Chapter 1303: The Start of the War

The Northern Emperor instantly stood up, unable to hide her frustration. She gritted her teeth.

"Those bastards!" she said. As if realizing something, she turned to Aldrian.

"You managed to pass through all of their nets covering this territory without them catching you?"

Aldrian shrugged. "What's so hard about that? If I want to do something without anyone noticing, then no one will notice me. Not even the gods."

He said it with complete confidence.

The Northern Emperor narrowed her eyes, and she couldn't help but connect something to Aldrian. The thought made her eyes widen.

"Wait... don't tell me. You had something to do with all the attacks that have been happening across the many territories of the Second Heaven?"

Aldrian said nothing and merely looked at Randolf. Randolf, who did not understand anything, looked confused and just silent. Then he suddenly disappeared, leaving the Northern Emperor stunned.

"It's much better if you ascend now. Report what I said to your lord. He must know about this matter, as it is truly a serious issue. Let me take care of those people."

The Northern Emperor really wanted to pull her hair out, feeling utterly frustrated that Aldrian had not answered her question. There were still many things she wanted to ask him.

However, what he said was correct. For now, the information was the most important thing. Her lord had to know about it, and she was the only one who could deliver it to him.

That was, of course, if what Aldrian had said was true, that he had his own circumstances, preventing him from meeting her lord personally.

She could only take Aldrian's silence as an admission of his involvement in the attacks that had occurred over the past month across the capital cities of the Second Heaven.

'Does that mean he has a group that is also unknown to us?' she wondered, biting her lip.

'Damn it, this is so frustrating. If only those bastards hadn't attacked at this moment, we would still have had more time to talk.'

She let out a long breath.

'Let's focus on what's happening now. If those bastards reach this place, it will become difficult for me to ascend.'

"Can you handle the Avergis Temple's Divine Realm cultivators? There are four of them surrounding our territory, and two of them are quite pain in the ass. One of them is a swordmaster, while the other is an assassin-type cultivator. The other two are much weaker, as they are not on the same level as me," the Northern Emperor said.

"I know. I've already gathered information on them," Aldrian replied as he walked toward the entrance of the chamber.

"We have to move quickly. Once you release your true cultivation, they will undoubtedly sense you and come after you. I'll hold them off so they can't follow you to the Higher Heaven," he added before suddenly disappearing.

The Northern Emperor blinked several times before letting out a sigh. She truly couldn't detect even the slightest sign of his disappearance, and she realized that what had happened earlier hadn't been a coincidence.

He really could make both himself and others come and go without her detecting it at all.

'If he really is the mastermind behind the attacks on the capital cities across the Second Heaven, then it makes sense that even those bastards from the temple in the Higher Heavens still haven't been able to catch him or anyone from his group.'

She then quickly walked out of her chamber. She could already see many of the cultivators in the hideout had come out to face the invading force, leaving the hideout quite deserted.

'Let's send the information first. This is something that needs the Transcendence Alliance's attention as soon as possible.'

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Near the border between the two factions' territories, the alliance force from the temple that had come from Tarluk City had already entered the territory of Tarius' followers with their countless cruisers.

There were also many cultivators flying on their own.

All of them were protected by various methods to keep the ominous energy in this place from affecting them.

Many relied on their own energy barriers, many used the defensive functions of their cruisers, and many others depended on battle formations, allowing their combined energy to suppress the negative effects of the energy permeating this place.

They entered the territory without encountering any resistance, and there was no one from Tarius' side to stop them.

However, many knew that this moment only made them raise their guard even higher. At moments like this, when they believed there was no danger, Tarius' followers would launch ambushes, slaughtering those who had let their guard down.

Far ahead of the main force, serving as the vanguard, were two Divine Realm cultivators of the temple: the black-haired swordmaster and the red-haired assassin.

There were already dead bodies scattered along their path. No one who stood in their way could withstand them. Most would be killed before they even caught sight of the two figures.

A group of ten Tarius followers rapidly approached their direction through the sky. Every one of them was an Immortal Realm cultivator, with the strongest among them being a Middle Immortal Saint cultivator who led the group.

They had not sensed the two Divine Realm cultivators, as the two were still beyond the range of their spiritual senses.

Even so, they continued flying straight toward the swordmaster and the assassin.

"Quick, we need to get into position before those fuckers push much deeper into our territory," the man leading them said.

"Damn it, to think they attacked without waiting any longer. We thought they would wait a while before launching an assault on us," one of the men behind him said in frustration.

"They must have been triggered by the sudden outburst of that unknown aura earlier. That aura was truly terrifying. It must have been sensed even beyond the borders of our territory," another commented.

The leader said nothing, but he also agreed with the last remark. The terrifying aura had appeared out of nowhere, causing space itself to tremble.

At that moment, he had wanted to prostrate himself in reverence before whatever had released such an overwhelming aura.

Slash!

Suddenly, out of nowhere, before any of them could sense anything, all of their bodies were sliced horizontally in two. ℯℯ𝑙.

Their heads split across the forehead, while the upper halves of their bodies were severed with such astonishing precision that the cuts were perfectly clean, as though made by an unimaginably sharp sword.

Because their deaths had come so suddenly, their expressions remained frozen exactly as they had been in their final moments. Their mutilated bodies fell from the sky, scattering in every direction as the momentum from their high-speed flight carried them forward.

However, several seconds passed, and no one appeared. The killer never revealed himself, making the scene eerily silent, as though an invisible ghost had taken all of their lives.

The only proof that they had not been killed by a ghost was the lingering sword will permeating the air, unmistakably revealing that a sword cultivator was responsible for their deaths.

Only seven seconds later did two figures fly past the falling corpses. They were the swordmaster and the assassin from Avergis' side. The swordmaster had killed them from beyond the horizon with a single technique.

The two of them continued flying forward without slowing down, still searching for the source of the terrifying aura they had sensed earlier. They knew that the other Divine Realm cultivators on their side shared the same objective and were searching from different directions.

"We've already flown in the same direction as the source of that aura from earlier, yet it disappeared without leaving a trace. Just where did the source of that aura go? It will be dangerous if we don't find it as soon as possible," the assassin said.

The swordmaster was already frowning. He was thinking the same thing and couldn't help but feel a growing sense of unease.

'What is this sudden bad feeling? I hope nothing goes wrong in this war,' he thought.

Whoosh!

Suddenly, a powerful aura erupted from the front-right direction, causing both of them to come to an abrupt stop.

Their eyes widened in astonishment because they immediately recognized whose aura it was. However, what shocked them the most was that the aura was far stronger than that of an Immortal Realm cultivator.

"This is the Northern Emperor's aura, and this... did she release the seal on her true cultivation? Is she trying to ascend?" the assassin asked in bewilderment.

"But doesn't that mean she'll abandon Tarius' followers here and leave them to be slaughtered by us? Does that mean she's giving up on the Second Heaven?"

The swordmaster narrowed his eyes. The ominous feeling in his heart only grew stronger.

"I don't know why, but I have a bad feeling about this. Whatever the case, let's move quickly. We have to stop her from ascending!"

As soon as he finished speaking, he dashed forward using his movement technique.

His body became like a sword that split through space itself, and his movement was so fast that it could no longer be followed with the naked eye.

The assassin also activated his own movement technique, using spatial movement. His body continuously vanished and reappeared at different locations, making it seem as though he was teleporting.

In reality, he was entering space itself like a warp before emerging some distance away, repeating the process in rapid succession until it looked almost identical to the teleportation technique Aldrian used.

They quickly entered the desert region, and it had not even been seven seconds since they had started using their movement techniques. At last, they caught sight of the Northern Emperor in the distance. She floated high in the sky as the heavens slowly pulled her upward.

"Shit! She's already broken through to the Transcendence Realm! There's no turning back now! Attack her immediately, or we'll have to ascend as well if we want to kill her!" the assassin shouted.

However, before either he or the swordmaster could make a move, a man suddenly appeared right in front of them and grabbed both of their heads.

Smack!