"Hm… With things getting more and more unstable inside of the imperial capital, the supplies that are sent to the border have significantly reduced…"
Inside a tent located at the centre of the Heavenly Sky Kingdoms army stationed at the border, a robust looking middle-aged man let out a large sigh as he inspected the documents in front of him detailing the amount of supply sent over this month.
As things in the Heavenly Sky Kingdom was getting more and more unstable with the plague outbreak, the border between the Heavenly Sky Kingdom and the Azure Sky Kingdom was seeing its fair share of unrest as well, as resources were needed back home to help deal with the plague as well.
On the morale front, most of the soldiers stationed had started growing worried for their families back home with the increasing severity of the plague. Other than that, the skirmishes with the Azure Sky Kingdom had started increasing and the scale of the skirmishes had become bigger as well.
At this point in time, there would always be a Nascent Soul Realm expert present whenever the two forces clashed with each other.
"General! The Azure Sky Kingdoms has started moving forward most of their troops and it looks like they are preparing for an all-out assault on our defensive positions at the front!" Just as the middle-aged man was about to go over the rest of the documents, a young man dressed like a common soldier stormed in through the opening in the tent and yelled anxiously.
"Are you sure!?" Standing up immediately upon hearing what the young soldier told him, the middle-aged man who was the current general in charge of the army stationed at the border of the Heavenly Sky Kingdom, walked over and grabbed the young soldier's collar with a serious look on his face.
"Y-yes." Shivering upon suddenly being grabbed by the general himself, the young soldier almost felt the last bit of life left in him leave his body due to fear as he answered.
"… Leave and make sure that our men are ready, get someone to inform those people from the four sects as well, we will need them to keep some of the Azure Sky Kingdoms Nascent Soul experts…" After a short pause, the general let go of the young soldier and he ran out of the room without a wasting even a single second, to carry out the order of the general as quickly as possible.
The general looked at the young soldier quickly disappearing out of the tent before he made his way back to the documents on the table and with a worried expression on his face, he picked up a communication talisman buried beneath a few of the documents.
"Hah… Looks like we can't escape with only fighting a few skirmishes with the Azure Sky Kingdom this time around, we can only hope the other nearby kingdoms won't try to take advantage of this obvious weakens… What is the Azure Sky Kingdom even planning in the first place? If they attack us, won't they be worried another nearby kingdom will swoop in and attack them when they are weak after fighting with us?" Muttering this to himself, the middle-aged general looked deeply at the communication talisman for a few seconds before finally using it.
No matter what, he had to inform the higher-ups of the current situation and hope that they could spare a few more Nascent Soul experts for the border-
BOOM!
A few minutes after he had informed the higher-ups a large explosion suddenly happened, causing the general to rush outside and look towards the south-eastern part of the border army camp with a shocked expression on his face.
…
"The Azure Sky Kingdom is preparing for an attack?!" Wang Lan looked at the soldier that had entered his tent and informed him with a slightly shocked expression on his face.
He had mostly expected for the Azure Sky Kingdom to try and slowly whittle down the forces of the Heavenly Sky Kingdom over time, they were after all stronger over all compared to the Heavenly Sky Kingdom and a full-on frontal attack would end up harming both kingdoms in the process. Leaving them open to attacks from other kingdoms.
"Yes, the general is requesting for the experts of the four sects to be present at the frontline and help deal with the Nascent Soul Realm experts from the Azure Sky Kingdom's sects." Saying what he was told to beforehand, the soldier quickly left before Wang Lan stopped him to question him for the next half hour… Last time such a thing happened he got punished by his superior for being late…
"…" Staring a bit at the place that the soldier was standing before, Wang Lan sighed a bit to himself as he went to pick up a communication talisman so that he could inform the sect master about what was happening at the border.
This only took a few minutes as the sect master Feng Chen could not really do much other than encourage him to try and keep himself alive as a top priority and try to be as passive as possible while trying to avoid fighting at all cost.
Truly the best way to stay alive was not fighting at all, but would the Heavenly Sky Kingdom really just let him slack around…?
Wang Lan really doubted that and decided to at least talk with the members of the other four sects first, as all of them were in the same situation as him.
BOOM!
Coming to this decision, Wang Lan was just about to walk out of the tent when a large explosion suddenly sounded from the south-eastern part of the border army camp.
"What the-" Wang Lan quickly rushed out from his tent and jumped up on a nearby rock a few meters in height and looked in the direction that the explosion came from.
Black smoke billowed high into the sky where the explosion earlier had happened, a few soldiers ran over to where the explosion happened in confusion trying to figure out what caused it in the first place, only to be met with a sharp sword that and get cut down on the spot.
Soon a large amount of people dressed in the uniform of Heavenly Sky Kingdom soldiers came out through the black smoke followed by an even larger army dressed in the uniforms of the Azure Sky Kingdom.
What happened? Sudden betrayal by a part of the army…?
Wang Lan felt like the situation was getting even more precarious, after all, for them to be able to get so close meant that at least a few of the Nascent Soul Realm experts from the Heavenly Sky Kingdom had betrayed them…
It seemed like there was something more to the Azure Sky Kingdoms full on attack and he had no clue what was happening…