resurrect Aerin. Upon learning about her mother's fate, Calen was shocked and angry at Wind. But Wind shrugged her off and went to cultivate. Just then Koldorus' group found its way into the huge strategy. Wind fought Koldorus and revealed his prowess, suppressing Koldorus easily. Plant King, Hei, Saiyu and Wu Shang also joined the bale and soon Kol group was defeated. Wind needed more warriors for his revenge plan thus he decided to recruit Koldorus, offering him benefits in exchange of his submission. Koldorus demanded Xiao instead. Wind gave Xiao to Koldorus & she was subjected to an intense gangbang. Koldorus signed a cursed contract with Wind and became his follower, including his warriors.

Aerin was finally resurrected with her memories & feelings for Wind intact.

Wind decided to move out soon and start execution of his plan for revenge.

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One year later, inside a grand palace a meeting was being held. The odd thing about the palace' meeting hall was that it was dark. There was only one candle lit on the center of an oval desk. Several silhouettes could be noticed sitting on the chairs around this desk.

"What is the status on the rebel army?" One of the silhouettes asked. The voice was deep and manly. There was a golden crown on this person's head, studded with stones which were sparkling auspiciously.

"My lord, their base that we discovered was only one of the two." Another silhouette spoke. He had a horned helmet on his head. "We decimated it in accordance with your commands and killed a thousand rebels, 7 Master realm warriors and 1 Sage. We estimate that half of their numbers have been purged in that attack. We're now trying to locate their second base."

"I'm aware of that much." The crowned man growled. "Do you not have any new updates? Didn't I deploy the spy team for the same under your lead?"

"I'm ashamed my lord." The horned man apologized and lowered his head.

"It's not his fault, father." A rather brave girl spoke up. Her voice lacked the typical courteous tone. Instead, it was fiery, definitely belonging to a warrior. This girl was wearing twin big rose shaped earrings that shone in the candle light while her figure remained obscured in the darkness.

"Rebels have their own network of spies. You must remember Poison Captain Bastille?" The girl asked. "He was running a spy network secretly and working for the rebel army. Needless to say, the rebel leader was alerted and escaped at the last moment. They have also been aware of our own spies' sleuthing methods. This has become a war of wits now."

"We have captured Bastille in Plustos city a few days ago and razed the city to the ground." Another female said. Her voice was rather mature and cold. There was a hook piercing in the middle of her eyebrows, glistening in the candle light. "He's being dragged to the capital. We'll thoroughly interrogate him and obtain information on the rebels."

"How many soldiers are bringing him here?" The crowned man asked.

"The entire battalion commissioned under me." The woman spoke. "My student is overseeing things while I came here to report to you."

"Good. Expect a strong ambush from the rebel army. Crowned man said.

"Why would they care for a captured spy when their own information network is fairly robust & independent?" The girl asked. "In my opinion we should focus on sniffing out the rebel leader. Bastille is a spent cause now for them. Rebels will simply change their ways and move their resources and forces considering the fact that Bastille will crack under pressure."

"You are still young Delilah." The crowned man said. "Rebels are logical people but they are also sentimental. They will not abandon a comrade who's helped them greatly over the years. They will make several attempts to rescue Bastille. Unless the leader is as smart as he ought to be. In that case…it'll be an assassination attempt in the name of rescue."

Delilah gasped lightly as she realized what her father meant. True enough. Information was crucial in warfare. Bastille was a fairly big threat to both sides due to the information he held of both sides. If one captures him, the other would try to eliminate him if they can't rescue him themselves first. This is to safe keep their information and secrets.

Crack! Suddenly a cracking sound echoed in the meeting hall and the woman with piercings suddenly stood up in shock.

"My emergency beacon cracked!" She exclaimed. "My student…"

"…Go." The crowned man said.

Swoosh! Like a gust of wind, the woman dashed out. Behind her there was a momentary silence in the hall.

"She overestimated her student and batallion." One of the silhouettes spoke.

"This is what happens when you trust fledglings with war missions." Another one spoke.

"That student of hers still has some potential though. He's at Level 9 Master relam."

"That doesn't matter. If rebel army deployed Sage realm warriors, then it's game over for that student. This is a disaster. We needed information from Bastille."

"Silence!" The crowned man snarled. Everyone fell silent immediately.

"Gregory." He spoke.

"Yes, my lord." A man replied. He was completely blended into the darkness.

"You know what to do." The crowned man said.

"…" There was no reply. Everyone frowned sensing that no reply was a grave offence to their lord but then they realized that Gregory had already left! He was truly diligent.

"The rest of you, continue to hunt down rebel army camps and capture all suspects among the citizens. Leave no quarter to interrogate them thoroughly. I want this rebel army destroyed within a year." He commanded.

"Yes, my lord, great Emperor of Ji!" Everyone said in unison and stood up, bowing to him before disappearing into the shadows.

"Everything is going as planned." Jiao thought and snickered. "With these rebels gone, I will have settled the last internal conflict of this empire. Then I'll venture out and wage wars everywhere! All these good for nothing small states better be serving me. Kehehe." Jiao pondered over his future plans for while until…

Crack! A jade badge shattered on its own inside Jiao's spatial ring.

"Hmm? What the hell is going on?" Jiao was stunned. "Rhine is dead? She left barely half an hour ago!"

Every general of Jiao's army had a badge linked to their souls and these badges were in Jiao's possession. He'd know if any general was in danger or dead. Just now, Rhine's badge had completely shattered, signifying her death. This was too fast. This was shocking!

"Rhine's movement technique is second only to mine. She must have reached the battlefield within a minute of leaving the palace. Then, until now, the battle lasted almost half an hour? The number of enemies shouldn't be high and their cultivations should also be near hers. That's how the battle must have dragged on." Jiao pondered. He was at emperor realm of cultivation. He was able to deduce many things accurately with just a single hint.

"My lord!" Suddenly Gregory's deep voice echoed in Jiao's mind. This was Telepathy technique. A support type technique allowing one to talk via minds directly, over any distance.

"Gregory, what transpired over there?" Jiao asked with a frown invisible in the darkness of the hall.

"My lord, you wouldn't believe what I just saw!" Gregory uttered and started telling what happened in the last half an hour.

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Half an hour ago-

Rhine barged into the battleground which was just a normal shoddy road a while ago. Earlier, Bastille was being carried in a cage by an entire battalion of Ji Empire. The one leading this battalion was Rhine's student. He was a promising but sadistic cultivator at level 9 Master realm. Possessing Empyrean level brute strength technique, he used to crush every opponent he ever had a brush with. But when Rhine reached there, her student was nowhere to be seen and her battalion was in shambles! There was no one conscious to tell her what happened. Dozens of soldiers were dead, the rest brutally injured. Bastille was gone and his cage had been sliced apart.

Gnashing her teeth in anger Rhine used a tracking technique and rushed after the perpetrators.

"Did they deploy an entire battalion of their own?" Rhine thought. "I thought we took down their numbers by half. What gives them the guts to deploy a whole battalion?"

"Hello miss." Suddenly Rhine heard a boy's voice and halted in her steps. There was a teenaged boy standing closeby.

"May I help you? You seem stressed about something." The boy said. Rhine scrutinized him immediately. Level 10 Master realm at barely 16 years of age.

"A prodigy!" Rhine exclaimed in her mind. This boy was wearing loose azure-colored clothes which looked soft. He wore hemp sandals and had a head full of shoulder-long green hair. His skin seemed baby-soft and he was smiling beautifully. His green eyes glistened in the sunlight. He was Qiang!

"Such a pretty boy…" Rhine drew in a sharp breath through her teeth and wondered about all the things she'd do to this boy right there on the grassy ground if it weren't for the urgent situation.

"Uh, yes, I'm pursuing a battalion. Did you see one pass by here?" Rhine asked Qiang.

"I saw an empyrean battalion a mile back on my way." Qiang said.

"Oh, not them." Rhine shook her head. "I'm looking for the people who attacked the empyrean battalion and freed a convict."

"Oh." Qiang looked sad. "Do you want to harm the people who attacked empyrean battalion?"

"Why of course! I'm an Empyrean army general." Rhine said. "My student who was leading the empyrean battalion, is missing. Enemies must have captured him as hostage."

"Not exactly a hostage." Qiang said. "His injuries were too deep. Master said he was too talented so we decided to spare him. But he needed to be continuously healed for long in order to live. But we couldn't stay back at that battlefield for long so we brought him along."

"!!!" Rhine's eyes widened. "Y-you! You are the perpetrator?! Where is the rest of your battalion?"

"Oh, it was just me and my master." Qiang answered. "He's escorting Mr. Bastille and healing your student along the way. But if you want revenge, then I'm the one you are looking for. I fought your student."

"…" Rhine was less angry and more shocked. To think that such a pretty boy massacred an entire battalion! With his level 10 Master realm cultivation it wasn't impossible but he even defeated her student who was at level 9 Master realm & there wasn't a single scratch on this boy!

There was a momentary silence in the forest area. Rhine then sighed and frowned.

"If you take me to your master, give my student back along with Bastille and surrender yourselves, I will make sure you are not mistreated under arrest and you can even join my faction as my student. I don't really want to hurt you. You're too talented. Follow this big sister's advice & I'll make you happy in return." Rhine gave Qiang her best offer. This boy was too pretty and talented to be crushed. She could vouch for him to the emperor and rope him in. It'd be so much better an outcome. Plus, she had already gotten lustful towards him and wanted to eat up his semen for lunch.

"No." Qiang said. "We're enemies. There is no easy way around this. We can only fight if you don't want to retreat empty handed."

Chink! Qiang unsheathed the greatsword which was strapped to his back and aimed at Rhine. "Our mission is to bring Mr. Bastille safely to the leader and eliminate all obstruction. I will not fail. Fight or flee, you have 5 breaths of time to consider."

"…" Rhine was impressed. Qiang was a determined warrior. Rhine shook her head in pity and revolved her chi to the maximum, revealing her level 2 Sage realm cultivation.

Boom! The next moment a chi explosion occurred, directed at Qiang who blocked it on his greatsword. He was pushed back several feet.

Kacha! The greatsword cracked and crumbled.

Powerful!

Rhine was powerful and she revealed her full might from the start to forcibly deter Qiang's determination. However, Qiang smiled and waved his hand. Several thick vines grew from under Rhine's feet and quickly tied her entire body up. She was astonished at once before snorting and exploding the vines away through chi blast.

Boom! As the vines burst to pieces and a shockwave rippled out of Rhine's body, a blurred silhouette emerged in her sight. Qiang was attempting a close-range combat.

"I expected a better tactic." Rhine said and swirled around, kicking Qiang who blocked it by crossing his forearms and was pushed away into air.

"It IS a better tactic." Qiang said smilingly.

Puchi!

"Ahhh!!" Rhine screamed as she noticed a thorny tentacle like vine growing on her shoes and it had pierced her foot like a stake! Rhine naturally used a chi blast on her foot to rip the thorny vine to shred but it absorbed all her chi and grew in size! It was moving up her shin towards the knee, scraping through her clothes and skin as if those were butter.

"Damn dirty trickster! I misjudged you!" Rhine complained and glared at Qiang but he merely smiled and retreated.

"Since your student had talent, my master said we should give him a chance at life. But since you're about to die, he'll definitely seek revenge on us. Thus, my apologies but we'll be taking him as a captive instead, for intel on Empyrean army. He might even be killed by the revolutionary army during interrogation or afterwards." Qiang said and dashed away.

"You! Come back here! I'm not done yet." Rhine roared and summoned a saber to stab and scrape off the vine but it was extremely tough and was continuously growing.

Puchi!

"Kyaaahh!!" The vine stabbed through her shin and kept growing, feeding on her blood too! A sage realm warrior was being bullied by a mere vine. But this was apparently no ordinary vine.

Rhine's screams kept echoing as the vine plant stabbed through her body again and again, rising up her thigh and eventually stabbed into her vagina! It cut through her insides and kept growing at a rapid pace. Rhine screamed loudly and tried all her methods but her chi was absorbed by the vine before her technique moves could even activate. Within half a minute, Rhine had turned into minced meat. The vine then drilled into the ground and disappeared.

"…!!" Watching this from the shadows of the forest, Gregory was horrified.

"What the hell was that vine?! It killed a sage realm warrior within half a minute! I must report this to the emperor." Muttering so, Gregory immediately called out to Jiao through telepathy.

"…A vine plant huh…there's one such person who uses plants…" Jiao thought. "Green hair, green eyes…but he can't be so young. Rumors said he was in his 40s. This young rebel could be his son. That's more likely. Regardless…" Jiao had apparently heard rumors about Plant King who was quite famous due to his unique constitution. Someone as resourceful as an emperor would know about the possible threats and allies from other nations.

"My lord, what are your orders? Shall I trail them or ambush them? There are most likely three people in the kid's group, including Bastille." Gregory asked.

"Trail & engage with long range attacks. I'll deploy backup for you. Kill the green boy and bring the corpse to me." Jiao ordered.

"Yes, my lord." Gregory said and disappeared in the shadows trailing after Qiang.

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"How did it go?" Maurice asked as Qiang caught up with him.

"It was fine. I've killed her." Qiang replied. "She was so pretty though." He sighed sadly.

"Like I taught you…war demands sacrifice." Maurice said to his apprentice. "& the first thing warriors must sacrifice, is their own humanity. It's a real shame, but this is how the world of cultivation is."

"I understand, master." Qiang said and sighed.

"Sorry to have caused all this trouble." Bastille finally spoke. "I must have gotten too old to react quickly when their battalion attacked the city and caught me off guard."

"It's alright." Maurice smiled. "You're our comrade. Your expertise lies in information network and spying now. Leave the fighting to us."

"I was thinking revolutionary army will send assassins instead, haha." Bastille chuckled wearily not hiding his suspicions about the revolutionary army's leader.

"They did send assassins." Maurice said.

"…!" Bastille was stunned for a moment. But before he could run his mind wild, Qiang spoke up.

"We took care of them on the way here." Qiang said.

"…I'm indebted to you." Bastille uttered. "How do you think the leader will react to this?"

"How do you think?" Maurice smiled. He rarely smiled but it was always impactful.

There was no need to answer that. Bastille had great worth. Since he had been rescued, the leader wouldn't banter about it. However, he'd still consider Maurice's actions threatening and might deal with him behind the shadows. This past year, Maurice had been gaining power rapidly. He not only broke through to level 2 Sage realm, he had also gotten popular in revolutionary army due to his upright and no-bullshit mentality. He was also the one who helped rescue lady Aerin from assassins. His student was an innocent and powerful cultivator with unique constitution and great talent.

With the leader's mentality, he'd definitely be envious and cautious of Maurice. Now that Maurice had gone out of the way and killed his assassins and rescued Bastille personally, this was akin to baring fangs against him. Revolutionary army had recently taken a huge blow recently too, which resulted in discontent amongst the rebels against their leader. Maurice was probably considering challenging the leadership too.

"What will you do now?" Bastille asked. His question was very vague but Maurice understood his meaning well.

"I'll do what I have to do." Maurice spoke. "We are all in the same boat. We must row, instead of drilling holes. Our enemy is the vast raging ocean."

"….." Bastille was impressed by Maurice's big heart. Instead of conflicting, he was choosing to still follow the leader. But would the leader still not target Maurice?

Swoosh! Swish! Swish! Suddenly several shadows sprinted past them and attacked the three.

"Ambush!" Qiang cried out and parried against the shadow which had literally jumped off the ground and attacked him like a person. Unfortunately, a sword was unable to cut or parry something intangible as a shadow.

The shadows went through their defenses and stabbed into the three's chest before disappearing.

"It was an illusion." Maurice said before scouting the surroundings through his support technique.

"The attacker is seemingly far away." Bastille said as he also scouted and found no one around.

Qiang immediately got down and placed his left palm on the grassy ground.

"Found him." Qiang said. "Five miles northwest."

"!!!" Gregory who was watching them from that location was startled. "Such long observational range! That lad is not simple indeed." He quickly retreated.

"Almost there." Maurice uttered as he and others jumped through treetops speedily covering the distance. "Do you want to wait in the spatial ring, Bastille?"

"Sure thing. I've lost my touch in battle anyway." Bastille said and was immediately pulled into Maurice' spatial ring. Just then the surroundings wobbled as though everything was made of smoke!

"Another illusion?" Maurice frowned and halted. Qiang did the same. Running straight ahead when disoriented, could be lethal.

Half a minute later their vision turned to normal.

"…The opponent is tricky." Qiang pointed out.

"Yes, the shadows earlier were probably not entirely illusion. He managed to mark or drug us somehow using shadows as decoys." Maurice pointed out. "Where is he now?"

"5 Miles southwest." Qiang said as he touched the tree's trunk he was standing upon. This was the same skill as Plant King's but Qiang had really extended it far. He was truly a genius.

Swoosh! Without further ado, the two sprinted towards that direction. Since they had been infected with either a drug or some mental technique, they couldn't go to the revolutionary army base. They might end up leading the unknown enemy straight there. They had to take down this foe and get rid of whatever was injected into their bodies.

Though just after a minute, their vision wobbled again and they had to stop once more.

"Damn it. This can't go on!" Maurice cursed in his mind.

"This person has a rapid movement technique." Qiang pointed out. "He could have left us in the dust already but he's keeping a certain distance from us. He either wants to lure us to a trap or is waiting for support from his comrades."

"We can walk out and seek a doctor in the nearby town. But we'll have to be on our toes. With these frequent wobbles, it'll be troublesome to be on guard in a town full of people everywhere." Maurice said. They were in a pinch. Their opponent was very tricky.

"Let's get him." Qiang said. "As long as I can get close enough, I can take him down within a few seconds."

Maurice smiled at Qiang's confidence. This lad was truly developing like a dragon!

"Then so be it." Maurice agreed.

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"This is far enough. I don't need to fight them. I'll just wait for the back up and have them fight those two." Gregory thought. "That kid has some powerful aces up his sleeve. Since when revolutionary army had such a person in their ranks?"

Suddenly there came a rustling sound from behind.

"Hmm…I didn't think I'd run into Jiao's lapdog on my way." A youthful voice followed the rustling as a boy draped in white clothes came out of the bushes. He was wearing a clown mask on his face.

Crack! Gregory's badge cracked in Jiao's spatial ring, immediately shocking him.

"Gregory! What happened!" Jiao shouted in his mind, calling out to Gregory through telepathy.

"Clown…white clown!" Gregory's frantic voice echoed in Jiao's mind followed by another loud cracking sound. His badge had completely shattered!

"….!!!!" Whoom!! A gust of chi exploded outwards from Emperor Jiao's body, toppling everything inside the hall.

"Who's this white clown!? How could he take down my general?!" Jiao roared in his mind angrily. He was truly infuriated.