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Philip made a hole through the wall and was thrown into the backyard which was formed by clearing a large area of impact crystals.

He slowly stood up as he coughed some blood. His whole body started hurting.

"Sam, what is wrong with you, why are attacking Philip?" Jack yelled again, he knew that going through Watt is a difficult task and even if he did go, he was pretty sure he cannot stop Sam, but he still cannot stop himself from asking Sam why he is doing this.

Kelly is also quite frightened and she didn't even dare to breath harder. For some reason, she could feel that Sam is really angry and if he got annoyed by their words again, he might even make a move on them, which they absolutely cannot resist.

"Sam, let's just talk this out." Philip said weakly as he was finally able to stand up, at this moment a golden fire ball came flying towards him, blowing him away.

Sam didn't stop, he kept on hitting Philip as later kept on bouncing around the back yard.

Slowly, Philip started to lose the will to even get up. But this only made Sam even more annoyed. He took out the 'Reaper'.

His aura started exploding as he moved towards Philip in rage. He is completely disappointed in Philip. This guy is completely being a coward. What is making him so afraid? He is so afraid that he didn't even want to show his dual elements.

Sam felt that Philip would show is true colours eventually, but now he lost patience.

After all, the competitions are getting more and more troublesome and more effort is required too. Even if the tastes are easy, they need a lot of time and effort to complete.

He cannot be there for the rest of the team and keep on carrying them.

Hawk, Kelly, Drew. They have limited abilities and they cannot survive through the next phase of the competition of the Dukedom and there is a high chance that they would get eliminated.

Jack is barely passable. His only forte is battle and he gives his hundred percent.

But Philip, this guy is witty, calm, intelligent but he is not willing to show his true talent and keep on acting like a coward.

And how did Sam conclude without knowing the situation?

Because from what he could see, if the enemies or the people from who Philip is hiding are really bent on finding him and never stopped the searches, there is a high chance that he would have been captured by now.

They are already in dukedom and the enemies, if they have enough background and experience would be able to identify Philip if they are clearly bent on finding him, because they wouldn't be stupid enough to wait until Philip released his powers.

Even if Philip can think of hiding his elements to hide himself, they would be able to think so too and if they are really determined enough given the attention that this competition brought to Philip no matter how low-profile he is, he is going to be found out.

And Sam came to the conclusion that the enemies are powerful with strong background based on the fact that Philip recognised the rank 2 silver meteorite sand. No ordinary people can get their hands on them and he can say that even the emperor has a very limited amount if he had any.

But Philip identified it with a glance, that shows that he is far more knowledgeable and that knowledge cannot be gained easily unless those people have access to enough meteorite sand to let a youngster know about it and train him to identify it.

From what Sam understood, Philip is being paranoid and dragging himself down.

Many people may think that Philip is waiting for the right time to unleash his power, but that is just a load of bullshit a person who kept on avoiding a problem, will get the habit of avoiding it even after facing it.

He doesn't want Philip to be a coward.

Sam reached Philip slowly and looked at him with cold gaze full of fury.

He swung the reaper which made a superficial gash on Philip's hand which made him cry in agony.

He squatted down and whispered.

"You might think, I would leave you after some beating, but this is the last chance Philip, if you still try to hide then there would be no need to hide in the future. It would be better of ceasing to exist than to live like this.

I thought of you as a friend, the first of my friends in this world. I waited patiently for you to open up, but there is a limit to my patience and you are way beyond that. Today, you will either lose that fear or I will lose a friend forever.

You decide. What does it take for you to open up and stop being a coward? Your team being hindered is not enough, your teammates getting beaten up is not enough. Does the risk of losing a friend is not enough too?"

Sam stood up and took a step back.

He looked at Philip who is completely injured with torn clothes. His eyes were closed as his face shown a conflicted expression.

Sam lost the intent to even hit him. He stored his sword away and coldly spat with disdain.

"Coward."

Then he turned around and started to walk away.

Just as he was about to enter the mansion, he swiftly turned around and dodged a fire ball. This fire ball is dark red almost close to blood coloured.

He turned around along with the rest as they watched Philip who is a mess standing with two hands glowing with blood coloured flames at the tip.

Sam smirked and moved, soon there is a blood red flash and a golden flash clashing in the air with loud bangs.

After two minutes Sam halted as he looked at the feather coat, there is some molten metal residue on it. He looked at Philip and made his move again. Just as two of them were about to clash, Philip fainted on the spot.

After all, the beating he took before in the hands of Sam is not for nothing. He was serious on teaching a lesson.

Sam carried him and carefully brought him inside the mansion. He started healing him and after making sure that the injuries are healed, he left him to sleep and came outside.

He looked at Jack and said.

"It must have been hard on you for you to deal with the attacks alone, but from tomorrow you don't need to carry the burden all alone, he would help you and trust me from what I have seen now, the people who are attacking you guys should be the ones worrying." Sam said as he looked at the small piece of metal that stuck to his coat.

Philip's attacks are way different and unique in his own way. He used the metal element and fire element together to create molten metal at the point of impact when he punched and kicked. If not for the meteorite sand being tough and Sam's spiritual energy is highly pure and concentrated, Philip could have dealt some decent damage.

Anyway, Sam is satisfied that his goal has been reached. From what he knew of Philip, that guy would have just brushed off the topic if Sam has made him sit down and talk and Sam didn't have that much patience and glib tongue to handle a guy as sharp as Philip.

So, he just gave a beating to make his words go through that thick skull of his. In this way things resolved much easier. Those last exchange of attacks are a form of pact.

Philip would slowly open up and wouldn't run away and Sam who is responsible for this will help him if any problem arises.

Sam is okay with it. He agreed to challenge an organisation as big as Black water for the sake of some metal, for a friend he is okay to help him challenge the world if necessary.

If not, what are the friends for…

Chapter 175: Philip's Change

After some time, Sam left the place along with Watt and went back to the camp.

Philip woke up only at the evening, that's how much damage Sam did.

After getting up, he looked at his body which is half-naked. There are a lot of scars left behind by Sam. They are the reminders Sam left so that Philip would remember this day and stop hiding himself.

Jack and Kelly came to him to speak, but Philip didn't reply to them and just sat on the bed without moving. He looked through the window as he saw the impact crystals spreading long and wide.

There Watt is operating the new machine Sam made and melting a large area.

He didn't observe anything; he is just looking as he faced an inner turmoil of thoughts.

He has a past, which haunted him so much, all this time, he hid his true self behind the mask of a mischievous and naughty teenager who likes to make fun of his friends.

All the sarcastic remarks, annoying jokes everything is a mask he is using to conceal himself. In fact, he is not that overly friendly guy, he only behaved such with Sam for the rest he would be at most sound friendly and polite and that is because just wanted to treat those people in way he wished to be treated.

Which is extremely rare quality in a world governed by power and strength rather than law.

He was overly friendly to Sam because, he felt that he also had a story. The way Sam reacted as soon as he was called Bastard struck something in him.

Because, there was a time when he wanted to react like that, when he wanted to resist and deal with every injustice he suffered, but the fear of being dead overwhelmed his urge to get himself some justice.

From that time, he escaped that place and took refuge in the star wood city, he trained like crazy as soon as he awakened.

He wanted to be strong and take everything he deserved but the problem is that he is too scared do so. He subconsciously didn't dare to go against them. But he wasn't able to accept that self and created a mask to himself. A pathetic excuse he made up for himself to hide from the truth.

'I will face them when I am strong and until then I wouldn't reveal myself.'

He clearly knew that they are not searching for him and if they did, he is too far away for their influence to spread. He knew that he doesn't have to be that wary because for them he is dead a long time ago.

He was alive by a miracle. But he is too scared. Too scared that he might reveal his identity by using powers and then they will be at his tail.

With this paranoia he thought a myriad of ways his identity which are too far fetched and if any other person were to know, they might even die of laughter. He used those reasons to build an invisible wall to hide himself deep.

He wanted to be like Sam who never hid from anything. That guy stood in front of a Count, a Marquis, a General like an equal. Never bowing his head once.

He saw Sam's journey up close. He faced all kinds of oppressions and many problems would have been over if he just made a simple apology but he never saw him giving in. He kept his pride, he respected himself, he never treated himself as inferior to any person.

In short, Sam is a person whom Philip always wanted to be.

That is why he stuck close to Sam if he can change but seems like Sam noticed this too and he just slammed open the wall that Philip built instead on waiting for it to wear down.

He just gave a beating to make him realise how foolish he has been.

He also got another message. That is if you want to be something then you have to start being and not wait to transform by some freaking miracle.

They are called miracles because they don't happen easily and a person who is counting on such an occurrence is nothing short of a fool.

Now, Sam just woke up that fool.

Philip shook his head and took a deep breath. He went out and ate something before going to back to his room again.

Next day, he called over Mackey, Kelly and Jack.

"We are going to reopen the restaurant. Get ready."

His voice oozed of the confidence which was never there before. He has a change in temperament and his disposition also changed. He is like a new person.

The rest nodded and made the preparations. All of them went to the restaurant and opened it for business.

Their food is fairly famous and many people knew that it tasted amazing but there will never be more customers because they know that someone will come and start trouble.

So, most of the people who go there are people shameless enough to get a free meal. They will eat slowly and when the trouble starts, they will just slip away in between the chaos.

This day they went in the same way and soon after more than two hours, the troublemakers arrived. They ordered some dishes and after eating some, they started making a fuss that food is not good, it is not genuine meat or some other stuff and as soon as the waiter starts to soothe them, they would start throwing things.

Today, just as they were about to throw them away, Jack interjected and was about to drag them out just like any other time. But this time, just as he was about to angrily drag them, a blood red coloured mass flew over and hit the guy making him fly along with it.

He was then nailed to a wall. Jack watched as the metal started to cool right in front of his eyes as Philip threw water on him as soon as they hit the wall.

"AHhhhhhhhhhhhh…"

That person cried in pain, before he could use his spiritual energy though, Philip placed his hands on him and looked at the companions of the trouble makers.

He was thinking, how he should handle it. Should he just give some warning? Negotiate with them to not to come here? Just give a beating? These are the first things that came to his mind.

But these thoughts were just like the old Philip he doesn't want to be, he took a deep breath and thought, how would Sam deal with it?

He got an answer within a second.

He should teach them a lesson that they don't want to create trouble again.

Philip placed his hand on the troublemaker's belly as he said coldly.

"You better listen carefully. I am not going to repeat again." As he said this, his arm started to release molten metal and the troublemaker started to scream.

But Philip didn't stop, he kept on pouring cold water from other side which miraculously made the metal cool down rapidly.

"I don't want to see you guys here again. I already lost all patience to deal with you guys."

The man was struck to the wall as the metal locked his hips and things to the wall. If not for Philip's control over the metal and heat, it would have penetrated the skin and made him a solidified metal statue.

"I don't care who sent you here and I don't care if you ready to leave your life here for them. Because, the next time I see you here, I would just create some good metal sculptures with you making them some attractions of our shop.���

As Philip said, he held the metal and pulled it with a strong tug.

"AHHHHHHHHHHH...…."

The skin was peeled off from the man's lower body. He started rolling on the floor with an unimaginable stinging pain. He was able to stop the damage due to heat with his spiritual energy a little, but he didn't realize the effect of the molten metal going to be.

People around can see the muscle fibres on the place where the skin was peeled off.

"I don't know if you think this much pain is worth it. But next time, you come here, you better prepared to die."

As Philip said those words, the trouble maker's companions who accompanied him ran over to him gulping nervously as they carried their leader and ran out of the restaurant.

They never expected that they would face something like this.

All these days they came here and made a fuss about a lot of things, they did receive some beating before but they are only superficial injuries.

So, never did they think that the reaction this time would be this huge. The experience almost made them pee in their pants. Losing skin over the lower body.

As soon as a small wind current touches the spot before it healed, he can feel the sting which is a lot worse than the blunt pain.

Chapter 176: Pregnancy

The next day Watt reported the whole situation to Sam.

Sam nodded his head in satisfaction, seems like beating people up is a good way to make them come to their senses.

He then looked at the soldiers who are training hard and after some thought, he shook his head in denial of his own theory.

Now, the business will go on smoothly. Even though, Kelly is only average in battle, Jack and Philip are exceptional and can cover for her and rest of the staff.

They can handle the rest of the candidates if they target them again. Now, their initial losses can be completely covered and there is a chance to make some profit.

But the main thing is that the market is already saturated with the businesses from the rest of the teams. They already shared the pies in various businesses and the food industry was also included.

If Philip and the rest wants to enter the market and take a share, they have to make some big moves and create some amazing news spread about themselves in the city so they could create big enough impact to penetrate the market.

Thinking of Big news, this early morning, Sam has got some big news from his beast companions and that is, a female shadow mouse is pregnant.

Since, coming to the southern star city, Sam didn't have much work for these shadow mice and it seems that they took advantage of this period and became 'busy'.

Sam got this news first thing in the morning from the four younger shadow mice who are all young and single compared to the remaining six.

They didn't dare to say anything to Sam as they are afraid that Sam would get angry at them for not seeking his permission of getting his approval.

But the four youngsters are quite daring and resolute enough to take up the task and reported the news to Sam.

If not for the fact Watt came early and interrupted their meeting, Sam would have already met the shadow mice.

After sending away Watt, Sam entered the divine dimension and walked towards the dark element zone where the shadow mice reside.

After he went there he saw a the ten shadow mice standing there silently. The two shadow mice who are the couple that are currently expecting stood as they looked down.

Sam felt quite amused at the guilty and fearful expressions. He knew that they are afraid of him but he doesn't know to what extent. Now, he understood.

He doesn't know why they are so fearful about this.

There are only few thinks he could think of and one of them is that they afraid that he might think that an extra mouse is burden which is absolutely ridiculous.

He is breeding a large number of fowls just that he could make some food as well as a lot of rabbit species and boars to sustain enough food supplies for termites and locust.

Shadow mice helped him a lot more than them, so why would he short change them?

Sam didn't stand in front of them as his large figure might make them feel intimidating.

So, he sat cross-legged in front of them and looked at the mice couple who didn't dare meet his eyes.

He chuckled at their reactions and placed his hands slowly over their heads to pat them.

"You don't have to feel that nervous. I am quite happy that you are welcoming a new life to this world."

When they heard Sam's words, they are quite surprised.

Sam then looked at the male mouse and said.

"After all, you guys are becoming parents, so you better be responsible. Stop being childish and stealing the food. Do you really think that you guys can hide it from me? You could have directly at the food openly. I just felt that you are being childish and didn't bother with you, now you better stop doing that otherwise your kids will also learn that."

Sam paused and then he looked at the female mouse and said.

"You gave me one of the good news in the past few days. I don't know much about you becoming a mother, but for me a mother is a mother whether it is a beast or human. At least for the beasts who are accompanying me in my life.

Take care of yourselves."

Sam stood up and quickly placed a formation, he dropped a lot of dark element spirit stones in it. He exchanged them in the military exchange point for soldiers. There are more than ten thousand stones.

He let the mother mouse stay there and said to the father mouse.

"She would stay here from now on, you take responsibility for the food and all her needs. You both can stop taking any missions. The rest will take care of that."

After saying his piece, Sam went to the Herb garden in the dark element area and started picking all kinds of spiritual energy nourishing herbs of dark element.

He went into the tower to look for some potion recipes. Potions are easier to make than the pills.

The difficultly in potions only lies in the heat control and the fire strong enough to take the essence of the herbs. But the pills are of different story.

There is a lot of spiritual energy in play which Sam didn't really like that much. When he just browsed through some info on both, his felt that potions are much better to make as the herbs and essence are also least bit modified. All the change that was done is the heat application, and mixture of various essences in required proportions.

But the pills, there is a lot of a human being's spiritual energy interfering and modifying the herbs and formulating pills with direct contact. This didn't sit well with Sam.

So, he decided that if he were to enter the medicine market he would focus of the potions and he also saw many possibilities of mass production in case of potions.

For now, he is going to brew a potion for the Shadow mouse who is pregnant.

Sam didn't think that he was the kindest guy in the world and he also doesn't have deep sentiments. He himself killed many people and many of them are mothers or children of a mother. If it is an enemy he never thought about these things.

But even for his pets, beasts, companions or subordinates, he felt differently. The shadow mice and his is a mutually beneficial relationship.

Even if the mice themselves feel differently and think of him as a master, he didn't think same. For his subordinates those who are working for him, he would never short change them.

Particularly for the shadow mice who helped him so much by keeping their life on the line, he would take care of them at all costs. They are not his tools after all.

Sam was treated as a tool for more than half his life in his past life time. He doesn't want to treat others like that.

And his subordinate having a child, even if it was a mouse whose life might seem insignificant to many people is good news for him.

Sam stayed inside the tower's second floor for a long time and made one of the simplest but most effective potion. After storing it in several glass bottles, Sam went back to the dark element zone to give to the pregnant mouse.

But the scene shocked him. He saw there are two other mice couples in their special time within their small holes in the rocks.

He was stunned and didn't even know what to say. Only the four young mice who are single and angry about the situation noticed him.

He didn't even know whether he should make his presence known. But after some thoughts, he decided not be a third wheel for any couple and gave the youngsters the potion bottles and said.

"Give them to the mother, tell her to consume as much as possible."

As he was about to leave one of the young mice asked a question which made him regret being like this.

"Boss, we are still single, can you get some mice from some…" Another shadow mouse closed that guy's mouth without letting him finish.

Sam's face turned red in fury.

'Damn it, I just congratulated a couple who are going to have children and now you are treating me as broker. If not for the fact that I don't want to spoil the happiness and despised for disturbing their love time, I would have blasted your ass off.'

Sam cursed that young mouse in his mind many times before moving away.

He was thinking if he should make some wide and large home for the mice.

Even though, these are categorised under mice, they are actually very different from them.

Normal mice actually have ten litters per year and each litter will have six to ten babies. But their life span is also between two to eight years.

But the shadow mice are different. Their bloodline is of very high quality and they have very large lifespan which made their reproduction a little difficult, they can only get one of two litters in a decade and each litter will give from four to six babies based on the nourishment they take.

But from these mice behaviour, there is a great chance that the remaining two mice also becoming pregnant, and they obviously will grow in number.

For now, since there are no more dark element beasts, there is no problem but once they come shadow mice might have problem adjusting with the large number of their family. So, he is thinking if he should build some place to create a proper home for them.

Re-Birth of a Genius. Creator/Destroyer

Chapter 177: Trouble from Noble Kids

After that little episode with the shadow mice, Sam checked up on Philip for the next few days.

He heard that he is beating quite some people up and they even included the noble children of the southern star.

Sometimes, the complicated problems have the easiest solutions. From what he observed from Philip his guesses about his condition were almost right and thus his method of beating him up worked miracles.

Now, the battalion is also quite stable. The squad training and company training are going well and even Sam is not supervising, the soldiers didn't slack off.

After all, who would want to reject the progress in their abilities by slacking off.

Now, the squads are training even more rigorously and now they are targeting the Great realm cultivators. Of course, it is not easy to defeat them but they are mostly trying to hold their ground against them.

It is not impossible to defeat them, but the Great realm cultivators in the military are not average joes, they have high experience. So, the fights are pretty difficult and the squads have only one goal and that is to increase the amount of time they battled and also increase the damage they cause to the opponent.

They are quite confident if two squads participate, they would be able to defeat the Great realm cultivator.

After a few days of observation, Sam felt that he could move towards the next projects in his schedule.

First one is to make uniforms for the battalion members.

Second, some advanced preparations for the business phase of the competition and this has something to do with the impact crystal.

He entered the tower and looked at the tonnes of impact crystals on the floor.

He is almost getting a headache after looking at them, but remembering the general's face and all the tricks he pulled, Sam didn't feel that it is that difficult.

All he has to do is make the process easier by employing different things and the best thing for him right now is the methane gas and building a furnace that can help him process this.

But looking at the amount of gas consumption, Sam is thinking if he should increase the intake of fire type beasts so the he could make their faeces useful.

So, he went out of the camp and after looking around in the town and finding out that there is not much he can do, he only has one choice and that is going to golden-horse trading company.

He placed an order for a large number of Blazing earth Bulls. Even though, other species might give him similar gas or even produce methane. Feeding and grooming this Blazing earth bulls is quite easy as they are low level and their faeces quantity is high.

The representative is quite puzzled about the location of the Blazing earth bull and Sam gladly told about the Lava Rock village.

After hearing the distance and the amount of money in the transaction involved, the manage of the Golden-Horse trading company who is familiar with Sam came out.

After making sure that Sam is not making fun and quite serious, the manager asked curiously.

"May I know what you are going to do with these beasts?"

"I like their meat. Is there a problem?"

When Sam answered like this, he didn't know what to say. Then he coughed awkwardly and asked something else.

"Artisan Sam, are you interested in doing a long-term business with us?"

"Like what?"

"Energy Cells."

Sam smirked and said. "Why ask now? Did the results from the experiments didn't yield any results? I thought you would be angry at me for the damage caused by the resulting explosion, instead you are asking me to do business?"

When he heard those words, Manager was turned speechless.

Because, the resulting explosion indeed made some serious damage to them. An artisan, formation master and an inscription master were heavily injured due to the explosion. But he didn't dare to complain to Sam.

After all, Sam made the payment using those energy cell, but they tried to duplicate it and failed. It is already asking for trouble for trying to copy a Scholar artisan's creation and make money. The artisan tower isn't there for nothing.

But if they succeeded, they would have a bargaining chip with Sam. Since, they would already be familiar with the making process, they can use it to coerce Sam to cooperate with them.

Now, that he heard these words after failure and losses, he was thoroughly embarrassed. That means, Sam knew they are going to do this and they are going to face that explosion.

Sam didn't mind his expression and said.

"Not now, I might think this in the future in a few months. Make sure that the delivery of the Blazing earth bulls goes well. I have a lot of work for them."

Sam left the place and went back to the camp. For some reason he has some thoughts to conduct some experiments on the methane.

But that experiment is about possibility of increasing its grade.

Sam entered the tower as soon as he arrived at the camp and started making preparations.

He made three small pits one of them is normal pit without any modification, he made a metal door which would seal it and pumped the methane into it.

The second pit is also same but this time he made some formations and placed some fire element spirit stones.

The third pit though, Sam made a thin lining of fire energy cell inside the pit and pumped the gas as he closed the top. He wants to see if there are going to be any modifications to gas.

Then he finally moved to the second floor to make equipment for his new product. As for uniforms for the soldiers he can do that when he was bored.

So, Sam was holed up in his tower for the next few months only coming out occasionally. He left all the training to Watt and Marian who is right now the top on the ranking list.

At the same day that Sam went inside the tower for next production, Philip and Jack also started making waves in the city.

Kelly felt that she is not on the same league as them.

After reopening the restaurant and skinning the first person in the most unconventional way the trouble lessened for a few days.

But as soon as their business started to pick up a bit, the other teams weren't able to stay put.

They started making moves and on a particular night after closing down the restaurant.

Philip, Jack and Kelly along with the staff started moving towards the estate.

*BOOM*

An explosion sounded but they didn't see any fire rather there was building wall crashing on them. Even if the debris won't harm them, their vision will be affected and their spiritual sense will be disrupted.

Then suddenly the shadows flashed as several people started attacking them.

The attacks aren't lethal but they would definitely suffer some decent damage.

But after the dust settled, the scene astounded the ten people who arrived.

There are several formation discs which were thrown around Philip's group. Those discs are more than enough to dodge three times the attacks they just made. This is completely overkill.

Philip and Jack took a look at Mackey and the staff and after making sure that they are fine, they relaxed a bit.

Philip turned towards the rest group. Out of ten, the five people are from the southern star city's second team members, these five are noble kids.

Actually, in every team the elites stayed for the business and the rest were sent to military. General seemed to have something to do with it.

These five are those noble kids and the rest are their subordinates of same age from their family. These kids are the ones who are targeting them mainly.

The first southern star team led by Nicholas didn't involve in the conflicts. But this second team not only made use of his connections from their family they made it difficult for potential threats. And food Mackey made his obviously a huge potential threat for them.

They even wanted to poach Mackey and his staff but they rejected resolutely.

Mackey might be only interested in cooking, but he knew his success in improvement is mainly due to the new recipes Sam gave him. And he doesn't plan on stopping his progress. If he is loyal enough, maybe there is a chance that Sam will give him some more recipes which will improve his skill.

Philip looked at the ten people with a smile. This is not the first ambush they suffered but the noble kids didn't come at that time.

There are ten subordinates previously and Jack fought them himself. They are obviously some elites and Jack has some serious difficulty. Philip and Kelly weren't able to help much. So, after they took some beating and more than half of the opponents were injured from Jack's beating they left.

But after Philip's brutal warning the noble kids decided to take it up on themselves to come here.

"You know what? A guy beat me to pulp a few days ago and I wasn't even given a chance to retaliate. Now that you guys are here, I have a chance to vent now." Philip said with his trade mark mischievous smile.

Re-Birth of a Genius. Creator/Destroyer

Chapter 178: Teaching the Noble Kids

Philip looked at them with that mischievous smile. Well, he learnt to open up but that doesn't change the fact that he wants to see the world burn it is just instead watching others burning the world, he decided to take the task upon himself.

Jack and Philip moved at the same time.

The remaining staff are inside the formation while Kelly is with them as guard. Even though, these staff are also cultivators they are not suitable or well-versed in combat.

They only know how to use their cultivation to cook.

In short, they are of no use in this situation.

They all looked as the ten people surrounded Jack and Philip.

"How many times, do you guys need a lesson? Can't you be more obedient and stay put? After all, with your status do you really want to reach more than you should? You are not worthy of the future endeavours this competition provides."

The one who is leading the team said this.

Jack and Philip didn't bother to answer. These condescending fools are usually thick skulled. It is hard to get through. They are busy fighting with the opponents and just as the leader finished the words, a body flew towards him as he narrowly dodged.

Philip looked at him and smirked. But his hands and legs are moving as he battled another subordinate.

This time, Philip threw a rapid flurry of punches. All the people around them could see liquid metal drops flying around and the skin being slowly exposed as the cloths burnt to ashes.

The remaining people who were about to attack stopped in their tracks involuntarily.

They could see the liquid metal seeping into the skin of the limbs of their companion.

"AHhhhhhhh…

"Noooo…"

"Awww."

Various painful groans are coming out of that person's mouth. Philip finally caught that person by hand and threw him towards the leader.

When the body landed, they could see a layer of red coloured metal being solidified on the limbs. They couldn't help but shudder at the ruthless move.

All his body parts are intact, his spiritual core is left untouched but he cannot get up and walk at all.

Even if he undergoes a surgery, there is a high chance that it would be unsuccessful.

What can the healers do?

They cannot pick out the metallic layer directly. If it is only on the outer layer, they might still have a chance, but if the liquid metal seeped into the pores and reached the muscle fibres, things are extremely tricky.

They have to sever the limbs and regrow them again. But will the noble families willing to spend a bomb on a subordinate?

One could wonder about this issue.

While they are in daze of Philip's attack. The second group of three which went after Jack are not faring well.

Jack swung his sword at the punch that is coming his way.

The black meteorite sword sliced through the fist as it cut along the whole hand until it reached the shoulder.

The whole arm was cut along into two. One piece still attached to the body and other on the group.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH......….."

There is a cry full of pain and agony which attracted their attention towards Jack.

Jack's face was furious, he must have had a lot of pent up frustration. After all, in the exact same situations they encountered previously he had to take a lot of heat.

He cannot kill in the city to end the fight, even if he claims it as self-defence, the other party has authority in their hands and he wouldn't be able to escape.

For him killing is a lot easier than pulling punches and when facing ten or more people at a time and when the ten people are also considered as elites, the situation is a lot more troublesome as he would be on complete defensive as he had an obligation to save the staff.

Now, he can finally let loose. When he recalled how Philip changed after Sam's beating, he kept on wondering if he should have beaten him up before.

But after watching Philip fight, he wasn't so sure anymore.

The subordinates are soon dealt with, but the remaining five noble kids are still here, just as they were about to make a run for it, they saw Philip activating a formation disc. This is a kind of restriction formation it creates a boundary which will not allow the people inside to go out and people outside to go in.

Philip borrowed these formation discs from Watt. As for where Watt got them it is obvious.

When the noble kids saw this, their hearts sank. There are only two ways to get past this situation and one if find the loopholes in the formation for which they need a lot of formation knowledge.

The second one is breaking the formation disc which is same as attacking Philip and Jack.

"I will take a look at the formation; you guys stall for time."

One of the five who seemed to be a formation master spoke and started observing the formation. From the energy it is emitting it is quite obvious that this is a rank-2 formation so he was quite confident.

But after looking at the nodes that are formed temporarily, he was quite confused. As he was trying to decipher the nodal structure of the formation suddenly, he felt a shift in energy and the nodes of the formation shifted.

He was stunned in the spot. He didn't know what just happened. Meanwhile, the group confronting Jack and Philip didn't make a move.

Since, their two opponents are just standing there without making any move they also didn't do anything. After all, they knew they are not the opponents for the duo and they are quite content if there is no fight at all.

As for why Philip and Jack are relaxed and didn't make a move, they are quite confident they wouldn't be able to get out at all.

After all, they are seeing Sam up close. That guy never left a loop hole in anything he did. They might be making things, destroying things, plotting against others, everything. He always thought of all possible scenarios and he also thought of all kinds of possible solutions for every scenario.

Unless the opponent is smarter than him in terms of thinking about plans and plots they wouldn't beat his scheme.

So, a person like that, could he possibly miss the loopholes in the formations.

Sam made sure that on the same level formations his formations would be unbeatable.

If he used the formation flags, there would be many layers that breaking through would sap out the other party's energy.

As for formation discs, Sam's hundreds of experiments aren't in vain. He made sure that nodes wouldn't stay in the same spot for more than ten seconds. If other party can break it in ten seconds, he would take his hat off.

Philip and Jack actually tried to go through this formation after they got if from Watt, they didn't know how to decrypt a formation so they tried brute force at the nodes which is the simplest way but also which gives some backlash to the person.

But they tried it anyway as for why they did it, Philip is the perpetrator.

The ending is that they got serious backlash even after all kinds of trails. They tried in many ways but they mostly last at the first challenge that is pinpointing the node's weak point.

After watching their futile attempts, Watt said that no one in the Novice stage could break through the formation.

So, at this present moment they are quite relaxed.

The four noble kids have some hope and felt relived after seeing the Philip and Jack didn't make a move but when there is no response from their teammate, they looked at him running around the formation with a distressed expression which made them feel the despair.

"What are you doing?"

The team leader asked with a frown, He is panicking inside but he is still trying his best to hide it.

"I cannot do this. This formation is strange."

The man who is responsible for deciphering the formation said as he stopped moving and slumped on the ground.

*Cough* *Cough*

Everyone turned their attention to Philip as he coughed.

Seeing his wicked smile, the team leader said.

"You better let us go, you don't know what you would face if you do anything to us. Our families are the ones who have authority here, even if you are a genius you will not go unscathed."

Philip didn't say anything and just looked at him with same wicked smile.

The leader just went on rambling in panic.

"You better let us go."

"You have to leave us, or you would be in trouble." Soon his threats became pleading.

"Please let us go."

"Please at least let me go."

"What do you want to let me go?"

Philip finally responded. "Now we are talking business."

Chapter 179: 'Fair' Trade

Philip finally got the words he wanted.

From their brutal display these noble kids certainly don't want to fight them. These guys are pampered kids, how can they deal with the brutal nature of battle.

So, Philip used this intimidation to make them cough up what he wants and he also made those guys offer what he wanted.

Philip placed his hand on his chin as he slightly tilted his side ways while looking at the team leader in his eyes.

"I heard that you guys are in the restaurant business and you guys even have the best spot in the Inner zone. You see, our restaurant is in outskirts and doesn't have much exposure, how about we trade it."

The five noble kids are dumbfounded for a second before all of the shouted in unison.

"NO."

"Oh, seems like you guys think I am making a request."

Philip's remaining hand was immediately surrounded by the blood red flames. The noble kids immediately took a step backwards.

"Guys, I don't want to make unnecessary damage to you, I am actually quite easy to talk to and in our whole group I am the friendliest person. I am like the nicest guy ever."

When he paused here, everyone looked at the subordinate whose limbs got destroyed and then looked at Philip.

"Oh, come on guys, you should leave those minor details and shouldn't care about them. Do you see, my friend right there? He is like a sword maniac; he doesn't sleep if don't get a chance to cut something up every day."

Philip pointed at Jack as he said. After a brief pause, he said.

"There is another guy named Sam who is in military right now. You might not know, but let me tell you, he is a big gigantic asshole. He doesn't even know how to smile. He always has a poker face and he kill people without batting an eye and do you know what's worse is, the people who got thrashed by him wouldn't even get a chance to negotiate or explain themselves.

Even their parents would have hard time recognising them. He is extremely evil and he is quite bloodthirsty. He doesn't even have any interest towards girls and I highly doubt that he is gay and he is even stronger than me. So, think about it, if you encountered him instead of me, what would happen to you guys?

Look at yourselves, you all are fair and handsome."

*Cough* *Cough*

Jack and Kelly almost choked to death by Philip's words.

"Are your balls made of metal too?" Jack directly asked. He is quite shocked at Philip's guts.

He wondered if Sam heard this, he would beat up Philip and force him to have intercourse with some men. Judging from Sam's way and resoluteness in taking revenge this is highly probable.

"Philip you better make sure that Sam don't hear these words, otherwise…" Jack didn't finish these words. Meanwhile, Kelly was thoroughly embarrassed.

She thought of Sam and then Philip's words, that handsome and ruthless man didn't match with Philip's words. Even she wanted to bash him up.

The five noble kids though are having different thoughts. They didn't meet Sam at all and from Philip's serious and 'concerned' expression they felt like he is not lying at all, which made them shudder in fright.

Philip didn't let them think before adding.

"I am not asking this just for my sake, you know Sam is the leader of our team and when we report these things, we have to report the fact that you guys created trouble and he has quite some status and very vengeful.

You might not know, but he is rank 5 Artisan, so if he comes after you guys, even your families can do little help, so if you just trade the place with us, I can convince him that the restaurant is the compensation you paid.

What do you think?"

When the five noble kids imagined what the consequences if the Rank 5 artisan targeted them and when that person has some weird 'tastes', they didn't even feel like thinking further and the leader immediately took the deed for the restaurant.

After half-an-hour. Philip and the rest are walking home. Philip is quite happy as he whistled while looking at the scroll in his hand, this is the ownership deed of the restaurant that belonged to the noble kid's team.

He really made huge bargain this time, then he suddenly remembered something and looked at the remaining people in particular, Jack and Kelly.

"Hmm, I think we don't have to say the details about this incident to Sam, so we can just inform him that we got a new restaurant by making those noble kids pay. As for the rest, just tell him it was nothing.

After all, he is quite busy training a battalion."

He said with his signature shameless smile.

Jack snorted in disdain.

"What? Don't tell me you weren't able to find any nobler excuse? You dared to say those words about him, just you wait, I bet you are going to lay in the bed for quite some time."

Kelly also couldn't help but tease him. "You are going to suffer. I can still remember how he beat you up until your clothes are destroyed. This time you are going to get it.

But I am looking forward to Watt's reaction. You know, that guy is quite sensitive to everything related to Sam. I think we are going to watch a much-awaited fight between Watt and Philip."

Hearing this, Philip became stumped. He totally forgot this. He just wanted to make fun of Sam to vent his anger for the previous beating, he didn't think of Watt at that time.

Even though, he is a late stage Novice and Watt is in middle stage, he is not completely sure if he can defeat Watt.

If that guy really became serious and fought him to death after he learnt this incident, there is no way he would escape unscathed.

The main thing is, he couldn't even kill him and even if tried, he is pretty sure how Sam is going to react, even if thoughts come to his mind, he might as well start making his funeral preparations.

"Guys, you see… We are such close friends; we have to help out each other, right? Be a dear and just forget about the whole situation and then we all can live happily. How is the proposal?"

He shamelessly begged after envisioning the situation.

"HAHAHAHAHA…"

Jack and Kelly burst into laughter. The batch went to the estate as they laughed and chatted. This is the first time; the group was carefree in a while.

When, Sam rejected their request to help and even not giving them any suggestions, they began to panic. They felt that they have being carried by Sam and he must have been tired of it, so he gave up on them.

Well, at least Kelly and Jack thought so. But they don't have any misgivings, after all that is almost real. Sam really did help them a lot and now that he is busy, he decisively rejected.

But after Philip's beating session, they understood what is really happening.

Sam isn't sick of helping them, he is sick of helping them when they are not giving their best effort.

Now that without Sam everything else is resolved they are finally at ease.

At first, the general's men, hindered them and make them lose the first advantage.

Later, Sam resolved the general's issue and the rest of the teams started picking on them. They didn't even have a proper place for the restaurant.

Now, Philip solved the issue.

That night, Philip and Kelly didn't go to the impact crystal back yard. Watt is working with Sam's new Impact crystal collecting machine. The process is a lot easier and he can just freely farm the ore.

Even the beasts are working.

So, they can take rest occasionally and don't have to work every day.

The next day, the inner zone of the city, particularly the business zone where the restaurants are usually run was in turmoil.

After the restaurant which is obviously much bigger than their previous ones, and one of the biggest even in the whole street, along with a bustling location, in short, this restaurant is one of the most suitable and profitable ones in the city, was transferred to Philip and the team, how would he leave this chance.

He brought Mackey and the staff as they made preparations for a grand reopening. They are sick of opening and reopening the restaurants so, they clearly hoped this is the last one and this time they hoped to make a profit in this business.

They made a huge commotion by loud announcements which made the noble kids almost vomit blood in anger.

This was their restaurant after all.

Philip even made bold statements that most unique cuisine in the whole southern star.

Of course, those bold claims although attracted attention from the customers, it also made the remaining restaurants' owners to frown in displeasure.

Because, they are already having a hard time due to the involvement of candidates now out of all the candidates this team seemed to be most troublesome. This conclusion was further solidified the food's taste as this is really the most unique cuisine.

They never tasted it after all.

This way, the team's business was back on the track.

Chapter 180: Marching towards the Border

Days passed.

In the city, Philip and the rest are having a somewhat semi-peaceful business.

The trouble-makers didn't dare to show up in the restaurant while business is going one because, in the first few days those that entered were so seriously injured that they wished they were crippled or even dead.

The psychotic punishments of the eighteen-year-old kid were circulated thoroughly within the candidates and also the troublemakers who work for money.

The most frightened of all are definitely the five noble kids, they didn't even dare to look towards the restaurant.

Their parents although angry didn't dare to make a move or instruct someone to do something as they were on a tight watch of Duke.

So, they could only grit their teeth and swallow the resentment. Their children though, didn't even want to think of a way to get revenge and that fear mainly stemmed from the thought of getting into the hands of Sam.

Even though, Philip and the rest are sometimes targeted, threatened and even ambushed outside the business hours, they still managed to pull through and after a month of hard work, they covered their losses and started to see some profits which is far more than they expected.

For the next few months, their lives are pretty much uneventful other than the cultivation breakthroughs. Philip entered the peak stage of Novice while Jack is in eight stage same as Watt.

Kelly though is only on verge of breaking though the middle stage Novice and entering the late stage.

Now there is only a month away from the shift change.

As the outside the camp is peaceful, inside the camp particularly Sam's battalion is full of battle spirit.

There is only a month for war and the main focus of this war is on the candidates and among the candidates Sam was even more special as he is a battalion commander.

His battalion soldiers are in completely high spirits compared to the other soldiers. Because, their training results made them full with confidence. They are quite sure that they can win the war as yesterday Sam explained to them that they are only responsible for defending a border town and their opponents are also only a battalion of soldiers.

When faced with equal opponents, these people are not afraid at all.

Every soldier was given uniform with their name embroidered on it along with their company number, squad number and a number indicating their position in the squad. They all have same type of uniform and the main difference laid in the colour.

Each company was given a different colour uniform.

And the ranks are separated by the stars on their shoulders. Their uniforms are mostly based on normal modern-day soldier's dress but the pockets are mostly reduced as there is minimum need for them. Every soldier uses a spatial ring so there is no need to worry about them at all.

Their uniforms are comfortable and stylish compared to their former uniforms. They felt a sense of pride and unity after wearing them.

Sam stood on the stage as he glanced at the soldiers who are assembled. He could feel their urge to battle from up there, he smirked and said in a loud voice.

"We are going to start out journey today towards the border town, since it is one of the closest borders to the southern star city.

The town we are going to guard is the Red rock canyon town. This town is separated from our enemy empire by a large red rock canyon. We are going to face our opponents head on as there is limited space for the strategies.

But still, I believe in the soldiers I trained. I want an overwhelming and clean victory. Even if there are a battalion of soldiers that we are going to face, I don't want to wait there for days.

Do you guys want to stay in a border towm?"

"No." There is a loud roar in unison.

"So, we are going there finishing the battle as soon as we can and occupy the enemy's town. Then all we have to do is handover it to the authorities and come back to the southern star city.

Now, Depart."

As he issued this command, all the soldiers moved in a systematic manner in seven files. Each company has seven files having seven soldiers each led by a company commander in the front.

Each company has a certain distance distinguishing themselves.

As the battalion started marching, Sam floated over on the Harbinger as he held the map and observing the route.

As the group is large, the transportation is a bit difficult as it would be quite difficult to rear the beasts to do this, Sam is thinking if he should make trucks to make some money off of it. He can even cut down in the speed part and all the requirements would only be the space and mobility. It just has to cut this journey of one month to ten days and they would gladly buy them.

But he needs a lot of materials and production process. He has a plan to settle down for a bit after this competition is over and open a factory to make his products in the empire and make some big bucks.

Before that, smaller business to earn enough money is good. Out of all titles he had Sam treasured his identity as a creator, that is why he obtained his artisan badge first as it is one closest to the creator's title.

And what does a creator need the most, his creations to be used for most appropriate purpose and be appreciated for their cause. If he can obtain money from satisfying this need, that is the best-case scenario.

So, for now he has to deal with this competition and then he can concentrate on the business.

The journey to the border town will take around twenty-seven days on foot. Even the remaining regiments are dispatching their troops to the respective camps. After these regiments moved to the camp only then would the existing border military will return to the main base.

But out of all troops, Sam's battalion made quite a scene as the five hundred soldiers moving an orderly manner is not something the people would see often. Their formation and the intimidating movements along with the uniforms and the uniform sound of footsteps in sync made people sweat from a far.

This all looked magnificent to the people as they watched the army passed by. Soon, the news spread. A special battalion marched in a formation towards the border town and their commander is floating over them.

The most surprised of all were the Duke and General Spark.

They didn't think that Sam would be able to train a battalion strong enough to deal with the enemy's troop.

That is the reason they dropped all kinds of people they don't want to deal with in Sam's battalion, simply put it is a battalion made of cannon fodder.

But the reality slapped them in the face in the hardest way possible.

As per the agreement they shouldn't copy Sam's training methods but that didn't stop them from observing them.

When the battalion of soldiers are kicking up a fuss by challenging the soldiers left and right, they finally understood that the situation is not exactly what they imagined.

Then only they started observing Sam's training.

All of his methods are unconventional. Particularly the drill training didn't even make any sense at all.

The rest of the training methods didn't seem that special even if they are unconventional.

But the results are saying otherwise. The squad battles are one of things that they hated the most. Because no squad in the army is a match for a squad from Sam's battalion.

At first, they at least have some wins, but after a few days, there are no wins to speak of and the worst part is, Sam's squad used only most basic of the moves and all the squad members didn't even attack at all.

This made the Duke regret the bet he made.

The main aim is that Sam has to die in this battle and if he does, then they would not have anything to worry about.

Even if Sam isn't dead, if he is defeated, he can make use of that point and pressure Sam is dissolving this grudge.

For the past few months, Jim is lying in the bed without any treatment. The Pharmaceutical tower head didn't even bother to listen to Duke and the latter doesn't have any right to pressure him. So, all they can do is hope that Sam lost or better died.

But the soldiers seemed to be quite well trained and a force to be reckoned with. This made things complicated and now he can only wish one thing and that is the army sent by enemy Duke is quite formidable and they can wipe the floor with Sam's battalion.

Re-Birth of a Genius. Creator/Destroyer

Chapter 181: Red rock canyon

The twenty-seven days marching of soldiers from southern star city to the Red rock canyon was spread all over the dukedom.

The main source of this news is the traders. As they travel a lot, the news also spread in so many parts of the Dukedom.

Some of them are in awe as they imagined the scene, some of them just brushed off the news as an exaggerated rumour.

Anyway, one twenty-seventh day, the march of the battalion came to halt as they reached the Red rock town.

The town has two main entrances and one of them is in the direction of the southern star city and the other one towards the Canyon where the military post is located.

Even though, it is called a town, it is no bigger than a normal village. The only reason it is called a town is because of the better economic state than a typical village.

This is one of the smallest border connections with the enemy empire. The Red rock canyon narrows down the path connecting the two empires making it a strategic location which can be a path into either of the empires.

If one empire compromises, the other empire will easily occupy the other town and if that happens, the balance between the two empires might break.

If any of the two empires wins in this location, the winner can use this chance to penetrate into the loser empire. Since, the border is small and the both sides are covered with Cliff making it almost inhabitable and difficult to send the troops from different directions, the losers will have only one way.

That is to gather the troops and attack from their other cities. But before they could gather enough troops and clear the citizens to make an attack, there is a high chance that the winner's forces would enter their empire and they will have a strategic advantage.

Even if the winner who entered the empire, has a hard time dealing with forces, he can use this canyon as a retreat path to back down easily. The other party's army wouldn't be foolish enough to barge into the canyon and follow them into their territory before defeating the army as there would be a high chance of landing into a trap.

For this reason, this became a delicate location due to the natural terrain around.

Sam read this report given to him by Deputy General, he also read something interesting and that is, a few decades ago, the armies of the two dukes are heavily stated near this red canyon and town and the counter part of this town in the enemy empire.

The civilians were forced into the dire states with lack of food and enough space and a safe environment. The red rock canyon became the battle field and the two armies faced some serious casualties.

But both the parties didn't budge and didn't want to give up on the place, as the first one who manages to occupy the red canyon and town of the other empire, they will have a strategic advantage.

They can take control of the surrounding villages slowly or they safely retreat into the canyon which would be an ideal location to defend as they can bring their enemies to a head on fight.

But the problem is when the two sides wanted to get it, they are wasting so many resources and lives, so they can only come to consensus.

They both retreated their armies and only left a battalion each. Both sides of the canyon are cliffs which divided the two empire completely and the next city with connected border is more than a week away.

So, whatever regiment that is in charge of that city's border will arrange a battalion here.

There are some more delicate spots like this and they are all guarded in the same way.

The enemy duke proposing this challenge will not only help his son to get some exposure from those people behind the scenes but also recognition from the emperor by resolving the stalemate in this place.

Sam has to say that this plan is amazing, the only variable is the win or loss of the battle.

If the plan really failed, then the life Duke's son be at stake.

So, Sam felt that there might be something else going one behind the scenes.

Will the Duke really leave his son to die in this place?

Will he really not care about this?

Sam felt that it is highly unlikely, but Duke still sent his son to the battle, there are only two possibilities, the Duke is so confident that they are going to win this battle or the Duke might think of a backup plan to save his son even if he lost.

Sam is thinking on what might be the case. He knew that, even if the battle is an opportunity for him to get the points for assignment, it is also a high-level risk.

He is an enemy of general and he more or less pissed the Duke off and even messed up their army. So, they might hold quite some grudge.

Even though, Duke's proposal might sound like an opportunity, Sam thought otherwise.

The duke could have sent Nicholas or any other person who is on close terms with him, better he can even send Zeke or Blue fire.

After all, this is an opportunity to amass the points. If they really won, they can hoard enough points to leave the second place in dirt and if they lost, the duke can sugar coat the words by saying that the candidates bravely led the troops and tried his best.

But sending Sam, who is their enemy, there might be only two cases and one is that they are trying to curry favour Sam or they want Sam to lose here and die. Sam felt that the second option is most likely.

He shook his head and sent Zoi termites and four shadow mice out.

As Sam expected the remaining two couples also started expecting soon after he took care of the first one. And soon ten new shadow mice joined the family.

Now the parents are still teaching and taking care of their children, now Sam can only make use of the four young ones.

Their jog now is to see, if there is any tampering down to the terrain.

Generally, there is a restriction that both parties shouldn't do anything to the terrain. If the canyon collapse, the connection between two empires would be lost, turning a strategic location into a dead end, which will anger the emperors.

After a whole night of scouting and making sure that there is no underhanded scheme involving the terrain, he was relieved, he retired for the day.

For the next three days, Sam only has to prepare his soldiers for the battle and after three days, they would have to fight and by the fifth day, Sam want to start the return journey.

He doesn't want to wait here, test waters, make strategies and everything.

Honestly a battle involving only two battalions means a thousand people, for Sam this isn't a war at all.

And he is highly confident that his soldiers will win and there is a high chance that they are going to win with zero casualties.

Even if the other party has whole army full of Novice elites who are individually stronger than the his soldiers, he can still confirm that it was his win.

Because, the main strength of the Sam's army lies in the teamwork which was drilled into them until it was committed to their muscle memory.

But he has only one concern and that is if there are any shady means involved, there is a high chance that the soldiers might be in danger, which he didn't want to happen.

So, for the next three days, the four mice and the termites and even locusts are in full time watch mode.

They didn't even bother to enter the enemy's army, rather they are only responsible for watching the canyon.

That's it.

Fortunately, there is nothing wrong with terrain and there is only one way that something might happen and that is a conspiracy which involves the army of the enemy or some hidden experts arriving.

On the day of the war, before dawn, the soldiers are already awake and marched their way towards the mouth of the canyon. On the other side of the canyon more than two thousand meters away, they could see their enemy empire also preparing for the war.

At this moment, a Great mage came towards Sam.

This guy is one of the supervisors of this battle.

There are five Great mage experts from both sides and these ten people are here to supervise the match so that nothing against the rules will happen.

"I hope you know the rules. In this battle even if you are killed, we wouldn't interfere. The most we can do is carry your body back and give it a proper burial with the rest of the soldiers.

The same goes for the other army, their Great mages also won't get involved.

We are only here to keep a watch at things and make sure that no party breaks the rules.

That being said, I do hope you will win."

As the supervisor said, he extended his hand for a hand shake, which Sam returned.

Re-Birth of a Genius. Creator/Destroyer

Chapter 182: Peacock

After the whole battalion was assembled, Sam and the main supervisor who just talked to him walked towards the midpoint of the canyon, where they would meet with the other party.

Sam looked at a youngster who seemed to be in his early twenties and also a Novice at peak stage in a luxurious battle attire, with a high-quality armour of rank 4.

Behind him stood a Great realm cultivator who is the supervisor from the other side.

The Supervisor is an early stage Great realm cultivator and is he is in his late thirties.

After the both parties met, the supervisors exchanged the documental agreements, which has the seals of Dukes which states that the town of the loser would be in the winner's control and the loser cannot attack the winner and try to grab the town back until the eight months which means before the next war meant for testing the candidates.

Sam was quite intrigued by this documental system in this type of civilisation and particularly between two empires.

In modern earth, there are similar treaties between various nations, but there is an international court and United nations to question the deal breaker.

But who has that right and power in this world? Sam has yet to see them and for now there is only one group that Sam suspected, the people who are controlling this competition.

Anyway, Sam didn't think much about the issue and right now his focus is on the young man in front of him.

This guy gave Sam a serious and most disgusting first impression. Rich and arrogant. Sam is even thinking if the whole world consisted of these guys. Wherever he went, he would at least on of this kind.

The young man is looking at Sam as if he cannot wait to move away from him place and it is his misfortune to breath the same air as Sam.

He is way past a normal rich second-generation kid.

After the brief exchange of the supervisors they then came back to the positions and Sam's supervisor spoke first.

"Your battle is a competition between your two armies, the winner will be decided, if the one party surrenders completely with no one willing to fight and that includes the commanders which is you two.

Or there is other way and that is if either of you two dies first, then the remaining one will be the winner.

You can fight along with your troops or you can command them from behind, that is your wish. But the main thing is the supervisors wouldn't interfere, otherwise it would be a massive breach of the rules.

They are only here to see if any of you are using any forbidden means.

Both of you may exchange a word if you want."

Even though, Sam didn't have much of an impression on this guy, he still extended his hand to for a hand shake. After all, this is a competition not some life and death enmity. Sure, the soldiers might die, but they will have to face this situation even if not for this competition.

These two nations are warring for decades.

But the reaction of the opponent didn't surprise Sam at all.

"Puny commoner. Do you really think that you are worthy to shake my hand? You must be dreaming if you think that you are my equal just because southern star Duke sent you here. I am of noble birth and I wouldn't even touch a strand of hair from a person of filthy blood like you."

As he said, he turned his head away and left.

Sam didn't take it to heart and only smirked to himself. His expectations were spot on. He is not just arrogant, he is a border-line racist, but his racism depended on his noble status not of colour or language.

That means, everyone who is not a noble is filth to him.

Sam smiled coldly as he thought of the expression this proud peacock [1] will have after the battle and that won't be long.

"You can begin the war as soon as you can."

The supervisor said to Sam.

Sam nodded and without speaking he took out Harbinger and disappeared in a flash.

The Peacock and his supervisor didn't notice this as they are too busy with their self-centred pride filled moment of humiliating Sam.

Sam is back to the soldiers' temporary station in a minute. As soon as he came, he said in loud voice.

"I am not going to give you guys any strategy and I don't think you need one. I trust my way of training you and I believe you already know how to defeat them without my advice.

One thing I do want to say is, one day. I want the battle to be finished by today and I want to have dinner in the mansion of that town's head.

So, begin."

Sam said these words and as soon as he did, the soldiers started marching rapidly. It cannot be called as marching but more like running, but they are doing that too in an orderly fashion.

The red rock canyon.

It is around 700 meters wide but the space between the two cliffs is still filled with uneven rocks. The distance between the two armies right now is around two thousand five hundred meters. If not for the improved eyesight of the cultivators, they wouldn't even be able to see each other.

Sam's army rapidly approached as they observed the surroundings. The earth elemental and the wood elementals are mostly looking around and their minds are working on high speed.

The red rock is not that hard but not soft either. If they are fortified with spiritual energy, they can take around two hits from a normal Late stage Novice.

As for flora in the area, there are mostly shrubs with a lot of thorns. There is not much greenery around, but these shrubs which are short and almost looked dried are full of thorns.

They are having different thoughts and how to utilise the terrain to their absolute advantage.

On the other side. Peacock is only halfway through the distance towards his station, but he could hear the sound and feel the vibration of running.

When he and the supervisor curiously turned back, they were stunned.

The whole battalion is intimidatingly marching towards them in an orderly fashion, but with force and battle intent surging. They could feel the excitement in the soldiers.

Only after a few seconds did the peacock come back to his senses and he immediately panicked. The supervisor beside him was also shocked and immediately ran towards the nearby cliff as he climbed upwards.

All the supervisors are on the either side of the cliff as the observed. They are mainly here to check if they are using some forbidden tricks exclusive to this match and those are, Great realm cultivators, the usage of high-level inscriptions and formations, they can only use the second rank items.

Only the candidates, which means Sam and Peacock have some privileges of using some life saving measures.

Peacock immediately started moving, he seemed to be a Warrior. He ran as fast as he can and he is using a movement technique.

When he was near his soldier's station and they were in his audible range, he shouted.

"Immediately move, the enemies are attacking all of you move."

The Soldiers are still lazing around a bit.

One of the reasons is that they are an elite squad of Novices trained by the Duke himself. They are a part of Duke's special regiment and they have intel from their spies that Sam is training the soldiers himself, so they are a little over-confident.

Another reason is, generally the wars wouldn't be this abrupt and direct. Since, the cultivators are powerful and if they are underestimated the casualties will be severe. So, both sides have a tacit understanding and will test the waters with some small battles.

Duels between individuals, squads, companies. All these are normal and these are the main reasons that War goes on for that many days.

These small tests will not only make them delay the time, but also make the commanders on both sides think and estimate the enemy's strength.

Sometimes, a side will deliberately send weaker opponents to make the other party over confident and catch them by surprise.

Sometimes, one party will have weak overall strength and they will deliberately send their trump card soldiers to bluff in the duels.

In this way, there are way too many possibilities, which will make the people think and they don't dare to make a full-scale attack unless they confirmed the enemy's strength either estimation or spying.

But Sam didn't feel like waiting. At first, he wanted to entertain the other party by making a couple of duels possible, but after that peacock opened its feathers and started looking down on him. He lost his interest.

After all, how dare a peacock look down on a Roc just based on its looks. The Roc is the one that rules the sky and a Peacock is just a small part of it.

Foot notes:

1: Peacock from the saying Proud as a Peacock. Describes a Vain and self-centred person who is proud of himself for nothing of substance.

Re-Birth of a Genius. Creator/Destroyer

Chapter 183: Sam's Battalion

Sam might seem petty and he might be stooping low by acting like this. But he is also a normal human being. He is not a bigger man, who associates the other party's condescension to their immaturity and him ignoring them makes him more mature and a good human being.

He doesn't want to be that good human being and wait for karma to do the work for him, he pays back every debt himself.

In fact, he felt that him entertaining the other party by following the normal procedure of some, one vs one duel, beneath him. After all, he needs an equal to play, but the other party is clearly not at least in his mentality of looking down on people.

So, Sam is not going to bother with these rules and let all his soldiers loose. He followed them from a distance on his harbinger as he observed their movements.

He needs to make sure that they wouldn't be affected by any of the underhanded tricks or any other traps that might have been laid by the enemy. He wants this war to be won without a single casualty and he is going to make sure that happens no matter what.

He followed the soldiers with hundred meters distance as he looked over.

From the other side, the Peacock's soldiers also started moving forward. Seeing the confident march of their enemies, they are hesitating whether to go head to head or to make land and defend.

The man who seemed to be the Deputy of the Peacock asked.

"Young Lord, what should we do?" He was given orders before to follow whatever the peacock says, so he is asking it. Even though, he knew that he will be better leader than the young lord, he still has to obey.

After all, this place is for the young lord to show off.

But Peacock is in full Panic mode.

According to what his father said, there would some one on one challenges and then the squad challenges to estimate, the enemy's strength.

This way they can decide to make an all-out attack or make some company level skirmishes and so on. But this commoner is not following these things, he just let his five hundred soldiers loose.

"I…. I don't know." The peacock stuttered as he answered the deputy. Sam's soldiers are already half way and his soldiers currently covered the half of their half way. So, within few minutes they would meet.

No matter what they did now, they are going to fight the battle in their half which is a bit disadvantageous to them.

The Deputy shook his head and said.

"Young lord, I suggest you stay in the back and near the town gate. If you agree, I will take the command and if anything happens, you can retreat and defend with the remaining soldiers who will follow you back into it.

As long as you guys are alive there is still hope for competition."

The Peacock nodded his head and immediately moved as if he received a new lease on life. Looking at this behaviour Deputy only shook his head even more.

A coward like him who is afraid to face a completely new situation in a war, how can he be fit to lead an army. He should have just stayed put in his mansion and be sheltered until he inherited his father's position.

Why bother coming to a war zone?

As he thought of this, he looked at the rapidly coming army.

He then looked at the floating young man hovering above his army with a golden coloured bow.

Even though, this young man has confidence, he didn't have enough experience by sending his army like this, it would be difficult if his army was to face some difficult situation. After all, there is only one retreat route and it would quite difficult to defend while retreating.

He shook his head again and then commanded the soldiers.

"Defensive formation.

This would be the ending line and they shouldn't advance past this. Defend this line with your lives. Let us defend for our victory." His voice was lour and clear and even Sam could hear it. All the soldiers started making defensive formations.

Their spirits are high.

Sam observed the crowd and he saw that the Peacock is nowhere to be seen on the front line, he smirked again. His guess was right.

He sent some termites to keep track on that Peacock so that he wouldn't escape. He is determined about this war and if any unexpected things or tricks happened, which he felt that would definitely happen, he prepared several other things to cope with the problem.

He has estimated more than ten scenarios where his clean sweep could go wrong and he prepared enough arrangements for these ten scenarios.

Soon, the two armies met. The defence of the enemy is quite good.

Sam looked at his soldiers with relaxed expression, he has faith in his army.

They are doing exactly what he taught and the first thing in this scenario is to test the extent of the defence of these guys.

The defensive formation of the enemy soldiers is mainly focused on fending the attacks and make it a long duration battle, a battle of endurance. Their earth element users are in the fore front as they made the trenches and walls which would defend their army along with the warriors helping them taking on the attackers.

The second line of defence is mainly of few attackers and semi defence users like water and wood. The last line of defence is full of the main attackers, comprised of many elements including the fire, wind, lightning.

But Sam's soldiers are dauntless. Right now, they are in company battle mode and the first thing they did is the main attackers attacking the first line of defence with their basic attacks to test how strong they are.

The warriors didn't even act yet as they spread around with the remaining companies.

After gauging the extent of defensive strength and the counter attacks from the main long-range attackers from second line and third line.

They decided their next step.

There are some Javelin users throwing these javelins as the counter at them from the third line which has some chance of disrupting their attack pattern and the warriors who are in the front line supporting the earth users are the weakest points in the whole defence line.

Since, the other party only focussed on defence their earthen walls are quite solid and being held up by the combination of all earth element users is making it harder for them.

So, the next step Sam's soldiers thought of is entering this defence line through the weakest point. The warriors.

Just like that there were concentrated projectile attacks like wind blades and fire balls on the warriors. The attacks didn't even touch the walls and forts like they expected, this made the Deputy frown, but seeing that the attacks are most basic ones, he was still thinking on what to do.

But he didn't notice, the wood element users and the earth element users making some movements as the attackers made their move on the warriors.

Some areas in the ground started having some changes, the red rocky terrain started protruding with some small brick like structures, in centre of which there was a hole big enough to fit a foot.

The movement of the warriors from the other side were suddenly impeded by the small rocky irregular protrusions which are popping out randomly and the holes hidden at the centre of the protrusions, making some of them struck.

With this small distraction, before they knew it, the attacks came at them. All of them are mostly focused on their vitals. The wind blades targeting their necks, eyes, the fire balls aimed at their faces and heart.

The Deputy observed the small anomaly in which his warriors are being taken down, before he could observe closely, Sam's soldiers started penetrating into the formation and they are moving in the form of squads.

Their next target is taking down of the earth users while fending off the second line.

The Deputy noticed that the defence is going to crumble and commanded.

"Second line and first line, eliminate the intruders first. Warriors stay defensive and don't move from your posts, earth users provide cover to the warriors and take some heat from them make sure that they don't advance further."

He is in the third line and he is on top of a temporary watch tower. He observed the battle seriously. The first thought he had after watching Sam's soldier's performance is that he is wrong about his assumption of the other party being inexperienced.

The strategy is completely unconventional and new. He had led the same battalion for quite some battles. The cultivator's wars always tended to on the simple side without much tricks. He used this formation many times but all of them always targeted at the earthen wall.

Because, even if they take down the warriors, the entry into the inner part will be minimal and at most a squad can enter before the gap was filled. The squad who entered will be dead as they would be surrounded by quite some people.

This can be called a trap, but for some reason, he had a bad feeling that these squads of Sam's battalion shouldn't enter this and consequences wouldn't be good.

Re-Birth of a Genius. Creator/Destroyer

Chapter 184: Sam's Battalion II

The Deputy's feeling was right. It really is bad idea to let the squads inside their formation because, as the second line and the earth users focused on three squads that entered, they didn't notice that the rest of the battalion's earth element users and wood element users are doing something.

Earth element users placed their hands on the walls, while the wood element users placed their hands on the ground and both parties closed their eyes.

And before they knew it, there is a huge change in the front line.

The earthen wall made of Red rock suddenly underwent a metamorphosis.

The earth element users responsible for maintaining the wall felt the change but before they could react, the ground under their feet started showing changes, they felt that their feet and legs being attacked by numerous sharp objects.

When they looked down, they saw the shrubs in the surroundings all started growing to their maximum and size and their thorns became fortified by the wood element energy penetrating their skin and making them distracted.

And this distraction changed the course of the battle.

The Red rock wall, changed the shape and before they knew it, there are several gaps and the wall started moulding itself into small room around the earth element user and before they could react, numerous spikes made of the sharp rocks protruded inside killing them.

From this one situation more than half of the earth users died and the other half who reacted fast enough were seriously injured becoming unfit for the battle.

The healers started helping some people with the protection of the second line soldiers.

Right now, the first line is compromised.

Deputy was in shock at what happened. As soon as he saw this scene, he immediately commanded.

"Go to a full-on mode, don't drag the fight. They don't even have a single casualty, try to do as much damage as you can and slowly retreat towards the town. We will defend the town no matter what."

As he said this, he looked at Sam, who is pretty relaxed. He didn't see Sam giving a single command since the battle started.

The soldiers attacked on their own, there is not even a single strategy or order from the young commander.

He has thoughts if this battalion is a special elite army trained by some expert in the dukedom and they have lent it to Sam just for the sake of winning. After all, they are the same. If not for the Duke they would never be under this Young Lord's command.

Deputy still looked at the battle. He is observing the attack patterns of the Sam's soldiers.

He was completely amazed, he noticed that there are no energy consuming attacks from those soldiers.

All the attacks are done with minimum energy usage and simplest of them. The attacking speed, control and lethality are being carefully controlled.

Particularly, the earth and wood element users are the ones that are quite intriguing. They are not even trying to make some serious damage to the soldiers. They are completely focused on defending and laying traps.

He never thought, that even the shrubs can be this dangerous. Generally, the wood users, carry some special seeds which are of various vine type plants.

These seeds are formed by various experimentations from a special branch of pharmaceutical tower. The Herbology. They study in improvement of various herbs to increase medical effects and also try to find ways to increase the production of these herbs.

These types of vine species are completely accidental. They are vines which will grow rapidly and have very small life span, they can grow in very harsh environments provided that they have sufficient wood element energy.

But Sam's soldiers are not using them. Deputy didn't know whether they had them.

But if they really had them and yet to use, this is quite dangerous. He now understood that all their attack patterns and war techniques are useless. He saw for the first time the best coordination between different element users in a single squad.

The most painful thing is the warriors who are on a constant move. They are not only making it hard for them to target them, they are even assisting all the remaining companies and particularly the healers.

The healers of the Sam's battalion are right in middle of battle, yet they are not being attacked at all. To be precise, they are being protected to that extent.

When anyone is injured, these warriors and the earth element users are safely escorting the healer to the injured and let them heal.

There are more than hundred casualties on Peacock's side, yet Sam's side didn't even have a seriously injured person.

Their usage of spiritual energy is frugal and they can take a long-lasting battle.

Even when someone is having a deficit in spiritual energy, they will get near the nearest earth element user and take out a neutral energy cell to recharge quickly. The best advantage of the energy cells, they can switch to attack with the energy within the cell at any given movement.

This became the ideal team. They are good as squads, companies or even the whole battalion.

The Deputy was completely envious.

Peacock who is even far behind the Deputy didn't know what is happening. He could see his soldiers being killed, but he couldn't understand the lethality and severity of the teamwork that Sam's team is providing.

The Deputy is brainstorming on how to neutralise the situation. He knew that there are only two ways, either give a last life and death struggle or retreat to the town and defend.

Either way, he has to take down some people first.

So, he gave an order.

"Target the healers. Third line, join the battle."

As he said those words, the battle immediately became intense. The Deputy who was on the watch tower picked up a Javelin and aimed.

The lightning energy surged as he threw the Javelin into the battle.

Even though, the soldiers dodged it narrowly, the Javelin struck the ground like a thunder and made it tremble along with disrupting the order.

Not only him, many other Javelin throwers are also doing the same. The worst part is their soldiers are also being affected.

Sam frowned at this and he observed the directions of the javelins. They are being thrown at the healers. The earth element users are doing a great job, but these javelins are making them consume the energy faster.

Just from one look, he could understand why they didn't use these kinds of attack earlier even though they used javelins before.

It is like a Kamikaze effort. Their side although not deaths, are also suffering from the disorder.

Sam looked at the people in an elevated spot in the back.

He nocked an arrow and pulled the string of the Golden crescent.

*Whoosh*

The arrow made a hole through the forehead of a person who was about to throw a Javelin.

Sam didn't use other elemental energies it is pure spiritual energy and it still produced its lethality.

Next was the whistles of the arrows flying are becoming more and more and every arrow took a life.

The Deputy noticed this, he didn't think that Sam would also be this lethal, he estimated the other party's strength as same as the young lord's but he is dead wrong.

They are very different. Just this archery level is enough to shake fear in enemies and judging from the relaxed expression this is not even half of it.

He cleared his mind and decided.

He will give one last try and he can make it, he will proceed with a head on battle otherwise, he would retreat with his army and will defend the town from inside.

He took out another Javelin, this one has a lot of runes on it, he closed his eyes, as he channelled a lot of lightning elemental energy into it.

Meanwhile, the rest of the Javelin throwers are terrified by Sam and are having a hard time coping with this and seeing their leader use this special trick, they abandoned the Javelins and started defending, even the soldiers of Peacock noticed their deputy and also went on defensive as they moved backward slowly.

Their moves are as discreet as possible, but Sam noticed this. Then he sensed something and looked at the watch tower where Deputy stood.

The temporary wooden roof and the walls of the observation spot were demolished immediately as the spiritual energy surged like crazy.

Sam could sense the spiritual energy being drained from the leader and not only that there are some more lightning elemental users adding their energy into it.

This way, there wouldn't be any life-threatening danger for the leader after throwing and to be safe there are two healers standing behind him ready to heal.

Sam frowned. He knew that whatever that is happening is going to be trouble. The soldiers are still battling and even they noticed the energy, but they are still confident when they saw that Sam's expression although frowning was still a bit nonchalant, so they pressed on.

Deputy opened his eyes and looked at Sam. The Javelin contained around three novice's full energy. This attack will be like a thunder strike from the sky. He was ready to throw, but he has yet to see a hint of panic on Sam's face.

Re-Birth of a Genius. Creator/Destroyer