Corrupt Creations

Inside the Blazing Phoenix Country, many different things were happening everywhere. In the Blazing Phoenix City there was a constant flux of soldiers and disciples entering through the main and side gates, gathering in the spots designed for the city defense. 

After entering the city, those practitioners stopped following their leaders and were assigned to join the army under the leadership of one of the many elders of the Blazing Phoenix Sect. Most of them were soldiers and disciples sent to defend and patrol other areas. Right now, they were all converging inside the city in one of those many spots. 

The citizens were forced to relocate to safer areas, since a huge battle would be happening inside the city and soon that place would turn into a hellish battlefield. 

From the Red Mountain city side, a group on unknown individuals started to push their way towards the Blazing Phoenix city. They advanced their very quickly, taking control of the villages they passed by and finding little to none resistance on the way. The majority of practitioners able to fight were relocated to protect the capital. 

However, this group of people stopped their activities after they neared the objective. There weren't many practitioners making part of it, only about thirty. However, they were focused in quality over quantity. These practitioners were mostly from the Lion's Pride Golden Palace and since they didn't want to be found out, they stopped pushing forward when they arrived in a village close to the capital. 

From the southern area, the army of the Wu Martial Kingdom slowly moved forward. Right now, there were already ten thousand soldiers constituting their military strength, since five thousand more joined them last night. It must be known that the Wu Martial Kingdom wanted to take control of the Blazing Phoenix Country, and that only required them to destroy the head of their enemy, The Blazing Phoenix Sect. But it wouldn't be that simple to accomplish that without a wide scale conflict. 

That is why they ignored normal citizens, only taking control of strategic points inside the cities they passed through. Because of that, the number of casualties until now, were minimized to the extreme. 

The Wu Martial Kingdom were no good guys, but too much bloodshed would make the normal citizens feel anger and fuel their will to fight. That would end up increasing their enemy strength, what they didn't want. Being able to put ten thousand units inside their enemy territory was already a very risky strategy, so they couldn't afford to put more risk into it, even though they had the backing of a behemoth. 

However, at Misty Horizon city, even though there were five hundred men stationed and hiding on the woods some kilometers away from the city, they didn't even enter it to take the strategic positions. 

The Wu Martial King ordered them to not make any harsh move and only defend that area they were assigned to. Although this seemed to be a normal operation, it was considered as an ultimate level secret operation. That's why any wrong move could end up making them get discovered. 

None of the soldiers beside the Commander of this battalion knew what they were here for, but they made sure to do their work properly, mounting a base on that area and not letting anyone approach it. 

Some days ago, some soldiers were on patrol inside the forest area. After going to a determined spot, they found three dead bodies lying down on the floor amidst many herbs and leave. It was initially a huge surprise to find them dead, but what intrigued them, was that they had no signs or marks of a conflict in their bodies. They died after suffering a heart attack, but none of them were able to determine what were the causes of their deaths. 

While everyone was either positioning their forces or defending specific areas in these twelve days that had passed, Seth was finally able to step inside the Blazing Phoenix Country borders together with Rina. 

Misty Horizon city was located towards the North, so Seth and Rina weren't able to witness any signs of battle throughout the route they were taking. 

Actually, he didn't think the battle would have already started yet. Inside Seth's head there was still a lot of time until the war begins. He still thought Velgor would request his presence, before they start their secret operation. But the Master of the Demonic Shadow Royal Clan, didn't fully trust him, even though in his eyes, Seth was the most important piece on his plans and someone he had already put a Soul Trap in. 

"Finally... We are already inside the Blazing Phoenix Country." Seth felt the sudden rise of temperature and realized they had just entered the human country he passed most of his time on. 

"This has gotten really hot..." 

"The weather here is a bit special. Since you're not yet accustomed, you'll feel a bit of discomfort. However, now that we've arrived here, we can rest for a bit and recover the stamina we lost." Seth said they would be able to rest, but in reality, he didn't need that. He was offering Rina a chance to rest before they continued their journey to Misty Horizon, the place Seth chose to go first. 

Rina saw Seth was full of energy and said: "If you're doing this for me, there is no need. I'm not that tired." 

"Are you sure?" 

"Yeah. We elves are very thin and we hardly get tired from traveling. That is a very good racial trait of our constitution, because we need to hunt a lot in order to live." 

"Interesting." 

"So, where are we going first?" 

"I had to talk with the Sect Master of the sect I belong to, but there is no need to do it for now. What I want to do first, is to visit mother-in-law, since a lot of time has passed, from the last occasion I was able to see Meiyi." 

"Meiyi?" 

"Yeah, she is someone really important to me. I feel the need to go there to see her and since you're not tired, we can speed up the process." 

"How many girlfriends do you have?" Rina looked towards Seth not believing he had even more girlfriends than she thought. However, the feeling that took over her now, was helplessness. 

"Eh? Well... I really don't count them, since this is a natural process that end up happening. But you should not be bothered by something like that, I'm sure you'll find Meiyi very likable. I can tell you right now that out of all the girls I've seen, she is the most adorable one." Seth felt a bit embarrassed while talking about his women with Rina, but he didn't avoid the topic entirely. 

"Eh?! Even more adorable than me?" 

"Hahaha, of course not! I was joking. You're the most adorable girl in existence." 

"Hm... You changed so quickly. I feel you're trying to deceive me." Even though Rina said that, she was inwardly feeling happy. 

"Deceiving you? I would never dare to." 

On these two weeks they were travelling together, Rina was getting accustomed by the fact the person she liked had many other girls, since he constantly told her stories about his moments with them. Unconsciously, instead of feeling discomfort when talking about other women, she was rather getting interested on them. 

This thing was something Rina thought she would never be able to understand, since her reactions regarding that while they were inside the Elven Territory, was to get mad with many mood oscillations when she saw him with the others. 

However, at some point in time, that started to change. 

What was happening, was that on these past days traveling with him, she was able to broaden her horizons, consequently getting more mature. Seth was an incredible person and it was no wonder that many women circled around him. When she was with him, she felt secure and amused. Not even the long and boring time traveling, was able to get her bored while she was in his presence. 

"The city mother-in-law lives in is called Misty Horizon. We are not so far from there, in at most a day we can get to that city." Seth said while remembering Chun Meiyi's face and voice. He missed her every day when he was in the Elven Kingdom. 

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go. I'm eager to learn a bit more of the human culture and see how human cities are like." 

They proceeded towards Misty Horizon, not planning stop on any other place before getting there.

Rina was expectant about finding a beautiful place where she could enjoy her view in Seth's company and at the same time learn about new customs. However, she didn't know that witnessing a city destruction, was just the beginning of the misfortune they would encounter in their way. 

The Blazing Phoenix Country was in a very tense moment and there wasn't much time before the beginning of the war.