Tripartition

Painting an absurd, yet hair-raising picture, a massive leopard-esque beast shared a table with a dragon-horned man, whose eyes were almost entirely lifeless. By all rights, such a scene should have alarmed those who observed it, yet all the passersby and employees of the tavern they were in had the same look in their eyes as the Imperial Han Family member.

"We meet again, Insect Lord."

"Beast Lord... I was wondering when I'd run into you again."

Exchanging a short and awkward greeting, the two unlikely companions fell silent once more, neither entirely sure how to continue. Some time ago, whilst Kjartan had been expanding his Fly Slaves, he had attempted to assimilate this exact animal in front of him–yet, it had already been under the control of Renault Dompteur, who immediately noticed what he was doing. The two of them almost broke out into an open war, but once they realized that both of them had vast troops at their disposal, they tacitly kept their distance from each other. Today, however, this would change.

"I'm sure you've seen Theodore Winter's public proclamations. What are you planning to do about them?"

After staring at each other for a while, the beast was the one who spoke up first. In its eyes, there was a hint of curiosity, as well as a strong resolve.

"Realistically, there are only two options. I can either use up my sole life-saving item, or I can try to resist. He's already made it blatantly clear that he intends to be my enemy. But what does that have to do with you? Are you also torn between those options? Not considering to bow your head?"

Barely masking the hint of disdain in his voice, the middle-aged Han man furrowed his brows. There was no trust between them whatsoever, which was also the reason as to why they had not exchanged names. In general, people of their background would try to avoid doing so, as this could expose a weakness of theirs. Only those at the very top could have the confidence to openly introduce themselves to everyone–as they had no shortcomings which their families were known for!

"What? You think I'd grovel at the feet of that guy? Give me a break! I won't hide it from you: My family has joined a camp in opposition of theirs, so I won't take the easy way out. Instead, I'm stuck in the same dilemma as you are. The difference is that he doesn't know about me yet."

Giving the vessel which Kjartan was currently using a deep look, the corners of the beast's maw rose, both provocatively and encouragingly at the same time.

"So, unless I'm misunderstanding you, you want to work together, then? Do you think the two of us can beat him?"

Failing at masking his internal panic, the dragon-horned man clenched his fists, a hint of worry flashing past his gaze.

"I'm not delusional! But with the two of us, and some others who might want to come to our side as well, we stand a chance at rivalling him. That way, whatever his plans are, he won't be able to succeed easily."

Pausing a little, the animal heaved a helpless sigh.

"And even if we fail miserably, at least we tried. We'll lose everything that we've built in this world if we use our trump cards anyway–so what harm is there in going out with a bang, in a flash of resistance?"

Hearing this, Kjartan's vessel couldn't help but nod, a contemplative, sneaky look stealing itself on his face.

"Very true. And aside from those like us who are from Named Families, there are many Heaven's Chosen who can't accurately judge the gap between Theodore Winter and themselves. It shouldn't be too challenging for us to make them our cannon fodder by appealing to their pride. Although they certainly won't be of too much use, they can at least waste his time."

Both of them felt no need to hide this blatant scheme from the other–especially because the fates of those upstarts didn't concern them. What qualifications did they have to stand shoulder to shoulder with them? Only if they could make it unscathed through a few rounds of the Heavenly Succession would they begin to treat them a bit seriously.

"Hopefully. All we can try is to overwhelm him with numbers. He has one of the best cultivation environments in this world to himself, so we should expect his own stage to be as high as ours–making him nearly orders of magnitude stronger. And if we include those who'll no doubt heed his call, our chances are... pretty abysmal."

The tamer's sobering words elicited a pained sigh from the fly controller, whose vessel slumped backwards in his chair.

"Let's just give our best. At least that way, one day, we'll be able to say that we faced off against a Winter heir and lived to tell the tale. That's got to count for something, right?"

Both resigned yet amused, as well as filled with an almost paradoxical fighting spirit, the two of them broke out in a slight chuckle.

Less than an hour after their meeting finished, and they had discussed the finer details, plenty of Fly Slaves darted to every single city that the two of them knew of, attempting to find all points at which Theodore had left his recruitment pitches.

Whenever they came across them, they built a massive wooden sign underneath the holographic image, that portrayed their counter-offer. In this manner, once anyone would come across the advertisement, they would also see what the two of them had to say. Admittedly, their displayed means were more backwards than Theodore's flashy Array, which indubitably would make some Heaven's Chosen look down on them–however, it was better than nothing.

Just like that, the competitors in the Qinglong World slowly but surely divided themselves into three camps. On one side, there were those who were either already standing with Theodore, or who were on the way to being interviewed. Then, there was the Anti-Winter Alliance founded by the Beast Lord and the Insect Lord, which aimed to 'make Theodore Winter pay for his arrogance'. And lastly, there were those who observed from the sidelines or who were not even aware that a confrontation would be happening.

Not all Heaven's Chosen had made it to prefectural-level cities yet, with a decent number still exploring various ruins, completely oblivious to fellow competitors of theirs sharing this world.

Nonetheless, these ignorant ones were the minority. Relatively quickly, everyone else got to know about the impending conflict. Even those who were still on their way to Qinglong City to meet with Theodore's camp were graciously informed by Vigdis about the appearance of the Anti-Winter Alliance. If any of them wanted to reconsider their options, they were free to do so. This action–rather than tempt people into staying away–in general resulted in a lot of goodwill from their potential allies.

Whilst all of this was going on, the centre of the storm had been busying himself with continually reinforcing the various Arrays which he had laid out in Qinglong City. After a few days, it had transformed into the most fortified stronghold this world had ever seen. Not only it, but also extremely vast stretches of land beyond it, were within the range of some of the means which he had prepared.

There were a couple of reasons as to why he was being so careful. Firstly, one could never be too cautious, especially in the Heavenly Succession. Secondly, he planned to hand over the day-to-day operations of the Arrays to Xie Mei and Han Junqiao–at least during the times when he wasn't present. Therefore, they needed to be 'idiot-proof', mostly automated and extremely secure, to the point where they couldn't possibly come to harm!

And lastly, he had to make sure that even Initial Ascension Stage experts would fall under the influence of his Arrays. Fortunately, with the materials and items at his disposal, doing so was reasonably achievable.

Why had that been necessary, though? Well, his local enemies would continue to grow stronger–so there was that. But he had also been 'fishing'.

Whenever he and Vigdis weren't busy cleansing cities or cultivating, Theodore had 'opened' the Teleportation Array, tempting the Han Empire to send more experts his way. At first, they had done so without an issue, but by the time the fifth reinforcement force consisting of three pinnacle Initial Ascension Stage strongmen had been wiped out, they had refrained from sending anyone else.

For situations like this one, he had prepared some leftover Imperial Han Family members, whose memories had been altered by the Illusion Array he was controlling. Making them see whatever he wanted them to believe, he teleported them to the other side, convinced that they had managed to escape on their own. His aim was to make the Han Empire take their retelling of events seriously and send more prey his way.

But unfortunately, even after plenty of waiting, nothing happened. Therefore, he unhappily had to put away his fishing rod and get up from his chair, sealing the Teleportation Array once more.

'I should have kept some of them alive, at least for a time. That way, I wouldn't have spooked them so easily...'

Sighing quietly, he busied himself with some more cleansing to get his mind off things. Meanwhile, in the Han Empire's court, heated debates were taking place, with many influential nobles in danger of losing their positions–or even their lives. If it hadn't been for the successive and significant losses which the Imperial Han Family had taken, that latter possibility would have been a certainty instead. But for now, every capable person was still sorely needed.

After arguing for what felt akin to an eternity, there was one single point upon which everyone present could agree on: The Qinglong State had been lost. Just like when the Dragon Family descendant had wiped out a whole world single-handedly, a similar incident had taken place again.

This was a sobering realization and shrouded the hearts of everyone in Longxin City in a veil of terror. Still, there were quite a few experts which they had been incapable of sending to other states via the Teleportation Arrays, as they exceeded the limits of power that they could withstand. So, should those troublemakers make their way to the nucleus of the Han Empire, then they would certainly have some tough bones to chew on!

But at least for the time being, there was not yet any danger of either Theodore or the Dragon Family member doing so. The two of them were still far too busy with completing their respective plans. However, eventually, Longxin City would have to brace itself for their visit.

Amidst a tense atmosphere, three more days passed by and 12 cities were blessed with a thorough cleansing. It was at this time that the first Heaven's Chosen to accept Theodore's invitation finally arrived in the vicinity of Qinglong City.

'Oh? An Array? It's not interfering with me in any way, though. So is it just a Surveillance Array? Perhaps mixed with an Alarm Array?'

Raising an eyebrow as soon as she stepped into the influence of Theodore's creations, Navya hesitated for a moment, then she confidently continued her journey. Even if it wasn't for the fact that her safety had been guaranteed, she was also certain that she could deal with an Array like this on her own.

'But he wouldn't lie about such a thing, so there is no need to worry! Still... I'll meet him soon. I'm so nervous...'

Growing fidgety and agitated, she pulled out a handheld mirror and checked every single detail once more. Only after she was certain that all strands of hair were in the right place and that there were no unflattering creases in her clothing did she regain some of her confidence.

'This is as good as I'm going to get. I just hope he won't find me too unsightly...'

Deeply self-conscious, she reached the meeting place which Vigdis had told her about.