After going through three different portals, Daniel finally found the right spot to cultivate.
There were no tribes in the surroundings. He had made sure of that in order to avoid inadvertently killing them, in case a vortex happened to appear as he broke through the next stage of cultivation.
He had also left the pocket dimension to Edmund, taking with him only the time sphere, which he rapidly locked in the middle of the desolated plain inside which he was currently in, and activated it.
The flowing of time hastened by three times, allowing Daniel's already enhanced speed of cultivation to reach six thousand and three hundred times the speed of cultivation he would have had without karmic system, and time sphere.
He quietly sat down on a greyish patch of terrain, and tried to calm his state of mind through deep and slow breaths.
One breath in, one breath out.
The various essences in the surroundings were slowly attracted by his body, and moved through into it as he inhaled deeply.
In a matter of seconds, his consciousness drifted away, and he fell unconscious.
The moment Daniel fell asleep, in a radius of a thousand kilometers the ground started to tremble.
Just like Daniel had expected, a vortex started to form around his body, and causing every bit of corrupted essences and spiritual essence to be pulled towards him, as darkness started to enshroud Daniel's body.
—–
Back in the tribe's territory, something odd was happening.
Around the territory, a few powerful warriors which did not belong to the local tribes, had been spotted roaming around the various tribe bases.
These warriors casually entered other tribes' territories and tried to start conversation about Daniel's magical powers, or about the incoming war with the monsters.
Mid chief level solitary warriors had appeared at the same time around every single tribe's base that was located in the surroundings of the tribe ruled by the triumvirate.
At first, the triumvirate had thought that these warriors had heard about the rumors that they had spread, and had come to be purified, and join the war against the monsters, but instead, these powerful warriors simply waited around the bases.
As time passed, more and more bases were visited by the warriors, to which was asked to leave, or left alone as they didn't seem to have any ill intention.
They either claimed to be wanting to witness the powers of this mystical young man they had heard so much about, to meet purified warriors, or to have been sent by their own far away tribes to gather informations.
Since Daniel had appeared, thousands and thousand of warriors had come from many different tribes. So, they had expected to meet a few odd ones within the pile. Some of them were more credible than others, but since their entire race supposedly shared the same goal of going back to better time, they were not considered as a direct threat, but a simple nuisance instead.
That, was a mistake.
A few of these warriors had infiltrated each and every tribe which was now under the triumvirate's control, and exactly at midnight.. The chaos started.
These warriors turned towards the tribes' members, and started a slaughter.
Curiously, the ones they attacked, weren't the warriors that Daniel had purified, but the corrupted civilians, and the weaker warriors and hunters.
The numerous purified warriors reacted with haste, and thanks to their numerical advantage, they were quickly able to neutralize these warrior, despite the majority of them attempted to escape.
The majority of these warriors managed to kill various civilians before being taken down, but the moment the first of them had been killed.. A loud voice resounded through the entire world.
If Daniel was conscious, he would recognize this voice as the voice of the herald of corruption, which said "The side of the Spiritual Emperor broke the temporary armistice, the war starts now. To repair for the damage, in the name of the Sovereign of corruption, I grant a token to the King of monsters."
The moment the herald of corruption finished speaking, various large groups of warriors started to come out of hiding. They then marched towards the territories of the tribes whose warriors had been purified, and were now part of the army of the Spiritual Emperor.
Back in his castle, the King of the monsters, which was comfortably sitting on his throne with a faint smile on his face, was looking at small purple pearl in his hand. It radiated pure and deep essence of corruption.
His plan had succeeded perfectly.
Despite what people might have thought about him, the King of monsters was an extremely intelligent being.
His plan was simple, and yet exceptionally smart.
From the very first moment the king had heard Daniel's requests, his plan started to form in his mind.
He never intended on letting six months pass before attacking Daniel's army, but he didn't want to be the one to break the armistice either, as he wanted to impress the herald of corruption.
Plus, he had been warned by the herald himself that, in case his side attacked Daniel before six months, the spiritual emissary would immediately grab the chance to grant his side a token of power..
For the past few months, the king's emissaries had visited the tribes with the worst reputations. Tribes which had adopted slavery, tribes which plundered, raped, killed for fun, and even had cannibalistic tendencies.
These visits were aimed at one single thing.. Convince the prominent warriors of these tribes, that if the war was won by the side of the Spiritual Emperor, they would be exterminated as well.
After all, the ways to obtain power in the spiritual world were not through savagery, or brutality, but through dedication towards the path of cultivation.
They were brainwashed into thinking that the spiritual worlds were places for good willed, and hardworking people, and that criminals, butcherers, and cannibals like them, would quickly be removed. They were also told that, for the type of warriors they were, a corrupted world would be the best world they could hope for.
Most of these things were, of course, completely false.
The spiritual worlds were nowhere less vicious and brutal than the corrupted worlds, but of course, there was no way for them to know these things, as just a few months before, they were bandit groups, and savage tribes whose entire existence was dedicated to causing the largest amount of suffering they could to the rest of the world.
Many of the tribes had ignored the king's offer to join their ranks, but a few of them, after hearing the vain promises of the king's emissaries, were foolish enough to agree.
What Daniel had not considered due to the urgency of the situation, were the herald's exact words.
When the herald had explained to him what a resolution through war was, he had pointed at the king of monsters, and at the group of monsters that had formed around the lake, and said.. 'The spiritual practitioners will belong to the side of the Spiritual Emperor, while the corrupted ones will belong to the side of the Sovereign of corruption.'
Hidden within these words, was a very small detail which had also escaped the spiritual emissary.
That detail, was that EVERY SINGLE ONE of the corrupted beings would belong to side of the Sovereign of corruption. Including the children, and weak cultivators which Daniel didn't intend to purify.
The reason for Daniel's request of making every purified warrior part of his army, was that he did not intended on directly killing the king of monsters himself, as he was not sure that he could even if he cultivated for the entire duration of the six months.
He hoped that the large number of purified and extremely powerful warriors of the wasteland world's race would do it, while he and his group took care of the monsters they were capable of fighting against. Specifically, the monsters at the leader level and lower.
What he did not expect, was for the king to use other people to attack the non purified members of the tribes.
This was the geniality of this plan. For these corrupted warriors, to attack another corrupted member of their race was not a violation of the agreement, as technically, these warriors were attacking members of their own side.. What was a violation though, was for the purified warrior, which already belonged to Daniel's side, to attack the warriors in defense of those corrupted citizen and weak warriors.
Now, not only was the king able to attack Daniel's side while they were still preparing for war, but they had also received a token from the herald of corruption.
As the words of the herald ended, the king of monsters got up from his throne, hid the token inside his robe, and left the throne room.
As the gate of the castle opened, an immense expanse of monsters appeared in front of his eyes.
Standing right next to the gate, were ten humanoid entities which were dressed similarly to the king himself.
They immediately bowed to the king as he appeared in front of their eyes.
"Begin the attack.. I want each and every one of those tribes to be ash by tonight." Said the king of monsters to the ten humanoid beings. Which immediately nodded at him, and left one by one along with their portion of the army.
Meanwhile, parties of traitorous warriors had appeared near the majority of tribes whose warriors had been purified, and were ready to launch an attack.
Moments after the herald of corruption finished talking, Edmund and Roley immediately appeared within the room where the members of the triumvirate were staying.
"What is going on?" Askes Edmund to the seemingly busy leaders.
"A trap.. They used human warriors to kill our people. When we responded by killing the attackers, it was considered a violation of the agreement.." Said the head scholar with an extremely irritated tone.
From Edmund's side, Roley said "That was pretty clever.." He then turned to look at Edmund and said "We should evacuate the area.. There is no way that they haven't placed troops near the tribes' territories.."
The strongest of warrior turned to look at Roley with surprise. He then said "That would take weeks. We have elders and children.."
"I wouldn't worry about that." Responded Edmund. He then pushed his spiritual essence into the ring which contained the pocket dimension, but then, his brows furrowed in confusion.
He could not move or enter the ring, no matter how much he tried.
"What is it?" Asked Roley, after noticing Edmund's odd expression.
"I can't enter.. Or teleport people in." Responded Edmund in a deep confusion.
Roley quietened for a few seconds, while Edmund kept trying. Suddenly, an idea flashed in his head. He said "Is it possible that, now that the pocket dimension is a spiritual world.. In order to enter it we need to use the type of power Daniel possesses? Immortal essence."
"It's possible.." Responded Edmund with a pensive tone. He then turned to look at the confused members of the triumvirate, and said "How much time would it take for your entire tribe to gather in the same place?"
"If we don't give them time to gather their belongings.. Half an hour, I think." Responded the head scholar.
"It's perfect. Can you sign in that map the exact position of all the other tribes in the surrounding? The more accurate, the better." Said Edmund while pointing at the map that the three of them were observing.
Leaving the chief hunter to fulfill Edmund's assignment, the head scholar and the strongest of warriors immediately left hall, and ordered their men to gather the entire tribe in the main plaza within the large cave.
After about forty minutes, an extremely large crowd of confused, sleepy, and scared people were standing in the large square, and after ten more minutes, Edmund, Roley, and the chief hunter teleported there as well.
Edmund and Roley were currently studying the map.
Once they finished, Roley looked at Edmund, and said "I'll start."
He then took a step forward, moved his hands in front of his chest, and after folding his fingers, he ripped a very large portal open. On the other side of this portal, were the confused faces of the members of the tribe closest to the tribe ruled by the triumvirate.
