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nArman is having the worst time of his life.

nHe is not even able to freely roam the streets, because there is at least one shooter who will be aiming at his ass once he shows up on the streets.

nHe was thinking on how to get away, but he couldn't find any other way. He was barely able to hide for sometime when someone comes chasing him.

nHe is extremely regretting all the things he did. At least, the things he did in the past day. He has ruined the train track in hopes of causing an accident, but he got the timing wrong and they were able to rectify the mistake easily before the crash could happen.

nHe doesn't know what he was thinking when he was doing, he just felt like doing that stuff and no reasons came to his mind to not to do them. But now, he can think more than dozen reasons to not to do it. It was like he was possessed.

nArman who is away from the thunder god temple, was obviously missed on the information regarding the Devil Guided incense.

nIn fact, he is not even bothered to think about the war.

nAnd in his current situation, he couldn't think even if he wants to.

nFor the next week, within the western continent, Arman is like a sewer rat. He lived in dark corners and barely got any rest. No matter what time is, his resting place would be busted in at most three hours.

nPhilip, Jack and Watt just checked on Sam. His complexion almost returned to normal and his energy levels are also quite high with the absorption of the black patches. His skin is almost back to normal.

nExcept for the large gaping scars of the two chain sickles on his upper chest, his body is same as it is before the incident.

nIn the past week many things happened.

nPhilip and Jack broke through Peak stage Grand realm. They have been treading on the edge for this break through for a long time. But due to all the running around they weren't able to concentrate on cultivating. Now is the only time they had free time.

nWatt also reached the peak stage of Grand realm for some time, a little before the other two and he seemed to be just a step away from break through to the Nascent realm.

nCurrently, the news about Sam's return was already sent back to the Thunder god temple, but they didn't call them back for some reason.

nThey seemed to be too busy with the war to care about them.

nAt this moment, the trio and Arc are sitting together in a room going through the war reports that are being read by someone in the Imperial Palace.

nIn this one week, there are great changes in the war. Actually, the church is able to deal with two minor powers and they took control of those two minor powers. The major powers were not able to intervene in the situation because, the nearest two major powers Usaine Sect and Beast faction are were attacked by the church at this moment.

nBut those attacks are minor and didn't last long, they even revealed two space gates the church placed in both places. Although, there might be other gates it is still considered a loss for them to be exposed for a probing attack and got blocked.

nBut it cannot be calculated like that and the church could be said to have won because, their twelve Priests who are Pre-transcendent cultivators when the war started, out of them eight of them became transcendent cultivators while the war is going on. And the situation was same for both the minor powers.

nFor every minor power, the church sent twelve priests and in that sixteen already turned into Transcendent cultivators and these sixteen are the reason for the loss of the two minor powers.

nThe new land and the new powerful cultivators, they are gaining in. But the church is not without any losses.

nUsaine Sect and Beast faction realized that something is off with the attacks that are made on them and then only realised they were being distracted.

nSo, they reacted fast enough and checked the situation with another minor power and they were able to stop the invasion of the church in the third minor power. They reacted fast enough and eliminated the church completely.

nBut for the past few days, the church tried to gain their upper hand back in the minor power which they were eliminated.

nThere, the sixteen newly transformed transcendent cultivators started attacking.

nIn fact, all the minor powers should have been dealt with in a week, but they failed in doing so because, the meeting in the central continent ended faster than expected and the retaliation from the minor powers is faster than they imagined.

nAfter the Old one was caught, he didn't care about the strategy anymore and just went along with the long- lasting battle with the minor powers and in between, he is been sending a unit or two of followers to any of the major powers.

nSimply put, the church is extremely focusing on the vicinities of the central continent.

nAfter they read through the report, Arc and Philip are discussing the things regarding the war and how they should react if a sudden situation arises.

nTheir main problem is the followers of the church who are also the soldiers who will be in the front lines are currently all Grand realm cultivators.

nThe minor powers and the major powers can handle them, but that is going to be a serious problem if the empire is invaded in the same way. There are not many Grand realm soldiers compared to the major power and the minor powers.

nIn fact, the Grand realm cultivators are not even soldiers in the empire's army, they hold a position of at least a Regiment commander.

nAs Arc and Philip are discussing all these factors.

nAt that exact moment, the attendant ran in and said.

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"Your majesty, the church followers are invading through the woods on the western side of empire and the northern ice lands also informed that they have been attacked by the church followers. The soldiers are all seemed to be Novice stage cultivators. They are awaiting your orders.

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"Tell them, to be defensive, don't let them invade the city and if there is no other way, ask them to use the Impact cannons.

nAs for the Northern Icelands, what is the exact situation?

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"They are defending themselves well and they said that the first wave of followers that came are no threat to them, but they are feeling a bit panicky about these new invaders and they seemed to have been searching for the Space gate.

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"Send a regiment over to the norther lands and ask them to stay strong, if they find any space gate, just ask them to attack them from long range, it is almost impossible to seal them without any formation knowledge.

"

nAfter giving the instructions, Arc went into a deep thought.

nHe was thinking why the empire was being attacked all of a sudden.

nPhilip is also thinking the same. The church is focussing on taking over the minor powers and even battling the major powers. The beast faction and the Usaine sect are both onto the church too. They are even trying to get their nations back.

nBut at this moment, the church should have been focusing their manpower at those positions.

nWhile they are thinking.

nIn Sam's tower, inside his room.

nSam's body turned back to its original colour and there is a faint black smoke coming out of him.

nHis whole body started twitching a little as smoke escaped through the pores of his skin.

nHis body started to have a change as the dark elemental energy started spreading all over him.

nInside his body, near the spiritual core and even his spiritual consciousness, the shadow corrosive energy was almost disappeared.

nDue to Sirona's formation the shadow energy in the patches which spread all over his body was also clearly absorbed.

nEven the crack on the spirtual core has disappeared completely.

nBut what Sirona did, still have some side effects, because the energy spread all over the body, there are many traces left all over the muscle fibres and now Sam is subconsciously trying to digest them by attempting a shadow fusion.

nMeanwhile, Arman who is running around the city, finally came towards the factory area and he noticed that one of locomotive factory is not working. So, he decided to escape there.

nWhile he decided to hide in there for the time being, Philip has already sent out an order to capture him. He decided to put out this cat and mouse game, seeing that Arman is turning more and more desperate.

nHe was supervising Arman's capture and Arc is still trying to make sense of the situation.

nBut at that moment, there are sudden calls to Arc and his attendant.

nThe gist of the news was such.

nAfter there is a probing attack in the morning in the western part and the northern part, the Arian empire was being invaded by the church.

nThe followers are being appeared out of the woods. And at this moment, there are more than fifty cities which are being invaded directly and to get the trouble even more serious, Philip got another call and that is the church followers are appearing out of thin air near the vicinities of Sam's city.

nThen only they understood one thing. Not only is church deciding to use the man power on them, they are even using one-way space gates from who knows where to invade the western empire.

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