Chapter 376: Scouting the Eastern Front (1/2)

”Raiden,” I called out to the summoned Hero of this world as soon as I saw him after arriving at the vicinity of the camp they built in this part of his territory

The Barbarians crowding around it easily scattered upon seeing someone coming from the sky. They're only Augmented and Saint Realms, someone who could fly was easily a King Realm. They couldn't afford to anger someone like that.

Looking at the eastern side, the enemies were also camped albeit they're a bit chaotic. It was because of the Corrupted that was about to collapse from having their lifeforce burned to sustain the Level 2 Dark Energy in their bodies.

”You're here. And a new woman, I see.”

Because I had Yuko and the others focus on completing their Mortal Pathway, I only brought Irja here. We're not going to clash against them yet, perhaps in a day or two. For now, we're here to scout and find out why, despite having the absolute advantage against Raiden, they chose to be in this kind of standoff.

I get being intimidated by his Temporal Acceleration but that's not all there is to it, right?

As if he's expecting my arrival, Raiden only nodded upon seeing me. The last time we met was when he challenged me to a duel when he passed by during our one-month vacation. Perhaps if we get a rematch, I'm confident to win against him. He's still not a Rank 2 Transcendent after all.

On his right, Old Man Reol was also there. The air from the Old Man, although I'm already stronger than him, is now carrying the air of an Emperor. Also, he looked way younger than before. His breakthrough to the Emperor Realm extended his lifespan. It's only a matter of time for him to reach the threshold and become another Transcendent of this world.

The Old Man still looked friendly and even more so than before because of Erin.

Since they're both looking at the woman I brought with me, I introduced Irja to them. However, upon hearing that she's from the Dark World the two immediately raised their guard.

It's an expected reaction so I took the time to tell them the status of the Dark World, about how it isn't that united.

During all that, although Irja didn't mind that kind of reaction from the others, I still held her hand to assure her that no matter what, I will make sure that she will be accepted by everyone.

Following that, I got to talk to Raiden about his current plans.

Because almost half of the Desolate Plains was already considered conquered, the Heavenly Lightning Tribe's territories were in actuality, surrounded on all sides. With the Whiteshade Division located at the western front and him located at the eastern, they were exposed on the north and south.

Fortunately for him, the north was being defended by his allied Northern Barbarians.

However, if no help came to their side, they would soon fall.

The same could be said for the south that was only being defended by some of his King Realm subordinates and the Barbarians under them.

As for his plans, he confessed that with the current situation of being on guard in this front, he couldn't enforce any of it.

But with my arrival, he somehow rekindled his hopes.

Apparently, there were at least three large tribes who willingly became Corrupted for him. As to what method he used for them to do that, it involved him taking in the Chieftains' daughters and continuing their Barbarian lineage as well as safeguarding the families of their tribe members.

Although he's indifferent about that, he accepted that kind of condition. In time, he might stay here to take all those women as his wives and uphold what he promised to those sacrificial Corrupteds.

Right now, those three tribes were mixed up in the north, south and east. It only needed his signal for all three to turn against their fellow corrupted and incite chaos in their ranks.

Even though Transcendents were the keystone for victory, Transcendents alone would not be able to clean this world of the Corrupted and foreign invaders. There's still the need to rely on the Mortal Ranks to launch the crusade to expel and rid this world of them.

Transcendents like us weren't a deity after all. It's only natural for us to focus on other Transcendents. With how large this world is, it would take a long time to hunt down every Corrupted and Mortal Rank Dark Beastmasters if the world only relied on us.

The exception was that siege, they're already there so… it's natural to take part in it than let them scatter to the wild again.

That's why this kind of plan Raiden placed was somewhat admirable.

However, once we've dealt with all the Transcendents from the Dark World, we will only stay for a few days and help with thinning the Mortal Rank enemies. Everything will then depend on Raiden's and the Whiteshade Division's army.

”Well then let's wrap this world up. How's your Physique Cultivation?”

”I have yet to break through after reaching Transcendence.”