Chapter 518: Bad Omen at Dawn

"T-This…" The commander began breaking into cold sweats. He wanted to continue convincing Lilith otherwise.

However, Lilith stated willfully, "I'm going."

"Haiz… As you wish, Miss Lilith," The commander quickly gave up after seeing how resolute Lilith had made her mind.

"The advance group will be leaving would our transport arrives while the second group will be departing by foot in two hours. Please be present when our transport arrives, Miss Lilith. Otherwise, we will be leaving without you." The commander informed of the army's departing schedule.

Lilith quickly nodded gratefully, "Thank you, commander."

Shortly after Lilith left to pack her belongings, the commander rubbed his forehead with distress. He could imagine the angry scholars once Miss Lilith leaves the World Tree's region.

"I won't be around anyway, so I would have to deal with their complaints. I hope they don't blame me and rely on their noble backgrounds to make life difficult for me, though…" The commander mumbled.

…

Meanwhile, at a particular location by the foot of the World Tree, a beautiful young lady in a blue dress could be seen sitting quietly in meditative cultivation.

The surrounding air was cold with frigid energy, while the surface of the ground was frosted in a thin layer of ice.

No one dared to approach the area due to the terrifyingly low temperature, nor did they dare interrupt the person's cultivation session either way.

A tight wrinkle could be seen on Lynne's face while she was in deep concentration.

Within her sea of consciousness, she was trying to fuse her Awakening Cultivation and Divine Cultivation together.

However, the Ice seed revolving around her soul core refused to bulge from its orbital position, while the Revolving Core in her energy center cannot be moved into her sea of consciousness.

"I have achieved the Revolving Core Realm, but why can't I fuse Awakening Cultivation and Divine Cultivation together like Aria did?" Lynne softly mumbled with a sigh shortly after opening her eyes.

As fellow Divine Cultivators, she had long noticed Aria had practiced Divine Cultivation and merged it with her Awakening Cultivation.

However, she was unable to seek answers from Aria on how to achieve the fusion due to her competitive spirit. 

The Ice Phoenix Divine Canon required Frigid Energy to cultivate. As such, the Frigid Energy in her Ice Seed significantly sped up her Divine Cultivation while she fused them with the Spirit Energy she refined.

If she could merge the Revolving Core and Ice Seed, she would be able to further enhance her cultivation speed.

"It is because I advanced to the Revolving Core Realm too early?" Lynne pondered in silence, beginning to believe that this was indeed the case.

"Perhaps, If I had made the Ice Seed the energy center for Divine Cultivation from the start, merging Awakening Cultivation and Divine Cultivation would have been possible?" Lynne bit her lips as she thought of this.

It was too late to back over that step unless she wanted to restart her Divine Cultivation.

The Revolving Core has settled firmly in her glabella region while she had reached a bottleneck in Awakening Cultivation.

If she restarted Divine Cultivation, it would delay her progress considerably.

"I have no choice but to push forward with Divine Cultivation if I want to continue growing stronger." Lynne furrowed in thought.

Something was wrong with her Awakening Cultivation.

Although she had reached 9-Star Ranked Awakener Realm, something stopped her from making the push for Transcendence—no matter how much she tried to comprehend the Law of Water.

She began to feel that her ice ability was not simple…

"Never mind. I will think about this issue another time. I should consolidate my early-stage Revolving Core Realm before making use of the environment to push for the middle stages." Lynne decided before closing her eyes and entering deep meditative focus.

Her aim was to at least reach the Heaven Ascension Realm.

…

Western Frontier, Great Wall.

An entire night quickly passed before the rising sun revealed its first ray of brilliance, illuminating the eastern horizon and dispersed the receding shadows.

Light gradually reached the Great Wall before shining into the Wildlands, revealing the neverending swarm of rats in the plains.

The wall of fire continued to hold back the rat tide under the united efforts of Fire Awakeners while mountains of blackened carcasses littered the plains.

Cling! Clang!

The hammering of metals could be heard coming from the military city by the Great Wall in the early morning.

While Fire Awakeners have moved to the Western Frontier to assist in the Great Wall's defense against the rat tide, it never stopped the blacksmiths from continuing their work.

The military city had its own set of workshops.

Nevertheless, many soldiers had gotten used to the sound of hammering metal and fallen hard asleep atop the Great Wall.

Only a few were awake to keep watch over the situation below on the Wildlands' side, albeit with red eyes, while the rest of their comrades slumbered from exhaustion.

Suddenly, the soft, distant rumbles of the earth and shaking of the Great Wall woke up many soldiers.

"What's going on?" A soldier rubbed his eyes with a yawn before he suddenly stared into the distance with wide eyes.

"I-I-Is that a tree?! A moving tree!" Another soldier exclaimed.

The discovery immediately shocked many soldiers awake before they stood up and gazed into the distance with focus.

The two fiery walls in the distance were old news to them since last night, but where did this giant tree come from?!

Many soldiers' jaw dropped in astonishment.

"I-Isn't that the Elder Tree from the Great Forest?! Look, the Elder Tree is not there anymore! This had to be it!" A soldier pointed in the direction of the Great Forest.

The soldiers quickly shifted their gaze before another soldier exclaimed, "The elves have arrived!"

After an entire night of burning, the forest fire had already died down, and the clouds of black smoke dispersed into the skies.

Nevertheless, the skies above the Wildlands was not as bright as it should be. In fact, it was gloomy with dull grey clouds.

In the distance, Leon paused.

He gazed up the skies with a frown as it began to crackle with increasing frequency.

The elves' destination was right in front of them, but the omen in the sky was not a good sign for the tribesmen in the far back of the line.

"This could be bad…"