Chapter 122: The Campaign (Part 3)

{2 MONTHS LATER}

The campaign didn't receive any major setback till now. A few rogue Cultivators hiding on the beast worlds had discovered them but were finished off by the soldiers. The Cultivators that hid on beast worlds were the wanted criminals of the universe. An individual could not be declared as most wanted till atleast 7 intergalactic super forces agree to declare that person as such. The most common super intergalactic forces present in the 12 universe were the Alchemist Association and Formation Master Association.

Alexander ordered his soldiers to not enter into conflict with these forces till they have conquered all the beast worlds. But, if they are attacked first then, all the bets are off. Alexander's armies had till now lost a few hundred soldiers to surprise beast attacks and ancient formations but they had smartened up to avoid these situations. The loss of lives was not because their soldiers were not strong, it was because they didn't have honed combat instincts. These soldiers were rookies as the Cultivators conquering the origin verse were guarding the kingdom right now. These veteran cultivators were also the part of rescue corps.

The compensation was given to the nominated kin and their deaths droved the point home that deaths will occur in this campaign into the more arrogant subjects. Some protested to call the campaign off and were executed for going against the Emperor's command by The Imperial Punishers. The protestors had been quite violent in their protests so they were executed, that was the reason given to public. In reality, Alexander had ordered his people to quash any protests by whatever means necessary. If his subjects lost their spirits in such small-scale conflicts, how will they fight in multiversal wars, where entire universes were destroyed as a consequence; it was necessary to beat such notions out of the mind of his subjects. He could have explained his reasons to his people but in the end, he didn't choose to do so; he had more important things to do.

Alexander was busy directing the war efforts. As, they had not developed any technology or artifact which could enable communication between his army present in the twelve universes and the mainland; he had to intercommunicate the messages of both sides. Every week, he had to open the realm gate to each command centre in the 12 universes so that resources from conquered worlds could be brought to mainland and war supplies could be transferred to the troops. Moreover, heavily injured soldiers were also brought back to the mainland. According to experts, it was possible that the natives would be able to reverse-engineer their technology to some extent, so to prevent such circumstance, the soldiers were provided with the minimum technological support.

The generals had found the notion absurd but they didn't protest much as there was a possibility of such happening, so they went along with the suggestion. It took his soldiers, on an average, a month to conquer a world surface; so till now, the total worlds conquered by his army had went past 100 trillion and were continuously increasing. Alexander had used the realm gate to deposit thousands of Cultivators in the targeted galaxies. This was done after the main base was established and all the soldiers were transported to their respective universes.

This was done so that the army would not have to travel for decades to reach distant galaxies, despite travelling through teleportation formations. Several million galaxies didn't have any teleportation formations as they were present in the dead zones of the universe. The areas of the universe without any qi in it were called the dead zones. These areas were formed due to ancient battles fought there or when some experimental formation goes wrong. That doesn't mean that there was nothing of value there, on the contrary, these areas were extremely valuable as most pinnacle existences hid their inheritances in such areas. Also, many valuable resources also come into existence in these areas. This was the main reason that Cultivators flocked to the dead zones continuously. Alexander planned to conquer these areas last because at that time, there will be so one to challenge his attempt.

Alexander planned to continue his messenger duties for a few more months and then go into cultivation session again. A few more months will be enough to establish an unmovable foothold in the 12 universes. Already, small forces residing in hundreds of millions of galaxies across the 12 universes had joined his empire. The generals had simultaneously agreed that launching the invasion after the conquest of beast worlds would waste unnecessary time so when the beast worlds of a galaxy was conquered, the soldiers turned their attention to the small forces. These forces didn't have many HighGod Realm Cultivators so a team of hundred soldiers was enough to completely subjugate them. Alexander had also received reports that many small forces tried to give their daughters and sons as servants or concunbines to his soldiers, in order to curry favour. Some soldiers had also fallen in love with some native girls or boys.

Alexander had the clear policy of indifference towards such matters and didn't want to restrict the freedom of his people. The spouses of his soldiers were transported back to the mainland in order to remove the potential weak links that could harm the campaign. The soldiers were also ordered to focus more on campaign and less on such activities. It took his forces 3 more months to establish the foothold. After that, Alexander announced his decision of going into secluded cultivation and that the armies were now on their own till he returns.

Alexander had full confidence that no native force can now make his armies retreat to the mainland. His soldiers had fully conquered 5 Million galaxies in each universe and were in process of conquering hundreds of quadtrillions of beast worlds in the 12 universes. The death toll had already crossed 150,000 for his soldiers. Most of them died in beast attacks. Some died at the hands of the rogue Cultivators or space bandits. The amount of protests increased among the general public. The people were not angry at their king but the Military Department for sending rookies to war. That was the cover story.

According to the general information made available to the subjects, the Military Department had suggested the employment of rookies in the campaign and the veterans to act as back ups. Some people also requested Alexander to call back the rookies and send in the veterans.

Alexander had only one answer to such foolish requests, " Do veteran soldiers not have families and loved ones? Moreover, the veterans were also rookies at some point so nothing can be done in this matter."

None of the conquered galaxy belonged to the already existing intergalactic super forces but the amount of resources that his army now had under it's control, were beyond the imagination of the top brass of the super forces. The act of consolidating their hold on the millions of galaxies under them, revealed their existence to the super forces but no action had been taken against them yet. According to their spies, the top brass were busy investigating their origins and the possiblity of some sort of treaty between them.

Alexander entered closed-door cultivation in Zone-2 and started advancing in rapid pace. It took him only a decade to reach the God Realm in cultivation. He didn't pay attention to the threads of space-time laws in his god space and continued his advancement . It took him five years to reach the peak of God Realm. Alexander took a well-needed rest of a few months and prepared for his advancement tribulation. This time, he didn't get any unexpected surprises and advanced to the HighGod Realm quite easily. Alexander observed his godhead and found that it was 9,999,999 li in diameter. The godhead contained extremely pure chaos qi and thus was much bigger than normal. His godhead was slightly bigger than the previous chaos dragon. His precedessor's godhead was 9,900,000 li in diameter. Alexander just shrugged his massive shoulders and resumed his cultivation session. It took him 20 years to reach the peak of the HighGod Realm.

Alexander checked the situation with the campaign and told the generals that the realm gate will be opened for two hours in their respective universes within a week. The generals rejoiced and prepared all the stockpiled resources to be transported. Around 8 Million soldiers lost their lives during these years. Their bodies were already preserved and were to be transported first back to the mainland on Alexander's orders. The generals wanted to transport the resources first so that the death of soldiers would not dampen the mood of the subjects residing on mainland.

Alexander watched the sea of black coffins laid before him. The mood was sombre and serious and the anguished wails of his subjects echoed around him. The 12 generals were also standing behind him. The necromancers of the empire were employed to restore the bodies of the fallen soldiers to their idle conditions as most of them had died in beast attacks. The most distraught ones were those that didn't have even a body to burn. The dead bodies in the empire were burned and their ashes stored in the family cemetry. Each family had their own cemetry so that they could respect their loved ones.

Alexander didn't speak a single word during the proceedings but stood at his spot for seven days and seven nights. After that, he returned to his palace and took a long bath. Rose was quite worried about his mental and physical health but was reassured by Alexander that he was alright now. Alexander watched as the sunset and thought, " Your deaths were not in vain, my soldiers. I will look after your loved ones."

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