Only You - Chapter 5: Chapter 5

When Ana came back to the beast farm of the headquarters from the tavern, she saw Sheridan was feeding Snowy.
‘ Why did Commander Dunn summon you?’ Sheridan asked aimlessly.
‘ Nothing.’ Ana replied, swinging her head.
‘ Dunn is a sentimental man and has invariably been a straight talker. But he constantly remains credible to friends,’ Sheridan grinned.
‘ Do you perceive him very thoroughly?’ Ana inquired, peeking at Sheridan.
‘ I've drunk with him a few times, so we are pot companions. He also often goes to the Geisha House that we have been to. I almost let it slip. Have you ever seen Miss Laney?’ Sheridan asked as his mind lingered over something suddenly with his eyebrows lifting.
' That's right. When you were under the influence of alcohol last time, I sent you to the room of Yasmin. I sauntered out of the room and appeared to catch her blowing a flute! How do you perceive that?' Ana asked .
' Miss Laney caught a cold a few days ago, and I went to find out her illness. She asked me if I had a disciple and spoke profoundly of you. Girl, you undoubtedly have a lot of favorable fortune in love affairs! Miss Laney could miss you after met you only once. I am green with envy of you!' Sheridan said jokingly.
' If you aren't in a hurry-scurry, you can go back tomorrow. Drink with me tonight to nurture our relationship,' Sheridan said in a look of exultation.
' I'd rather not. I have a lot of things to work out.' Ana shook her head. Since she had just reached the first grade of the Heavenly Stage and regained the power of the Holy Dragon Bead, she required some time to adapt to her current situation. Besides, she had taken off for somewhat a few days, so the spirit-manipulated beasts she fed must be starving.
' Well. I'll catch you available next time.' Sheridan replied in his as sick as a parrot eyes. Then he altered the topic and inquired, ' What about your cultivation of the Mysterious Beast Transformation Skill?'
' It is more mysterious as a rose leaf than I understood, so I still require some time,' Ana answered back.
' Of course. I have only reached the third level with over thirty years. With your age, it is pretty good if you could reach the first level in a few years. Especially if you demand to contact with the spiritual power of your spirit-manipulated beast, it undoubtedly takes time.' Sheridan nodded and proceeded thoughtfully, 'But with your natural endowments, I'm filled with aplomb that you will do better than me. Don't be overly restless for accomplishment.'
' I am apprehensive of that. I'm taking off now!' Ana replied and wandered to Snowy. Touching its neck and mounted it in a dash.
Later on, Snowy spread its wings and surged high, a speck of gust dust was thrown up. The gusts of wind blew it into the air in great swirls. They disappeared swiftly. However, as Ana faded away on Snowy, staring in the direction where they had left, Sheridan was appreciative of a serious dilemma and stated in dumb stricken tone, 'Why could she drive Snowy? Only the royal spirit manipulator with the dragon spiritual power could drive it. Is she a...'
After reckoning, Ana had the consciousness that Marcia would turn up at the tent in the front tomorrow, so instead of sending Snowy back, she took it to her place.
When Snowy landed, raising clouds of dust, plumes of dust erupted from the surface, giving the air a musty smell. The three big beasts and a small one came over, screeching at Ana. Faced with such a few spirit-manipulated beasts, Snowy became on the alert, so it thundered like a burning lumber yard looking up at the sky as if it was displaying its strength. However, except that the little Ghostly Ice Fox-wolf was petrified as a jack-rabbit that had heard the howl of a wolf, to conceal behind Ananta, the other three spirit-manipulated beasts remained tranquil, not offering any impression of weakness.
' Don't be in a blue funk... They are all my spirit-manipulated beasts...' Ana comforted Snowy while touching it lightly.
Snowy burst out a low croon and rested its big dragon eyes on the Rainbow Glow Unicorn. It seemed that Snowy had recognized it was a rare spiritual beast so that it swayed its head in a thunderbolt.
Ana jumped off Snowy and walked among the four spirit-manipulated beasts to touch their heads.
' You are bigger now. What have you eaten these days?' Ana uttered as she weighed the little Ghostly Ice Fox-wolf in her hands.
During only a few days when she had left, it had grown a lot. Since Ananta was very experienced, with the assistance of Rubygon and the Rainbow Glow Unicorn, she could leave the little Ghostly Ice Fox-wolf to them. Thus, she was relatively free from getting overwrought.
At the juncture, Ananta suddenly turned back and ran like fire through stubble into Ana's lab. Then it held an oval porcelain like a bowl before Ana.
After a closer glance, Ana found there was three days' production of the magical saliva like the condensation of the essence of the miracle liquid.
' Ananta, you perceive how to collect the magical saliva now. Good job!' Ana shouted like the hoarse peals of vultures while dumbstruck.
Ananta immediately broke out two yips, which sounded like it showed off its achievements. Smelling the fragrance of the magical saliva, the other spirit-manipulated beasts were all eager to eat it, howling loudly. Even Snowy was no exception.
Then Ana poured the magical saliva into the bottle and fed each of them, including the little Ghostly Ice Fox-wolf, a drop of it. With that, Ana went to the den to check on the situation of the Queen Dark Heaven Insect and the other three Dark Heaven Insects.
She found that two three-star Dark Heaven Insects in the first grade were about to grow to a higher level. Once they reached the second grade, they could give birth to the Dark Heaven Eggs at the intermediate stage. Besides, to Ana's perplexity, after poring over the body of the Queen Dark Heaven Insect, she discovered that its belly was conspicuously swollen. It appeared to have been pregnant. Abruptly, the eyes of Ana smoothed up. She had figured out the two leading causes of the low rate of hatchability of the eggs.
One reason was that the natural deformities of the mother's ovaries; the other cause was the problem of the eggs themselves.
In fact, the two causes were cause and effect, so the primary cause was the ovaries that bred the eggs. Since the Queen Dark Heaven Insect was a hermaphrodite, so the process of the ingravidation was completed in just one body. Even though it had female ovaries, its female hormones were low so that its ovaries were defective. Therefore, the eggs would be affected when they were bred in the ovaries.
Since the eggs had been affected, when they were given birth to, the proliferation of the larvae of the Dark Heaven Insects was slowed down.
As a result, the larvae couldn't manage to break full in time. With the natural defects of the eggs' structure, and the restraint of the environment, the rate of hatchability of the eggs was exceptionally low. Thus, the key to the problem was to repair the ovaries of the Queen Dark Heaven Insect so as to improve the environment of the breed of the eggs.
Deep in Ana's heart, a compelling solution had occurred to her long before. And she was conscious it would doubtless work because she was pretty certain that there was invariably one thing to overpower another. But the obstacle was that, her strategy had a premise that the Dark Heaven Insect Queen needs to be pregnant. However, she was somehow not confident about the time when it would get pregnant. So she had been cooling her heels all this way for the timing to start her plan.
Now that the Dark Heaven Insect Queen was showing evident signals of pregnancy. Then this was the splendid time for her plan to be executed out. In Ana's plan, the initial step to do was to repair the Queen Dark heaven's ovarian and to maintain it in a satisfactory state. To do so, the most influential thing to do was to get lots of estrogens into its body. And due to the limits of the current technology, there was no way to make artificial estrogens.
In that way, the only source of estrogen was from the other female spirit-manipulated beasts.
' It sounds like it's the perfect time to inaugurate my plan right now,' pondered Ana in her mind. Since she had already made a quantum leap to reach the first grade of the Heavenly Stage, she could have a short break temporarily in her cultivation. Following her gut, she would be concentrated on the genetic research next.
During her cultivation journey last time, she had gathered dozens of samples of different spirit-manipulated beasts. However, she had not have an amplitude of time to work on these test data back then, nor to do any further research. Now that she got such a valuable break, she could throw herself into her research.
For now, Ana had to figure out the primitive sequence of the spirit-manipulated beast's genome. And after that, she could move forward to do the genetic modification. While she was contemplating of her next arrangement in her mind, Ana soon showed up and merely to find that Snowy was getting along with other spiritual beasts there. And what even rude awakened her was that, the little Ghostly Ice Fox-wolf was sliding on Snowy's back at this moment.
From their expressions on the faces, she could tell that they were over to the moon and back being with each other. This was absolutely beyond one's wildest dream to anyone who saw it. After all, they were all different, from the spiritual beast, to the high-class Dragon Clan, even to the mix-blood of the spiritual beast and the war beast.
In that way, it was not a piece of old tackle for them to coexist peacefully like a virgin lake. And the particular speculation why these different kinds of beasts could get along with each other, was because of Ana. She literally had the magic to tame wild beasts.
It was night time when Ana arrived, after dealing with the matters outside. At that juncture, she seemed kind of worn to a frazzle since she had been battling for several days with barely taking a breather. She soon then entered her cultivation room after a brief time being with the beasts. With drinking up a drop of the magical saliva, she then closed her eyes to begin her cultivation as customary.
As promptly as Ana started her cultivation, her brain was desperately scrambling to make sense of it all by the spiritual power within her body, which was several times more powerful than it was before she reached the first grade of the Heavenly Stage. Deep in her mind, she perceived very well that no one at the same grade of her would have such powerful spiritual power, not even the royal spirit manipulator who had reached the first grade of the Heavenly Stage.
At this point, Ana now was well cognizant why she could successfully manage to take the attack from Commander Zhou back then in Rough Slope.
It was an attack from one who had reached the third grade of the Heavenly Stage, which was exceedingly vigorous. But Ana did it, without a hindrance. In other words, the spiritual power now in Ana's body had far outstripped the one who was of the first grade of the Heavenly Stage. And the logic thought why Ana would achieve such powerful level was not troublesome to imagine though.
The power of the Holy Dragon Bead really was evil, and it had aroused over within Ana's body. With its waking up, the spiritual power that had been discharged along was remarkably powerful, which was strong enough like the bulwark of the laboring bark to destroy Ana. And that was precisely why Marcia had sealed the power of Holy Dragon Bead inside Ana's body, together with the spiritual power of the Holy Dragon Bead.
The only thing she left activated in her body was the power of the first grade of the Earthly Stage at that time. When she reached the first grade of the Heavenly Stage, the first layer of seal on the power of the Holy Dragon Bead had been unsealed, as well as the part of the sealed spiritual power. And the original spiritual power in her body had been incorporated into a new one. Because of that, the spiritual power that demonstrated on Ana's body last time turned out to be black.
The spiritual power that dictated her body came from the Holy Dragon Bead, which had become evil.
In addition to regaining the power of the Holy Dragon Bead, Ana also renewed the Dragon Spirit Mark. In that way, the part of Fire spiritual power, which had merged with the original spiritual power before, was reborn. In effect, there was no desire for her to do the Spirit Possession that she could manage to use the Fire spiritual power after that.
Particularly, the Fire spiritual power and the evil power of the Holy Dragon Bead within Ana's body were independent and complementary to each other. Either of them could be expressed individually or to apply at the same time. And of course, the power would become much more dominant in the case of these two forces integrated, which had been proved in Rough Slope. But yet, the condition of Ana's body was unquestionably out of the ordinary here in the Magic Spiritual Space.
In all ages, there was no spirit manipulator like her, who could manage to bolster up two different spiritual powers in thier body, split up without having an impact on the other one. Thus it could be understood a bit that the power of the Holy Dragon Bead in her body was not only magic but was also spine chilling!
After spending the whole night cultivating at the room, Ana felt so much bucked up in the early morning the other day. She then instructed her three beasts to keep safe for the little Ghostly Ice Fox-wolf, simultaneously with the house guard, she herself then flew to the frontline military camp with Snowy.
On the other side, due to the early arrival of the reinforcements of the Crimson Dragon Group, the army group of the Timber Deity Empire was not able to put into effect its plan at all. With the shortage of provisions and fodders, they could merely order a retreat feebly at the end.
After the cross swords that very night, the breaking news had spread like wildfire within the main military camp that the northeast military army won in the war, with only several thousands of soldiers in Rough Slope. On the contrary, the army group of the Timber Deity Empire was brought down to their knee in the battle, with heavy casualties of several thousands of soldiers and even a Commander of the Heavenly Stage level.
In the end, they could only be forced to back down with their tails between their legs. Far away in the main military camp, everyone was astounded by this exhilarating news. Their eyes and their mouths were frozen wide open in an expression of stunned surprise. Their brains desperately scrambled to make sense of it all.
At this moment, Marcia just showed up outside of the Commander's tent. With black hair of wool and her head held high, she waltzed on with an effortless saunter. The clicking of her heels added rhythm to the soft classical music that played onward without pause. Although her spell binding appearance was stained with dust and sand, her heroic female posture was as conspicuous as usual. She got off the horse instantly, and strode straight into the tent, under the knocked for six gaze of other commanders. There was fagged out evident on her face as she came back all the way at night by horse.
Ana had taken Snowy away from her, so that was the only and swiftest way she could come back to the main military camp for reporting the progress of the war. She had come back in such a hurry like moon-ray flashing through the drifting snow that she did not even have time to put off the cloak nor the battle gear which were stained with blood.
' Where is Ana Frank? Why are you coming solely?' Sara asked in a dash like lightening at the sight of that Marcia showing up there alone.
' That gurl, she left earlier before the clamor was over. To add salt into an injury, she even took my Snowy away...' stated Marcia as she was kind of with all guns blazing with Ana. Fires of fury were smoldering in her small narrowed eyes. But she soon stopped grumbling about her as if she had thought of something else in her heart at this moment.
' Commander Marin, how did you the northeast military army make it that you guys won the battle in the end? You guys are awe-inspiring that you held the field in Rough Slope for three days! Even a Commander of the Timber Deity Empire was executed...' One of the Commanders could not help but express his turned up for the books expression and be enamored at this juncture, finding it arduous to believe what Marcia had gained in this tough battle. As he was speaking, all the other Commanders fixed their eyes on Marcia, speculating what she had done to the twenty thousand soldiers of the Timber Deity Empire.
' As we all perceive, Commander Marin is undoubtedly good at the art of war. Don't you guys be of the same sentiment?'
' Absolutely! Everyone is well cognizant that Commander Marin is one of the best among the Frontline Commanders. Her military tactics are competent.'
' It is definitely an excellent accomplishment of the northeast military army this time! The momentum of the Timber Deity Empire has been largely secured.'
For a moment, the whole camp became strident as almost everyone was revealing their exciting feelings about this tremendous triumph. The excitement wired their bodies like they were plugged into the mains. They felt like their brains were on fast forward and there was no off switch.
' Well, in evidence, it was all Ana Frank's credit. Without her support, we the northeast military army could never win the clamor. I have to spill of the beans that all the fighting schemes have come from her reflections. And she really devised a number of effective strategies to help us win the battle in Rough Slope. I felt guilt ridden about myself, but it was truly she who led the army into the camps of Timber Deity Empire and killed the Commander!' Marcia spoke the realism to Sara and other Commanders without reserve. With her eyes peering straight at them.
After her speech, everyone at the scene was overwhelmed, with immense surprise witnessed on their faces. Their brains stuttered for a moment and their eyes took in more light than they expected, every part of them went on pause while their thoughts caught up. Even if Ana Frank was the one who had come up with every scheme to hold the field in Rough Slope, how could it be possible that she would be able to kill the Commander of the Timber Deity Empire? They found it really hard to believe such a thing that Ana was the one of such extreme power, able to kill a powerful Commander.
Although Ana's eighth grade of the Earthly Stage was well known by so many Commanders, according to the information from the frontline, the powers of the two Commanders from the Timber Deity Empire were actually above the Heavenly Stage. That was why the Commanders here found it unbelievable to acknowledge that Ana was the one to kill one Commander of the Timber Deity Empire during the battle. They could only look at each other dumb folded without uttering a word.
‘ Commander Marin, was Commander of Timber Deity Empire really executed by Ana?’ Sara calm face was like the breast of a lake when the loud wind was laid, shock registered on her face before she could hide it when she heard the woman who killed Commander of Timber Deity Empire and brought down Timber Deity Empire was Ana. Marcia nodded to Sara in noncommittal expression.
‘ All of you leave us alone. I demand to have a confidential dialogue with Commander Marin...’ After a second of halt, Sara told Commanders.
Commanders looked at each other in ambiguity and then bowed and left.
‘ Marcia, judging from her competence, Ana couldn't kill Commander of Timber Deity Empire, who is of the Heavenly Stage by herself. How could she do that? How could she execute a Commander of the Heavenly Stage?’  asked Marcia after everyone left.
‘ I didn't see that myself, either. But if I'm not wrong she broke through earthly stage and reached heavenly stage,’ Marcia said seriously.
‘ The first grade of the Heavenly Stage? How on earth could it be... Her power was only the eighth grade of the Earthly Stage in the contest.’ Sara was  shocked. Her brain was desperately scrambling to make sense of it all.
‘ Oh, Sara, why did you agree with her presumptuous demands?’ Marcia suddenly asked to change the topic.
‘ What's that?’ Sara didn't have the slightest clue what Marcia referred to.
‘ In case anything wrong happened to me, you dispatched Ana to Rough Slope for supplying the army provisions. So, you gave Ana approval that if she rescued Rough Slope... you will marry her?’ said Marcia. Her face turned red as the blood-drops from a wounded heart.
‘ Marry her? Did she say that to you? ’ Sara frowned, and a look of anger shone from her eyes. Her eyes glistened with indignation and violence, much like lightning on a pitch-black night. Marcia nodded.
‘ This girl... She sent you on a wild goose chase.’ Sara was resentful and explained to Marcia. She was like an enraged panther. Anger was brewing like tea in a pot or like a storm out at sea.
‘ Ahh? Oh no! Gosh!’ Marcia's face fell like wet cement.
‘ What's amiss?’ Sara asked.
‘ She informed me you promised to marry her to save my skin, so I...’ Marcia stammered.
‘ Didn't you...’ Sara realized something.
‘ Yes, I guaranteed that to her, if she rescued the troop, I would marry her instead of you.’ Marcia's face went red like an over-ripe tomato, her face contorted with the venomous outburst. She felt embarrassed and wanted to hide in the snow like an ostrich.
‘ Leave her alone. She lied to you first. Don't be on a tenterhook. I will teach her a lesson when I meet her next time,’ Sara said. Anger boiled deep in her system, as hot as lava.
‘ Deputy Commander in Chief, are you going to teach me a lesson?’ A joking voice was saying outside of the camp. Later, a woman came in.
Both Sara and Marcia turned their heads and found it was Ana. She strode in calmly with a look of indifference.
‘ You are such a liar! ’ Marcia retorted.
‘ How dare you, Ana! How dare you to take advantage of Marin, my cousin! I will teach you a lesson!’ Sara was boiling with anger, too, as if she wouldn't let Ana go scot-free.
‘ I'm going to take off and come to say goodbye to Commander Marin. I have brought snowy back.’ Ana laughed naughtily and turned away after concluding her words, despite the fact that two women were gawking at her. Their eyes rest, not unblinking but slowed, yet the effect was soft and inviting instead of harsh.
‘ Hold on!’ Both Marcia and Sara shouted on top of their voices when seeing Ana was about to leave.
‘ You don't want me to go? Or both of you want to marry me?’ Ana stated in an evil voice and joking expression grew on her face.
Both Marcia and Sara gave her angry stares hearing what she said. In this world, only Ana dared to play a joke with these two women with background and influence.
‘ Ana, if you continue acting like that, I will be short with you.’ Sara was a little bent out of shape. But Ana made tremendous contributions this time. Then she cooled down and spoke as tenderly as she could, ‘ It was thanks to you this time that we could hold the Rough Slope and safeguard our main force.’
‘ Commander Marin led the army with brilliant tactics and delayed the speed of the army of the Timber Deity Empire, which is the most critical reason we won the battle. I just did what I should do,’ Ana said with a  smile. Her smile shined like the stars in the sky.
‘ Give yourself some credit. If you hadn't murdered the Commander of the Timber Deity Empire and slashed the military morale of the enemy, we wouldn't have had such a great chance. And all the tactics were proposed by you. Compared to you, I did very little. ,’ Marcia said with a chip on her shoulder tone, rolling her eyes at Ana.
‘ Well, both of you performed well this time. As for the rewards, we will converse about it later. We now shattered the plan of the Timber Deity Empire, but I assume they will try every means to retaliate against us. So we should be vigilant and can't lower our guard. But we managed to hold the Rough Slope and triumphantly killed the leading Commander of the Timber Deity Empire. It is a tremendous strike for them. What's more, their whole plan has been disrupted by us, which is a precarious problem for them to make the follow-up plan. So I intend to assemble the army and inaugurate an ambush against them in a rude awakening way in three days. I'm going to storm their right-wing defense line which is their vulnerability.’ Sara talked about her master plot to halt the difference of opinion between Marcia and Ana.
‘ It's not my job. If you don't have anything else, I'm taking my leave,’ Ana said, raising her eyebrow.
‘ Marin, cool your heels for me for a minute outside,’ Sara said to Marcia. Marcia nodded and walked out.
‘ I've accomplished what I pledged you. If you have other plans, I'm not in,’ Ana said directly to Sara, in an attempt to give thumbs down to the requirements Sara might make for her.
‘ I pin my hope on you to lend a helping hand to me one last time,’ Sara requested earnestly with optimism. Although she hadn't participated in the battle at the Rough Slope, she knew that she would not be able to buy three days for her main force in that situation. But Ana did that. So she conceded that Ana was a genius in military tactics. She hoped that Ana could help her give the Timber Deity Empire a deadly strike when their military morale was low.
‘ I stated I bail you out only once.’ Ana rebuffed Sara , paying no heed to her request.
‘ You are so petty,’ Sara complained, pouting her mouth.
Ana didn't care about how Sara talked about her. She curved her lips and turned around to leave.
‘ Hold your horses! You haven't told me about your requirements. What do you want from me?’ Sara called to Ana quickly as a flash of lightning when realizing she was leaving.
‘ Marin has mentioned that she is going to marry me ,’ Ana turned her head back and said with a smirk.
‘ No way! If you pluck up the courage to do anything to Marin, you will see how brutal I am to you.’ Sara threatened Ana coldly.
‘ What can I even do to her ? Ha ha...’ Ana laughed and sauntered out of the camp.
Ana stepped out of the camp and saw Marcia who undoubtedly was waiting for her.
‘ Congratulations . You have broken the first layer of the seal . But don't push yourself too much otherwise you will be devoured by the power’ Marcia warned seriously.
Ana just nodded at her and left without a word.
At the same time in the main camp of the Timber Deity Empire, Alyssa glared at Commander Zhou who was kneeling in front of her. She didn't utter a single word, but the power and presence she was showing were disheartening.
The commanders of the Timber Deity Empire standing on both sides exchanged looks secretly and no one had the courage to talk, not to mention intercede with Alyssa for Commander Zhou.
The Timber Deity Empire had sent twenty thousand soldiers to attack the Crimson Dragon Group at the Rough Slope, but they didn't take the Rough Slope nor panic the Crimson Dragon Group. Instead, they had lost many soldiers and one commander at the Heavenly Stage. The failure at the Rough Slope reduced the military morale and disrupted Alyssa's deployment.
‘ It's my fault. Please condemn me to death,’ Commander Zhou proposed calmly, not horror-stricken of death at all.
‘ To die is simple as a playful lamb ’ Alyssa suddenly reached out her arm and pointed at the sword carried by a commander beside her, applying her spiritual power on the sword which dashed out of the sheath and twirled fast in the air before slipping past Commander Zhou's neck.
Seeing that, the commanders at present broke into a cold sweat of fear. A strand of hair dropped on the ground and a blood trail appeared on Commander Zhou's neck. He would have been dead by now if the cut were a little deeper. The sword dropped on the ground with a loud sound.
‘ If killing you could make up for this failure, I would finish your life without delay,’ Alyssa said, clenching her teeth. She thought her plan was flawless and would have given a horrendous beating to the Crimson Dragon Group. But the result was the opposite. The Crimson Dragon Group had been reinforced and would definitely take this opportunity to take the initiative and attack the battlefront of the Timber Deity Empire.
‘ Thanks for sparing my life, Princess,’ Commander said with gratitude.
‘ Tell me what happened from the Crimson Dragon Group delivering the army provisions to you being defeated by their reinforcement. I want the details. So I can figure out what exactly led to the failure,’ Alyssa said to Commander Zhou coldly in her seat. Commander Zhou nodded immediately and started to elaborate on the process.
Alyssa's expression grew severe as she listened. She had made it clear that the one who had come up with the tactics could manipulate Commander Zuo and Commander Zhou's minds easily.
‘ Who on earth is this woman that had such novel ideas?’ Alyssa thought, keen interest blazing in her cold eyes.
The commanders present were caught on a hop by what they had gotten wind of. Yet, they thought it was the two Commanders' fault that the twenty thousand soldiers of the Timber Deity Empire were pulled a fast one by their rival. Considering the two's qualifications, they shouldn't have fallen into such a trap. How could they be that unguarded?
Those commanders didn't engage in the fight against Ana, after all, so they had no single clue about how panic striking she was.
‘ Commander Zhou, do you perceive who worked out all these schemes? It can't be Marin cuz she's hiding. The one who can figure out those schemes is very calculating and so excellent at analyzing situation and enemy's feebleness. The only people I can think of who conforms to all the characters in the Crimson Dragon Group is Lance Liu, their Commander in Chief. But according to the intelligence, Lance had already headed for the Imperial City before we blockaded the Rough Slope. It's not him. Then who is this person? Is there anybody else in the Crimson Dragon Group who can be that good as gold and talented? Except for Sara Liu, their present leader,’ Alyssa guessed with bewilderment. She was in a need-to-know situation. It's like her brain cells had been randomized. This person's appearance was utterly out of her expectation.
To her intelligence, there was no such talent in the Crimson Dragon Group, excluding Lance and Sara. After some brown studying, she concluded that the person was eminently possible to be Sara, her most prominent opponent while she was filled with aplomb that she could deal with Sara.
Commander Zhou took a trip down memory lane the woman who took Commander Zuo's head invading their army after a while. Yet everything was in pandemonium and so noisy as a flock of crow-blackbirds in the migration season then, so he didn't hear clear when Marcia called Ana's name. He felt sorry for that.
‘ Is that so?’ Alyssa's face looked sullen slightly.
‘ Yes! And that woman looked very young.’ Commander Zhou nodded.
‘ None of their members, whose positions are in or above Commander in the Crimson Dragon Group, are at the early twenties. Even among their Deputy Commanders, there is nobody at such age.’ Alyssa was trying to figure out who could be the woman. She had a gift for learning by rote. And she already got some information and intelligence about those, whose positions were in or above Deputy Commander in the Crimson Dragon Group.
‘ Is it that she is not a Commander?’ The commanders of the Timber Deity Empire also began making a wild guess after hearing Alyssa.
‘ Is there an unexposed talent in the Crimson Dragon Group? I have discovered that Sheridan, the most potent beast tamer in the Holy Dragon Empire, had a student recently. I was temporarily incapacitated when I got that information. It's so hard to swallow that Sheridan would be willing to have a student. And it's not great news for our Timber Deity Empire,’ Alyssa said nonchalantly. Those commanders were all taken aback by her.
Their faces were washed blank with confusion like their brain cogs couldn't turn fast enough to take in the information from her wide eyes. Every muscle of their bodies just froze. They looked at each other with astonishment and confusion. The more they mulled it over, the more their brains became a spinning top, finding more questions than answers.
Sheridan, the strongest beast tamer in the Holy Dragon Empire, was also well known to them. And his student must be an outstanding person. Suddenly, Alyssa had a disparaging smile and added, ‘ Nobody knows who Sheridan's student is. This girl fought alone and defeated the other side in the Army Flag Contest. The participants of that contest are almost in the position of Frontline Commander in the Crimson Dragon Group. What's more, she was the champion in that contest. I also heard that Lance wanted to promote that girl to Commander, but she turned down Lance directly. I can even imagine how awkward Lance was then!’ Her lips curved upwards slightly as finding this thing interesting.
Alyssa could even know such details of Ana's performance in that Army Flag Contest, which proved she had a great source of the intelligence about the Crimson Dragon Group.
The commanders present were filled with awe further. They stood as gormless as guppy it was as if a firecracker had gone off. They found it hard to believe that someone would ever refuse such an offer in the face of Lance. He was the Commander in Chief of the Crimson Dragon Group, one of the four army groups in the Holy Dragon Empire. This girl must be a lunatic or chowder head.
‘ Both the mysterious woman in the Rough Slope and Sheridan's student are young geniuses. If the two talents could be our soldiers, our Timber Deity Empire would achieve two more great helpers then. Well, it's significant to find out their identities and detailed information.’ Alyssa's indifferent eyes wore a hint of calculating expression. However, what Alyssa didn't recognize was that the two women she wanted to recruit were actually the same person.
‘ The only one who can be a match for me is Sara. Yet, she is still green and naive now. Maybe she will grow stronger a few years afterward,’ Alyssa said airily. Vivid confidence flashed in her eyes.
On the other hand, Ana was riding over to the logistic camp at high speed like meteors through the sky after leaving the main camp. While her remarkable accomplishment had spread around the whole logistic camp like wildfire that she helped the northeast army succeed in defending the Rough Slope and beating the twenty thousand soldiers of the Timber Deity Empire.
Thus, once upon Ana's arrival, plenty of soldiers and spirit manipulators had surrounded her before she dismounted from the horse. The two in front of the crowd were Isis and Joss.
‘ Ana! You are so ingenious like chrysophrase(it's a green gem) glowing! Why didn't you take us with you before? We want to join in the task and become a hero like you,’ Isis complained. Yet, she was smirking like a Cheshire cat from ear to ear. Happiness flowed through her, warming her skin like the rays of the early summer sun. Her customary cautious grin exploded into a radiant smile.
‘ Yeah! Of course, we know we can't be a hero like you, but we are so desired to witness that grand scene. That must be so great to follow you and see your excellent performance in a challenge.’ Joss sucked up to Ana in a dash.
As for the rest of the crowd, they all wore fawning expressions, because they wanted to be allies with Ana or even her subordinates. Now that Ana made such a tremendous achievement, they believed that there must be a bright future behind them as long as they followed her.
Ana frowned a little as seeing more and more people came around her. Before the crowd tightly encircled her, she strode through them and walked into Louis' tent. The purpose she came back to the logistic camp was to notice Louis before she began her next plan. While Louis was sitting with the Deputy Camp Director and two captains as if debating something.
‘ Captain Ana!’ Louis' eyes lit up as soon as he saw Ana's coming. The delight was unmistakable on his face as he stood up and greeted Ana. He was thrilled as a shark in a shoal of sea bream. Ana saved the northeast army out of harm's way and helped them guard the Rough Slope, so Louis believed that his logistic camp would likewise get praised from above.
Louis was a newly appointed Camp Director. After he took office, Ana  had made impressive achievements twice in one month. Now Louis had considered Ana as his lucky star. And he also understood why the Deputy Commander in Chief attached that importance to Ana.
The Deputy Camp Director and the two captains, however, turned grim-faced. They already had a problem with Ana when she won the logistic camp the second-class merit because of a map and a new transportation way she discovered. And this time, Ana even finished an insurmountable task which secured her a greater honor. Intense jealousy was burning inside their chests.
‘ Captain Ana! It's so good to see you come back! We are discussing the issue that our food transportation often gets intercepted by our enemy,’ Louis said to Ana reverently when he led her to a seat, as if Ana was the Camp Director.
‘ Is there any damage that has occurred?’ inquired Ana with her eyes squinting.
‘ Thanks to your roadmap, our transportation squads could withdraw in time and evade the unnecessary loss. But it nevertheless influences the supplies for the frontier. We are cudgeling our brains about how to cope with it. Captain Ana, since you are here, we'd like to hear your advice...’ Louis asked like a praying nun.
‘ How many enemies are there?’ Ana rubbed her chin, trying to come up with a solution, switching on her mind to explore innovative and profound answers to the complications and asked.
‘ Around three thousand,’ replied Louis.
‘ How long have they been driving us round the twist?’ Ana nodded and proceeded to seek information.
‘ They have started to drive us round the bend since Rough Slope was beleaguered. But there was a burgeoning number in interception later. So we haven't accompanied the army provisions and supplies to frontier safely for a few days...’ Louis gave a wild guess and answered back.
‘ It looks like Timber Deity Empire is crystal clear about our transportation roadmap now.’ Ana was contemplative. Her roadmap could effectively ward off the interception of Timber Deity Troops but couldn't prevent their provocation, specifically when the enemy was straightforward about their transportation lines.
‘ Did you address this to Deputy Commander in Chief?’ Ana mulled over and sought.
‘ We have already informed this. However, Timber Deity Troops are untraceable and vanish from sight quickly like a bullet out of a gun. It's a tough like shoe leather problem,’ Louis responded.
‘ No matter how they are untraceable, they will still leave behind a trace. Please tell Deputy Commander in Chief...’ After contemplating for a while, Ana moved close to Louis' ear and whispered to him.
Louis nodded along with Ana.
‘ I see. I will deliver messages to Deputy Commander in Chief immediately.’ Louis felt relieved after hearing what Ana said as if they got an outstanding approach to handle the prevailing dilemma.
‘ I will send you my plan in detail, but I require a few days to prepare. So, please take care if there is something else...’ Ana said to Louis.
‘ I understand... I hope you bring a Carrier Beast so that I could contact you anytime,’ Louis nodded and recommended. He was in a blue funk in case the same thing took place again like last time, and he couldn't find Ana when Deputy Commander in Chief preferred to see her.
‘ Okay. That's all. I will take my leave now!’ Ana was of the same opinion and turned away and left.
‘ Camp Director, aren't you too indulged for her? She is just an insignificant captain. Why is she so too big for her boots?’ Deputy Camp Director and two captains protested when Louis always followed Ana's advice.
‘ You know nothing about her at all. It's because of Captain Ana that logistic camp transferred here,’ Louis said to Deputy Camp Director and two captains with a clever as cunning as a fox expression on his face.
Deputy Camp Director and two captains were shocked and looking at each other after discovering this. Their eyes and their mouths were frozen wide open in an expression of stunned surprise. Their faces fell faster than a corpse in cement boots.
‘ Everyone in Crimson Dragon Group is apprehensive that both Commander in Chief and Deputy Commander in Chief think highly of her. But Ana seems to have no concern in being an officer. All of you recognize that she has given the thumbs down to Commander in Chief in public. Captain Ana is an angel sent from above. Otherwise, she couldn't rescue Rough Slope by herself. That's why Deputy Commander in Chief yields to her and transfers the logistic camp here. So that Captain Ana could play a role in the war and exert her advantages in the war. As it now turns out, it brings out a conspicuous result.’ Louis was a clever man and had already understood Sara's elaborate plan, considering Ana's exemplary performance for two times.
Deputy Commander and two captains were also astounded to know Deputy Commander in Chief of Crimson Dragon Group transferred the logistic camp here for the reason of Ana.
The shock was registered on their faces before they could conceal it. They also didn't understand how important Ana's competence for Crimson Dragon Group.
For Rough Slope battle, Crimson Dragon Group would be in crisis if Ana didn't help lend a hand to them.
After Ana departed from Louis' s
camp, she went to the beast farm and brought a Carrier Beast.
The Carrier Beast looked like a parrot, but it was as strong as an eagle. With a steady flying and adaptive capacity, it could deliver the message to its destination under any above one's head circumstances.
There was a unique communication tunnel between Carrier Beasts. One could get connected only if he or she carried a Carrier Beast.
Ana threw one's heart and soul into the work after she backed to the laboratory.
In her lab, first of all, she studied and analyzed dozens of spirit-manipulated beast samples gathered from the peripheral forest of Myriad Beasts Ground. Secondly, she assembled the data. Finally, she inferred the genetic sequence of the spirit-manipulated beasts.
To figure out the genetic sequence of the beasts wasn't only to rely on data collection, but also to place reliance on various theories and knowledge about spirit-manipulated beasts. Caparison between different levels of beasts was also required for ascertaining. All in all, this was convoluted, like forgiving the virtues of our enemies and the old-maidish process.
Ana always lost the reminiscence to eat and sleep once she concentrated on the work. Besides the mandatory practice, she spent most of her time in the lab.
Three days passed by in a dash. Eventually, Ana was head and shoulders above the schedule and completed genetic sequences of twenty spirit-manipulated beasts. Her next goal was to complete sequences of at least one hundred beasts so that she could make a conclusion on the primary genetic sequences of all spirit-manipulated beasts, which was the crux of genetic research and reconstruction.
‘ I should walk Dark Heaven Insect Queen for a while and get rid of the annoying flies of Timber Deity Empire...’ After concluding the work in the lab, Ana started to pull off her plan.
Since Dark Heaven Insect Queen was pregnant, it was incubating eggs that could hatch larvae of Dark Heaven Insect. The more female hormone was retaliating for the Queen to excite ovary and give a facelift to the breeding environment so that larvae could grow vigorous.
At present, the best procedure to get more female hormones was to bring it for hunting all kinds of female beasts and get the female hormone from them.
Ana got gird up her loins and left for the nest. In the nest, she opened the Magic Spiritual Space and lulled Dark Heaven Insect Queen and three Dark Heaven Insects into it. By sheer luck, she owned strong Holy Dragon Bead power.
She could open Magic Spiritual Space by the power of the first grade of the Heavenly Stage, which could contend with Magic Spiritual Space made by the spirit manipulator of the Supernal Stage.
For one ordinary spirit manipulator of the first grade of the Heavenly Stage, their Magic Spiritual Space was a hard nut to crack to hold one Dark Heaven Insect, not mention three ones and a queen. Thus it could be seen how influential the power of the Holy Dragon Bead was. Moreover, Ana just unlocked the first layer of seal on the power of the Bead, not mention that all of nine layers of seal were unlocked. No one could have conjured up how powerful it would be and what would crop up.
After Ana prepared everything she needed for this trip, she started off with the four beasts and the Carrier Beast, heading for the northwest. Her object of the exercise along the way was female spirit-manipulated beasts, so she just required to go to the places where spirit-manipulated beasts often became noticeable to find her target. Because of that, she didn't have a particular destination for this trip.
Apart from the little Ghostly Ice Fox-wolf, the three Ananta, Rubygon, and the Rainbow Glow Unicorn-often worked collectively to browbeat the wild spirit-manipulated beasts around the logistic camp. Thus, they were thoroughly acquainted in hunting.
Thanks to the three of them, Ana easy-peasy like falling off a log got many female spirit-manipulated beasts without any trouble hardships or efforts. Meanwhile, Ana's essential job was to take out the corpses' s organs, which secreted the female hormone, for the insect queen.
At first, the insect queen gave the thumbs down to indulge them. What it ate usually was soil, after all. Facing the bloody 'dessert,' it could not get to grips with it at all. Because of that, Ana was forced to include some magical saliva to its 'dessert' to dangle a carrot in front of it to eat them. After it had tasted some of them, it gradually got accustomed to the flavor.
They hunted for a day and saw no more wild spirit-manipulated beasts nearby came out in the night.
Then Ana led the five beasts into a grove and shortly discovered a hushed as the lighting of a fly on a feather-duster place and secret spot suitable for them to take a breather, which was flat and surrounded by rocks.
After setting up a conflagration, Ana put a message on the Carrier Beast and sent it flying to Louis.
Ananta, Rubygon, and the Rainbow Glow Unicorn were all worn to a frazzle because they had the sweat of their brow the entire day. Now that they ultimately could have breathing space, they sat cheek by jowl and played with the little Ghostly Ice Fox-wolf.
Sitting beside the bonfire, Ana took out the book titled 'Demonic Fire Codex.'
The spiritual martial arts in this book was for the Heavenly Stage spirit manipulators to cultivate. Because her strength didn't qualify before, she didn't have the guts to read this book at all. But now she, at last, arrived at the Heavenly Stage, and she could start learning the spiritual martial arts in this book without giving a fret.
Ana opened the book and commenced reading thoughtfully. It merely took her an hour to accomplish reading the book, thanks to her outstanding memory and speedy reading competence.
While reading, she becomes apprehensive that this book was not for ordinary spirit manipulators, but primordial spirit manipulators of the Heavenly Stage. The other condition to practice these spiritual martial arts was that the nature of one's spiritual power should be Fire. Only the primordial spirit manipulators could meet such a prerequisite. After all, this book was the tribute the Roaring Flame Empire granted to the Timber Deity Empire. The spiritual martial arts in this book was out of ordinary.
It was a spiritual race named ‘Fire Clan,’ who wrote the Demonic Fire Codex. Compared with the Dragon Master Clan and the Wood Clan, the Fire Clan was merely a medium-class spiritual race.
Thus, the Roaring Flame Empire, which the Fire Clan affiliated with, was inferior to the Holy Dragon Empire and the Timber Deity Empire. Besides, the Roaring Flame Empire even had to beseech to the Timber Deity Empire. Despite that it was particularly a secondary spiritual race, the proficiency that the Fire Clan manipulated Fire spiritual power, was way stronger as the mainstay of the laboring bark than any other spiritual races.
The Fire spiritual martial arts nature from the Fire Clan could even put in the shade those from the Dragon Master Clan and Wood Clan. Furthermore, the spiritual martial arts in the Demonic Fire Codex was the finest and strongest one like an eagle among those the Fire Clan created for the Heavenly Stage primordial spirit manipulators because these spiritual martial arts could bring to bear the Fire spiritual power to the highest degree.
In an account, this book was a real treasure for those the Heavenly Stage spirit manipulators whose spiritual power was Fire. It was already infrequent to see the books on the rare spiritual martial arts that the spiritual race designed for the Heavenly Stage spirit manipulators. Such books that could be on a par with the Demonic Fire Codex were distant and between in the Wild Spirit Land.
Thus, the Roaring Flame Empire discharged such an inexhaustible treasure to the Timber Deity Empire as a tribute. Yet, the tribute was taken away by Ana by a piece of luck. Ana was really a lucky girl as a five time lottery winner. Her spiritual power had two kinds of nature, and one of them happened to be Fire. Otherwise, the Demonic Fire Codex was nothing more than trash for her.
Now that her brawniness and spiritual power's nature were both qualified to learn the Demonic Fire Codex, Ana would get her mitts on great help in hastening her cultivation. After she got back hold of part of the Holy Dragon Bead's power, the evil spiritual power Ana owned had surpassed the first grade of the Heavenly Stage.
Even two royal spirit manipulators at the first grade of the Heavenly Stage were not in the same league as her. As the seal on her Holy Dragon Bead's power was gradually dismissed, more and more evil spiritual power would be discharged from the bead.
In other words, she didn't require to cultivate the evil spiritual power she had partially obtained from the Holy Dragon Bead to increase the amount. She would plump for more of it so long as she entirely broke the seal. Currently, her Fire spiritual power was much feeble than the evil spiritual power she got from the Holy Dragon Bead. But now her Fire spiritual power could be given new energy to by cultivating the spiritual martial arts in the Demonic Fire Codex.
If she laid hold of both strong Fire spiritual power and the Holy Dragon Bead's full power, she would be a being that would frighten the life out of others. Besides, when Ana got clued up about the spiritual martial arts in the Demonic Fire Codex, her Fire spiritual power could expend the substantial strength of the Dragon Flame Pearl. So long as her Fire spiritual power grew stronger as an ox, she could call into action more power of the Dragon Flame Pearl.
In other words, it was the superb timing for Ana to get the Demonic Fire Codex. Nobody in the world could give the thumbs down to such a rare treasure, specifically for Ana. What she had an inclination for the most right now was to grow stronger at tremendous speed like an arrow from a bow to break the seal on her Holy Dragon Bead.
Ana soon commenced cultivating the spiritual martial arts in the Demonic Fire Codex. The cultivation method in the Demonic Fire Codex was called the ‘ Demonic Fire Skill.’
The cultivation grade of this skill varied from the first to the ninth. One could get the hang of a type of Fire spiritual martial arts each time when reaching the first, the third, the sixth, and the ninth grade.
The four were Destroying Fire, Fire Dragon, Fire Sea, and Raging Inferno. After the night passed, Ana had become proficient in the first grade of the Demonic Fire Skill and the first type of Fire spiritual martial arts-Destroying Fire.
At daylight, it was sticking out a mile to be seen that half of the grove, where they had recharged their batteries last night, had suffered a conflagration. Black tree trunks and the scorched earth formed a spine chilling picture.
When Ana was about to reestablish her journey with the four beasts, the Carrier Beast that she dispatched a message to the logistic camp came back. And there was a note inside the tiny paper tube tied to its foot.
Ana took out the note to have a fixed gaze. As reading the note, her lips curved upward slightly. With the Carrier Beast on her shoulder, she headed for the east with the four beasts.
After half a day, Ana and the five beasts found a trench. That was a secret spot which was enveloped by three cliffs and a thick grove. This was really an excellent place to conceal themselves. Without a conscientious exploration, practically nobody would find this trench. Soon Ana found an army of the Timber Deity Empire which had encamped in there.
Ever since the Rough Slope was hemmed in, the transportation squad of the logistic camp was put on a back burner incessantly by the guerrilla squad from the Timber Deity Empire.
The guerrilla squad attacked from nowhere and ceased to be visible soon enough without any inkling to trace them. The transportation of the provisions and other supplies to the front line was thus stranded from time to time. Typically, the fighting capacity of the force, which was in charge of interception, would not be that dynamic as the spirit of the storm.
The number of its members was also insignificant. But their ability of movement was mind-blowing. The small team could withdraw themselves as swift as a streak of lightning after the attack.
‘ Hmm... Let's get a glimpse of how you are going to show a clean pair of heels again this time.’ Ana curved her lips for an evil smile as her eyes gleamed with an excellent plan to deal with this traceless small team. She grinned viciously, but it refused to reach her flickering eyes.
Ana got wind that the transportation squad of the logistic camp was beleaguered by the interception from a traceless guerrilla team of the Timber Deity Empire.
The small team often showed up without warning and exchanged blows before they vanished from sight at a breakneck speed. She asked Louis to transmit a message to Sara, in which she pled with her to dispatch a reconnaissance squad to the sections where the interception used to take place.
The reconnaissance squad would assemble every bit of information left by the guerrilla team of the Timber Deity Empire from those spots. Then, they had to evaluate the information thoroughly before they predicted the possible spectrum of active venues based on the information they compiled and scrutinized.
Last night, Ana dispatched the Carrier Beast to the logistic camp to inquire Louis about the progress of the surveillance. The reconnaissance squad was more labor-saving than her prediction. They had already arrived to a conclusion about the active venues of the guerrilla squad of the Timber Deity Empire for the past ten days. So Louis sent the result of their analysis to Ana through the Carrier Beast.
It did not take long for her to dope out the possible hidden location of the guerrilla squad based on the information she received. It was the secluded basin land in front of her.
After all, she was filled with aplomb as a bird committing itself to the air or a great fish to the deep. That no one perceived the topography of this region could outplay her! After the hideout of the guerrilla squad was smoked out, Ana arranged the Carrier Beast in a dash to dispatch a message to Sara in the main camp in the frontline. Then, she lavished no time to open the Magic Spiritual Space to release a gigantic Dark Heaven Insect Queen.
As the Dark Heaven Insect Queen trundled on the ground, many beast figures showed up on the spot from all directions. More and more beasts kept coming into view from far and near.
In the flicker of an eye, there were thirty to forty wild spirit-manipulated beasts clustered around the Dark Heaven Insect Queen. Most of the wild spirit-manipulated beasts were of one to two stars, some of them were of three stars. They gave out a death stare fiercely and continued growling at Ana and everything around her as they trotted out their claws.
At that juncture, the Dark Heaven Insect Queen hissed suddenly as if a queen instructed the ministers on the royal court. All the wild spirit-manipulated beasts submitted themselves to the Dark Heaven Insect Queen and prostrated in front of it.
‘ That was a legitimate queen of the insect. Its drawing power was overpowering and in a class of its own!’ Although Ana had witnessed the same phenomenon when she captured the Dark Heaven Insect Queen, she could not help but be flabbergasted at sight of it for a second time.
The Dark Heaven Insect Queen was born with the predilection to titillate the lower grade of wild spirit-manipulated beasts fancy to its side. All those which were made their mouths water by it were bowed to its power.
‘ Ananta, I will require you to run the errand for me again.’ Ana took out a bottle that contained one drop of the magical saliva in a couple of seconds.
She asked Ananta to hold it in its mouth and then pointed to the direction of the basin land in which the guerrilla squad of the Timber Deity Empire encamped on site.
Ananta understood without being tentative about what Ana wanted it to do. It ran as fast as a gust of wind towards the camp of the guerrilla squad. Its hard crimson scales stood up as small flames flickered and intersected with each other, which resembled a pair of wings flapping all the way long.
The wild spirit-manipulated beasts which clustered around the Dark Heaven Insect Queen could not help but run fast like a bat out of hell after Ananta as they had a bee in their bonnet by the unique fragrance of the magical saliva.
The next moment, a dense mass of wild spirit-manipulated beasts went hell for leather in formidable array to the campsite of the guerrilla squad in the lead of Ananta.
The guerrilla squad was reposed themselves in the camp in the basin valley who did not gear themselves up for such a crowd of saber-rattling wild spirit-manipulated beasts. They were taken by astonishment as the cluster of ferocious wild spirit-manipulated beasts inundated their camp.
The number of wild beasts was as much as thirty to forty! What's more, each of them was hard-hearted ferocious. They attacked anyone they met as rabid dogs.
Although there were three thousand soldiers and two squads of spirit manipulators in their camp, it was hell on earth beyond their ability to hold sway over.
In a split of a second, many soldiers became the sitting target of the iron claws and violent fangs of the horde of the wild beasts. Broken bodies were scattered here and there on the ground.
The campsite flowed with rivers of blood. It flowed like so much red gravy across the slaughterhouse floor. A squawk of pains and howling of help rang in the air from all directions. It was as if every sound that escaped their mouth was set to the frequency that would shatter one's ability to hear.
Ananta was brisk on the uptake enough to induce the herd of the wild beasts into the camps to continue the battle. Then, it surged to the location where all the tents were concentrated and scorched them all by the flames flared up from its body. The flames flared high up to the sky. The entire site was soon enveloped by black smoke, which boiled up from the burnt tents.
The place became illuminated by the fire. In the distance, one could see thick gray smoke billowing into the sky. A veil of darkness now shielded the once pale blue sky as the smoke swallowed up the whole air. Raging over the area, the site was swallowed entirely by fire. Their provisions and supplies and any other things were all blazed into ashes.
The fire left only ashes in its wake, grey and empty, to be blown away on the wind. Many soldiers' knees were shaking, scared stiff as they saw the stunning-inspiring Ananta. It kept erupting fire as an active volcano. Those who could not make their gateway fast enough were consumed by the fire and turned into a charred body instantly.
‘ What the hell is going on here? Where are all these wild beasts coming from? Why do they just come into view all of a sudden?’ Commander Sun of the Timber Deity Empire, who headed the troop, uttered profanities in utter outrage as he saw the unexpected assault unfurling before him. He could not put his finger on the sudden crisis they had to encounter.
‘ Move quickly! Tell all the spirit manipulators to handle with the beasts!’
The soldiers were feebly brought on to their knees one after another.
The situation stupefied Commander Sun of the Timber Deity Empire as he gave his orders like an arrow from a bow.
With their own spirit-manipulated beasts, all the spirit manipulators of the guerrilla squad went all out to partake in the herd of extremely bloodthirsty wild spirit-manipulated beasts.
In the glinting of an eye, miscellaneous spiritual power from each party intertwined like the dancing lightning. Booming sounds from the hot-headed melee fight rang through the atmosphere. However, the cultivation base of all the spirit manipulators of the guerrilla squad was very low.
Most of them were at the lower grade of the Mortal Stage. The highest cultivation base of the spirit manipulators did not outpace the second or third grade of the Earthly Stage.
Even their spirit-manipulated beasts also took part in the battle, the maximum quantity of the wild spirit-manipulated beasts they could handle would only be around twenty.
The remaining wild spirit-manipulated beasts still rampaged around to assault the panicky soldiers who fled in all directions. Even it was the lowest grade of the wild spirit-manipulated beast, it would knock the stuffing out for a common soldier.
The outcome was not optimistic even in the situation of a hundred ordinary soldiers versus just one single wild spirit-manipulated beast. It would be very back-breaking to succeed in combat under this situation since there were less than a score of spirit manipulators in the guerrilla squad.
The price would be too painful even if they struggled to deal with the horde of the wild spirit-manipulated beasts. The death toll of the soldiers had escalated to one to two hundred until now. And the number was advancing...
‘ Commander Sun, I guess we'd better withdraw from this valley. We would not be able to put a conclusion or be in vulnerable to the fatally attack even if we hung on. We cannot manage to lose more soldiers. Our camps, together with our provisions and other supplies, were all reduced to ashes. It won't do us any good if we struggle on...’ One of the Deputy Commander retreated himself in thrown off balance to the side of the Commander Sun.
‘ Damn it!’ Commander Sun grit his teeth wrathfully as he could not reconcile himself to the browbeating of a horde of wild spirit-manipulated beasts. But he did not seem to have other possible courses of action at the moment. He required to get rid of the herd. So he waved his hand as he commanded, ‘ Everybody, fall back! We don't have to belittle ourselves to overcome the contending with these herd of wild beasts...’
Soon enough, the guerrilla squad was constrained to retreat from the basin valley towards the southwest direction. They put on their best leg to get rid of the bunch of the crazy wild beasts that still remained there abusing the corpse at the campsite.
Ana had sent the Dark Heaven Insect Queen back to the Magic Spiritual Space. She summoned Ananta back right away. She and the four beasts trod on the heels the guerrilla squad of the Timber Deity Empire who just evacuated from the basin valley.
Seeing that they were no longer in danger after retreating for several hours, Commander Sun from the Timber Deity Empire ordered everybody to have a rest on the spot.
It was apparent that he was still upset. As per Alyssa's order, he had slipped into the rear area of the Crimson Dragon Army with a small scale mobile unit in order to intercept the supply of provisions and fodders of the Crimson Dragon Army. However, he hadn't successfully intercepted any provisions and fodders till now. What made him extra annoyed, though, was that the transportation team of the Crimson Dragon Army had disappeared under his nose for several times.
This issue was not acceptable because there weren't many people in the transportation team, so his mobile unit should have been enough to deal with them.
The situation was truly horrible because even when things started to get better, something weird happened. When Commander Sun finally figured out the route that the transportation team had taken, he and the mobile unit were attacked by a group of wild spirit-manipulated beasts that seemed to appear out of the blue.
As a result, they had not only failed to intercept the provisions and fodders transported by the Crimson Dragon Army, but also lost their own provisions and fodders. All of their provisions and fodders had been burned when they began retreating. Maybe they could not hold up for even one day.
‘ Sir, what should we do next?’ the deputy commander asked.
‘ What else can we do when we don't even have enough people to deal with a group of wild beasts? Of course we should retreat to our own territory as soon as possible. I'm already tired of staying at this desolate place,’ Commander Sun answered in a discontented tone while spitting out a lot of curses.
‘ Commander, bad news, bad news!’ a spirit manipulator shouted while running here quickly from the rear of the unit. Panic was all over his face.
‘ Oh, dear God! What else happened?’ Commander Sun asked, staring at the spirit manipulator with attentive eyes.
‘ Oh, well... A group... A group of wild spirit-manipulated beasts are in their way towards us again,’ the spirit manipulator answered while gasping for air.
‘ Perfect! Just when I thought things could not possibly get worse!’ Commander Sun's face was drained of color in an instant. When he immediately raised his head to look out, he could see a group of beasts running quickly towards them from the rear of the unit.
‘ Oh my God! They are really close!’
‘ What the hell is going on?’ Commander Sun complained. He was panicking and about to go crazy.
‘ Sir...’ The deputy commander looked at Commander Sun with a deathly pale face.
‘ What are you doing here?! We have so few people that we can never beat so many beasts. We should retreat!’ Commander Sun had no choice but to lead the troops to retreat.
What a horrible thing to do, especially in such terrible circumstances. Among the group of beasts that was chasing the mobile unit of the Timber Deity Empire, Ana was lying on a one-toothed elephant, sticking one leg over the other.
Rubygon and Rainbow Glow Unicorn, with Ghostly Ice Fox-wolf on its back, were close to her on both sides.
The pioneer, Ananta, was leading the large group of wild spirit-manipulated beasts who were to chase the mobile unit of the Timber Deity Empire.
Ana's morale was boosted. Luckily for her, there wasn't a large number of people in the mobile unit that tried to intercept their provisions and fodders, and it was not even a capable mobile unit. Therefore, Ana thought she could give them a bluff.
This way, the small-scale mobile unit of the Timber Deity Empire was constantly running, looking for an escape. However, wherever they went, they were chased by a group of spirit-manipulated beasts that kept coming out of the blue.
When the mobile unit was on the verge of a breakdown, an imposing military of Crimson Dragon Army, like a ghost, appeared right in front of their eyes. The leader of this military, Tod Cao, was no stranger to Ana. He was the Frontline Commander who had once cooperated with Ana to drive back the opponents during the Army Flag Contest in the headquarters.
Tod was a relatively sophisticated commander among the Frontline Commanders. He had experienced many battles. After blocking the mobile unit of the Timber Deity Empire, he ordered the five thousand troops under his command to besiege them. They struck the mobile unit like a sharp edge.
The mobile unit of the Timber Deity Empire was defeated in no time due to the small number of people, low morale and the fatigue that they suffered after fleeing for so long a time. Many of them were killed, while the rest, except a few who escaped successfully, were captured, including Commander Sun.
Only about one hundred troops of the Crimson Dragon Army led by Tod were killed in the battle. Tod was surprised to beat the mobile unit of the Timber Deity Empire so easily because he had no idea that the mobile unit had already been exhausted by Ana's pursuit along the way before fighting the battle.
‘ Commander Cao,’ Ana greeted Tod when she appeared in front of him like a ghost.
‘ Long time no see, Ana!’ Tod made an obeisance by cupping one hand in the other as soon as he saw Ana.
He admirably said, ‘ The Deputy Commander in Chief, upon receiving your message, ordered me to come with five thousand troops of the Crimson Dragon Army to assist you as you required. But I didn't expect to destroy the mobile unit of the Timber Deity that easily. It's such a relief that we finally got rid of them. They had been making troubles for us in the rear area. Congratulations on your one more merit!’
‘ Please accept the merit as a gift. I did nothing but gave you a hand, anyway. Please tell the Deputy Commander in Chief that I will be very busy in the following period of time, so she'd better not look for me! Otherwise, I will make Commander Marin fulfill her promise to me instead.’ As soon as her words faded away, Ana faded with them.
Tod was stunned by her sudden disappearance, and could not realize what was going on. Together with the troops, Tod sent about one thousand captures, including Commander Sun from the Timber Deity Empire, back to the main camp in the front line.
As soon as they arrived, Tod went to meet Sara to report the details of the battle and deliver Ana's message.
‘ Ahem! I'm afraid she thought too much. I won't look for her!’ said Sara in an angry voice.
Tod felt awkward after delivering Ana's message and seeing Sara's reaction, so he excused himself by bowing respectfully and leaving her tent.
Shortly after Tod had left, a guard walked into the tent saying, ‘ Madam, somebody outside wants to see you.’
‘ Who is it?’ Sara asked.
‘ Deputy Commander in Chief, long time no see!’ said a tall and slim beautiful woman, with her head held high, as she barged into the tent. She looked as arrogant as a queen, and gave out the aura of a senior spirit manipulator. The woman was Marcia's disciple, who had been dispatched by her master to protect Ana.
It seemed that she was an old acquaintance of Sara.
As soon as Sara saw the woman, a glimmer of surprise flashed across her eyes. However, she did a great job hiding it, and ordered the guard to leave. The guard bowed respectfully to her and left right away.
‘ Why did you come here?’ Sara asked while looking the woman in the eye. It seemed that she wasn't very happy to see her.
‘ I came to deal with something. By the way, I can see an old friend in you,’ the woman answered in a soft voice.
‘ An old friend? I think it's more proper to refer to me as an old rival,’ Sara said coldly, as if she had had some conflict against the woman.
‘ Why are you still holding all this grudge? After all, it has really been a long while since it happened,’ the woman asked while rolling her arrogant eyes.
‘ No, I am not holding any grudge at all,’ Sara said despite the apparent grievance in her eyes that were fixated on the woman.
‘ You needn't try to deny it. Nobody knows you better than I do, given that we have been fighting against each other since our childhood!’ The woman suddenly burst into a beautiful smile as if an iceberg had melted.
‘ Oh, and should I feel honored to be known well by the second daughter of the honorable Ji Clan?’ Sara continued to speak in a sarcastic tone after giving a sneer.
‘ I'm no longer the second daughter of the Ji Clan. I'm not at all related to the Ji Clan,’ said the woman. She regained the cold tone as soon as she heard Sara mention the Ji Clan.
Initially, this appealing beauty wasn't merely the apprentice of Marcia, but again was Sabina, the second daughter of Ji Clan, who was one of the famous manipulator clans in Holy Dragon Empire and was second only to Ximen Clan.
Ten years ago, Sabina was well known in the Holy Dragon Empire. With a robust family background, Sabina was born with the outstanding manipulator blood of Ji Clan.
At the age of thirteen, she inherited dragon spiritual power and turned into a royal spirit manipulator. Her mind-blowing aptitudes stood out even among the Ji Clan, who was brimming with talented people. Members from other manipulator clans were doomed to commend her. They had the hot spot for her. Even Bryant, leader of Ximen Clan, pampered her with compliments.
At that time, only Sara was pointed out in the same breath with Sabina. Nobody else could contrast with her. She was in a class of her own. Sara was also extensively acknowledged as a gifted lady. With startling beauty and intelligence, she had high propensities of spirit manipulator and was bestowed with civil and martial virtues.
All officers in the Holy Dragon Empire thought highly of her, and the emperor of the Holy Dragon Empire also had a soft spot for her.
So, people always conversed about them and compared Sabina with Sara. These two ladies, ecstatic with femme fatale and full of life, had all the favor bestowed by God, and everyone in the Holy Dragon Empire was thrilled about them. However, they were too young too naive at that time and more too big for their boots than others wrapped in cotton wool, rich young ladies. Both of them were very sensitive to the outside piece of chitchat.
Hearing there was one who was better than herself, each of them was unenthusiastic to the second talented lady in the empire. So these two young ladies were ill-matched as fire and water. Each time they floundered across each other, a ferocious combat was bound to take effect, and neither of them felt hesitant to show the white flag.
In this manner, they had the first went the knuckle, the second, the third... In the outcome, they fought for five years. But no disharmony, no concord. Afterwards, although they assaulted each other for a while each time they bumped into each other, their relationship became closer. They established a close bond of warm  feelings.
The disparity with other royal spirit manipulators of the same age was also more substantial as their competence developed. The people around them couldn't catch them up, but only hold them in high regard in the end. Thus, they became more and more with no one to turn to. Sharing the same desolation, they were waiting with bated breath to have an acquaintance who could keep up the pace with themselves.
Ji Clan pinned their expectations on Sabina, so they trained her day and night, like training a machine. This was one of the reasons that she was becoming colder and colder. Even the light gleamed from her eyes could make others have goose pimples.
In Ji Clan, nobody had the boldness to get along with her, except her father and siblings. Since she didn't get a thrill out of too much love in her family and was brought up with continuous training in which there was great a chip on her shoulder and made her hackles go up.
The hard feelings and ill-temper increased in her mind burst out, and the last straw crashed Sabina was royal marriage.
According to their tradition, the outstanding spirit manipulators, specifically a lady, would garner the benefits in the prerogative to marry the royal family, so that the royal bloodline could continue with the talented gene. Thus, Sabina was a cut above the rest choice for Ji Clan to marry royal members.
In fact, the emperor of the Holy Dragon Empire also singled out her to marry Edgar.
The emperor of the Holy Dragon Empire planned to grant royal marriage to Ximen Clan, but Bryant didn't accept it since Shirley was still young. The emperor of the Holy Dragon Empire had to select Ji Clan, and they were the emperor's second possible course of action.
Sabina gave the thumbs down to marry the royal family, which caused the leader of Ji Clan blood boil, also her father. In the outcome, he offered alternatives to Sabina. One was to marry the royal family; the other was to leave Ji Clan. As was perceived by all, Sabina chose to sling her hook from Ji Clan. From that moment on, no one got wind of her until she reappeared as an apprentice of Marcia.
Everyone was rudely awakened by this news, let alone Ji Clan. His brain stutters for a moment while his thoughts caught up.
‘ Haven't you stopped feeling resentful towards your father?’ Sara looked attentively at Sabina and asked.
‘ I prefer not to talk about it.’ Sabina furrowed brows with her cold face. One could be conscious her words were as cold as ice.
‘ Fine, well, tell me what you are going to do since you came to Crimson Dragon Group? Did you came to meet Marcia? ’ Sara didn't insist on and changed the topic.
‘ No, I'm going to search for someone in your Crimson Dragon Group,’ Sabina said precisely.
‘ This person must not be an emblematic one since you came here to locate by yourself. As you are familiarised with, most of the persons in our Crimson Dragon Group are men. Isn't this individual you are searching for a man? That's strange...’ Sara said in a joking voice done on purpose.
‘ Haven't gotten a glimpse of you for a few years. You're still good at tongue in cheek remark.’ Telling Sara was taking the mickey out of her, Sabina wasn't in high dudgeon and talked back.
‘ Well, my tongue is good at other things too. I'm sure you know that better than anyone else. And I'm at a loss for words you showed up for  someone and you are asking me about that person. I'm hurt darling!,’ Sara grinned like a Cheshire cat coldly.
‘ You won't give way unless I exchange blows with you again!’ Sabina's face turned cold as if she was psyching herself up for a confrontation at any time.
‘ Don't be a chowder head. I'm not a child and don't demand to play with you,’ Sara pouted.
‘ Well, when you are braced to have a punch-up, let me be apprehensive. I will put up a fight against you till the end!’ Sabina knitted brows with a frosty face.
‘ You've owned me too much these years. A fight never end up. Let's hold our horses and lay our eyes on it!’ Sara pursed her mouth and beamed to herself. Her smirk was one of happiness growing, much as a spring flower opened. One could see how it came from deep inside to light her eyes and spread into every part of her.
Sabina took out a picture and put it in front of Sara. Seeing this picture, Sara was frozen for a while. She stood gormless as a guppy. She recognized it was Ana in the picture, although she looked younger in the picture.
‘ She is the person you are looking for?’ Sara asked with a source of perplexity. It sounded to be unattainable, like drawing blood from a stone, that there was any connection between Sabina and Ana. Who is Ana that first Marcia and now Sabina is also here for her? There were lots of lack of certainty in her mind.
‘ Is there any thorn in one's side?’ catching a glimpse of Sara 's out of the common expression, Sabina asked.
‘ Why do you have an inclination to search for her?’ Sara pursued.
‘ I have nothing to reveal to you about this. You just grant me the information I need. Tell me where she is,’ Sabina responded with a cold frame of mind.
‘ Okay, fine. You go to locate her by yourself,’ Sara shrugged, and she wouldn't tell Sabina where Ana was if Sabina didn't inform her of the reason.
‘ I literally couldn't inform you,’ Sabina said and exposed helpless eyes. Marcia, her master, had given the low-down to her not to let others perceive that she came to keep Ana from harm.
Sara understood it was Marcia 's order to not reveal Ana 's info. In the past Sara did inquire for Ana's identity but Marcia denied of giving any info .
‘ Her name is Ana Frank, the captain of the transportation squad in the logistic camp. But she is tight-lipped about her movement and tracks. You might not spot her in the logistic camp. I know she is not there now,’ Sara said after thinking for a second.
‘ Thank you.’ Sabina to a slight extent, acknowledged Sara and turned around to take her leave.
Sara' s eyes darkened immediately as Sabina left. She called a bodyguard and let him send a message to Louis of the logistic camp, asserting that let Louis inform her when Ana came back to the logistic camp.
‘ What is the true identity of Ana? How did she be on a friendly footing with  Marcia?’ Sara spoke in a hushed tone to herself, eyebrows knitted together.
In the main camp of the Timber Deity Empire, Alyssa just received the message that the strong squad she had sent to intercept the army provisions of the Crimson Dragon Group was captured by them, so she looked very gloomy now. And the commanders present didn't pluck up the courage to make a sound.
The Timber Deity Empire's lack of victory at the Rough Slope had upset Alyssa's whole deployment and the army lurking in the back of the Crimson Dragon Group had been spotted by them, forcing them stuck in a passive condition. To add salt into an injury, the right-wing defense line which was their feeble spot had been assailed by the Crimson Dragon Group yesterday and underwent a substantial loss. Though Alyssa had taken measures, the result was disappointing.
‘ Is there any movement of the Crimson Dragon Group?’ Alyssa asked coldly.
‘ The Crimson Dragon Group is stepping up their attack on our right-wing defense line. I'm afraid our right-wing defense line would fall apart soon if we don't take measures to check their attack,’ a commander in charge of the right wing said.
‘ The Crimson Dragon Group raided our right-wing defense line to crack our whole army. But we will by no means surrender.’ Alyssa looked inhospitable, and a vicious smile emerged on her lip corners.
Next day, the right-wing army of the Timber Deity Empire advanced their defense line and came face to face with the main force of the Crimson Dragon Group. Getting a glimpse of that situation, Sara thought the Timber Deity Empire was bluffing to use strong-arm tactics against the Crimson Dragon Group, so she decided to stick to her initial plan and continue to assault the right-wing defense line of the Timber Deity Empire.
Two days later, the main force of the Crimson Dragon Group, with vigorous combating ability, ripped a hole on the feeble right-wing defense line of the Timber Deity Empire.
Sara then dispatched a group of thirty thousand elite soldiers which was led by an Elite Commander at the fourth grade of the Heavenly Stage and three Frontline Commanders. They entered the right-wing defense line through the hole they had ripped before.
Once without the right-wing defense line, the Timber Deity Empire was like an eagle without one wing and would be vulnerable. After setting foot into the right-wing defense line, the elite group, under the remote command of Sara, employed numerous military tactics to storm the enemy and made a clean sweep in many battles.
When the right-wing defense line of the Timber Deity Empire bordered on crumbling, to Sara's being caught on the wrong foot, a considerable number of reinforcements of the Timber Deity Empire appeared and cut the route of the retreat of the Crimson Dragon Group, thus hemming in the thirty thousand soldiers of the Crimson Dragon Group.
At this time, Sara realized that something was erroneous. So she sent another ten thousand soldiers to come to the aid of those trapped soldiers. But they were ambushed by the army of the Timber Deity Empire halfway. One miscalculation led to more slip-ups.
The thirty thousand soldiers of the Crimson Dragon Group experienced a life-threatening loss in a few days, more than half of the soldiers dead. Without the reinforcements, though having leaned over backwards to break through the siege, the Crimson Dragon Group failed to brawl back. One Elite Commander and three General Commanders were deceased.
There were only eight Elite Commanders in the whole Crimson Dragon Group, and the status of an Elite Commander is only second to the Commander in Chief and the Deputy Commander in Chief. What was more, the burliness of an Elite Commander as a spirit manipulator was above the third grade of the Heavenly Stage. So the death of the Elite Commanders was a severe loss.
After all, a spirit manipulator at the Heavenly Stage was rarely seen. The death of one Elite Commander and three Frontline Commanders was an extensive attack to the Crimson Dragon Group.
It was extremely late for Sara to make atonement for the damage. It was her negligence that let the Crimson Dragon Army stuck in such a situation. Sara didn't lead the squad this time, so she didn't perceive that the right-wing defense line of the Timber Deity Empire was thus a straightforward target because most of the soldiers defending the line had already been pulled out when they advanced the defense line earlier. The army of the Timber Deity Empire had advanced their right-wing defense line to deceive Sara into thinking that the army of the Timber Deity Empire was simply bluffing.
But literally, Alyssa had already deployed her soldiers secretly and stuck around for the Crimson Dragon Army to go into her trap.
If Sara had led the army herself this time, she might have discovered the trap designed by Alyssa. The thirty thousand main force of the Crimson Dragon Army became heady over the consecutive victories, so they didn't take heed that they were entering the trap of the enemy. Alyssa was gifted in implementing military tactics and had novel ideas. She took advantage of the headiness of the Crimson Dragon Army and designed this trap to cajole the Crimson Dragon Army into lack of success. Compared to Alyssa, Sara was not experienced enough.
This was just a starting point. Any spur of the moment in the battlefield could result in suffering the destruction of the whole game, the one that can determine all subsequent paths.
Armies of Timber Deity Empire cracked down thirty thousand armies of Crimson Dragon Group, but they merely lost half of their armies. For Crimson Dragon Group, the troops they lost were their essential force, the most excellent contending force brought by Sara from Crimson Dragon Group.
The most magnificent fighting force was damaged severely, while their rival's forces only lost half. Under this circumstance, it was an enormous setback to Crimson Dragon Group and blew a hole in their self-confidence. Now Crimson Dragon Group only had over thirty thousand forces defending the frontier and proceeded in going into tailspin workforce created menace in defense.
Crimson Dragon Group seemed to be crystal clear more not up to scratch in defense. In contrary, after bringing the thirty thousand armies of Crimson Dragon Group to their knees, Timber Deity Empire repositioned and reestablished their troops and left for the frontier again.
Timber Deity Empire started the balls rolling ferocious attack toward Crimson Dragon Group and repressed them. It seemed Timber Deity Empire was going to break through their defensive line and invade Holy Dragon Empire.
Sara utilized all her efforts to deploy the troops and all strategies she knew to defend. But it was too late. Alyssa didn't let them have any breathing time for Crimson Dragon Group. She guided to break up the left line of Crimson Dragon Group and gripped hold of the fort in left defensive line quickly like a bullet out of a gun.
Timber Deity Empire beat off the troops of Crimson Dragon Group one by one. In the outcome, the left defensive line was crushed down in a few days. After losing the left defensive line, the frontier was made encroachments on by twenty thousand troops of Timber Deity Empire.
It's a stroke of luck that Sara had hazard an assumption the villain's movement and evacuated their troops at night. Crimson Dragon Group kept ambushing them when Timber Deity Empire was pursuing them. Timber Deity Empire lost a few thousand soldiers, but their main troops were safe and sound unhurt.
Crimson Dragon Group was still at a monkey wrench in the works. To safeguard their existing fighting force, Sara had to back off the right defensive line. Later, the right defensive forces converged with other main force led by Sara. There were only twenty thousands of troops left until that moment.
Timber Deity Empire occupied the whole frontier. The front line, the civilian neighborhood along the frontier, had turned into the left desolate playground of war. Guilt-free people were caused suffering to by the war, some deceased, and some made their getaway to the war-torn region.
Corpses of civilians were apparent everywhere. Six military camps, including logistic camp, had compelled people to leave and joined Crimson Dragon Group led by Sara.
Then they divided into three troops and withdrew into Frozen River Pass located between northern sky military camp and east-southeast military camp and Loyal Dragon Pass at north and Wild Heaven Pass at east.
It established a last feeble safeguarding line for Holy Dragon Empire. The last defensive line streaked the boundary between Gehenna Border of Holy Dragon Empire and a war zone. If one of the Passes were broken through, Timber Deity Empire troops would set foot in the territory of Holy Dragon Empire. The cities and towns nearby would be under menace, including Evian City where Crimson Dragon Group were located.
If the war continued like this, the whole Holy Dragon Empire would be on the peril. No one could come to the empire aid at that time. It was unquestionably making Crimson Dragon Group eat a humble pie who never gave consent to troops from other countries to set foot in their territory.
The news that the Gehenna Border was in a desperate strait reached Imperial City like a whirlwind after Crimson Dragon Group endured terrible losses. Timber Deity Empire utterly vanquished the invincible Crimson Dragon Group. Civil and military officials were given a trepidation, and their minds were blown away by the news and didn't understand how Crimson Dragon Group could endure a trample on defeat. They started to question Sara's competence in war.
Without toffee-nosed words, Lance set foot in Gehenna Border as soon as he could. He transferred thirty thousand crack troops from base camp to Frozen River Pass.
After arriving there, Lance took over the position of Sara and took command to guide Crimson Dragon Group.
Meanwhile, Alyssa continued to brim over until eighty thousand troops. Timber Deity Empire troops withdrew for the Holy Dragon Empire with the tide. They arrived in Frozen River Pass, Loyal Dragon Pass and Wild Heaven Pass and gave it its one best shot to breakthrough.
Since thirty thousand main forces were lost at one time, Crimson Dragon Group couldn't compare with Timber Deity Empire troops with high morale which were a class on their own; even Lance had transferred thirty thousand crack troops.
The team spirit of Crimson Dragon Group was sinking lower. Even with thirty crack troops, the entire fifty thousand soldiers were securing the three passes. The soldiers camped in each pass was only less twenty thousand, which wasn't a plentiful amount to secure the pass, not mention to fight with Timber Deity Empire.
The most compelling consideration for Crimson Dragon Group was to secure the passes. That's the par first thing they could do now. Crimson Dragon Group had to defend the passes if they required to buy some time for recovering its former vitality. Lance had ordered Crimson Dragon Group camped in other towns and borders to join them.
Once the situation stabilized, they will counterattack. Unfortunately, Crimson Dragon Group weren't coming face to face with other Troops, but Timber Deity Empire troops led by Alyssa, the most distinguished military genius. Crimson Dragon Group didn't even have time to recharge their batteries.
Being a battle-scarred ace and one of Three Great Generals in Holy Dragon Empire, Lance encountered a lot and was granted a bounty with numerous accomplishments. He met his match with Alyssa this time.
The first day he guarded Frozen River Pass, he received an important report from Loyal Dragon Pass. It told thirty thousand troops from Timber Deity Empire was laid siege to and bent over backwards to break through Loyal Dragon Pass.
In a house of Frozen River Pass, Lance, Sara, two Elite Commanders, and Frontline Commanders were debating how to endure with Timber Deity Empire.
Timber Deity Empire was besieging Loyal Dragon Pass and stamping out their border.
‘ Now Timber Deity Empire was in high spirit. They were with no doubts there were only ten thousand forces in Loyal Dragon Pass, and they set their hearts to breaking through it at one heave. That's their strategy. It's feasible for them to pull off this since they are in high self-confidence now,’ Marcia uttered first with a bleak face.
‘ Loyal Dragon Pass is impregnable one among three barriers. That's why the Commander in Chief only sendoff ten thousand forces to secure it. Even thirty thousand forces were bombarding Loyal Dragon Pass, it couldn't be broken down within a short time. I think Timber Deity Empire are too proud as a lion when passion-stirred and overestimate themselves. They think Crimson Dragon Group will throw in the sponge only if they assail us!’ One Elite Commander said and was rudely awakened by the performance of Timber Deity Empire.
Timber Deity Empire's movement indicated they belittled the Holy Dragon Empire. Other Commanders nodded. It suggested that they couldn't get to grips their enemy looked down upon them.
‘ It was my responsibility that Crimson Dragon Group was caught in a tight corner. If I weren't so scatterbrained and hadn't taken heed of the trap made by Timber Deity Empire, Crimson Dragon Group wouldn't suffer the enormous destruction. Our frontier was also broken through, and we lost part of our territory. We have to withdraw into the Passes.’ Sara lay the accountability on herself. Since she suffered a considerable loss, she had self-condemnation for her action.
‘ It's not Deputy Commander in Chief's accountability. Commander of Timber Deity Empire is more powerful than we imagine,’ Marcia said, seeking to bestow a pardon to Sara.
Commanders started to communicate in muted tones and implied to have some comments. Even they had some opinions, they didn't have the audacity to speak in public. They knew that resourceful Sara was no match for Commander in Chief of Timber Deity Empire, let alone themselves.
‘ We underestimated their power and intention this time, so we suffered a great loss. In the following action, we shall be restrained. The same blunder shall never be made again!’ Lance certainly was conscious that his daughter's incompetence did not cause the significant loss, but the superiority and ambition of Commander in Chief of Timber Deity Empire. Or, Timber Deity Empire wouldn't forward their position under a disadvantage condition and trapped Crimson Dragon Group.
‘ Commander in Chief, I've gotten wind of that the Timber Deity Empire's commander is one of their princesses. Is it true?’ Dunn asked quite abruptly.
All the Commanders sitting in the room fixed their gaze to Lance, cudgeling their brains to figure out why a princess had such an exceptional leadership competence.
‘ It's said that this princess, Alyssa, has been sent to the spiritual race to study at a tender age. She is the same age as General Marcia, in her late 20s. And she also has reached the Divine Stage.’ Like most people, Lance had heard a lot about Alyssa but had never come face to face with her. There were all sorts of stories about her across the Wild Spirit Land. Lance heard the rumors and was curious about this foreign princess. Doubtless she was a force to be reckoned with.
As the saying went, ‘ Even rumor is woven with a thread of truth’.
‘ Under 30, the Divine Stage?’ Everyone in the room was stunned. They had never thought that the commander of the enemy was such a genius in both the leadership and cultivation.
‘ I guess the only one in the Wild Spirit Land who can compete with her is General Marcia.’
Sara looked at  Marcia. Marcia simply shrugged.
‘ This princess is said to be the military genius of the century. She covertly conducted many battles against other countries in the past several years. The king of the Timber Deity Empire has established an enormous tenderness for her. It's awe inspiring how she behaved in the fight against the Crimson Dragon Army. She backed us into a corner. She indeed lives up to her reputation,’ Lance said staunchly. Latching on to something was half the battle. Whoever had an inclination to succeed had to evaluate their rivals on the beam.
‘ Father, will you send support to the Loyal Dragon Pass? If so, I wish to lead the troop,’ Sara said to Lance. She was extremely proud as a peacock and defeat by Alyssa was too bitter pill to swallow.
‘ For now, we yet have heavy turn up at the Frozen River Pass. We have to tread cautiously. Every move of our main army we make now should be heedful. For safety's sake, we require to concentrate on the other two passes and keep them well shielded. I will personally lead a battalion to reinforce the Loyal Dragon Pass.’ Lance's remarks left every one caught on the hop.
‘ Father, you will lead the army yourself?’ Sara asked in a quandary. This was out of the blue for every Commander in this room.
Lance hadn't appeared at the battle front for at least three years. Basically he always took the place in the rear and gave commands based on the overall situation. So Lance's unlooked-for request to lead an army himself was totally not bargained for.
‘ Does anyone have a perplexing question about that?’ Lance's brows arched. The authority in his tone was crystal clear. Actually he passed the decision for two reasons. Firstly, he required to give a leg up to the flagging spirit of the Crimson Dragon Army. Secondly, it was about the time to take the Timber Deity Empire's army down a peg or two.
They should be apprehensive the Crimson Dragon Army was not the meat on their chopping board. As the leader of the army, he was under an obligation to do more than just issuing orders. He had to be in a position to engage in the front when necessary. This was the approach an efficient leader offered a support to his army's cohesion and sharpened its will.
All Commanders exchanged glances but said nothing. Clearly Lance had already made up his mind. There was no reason for them to respond no.
‘ Sara, I'm leaving you in command of the Frozen River Pass and the Wild Heaven Pass. Any problems?’ Lance asked Sara solemnly. He had been a little on tenterhooks that his daughter might take this defeat pretty hard.
‘ No problem!’ Sara saw the trouble in his father's eyes and swayed her head to dissipate his dreads. How could she be defeated like a walk in the park?
‘ So it's clear-cut. Commander Chen, Commander Lin and Commander Qian, the three of you will come with me. We will set off at noon with ten thousand soldiers. Now go make yourself ready for that.’ Lance chose an Elite Commander and two Frontline Commanders to be a tower of strength to him, then he released them with a wave. The three commanders bowed and withdrew. The other commanders also left the room, leaving only Sara and Lance there.
At the same time something was taking place in the peripheral forest of the Myriad Beasts Ground.
‘ Burn!’ Red and black flames shot up with startling ferocity. Fire licked everything like a hungry kitten with a saucer of milk and then broke into a shower of fire pouring down over the ground, turning the grass, shrubs and trees to ashes in the blink of an eye. Then some hell on earth screams rang out.
Among several huge trees stood Ana, Ananta and Rubygon.
In front of them was nearly eight Corrupt Hounds, all two or three-star beast. These Corrupt Hounds were drooling corrosive saliva from their mouth, reeking of vomit and excrement, keeping a weather eye, hanging on.
On the ground between them and Ana were several charred bodies. Ana would have spun and go like a bat out of hell at the first sight of so many Corrupt Hounds before. But now she was competent to maintain her poise and encounter them. Now these Corrupt Hounds were the ones who were scared stiff.
With a gleam of his spiritual power, he had ridden on the Thunder Blustering Dragon. As it was waving its wings, a sand storm swept over the Loyal Dragon Pass.
In a flickering of an eye, the Thunder Blustering Dragon had brimmed over up into the sky and ebbed away. It was already night when Lance came back to the Frozen River Pass.
‘ Father! ’ As promptly as perceiving Lance made an appearance, Sara came to catch sight of him.
‘ How about the Wild Heaven Pass right now?’ Lance inquired.
‘ We have lost ten thousand of our soldiers. By good luck, Commander Ron already kept at arm's length the enemy ambush and expelled them out of the Wild Heaven Pass!’ Sara answered with a somber look.
‘ It's still too shortly to make conclusions!’ Lance declared.
‘ Father, do you mean we should allocate some reinforcements to the Wild Heaven Pass?’ Sara's brows knitted together.
‘ No, we can't do that. Ten thousand soldiers of the Crimson Dragon Group have been assigned to the Loyal Dragon Pass from the Frozen River Pass. There are only twenty thousand soldiers in the Frozen River Pass right now. If we sent reinforcements to the Wild Heaven Pass, the Frozen River Pass would be on jeopardy then.’ Lance face looked sullen and then proceeded, ‘ It's our rival's swindle. Now that the Timber Deity Empire has a substantial upper hand over us in the aspect of army forces, they bring into service that to draw away our army forces. It is a conundrum that the thirty thousand soldiers of Timber Deity Empire besieged the Loyal Dragon Pass. What they undoubtedly have an inclination for is the Wild Heaven Pass. Princess Alyssa is absolutely out of the ordinary!’
‘ What should we do now, father? We will lose the Wild Heaven Pass if we don't assign any reinforcements to them!’ Sara could not help but be in a state of nerves like a cat on a hot tin roof.
Once upon losing the Wild Heaven Pass, an entrance to the Holy Dragon Empire would be freed by their rival.
‘ I have dispatched a message to the headquarters along the way. The Elite Regiment of our spirit manipulators will send over some of their members within no time,’ Lance declared.
‘ The Elite Regiment! Do you genuinely mean it, father? ’ Sara was hit like a ton of bricks.
Almost everyone in the Crimson Dragon Group was apprehensive that the Elite Regiment was their most incomprehensible squad, which consisted of royal spirit manipulators at or above the eighth grade of the Earthly Stage.
The captain of the Elite Regiment even reached the Supernal Stage. There were at most hundreds of Supernal Stage spirit manipulators in the whole Holy Dragon Empire. Most of them came from the dominant clans of the royal family.
In the four major military groups of the Holy Dragon Empire, there were also an insignificant number of Supernal Stage spirit manipulators. The Crimson Dragon Group, for example, had three to four Supernal Stage spirit manipulators, and they would come to lock antlers only under the most dangerous circumstance.
The Elite Regiment led by a Supernal Stage spirit manipulator, of course, was extraordinarily strong as an ox and back-breaking. Now that Lance even required the best squad of the Crimson Dragon Group to join the fight, it could also show beyond doubt how precarious their present condition was.
Only by such a strong squad's helping hand could the Crimson Dragon Group have the possibility to turn the tables.
‘ Besides, the fifty thousand soldiers, which are the reinforcements I already put into position before, are on the way now. We have to try everything we can to safeguard the three passes. When the Elite Regiment and reinforcements arrive, it is time we fight back! The crux right now is whether we can take up cudgels for the Wild Heaven Pass. The Elite Regiment's members normally have their own task to put the finishing touches to. It will take them at least five days to come here. Our soldiers in the Wild Heaven Pass have to hold their horses for a few more days,’ Lance said with a serious face.
Time was the key to this battle, yet what the Crimson Dragon Army was desperate most for now was also time. If they lost the Wild Heaven Pass, the aftermath was beyond hope. It would go far more above one's head to fight the Timber Deity Empire if they entered the Holy Dragon Empire's territory through the Wild Heaven Pass.
They would in two shakes of a lamb's tail invade the several cities, including Evian City, around the border, and numerous guilt-free citizens would die in the cruel war. Thus, the Crimson Dragon Army would with no lack of confidence to have a dust-up for their life for the Wild Heaven Pass.
The next day, Lance was presented with the news that the Timber Deity Empire launched intense attacks at the Loyal Dragon Pass, which was entirely out of his control. He didn't have in the prospect that the enemy would fight the Loyal Dragon Pass before they got the Wild Heaven Pass. To add salt into an injury, it was Princess Alyssa who led the Timber Deity Empire's army to bombard the Loyal Dragon Pass.
Although previously their morale almost reached the low watermark level after Lance routed them, the Timber Deity Empire's army in the Loyal Dragon Pass regained their confidence under Alyssa's skillful leadership. With their strong as a lion fighting will, they had almost broken down the twenty thousand soldiers patrolling in the Loyal Dragon Pass.
The third day, the Wild Heaven Pass and the Loyal Dragon Pass were both on the edge of being blown their minds. The Crimson Dragon Army had been pushed in a corner.
In the temporary Conference Hall of the Frozen River Pass, Lance wore a solemn expression and furrowed brows deeply. His eyes were painted with a hint of the heebie-jeebies. He became cognizant of what a predicament the Crimson Dragon Army was in right now.
Both the Wild Heaven Pass and the Loyal Dragon Pass were in deeply demand of reinforcements, but if Lance assigned soldiers of the Frozen River Pass to the two passes, the Frozen River Pass would be on jeopardy in any minute. But if he didn't do so, the Holy Dragon Empire would lose two crucial passes at the same time.
The Timber Deity Empire could easily invade several cities around the Holy Dragon Empire's boundary like a piece of old tackle. These days, the Crimson Dragon Army had already been dissipated after engaging in several fights. It was a hard nut to crack for them to guard a mere pass. How could they maintain both the Wild Heaven Pass and the Loyal Dragon Pass?
‘ Father!’  Sara  wended her way in without signaling.
‘ Is there any piece of information about the Wild Heaven Pass and the Loyal Dragon Pass?’ Lance's brows knitted together. While he had to blow the lid off that Princess Alyssa was so good that she even pushed him and the Crimson Dragon Army in a corner.
Although Lance had encountered a lot and dominated for many time, he was already at the end of his wits as facing the current monkey wrench in the works. Perturbation had almost worn him out, which was so evident in the increase of his grey hair.
Before the reinforcements arrived, the two principal passes were already on the edge of losing. Yet, he didn't have the slightest idea about how to handle with that because of the inadequate army forces. All of these were overpowering him and almost smothered him.
‘ Nothing new! I'm scared stiff that we would lose the Wild Heaven Pass.’ Sara shook her head slightly as a hint of twitchiness flashed in her eyes. Meanwhile, a woman's figure clicked into her mind. She believed that if she was here now, she might have a way to alleviate their up to the minute crisis. Although she fully understood that getting out of such a quandary was almost close to drawing water from a stone, she still believed that that person could come to someone's rescue. Because she already witnessed that she turned the impossibility into possibility last time in the Rough Slope.
‘It's going to be difficult. We're practically between a rock and a hard place. The possibility of losing either Wild Heaven Pass or Loyal Dragon Pass is unbearable. I can't imagine how it would be for the Crimson Dragon Group. With the way things are now, we will have to make a sacrifice. It's best to focus our forces on just one. Defending both will be impossible. We lack the manpower and worse, we might end up losing both. Even if our reinforcements make it in time, we won't be able to seize it back.’ Lance drew out his words with emphasis as he lifted his chin. His well-sculpted features displayed the confidence in his statement. He had given careful consideration to every aspect of their current predicament.
It was tantamount that he considered every decision he was going to make, for the fate of the Crimson Dragon Group rested upon these changes. Mistakes could prove fatal, so he must be cautious.
‘ If that's what you think is best, which pass would you want us to defend, father?’ Sara asked, her eyes sparkling.
‘ We will be defending Wild Heaven Pass. The Loyal Dragon Pass is now under siege by troops that are led by the Commander-in-Chief of the Timber Deity Empire, Princess Alyssa. Our scouts have informed me that she has shown herself in the battlefield. Even if we send out reinforcements to mount our defense, it will be a moot battle, unless I lead the troops myself. But Princess Alyssa must have already prepared for that possibility. And if she sees me, she'll launch a counter attack. She'll most likely redirect her forces to the Frozen River Pass, knowing we won't be able to defend it. Being directly connected to Evian City, the Frozen River Pass is more important than the other two. It is of the utmost importance that we don't lose it, even if the others fall to their hands. Though it would appear that Wild Heaven Pass is under a lot of threat, we must consider that the battle has lasted for several days now. Not only are our troops becoming tired, but surely the Timber Deity Empire's troops are the same. If we can mount our forces there and defend it, if we can overpower their troops, then we will have the upper hand before our reinforcements come. By then, if we have lost Loyal Dragon Pass, we only need to gather all our forces to take it back.’
Lance's words swept through the room as he quickly analyzed the situation.
He described the current states of all three passes in vivid detail. It was his sharp mind and his keen wit, that earned him the position of the Commander-in-Chief of the Crimson Dragon Group. He deserved the title given to him.
‘ Such being the case, let me lead the troops to assist the defense of Wild Heaven Pass! I will make certain to hold Wild Heaven Pass, defending it with all of my power, no matter what,’ Sara said as she volunteered herself without any hesitation. She felt culpable for the predicament that plagued the Crimson Dragon Army, and felt it was only right for her to remedy the situation.
‘In order to successfully defend Frozen River Pass, we would need to station ten thousand troops here. We would be left with no more than five thousand troops to be dispatched to Wild Heaven Pass in order to assist with its defense. Taking into account the forces that are already defending Wild Heaven Pass, you would be left with less than ten thousand troops. Are you certain you can defend it successfully with only these troops at hand? Know that if you fail, the whole army will be annihilated!’ Lance said, his face calm yet imposing. He was about to say something more, but he stopped himself. He didn't say it outright, but Sara understood that the one variable that would turn the tide of this conflict would be whether or not Wild Heaven Pass was secured.
If the Crimson Dragon Group lost and Wild Heaven Pass fell into the enemies' hands, the defending troops that were left at the site would be likely to lose their lives. For that very reason, Lance didn't want his daughter to take the risk. And being his one and only daughter, he couldn't let himself put her in such a danger. If anything happened to Sara, he wouldn't be able to live with himself. His heart constricted at the thought. He remembered his late wife, and even now he felt contrite. What would her mother say?
‘ Commander in Chief,’  a voice cut through the tension in the air and the hesitation in Lance's heart.
‘ If you would allow me, I want to volunteer myself to aid the Deputy Commander in Chief.’ The voice came from outside.
Lance and Sara turned their heads to the general direction of the voice. Marcia parted the flap of the tent, stepping inside.
‘ C-cousin?’ Sara stammered, her eyes widening in surprise.
‘ Marcia, you too? But isn't that too risky ? Aren't you hiding your identity? You will be exposed if you actually do something. Don't you know that already?’ Lance asked. His thick brows furrowed tightly.
He had always regarded Marcia as his own daughter. Just like Sara, he would be beside himself with worry, if the two of them went there together.
‘ Cousin, wouldn't it be better to stay here and help father at Frozen River pass?’ Sara asked.
‘ No way, cousin! I wish to go with you. Please, Commander in Chief, I ask that you allow me,’ Marcia pleaded.
Lance sighed then, shaking his head, ‘ I guess there's no helping it. The two of you are too stubborn. How could I ever hope to dissuade you?’
He smiled and continued, ‘ I can't really complain, however. The same blood flows through your veins, after all. Very well. You can both go to Wild Heaven Pass. But bear in mind that you mustn't persist if things take a turn for the worst. The option of retreat is always available to you. Remember that.’
Sara and Marcia exchanged glances. When their eyes met, they smiled and nodded in understanding to Lance.
‘ Besides, I will order Commander Dunn and Commander Cao to escort you, and I will dispatch twenty more spirit manipulators. Perhaps they could be of assistance when you find yourselves overwhelmed,’ Lance added after a bit of contemplation.
‘ Cousin , gather your things. I'll be with you shortly,’ Sara said to Marcia with a nod. She wished to discuss something else with her father. Marcia bowed her greetings to Lance and took her leave.
‘ Be careful, daughter. You will be cautious, and you will take good care of yourself and your cousin. Do you understand?’ Lance admonished again and again.
The harshness of his role as Commander in Chief loosened, and gave way to the loving father in him that wished for his daughter to be safe.
Sara nodded and gave a knowing glance to her father. They held each other's gazes for a while, before she turned and left.
On that same day, Sara left with the three Frontline Commanders, including her cousin. Together they marched toward Wild Heaven Pass, with their retinue of less than five thousand troops.
The sky had just darkened into dusk when they arrived at Wild Heaven Pass. A gruesome scene greeted them as they approached. A litter of corpses lined the pass and the woods that stretched on both sides, beacons and flames spread throughout.
Before the troops of the Timber Deity Empire launched another attack, Sara took the initiative to proceed further into Wild Heaven Pass. She signaled her troops to follow suit, converging with the unit of the Crimson Dragon Army led by the Elite Commander who had been holding their position here.
The Elite Commander's eyes brightened at the sight of the reinforcements that met them, but he deflated after a while, knowing that they were not able to carry out the Commander in Chief's wishes.
‘ Deputy Commander in Chief, I have no excuse. I have failed to carry out the orders and almost lost Wild Heaven Pass. Please offer me the punishment that I deserve.’ The commander knelt down in shame as soon as Sara arrived, offering his apology.
‘ Commander, this is no time to be throwing out the blame to anyone. Stand up. We must all unite to defend Wild Heaven Pass!’ Sara shouted, her voice ringing through the air. She stood on the defensive wall that was marred by the flames and looked down at the enemy troops who were preparing to launch another attack outside the Pass.
Just then, the Commanders and soldiers inside the pass who had been almost at the verge of giving up, cheered along with Sara, their voices echoing in a single chorus.
At daybreak, the troops of the Timber Deity Empire rushed toward them like a surging tidal wave as they launched their attack. Their forces were twice the number of those of the Crimson Dragon Army. Taking advantage of their numbers, they struck the defensive line that Sara had arranged during the previous night.
Under Sara's command, the Frontline Commanders, including Marcia and Dunn, took turns in leading troops outside of the pass, mounting their own forces to battle.
With their limited forces, they struggled to fight back against the throngs of their enemies, and thus began the bloody battle in Wild Heaven Pass. The sound of steel and the fall of dead bodies hung in the air, silencing everything else in its wake.
Meanwhile, Ananta, Rainbow Glow Unicorn, and Ghostly Ice Fox-wolf surrounded Ana and Rubygon under the old towering tree in the forest just outside the Myriad Beasts Ground.
They were on high alert, looking around cautiously just like the guards.
Ana placed her hand on Rubygon's forehead, and both of them started to glow. Countless light-spots whirled around the two, encasing them in a bright cocoon of spiritual power.
Ana and Rubygon were performing the Mysterious Beast Transformation Skill where the spiritual sense coursing through Ana entered Rubygon's body. The last step in fulfilling the spiritual power connection was to carve a brand into Rubygon's spiritual source. Because of this powerful spiritual bond, Ana was able to enter a fantastic world created by Rubygon's body.
Her spiritual sense was presented in a tiny human form, just like a cell. Flickering light-spots shuffled back and forth which made Ana feel like she was in a high-tech psychedelic cosmos, the sphere of lights speeding around her.
The luminescent macrocosm was from the spiritual source, which made spirit-manipulated beasts like Rubygon one of a kind. The spiritual source gave spirit-manipulated beasts special abilities. The light-spots created by the spiritual source intricately connected the spirit-manipulated beasts to their power. This connection made spirit-manipulated beasts vulnerable whenever the light-spots or even the spiritual source was harmed.
The light-spots looked soft and inviting as they fully pulsated with strong spiritual power. Touching the light-spots would have made Ana's spiritual sense shake, which could potentially hurt her fatally.
It was also the most dangerous risk spirit manipulators took when using the spiritual power to connect with spirit-manipulated beasts. One way of reaching the spiritual source was through Spirit Possession with a spirit-manipulated beast that had confirmed its owner. Another way was to use the spiritual power to build a bridge.
The latter one was suited for any spirit-manipulated beast, but the process was very dangerous. There was a narrow and dire single-plank bridge visible through the dense light-spots under Ana.
The single-plank bridge to the spiritual source was created by Ana's spiritual power. She had a grim look on her face as she walked on the plank, for she knew it would be the end of her if the bridge broke.
It was also the only thing obstructing Ana from advancing the spiritual power connection. In order not to break the bridge, spirit manipulators needed not only strong spiritual power, but skills and patience as well. Rushing would have made the bridge too thin while going too slow would have overburdened it. It required steadiness and the perfect balance.
There was a narrow and dire single-plank bridge visible through the dense light-spots under Ana. The single-plank bridge to the spiritual source was created by Ana's spiritual power.
‘ No pain, no gain, ’ she thought. The bridge created by Ana's spiritual power now was extremely perfect. Unless she lost focus, she would succeed.
The only thing Ana needed to concentrate on was creating the bridge patiently. Because she had never succeeded before, she did not know how long the process would take.
As time slowly ticked by, Ana painstakingly realized that this was the longest waiting time she had ever experienced in her life. Then, the light-spots around Ana seemed to be denser and its spiritual power was becoming more and more strong as well, which even flickered like current.
‘ Maybe I am almost done.’ Ana thought to herself. As long as she reached the spiritual source and finished carving the brand, she could finish the first stage of Mysterious Beast Transformation Skill.
Furthermore, Rubygon would confirm her as the owner, becoming Ana's spirit-manipulated beast. It was the most fascinating thing that the ritual could achieve. However, carving a brand in the spiritual source of other spirit-manipulated beasts required a great deal of bravery. A task that even Sheridan failed at.
‘ Yes, Sheridan was more than eager to do so. He failed because it was extremely difficult to carve brand in the spiritual source of spirit-manipulated beasts without the owner.’ Ana soon realized as she got nearer to the spiritual source.
Suddenly, the spiritual power created by the light-spots crashed into each other, forming a strong spiritual power storm. It made the bridge shake and crumble as if it would break at any time. Ana looked grim with resolve. Although she could still back out, she did not want to do so. She would not allow this chance to pass her by.
Hence, she did not hesitate in speeding up the coagulation of spiritual power and rushed to the spiritual source. After a while, she saw a giant photosphere shining like the sun and surrounded by innumerable light-spots. It gave off irresistible spiritual power just like the reactor.
‘ It was the spiritual source of Rubygon!’ The spiritual source was in front of Ana, nevertheless the bridge had broken, constantly stricken by the spiritual power storm.
Ana was threatened to fall. Without hesitation, Ana did her best to get close to the spiritual source. If she failed, she would be swallowed by the power of the luminous sphere. This was a race, not only with time, but with death as well. She couldn't give up now!
The bridge was still disconnecting. Almost every spiritual power created by Ana's steps quickly dissipated after it just formed.
At the same time, the spiritual source was almost within her reach. The bridge eventually broke, and Ana fell down defenselessly. The churning ocean of strong spiritual power underneath could swallow her up easily. Ana's life was in danger!
‘ I can do it!’ she told herself. As she opened her eyes, several strands of black spiritual power wrapped her completely like numerous creeping branches.
In the blink of an eye, a pair of angelic black wings appeared behind Ana. It saved her from falling into the turbulent spiritual power beneath and brought her up close to the spiritual source.
‘ Be my spirit-manipulated beast!’ Ana yelled in her heart, raising her hand with black Evil Flame and pressing it on the shining spiritual source. At that moment, the black Evil Flame enveloped the whole spiritual source.
On the spur of the moment, an earsplitting roar reverberated in the air, as if thunder was rumbling the sky.
In a split second, plenty of birds and beasts made a rapid exit from the forest. Everything was in an entire mayhem. Under the towering ancient tree, a black ray passed through thick leaves and brimmed over up into the sky. It burned while licking everything like a hungry kitten with a saucer of milk, leaving everything into ashes along the way and left a round hole above the ancient tree. When the black ray flew in the sky, it burst out into a black firework and then faded away.
Ana fixed her gaze up with wide eyes, beads of sweat all over her head. As puffing and panting, she turned to gaze at Rubygon in front of her. Black spiritual power had engulfed Rubygon right now, and it displayed a heart-rending expression when its limbs were twitching. Great hard-heartedness was eloquent in its eyes.
As Rubygon roared again like a lion, the black spiritual power around it began rotating and intertwining. The scaring to death picture suggested to be numerous demons were going hysterical.
At the same time, compelling changes were taking place to Rubygon amongst the black spiritual power. Its original height was merely as tall as half a person, but now its body was becoming bigger and taller as fast track as a blowing balloon. In a matter of moments, its height had exceeded two meters.
Rubygon was now even stronger and higher than Ananta, carrying a formidable air. While the upgrade process was still going on, Rubygon's sharp teeth grew longer and scarier that would astound the life out of someone.
Its two canine teeth in the upper jaw even protruded from the mouth, like two razor-sharp daggers hanged below its upper jaw. The nails on its four claws also grew longer and even dug into the ground deeply. The tail behind its colossal body turned into two, as the shape of the sickle. As the two tails waved in the air, they were glistening with cold aura.
‘ Evolve? Rubygon's star rating is advancing!’ Ana was caught on the wrong foot by what was developing to it, which was totally out of her presupposition.
The dense black spiritual power gradually dissipated, which meant that the upgrade process had come to a halt. The subtle rattling and powerful aura around Rubygon took Ana's breath away. And there was a black flame-shaped mark in the middle of its forehead.
‘ Roar!’ Rubygon waved its fore claw and directed it at the ancient tree beside it. With a black arc flashing in the air, its claw hit right against the thick trunk.
A rumble sounded in the air as the solid tree began shaking like a leaf. Leaves were descending like rain. Meanwhile, a one-meter long claw print was left in the trunk, as deep as three inches. What a horrible picture!
‘ Rubygon, sit down!’ Ana sweet-tempered said while knitting brows.
As promptly as apprehending Ana, Rubygon turned to glance at her. It was still so bright-eyed and bushy-tailed after it just had a meager attempt that its eyes enlarged and razor-sharp teeth glinted with spine chilling light. But when it saw Ana, its bloodthirsty face in a dash became as docile as a kitten. Then its hind legs bent, and it sat down on the ground.
‘ Radiance Evaluation Skill! Stroking Evaluation Skill! Mysterious Visual Evaluation Skill!’ Ana leaned over backward the three Beast Evaluation Skills in succession after she wended her way in front of Rubygon.
She wanted to have a closer glimpse at Rubygon's excellence and different developments after its upgrade. As she had in prospect, the three Beast Evaluation Skills failed to work on Rubygon anymore.
Ana used to peer through Rubygon's comprehensive quality by any of the three skills, but now she could merely have a rough idea about it. That meant Rubygon had leveled up to the four-star level from the three-star. Thus, her third-grade weighing up abilities could now present it the once-over out Rubygon's new quality and changes.
What she could get a fix on now was that Rubygon was at the second grade of the four-star level. Rubygon had on no circumstance had an upgrade before, and its burliness just remained the first grade of the three-star level. When the star rating was enhanced, a spirit-manipulated beast would evolve. What caused one to settle on a plan of action in how many times a spirit-manipulated beast would evolve was the star rating.
A three-star spirit-manipulated beast would evolve for three times. A four-star spirit-manipulated beast would evolve for four times. Actually, Rubygon's upgrade process this time was only a typical evolution. While, some spirit-manipulated beasts would have unique mutations, like what took place to Ananta in the contest last time.
It was the first time Rubygon evolved, on a par with the course a spirit-manipulated beast went through from the first grade to the second. What was exceptionally once in a blue moon during Rubygon's evolution was that it upgraded to the four-star level. Generally speaking, a spirit-manipulated beast's star rating could not advance at all. It was an instinctive quality.
The exception was the spiritual beasts, which could upgrade their star rating. However, Rubygon was not a spiritual beast. It was absolutely unprecedented that a spirit-manipulated beast broke through its inborn star rating. After the upgrade process, Rubygon now was at the second grade of the four-star level.
A four-star spirit-manipulated beast was what a Heavenly Stage spirit manipulator even hankered after. Even in the Crimson Dragon Group, the spirit-manipulated beasts the commanders of the Heavenly Stage owned were virtually altogether in the third grade of the three-star level.
It was also out of Ana's assumption that when she and Rubygon were connected through spiritual power, Rubygon could break through its initial star rating and develop into a four-star spirit-manipulated beast right now.
Ana did make a deep pocket this time. Now that she  had witnessed the magical power of the Mysterious Beast Transformation Skill, she had a predilection to give it her best shot on this skill on Ananta next time. If she and Ananta were connected through their spiritual power, Ananta might have the same evolution as Rubygon did just then, or even have a special mutation one more time. After all, Ananta was an out of the ordinary spiritual beast with superior talent.
Although it was merely at the third grade of the three-star level, with its deep red scales, it could even have a match for a four-star spirit-manipulated beast. Yet, Ananta 's power still had a disparity between a four-star spirit-manipulated beast's.
For precedent, Ananta could not take the catbird seat over the Trunk Giant during the battle last time. Rubygon could not even spark off any damage to the Trunk Giant. That could also make obvious the dire straits that a spirit-manipulated beast struggled to go beyond the gap between the star ratings. Thus, it was of a lot of significance for a spirit-manipulated beast to have an upgrade.
At the same time, Ananta and the other two beasts had come to Rubygon to have a good time owing to its upgrade. They kept running around Rubygon to make manifest how much overjoyed as a clam they felt for it. Rubygon was also so tickled pink that it had joined their jubilation.
Ana let out a deep sigh of alleviation as getting a glimpse of that picture. It was really a close call when she imprinted a mark of spiritual power on Rubygon. If not because of the Holy Dragon Bead's power, she would have been a corpse already before finishing the mark.
But, no matter what it had been through, the result mattered. Looking back, Ana felt that the adventures they had just been through were really important because Rubygon had been elevated to the second grade of four-star level.
Although it still had to play catch-up with Ananta, the power of its claw strike proved to be as strong as that of other wild spirit-manipulated beasts at the third grade of three-star level. So Rubygon did really benefit from this experience. Maybe, it should be taken for another adventure to the Myriad Beasts Ground next time.
‘ I still kept the blue spiritual crystal we acquired last time. If it were assimilated solely by Rubygon, it would not be a problem for Rubygon to elevate itself by one more grade, ’ Ana thought while thinking of taking out the blue spiritual crystal. However, her thoughts were interrupted by the Carrier Beast that landed on her shoulder.
‘ What kind of message does the Camp Director want me to read again? He should be sorry for bothering me this frequently. He is killing me!’ Ana looked impatient as she curled her lips.
Nonetheless, she took the paper from the bamboo tube that was attached under the foot of the Carrier Beast. Upon reading the message, her face was disturbed; she kept frowning and looked astonished.
‘ Shit, it is as if I owned these two girls in another life! And I have to pay it back in this life.’ Ana sighed as she turned back to watch the four beasts that were having fun together, ‘ Kids, we need to head home now, there is something important that we need to do.’
Then, she walked away with her four beasts along her side.
On the other hand, the Wild Heaven Pass had been successfully guarded under the command of Sara for two days.
It was an extremely hard time for the Crimson Dragon Army. Indeed, they survived for two days straight, but the third day was hell. All they had left to confront their enemy were six thousand terribly fatigued soldiers, several Commanders, and some spirit manipulators.
All of those had been worn out by the battles that lasted for days and days. They were left with zero strength for another battle. However, their enemy--the army of the Timber Deity Empire was less fatigued than the Crimson Dragon Army.
Although it had suffered a dramatic casualties ever since Sara assumed the commandership in the Wild Heaven Pass, it still outnumbered the Crimson Dragon Army.
On top of that, the enemy had sufficient grains and other supplies, so its ability to recover would be faster than the exhausted Crimson Dragon Army who was facing a rigorous crisis.
So, on the third day, the Wild Heaven Pass was placed in jeopardy again under another round of powerful attack from the army of the Timber Deity Empire, which made it obvious that it was difficult for the Crimson Dragon Army to guard the Wild Heaven Pass for another two days. Soon, Lance received one more emergency report from the Wild Heaven Pass.
He had reached the end of his tether since he knew that the Wild Heaven Pass might be succumbed before the reinforcements arrived. But they found themselves in a situation that had jumped out of the frying pan into the fire.
The Loyal Dragon Pass also sent out its emergency report about the threatening attack from the ferocious army of the Timber Deity Empire. And the Crimson Dragon Army was reported to have had an increasing loss of soldiers.
The Loyal Dragon Pass was in immediate danger as it suffered from tremendous casualties. The enemy was in an overwhelming momentum. The Pass could fall at any moment.
At the moment, Lance could not think of anything better to do other than convene all the Commanders to the Conference Hall of the Frozen River Pass to discuss the countermeasures.
‘ If the Wild Heaven Pass can hold on for three more days, the reinforcements will be able to relieve it from danger. What is worrying me is that I am not sure that the Wild Heaven Pass can make it. It will probably fall before the reinforcements arrive there.’ Lance frowned. This was his first time ever to feel anxious with such intensity ever since he assumed the leadership of the Crimson Dragon Army to guard the Gehenna Border more than ten years ago.
The emergency reports were being sent to him one after another. This was an unprecedented critical crisis. In war, a day or even a minute could decide the fate of a whole nation. So, Lance was worried because although the members of the Elite Regiment he summoned would lead twenty thousand soldiers to reinforce the front line, a one-day gap could be the decisive element for the destiny of the Crimson Dragon Army.
The enemy might defeat the beaten Pass by taking advantage of the worn out and deficient Crimson Dragon Army within one day before the reinforcements came to the rescue.
‘ Commander in Chief, I want to suggest something, please. What if we ask Ana to come help us?’ said one of the Elite Commanders after a moment of hesitation.
‘ Ana, you say!’ Lance was contemplating the idea.
The other present Commanders looked at each other in worry. They knew that Ana pissed Lance off when she had refused the promotion offer from Lance in front of the soldiers and generals of the Crimson Dragon Group after the competition the other time. So it was a reckless move to humiliate himself by mentioning Ana's name in front of Lance right now.
‘ Humph! What kind of a counter measurement do you think that bitch can come up with? I think it was mere luck for her to relieve the crisis of the Rough Slope. What's more, the Commanders who led the army of the Timber Deity Empire were simply too empty-headed that they actually fell prey to the bitch's trap. She would have shown herself and bragged about her success if she really had any excellent strategies. I heard that she was not even bothered to present herself at the logistic camp! Do you really want to count on her? I'd say you would better count on a pig if you ask me!’ A string of sarcasm blurted out with jealousy among the Commanders.
It was none other than Flank who bore a grudge against Ana for the quarrel they had before.
All Commanders at the scene could not help but laugh and whisper to each other as they heard the irony speech of Frank.
‘ I did not know Commander Zhao had such a special favor to pigs. I'm quite wondering if you will also take a pig along with you to the battle field. Will you, Commander Zhao?’ A teasing voice was distinguished among the whispers of the Commanders at that moment.
Everyone in the Hall let out a laughter as they heard Flank's humiliation. Flank's face turned purple out of the tremendous anger as he looked outside the hall in immediate search of the speaker.
‘ Who the hell is there? How dare you to humiliate me, you bitch?’
‘ Oh, it is me!’ Whisk! A figure entered the Conference Hall, as transparent and as swift as a gust of wind.
They immediately recognised the familiar voice when they saw her face. It was Ana!
They were surprised by the sudden appearance of Ana at this critical moment. She looked careless and indifferent with an evil smile hung on her lips. Yet, her calm and imposing manner under the cover of hee humbleness impressed everyone. Who else could it be other than Ana!
‘ It looks like the young woman had elevated herself up one more grade. Her cultivation may have almost reached the Heavenly Stage.’ Lance was taken aback by Ana's powerful progress in her cultivation, which was very noticeable compared to the last time they met. But what Lance did not know was that Ana's cultivation base had surpassed the Heavenly Stage.
Lance, whose cultivation base was of the Divine Stage, had a hard time trying to figure out the true level of Ana's cultivation base. Although Ana had broken the first layer of the seal that was imposed on her, and resumed a part of the power of the Holy Dragon Bead, her power stayed concealed. So her real cultivation base would not be revealed to other people. They could only perceive a level that was much lower than Ana's true cultivation base.
The reason behind this concealment was related to the Holy Dragon Bead. The power of the Holy Dragon Bead would not be fully revealed to other people because it was very unique to the Dragon Master Clan. No matter how powerful the spirit manipulators were, it was impossible for them to look through the true power of the Holy Dragon Bead.
Marcia went all out to seal the power of the Holy Dragon Bead in light of its awakening inside of Ana's body. Because the power of the Holy Dragon Bead was extremely mighty, no one knew what would happen in the wake of its full eruption. On top of that, no spirit manipulator could ever stop this power. It was worth mentioning that the dragon spiritual power acquired by the royal spirit manipulators was from the Dragon Spirit Bead, which was created by the power of the Dragon Master Clan.
This meant that the Dragon Spirit Bead contained only a friction of the power of the Dragon Master Clan. It was, typically, just the tip of an iceberg. But it was a different case for the Holy Dragon Bead. It was not a product of the Dragon Master Clan, it was rather bred in the cradle of a natural environment where there was a lot of catastrophe and turbulence.
Even the Dragon Master Clan could not explain the origins of the Holy Dragon Bead. It was a godsend gift from the Heavenly Deity, which descended to the Dragon Master Clan. So the power of the Holy Dragon Bead was unparalleled. It excelled other power in any form that the spiritual race bestowed on the human race. That was why the power of the Holy Dragon Bead was beyond the capability of any human spirit manipulator to see through.
However mighty the spirit manipulator, or the human race would be, any attempt to have a full understanding of the true power of the Holy Dragon Bead would be in vain!
Speaking of the devil, and Ana showed up in a flutter of an eye. Her showing up was undoubtedly a surprise for Lance and Commanders! It left them open-mouthed.
‘ Ana, we were on the threshold of searching for you, and here you are...’ Lance's eyes grew sharp when he got a glimpse of Ana coming in.
‘ Commander in Chief, no need to give the low-down to me further. I have understood everything about the prevailing situation. But I have to state that I will not give your promotion a whirl as being a Commander or General. I'd like to do you a favor. Before that, we have to be of the same opinion with each other first. Even brothers desire to do accounts accurately. We shall lay out conditions. So, you make me aware of what I will get in compensation if I do you a favor...’ Ana said smartly as a whip.
Before Lance uttered a word, Ana stretched out her hand to stop him, putting on a bargaining posture. Lance didn't pursue to lay the liability on Ana just now, but his face fell, seeing Ana's philistine's profanity.
A light of air rage shone from his eyes. No one considered as absolute that one of Three Great Generals in Holy Dragon Empire was cocked a snook at! With a head of chilly perspiration, each of Commanders was beaming at Ana and guessed she would get in a tight corner.
They reckoned Ana chose the improper time to negotiate with Commander in Chief and hoped to get some advances from the war on this precarious occasion. How can she pluck up the tenacity to threaten Lance, one of Three Great Generals!
If it weren't at this crucial moment, Lance would have already flown into a towering rage. It was as plain as a pikestaff that Ana was out of conduct to show no high opinion for Commander in Chief.
Lance would throw the books at her by striking her hundreds of times and sentence her into prison for years if it was in other conditions. Lance was cudgeling his brains if Ana would be so presumptuous at that time.
This idea flashed across Lance's mind, and he became conscious he had many ways to inflict pain on Ana. However, the Crimson Dragon Army was driven to the last-ditch, and he had to identify the mechanisms to retaliate the enemy at any price. Since Ana had come to the aid of Rough Slope, Lance hoped he could lift them out of desperate straits this time. That was why Ana could be so out of hand and presumptuous!
Lance had to put up with Ana's reaction at this moment because he should be responsible for his troops and soldiers. His assignment was to triumph over the war along with his soldiers.
If Ana didn't have any useful plan, Lance would show no tender-heartedness on her and punish her severely. Ana was undeniably too presumptuous in front of him.
‘ What - on - earth - was - the - advantage - you - require?’ Lance uttered the words one by one in a quite low voice. Obviously, he was keeping within bounds his air rage. His eyes were as sharp as a dagger to Ana. It showed as if Ana had been executed by his eyes millions of times if eyes could wipe out one.
‘ It depends on you. What advantages can you put forward? I am of the opinion that Commander in Chief won't offer me a preliminary Dark Heaven Egg or red spiritual crystal. These are remarkably low. Well, if you grant me treasures like middle Dark Heaven Egg or yellow spiritual crystal, I will figure out how to save your skin.’ Ana rubbed her chin as if she was thought-provoking something and giving it a burl to rip off Lance.
In Crimson Dragon Group, even in Holy Dragon Empire, three persons plucked up the courage to converse with Lance like this, while Ana was one of them.
Lance was sent into a frenzy that the blue veins on his forehead bulged out. His hand clenched into a fist, and a dreadful light grew in his eyes. As if he was going to hold Ana dead to bear a resemblance to stepping on an ant, in case Ana demurred about her limits ever and again.
Commanders were caught on the hop to give ear to what Ana said. The preliminary Dark Heaven Egg and red spiritual crystal were rare treasures for them, not mention middle one and yellow spiritual crystal. But Ana required the middle Dark Heaven Egg and yellow spiritual crystal directly which they never had the slightest idea. Her audacious action was hard to swallow!
In a spit of a second, Conference Hall became bustle and noisy, and everyone commenced to put their heads together about and point at Ana. They thought Ana had no consciousness about discipline and organization by paying no heed to Commander in Chief and threatening him in life-and-death survival time.
‘ Ana, I guess you have some plans since you have the temerity to ask for advantages. Why not give the low-down to me your plan first. I will unquestionably give my word to give you benefits,’ said Lance. He never thought Ana would appeal to him for middle Dark Heaven Egg.
Ana was more audacious and enthusiastic than he had seen in the mind's eye. But Lance was in a blue funk that what Ana said was all empty talk . Lance wanted to make things crystal clear.
‘ If I tell you now, you will get my idea. I'm not a dumbbell. If you don't fulfil your assurance and eat your words, how do I come into possession of my things? You're in charge here. If you eat your words, I will undergo a loss!’ Ana said calmly like the sleep of a soul that was blest with her arms across her chest, shaking her head to Lance. She didn't imply to be persuaded by Lance.
‘ You...’ Lance glowered at Ana, smiting the table and rising to his feet. His trace of the Divine Stage was released at once.
A drone of sound was heard in the Conference Hall like thousands of bee were flying. The Conference Hall seemed to collapse.
Finally, Lance was hot under the collar with a frenzy of resentment, and he couldn't bear her anymore! Commanders were in a state of nerves in a flash.
‘ Commander in Chief, please calm down! Ana was utterly good for nothing! I can't lower myself to her level. Just take her away and mete out retribution to her according to military law!’ Flank rose and conversed with Lance seriously with his hand arched.
At the same time, he gave Ana a bleak glance and mulled over, ‘ You deserved this. Don't lay blame on me to hit you down when you are down!’
‘ That's right, Commander in Chief. Don't have a conversation with her anymore. She made a few contributions and then became too pretentious. How can she have the audacity to ask the Commander in Chief for benefits? She is such a woman of hubris!’ a Commander echoed who was given a drubbing by Ana in Army Flag Contest.
Other Commanders were at a loss of words, but Ana could tell the ill-temper in their eyes. Even the Elite Commander who mentioned Ana just now was shaking his head, sighing.
One with talent was constantly with peculiar temper, which suggested to be a universal rule. But Lance seemed to become apprehensive of something extraordinary from Ana and was getting an inkling that Ana acted this deliberately. So Lance was pondering if Ana had her own plan to act like this. She was doing this on purpose. What on earth would she intend to do?
After deliberate consideration, Lance responded, ‘ Leave us alone. I'd like to teach her a lesson by myself.’
After a few seconds of halt, Commanders realized what their Commander in Chief would do and sniffed at Ana. They reasoned Ana asked for this because no one plucked up the courage to irritate Lance. This was an appalling thing, and everyone in the Hall bowed and left, except Ana.
Only Ana and Lance were in the Hall now. Lance's face turned calm as the smoothest waters and asked Ana in puzzlement, ‘ Girl, what are you doing?’
‘ Commander in Chief, please don't be in high dudgeon. I have to act like this, just in case,’ Ana said seriously, and her big-headedness had gone away.
‘ Just in case?’ Lance said with a puzzled expression on his face.
‘ Don't you perceive something out of the common, Commander in Chief?’ Ana grinned from ear to ear, and an elusive light grew in her eyes.
‘ Perceive what? You'd better get to the point right away and not beat about the bush in front of me. I will make you feel remorseful about it one day unless you give me a legitimate explanation now! ’ Lance raped over the knuckles in a thundering voice, his thick brows raising. It implied that he was indeed indignant with all guns blazing with Ana.
The young woman's way of doing things had rubbed up the improper way. In his assessment, being talented was something desirable, but it was utterly incorrect to act in the devil may care way based on such talent.
After apprehending Lance's words and getting a glimpse of his expressions, Ana didn't demonstrate any hint of the heebie-jeebies at all. Instead, she looked as calm as the smoothest waters as usual. She just took a few steps towards Lance and mumbled something by his ear.
Lance seemed somewhat taken by surprise to find out what Ana said to him. He could not help but blurt out, ‘How could that be?’
‘ Nothing isn't worth considering! I'm scared stiff this is specifically the primary reason for the passive situation the Crimson Dragon Army is involved in at present,’ Ana suggested. Her eyes were shimmering.
‘ Do you have any proof?’ Lance declined to be persuaded by her easily.
‘ When Wild Heaven Pass was ambushed at night, the gate was freed by the concealed traitor. Since the Timber Deity Empire could organize their man among the troops at Wild Heaven Pass as our hidden traitor, why couldn't they settle on somebody else among the Crimson Dragon Group?’ Ana asked back in a frosty voice after giving Lance a disparaging smile.
Lance was struck dumb by Ana's questions for a while. He had to acknowledge what Ana said made sense. The Timber Deity Empire would not have prepared their man at Wild Heaven Pass in advance if they didn't know precisely what the Crimson Dragon Army would do. Since the Timber Deity Empire had known clearly what the Crimson Dragon Army would do, the mere tendency was that the information was spilled the beans by some member of the Crimson Dragon Army.
‘ Besides, even if the main force of the Crimson Dragon Army was alone without any external support, they had thirty thousand members. Thirty thousand is by no means a minor number, but the Timber Deity Empire demolished them in a concise period of time. In the reasonable understanding, if they couldn't thrash the troops of the Timber Deity Empire, they still could withdraw. But as far as I recognize, the Timber Deity Empire gave the concept of knowing the thirty thousand troops clearly like the palm of their hand, so that the troops of the Crimson Dragon Army had nowhere to make their getaway. What was more, the Deputy Commander in Chief dispatched troops to assist them at that time, but the assistance troops were blocked and intercepted by the enemy just in time. How could that happen if there was no concealed traitor to blow the gaff the information to the enemy?’ Ana added in a split of seconds.
Recently, Louis had conveyed intelligence to her during her absence. According to such knowledge, Ana caught sight that the Timber Deity Empire suggested to constantly respond to the Crimson Dragon Army's strategies in an out of the typical rapid manner. However, even if the Commander in Chief of the Timber Deity Empire was able to envisage with divine certainty, she could not have foreseen every detail of the Crimson Dragon Army's operation.
The sole possibility would be that the Timber Deity Empire was conscious of every detail about the Crimson Dragon Army not by foreseeing but from somebody among the Crimson Dragon Army.
In this way, they could be apprehensive of what the Crimson Dragon Army would do in the following before the latter actually took action, so that they could figure out countermeasures in advance.
Indeed, the Commander in Chief of the Timber Deity Empire was really tactful by successfully arranging their man in the Crimson Dragon Group without being gotten a glimpse of them by anybody. And the disguised traitor who had been prepared by the Timber Deity Empire in the Crimson Dragon Group must have been extremely good at sailing under false colors since there was still not any piece of evidence about his identity.
Lance fell mute and began meditating as soon as Ana finished talking. He perceived that if what Ana said was right, it would be dreadful news for the Crimson Dragon Army. Silence gnawed at his insides. The silence was like a gaping void, needing to be filled with sounds, words, anything.
‘ That's all what I demand to say. Commander in Chief, please agree to receive my words as a gift. But if you want me to lend a hand for free, I will give the thumbs down to it without any equivocation. I require something in return. This is my bottom line, and I will never strike a balance!’ Ana said in a conclusive tone. She was free from doubt that Lance would give in. After giving Ana a frosty stare, Lance turned over his hand and took out a middle-grade Dark Heaven Egg and a yellow spiritual crystal. He stretched his hand, in which the two treasures were placed in front of Ana.
‘ I think they're not a tolerable amount.’ Ana made a fuss and shook her head in a chip on her shoulder though she took over the middle-grade Dark Heaven Egg and the yellow spiritual crystal from Lance's hand.
‘ If you can certainly come to my aid, I will offer you a high-grade Dark Heaven Egg when everything is completed. Will that be okay?’ Lance said, gritting his teeth.
In the Crimson Dragon Group, only positions above Elite Commander were qualified to get Dark Heaven Eggs, and they could only get one middle-grade Dark Heaven Egg every three months.
And they could acquire one yellow spiritual crystal every six months. However, it seemed that they could not put Ana's mind at rest .
‘ High-grade Dark Heaven Egg? I think that will be sufficient,’ Ana added. Her eyes lit up since she had never set her eyes on a high-grade Dark Heaven Egg. She hadn't had in the prospect that Lance was in the spirit to pay her such a big price.
‘ Anyway, if you can't come to my rescue, in the end, I won't let you take off! I will teach you a lesson no matter who will intervene with me for you!’ Lance declared in a twinkle of an eye in a distinguished tone. He would never allow Ana to pull a fast one on him.
‘ Commander in Chief, just hold your horses and see please,’ Ana suggested. Raising her brows, she turned around, having the intention to go.
‘ Where're you going?’ Lance asked confusedly when he recognised that Ana was leaving. He wore a perplexed expression.
‘ Of course I'm going to be of service to defend Wild Heaven Pass,’ Ana answered as if nothing was awry with her behavior.
‘ It's already impossible like drawing water from stone to defend Wild Heaven Pass successfully. If you are to lend a hand, you should help protect Loyal Dragon Pass. We can take Wild Heaven Pass back from the Timber Deity Empire when the reinforcement troops show up,’ Lance said, furrowing brows slightly.
‘ Loyal Dragon Pass is besieged by the Commander in Chief of the Timber Deity Empire in person, isn't it? I will never court death on my own accord! Just set your heart at rest and have assurance in me! We won't lose Wild Heaven Pass. But I will give you a piece of advice. You don't need to defend Frozen River Pass here any longer. It's nothing but a mere decorative pass,’ Ana said in a somewhat confident tone.
‘ A decorative pass? You imply...’ Lance asked, confusion apparent on his face. His mind was a surging perplexity
‘ Commander in Chief, I understand the reason why you come down in favor to defend Frozen River Pass by yourself is that it is directly connected to Evian City, right?’ Ana asked as a smirk crept up at the corners of her mouth. She grinned like the cat who got the cream.
‘ Yeah. Is there anything wrong?’ Lance inquired.
‘ Yes, and it's something of concern. Sir, are you aware why the Timber Deity Empire chooses to attack Wild Heaven Pass and Loyal Dragon Pass instead of attacking Frozen River Pass with all their strength?’ Ana asked back instead of granting him a straightforward answer.
‘ Because the Timber Deity Empire is knowledgeable that we Crimson Dragon Army must choose to defend Frozen River Pass with all our strength,’ Lance answered after pondering for a while.
‘ That's it! Since the Timber Deity Empire is thoroughly briefed about the bizarre nature of Frozen River Pass, they would never exhaust their forces by attacking Frozen River Pass. They didn't do that before, and they're even less likely to do that now. That's because they no longer have adequate forces to attack Frozen River Pass. Besides, even if they can take Frozen River Pass from you, they don't have enough troops to defend it. All in all, in fact, Frozen River Pass is nothing but a fancy pass. Since the troops of the Timber Deity Empire would not attack Frozen River Pass, there's no distinction between securing it by ten thousand people and by one hundred people. Commander in Chief, do you recognize what I mean?’ Ana said, a purposeful beam on her face. Then she turned around and started walking outward.
‘ Wait ! Do you have any suspicious on who the traitor could be? ’ Lance continued asking.
‘ I think I know who the traitor is’ Ana smirked deviously.
‘ What?! Who is it??’
‘  It's.....’
‘ I see.’ As an astute man, Lance was in a flash brought up to speed by Ana's words. With dumb strike expression on his face, staring at Ana's back, he talked under one's breath to himself, ‘This girl is undeniably intelligent!’
As rapidly as Ana stepped out, she saw the Commanders were cooling their heels outside.
Standing in a circle, they were talking and discussing. It suggested that they were waiting with bated breath to witness Ana being punished by Lance.
So all of them were caught on the hop to see Ana walk out in this way. Sound and safe, she popped up in front of them with a huge smirk on her face like a Cheshire cat. What was more, she was juggling with a Middle grade Dark Heaven Egg and a yellow spiritual crystal.
‘ That... that is a middle-grade Dark Heaven Egg, right?’
‘ And the other one is a yellow... yellow spiritual crystal, right?’ all of the Commanders were in a howl of protest.
Seeing the shocked expression on the faces of the commanders in front of her, Ana gave a bigger smile and kept going forward without saying anything, looking calm and casual. But to those commanders, seeing Ana hold the middle-class Dark Heaven Egg and the yellow spiritual crystal implied that they would stay awake tonight.
They had been kicking their heels outside to see how down in the dumps Ana would be after being criticized by the Commander in Chief. But to their shock, Ana looked ordinary and sauntered with one middle-class Dark Heaven Egg and a yellow spiritual crystal. They were not getting agitated over Ana not being thrown brickbats at, but they were incredibly green with jealousy of Ana having the two treasures.
In the Crimson Dragon Group, Frontline Commanders and those above the position could get hold of one primary Dark Heaven Egg every three months and one red spiritual crystal after hanging on for practically one year.
Only Elite Commanders could get the middle-class Dark Heaven Egg and yellow spiritual crystal every several months.
Ana went in empty-handed but went out with the two treasuries. It was crystal clear that ahe had gotten them from the Commander in Chief. Those commanders had heard the Commander in Chief say that he would teach Ana a lesson, so they couldn't puzzle out why the Commander in Chief didn't cast aspersions on Ana but granted her two treasuries that any spirit manipulator coveted. They would never have the slenderest inkling.
At this time, a figure lunged forward and stood in front of Ana, pointing at the items in Ana's hands, saying, ‘Ana, did you get the middle-class Dark Heaven Egg and yellow spiritual crystal from the Commander in Chief? ’
Ana looked up and recognized it was Flank.
‘ Yes. Commander Zhao, are you interested in those two treasuries?’ Ana asked with a meaningful smile, her eyes lighting up with interest. Her smile shone like stars.
Flank swallowed at the treasuries in Ana's hands, and his eyes gleamed with envy and greed. But he put on a deceptive front that he didn't care about them and suggested with a grunt, ‘ They are just middle-class Dark Heaven Egg and yellow spiritual crystal. Only the bumpkin like you treasures them that much.’
‘ That's magnificent. I'm afraid Commander Zhao is envious of me having their possession and will plunder me to steal them away,’ Ana said with a crisp beam.
‘ What do you mean by that? How can you have the audacity to think of me in that manner? ’ Flank was on the warpath after hearing what Ana had suggested. But deep inside, that thought had crossed his mind.
Most people in this world harbored evil-intentioned thoughts. Other than Flank, other commanders were envious of Ana. They were inquisitive about how Ana got the priceless items from the Commander in Chief and what had taken place in the room.
‘ You are apprehensive of what I meant. Commander Zhao, no one knows better than you about what you have in mind,’ Ana said coldly, her chilly eyesight making Flank dread in cold perspiration. Sweat was gathering to trail down his body.
‘ Ana, you'd better keep low key. It's not in your best interests for you to be too big for your boots in front of me. Who do you think you are? Don't think you are someone after doing some deeds of merit. Today I will let you know you are nothing but a worthless piece of trash!’ Flank showed a ghastly expression. He had felt repugnance towards Ana for a long time, for he was in a position to win the favor of the Deputy Commander in Chief and the Commander in Chief, which made him very envious.
What was more, Ana had almost wrecked his son before, so he was hell-bent on teaching Ana a lesson. Then Flank, in a split of a second, emitted his spiritual power and showed his strength at the ninth grade of the Earthly Stage.
He glimpsed at Ana and said ferociously, ‘ Ana, you are at the eighth grade of the Earthly Stage. You can't give me a drubbing. If you kneel down and ask for my lenience, I may be compassionate and consider sparing your life.'
The commanders standing aside found Flank was severe, but they didn't intend to stop him. They didn't want to incur trouble. Besides, they were also jealous of Ana and thought she deserved it.
‘ Just the ninth grade of the Earthly Stage. I don't even want to bother picking up a dust-up with you,’ Ana cast a glance at Flank and said arrogantly. Then she sauntered past Flank without peeking at him.
The commanders present were rudely awakened by Ana's words, thinking Ana too saber-rattling.
She was just at the eighth grade of the Earthly Stage and plucked up the courage to talk to Flank this way, whose strength was one grade higher than her.
It made Flank hotter under the collar. Seeing Ana neglect him, Flank burst into anger. He had only intended to use strong-arm tactics on Ana and force her to apologize, but Ana didn't buy it and had the audacity to talk like that in front of those commanders, making him eat a humble pie.
Although they were outside the Conference Hall, Flank couldn't contain his ill-humor anymore. A hint of brutality flashed across his eyes, and he suddenly reached out his hand and converged his spiritual power at his fingertips. Then he turned around in a flash and reached for Ana's shoulder.
‘ Mysterious Hawk Talon!’ The commanders' altered looks in a split of seconds, being cognizant that Flank's this move of spiritual martial arts was his best skill. This movement could generate a very severe injury. And it suggested that Ana didn't take heed of Flank's movement, so what would transpire later was crystal clear.
As Flank had a wild guess how Ana would kneel before him and presented him with the two treasuries to plead for leniency, a strong gale emerged, dashing the dust and making people strived to keep eyes open.
At this time, Flank saw black spiritual power glitter on Ana's back and in a split of the second turn to a distorted ghost face which had hollow sockets that seemed to be in a position to take in everything. Then this face flew swiftly towards Flank.
‘ Stupid trick!’ Flank's expression altered, but he had a sneaking suspicion that Ana was bluffing. So he didn't halt but got to grips with that ghost face.
Bang!
A wired sound developed, and the wind dispersed. Then the commanders discovered that Flank flew over them and collapsed on the ground, bleeding blood. He had several spasms before passing out.
‘ Commander Zhao?!’ those commanders exclaimed. They were shocked by this scene and looked to Ana with bewilderment. But at this time, Ana's figure disappeared in front of them.
Behind a pillar outside the Conference Hall, a slim figure lurked, looking in the direction Ana had disappeared, coldness flashing across her eyes.
Ana left the Frozen River Pass at her highest speed as a dog will lick a dish. When she was far away from the city gate of the Frozen River Pass, she freed the Magic Spiritual Space and let Ananta and Rubygon out.
However, the Rainbow Glow Unicorn and the little Ghostly Ice Fox-wolf also hanker after getting out and reached out to their heads at the same time.
Ana had to try to assuage them as asserting, ‘ Be good, okay? Stay here a little longer, please!’
Both of them let out disgruntled groans.
Ana shook her head with a desperate smile and later took out the magical saliva. After she provided each of them a drop, their heads finally went back to the Magic Spiritual Space.
Ana then hopped on Rubygon's commodious back, which was abundant for three to five people to sit on.
‘ Let's go!’ Ana patted on Rubygon's back, signaling for it to take off.
Rubygon roared deafeningly, and again its stiff limbs began moving. Its speed increased rapidly as it surged to the Wild Heaven Pass.
Ananta went hell for leather beside it. After a while, both of them flew into the sky and flashed away above the boundless yellow sand.
Meanwhile, the Wild Heaven Pass was hanging by a thread. Half of the city wall had caved in. Amongst rising black smoke, numerous corpses were lying in the pool of blood. They were members of the Crimson Dragon Army and the Timber Deity Army. It was a comparable picture inside the Wild Heaven Pass.
Dead bodies sprawled around everywhere. These days, the Timber Deity Army broke into the pass one time after another. At the same time, the Crimson Dragon Army headed by Sara kept at arm's length their charges every time. The Wild Heaven Pass was until then on the edge of losing yesterday. Thanks to Sara's leadership and the commanders' hard-working, they successfully took up cudgels for the Wild Heaven Pass in the outcome and even stirred up an enormous damage to the Timber Deity Army.
Yet, the Crimson Dragon Army also suffered many of its soldiers during the preceding battle. Now they only had less than four thousand soldiers, and three of their commanders even got severely injured.
Although the Timber Deity Army also encountered a colossal loss, they still had more than ten thousand soldiers left. To add salt into an injury, half of the Wild Heaven Pass's city wall had been obliterated to the ground, which was a fatal chink in their armor.
The Timber Deity Army could break into the pass anytime they had a predilection for. It was eminently feasible that the Crimson Dragon Army would lose the Wild Heaven Pass in the next fight. Meanwhile, inside the northwest of the Wild Heaven Pass, Marcia was conducting soldiers to send the wounded members to the secure spot. Her white and delicate face now was sooted black by smoke. Enemies' blood was all over her armor, which also showed how intense the previous fights were.
‘ Marin!’ Sara was striding towards her right now. Sara was also in a jumble, but her femme fatale and gorgeousness was still smoldering.
She was the Deputy Commander in Chief, who led tens of thousands of soldiers. What won those soldiers' assertion and true-heartedness was not merely her appearance but also her skillful leadership and commendable courage like a lion. No matter what cropped up, they would nevertheless fight their lives for her. If not because of her leadership, they would have surrendered the Wild Heaven Pass already.
As long as she presented, the attitude of the Crimson Dragon Army would invariably remain high.
‘ Sara’ Marcia nodded at Sara as she got a glimpse of her showing up.
‘ I'm scared stiff that we would lose the Wild Heaven Pass soon, so I require you to pick up one thousand soldiers to accompany our injured members out of here first.’ Sara's brows puckered. Although she had tried her best, she had no way to defend this pass right now.
‘ No! I'll linger here. Let Commander Dunn escort them away.’ Marcia shook her head unswervingly. She, with particular, could figure out that was a mere pretext.
‘ This is a command!’  Now that Marcia had gotten a glimpse of what she plotted to do, Sara had to be forced to use the power of her position as the Deputy Commander in Chief to make Marcia depart from there.
‘ No! I'll remain behind!’ Marcia wore a stout-hearted expression. As giving an ear to Marcia's firm answer, Sara knitted her brows together.
‘ Deputy Commander in Chief! Look!’ In an impasse between them, a soldier went like a bat out of hell over in a dash as pointing at the city wall.
‘ What? What on earth are you speaking about? ’ Sara shot a frosty glare at the soldier.
‘ There is a person... who rides on a huge... a huge spirit-manipulated beast, and breaks in!’ the soldier fumbled for words in trepidation.
Sara and Marcia were both frozen.  They gawked at each other and then turned to glance at the city wall simultaneously.
The next moment, they were greeted with a colossal spirit-manipulated beast and felt acquainted with it. Some soldiers had inundated the giant creature with weapons in their hands while the one sitting on the giant creature was in a composed and casual manner.
After a while, another spirit-manipulated beast, with blazing flames all over its body, became visible behind the giant creature.
As the two spirit-manipulated beasts stood together, their subtle-rattling aura caused the surrounding soldiers to be rudely awakening to the core, and none of them plucked up the bravery to walk close to the formidable beasts.
‘ Ana?’ Sara, in a twinkling, perceived that the one sitting on the giant creature was Ana. She was at a loss of words as a hint of delight sparkled in her eyes, as she was conscious Ana would never show up without a purpose.
Marcia recognised Ana as well. She froze at first, and later gave an authority to the soldiers, ‘ Back off! She is on our side!’
The surrounding soldiers all gave out a deep sigh of satisfaction as listening to Marcia. They pulled back their weapons and stepped back, while their eyes were still in the grip on Ananta and Rubygon, the two extraordinary spirit-manipulated beasts.
When Sara and Marcia shifted their eyes to Rubygon behind Ana, both of them were taken aback. They certainly recognized Rubygon right now, but it was so extraordinary from what it looked like last time.
The Rubygon they experienced before was shorter than Ananta in height and was at the first grade of the three-star level. However, it had reached the second grade of the four-star level now. They found it as hard as a stone to postulate that Rubygon's energy could build by leaps and bounds during such a short interval.
As getting a glimpse of those soldiers retreating, Ana jumped down from Rubygon's back. At the same time, Sara and Marcia were sauntering towards her.
‘ Let's save nonsense first. I'm here under the order of the Commander in Chief to offer a helping hand.’ Ana spoke calmly.
As the crowd beside them got wind of Ana, they all hailed with thrilling sensation.
‘ A leg up? How many people did you tag along?’ Sara cast a glance behind Ana, but she only saw Ananta and Rubygon.
‘ Only me!’ Ana answered airily, catching everyone present a surprise. They were caught on the wrong foot. The excited crowd now all looked at her as if she had bats in her belfry.
Tranquil filled the air as their hurrahs halted. The silence hung in the air like the suspended moment. The crowd stared at each other with stupefied expressions.
None of them took Ana's words sincerely. How could she alone help them out of the prevailing dilemma or perform any adjustments?
Sara and Marcia were both looking sullen at Ana. Obviously, they were taking Ana's words in the same way as the crowd did. They were aware Ana was out of the ordinary, but she was not a god after all.
The Wild Heaven Pass was hanging by a thread now, and it was highly preposterous, like drawing blood from a turnip, that her existence could turn the tables.
‘ What? None of you figure out I alone can lend a helping hand here? Well, I'd better take my departure right away.’ Ana wore a faint smile as glancing at Sara and Marcia faces. Shaking her head, she turned around and put up a false front to make her exit.
‘ Hold on!’ Sara hollered out in a twinkle of an eye, almost based on her conditioned reflex.
‘ Fulfill my two prerequisites, and then I won't take off.’ Ana smirked.
‘ What do you demand?’ Sara asked sighing.
‘ First, I require five hundred people leaving here to give me a leg up. The others withdraw from the Wild Heaven Pass right now and move to the valley behind the pass. Second, don't try to solicit the reason from me. I don't want to consume my time revealing.’ Ana airily folded her arms in front of her chest.
Silence swept over the air one more time. The silence caressed their skin like a cool summer breeze. Almost everyone present was gawking at Ana with bemused glances. They could not even fathom what their ears just discovered and thought Ana must be out of mind.
The Crimson Dragon Army had been fighting like hell against the Timber Deity Army to guard the Wild Heaven Pass. If they retreated now, the Timber Deity Army could occupy the Wild Heaven Pass as promptly as blinking an eye. Then what they had undertaken would be all in vain in the end. What Ana just suggested was so feather-brained that none of the crowd had a sneaking suspicion Sara would respond yes to her.
‘ Well, then forget it!’ Ana shrugged as she saw no one responding.
‘ Pffffttt , hahahahaha’ suddenly Marcia started laughing .
‘ Seriously! You are really something. Sara , I'm voting on agreeing to her propositions’
‘ Okay! I guarantee you the two obligations.’ Sara  gave in after hearing Marcia's response.
That abrupt response caught everyone by wonder. They were dumb stricken.
In a dash, the crowd began talking under their breath among themselves. None of them had in the prospect that Sara would swallow the information on the hook about what Ana just suggested. Yet, Sara suddenly in a split of seconds raised her arm, which dampened their conversation at once.
‘ Attention! Retreat from the Wild Heaven Pass in an hour. Committing to an infringement of my order only earns military retribution. Commence moving now!’ Sara commanded as the Deputy Commander in Chief.
The crowd was all frozen as hearing Sara. Adrenaline flooded their system. Seeing none of them execute her order, Sara exclaimed, ‘ What the hell are you doing? Help the injured members out of here first! Go! Go! Go!’
Those soldiers present in the end moved and commenced their jobs.
Following the origin of the commotion, Tod and Dunn showed up and only saw the soldiers going like a bat out of hell. Both of them were confused by such a picture, causing them to be at a stand. And when they got a glimpse of Ana standing in front of Sara and Marcia, they were taken aback. Neither of them had expected that Ana would come here.
‘ Deputy Commander in Chief, what happened?’ Tod inquired.
‘ You are here at the right time, Commander Tod. Give the low-down to the soldiers to withdraw from the left city wall. Let them back down with the others from the Wild Heaven Pass right now!’ Sara ordered Tod without reluctance.
‘ Retreat from the Wild Heaven Pass?’ Tod was more mind bent than before.
‘ I have no time to give a justification to you for this. Go to notice them first!’ Sara waved at him, motioning for him to move.
Tod shot a hard to understand look at Sara and then peered at Ana before he made haste to the left city wall.
‘ Commander Marin! Commander Dunn! You two remain behind to grant assistance to Ana. From now on, you are both under her and adhere to her orders.’ Sara directly left away after completing the sentence.
‘ Dude! Why are you here?’ Catching a glimpse of Sara walking away, Dunn sauntered to Ana and patted on her shoulder intimately.
‘ Commander Dunn, I require you and your soldiers to find out all the things that can produce sound, pots, pans, and whatever. The more, the better! Go!’ Ana said to Dunn.
‘ No problem!’ Dunn froze at first. He, in two shakes of a lamb tail, acknowledged at Ana without dispute and then left away.
Marcia still stood on the spot, tilted her head, and glimpsed at Ana.
‘ Have you concluded with that?’ Ana inquired as she folded her arm in front of her chest.
‘ Are you actually here under the authority of the Commander in Chief? It's not like you. You are not the character who will follow a command tamely.’ Marcia peered at Ana .
‘ Do you certainly have a desire to perceive that? Well, I can update you if you wrap up a task from me.’ Ana tried to arouse Marcia's curiosity.
‘ No, I don't hanker to know!’  Marcia shook her head.
‘ Well, you have to accomplish the task anyway, unless you prefer to not acquiesce with the order of the Deputy Commander in Chief.’ Ana smirked like a Cheshire cat while  ordering Marcia. Marcia shot a malignant glare at Ana.
‘ Now you take Ananta to set up a fire every three meters around the pass. You two have to wrap up that job before the dusk.’ Ana ordered.
‘ Ananta!’ Ana blurted out at Ananta. Ananta, which rested beside Rubygon, went like lightning over as soon as hearing its master's voice.
Ana then mumbled in a hushed tone in its ear. Ananta groaned and sauntered to Marcia, looking at her with its round and big eyes.
‘ Let's go! Leave your mean master here alone!’ Marcia patted on Ananta head and then left away with it.
Ana went to Rubygon, rode on it, and headed out of the pass.
An hour later, there were only five hundred soldiers left in the Wild Heaven Pass. Under Sara' s leadership, the rest three thousand soldiers escaped through the south gate, which faced the Holy Dragon Empire, and encamped in the nearby valley behind the Wild Heaven Pass.
When everything had been carried out, Sara ordered Tod to remain and lead the three thousand soldiers. Then she rode on Silver Wind to come back to the pass. It was close to the sunset right now. Inside the Wild Heaven Pass, there were flashes of aggressive flames and black smoke billowing in the air. The flame rolled outwards like the smoke of a mushroom cloud. Watching from above, a huge fire array seemed to be set up in the entire Wild Heaven Pass. Dunn and the five hundred soldiers left were standing at the south gate. Beside them were pots, pans, porcelains, and ironware.
‘ What are those things for?’ Sara jumped down from Silver Wind and wandered to Dunn.
‘ I have no slightest clue. That's what Ana requested for,’ Dunn spelled out while swinging his head towards Sara.
Sara looked inside with a dumbfounded expression. One-meter high flames were burning fiercely and scattered around the entire Wild Heaven Pass. They stood in order, and the distance between each of them was the same, which formed a bizarre picture. The flames were like a great famished beast devouring everything in its path and belching out black smoke.
‘ Is she planning to set up some array?’ Sara had a wild guess.
‘ Deputy Commander in Chief,’ At this very moment, Marcia along with Ananta, who was lustering in flames, appeared before Sara and others.
The emergence of Ananta, the giant beast startled the five hundred soldiers around causing a bustle, who started to whisper about Ananta with an expression of amazement. Those ordinary soldiers always respected the spirit manipulator who possessed the spirit-manipulated beast. Explicitly, Ananta who was quite powerful and fierce stood out from other spirit-manipulated beasts.
They pitied themselves, for being born without the gift of a spirit manipulator and neither could they own one spirit-manipulated beast. Now all they could do was to gaze at the magnanimity of the spirit-manipulated beast.
The glimpse of Ananta made Dunn reminisce about the last match that Ana won, where there were cascades of the unexpected events of upgrading and rare mutation, resulting in super evolution of the spirit-manipulated beast. And at that time, the mutated Ananta was much more powerful and showed quite excellent and astonishing qualification than his spirit-manipulated beast, Razor-claw Wolf Bear which had already reached the third grade of three stars.
Though Dunn wasn't sure about Ananta being a spiritual beast, he was quite sure about its extreme rarity, as it was unusual that it could use Fire. The fact that Marcia showed up with
Ana's spirit-manipulated beast surprised Sara.
She blinked a little and asked, ‘ Where have you been? Why are you with Ana's spirit-manipulated beast?’
‘ Wasn't that obvious to you?’ Marcia turned in the direction from where she came and gazed admiringly at the flames scattered all over the pass, as their masterpiece work.
In fact, Marcia didn't do that by herself. All she did was point out the destinations and order Ananta to light a little fire on it, which was quite an easy task.
‘ It is Ana! Only she could come up with such strange method. But I had never seen any tactical deployment like that one before.’ Sara recalled all the tactical deployment she learned, and failed to find one similar to that, as at most cases that kind of deployment could not be done without enough soldiers. But in fact, Ana left only five hundred soldiers. So, she could not perceive what Ana was doing.
‘ Of course, only that girl could come up with  a strange idea like that.’ Marcia uttered while laughing.
‘ By the way, why did Ana come on the spur of the moment to carry out the Commander in Chief's order this time? After all, she turned down the Commander in Chief once in public. According to my perception of her, she would not have been accommodating to be associated in this trouble quickly like a piece of cake, neither would he have given a whirl to the Commander in Chief's order.’ Dunn uttered his bewilderment. Lack of confidence was written all over his rough face.
‘ I have the same opinion too. In fact, I asked her why, but she didn't answer my query,’ Marcia said, blinking.
‘ We'd better ignore it. We could never establish a point of view of it correctly what Ana Frank is cudgeling her brain.’ Sara kicked up a fuss despite the same perplexity in her mind. She was curious why Ana came all of a sudden to carry out her father's order, and if there was anything she didn't have intelligence.
With such reflections in her mind, she asked Marcia, ‘ Did Ana give a hint of what she is going to do with those bonfires inside the pass? They look like a military display.’ Marcia shook her head in a dash.
‘ Where is she now?’ Sara looked around, but she could not trace Ana anywhere.
‘ I'm positive she's resting  somewhere,’  Marcia answered as her drop-dead gorgeous face turned murky.
‘ Commander Marin, I'm confident it's unfair to speak ill of other people when they is absent.’ A voice came through just in time. It sounded both joking and sincere at the same time.
By instinct, all the people present sought to the direction of the voice. They peered Ana, who was riding Rubygon, stop in front of them. Then she bounced onto the ground and arrayed her eyes around everybody.
‘ Since you haven't done anything ill, you don't require to get overwrought about being spoken evil of by anybody,’ Marcia retorted.
‘ Commander Marin, are you with no doubt I haven't done anything evil? Have you failed to recall...’ Ana was reluctant, staring at Marcia with her evil and as elegant as a picture eyes.
Marcia became absorbed in thought as shortly as her eyes met Ana's burning eyes. What had taken place between her and Ana in her room cropped up in her mind out of her control. When she commemorated the kiss, she flushed red as a brick in a split of a second. Now she looked sheepish and as lovely as a pie!
Sara and others, specifically the soldiers, were all shell shocked to see Marcia fall silent and blush all of a sudden. After all, she always had a glib tongue and acted undauntedly on the battlefield as an iron woman. The soldiers had never seen her being shy in this way. They looked at one another in astonishment and wondered if there was some secret between Ana and Marcia.
If yes, it would be breaking news!
When Sara gave an ear to Ana's odd words and saw Marcia's weird expressions, Sara could not help but feel an absence of conviction. Previously she had already discovered that Marcia would conduct herself strangely every time Ana was referred to, but she didn't put that in mind. However, now she was beyond suspicion that something must have happened between Marcia and Ana, distinguishing by Ana's meaningful words.
Therefore, she plotted to have a dialogue with Marcia when the Wild Heaven Pass became out of harm's way. While she was lost in thought, Ana acquitted herself as if nothing had developed. She disengaged her sight from Marcia and laid her eyes on the pots and pans piled aside as well as some things else that could produce sounds.
She strolled forward to pick up a few of them. When she knocked one on another, a tumultuous sound came through in a flash.
‘ Wonderful! These props can absolutely be of assistance!’ Ana sighed. She could not help but gesture as if she was extremely well pleased with these articles.
Then she turned around to say to Dunn and Marcia, ‘ Commander Dunn and Commander Marin, each of you, please take half the troops to make an ambush respectively at the two ends inside the pass. Every soldier takes one or two of such props. By the way, don't fail to carry some bows and arrows. When the enemies invade the pass a while later, you should hold on for my order. When I give the order, first of all, you shoot arrows for two rounds and then knock the props against each other as vehemently as you can.’
Then she turned her head to glance at Sara. ‘ Deputy Commander in Chief, please keep an eye on the south gate. The antagonists may conceivably make a quick exit towards the south entrance. Your task is to stand guard over the south gate, restraining them from getting out through that gate,’ Ana added.
‘ Okay,’ Sara stated directly. She guessed she should not interrogate Ana since she had resolved to trust her, though she had no notion what Ana was going to do.
‘ All right. Everybody, you may withdraw to implement your assignment now. It's getting dark. I'm certain all the prevailing ten thousand troops of the Timber Deity Empire will come here. Very shortly, we will be cognizant whether or not we can safeguard Wild Heaven Pass successfully!’ Ana suggested. Her eyes were full of self-assurance.
Very soon, Marcia and Dunn respectively took half the troops, simultaneously with the strange props and bows and arrows, to go to the two ends of the Wild Heaven Pass.
Since the pass had been built on the basis of a mountain between two cliffs, both ends of the pass were located at steep cliffs, where dense plants were available. They were perfect places for concealing people.
Sara guarded the south gate. She informed the soldiers to close the gate tightly, and she sat outside the gate, cooling her heels for things to untangle. Squinting slightly, she talked under one's breath to herself, ‘ Ana Frank, do not let me down. I beg of you!’
At the same time, the word that a considerable number of troops of the Crimson Dragon Army withdrew from the south gate of the Wild Heaven Pass had already been reported by the scout of the Timber Deity Empire to their three Commanders.
One of the three Commanders was Commander Zhou, who had hitherto failed to engross the Rough Slope because of the intervention of Ana.
This time, in order to attack the Wild Heaven Pass, the Timber Deity Empire had dispatched as many as thirty thousand troops, which was undoubtedly a reasonable move.
The forces were driven by three Commanders who had the finest histories of service in the Timber Deity Empire. First of all, the three Commanders took the upper hand of the knowledge provided by their spy in the Crimson Dragon Army and attacked the Wild Heaven Pass at night under the nose of twenty thousand troops of the Crimson Dragon Army at the pass.
As a result, the Crimson Dragon Army encountered significant losses, and the soldiers of the Timber Deity Empire took a grip of more advantages.
After the successful charge at night, the three Commanders had a sneaking suspicion that they would be in a position to occupy the Wild Heaven Pass in no time. To their thunderbolt, however, the defending troops at the Wild Heaven Pass were also led by an experienced and sophisticated Elite Commander from the Crimson Dragon Group. Due to his excellent tactics, the guarding forces had managed to thrust out all the troops of the Timber Deity Empire that assaulted them at night.
At least the Crimson Dragon Army still held the Wild Heaven Pass in their hand despite the astronomical price they paid. It was precise because of their hard work that Sara had had the time to take troops here to lend a hand to them. She had safeguarded the Wild Heaven Pass in place of Commander Cheng till now. Since she showed up at the Wild Heaven Pass, Sara had established an assortment of military arrays.
As a result, the troops of the Timber Deity Empire had a turbulent time, without making any leap forward. Ill at ease, the three Commanders of the Timber Deity Empire had beaten their brains out to drive the Crimson Dragon Army to the wall. But of course, the Timber Deity Empire paid a massive price for that too.
Almost twenty thousand troops were lost. Therefore, the three Commanders came into a compromise that they had to seize the Wild Heaven Pass in the following round of attack. Otherwise, even if they could conquer it subsequently, they would not have adequate force to secure it.
Such being the case, a substantial number of troops of the Crimson Dragon Army withdrawing from the Wild Heaven Pass was beyond the shadow of a doubt good news for the three Commanders. They considered that the Crimson Dragon Army could no longer defend the Wild Heaven Pass and was proposing to give it up. Of course, they had no notion that the withdrawal was, in fact, an elaborate trap.
‘ Commander Zhou, you will lead three thousand soldiers to charge from the opening of the right side of the fort wall to beguile the attention of the enemy. Commander Liang and I will lead the rest of the soldiers to storm the fort gate. The number of the remaining soldiers who preferred to guard the Wild Heaven Pass should be small. It should not be a hazard to us. All we have to work out is to get it performed in one strenuous attempt.’
Inside the camp, the three Commanders stood around the table to put their heads together about an approach as they took a closer view of the map that laid on the table.
‘ ll right,’ Commander Zhou nodded in like-mindedness. It was a magnificent opportunity to reimburse for the shortcomings of his failure in the clamor of the Rough Slope.
That fizzling out almost made him beheaded by the military law. He could survive until now only because Princess Alyssa exonerated him for the sake of his previous outstanding military service in the army of the Timber Deity Empire.
Princess Alyssa also held him in high esteem as a talented spirit manipulator of the Heavenly Stage. Otherwise, he would have been dead at the time he failed in the clamor of the Rough Slope. He was under a constraint to the princess for his life. So it was of absolute essence for him to apprehend the Wild Heaven Pass as a reciprocation to the kind amnesty of the princess.
Later on, the three Commanders of the Timber Deity Empire batted around the plan before it was subsequently concluded. They then sauntered out of the camp to give pep talks to the thousands of soldiers who were muddled up for departure.
Subsequently, the Timber Deity Army of more than ten thousand soldiers set out as a tremendous flood for the Wild Heaven Pass upon the military order as the night settled in.
Commander Zhou led two squads of spirit manipulators, and three thousand soldiers went hell for leather horizontally to the right of the fort wall as they got closer to the Wild Heaven Pass.
The wall opening on the right became very big and was jumbled up by the dead bodies of the soldiers. They climbed up from the fort opening and charged forward saber rattling only to discover that the fort was unoccupied. Taken by bewilderment, they paused and stood still as gormless as a guppy.
‘ Could it be feasible that the Crimson Dragon Army had ultimately turned their backs on the Wild Heaven Pass?’ Commander Zhou was thrown off balance as he sent the message to tip off the other two Commanders. Even though the fort was unoccupied, he still conducted himself in extreme cautiousness.
The other two Commanders led the army to bombard the gate of the fort as they were provided with the message from Commander Zhou. As they had in prospect, the fort gate was defenseless that it did not make any effort to free it.
Not any single soldier from the Crimson Dragon Army came into view as they stood in front of the open gate to observe the situation in the fort.
The Wild Heaven Pass was literary an empty fort. Not long thereafter, Commander Zhou went like a bat out of hell to the fort gate to meet the other two Commanders.
Several thousand soldiers who stood by behind them suggested to hanker after charging into the Wild Heaven Pass to occupy the fort at one fling.
‘ Holy crap! They actually retreated without the audacity to at least engage with us! Who could have in the prospect that the Crimson Dragon Army would be a straightforward target and open to attack? It was a drain of our time to have geared ourselves up and organized for this battle!’
‘ Well, it is not so awful. At least we can keep in reserve our energy to fight them. We can sleep like a baby tonight with our girls in arms...’
‘ Hah-hah, the Wild Heaven Pass is now all ours...’
‘ Speed up. Send someone to provide an account of the wonderful word to our princess.’
The other two Commanders were over the moon. They completely immersed themselves in the elation of victory. They were as happy as a kitty in a cream pie. Happiness was flowing in them like a cloudless spring day, the kind of day when you didn't notice the weather at all.
The only one who remained steady was Commander Zhou. Lack of conviction and misgivings churned in his mind as he said, ‘ Commanders, in order to steer clear any dereliction of duty, I guess it will be better for us to send one squad of army into the pass for a thorough reconnaissance before the whole troop set out to take occupation of the fort.’
‘ Commander Zhou, what makes you a scaredy-cat today? Where are your daredevil and brave old self? Do you figure out the Crimson Dragon Army would have the audacity to lay a trap for us? Given to the minor number of their soldiers, we could save ourselves from getting overwrought.’
‘ Yeah, that's right! That's right! Commander Zhou, could it be the bringing down to their knees in the battle of the Rough Slope make you act like an apprehensive wife? Hah-hah!’
The two Commanders took the chance to tease Commander Zhou in a split of a second.
‘ All is fair in war. It will not be extremely vigilant for us.’ Commander Zhou affirmed in a resolute look. He became exceedingly on his guard since he was shot down in the trap of the enemy last time in the clamor of the Rough Slope.
He did not prefer to fall into the same old trap once again.
The two Commanders of the Timber Deity Empire looked at each other as they watched the insistence of Commander Zhou. They likewise considered it would be better to be more observant in the prevailing situation even though they did not reveal it on their face.
‘ Commander Zhou, you can lead your soldiers to get through the fort if you insist. We will stand by guarding here outside the gate with the remaining soldiers for any emergency aid.’ The two Commanders did not choose to torment themselves in such drudgery. So they ducked shove the work to Commander Zhou since it was his idea in the first place.
Commander Zhou did not say anything as he ran back immediately to the opening of the wall. He led his three thousand soldiers and the two squads of the spirit manipulators into the Wild Heaven Pass and dispersed themselves to scour and inspect with exceptional meticulousness.
Soon, Commander Zhou found that there were piles of log fires on the ground everywhere in the entire fort. The flames of the fires were about three feet high. They seemed to be displayed according to a certain pattern which inspired his alertness. So he began to move and look around for a well-rounded observation.
It didn't take long before he found that the log fires were neatly displayed, as if they were designed and left here deliberately by someone. Currently, the three thousand soldiers led by Commander Zhou had already went through the piles of log fires.
At that moment, they heard a triumphant laugh on the wall of the closed south gate, ‘ Hah-hah! You are trapped. Release the arrows!’
Hundreds of arrows dropped from the sky as the voice finished its order. Falling arrows were like pouring rain which killed many soldiers on spot. Another round of the arrows were released right after the first round.
‘ soldiers, go after them!’ The voice on the fort wall of the south gate gave another order. Subsequently, a snap ruckus let out from both right and left side of the fort suddenly which echoed like the advancing of a mighty troop.
There was a mix of miscellaneous cries that rang out through the entire Wild Heaven Pass. Since it was getting dark, it was difficult to observe the situation. On top of that, the daunting cries panicked the three thousand soldiers of the Timber Deity Empire who were now scattered around in the fort. They believed they had been falling into an ambush.
‘ Ambush is here! Fall in! Fall back, now!’ Commander Zhou ordered as his face turned pale. He could not tell if the ambush was real under the circumstance but to summon the panicking soldiers for an assembly to avoid a further deterioration.
While the first reaction of the two Commanders outside the fort was to retreat themselves from the gate as they heard the news of an ambush. So Commander Zhou and his three thousand soldiers were severed from any secure of reinforcement.
‘ Seal the fort gate on the north!’  Another order rang through the air from a calm voice like the sleep of a soul that was best at that moment.
In a split of seconds, two figures of beasts sprang up from thin air. They put on some momentum towards the north gate of the fort. They were none other than Ananta and Rubygon that were holding their horses there beforehand. They were also part of the program of this ambush.
Ananta ran off its feet to the north gate of the fort with lightning speed as its crimson scales stood up like a plethora of flames. They looked like a pair of fire wings as the speed blurred its movements. Ananta continued to burn up the road along the wall of the north gate as it blew up fireballs to the ground. Wherever it passed, it was set ablaze. The sheet of fire thus blocked the north entrance.
Meanwhile, Rubygon had shown up to the opening of the north wall in order to stop the soldiers who were making a quick exit. Those who took it on themselves to beat an expeditious withdrawal from the opening of the wall did not survive the claws of Rubygon.
The ordinary soldiers were not as compelling as the spirit manipulators, so they fell in all hell broke loose and disappeared in all directions in the fort in front of an incursion from such a beast.
‘ Everybody, assemble here. Fall in!’  Commander Zhou drew out his sword as he shouted in a reverberating voice. Many generals were first to comport themselves as they gathered quickly towards the direction of Commander Zhou.
At that moment, the log fire in the pass cast a figure which descended in a dignified manner from the south fort wall. It showed that the figure was gliding through the air that she looked well turned out and dignified as the wind blew through the robe.
The figure put on her best leg went like lightning towards the center of the pass after her landing.
Commander Zhou felt that the figure looked a little familiar as he also noticed she descended from the south fort wall.
As the night fell, at the moment, a figure flew down with freaky light around her. On landing, she, in a dash, went like a bat out of hell into inside the center of the barricade.
Meanwhile, Commander Zhou involuntarily glanced at the figure that appeared in a split of seconds and progressed towards him constantly. The nearer the figure was, the further it was like the woman Commander Zhou had bumped into ever. When the figure was close to him, he recognized the face which shimmered in the glow of the fire.
He was astounded and announced, ‘It's her?! It's her! Fancy meeting her here again!’ His eyes were brimmed with perturbation and terror-stricken, just like watching the god of plague.
The figure made Commander Zhou so chilled to the bone was none other than Ana!
‘ Stop her!’  Commander Zhou didn't have the slightest notion what Ana would accomplish this time. But since he had lost to Ana in the clamor of Rough Slope, he constantly guarded up at once.
He issued orders to spirit manipulators of Timber Deity Empire and hundreds of soldiers, gawking at Ana hard-heartedly like an eagle. Yes, Commander Zhou was more than hanging with bated breath to catch Ana to exact vengeance for the disgrace before.
Ana was so detestable in his mind! For a moment, on being instructed, spirit manipulators of the Timber Deity Empire took their spirit-manipulated beasts to surround Ana with hundreds of soldiers behind them.
Ana halted right away, grabbing a glance at numerous spirit manipulators of Timber Deity Empire in front of her . These spirit manipulators of the Timber Deity Empire demeaned positively dangerous. The most treacherous of them was of the fifth grade of the Earthly Stage, and the worst one had reached the Earthly Stage, too.
Spirit manipulators of Timber Deity Empire took a glance at Ana first, and then full of scornfulness set their eyes on their faces.
Ana, in their eyes, was extremely fragile to make them easily disconcerted, let alone that Ana was solely and circumvented them. This was committing suicide!
‘ Hey pal, get down on your knees before us and appeal to us, you may be capable to remain alive.’
Meanwhile, a spirit manipulator in red who was of the fourth grade of the Earthly Stage raised his voice at Ana in a hoity-toity manner.
‘ Crimson Dragon Army sets an assault for us; the girl must be the cannon fodder.’
‘ I can merely use my single finger to deal with the inept individual.’ The spirit manipulators felt repugnant towards Ana exactly.
‘ What a load of claptrap. Assemble together!’ Listening to spirit manipulators of Timber Deity Empire across from her, Ana picked her ears at the moment and announced. She contorted her fingers to them provocatively.
‘ How dare you, the girl is so ill-conceived! Let me execute you within one-trick!’
Thus one of the spirit manipulators of Timber Deity Empire, who was of the second grade of the Earthly Stage, showed the impression of being desired to acquire all the glory, put on some speed to Ana without a word.
‘ Mercy Palm Attack!’ The spirit manipulator jumped to the sky, sucker-punching Ana in the air with his hands condensing spiritual power.
Lots of handprints in a dash showed up and accumulated in the sky, shooting at Ana.
Boom... In a split of seconds, the place where Ana stood was gulped by the spiritual light, filling with on the spur sound of spiritual power and smoke. The spirit manipulator hit Ana at least nine times, landing and panting. Apparently, in order to manifest his strength just now, he consumed too much spiritual power. He was too incompetent to stick to his guns attacking now.
Nevertheless, he still looked puffed up and said, ‘ Humph, the girl is ham-fisted indeed. She cannot even cling to life from my Mercy Palm Attack. Certainly, my Mercy Palm Attack is my family heirloom that is not exported...’
As these words were articulated, some residual smoke hung in the air, shifting like ghosts in the breeze. An arrow with Evil Flame from the smoke that yet not dispersed ejected. Just then, the arrow passed through the egotistical spirit manipulator.
‘ Pop!’
After the arrow had skimmed through the spirit manipulator, he thundered like a smashed watermelon. His eyes, gut, all his organs, and bloody fillet were falling from the sky that just like red rain. The incoherent body shattered on the ground, some even splashing soldiers around, caused most of the veteran soldiers vomit when viewing the appalling spectacle. The vomit came up looking like clam chowder and smelling like acidic Cheetos.
Even if other individuals didn't puke at once, they were filled with wonder. Because the transform was too haste like lightning. How could Ana, who was stamped out progressively by the spirit manipulator of Timber Deity Empire before executed the latter at a time?
At the moment, smoke dissipated. Ana stood across from them unscathed with a devilish smirk. She grinned viciously, but it refused to reach her bloodshot eyes. She scrambled to those spirit manipulators of the Timber Deity Empire so speedily that nobody had time to counter.
Ana opened her eyes at the juncture, spreading out all the momentum. Then her body was saturated with steady Evil Flame with gleaming Frozen Wind Dagger in her hand.
Ana poured Evil Flame into Frozen Wind Dagger. Frozen Wind Dagger now formed a one-meter Flaming Blade itself with a slight arc, which made it more fiendish. It caused people to have a feeling of undetectable to the touch chill that made people couldn't square up to it. It was just like the weapon that belonged to the devil. On emerging, it made opponents have butterflies in their stomachs. Maybe it was innate deterrence the weapon took.
Upon getting a glimpse that Ana was drawing close to them, spirit manipulators of the Timber Deity Empire were petrified of their own shadow. They found that Ana was not as cack-handed as they thought of actually, because they had never seen Spiritual Weapons ever.
After all, Spiritual Weapons were extremely scarce as hen 's teeth to be incurred by everyone. Generally speaking, only spirit manipulators who were above the Supernal Stage would have their own Spiritual Weapons. Therefore, when they got a check out of Frozen Wind Dagger, which had altered, they were shaking in their shoes like a leaf by the Spiritual Weapon naturally.
Of course, even Commander Zhou was rudely awakened when he saw Frozen Wind Dagger. In his assessment, Ana's effectiveness was beneath the Heavenly Stage. Thus, when Ana showed Frozen Wind Dagger, it certainly caught Commander Zhou on the wrong foot. While Ana was now holding Frozen Wind Dagger, she was full of momentum, just like that she was on fire. It gave opponents a perceiving that she was overpowering.
All of the soldiers and spirit manipulators of the Timber Deity Empire who demanded to surround Ana were made their blood run cold. They were at a loss of words by the impalpable deterrence!
‘ What are you fellows doing? Execute her!’ Commander Zhou now was completely informed that if he didn't execute anay today, Ana must be treacherous later. Ana was now alone. It's the finest opportunity to wipe her out.
Even if Commander Zhou and his soldiers fell into an ambush of Crimson Dragon Army or were wiped out all, Ana must be the most essential thing they should do now.
Other spirit manipulators looked at each other and went hell for leather in high dudgeon, attacking Ana together.
‘ The fellow who dissuades me must be executed!’ Ana took a check out of several spirit manipulators going like a bat out of hell to her together, roaring like a lion and looking at them coldly.
She raced through the two-spirit manipulators who were at low grades so quickly as the ghost. Her spiritual power of the Heavenly Stage was released at that moment. Meanwhile, her Spiritual Weapon Frozen Wind Dagger hit the two-spirit manipulators shining like the bloodthirsty black light.
Pop! Pop!
After a while, the two-spirit manipulators started bleeding in their chests, and the wound was bigger and bigger as time passed by. Both of them were deflected off like cannonballs and were incapable to stand up again. They were injured pretty severely.
‘ The Heavenly Stage? She is the spirit manipulator of the Heavenly Stage, too! It's harebrained!’ Commander Zhou was now seeing Ana release all the spiritual power, which was at the Heavenly Stage. It never crossed his mind, that Ana had been concealing her muscular strength all the time.
Because of Ana's horrendous Spiritual Weapon, she may be secure and sound when bombarded by even several spirit manipulators at the Earthly Stage. The surviving four or five spirit manipulators were half-hearted, and felt pangs of conscience when seeing Ana executed their three companies as easy as falling off a log.
Two of the remaining spirit manipulators who were of the fourth or fifth grade of the Earthly Stage in a twinkle of an eye stood each side of Ana tacitly, contemplating to attack Ana on both sides.
Their spirit-manipulated beasts at the moment went hell for leather to Ana together implicitly, too. It was sticking out a mile that they wanted to use the many to defeat the few.
On laying her eyes on this, Ana, as plain as a pikestaff, was apprehensive of adversaries' attempts. But she could easily like a piece of cake kill them with her strength now.
Ana, in a split of seconds, sprung to the left side of her body to strike the spirit manipulator of the fifth grade of the Earthly Stage. She had the very objective to execute them one by one.
‘ Shadowless Kick!’ The spirit manipulator of the fifth grade of the Earthly Stage found that Ana plotted to strike him, sculpturing his proudest spiritual martial arts without having qualms about it. He jumped up into the sky with his legs swing crisscross. His spiritual power formed the hovering shadow of a wolf, clambering to Ana ferociously.
The spirit manipulator's Shadowless Kick may be effective to other spirit manipulators who were at the same level or above slightly. However, Ana had reached the Heavenly Stage now. The Kick was too feeble to wield influence on Ana, who was above his level so much.
Ana slightly brandished Frozen Wind Dagger, ripping the shadow of the wolf into half. When the shadow of the wolf vanished into thin air, Ana scratched the spirit manipulator who was of the fifth grade of the Earthly Stage with Evil Flame.
Another spirit manipulator caught the chance while Ana was besieging. He was condensing spiritual power bimanually, pointing rapidly at Ana with a glimmer of spiritual power light that flew to her precisely.
The two spirit-manipulated beasts, both at the second grade of the three-star level, hurled towards Ana viciously and opened their mouths, projecting sharp teeth.
Ana, however, remained impassive as the smoothest waters and stouthearted facing their approaching storms. She shuffled them in a flash and charged towards the spirit manipulator from the Timber Deity Empire, who was at the fifth grade of the Earthly Stage.
In a split of second, Ana had showed up in front of the spirit manipulator. Ana's left hand, with the Evil Flame around, grasped the spirit manipulator's shoulder.
At this very juncture, the Dragon Spirit Mark on Ana's left arm began glinting brightly. While, the spirit manipulator felt faint and dizzy as her spiritual power was rapidly clearing out. However, formidable power was bursting out from the Frozen Wind Dagger in Ana's hand, and the Evil Flame around her arm grew stronger and more vigorous.
‘ Dagger Dome! ’ Ana uttered the two words when she brandished her Frozen Wind Dagger.
The Evil Flame around her arm shot out and began interweaving around her. Layers of flames were moving fleetly, spurring up clouds of sand. They surged and whirled in a fiery dance, like gleeful fire fiends in the hot swirling air. In a matter of seconds, the Evil Flame formed a burning defensive dome around Ana.
‘ Bang! Bang! Bang!’
The spiritual power attacks charging towards Ana were swallowed as promptly as they hit against the defensive dome.
As for the two spirit-manipulated beasts, they had been injured by the Evil Flame around the dome even before they could come into contact with Ana. Fire was still blazing on the parts of their bodies where they contacted the Evil Flame. They howled painfully and rolled over the ground to try to put out the fire. As much as they tried to hold it in, the pain came out like an uproar from their throat in the form of groans.
The Dagger Dome was a spiritual martial arts skill Ana created in the Myriad Beasts Ground, which was an unexpected inspiration. That expertise was to use the Frozen Wind Dagger to form a shielding dome when the user was enveloped by several opponents in a contest. The Dagger Dome could be defensive and also offensive.
The Evil Flame around the dome could repel the opponents or their spirit-manipulated beasts. After getting hit by the Evil Flame, the victims couldn't get rid of the flames in a dash. Instead, the Evil Flame would keep on burning on their bodies for a while before it faded away. Only by stronger spiritual power could the victims eliminate the Evil Flame over them. The power inside the Evil Flame was sabre-rattling and unbridled enough to cause serious damages to the victims, especially spirit-manipulated beasts.
Just then, Ana triggered off the Holy Dragon Bead's power to absorb the spirit manipulator's spiritual power, and then she channeled it into the Frozen Wind Dagger.
In other words, she brought into service her opponent's spiritual power to launch attacks at the other side. While, her own spiritual power was still saved, preparing a big surprise for the Timber Deity Army.
Now that Ana had dealt with the spirit manipulator and the two spirit-manipulated beasts, she didn't consume time with them anymore. She instantly threw away the spirit manipulator and again flew forth with powerful momentum.
The spirit manipulator couldn't even have a sensation of his legs while being tossed away. He abruptly knelt down on the ground and puffed and panted for air. Scared out of his wits, he sounded to have just woken up from a nightmare. His heart was beating like a wild animal trying to escape his chest, as he peeked back on the scene he fought against Ana.
As for the other spirit manipulators present, none of them plucked up the courage to catch up with Ana to continue the combat. They just watched how Ana triumphed over the toughest one among them, who was at the fifth grade of the Earthly Stage. If they restarted the battle against Ana, they would beyond doubt meet their death instantly. Because of that, they did nothing but just peek at Ana flying away in front of them.
After all, none of them could allow the repercussion of getting on her nerves. Now that even the spirit manipulators didn't have the audacity to do anything to Ana, the soldiers of the Timber Deity Empire already began shaking like a leaf and stepped back to let Ana leave away.
They all lowered their heads in case that they would have an eye contact with Ana. What if Ana just executed the one who greeted her eyes?
None of them wanted to take such a compromise and expose themselves to jeopardy.
Seeing Ana break out of the barricade that easily like a piece of cake, Commander Zhou turned grim-faced and clenched his fists. He inched to catch up and lock antlers with Ana by himself, but the current situation didn't grant him the chance to do so. If he went out to attack Ana, then there would be nobody to lead the army forces to retreat from the Wild Heaven Pass.
Although he had his heart so much on killing Ana to take retribution for himself and give vent to the humiliation he suffered in the Rough Slope, he had to pay attention to the predominant matter and worked hard to keep a rein on his rage.
On the other hand, the two sides of the Wild Heaven Pass became ear-piercing and rowdier. Meanwhile, a figure flashed as approaching the Wild Heaven Pass. Now that all the soldiers by that time huddled closely, Commander Zhou in a dash led them to withdraw by the north gap, leaving no mulling over to what Ana planned to do. But because Rubygon was safeguarding on the north gap, their retreating process was going on exceedingly slowly. They had to keep it at bay first, so Commander Zhou sent three spirit manipulators and their spirit-manipulated beasts to fight Rubygon.
Rubygon was very cunning as a fox. As peering them charge towards it, it jumped up and landed in the middle of the soldiers. It began playing tricks on them, which made the ordered army in a three-ring circus.
At the same time, Ana had rushed into the Wild Heaven Pass. A hair-rising smile crept over the corner of her lips. The later second, a beast shadow appeared beside her. Fierce flames covered all over the beast's body. It was no other than Ananta.
‘ It's our time to be distinguished, Ananta!’ Ana said to Ananta as she stimulated all of her spiritual power.
In a split second, the Evil Flame spurted out from her body, as if violent magma burst out from a volcano. Meanwhile, the flames around Ananta grew stronger and brighter. Ananta then formed into a fire ball as flying towards Ana. Gradually, both of them were coalescing with each other.
‘ Spirit Possession!’ Ana  widened her eyes in a dash.
In a split second, the Evil Flame around her began spinning, and the formidable momentum stirred up clouds of sand on the ground.
As the Evil Flame emitted a dazzling glare, a shell of crimson scales covered Ana's body, and the furious Evil Flame enveloped her arms. With a snap of her fingertip, the Dragon Flame Pearl flew out of her sleeve and landed on her palm. Then the Dragon Spirit Mark on her arm began glinting and wriggling, as if it became alive.
Streams of spiritual power were conveyed into the Dragon Flame Pearl, which illumined the dim pearl. Soon the Dragon Flame Pearl commenced shining with bright light. Then the Dragon Flame Pearl in a flash rose up. Several dragon-shaped marks were born inside when the pearl was spiraling in the air, and became bigger. Flickering, looping under the spell it was sparked into.
At the same time, the flames scattering around the entire Wild Heaven Pass broke out suddenly because of unknown influence. They were merely one meter high at first, but now their height was doubled. What transpired later was terror striking further.
After the outburst, the flames formed into flows charging towards the Dragon Flame Pearl. The fire flows were interweaving and spinning around the pearl, creating a burning tornado. The fire played amid the kindling like a child with a new toy, its flames leaping in excitement.
Ana stood at the center of the fire tornado, dozens of meters high, and saw it expanding and covering around. The radius of the round coverage even reached hundreds of meters. Everyone would be taken aback by such a striking picture.
When Commander Zhou and the army he led saw the fire tornado, they ultimately took heed of what a precarious situation they were in. They almost jumped out their skin as observing that scene.
At the same time, Marcia, Dunn and the five hundred soldiers, who had been prowling on the two sides of the Wild Heaven Pass, also got a glimpse of the fire tornado. And they were at a loss of words as well. As for Sara who defended on the south gate, her jaw almost fell to the ground.
The two commanders of the Timber Deity Empire and thousands of soldiers, who were intercepted outside by the fire sea, also witnessed the fire tornado through the open city gate. All of them were frightened to death by that picture.
‘ Back off!’ Commander Zhou in a twinkle of an eye recognized something as seeing the terror striking scene, and in an instant shrieked out in consternation.
On the other hand, the Dragon Flame Pearl commenced moving, wrapped around the fire tornado. It headed for the north gap with sweeping momentum, and led the fire tornado to the same direction. Observing the approaching fire tornado, the soldiers and spirit manipulators of the Timber Deity Empire shrieked in jitteriness and scampered to the gap in chaos.
Now the congested gap slowed down their retreating speed further. In order to extricate their own lives, the soldiers in the end of lines commenced running to the south gate. They made a getaway inside the Wild Heaven Pass but many of they were encompassed by the fire tornado.
Under the stellar sky, barbarism swept over the entire Wild Heaven Pass. Now it had turned into a memorable purgatory, where agonizing screams, gut-wrenching whines, and shrieks for help echoed the air. There was tightening of their throat and a short intake of breath forecasting the explosion of emotion.
The fire tornado didn't last for a lengthy time. However, most of the soldiers Commander Zhou led gathered closely on one spot.
As a result, the fire tornado caused an enormous loss to his army. More than a thousand soldiers perished, and there were fewer than two thousand members left now. One more layer of dead bodies covered the ground of the north gate where numerous corpses already gathered around.
The coverage of those corpses even stretched inside the Wild Heaven Pass. The lifeless bodies, which sprawled along the trace of the fire tornado, had all been scorched black and were smoking. They still remained the last position that they posed before death.
Everything went on so quick like lightning to them that none of them were even capable to grapple. That was the formidable and aggressive power of the fire tornado. When the fire tornado finally ebbed away,
Commander Zhou already led the left soldiers to back off from the Wild Heaven Pass and found the Timber Deity Army outside. Although they had been out of danger, they nevertheless had glimpses that portrayed terror-stricken as puffing and panting for air. The tragedy they just experienced was still striking in their heads.
‘ Commander Zhou, what happened inside?’  The two commanders of the Timber Deity Empire had been curious about the situation inside. Now that Commander Zhou eventually got out, they could not help but want to know the answer from him.
They already knew that he just suffered an ambush, but they pretended they knew nothing at all. Because the fire sea blocked their way into the pass, they didn't come to his aid and his army right away.
Thus, they put on a false front, perceiving nothing to evade that ill at ease.
‘ We got a surprise attack! It sounded that their reinforcements already showed up. The Crimson Dragon Army pretended to have withdrawn to pull a fast one on us. We fell in their trap and got hemmed in by them. By good luck, we merely lost some of our soldiers. It's unquestionably a close call.’ Commander Zhou was still gasping for air with a pale face. Jitteriness still tormented him as he remembered the spine chilling sense.
‘ Where is the fire tornado from? That's really dreadful!’ asked one of the two commanders, with a shocked look. His brain was stuttering for a moment. Every part of him went on hiatus while his thoughts catch up.
‘ I don't perceive about that! But I'm beyond doubt it must relate to that girl!’ Commander Zhou knitted brows deeply. The girl he gave reference to, of course, was Ana.
‘ What girl?’ The two commanders were both caused to be at a stand by Commander Zhou.
‘ Let's converse about that later. We should go back to our place first. Now that their reinforcements come, it's harder for us to take down the Wild Heaven Pass.’ Commander Zhou shook head weakly.
‘ Hold on! We didn't see any of their reinforcements just then. Maybe this is their trick!’
‘ That's highly possible. Apart from the fire tornado, we saw nothing extraordinary!’ The two commanders could not help but begin suspecting.
‘ Be my guest! You two can investigate the situation inside if you want. I will never set my foot to hell again!’ Commander Zhou shot a frosty stare at them before he drove his army to go back to their place.
The two commanders peered at each other with fretfulness expressions. Neither of them preferred to take the risk that the Crimson Dragon Army's reinforcements might indeed show up. If that were the situation, entering the pass only meant to commit suicide. Of course, they were not that slow-witted. Casting a glimmer at the Wild Heaven Pass in front of them, they were hardly resigned to leave away like this.
The fierce fire sea in the city gate barred their way into the pass. It was so close, but they could not occupy this place. Both of the commanders deeply sighed before they withdrew.
Silence now filled inside the Wild Heaven Pass. It lingered in the air, thick and heavy, like a blanket. Everything on the ground where the fire tornado went past was all burned into ashes, except a figure and a spirit-manipulated beast standing together in the center of the pass.
Both of them looked a little exhausted. As seeing the Timber Deity Army had backed down, the figure finally exhaled a gasp of relief. Her lips curved upwards slightly as she glimpsed at the Dragon Flame Pearl, which had gone back to her hand.
‘ The Dragon Flame Pearl is magnificent! I can't believe that I can exert such power of this even though it's my first time to use it!’ Ana marveled. Actually, it was not long ago that Ana found out that the Dragon Flame Pearl not only possessed formidable firepower but also could manipulate fire by itself.
When she hunted in the Myriad Beasts Ground, Ana took out the Dragon Flame Pearl and began studying it. She tried to convey a little of her spiritual power into the pearl, and then out of her expectation; the Dragon Flame Pearl engaged the bonfire to itself. That was how she found out the hint and started a series of tests on the pearl.
In the outcome, she knew about another function of the Dragon Flame Pearl, fire manipulating. And the usage was extremely simple. So long as more spiritual power was routed into the Dragon Flame Pearl, the pearl's fire manipulating would become more powerful.
In order to establish the dreadful fire tornado, Ana almost consumed up all of her Fire spiritual power and part of the Holy Dragon Bead's evil spiritual power.
If Commander Zhou didn't withdraw till now, Ana would have no way to fight against him and his army at all.
At this very juncture, Marcia and Dunn led the soldiers to come back as glancing their enemy had backed off.
‘ Ana, what just happened?’ As soon as seeing Ana, Marcia could not help but speak out her confusion. She was also curious as a cat about where the fire tornado was from. And she was beyond suspicion that the fire tornado was Ana's work and must regard those fires Ana asked her to set up.
Dunn, meanwhile, gawked at Ana with a perplexed expression.
‘ Nothing!’ Ana cast a frigid glance at Marcia. How was it possible that she would tell them the truth? It was one of her secrets that she possessed the Dragon Flame Pearl.
She then turned to say to Dunn, ‘Commander Dunn, can you please close the city gate first?’
Dunn nodded at her before he put on some speed to the north gate.
At the same time, Sara, who defended at the south gate, rode on the Silver Wind to come back her Wild Heaven Pass since she got a glimmer of the enemy had withdrawn, and the turbulence inside had withered away. When she peered down from the air, she discovered numerous black corpses were sprawling around the gap of the north wall.
The widespread havoc created by the fire tornado sent a chill down her spine. Upon her return, Sara was greeted with Ana, Marcia, and the hundreds of soldiers standing at the center of the pass. She then ordered Silver Wind to land on the ground.
As she hopped down, her elegant posture lightened the glowing admiration in those soldiers' eyes. Something emanated from within that rendered her fascinating to them.
‘ How about the adversary? ’ Sara wended her way in front of Ana and Marcia and glimmered at the north gate being closed by Dunn.
‘ They have withdrawn,’ Ana responded as she held her arms across her chest.
Hearing Ana, Sara sighed out of relief. She could not help but marvel at Ana's intelligence in mind. She merely led hundreds of soldiers to repel the Timber Deity Army again.
‘ It's not the time to have a relax! Their retreat is just momentary. They will doubtless send soldiers to check out our situation. Deputy Commander in Chief, I require you to assign the two thousand soldiers from the valley to here. Be swift! We are going to put on a play for the Timber Deity Empire, ’ Ana uttered as raising her eyebrow.
‘ Put on a play? What play?’ Sara wore a bewildered look.
‘ Don't get yourself worked up with that, Sara! She must be the main actress in the play,’ Marcia sneered.
‘ Nope! You two are the heroines in the play’ A calculating smirk crept over the corner of  Ana's lips.
Sara and Marcia were dumbfounded by what Ana said. Fixating their eyes on her, the cousins asked for confirmation in one voice, ‘ The two of us?’
‘ Yeah, the two of you.’ Ana nodded.
‘ Deputy Commander in Chief and Commander Marin, it is a known fact that both of you come from noble families. Also, everybody knows that you're good at fighting in a battle with weapons and tactics. But, I assume you also know something about art. For example, you know how to play musical instruments, play  chess, sing and even maybe dance. Am I right?’ Ana asked Sara and Marcia while looking at them in turns with her squinting eyes.
‘ Oh my God, Ana! Are you looking down upon my cousin? She is a pro at all of these things that you mentioned, so how dare you question it? She is a master in dancing, in particular. In the whole Holy Dragon Empire, nobody can outstrip her in dancing the Rainbow Skirt Under The Moon. She even danced for His Majesty of the Holy Dragon Empire once, and he praised her...’ Marcia blurted out.
‘ Cousin Marin!’ Sara shouted as she was annoyed and embarrassed by Marcia's speech. She had known Ana for enough time to know that she never asked a casual question. That was why she had a bad feeling that maybe she would make her do something against her will.
‘ Oh, is that true?! That's great! So  think you also know how to play musical instruments, such as heptachord, don't you?’ Ana went on asking Marcia after she seemed pleased with what she had just known about Sara's diverse skills.
‘ I know a little about playing the heptachord. Cousin Sara taught me previously,’ Marcia answered in a modest tone. In fact, she was quite good at playing the heptachord.
‘ All right, then! Good news! You're qualified to act in the play!’ Ana said confidently.
‘ Ana, do you want to make fun of us? Is this your plan? I mean, is there any other reason for you to insist on making the two of us act in your play? Why don't you act by yourself?’ Sara asked suspiciously. She believed that she must be kidding with them on purpose.
‘ I don't know how to play any musical instrument or even dance. The play must cast two females who are good at dancing and playing musical instruments,’ Ana explained calmly and patiently.
‘ Ana, what the hell do you mean?’ Ana tried to explain to them, but the more she spoke, the more confused Sara and Marcia felt. They had no idea what kind of play Ana was asking them to act in.
‘ We're going to apply the empty fort strategy in order to convince the Timber Deity Empire that our reinforcement troops have already arrived. If the strategy works, the troops of the Timber Deity Empire would surely retreat,’ Ana answered seriously.
‘ Empty fort strategy? What is that exactly?’ Both Sara and Marcia seemed to be even more confused. Certainly, they had never heard of such kind of strategy, because the empty fort strategy only existed in the world where Ana came from. It was one of well-known brilliant schemes that had passed down from the ancient times. In her world, almost everybody knew about the strategy.
‘ I will fill you in on the details later. First of all, Deputy Commander in Chief, please dispatch the troops right now urgently. We have to make everything ready before the enemy discovers there is actually no reinforcement troops inside the pass,’ Ana urged.
Sara seemed hesitant and doubtful before she took Silver Wind to the valley.
‘ Commander Marin, please take five hundred troops to cook inside the pass as soon as possible, and make sure that all the pots are used. Also, have some people hunt some wild animals’ Ana said to Marcia as soon as Sara left. She immediately carried out the order.
‘ By the way, where is Rubygon?’ Ana mumbled. Soon, she found that Rubygon was listlessly lying on the ground in a straw shed not far away with visible wounds all over its body. Ana ran to Rubygon together with Ananta.
She checked on its wounds and found that there was nothing severe. Ana gave it two drops of the magical saliva, and then ordered Ananta to help heal Rubygon's wounds. About an hour later, Rubygon partly recovered, and it started bouncing again.
‘ Thank you!’ Ana patted Rubygon on its head. Ana took two drops of the magical saliva. Sitting cross-legged, she began practicing her internal force.
About four hours later, Ana opened her eyes when she heard some noise from the south gate. She saw Sara leading two thousand troops. They were walking into the pass in succession through the south gate.
Inside the pass, many soldiers had already lit the fire to cook and put many pots on the fire. The smoke was curling upwards.
‘ It's almost time,’ Ana mumbled to herself, and walked towards Sara. By now, Sara had already jumped off Silver Wind's back. When she saw that Ana was walking to her, her eyes turned cold. It was not until Ana arrived at her side that she asked, ‘ Is it time to tell me what play you want us to act in, or do you still think we are puppets?’
‘ It's very simple. What you need to do is to dance and play the heptachord together with Commander Marin on the defensive wall of the north gate a while later,’ Ana answered concisely.
‘ Wait, wait! Are you saying that you want us to dance on the wall?’ Sara was immediately pissed off.
After all, she was the Deputy Commander in Chief of the Crimson Dragon Group, so how could Ana ever think about making her dance on the defensive wall? It was obviously not the right occasion.
‘ Is there anything wrong?’ Ana asked her.
‘ Yeah, you bet there is. If you don't give me a reasonable explanation, I will order them to tie you up and throw you outside right away, and then you will be picked up and taken back by the troops of the Timber Deity Empire. They will torture you so cruelly that you will wish you could die,’ Sara exclaimed in a determined tone. She looked ferocious because she believed that Ana was just making fun of her.
‘ Madam, imagine you're a member of the Timber Deity Empire and that you see your enemy playing the heptachord and dancing and enjoying a feast on the defensive wall. What will this make you think?’ Ana asked impatiently. She had no choice but to try to guide Sara to think from another perspective.
‘ Well...’ Sara hesitated for a second. Then, she began thinking seriously for a while. After that, she hesitantly answered, ‘ I will either think that my enemy doesn't fear me at all, or that it's a trap...’
‘ So, this is a reasonable explanation that satisfies you?’ Ana asked with a big smile on her face.
It was not until now that Sara realized she had been set up by Ana. What she said right now was like a slap on her face because the explanation turned out to be very simple. To make it worse, she had required Ana to explain to her. Known as an outstanding tactician in the Crimson Dragon Group, she was overwhelmed with shame.
‘ The performance of you and Commander Marin will directly determine the effectiveness of the scheme. In other words, the fate of Wild Heaven Pass is in your hands,’ Ana said in a somewhat serious tone. By now, she had done a lot in preparation for the empty fort strategy, yet the result solely depended on the acting capability of Sara and Marcia.
They not only had to act as if it were real, but they also had to convince their enemies. Sara fell silent after hearing what Ana said. Some moments later, she suddenly raised her head and asked her seriously, ‘ I have a question that you should truthfully answer.’
‘ Sure, go on,’ Ana said with a smile at the corners of her mouth because she thought that she knew what Sara was going to ask her. ‘ She will ask me why I was willing to carry out Lance's order by coming here to help, ’ she thought.
‘ Why on earth did you come to Wild Heaven Pass?’ Sara' s question took Ana by surprise.
‘ Why, you ask!’ Ana burst into laughter as she wondered how Sara would feel if she told her that it was because she wanted to rescue her and Marcia from danger when she was told about that.
‘ Does that matter?’ Ana asked as peeking at Sara.
‘ Of course it matters. You are not a compliant woman who will follow an order and come here to save us from danger. You must have offered some requirement, like what you did last time in the Rough Slope. Am I right? What did my father promise you? What do you propose for?’ Sara was as smart as a fox that she already got the right point. After all, she had lessons gathered from previous experience. She could tell Ana must have her motive of offering help this time.
‘ Wow, you are excellent! The Commander in Chief did promise me some benefit. That's why I'm here.’ Ana directly told Sara the fact of the matter. After all, she would be conscious that sooner or later.
‘ What can you gain from my father?’
‘ Nothing special! An intermediate Dark Heaven Egg and a yellow spiritual crystal. Besides, I will get a top Dark Heaven Egg if I can repel the Timber Deity Army and save the Wild Heaven Pass out of danger or I can help you hold on till the reinforcements come. These are really too many, but I can't refuse the Commander in Chief after all.’ Ana put a false front that she had no alternative but agree to receive those gifts.
Sara shot a cold glare at her and remained silent. She could tell that it must be Ana who asked her father for the exorbitant rewards at first. As she expected, Ana would never offer any assistance without benefit. And now Ana's answer confirmed her conjecture.
‘ Come on! Why are you gawking at me that way? I have given up my precious time to scramble here from far away. What a colossal loss I would encounter if I gained nothing at all! Deputy Commander in Chief, could you show a little sympathy? Don't forget that I'm only an insignificant captain. I take high peril to save you guys from danger. If any accident happened to me along the way, how could I afford the grave consequences?’ Ana made an aggravating speech with a motive.
Anger was boiling in her chest as Sara was giving an ear to Ana, fires of fury and hatred were smoldering in the small narrowed eyes. But she had to agree with what Ana said. She was a mere captain and what she did now was out of her duty. It was also risky for her to come to this dangerous battlefield. Thus, it was comprehensible for her that Ana asked for those rewards from her father. But the boiling anger in her chest didn't quiet down at all, because she hated Ana's character that only concerned with her interests. She despised such a person the most.
‘ Oh, I almost forget that. Now that you and Commander Marin will change your clothes later, I suggest that you'd better choose those revealing outfits. The sexier, the better. Then the Timber Deity Army would definitely be convinced that our reinforcements have already arrived, and think that we call the girls from a brothel to have a wild time because of that. When they see us playing around and enjoying the party time, they would be persuaded that our army forces already are superior to them. It's also possible that they might be suspicious of that and even see through our trap. But whatever they think, they will never attack us without careful consideration. Even when they fought us, they couldn't pay full attention as being with eyes like a hawk for our unknown reinforcements. So long as they become suspicious, they will fail to be concentrated. That's the key of our plan. They will get cold feet at anything we do and have nothing to do us. Under such a circumstance, they will not hold on for a long. They will leave sooner or later.’ A snaky smile crept over the corner of Ana's lips, as if everything of the Timber Deity Army was already under her control.
‘ Forget that! If you want, you can wear that kind of clothes. Marin and I will on no occasion put on such garments! That's just a show! We just pretend to be that kind of girls! Remember that!’ Sara glowered at Ana.
‘ Whatever! It's just my piece of advice. Now I am the leader of the two thousand soldiers. You and Commander Marin can have the preparation. The show will begin in no time!’ Ana shrugged with a faint smile. She just made a joke with her about the 'revealing outfits' part.
Once Lance knew that his daughter and niece put on such clothes in public because of Ana, Ana would only be dead meat.
After concluding her sentence, Ana walked past Sara and took in charge of the two thousand soldiers she brought back.
Sara shot a deadly glare at Ana's back. Her brows creased and she clenched her teeth to suppress her desire to beat Ana right now. However, Ana played the most important role for them. Whether they could save the Wild Heaven Pass out of danger all depended on Ana now.
Thus, Sara made up her mind to give vent to her anger at Ana after getting through the current dilemma.
‘ Ana, once I found out any mistakes you made or any of your secrets, I would never show you any mercy!’ Sara spoke in hushed tones to herself before she came to Marcia.
Only half an hour had gone by. The girls quickly changed into normal clothes.
Sara and Marcia were strikingly beautiful, head-turning stunning, both in their own different ways. As they got dressed, the moonlight shed its rays on their fine bodies, highlighting their graceful and alluring features; a spectacle for passers-by, who inadvertently slowed their cadence and gazed at the enchanting scene from a distance.
Meanwhile, inside the pass, soldiers started to gather around the fire, cheerfully chatting, eating, and drinking. This was the one time when they would be able to sit back and relax, forgetting, for a moment, about the troops of the Timber Deity Empire that were stationed beyond the walls.
‘ Hey guys and girls, who's up to party with me?’ Ana walked over to a small group of soldiers and flashed a bottle of wine around. The soldiers immediately responded to this cue, cheering her along.
‘ Should we get Sara and Marin to dance for us?’ Ana asked the rowdy crowd.
‘ Yessss!’ was the unanimous reply.
The tone of the evening had now been set and the soldiers turned to ogle at the gorgeous creatures on the wall. One had soft and gentle features, fresh like a stream of mountain water, whilst the other was enticing and dazzling, with the elegance of a rose. The soldiers were completely under their spell.
‘ Girls, come join us!’ Ana signaled them over.
‘ Come! Come!’ Soon all the soldiers started chanting together with Ana. They couldn't believe that this was actually going to happen!
They were only used to interacting with the girls in their position as Commanders, hence always strict, austere and harsh. This was one of those once-in-a-lifetime type of moments and none of them wanted to miss it.
‘ I want to beat her ass’ Marcia said through clenched teeth as she glared back in anger at Ana and the excited troops.
‘ Same here, but we can't lose track of what is in our best interest. We still have a chance to survive, so I say we just play along for now.’ Sara knew Marcia was right but she couldn't help feeling bitter about it all.
‘ To be honest, in my case it won't make much of a difference cuz they don't know my real identity so it won't affect my real reputation, but it's your reputation I more worried about. You are the Deputy Commander in Chief after all, what if word got around that you danced for these pigs?’ Marcia couldn't hide her concerns about the whole ordeal.
‘ If it means that we manage to keep the Wild Heaven Pass safe then I don't care either. Come on sis, let's go put on a show.’ Sara smiled at Marcia, her pep talk worked and she nodded in agreement.
The night was clear and calm, a warm breeze caressed their bare arms and the moonlight shone brightly on their luscious hair. Suddenly, out of nowhere, the music started. At first, a single sharp note as if to attract everyone's attention, shortly followed by a string of bright and rapid notes. The melody was as mesmerizing as the blazing rays of the moonlight sparkling off the bewitching fingers strumming the instrument.
Sara extended her arms and as she swayed her body to the sound of the music, she slowly climbed on top of the wall, carrying out an angelical and graceful dance.
The girls performed in perfect harmony. The soldiers were no longer shouting like brutes and gapingly admired the sylphlike figures. They applauded in admiration as they too rocked their bodies to the music. The atmosphere was magical and enchanting.
For a short moment, even Ana let herself be enchanted by the two mermaids, but not for long. Taking advantage of the fact that no one was paying her any attention, she took a few steps back and quietly left the group.
She walked over to where Rubygon and Ananta were resting and took them with her as she discreetly left the pass.
As luck would have it, the wind carried the music over the wall and straight to the ears of the enemy's sentries. Without wasting any time, the guards scurried back to the camp to share the information.
‘ Come again? Are you telling me that there is a woman dancing on the walls of the Wild Heaven Pass? Is that what you just said?’
The three Commanders couldn't believe what they had just heard; dumbstruck by this news.
‘ And you are sure that you saw a woman dancing?’ one of the Commanders asked dubiously.
‘ Come to the front and you can see for yourselves!’ responded by one of the sentries. The three Commanders kept looking at each other, back and forth, speechless and astounded.
They stepped out of the tent and together with two thousand soldiers, mounted their horses to ride the 1 kilometer that separated them from the Wild Heaven Pass. Halfway, they stopped. From that distance, they could already hear the alluring melody.
As they focused their gaze into the distance, they noticed her immediately, a dancing figure fascinatingly prancing on the wall.
‘ It looks like reinforcements have arrived and they even brought women to perform for them. Who does that? Neanderthals!’ exclaimed one of the Commanders, as he spat the words out of his mouth.
‘ They must have 20'000 soldiers at least. Otherwise they wouldn't be celebrating so confidently and carefree. They don't even seem to care about our presence anymore!’ cried out another commander.
He couldn't tell if his fury was due to the fact that he was jealous that the soldiers inside the Wild Heaven Pass were having such a good time, or whether he was offended by the indifference of the Crimson Dragon Army.
‘ Hold on! This could also be a trap. Maybe they are trying to make us believe that they have let down their guard, luring us into attacking them. Don't forget that they have already used this tactic in the past. Fool us once and shame on us!’
‘ You're right. This is a tough situation. I can't believe that we aren't able to take down the Wild Heaven Pass. It's preposterous!’
As the two other Commanders discussed the situation avidly, the third Commander frowned and did not speak. He couldn't help but think that something was off, he had a gut feeling that he couldn't describe nor explain just yet.
‘ Commander Zhou, we have to retreat our troops. We can't hold on for much longer. The enemy is already dancing and celebrating, while we are outside suffering.’
‘ Can't we just retreat already? I can't even remember what it feels like to touch a woman! What I wouldn't give to be surrounded by a bunch of women right now!’ The two chatty Commanders felt defeated as they spied on the celebratory Crimson Dragon Army from afar.
‘ Or, we come back again tomorrow to see what they are doing. I am not fully convinced,’ suggested Commander Zhou hesitantly and cautiously.
‘ Why? Do you honestly believe that we can defeat an army double our size? Do you want to get us all killed?’
‘ But...’ How could he make them see that he knew how Ana tended to operate? The rascal had already fooled the army of the Timber Deity Empire in the past by faking a plague outburst. They had had to lower their defense in order to deal with the new alleged adversity and that was when Ana had infiltrated their ranks and solely killed Commander Zuo.
This scene could very well be another one of her infamous tricks.
‘ Oh don't you 'buts' us now. You can fight this alone if you want. You go ahead and lead the troops. We are heading back to the city!’ It was obvious that the two Commanders were afraid of dying.
They had worked too hard all their lives to be at the top of the ladder and now they just wanted to enjoy some of the perks that came with the job!
They didn't seem to think that there was any point in fighting the enemy anymore. They had never had to face Ana on the battlefield. They had no idea how she fought and to make matters worse, the enemy had called in reinforcement. Not only were the chances of winning extremely grim but too many of their soldiers would perish in combat too. At the end of the day, they just wanted to go back home, safe and sound.
‘ Fine. You can leave me in full command of the troops if you want and after I find out what the Crimson Dragon Army is up to, I will make up my mind then.’ Commander Zhou was not going to give up just yet, he still had a few hours ahead before he had to take any decision.
The two spineless Commanders had not expected him to react like this and were taken aback by his response. The truth was that they could not abandon the troops either...they didn't even want to think about the consequences they would have to face. The price to pay for their cowardice was too high...
Just as the two senior leaders of the Crimson Dragon Group from the Holy Dragon Empire, Sara and Marcia, were performing for their soldiers, a person and two beasts were sneaking around like ghosts in the camps of an army from the Timber Deity Empire.
They evaded the patrols and bypassed more than a dozen military camps. Finally, they appeared near the grain warehouse of the Timber Deity Empire.
At that very moment, more than a dozen soldiers were guarding the grain warehouse. Each one of these soldiers seemed languid and sleepy. The sneaky person was nobody but Ana.
She realized that the warehouse was not heavily guarded, so she pulled out her Frozen Wind Dagger. Suddenly, the spiritual light was spread over her whole body. Then, she burst the Evil Flame that turned into a red-black light in less than a second while rushing up to the sleepy soldiers.
After more than a dozen flashes of such evil light, all of the soldiers silently dropped dead on the ground without even having enough time to cry out for help.
When Ana withdrew the Frozen Wind Dagger, her war beasts, Rubygon and Ananta also appeared beside her.
‘ Ananta, set fire on all the camps! Don't show mercy to them!’ Ana patted Ananta head. Ananta followed its master's orders.
At once, the scales of its whole body flared up, and it instantly shot out intertwining streams of flame. The flames quickly dashed towards the grain warehouse. Moreover, the fire kept burning whatever it passed by. Also, thanks to the wind, the entire grain warehouse was completely swallowed up by an ocean of big fire within a few seconds.
The horrific fire even affected the camps around.
‘ Fire, fire, fire! Help!’ cried the nearby patrol upon catching sight of the big fire in the grain warehouse. Such cries immediately alarmed the soldiers in all the camps.
They hurriedly ran out to put out the fire without even wearing any clothes. Their shame was instantly taken over by their survival instinct. Distinguishing the deadly fire was what mattered most now.
Their three Commanders who were still arguing about whether to withdraw their troops suddenly saw the fire in their rear camp. As the fire was so fierce, they were shocked and hurriedly took the remaining two thousand soldiers to return to their camp.
When the three Commanders safely returned to the camp, they saw that the location of their once-existing grain warehouse was completely swallowed up by the big fire.
‘ What is going on here?’ Commander Zhou asked a soldier who was frighteningly running past him.
‘ I... I don't know. But it looks like someone killed the guards of the grain warehouse and set it on fire...’ the soldier hesitantly said as he was scared by the wild glare of the three Commanders.
‘ Hurry! We want this fire gone in less than 30 minutes!’ shouted the other two Commanders to the soldiers around.
At the same time, just outside the camp, Ana triumphantly looked at the fire in the camp and then disappeared out of thin air.
Soon after, on the rampart of the Wild Heaven Pass, Marcia stopped playing the heptachord and Sara stopped dancing. The latter was sweating and panting because she hadn't danced since she became the Deputy Commander in Chief.
‘ Cousin, you've been dancing for so long! You must be exhausted.’ Marcia seemed truly concerned. She immediately put the heptachord down, got up, took out a handkerchief and handed it to her cousin.
Sara took the handkerchief and gently wiped the sweat on her face.
Then, the light and flames of the fire at the campsite of the Timber Deity Empire caught her attention. She was taken aback and said involuntarily,
‘ Was the camp of Timber Deity Empire on fire?’ Hearing her cousin's words, Marcia steered her attention to the direction of the fire light. They were confused.
‘ Could it be...’ Marcia hesitated and exchanged a look with Sara as she could only think of one person who was capable of such acts.
Immediately, she turned to look down inside the Wild Heaven Pass. She saw that other soldiers were still intoxicated in their earlier performance, while Ana was the only absent person. Thus, she knew her guess was right; Ana must have been to the camp of their enemies to set fire.
‘ This girl just likes to act alone! I have to admit that she always behaves like that!’  Sara couldn't help but grumble unhappily.
‘ Well, Ana always ignores military discipline! She is wired that way.’ Marcia smiled helplessly.
The two  leaders then went down the rampart, summoned all the soldiers, and asked them to have a rest in order to be prepared for any unexpected event.
Soon after, Ana and her two beasts sneaked in from the gap in the north entrance of the rampart. With two loud whoosh sounds, Ana suddenly saw two women standing right in front of her.
‘ Oh, two beauties, are you here to greet me in particular? How lucky am I!’ Ana asked and raised her eyebrows. Although it was very late at night, she could instantly recognize the two people standing in front of her.
‘ The fire at the Timber Deity Empire camp was set up by you?’ Sara asked.
‘ Who knows! Look, I am so tired. If you two have no other matters to ask me, I am going to find a place to have some sleep,’ Ana said innocently with a yawn and stretched herself. The moment she finished speaking, Ana strutted away.
‘ Just let her go! We need to have some rest as well. Even if Ana's plan didn't succeed, the Timber Deity Empire army will not launch attacks again within a short time,’ Marcia said at once and then pulled Sara away.
The next day, before dawn, Sara woke up to a voice shouting, ‘ Deputy Commander in Chief...’ She opened her eyes and got up. Seeing that Marcia was still in her meditation, she walked out of the camp alone and saw Dunn outside.
‘ What happened?’ Sara asked and squinted her eyes.
‘ The army of the Timber Deity Empire has withdrawn,’ Dunn answered respectfully with his hands cupped.
Not believing what she heard, she hurriedly walked to the north wall and went up to the rampart of the north. When she overlooked the place where the army of the Timber Deity Empire was stationed, she saw that nobody was there anymore. There were only some empty tents and traces of land being burned by the fire.
‘ Well, it looks like Ana's strategy is successful!’ Sara couldn't help but exclaim in disbelief and joy.
‘ Ana is really amazing. It's a pity that she is not a Commander!’ Dunn, a Commander who was always very arrogant and wouldn't praise others, praised Ana spontaneously. However, if one was to observe him carefully, it could be found that his eyes flashed a glimpse of cruelness.
Although a smart observer, Sara also didn't spot such a subtle expression in his eyes as she was overjoyed at that moment.
‘ So, where is Ana now?’ Sara asked.
‘ I do not know. I haven't seen her early in the morning,’ Dunn said.
‘ She shouldn't have...’ Sara hesitated. She immediately thought of Ana's next move.
At this moment, Ana was on the plain a few miles away from the Wild Heaven Pass. She was lying on the back of Rubygon with her legs crossed and her eyes closed for rest.
While Rubygon was running fast, the Rainbow Glow Unicorn carrying a small Ghostly Ice Fox-wolf on its back and Ananta were running at its two sides.
The woman and her four beasts looked so happy while taking a break in the wild and wide plain.
Meanwhile, Lance, Commander in Chief of the Crimson Dragon Group, gave up the defense of the Frozen River Pass instantly after being reminded by Ana.
Leading ten thousand troops, Lance rushed to support the Loyal Dragon Pass without any rest at night. He and his soldiers arrived just before the army of the Loyal Dragon Pass was completely defeated.
Under his right command, the already-in-jeopardy Loyal Dragon Pass was finally stabilized. The thirty thousand soldiers of the Timber Deity Empire, who were led by Alyssa to attack the Loyal Dragon Pass, had already suffered great losses in the previous battles.
When they were about to succeed in conquering the Loyal Dragon Pass, Lance suddenly came to support the pass in time.
As top Commander of the Timber Deity Empire, Alyssa was caught off guard. In no time, she was informed that the army she had sent to attack the Wild Heaven Pass withdrew because the Wild Heaven Pass got timely support.
This piece of information shook her to her core. She believed that her plan was perfect, but now it seemed that none of her plans ever worked out well. Realizing that the situation became quite unfavorable, Alyssa immediately decided not to fight again. She asked her army to stop attacking the Loyal Dragon Pass and prepare to withdraw the troops back to their main camp.
At that point, the huge crises of the Crimson Dragon Group's in the two passes were finally resolved. Lance was very aware that it was Ana who helped his Crimson Dragon Army get out of such crises.