The North

But still, no matter how hard I think about it, there's really no reason for the north to attack the east. Unless maybe something happened and the south hates the east? And since the north and south are far away, the north wants to conquer the east as an offering to the south so they can help them overthrow the west? But if that were the case, Ruan Gao's father wouldn't just sit still...

Well, I guess something on that large of a scale is impossible... but what if it wasn't the north that invaded us at all? But there's really no other potential attackers other than the north? But if the north really tried attacking, it would be easy to send a message to the commander. Especially since they had a shrine over there. They'll see the boats from at least a hundred miles away; further if they use a telescope.

So maybe... they saw the northern ships coming and sent a soldier to request for help. The soldier goes to the Caodi realm using the shrine and dies because the guards at the shrine kill him because they aren't the supreme commander's people. Or they might be the supreme commander's but they can't or don't let him through for reasons unknown... and then the soldiers battling it out just die because the other guy was too late.

There's also the incredibly slim, but 100% possible chance of the soldiers failing to hold out for ten hours, and before the guy could go back with reinforcements, I used the shrine and interrupted them. Hopefully that isn't what happened. Otherwise, I'd be forced to take responsibility for the deaths of all the north eastern soldiers.

But another odd thing would be the lack of damage to the buildings? Sure, the stench of blood was very prominent, but there were no bodies, swords or metal plates lying around on the ground. In fact, no blood was even seen. And at the very least, they should have cut off the soldiers' heads and put them up on display, right?