I sat in the lord’s manor, meditating. To an outsider, it may look like I was conserving my energy for the battle to come. In some ways… that was true. But I was doing a lot more than just that. My consciousness was spread throughout my domain. All of the seventh peak expanded outwards in front of me, as I watched the battle take place. The demons had targeted eight villages at once, aiming to sweep through the area. Many had tried to move through underground veins and tunnels as well, but all of them had quickly found out that those passageways were not nearly as safe as they might’ve hoped. The villagers were fighting really well. They’d had some time to train and get used to their weapons, and discipline was starting to kick in. It was not perfect, there were already people who had been injured quite severely in the attacks, and there would be more. There would be deaths too. Deaths I would not be able to prevent. But that was what war was. This was what Yang Shen was willing

Lord Zhou, Lord Zeng and Yanmei arrived on a cliff side, looking over the battle. The demons were coming in through a valley between cliffs, pouring through the crevices, carving through the earth and tearing a way through.The cliffs were providing a natural defensive structure, which was helping keep the demons at bay, or the fourth peak would’ve been lost by now. The lord’s mens were on the cliffs and the lands had been caved in to block the path and create hurdles. Any normal army would’ve turned around already, but the demons were simply carving a way through the earth and pushing through like a bull headed spear.Unfortunately for them, that would not work for much longer.“Brother Zhou… what is all this?” The fourth lord asked. A young girl kept working on a strange spherical contraption, setting it up with formation sigils and characters all up on the cliff.“A gift from Yuan to you,” Lord Zhou said.“The five-fold sage?” Lord Zeng asked, looking again at the device behind him

The deathless flew through the sky, soon landing on the cliff side, and looked in surprise. The men all raised their weapons, Yanmei brandishing her sword, Qi swirling around her in a fury.Lord Zhou stood in the front, watching the demon in silence.The demon looked around in surprise. “You pathetic vermin have not turned tail and run? Well, suits me. This will make the task much much easier,” the beast said, as the earth began to twist around its body, turning its skin to stone.“How peculiar for a corpse to be speaking,” Lord Zhou said, watching the demon.“Precisely. And soon, you’ll stop when I tear a new mouth for you in your gut—”“—Catch,” Lord Zhou said, interrupting the demon as he threw the grenade.With a simple extension of his will, his Qi spread out creating a protective dome around all of them in an instant as he reinforced it.The demon barely had time to blink as the metallic device clanked near its feat. By the time it could realize, it was too late. The creature’s

Lord Zhou nodded, putting a hand on the young woman’s shoulder. “We understand what you’re feeling right now. In truth, we felt much the same way when we first starting seeing all he was doing. It was strange and hard to believe and we found ourself wondering just what the truth was about the boy. We grew suspicious at times too, and doubted our decision to trust him. But if you ever meet him… you’ll understand one thing. He may not make a lot of sense to you, but he is a simple boy with a simple heart that he wears on his face. He does not have guile, he does not hide his thoughts, he does not play politics, and he will often act in really stupid and childish ways. And he has nearly no regard for stature, it will not matter to him if you’re a mortal on the street or the emperor himself, in his heart, he will treat you the same way as he will treat anybody else,” Lord Zhou said, thinking about said boy in question.Ah, just how he’d grown used to this all. This was how one was normall

Visions swirled around Tian Feng, mist sweeping over him as he meditated. The world was chaotic and fate had been shifting out of his grasp, but even through the mists he could see a figure flying in the skies, a dark visage bringing dark tidings.The demon’s eyes shone a deep red as five rings of power swirled in its eyes.Three other figures were present behind the creature, their forms hidden by the mists. Each with equivalent power. And they all regarded him as once, as his vision collapsed by force.Tian Feng’s eyes shot open.“What’s the matter?” Xian Yue asked, concerned.He glanced towards his spirit, taking a moment to ground himself as the dream collapsed and the vision faded. But the vision he’d seen… that was not of the future, that was… of the past. And if so… Tian Feng shot to his feet and began to rush out of the chamber he was.“What happened?” Xian Yue asked once more.“We need to send a message to Divinities. The demons have Divinities on their side, and one of them i