"Bruce, I don't understand" Meredith looked at Bruce in confusion.
"We have to go into the ancient ruin, how will we sell these people?" Meredith could not believe the words coming out of her mouth. Being with Bruce had greatly corrupted her.
"We have to seal their cultivations and hide them somewhere" Bruce answered excitedly.
"Where would we hide them?" Sophia also joined the bandit's quest.
Bruce thought for a while and came up with a feasible spot to hide the prodigies. Since cultivators don't need food or water for a long period of time, Bruce could place the prodigies at a discrete location without having to worry about their survival.
Bruce quickly tied up the remaining prodigies who were still unconscious and put tapes over their mouths.
"There we go. Since their cultivations are sealed, they won't be able to use energy to break through the ropes."
After placing the prodigies in the discrete location, the group sighed in relief because the fight was officially over.
"Fuck the Dark Forces!" Edward yelled out loud.
Everyone looked at him in confusion because it was unlike Edward to lose his temper. Edward turned around and saw the group staring at him. He blushed a little and began to explain his outburst.
"According to Headmaster Steven, the Dark Forces and the Alliance Kingdom entered a temporary truce for the Ancient Ruin."
"It was mutually beneficial for both sides to let the young generations explore the ruins in hope of obtaining the inheritance"
"However, I didn't think that the Dark Forces would go back on their words and attacked all of us when we almost reached the entrance" Edward sighed.
"Guys, should we even enter the Ancient Ruin then?" Chelsey raised a question to the group.
"We originally had 1500 allies with us but now it's just 6 of us left. I'm afraid that we don't have enough power to compete for the inheritance" Chelsey looked around to see if anyone has a better idea.
"I think you're correct Chelsey. The inheritance is now out of reach because only us six are left while the other unknown beings will more than likely outnumber us" Meredith agreed with Chelsey assessment as well. The mission was doomed to fail.
"What should we do Bruce?" Edward looked at Bruce.
After the battle, Bruce had unofficially become the leader of the group.
"The wise decision would be to retreat back to the Imperial Academy because there are too many unknowns in the mission" Bruce said his thoughts.
"However, I will still go into the Ancient Ruins because it's more fun that way" Bruce laughed.
"Bruce, are you insane? It's suicide to go in there!" Meredith screamed at her crazy boyfriend.
"After this battle, I never felt more alive. I want to explore the Ancient Ruins and fight against other beings!" Bruce remained unwavering despite Meredith's disapproval.
"Then I'm coming with you!" Meredith knew she couldn't convince Bruce to retreat. She felt that if she let him go alone to the Ancient Ruin, she'd regret it for the rest of her life.
"Me too"
"Count me in…"
Bruce saw everyone wanting to come with him and felt touched. It's been a while since he had someone else other than Deion to rely on.
"Since everyone wants to come with me. I will do my best to protect everyone."
"Let's head out!"
After 20 minutes, the entrance to the Ancient Ruins vibrated across the lands. A majestic door appeared in front of the group waiting for anyone dared to take on the challenge.
Bruce led the group to the door, and everyone entered.
Meanwhile, battles on the scale of catastrophe happened across different parts of the continent. The leaders of both Alliance Kingdom and Dark Forces clashed against one another after the Alliance Kingdom found out that the Dark Forces had renege the temporary truce.
Near the vicinity of the original spot where Ling and Fan first appeared, two men were brawling it out in the sky. Both sword users fought one another, and every clash would send vibration across the surrounding. No one would be able to go near the battle because both had summoned their respective domains.
The difference between a Divine Emperor and a Great Emperor is the power of the domain. A Divine Emperor could create a domain covering a city while a Great Emperor could create a domain covering an entire country.
Seeing that their battle was not progressing with swords, the two decided to end the battle with elemental technique.
The old man enhanced his wind domain and summoned gigantic twisters capable of cutting through anything. On the other side, the middle-aged man clashed his fire domain against his opponent and turned the air around him into fire storm.
The Great Emperor melted all the rocks around the area and combined the earth with his fire storms to create magma. He waved his hand forward and pushed all the inferno magma into his opponent's twisters.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM
The entire radius of the battle became nothing as the two Great Emperors forced to use their special techniques.
"Cortez, it's time for us to stop fighting" The wind domain Great Emperor said while panting heavily.
"Monet, you think I will trust words from you assholes again?" John Cortez replied mockingly.
"Nothing will come out of this fight since the entrance has already opened" Cormac Monet grinned.
"I'm guessing your descendants have already gone in" John began to send out another attack.
"Indeed hahahaha" Cormac Monet laughed madly.
"I'm going to kill you asshole!" John summoned countless swords covered in fire aiming at Great Emperor Monet.
"John, please stop!" Great Emperor Fargo shouted as the other Great Emperors from Alliance Kingdom arrived behind him.
Great Emperors from the Dark Forces arrived behind Great Emperor Monet as well.
"What's the meaning of this?" John looked at everyone in annoyance.
"The Dark Forces has provided us 500,000 high energy crystals as compensation for breaking the agreement"
"I have agreed for a truce between both sides" Great Emperor Fargo said.
"Bullshit!" John yelled.
"These assholes killed our talents. 500,000 high energy crystals aren't enough to cover that!" Seeing John's intention, Great Emperor Fargo played along.
"What would you like the compensation to be?" Great Emperor Fargo asked.
"Another 500,000 high energy crystals" John raised up his five fingers.
"In your dreams Cortez!" Cormac Monet refused to pay that much. High energy crystals are extremely rare to find and hard to produce. The Dark Forces couldn't afford such a high payment.
"Don't forget that you're the one who broke the agreement and hurt the priestess of the Church of Light"
"What do you think would happen when we tell the Church of Light the truth?" John smirked.
"You…" Cormac Monet had no answer.
The Dark Forces was fine offending the Alliance Kingdom because both had been at each other throats since the beginning of time. However, if the Church of Light joins in with the Alliance Kingdom, the Dark Forces would be wiped out.
The Great Emperors of the Dark Forces spoke among themselves to discuss and came up with an answer.
"Fine, we accept. However, you must swear by the heavens that you will not disclose the original agreement with the Church of Light" The leader of the Dark Forces, Great Emperor Stinson, gave out the final condition.
"Fine" John nodded at Great Emperor Fargo.
After the transaction was done, something was wrong because the Great Emperors from Dark Forces turned serious. They quickly headed toward the entrance while the Great Emperors from the Alliance Kingdom followed them.
"What the hell happened here!" One of the Great Emperors from Dark Forces yelled out.
Bodies of Soul Manifestation prodigies from the Dark Forces were laying on the ground with holes in their chest. The two divine kings that the faction had tasked to protect the prodigies were also dead. Both bodies also had holes in their hearts.
"Where's my grandson, Morgan?" Cormac Monet screamed out loud as he looked everywhere for his grandson.
"YOU ALLIANCE DOGS, WHAT DID YOU DO?" Cormac Monet yelled in rage.