Lucien could understand the logic behind it, if a Practitioner hit Rank 3 in any Path, his Soul would be at least 5000, that is a strength that would definitely help towards understanding something that exist on a different plane, with the help from All Existence he would be able to perceive and grasp the Path.
The other way was to have an incredible solid foundation, meaning understanding all lower paths in this world to a certain level. That would bring a full understanding of the lower plane and easier time comprehending something that formed all the lower paths If you fully knew the final result, deriving the methods used to get there would be easy.
In a way, one of the methods was using brute force to barge into the higher plane, while the other was using your knowledge to open your way. If at least one of the conditions was not met, All Existence would have a hard time constructing and simplifying a situation where understanding towards a Middle Path can be achieved, thus the higher price.
Bringing back his thoughts to his body, Lucien was a bit shocked. Since he broke through all the Paths with stats way above their level, they naturally reached the peak of Rank 1, and right now if someone saw him, they would be terrified.
All kinds of lights and colors were floating on his skin, trying to break away, it was the same phenomena as when every practitioner was at the peak of Rank 1, the Particles couldn't detach themselves yet, but still visualized on the skin. The scary part was that Lucien had 6 different colors swimming on his skin, anyone who saw it would rub their eyes.
A Practitioner that reached Rank 1 in 6 Paths was not unheard of, all Rank 4s and Rank 5s had such a lifespan that once they reached a bottleneck, they focused on other Paths, to bring their overall balance back, some of them on multiple Paths to find a way to exceed themselves. But why would a Rank 4 or 5 be in this barren place.
He didn't let it bother him, before breaking through he made sure to find a safe and hidden spot, and considering all the bashing and booming he had done, if someone was around they would already be here, standing with their mouths handing open.
Just as he was about to stand up and go find out about the current situation of the war, a tremor ran past Lucien, then another. The tremors had an exact interval between them and only grew stronger. It didn't hit one minute and the tremors could lift a stone for a little bit, which then fell back.
'It can't be…'
Lucien ran as fast as possible to a nearby elevation that gave a good view of the mountains and looked around.
He was completely shocked when he discovered the cause of the tremors. It resembled a mountain on its own, a gigantic one at that, with the only difference that it was moving, albeit what seemed slowly.
'It's not slow at all, each tremor means a step forward, and considering the size that should be a couple dozen kilometers, it's a Rank 3 Beast capable of reaching here in an instant.'
The Beast slowly advanced as if it didn't care about the army in front, once it got a bit closer, it became visible that there were hordes of other beast flying and handing around its gigantic body, as if this was their home.
'Considering its Rank, its speed is too slow to be true, is this Beast giving the humans a chance to leave both sides with minimal damages by retreating.'
His communication device vibrated, bringing him out of his thoughts.
"Lord, the Rank 3 commanders have given their orders. The army is to retreat till the very bounds of the Myriad Beast Mountain, where the final collision will happen."
It was one of the Rank 2 Blood Slaves sending him the message.
"Go ahead and follow the order with all the slaves. Once we are at the bounds of the mountain, follow the others to fight the Beasts, but prioritize your lives, don't save anyone that is not a blood slave if a situation occurs."
"Yes, Lord."
'Can't have any suspicions on my men right now, they have to be upright and fight the battle, only like this could they be useful in the Empire after the battle, losses will have to be tolerated.'
'Fighting on the borders of the Empire and the Mountain, they are preparing for a retreat after a couple of clashes to test the waters, if a Rank 3 Beast goes pass the borders, it would be a declaration for a full blown war where the imperial army would participate.'
'Looking at how they want to scare us away, Beasts don't want an even more cruel war at this point.'
Lucien didn't linger and wait for the Beasts, he silently rejoined his group, which by now was famous in the camp based on the amount of kills they presented, and retreated towards the borders at the fastest pace possible.
His group now had 2 more members, he couldn't leave the group with most kills have only 3 people, it would be hard to explain later on, so he got 2 of his Rank 1 Blood Slaves join, making this team consist of 2 Rank 0s and 3 Rank 1s on paper.
After people started dying many of the Rank 1 Captains joined hands because their whole teams had died, so it was not unfathomable. The main reason he did this was because he wanted the reputation that came with the most kills competition, the rewards were of secondary importance.
The giant Beast still continued the slow advancement, as if nothing affected it.
Once they were at the borders, the distance between the two armies didn't chance much and the Beast was still visible, but there were signs of it stopping.
Out of nowhere one of the Rank 3 Commanders appeared and looked solemnly at the Beast.
"Since you attacked our territories, you should have been prepared to face the wrath of the Empire…"
"For the Scarlet Empire, we shall put you all down… ATTACK."
The Beast just looked on as if it even disdained speaking towards these ants, once the word 'Attack' left the mouth of the commander, the Beast opened its mouth and let out an earth shattering roar, which was followed by all the beasts on its body.