In less than half an hour, everyone in the city was wiped out. Then the soldiers wasted no time looting anything valuable. Remira led them to where the treasures were stored, which also got completely emptied. After that, she went looking for Darian.

When she entered the secret chamber and saw him with a satisfied look, she asked, "Did you find it?"

Darian nodded, "Yeah. It's a list of traitors from the sect and clans. Since this city was close to the sect, it worked as a meeting and info-trading point. So, they kept every name recorded. And besides that… there's plenty of other interesting stuff here."

Remira gave a sinister smile. This place had a small but super tough inscription that would take anyone hours to break. Even if the traitors knew their names were written down here, they'd never imagine Darian would waste time during a city raid trying to break into this spot. Especially because…

*BUZZ!*

The city shook and buzzed at that moment.

"Hahaha, they're here. Let's go take a look," Remira said, excited.

Obviously, the ones who got tricked figured out the city had gone silent and the important people were dead. They were just delayed since they were too busy looting the other cities.

Soon, they'd come back in full force, and Darian's army would have to retreat. Meaning, he only had time to strike and run, not to mess with the secret chamber.

Darian stored everything in his inventory, and then the two of them left.

Outside, chaos was raging. Through the barrier, countless flying ships could be seen hammering it with everything they had.

Seven beams of light converged on a single point, creating a dent in the barrier. They were trying to tear it open by force. But that inscription wasn't like the ones in the other cities they had destroyed—it was way stronger, and breaking it would take time.

Darian had managed to pass through earlier only because, after the first strike, his rune-sharpened dagger pierced and cut open a path. Without that, it would've been impossible.

"Why don't we just kill them all? If I go all out and we launch a sudden strike, we could pull it off," Remira said, fired up.

Darian answered calmly, "We can't. My goal is to show strength just enough, without revealing too much. That way, they'll think we pulled this off with some clever strategy and dumb luck. If we wipe them out now, we'll only end up warning that bastard."

Remira took a deep breath and understood. Darian was still only at level two, his primordial core having evolved just once. Even if he crushed this battle, beating the real enemy right now was nearly impossible. Better to manipulate the situation in his favor without drawing attention, while growing stronger.

The city was flooded with corpses. Wasting no time, Darian started absorbing all their cores. They weren't that strong, but the sheer number was massive, and they still had some time.

Half an hour later, he had absorbed two-thirds of the cores.

"Let's move! Everyone get into the flying ships and max out the defenses!" Darian shouted, and right away everyone jumped into the hundreds of ships.

When the ships flared with full defense, Darian leapt high into the air, dagger in hand.

On his body, the Yin and Yang stars burned all the primordial power he'd built up, pushing his physique to the limit.

The skies changed color. Everything went silent.

**RUMBLE!**

A colossal explosion roared from the heavens. A blinding light swallowed everything, and even the ships' defenses began to crack under the overwhelming energy.

Everyone went pale when they realized it. Darian had pierced the barrier at the same instant the enemies forced it open from the other side. That made the inscription's energy collapse completely and explode in an apocalyptic blast.

The detonation was like a sun exploding, its destructive power shaking a vast region of the Heavenly World. But, by some miracle, the ships' defenses held.

Suddenly, a black shadow crashed into one of the flying ships.

Everyone inside saw the shadow flicker, its energy vanish, and a red figure appear, drenched in his own blood.

They all understood… Darian hadn't just struck head-on and taken massive damage; he'd also absorbed as much of the blast's energy as he could to stop the ships below from being destroyed.

He was in terrible shape, but his eyes shone with a chilling calm.

"Quick, move out!" he ordered coldly.

Remira passed on the command, and without delay, all the ships shot forward at full speed.

As they flew past the city's gates, they saw the wreckage of thousands of enemy ships scattered everywhere.

Unfortunately, most of the people inside them were still alive, though severely wounded. But their ships had been wiped out by the explosion.

So everyone pressed ahead at full speed, heading back to the sect.

...

Right after they arrived, everyone celebrated loudly—the first big victory in this war. Nobody ever imagined they'd manage to destroy that massive city so close by.

With everything wiped out, the nearest enemy city was now much farther away, which would make their attacks more complicated and less frequent, easing the pressure on the sect and the clans.

All the resources brought back were once again turned into equipment. The clans' forgers were already working day and night without rest, and they'd keep at it for a long time. Soon, millions of people would be fully equipped in the best way possible.

After the celebration, Darian called all the clan leaders for a meeting.

"We're abandoning everything outside the central region and the sect's three major cities. All our resources and people must be moved there. Bring your entire clan and leave everything else behind." Darian gave the order directly, without hesitation.

"What?!"

"That's impossible!"

"You want us to abandon everything we've built over so many years? That's unacceptable!"

Everyone was stunned by those orders, especially the older ones. To them, their clan lands were the most important thing in their lives, and they opposed it firmly.

"We'd rather die than abandon our home!" one old patriarch shouted angrily.

"That's up to you. If you want to die, stay. But if you want to live, do what I say. From now on, the enemies won't hold back and will strike your homes. I'm going to keep pushing deeper against them, and the counterattacks will only get fiercer. Every second could decide life or death for your clans. Or do you really think that and the sect can defend everyone at once and still protect our own home?" Darian said coldly.

Everyone admired Darian, but for those old folks, leaving the place their families had lived in was worse than death.

"If you merge your clans' resources into the three major cities, the defensive power will be way higher than you had before. On top of that, we'll be able to reach and protect you quickly in emergencies. We need to make sacrifices to win… I agree with Darian's order," Murral said seriously.

"Of course you agree! It's not your home you're leaving behind! You don't care!" someone from another clan roared, his face already covered in tears.

Aegli swallowed hard and spoke painfully: "This is called looking at the bigger picture, got it? It's also our fault things got this far. It's not just about your home. So many people have already been forced to abandon their homes and cram into the three major cities, not to mention the endless deaths and suffering… as long as we win this war, we can rebuild everything. But if we lose our lives, nothing will be left."

His words shut the other leaders up.

They clenched their fists, nodded bitterly, and went back to their clans. They knew protecting everyone's lives was the most important thing. As long as they stayed alive, they could rebuild it all.

***

Fifteen days later, all the clans had finished moving their people into the three major cities, just as ordered.

During that time, Darian stayed in seclusion, finally having peace to absorb all the resources he had gathered. When he finished, he let out a satisfied sigh.

[Current status: Dark Saint]

[Primordial Points for next realm: 5,000/10,000]

[Level 5 Reached]

[Reward: +1 Random Upgrade]

[UP] [Fire Law +11]

Thanks to the assimilation technique and the group bonus, he had reached the fifth level. All five basic elements had reached +11.

The destruction of a clan and a major enemy city had brought in tons of resources. In the army, the original hundred thousand had already reached level 8. Another forty thousand learned the technique and got added to the main army.

Slowly, everyone was making progress. It wouldn't take long before most reached level 9, and maybe the veterans could break through to the third realm.

After using up everything, Darian sent a message to Remira.

A positive reply came back. Then he headed toward the central square, where everyone was gathered, studying and trying to master the two supreme techniques.

The moment he arrived, dissenting voices rose up. They were harsh criticisms, loud accusations against Darian.

But him… he just smiled as he heard those curses. They had finally made their move.

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