Chapter 243: The Stormlance War Art

The other Stormlance looked just as delighted as Amanda. They had all gained a training art.

Cassian immediately opened Amanda’s profile.

[Amanda]

[Race: Stormlance | Level: 70]

[Quality: Legendary Five-Star]

[Physique: 27,480 (+350) | Aether: 8,550 (+150)]

[Spirit: 8,610 | Load: 11,280]

[Combat Rating: 13,980 stars]

[Training Art: Stormlance War Art — Grade A, Beginner]

[Skills: Storm Body / Spear Mastery / Thunder Javelin / Thunder Step]

Impressive. Those were her attributes without equipment or external boosts.

"Three hundred and fifty Physique and a hundred and fifty Aether, just at Beginner."

Cassian smiled. The art was a perfect fit for the Stormlance. Five hundred extra attribute points might not look enormous beside Amanda’s existing strength, but a Grade-A training art’s gains would multiply as its mastery rose. The later stages would be far more powerful.

His own Warbody breakthroughs had already shown him how much a training art could add to raw strength. Now the Stormlance had a path of their own. Levels were no longer their only way forward.

"Lord," Sigrid said suddenly, "I have a feeling that if I can bring the Stormlance War Art to Transcendence, I’ll be able to locate the Mother River’s coordinates in space and time. If we find it, you may even be able to recruit Heroes of our race."

Cassian nodded, his interest growing.

The Stormlance’s skewed attributes still left them below his Legendary Nine-Star Crystal Maidens in raw numbers. Their fighting technique, however, was unmatched. Even Aurelia regularly sought them out to spar.

If he could find that Mythic Troop Building, he would recruit as many as he could.

Transcendence was still a distant goal, though.

Before long, Aurelia and the others returned to the Domain. Veyra joined them, and Cassian glanced at the sky.

"The individual matches start at noon tomorrow. Veyra, Aurelia—come to my room tonight. We need to discuss tactics."

Veyra paused, then looked him up and down with open suspicion.

"Both of us? Together? Has your Physique made another breakthrough?"

Cassian cleared his throat and lowered his voice.

"You and I are on the same side tonight."

She rolled her eyes.

"Then shall we invite Celia and Liora as well?"

Aurelia looked a little uncomfortable, but there was no mistaking the challenge in her eyes. A warrior did not shrink from a fight, even when she was outnumbered.

Nine tentatively raised her hand.

"I’d like to learn tactics too. I could just watch. I promise I won’t say anything."

"Must you be involved in everything?" Cassian demanded.

Nine looked wounded. She clearly had no idea what she had said wrong.

Veyra laughed and put an arm around her.

"I’ll explain how it works another time."

Nine still looked puzzled, but she brightened.

"Thank you, Veyra!"

——

While Cassian, Veyra, and Aurelia worked late into the night, another discussion was taking place in Sector 428.

"So Cassian is a puppet raised by those old men in the upper Realms? They still refuse to give up?"

Celestine’s voice drifted through a magnificent golden hall. Her throne stood deep within folded space, hiding her from the clean-shaven, middle-aged attendant waiting below.

"That is the Inner Court’s assessment, Your Majesty," Neville replied at once. "He may even be a powerful Lord reborn. Otherwise, his personal strength is difficult to explain."

He bowed a little lower.

"We owe the Black Banner and the Beacon League our thanks. They forced him to reveal his strength. Given another ten years, he might have founded another Peace Nation."

Celestine snorted.

"Tell me, Neville. I’ve worked tirelessly to manage the Seventh Realm all these years. Why must Edran and his friends always oppose me? Tidecrown was a perfectly good name, and now they call it Divine Province. Such arrogance!"

"They envy your gifts and your power, Your Majesty. One order forbidding Crown Lords from ascending, and their Realms would wither away."

The flattery pleased her.

An outright ban on ascension, however, was an order she would never dare give. That would mean mutual destruction. Instead, she quietly suppressed Lords outside the Jade Court, limiting the new blood that could ascend to strengthen Valcrest.

"And what do our friends to the west have to say?" she asked. "They were the ones who asked me to abandon Tidecrown."

Neville sent a confidential report toward the throne.

"Chancellor Lysander has been meeting with the western nations and the Black Banner’s representatives since noon. This is their proposal."

A brief silence followed. Then Celestine’s delighted voice rang through the hall.

"Good. Very good!"

She laughed.

"We can’t act directly against Tidecrown for the moment. But Cassian killed the Homeworld’s Champions. That gives us grounds to hold a vote and expel Tidecrown from the Homeworld Legion. Let us see how they fare without the Legion Contest’s rewards!"

"Your Majesty, you should have heard the foreign representatives," Neville said, lifting one hand delicately. "The moment they learned of your difficulties, they offered their unconditional support against Tidecrown and Cassian."

He smiled up at the hidden throne.

"Even if you do not rule the entire Homeworld, they already honor you as its mother."

Celestine laughed with genuine pleasure.

"They have far more sense than Edran. Didn’t the Golden Lion ask for Nine Dragons Marches? Send them my decree. If they help me kill Cassian, the Jade Court will cede the whole of Nine Dragons Province!"

Neville stared.

"What are you waiting for?" she demanded.

He jerked back to attention.

"At once, Your Majesty!"

——

Elsewhere in Sector 428, Chancellor Lysander had just left another gathering.

Ross, one of Free Will’s twelve directors, smiled at the representatives who remained.

"Celestine is our greatest friend. As long as she rules, we need never fear the Crown’s rise."

Dozens of faces broke into smiles.

"Keep her on the throne, and Valcrest in the Sixth Realm will decline sooner or later. Then the Caerwyn, the Aurelian, even Frost’s Realm..."

"Within a thousand years, those rich territories from the Third Realm to the Sixth could belong to us."

"I hear Highcrest stretches farther than anyone can imagine. Shall we visit together when the time comes?"

Laughter filled the room.

"So Cassian is another puppet of those old Crown rulers. We must make sure they fail."

Ross nodded in satisfaction.

In the Seventh Realm, the Beacon League was powerful enough to contend for leadership of the Homeworld. Above the Sixth, it had no foundation at all. Even some minor nations were better established there.

Free Will’s founders did not dare ascend even to the Sixth Realm. When their lifespans ran out, these powerful figures could only cling to life through Mind Transfer.

The Crown’s position was entirely different. Its ancient powers, from Highcrest to Valcrest, were strong enough to make every other nation wary. The Jade Court’s decay had given those nations an opening. By working together to suppress the Crown below, they could eventually seize part of its upper territories and establish bases of their own.

"You are remarkably accommodating, Lord Ross," a senior Golden Lion representative said. "After the Black Banner’s shameless betrayal, you can still cooperate with them."

"Come now, Lord William." Ross showed no sign of offense. "Our interests happen to coincide."

His manner remained elegant.

"Besides, Cassian killed one of my most valued descendants. I cannot leave that unavenged."

William’s mouth twisted.

Everyone knew what those old Free Will founders valued in their descendants: a body in which to continue living.

He clearly remembered the young man before him being an elderly woman a few decades ago.

"All sorts of different pleasures," William murmured.

There was envy in his eyes.