The next day, the group went toward the inheritance place without any hitch.
They arrived at the foot of the inheritance mountain in the morning, where the fog was just cleared out of the mountain, giving a majestic view of the mountain itself.
Alex, Aria, and Nella came out of the carriage before looking at the mountain.
Nella confirmed it was the right mountain as she felt something was calling her.
"That is the mountain. You guys can go to the peak first because the door is around that area." Nella nodded before staring at Millman. "You need to stay alive and be careful."
"I understand, Young Lady. I will do my best." He nodded before preparing the disciples to climb the mountain.
Aria turned around, asking something from Alex with a thought transmission. 'What do you think about this?'
'It's not good.' Alex sighed. 'There are three different groups consisting of seventy people each. It seems they know that we have killed all those people that first ambushed us, so they are going for a different strategy.'
'Should I say something to Nella Luzear?'
'I will say it.' Alex suddenly tapped Nella's shoulders and whispered. "Ask your subordinate to scout the area first. If possible, only those who are from the original escort group and do it secretly."
Nella didn't know why he wanted this but still believed in his words because of the strength he showed yesterday.
She went toward Millman and asked him to do what Alex wanted, and the latter followed her command.
Not long after, the scout went back without no one knowing, finding three different groups in the mountain that would keep making surprise after surprise when climbing the mountain. If this happened, his group wouldn't last long, considering there was a chance of betrayal.
After everything was ready, Millman led the group to climb the mountain.
Out of wariness, he wanted to leave a few people for extra protection, but Nella declined it, saying that Alex and Aria were enough for her. Since he also had seen how Alex and Aria killed Ballac, he ultimately agreed, albeit reluctantly.
Alex and the others looked at them, climbing before Alex's expression turned serious.
"Here we go. In five minutes, they are going to meet the first group, followed by the second group and the third group. With this kind of shock they endure, the betrayal will be more effective." Alex sighed.
"Sacrifice is necessary in this case. As much as I want to reduce it, it's not possible if we fight against many influences. Unfortunately, I don't have the strength to overturn the situation by myself." Nella shook her head while clenching her fists.
Aria knew that Alex was enough to destroy them, but he couldn't do it to avoid blowing away his ability. Little did he know that if Nella were someone important to him, even as a subordinate, he wouldn't mind doing something like this. If Letizia were the one in Nella's position, Alex would destroy them. That was why it wasn't so easy to be someone important to Alex.
As for Nella, she tried hard to remain calm, knowing that there would be many people who died just for her to go to the peak of the mountain.
In the midst of it, she suddenly thought something. "Nyx…What if we stick to the original plan?"
"The original plan?" Alex was confused for a second before asking, "Do you mean you want to climb the mountain while they are fighting?"
"Yes. There is a possibility of them separating a portion of their force to catch us here, so rather than waiting for them, it's better to go around the mountain and climb from that direction. The mountain is big, but we should need only two hours before reaching the opposite direction. Well, I have one Teleportation Array Plate, so I think we can use this too. It's a rank 8 Array Plate."
"If you are going to use that, then I suppose we can. However, we need the right timing, and you might want to use it to go right toward the inheritance place, you know."
"I am not good at teleportation, so I don't have the perfect control to go there." She shook her head.
Alex thought for a moment and sighed. "I think I can use it for you and send you right at the entrance, but I think the enemies will soon split their forces when they come in contact with our force."
"True. They are going to send a few here while some are going to protect the gate, so I can't come in." Nella nodded. "If you can do that, then that is the best. If we can use my position to bait them as well, it will separate their force, allowing the group to make a counterattack, especially if there are really traitors."
"Hmm…So, you have decided to use my strategy?"
"Yes." She nodded. "This time, we will use the Teleportation Array Plate to make more impact on them."
"I see. I don't really mind if that is the case." Alex agreed.
"Thanks." She smiled before taking out the Array Plate and giving it to him.
"I need the entrance position," Alex asked while looking at the mountain. His Spirit Eyes already detected a suspicious where the energy in this mountain gathered. And that energy created a tunnel and stopped somewhere around the top, so he knew it must be the entrance.
However, to show that he didn't have something special like Spirit Eyes, he played dumb and asked her instead.
Listening to his question, Nella opened a map and put it on the ground. She pointed at an area on the top left corner.
"This is us. The entrance is about here. So, it's better to move to the top of the mountain first before going down. I think it will take at most two seconds to go there and twenty seconds to open the gate just for me. I can use the Array Plate, but I don't have enough control over distance, so I will accidentally teleport far more than I am supposed to."
"Don't worry. I have enough control."
"That is surprising to be honest. How can you even control that? If I am not wrong, you need a huge amount of resources to either use many Teleportation Array Plates or ask a Space Element Array Master to help you."
"The latter. It was my master." Alex shrugged.
"Oh?!" Nella's eyes brightened, seeing Alex's value became even bigger. Space Element Array Masters were scarce even though they were not hunted down, so one Array Master usually had a prestigious name in one's clan.
Alex didn't care about revealing this because Aria knew that it was just a lie, and he wouldn't meet Nella anymore after finishing this mission.
"Anyway, since I have the general position, I will teleport us to the top of the mountain but slightly lean to the gate, so they won't have enough time to catch up." Alex nodded.
"Ye-yes. What should I do?" She asked.
"Nothing. Just stand there. We are going to move at the right time to change the tide of the battlefield." Alex smiled.
"When is that?"
"That…"
…
While Alex and Nella discussed their plans, Millman climbed the mountain halfway before finding seventy people coming toward them.
"Men! Prepare your weapons!" He shouted, ordering everyone to take out their swords. "And prepare for anything possible. There might be an ambush ahead."
Although they didn't understand why Millman said that, they followed his instruction.
Not long after that, the enemy group came into sight as one of them shouted. "Enemies!"
The one leading them was a 9-Star Martial Saint middle-aged man with a long brown beard. He looked at Millman and smirked. "You have done a great deal to us, so I come to pay you back."
"Lucent from Siko Family." Millman gnashed his teeth before taunting him. "Hmph! Did you think we were not prepared?"
"No, I wanted to tell you that no matter how prepared you were, you wouldn't be able to beat us." Lucent shook his head before raising his hand as another group appeared.
The one leading them was another 9-Star Martial Saint that Millman happened to know as well. "Lazar from Gran Family."
He remembered that there were three families becoming their enemies during this time. Looking at the appearance of the Gran Family, he was convinced that the third family sent their people also. After all, the bandit group was under the Siko Family, not the other two.
And he was right. When he was about to shout, the third group came into his vision as another 9-Star Martial Saint appeared.
"Airi from Khan Family." He gritted his teeth. Facing three 9-Star Martial Saints alone put them at a disadvantage even with their number, so Millman tried to come up with a solution and shouted. "Two of you are to inform the young lady to rush toward the top."
The two 6-Star Martial Saint behind him nodded, turned around, and flew down the mountain.
However, another two people came into their way and cut them down in the most unexpected timing.
These two were the subordinates under the reinforcement leader's command, two of the three 7-Star Martial Saints he bought.
"What?!" Millman dropped his jaw before calling out the reinforcement leader's name out loud. "Kain!"
When he looked at Kain, he found out that he was as shocked as him, not knowing why they suddenly moved like that.
Before they could recover from the shock, another fifty people suddenly slashed their weapons down to their nearest allies.
"Argh!"
Clank.
A series of screams filled the battlefield as they died unjustly. Because of Millman's order earlier that asked them to take out their weapons, some of them managed to parry it, but there was still half of them died due to this.
The fifty people immediately separated themselves to avoid the sudden outburst of Millman. With this, the battle became less than one hundred fifty people against more than two hundred fifty people.
They also had a big advantage in terms of cultivation alone. Millman could feel the morale dropping crazily and gritted his teeth because he never expected something like this to happen. Even Alcea didn't say anything about this.
Little did he know that Alcea indeed knew, but she only told Nella. After knowing the odds, she asked Nella to rush toward the top of the mountain. Obviously, Nella changed her plan because of Alex's influence because the plan required her to sacrifice all the people Millman led, even Millman himself.
And yeah, as one would expect, the disciples of the Luzear Family subconsciously dropped their weapons, knowing that they would die here.
"This is impossible."
"Don't give up! Our Young Lady is still waiting for us." Millman shouted, trying to raise their morale once again, but the betrayal, their loss, and the current situation looked very dim and destroyed their morale.
At the same time, the enemies had enough men to spare to even send a portion of their force to Nella and the top of the mountain.
"Millman! Our current situation is my fault. I will be holding them back while you bring our young lady back to the city. This mission is as good as lost. The only thing we can do is to send the young lady back, so she can try again in the near future. There are still a few months for the time limit." The reinforcement leader gritted his teeth while looking at his subordinates. He didn't need to ask because he could already understand the reason just by looking at his current subordinates' expressions. There was no need to spare a word.
"Are you planning to die here?"
"Yes. I don't dare to show my face again, so I will die here and make all these bastards pay!" He nodded while showing his killing intent.
"Heh?! Do you think you are capable of escaping from this place?" Lucent snorted after successfully positioning his group behind them, not allowing any of them to breakthrough.
"…" Millman bit his lips before shouting. "Men, this is it. Even if you need to die, keep moving forward. We will break through their encirclement."
"O-oh!" There were only around thirty people letting out their voices while the rest lost hope. However, those people who had lost hope were the ones finding the miracle that Nella had been working on.
"Look!" One of them shouted while pointing at the top of the mountain.