As the Azure Sky Kingdom were busy absorbing what was equivalent to 10% of the Heavenly Sky Kingdom's territory, the retreating army of the Heavenly Sky Kingdom arrived at the South Mountain Pass filled with both humiliation at their swift defeat and fear towards what the future would bring now that the Azure Sky Kingdom did not seem to have any plans at stopping their conquest of the Heavenly Sky Kingdoms territory.
By this point in time, Wang Hu and Wang Lan had already arrived at the south mountain pass and were both sitting inside a room overlooking the large number of people walking by below them as they made their way through a huge gate in the centre of the giant wall that attached itself to a mountain on each side of the South Mountain Pass.
The height of the wall alone made it impossible for anyone below the Core Formation Realm to scale it and that was without considering the many offensives and defensive formations placed onto the surface of the wall over the many years that it had existed.
There were even some rumours that the South Mountain Pass Wall was constructed in the past even before the Heavenly Sky Kingdom came to be.
In the past it had seen its fair share of war as it never fell, even when the Heavenly Sky Kingdoms territory was smaller, it had been used as a springboard for the Heavenly Sky Kingdom's army to take more territory and expand the borders.
The territory that they had gained through years of war was the territory that was currently bordering the Azure Sky Kingdom. The territory that they had just recently lost within only a single battle…
At the very least, it was an area considered barren and without any too precious resources... But in the end, it was still 10% of the Heavenly Sky Kingdoms territory? and while barren, at least 5% of their population was located there.
"Hehe, I wonder how those people from the Raging Flame Sect are doing recently…" Looking over in the direction of the Mountain Range that stretched far into the distance and over in the direction of the Burning Mountain Range, Wang Lan could not help but chuckle a bit as he thought about the trouble the Raging Flame Sect were currently going through.
"Haha, indeed! They are probably the ones hurt most by this turn of events!" Laughing a bit upon hearing what his brother said, Wang Hu felt like finding the elder from the Raging Flame Sect and asking him how his sect were going to find new disciples now that half the area they used before had disappeared all of a sudden.
Other than that, Wang Hu also knew that the Raging Flame Sects had a spirit stone mine in that territory and while not of that good quality or size, it still represented a significant loss to the Raging Flame Sect.
…
The Raging Flame Sect was located deep inside the same mountain range that the South Mountain Pass was located.
At this point, inside a large palace located on top of the highest mountain inside the Raging Flame Sect's core area, a group of people had gathered together to discuss their next plan of action after? the recent move by the Azure Sky Kingdom.
"How are we going to deal with the shortage of new disciples in the future? And that is not even talking about the loss of lower quality materials that we will face. We even lost one of our spirit stones mines!" Angrily slamming his hand down on the table that the people had gathered to sit around, one of the people could not contain his anger as he said this.
"The Heavenly Sky Kingdom is really going too far; they are clearly trying to use the Azure Sky Kingdom to weaken us by not sending any of their strong Nascent Soul Realm Experts over to hold the front!" Another person angrily exclaimed in support of the first one as the others followed behind and began complaining about the Heavenly Sky Kingdom.
"Hm… Maybe the situation isn't that bad for us…" As the rest of the higher-ups from the Raging Flame Sect were complaining about the Heavenly Sky Kingdom, one of them did not share the mindless hate as he muttered a bit to himself while thinking about the current situation.
"What do you mean Vice Sect Master!? How can this not be bad? Without the Sect Master to help back us up, we might end up as a shield for the Heavenly Sky Kingdom. Don't forget that other than the South Mountain Pass, there is another way into the Heavenly Sky Kingdoms territory and that is through our sect! Even if it is not widely known, I'm sure the Heavenly Sky Kingdom 'leaked' this information to the Azure Sky Kingdom!" Saying this, the elder felt his hatred towards the Heavenly Sky Kingdom reach its peak as he foresaw the army of the Azure Sky Kingdom coming to knock on their doorstep anytime now.
"What if we let them through without fighting…?" An eerie silence fell upon the group of people inside the large palace as they all looked at the Vice Sect Master full of doubt.𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢
"But… If we do that, the Heavenly Sky Kingdom would definitely retaliate and try to deal with us as quickly as possible… The Sect Master is the only one who might be able to resist for a moment, but without him, we won't be able to resist against the true experts from the royal family. At that point, the Azure Sky Kingdom would be the only one to benefit…" Shaking his head as he thought about it, one of the elders felt it was unrealistic, especially now that their Sect Master was not present.
"I don't mean that we just let them walk through normally, but what if a majority of us ends up injured and incapable of fighting during an accident in the Burning Mountain Range, the sect master disappearing during the terrible incident.
With no people left to fight against the Azure Sky Kingdom, we can only reluctantly let them pass through our sect… Even if the Heavenly Sky Kingdom checks up on it, the Sect Master missing is true and faking a few injuries should not be too difficult…" Finishing his explanation, the Vice Sect Master slyly pulled out a few pills with a weird skull marking on them.
"This is…!" The other elders looked at each other in surprise as they understood what the Vice Sect Master wanted to do.
It was risky and the Azure Sky Kingdom might want to try and take advantage of the situation to attack them.
The commander seemed to be quite smart and if he could just ignore them and focus on the Heavenly Sky Kingdom, all would be fine and both parties would not have to end up losing people in a meaningless fight.
For the Azure Sky Kingdom, defeating the Heavenly Sky Kingdom was their main goal, destroying the sects did not really matter that much as they could be absorbed into the Azure Sky Kingdom after they took over the territory of the Heavenly Sky Kingdom.
At that point, the Azure Sky Kingdom would harm their future benefit if they attacked a sect that seemed more than willing to assist them in this.