Chapter 30: Push back the invasion

While Yun Jhin was resting Mono got an important message in his tent from the dynasty, he clutched his pendant as he looked down at his hands and muttered:

"We have to go already..."

Yun Jhin just finished his first cultivation session as he got up from the ground when Mono's voice appeared around the whole camp:

"Get up, we have to go to the next battlefield, orders from above, we have to push the invaders back!"

Yun Jhin didn't mind as he was already at full energy but the others groaned as they didn't have enough time to heal themselves and restore their ki, Mono got on another horse as the one at the 9th stage died. He took the horse's reins as he looked around and waited for everyone to follow him.

Yun Jhin was the first who found himself a horse and followed behind Mono, Mono nodded at him and smiled as he waited for everyone to get ready, he looked at Yun Jhin and while they waited he decided to make some conversation:

"So uh, why have you joined the army Sisheng?"

Yun Jhin kept a straight face as he responded shortly:

"For merit."

Things started to quickly get awkward between them as Yun Jhin didn't continue the conversation and they just waited in silence after a few minutes everyone was ready and the horses started to run to the north towards the border, they needed to push the invaders back as they already conquered a bit of land under the traitors lead.

Yun Jhin made sure to memorize the layout of the army for later, as their surroundings changed they approached a giant lake, as they neared the border of the empire they neared the big water bodies, beyond the empire at the north stood an ocean, beyond the ocean, stood the Earth Kingdom, and in the ocean dwelled the Heavenly Turtle sect!

The Earth Kingdom was using the Heavenly Turtle's sect formations to cross the ocean and attack the Empire.

Mono continued to look forward as he had things on his mind, but he still kept his eyes and ears open towards any other ambushes so he wouldn't be taken by surprise, Yun Jhin was cultivating while on horseback, he wanted to quickly adapt his host's body so he could break through again.

The lake's water was as clean as it could be, it was transparent and you could even see the lake bed near the shore. Yun Jhin looked around as he used his soul willpower to look for any enemies, he shook his head as he found none and Mono continued to control his horse so they could avoid the lake.

This was just an in-between place before they got to a port city that was taken over, it was their new job to reclaim all of the cities according to the crown prince's wish, Mono didn't support the crown prince but he still had to take orders for him which made him quite angry, but he hid all of his anger under a mask of coldness and simultaneous friendliness, he was friendly to those that could approach him but cold to those who couldn't.

While Mono was internalizing his anger towards the crown prince, Yun Jhin kept a cold expression as he waited for the horse to take him to the battlefield. As time passed their surroundings changed again as they finally got near a city, the city wasn't big for any standards, if you compared it to the capital it wasn't even as big as 1/5 of it.

The flag of the Earth Kingdom was used instead of the Long Empire, that meant the city has been taken over, Mono stopped all of the horses and slowly said:

"Depending on who is guarding the city we have only two ways of attacking, loud and stupid or stealthy, what do you guys think would be the best approach."

Yun Jhin got down from the horse as he said:

"I can go scout ahead and come back with information general Mono, wait for me."

His form turned ghostly as he suddenly disappeared from everyone's eyes and perception, he ran towards the city and eyed the formation's that were supposed to protect the city and walked straight through them, as he stealthily laid out his soul willpower like a spider's web around the city he felt all of the cultivators inside of it.

Yun Jhin looked around with his soul willpower as he frowned inside and thought:

"Too many, there are 2 Stage 5 ki cultivating experts here? Why this is only a small city... there should be something to station two powerhouses."

As Yun Jhin focused on the two auras he felt that one of them was familiar as it was weakened, it must have been the dark-skinned man from before, it seems he came here before them to heal himself.

Yun Jhin kept himself still as he felt the fluctuation of their cultivation bases and realized that with their army there was no way they could attack, Mono was fool thinking attacking normally would work, it seemed the man was distracted by something as he wouldn't have put up such a dumb suggestion.

Yun Jhin knew he couldn't bite more than he could chew here so he started to retreat, his technique was peak grade so even though these two were three levels ahead of him in the cultivation stages they couldn't find him out even though he even released such a high amount of spiritual power, as long as it didn't touch them directly and only observed them from a distance they couldn't find out.

Mono kept a passive face as he waited for Yun Jhin to return and then he smiled at him as he saw him materialize near his horse, Yun Jhin shook his head at Mono and said slowly:

"The guy from before is here in addition to another unknown stage 5 cultivator, if you think you can fight 2 people at the same stage, one even though albeit injured, I'm sure you haven't recovered fully as well."

Yun Jhin's words hit Mono were it hurt it was true he was only around 50% recovered according to his ki capacity, Mono looked at his men and then said:

"We will have to avoid this city, we need reinforcements from the military minister, he will need to send his private army if he wants to push out all of the invading forces *sigh* I'm sure the unknown cultivator must be from the Heavenly Turtle sect, they should have techniques on par with the imperial family."

Mono Sukehiro frowned, as he used a technique that could only be called decent, unlike the ones that the imperial family practiced and rarely let out of their hands, even if someone gathered enough merit they could only take low-level techniques out of their treasury.

Mono frown never left his face as he instructed the horses to avoid the city, Yun Jhin continued to cultivate on horseback as they left the city behind them. Back at the city, the dark-skinned man frowned as he looked in their direction and said to a pale man with his hair done in braids, the man wore a robe with the symbol of a rainbow tortoise on his chest and his features were above average.

The dark-skinned man growled as he looked at him and said:

"Suigo, you should have felt them retreating, should we follow?"

Suigo smiled leisurely as he said:

"From what I felt, they only have 1 5th stage ki cultivating expert, you are injured and this guy isn't at full power from the amount of ki he was emitting, I'm not sure what they were up to but it seems they knew they couldn't take over the city."

The man's smile dropped off as he said:

"Are there still Long Empire vermin in the city that warned them?"

His aura intensified in strength as his soul willpower encroached on the city, however, he didn't feel anything wrong, he could only feel his subordinates and the one from the Earth Kingdom, he frowned as he looked at the dark-skinned man and said:

"Think there are any traitors among our ranks?"

The dark-skinned man responded with the same facial expression as the other man as he said:

"Think someone from my squad betrayed us? No chance! The long Empire invaded us why would they defect to their side?"

This made sense, the man continued frowning as he continued to look around but he didn't feel anything, something really strange was going on.

Yun Jhin kept his back straight as his body was adapting to the changes the second stage ki cultivating realm were doing to his body, as he cultivated time passed and after a few days on horseback they finally saw a second city.

Mono waited for a little before he looked towards Yun Jhin, Yun Jhin knew hat Mono wanted him to do and he didn't say anything before he became invisible and walked towards the city, after some investigation, he found out that the city was thoroughly lacking in defense even though it has been taken over. Yun Jhin's speculations were correct, there must have been something at that city if it needed 2, 5th stage ki cultivating experts.

With the help of the army Yun Jhin easily took over the city, Mono narrowed his eyes as he looked around and came to the same conclusion as Yun Jhin, he took a strange-looking stone from the spatial bag that he had tied at his waist and talked into it:

"Hello-hello, general of the 1st legion Mono here, I have something to report, I need reinforcements quickly at City Horobros, the nearby city Boroso is under the control of 2, 5th stage ki cultivating experts, I need atleast someone around my strength or 10 4th stage Ki cultivating experts as reinforcements."

Mono nodded his head as he heard the words he wanted from the stone as he smiled at everyone and said:

"We will wait 5 days here for the reinforcements, then we will march directly to Boroso!"

It seemed there really was something important at City Boroso, if not why would the military minister send out a 5th stage expert out so easily? The military minister was at the 8th stage and he had very few 5th stage experts under him, at most he could have 4, and with the capital infested with spies, they needed all of their manpower there.

There must be something really important in that city if they could spare manpower... Yun Jhin looked towards the direction of city Boroso and shook his head, what could it be? If it was a treasure he wouldn't be interested, treasures were temporary things as he grew in strength they would become useless later, but if it was a rare material...

He kept his back straight as he looked to the horizon then left towards the house he was given to rest in, most of the people who lived in the city were massacred so after they took over it, it remained empty.

Yun Jhin sat on the bed as his head started to shine, his main body was ready to break through to the 6th stage of the heavenly realm!