Peace returned to the grassland.
The raging flames outside Elara’s territory were successfully extinguished.
The mages directly channeled water from the nearby Yudai River, channeling the current over the scorched perimeters to completely secure the area.
Because the corpses of the Montenegrin Army had undergone necromantic corruption, leaving them unaddressed would inevitably breed future hazards.
Elara consequently instructed the territory’s priests to deploy sacred prayers to purge the lingering death-miasma, before reducing the remains to ashes via purification flames.
As for the water tribe soldiers who had participated in the Yudai River ambush, they had surrendered outright after Marta and the elite warriors crushed their formations from both flanks.
Faced with the terrifying offensive output of the elite swordsmen, any effective counterattack proved impossible.
Amplified initially by Lyra’s combat buffs and subsequently directed by Marta’s tactical maneuvering, the swordsmen operated at blistering velocities.
An ordinary military unit moving at such speeds would struggle to inflict meaningful structural damage.
Yet the elite warriors functioned differently, slicing through enemy formations with the clean efficiency of an industrial tool.
They sheared through defenses as effortlessly as a feline’s barbed tongue stripping flesh from bone.
With their commanding officer neutralized by Marta at the onset of the engagement, the aquatic troops lost all centralized direction and combat will.
Stripped of their morale, the surviving water tribe fighters dropped their weapons and submitted unconditionally.
Out of the 352 combatants who had emerged from the river, a mere 73 remained.
Bound securely at the wrists and knees, they knelt in rows across the mud under the watchful eyes of the elite warriors.
The glint of cold steel reflected off their skin, instilling a paralyzing terror that made them feel as though they were trapped in an ice cave.
Even without physical bonds, none of them dared to twitch a muscle.
Elara wore a complex, shadowed expression as she surveyed the captive aquatics.
These prisoners served as undeniable, concrete proof of the deep internal betrayal eating away at the Sacred Realm. Escorting this group back to the core of the Holy Spirit Alliance would detonate a political earthquake.
The largest and most influential alliance in the Southern District stood on the brink of fracturing!
Even if other factions within the Holy Realm attempted to remain neutral, the elven domains sharing ancestral bloodlines with Elara could not easily stay unaffected.
Having ordered her guards to escort the water tribe prisoners down for detainment, Elara turned her gaze toward the welcoming party streaming from the heart of her domain.
The elven administrator Mifal was already leading a large detachment of guards forward, her face radiant with joy as she hurried to welcome her returning lord.
The towering treants lowered their massive branches in a respectful salute directed toward the Jiuzhou forces and Toji Hisami in the distance.
Everyone understood precisely who deserved the primary credit for today’s miraculous survival.
Without the intervention of the Jiuzhou contingent, Elara’s forces would have faced insurmountable odds.
Even had they somehow survived the initial ambush by the Montenegrin Army, their territory would have been reduced to cinders.
That outcome ignored the secondary aquatic pincer waiting in reserve.
With murderous intent closing in from multiple, perfectly timed vectors, Elara would have had zero margin for survival.
"You have truly given me a profound display of your capabilities."
At that moment, Lyra returned the silver unicorn to Toji Hisami. Having concluded active combat, the majestic beast trotted over, happily nudging its master as it delivered him to the assembly.
Catching sight of the supreme leader of Jiuzhou, every citizen and soldier from the elven domain dropped to their knees in unison.
Even Elara followed suit without hesitation.
While the populace had long heard tales of the Jiuzhou Territory’s legendary might, frequently reinforced by their own lord’s praise, witnessing the absolute dominance of Jiuzhou’s forces firsthand shattered all prior expectations.
This transcended mere strength; it was an apex of power that bordered on the untouchable.
The Xuanwu Guards and the elite warriors marched in tight succession, embodying an unassailable deterrent force.
Declining to keep her esteemed guests standing outdoors, Elara promptly invited Toji Hisami and his core officers into the elevated Lord’s Hall nestled among the branches of the giant trees.
Because the battle had concluded with lightning speed, the Montenegrin forces had lacked the time to launch a direct assault against the inner territory, confining their destruction to perimeter fires.
The treants had not fully severed their root systems from the earth, allowing them to settle back into place with minimal disruption.
Unlike a full relocation, this localized defense spared the territory from suffering severe vitality damage.
Two elven handmaidens were summoned to serve traditional, fragrant elven tea as everyone took their respective seats within the hall.
Elara gestured for Toji Hisami to occupy the primary seat of honor, a placement he accepted without false modesty.
Given Elara’s clear deference, any excessive displays of polite humility would have felt redundant.
"Lord Toji Hisami, my immediate plan is to take the bodies of the slain water tribe combatants along with the surviving prisoners directly to the Holy Spirit Alliance."
"Though it brings me great sorrow, I can no longer tolerate my comrades being manipulated and betrayed from within the alliance ranks."
Elara’s underlying intent was explicit: even if the action triggered the complete dissolution of the Holy Spirit Alliance, she intended to blow the conspiracy wide open.
Yet the core complication remained tactical timing.
Initiating an immediate, open showdown risked provoking a ferocious counter-offensive from the ruling faction of the Holy Spirit Alliance.
To cement its domestic prestige and control, the alliance leadership would never permit Elara to fracture their coalition while remaining passive.
Conversely, should Elara delay her response to allow her territory time to recover and weather the impending first wave of foreign invasions, framing the current incident would become problematic.
The opposing faction could easily twist the narrative, claiming Elara had exploited the water tribe’s presence during a defensive crisis and captured them through a treacherous sneak attack.
Given sufficient time to muddy the waters, verifying the truth would become nearly impossible.
The one certainty was that the aquatic faction maintained scheduled communication channels with their higher-ups.
The leadership of the Holy Spirit Alliance would likely learn of today’s disaster by the following day at the latest, placing Elara in a profoundly reactive, passive posture.
Studying Elara’s expression, which flickered between resolute determination and lingering anxiety, Toji Hisami paused for a moment of quiet calculation.
Turning his gaze around the table, he observed his inner circle arrayed on his left: Lyra, Lin Yifei, Marta, Chen Wei, and Li Xu.
On his right sat Elara alongside her key elite retainers.
In terms of high-end individual combat power, their present assembly possessed an absolute advantage.
The sole constraining factor lay in structural depth and territorial scale.
Elara’s domain possessed exceptional environmental resources, yet its active defense force remained capped at roughly three hundred combatants, even after incorporating the awakened treants.
Should a protracted war of attrition erupt, overall casualty ratios would inevitably present a challenging variable.
"Leader, Elara is prepared to undertake migration once more should the worst occur."
Noticing Toji Hisami’s contemplative silence, Elara stood up to voice her commitment.
Her reference to migrating implied that should political pressures become irreconcilable, she would uproot her entire domain and lead her people on a desperate dash toward the Eastern District to seek asylum.
Observing the elven leader’s unwavering resolve, Toji Hisami offered a reassuring, confident smile.
"So long as I am present, you have no cause for fear."
"Since the Holy Spirit Alliance chose to initiate hostilities, we have every right to escalate the response."
"Elara, issue a public broadcast across the regional channel, declaring that you hold grave, critical matters requiring formal negotiation with the leadership of the Holy Spirit Alliance."
"Invite all prominent trial lords across the entire Southern District to bear witness. Take the prisoners and physical evidence, and hold your position for three days."
While Elara remained unfamiliar with the specific cultural idioms behind Toji Hisami’s phrasing, she instantly grasped the operational trajectory of his strategy.
Toji Hisami intended to establish an unshakeable geopolitical foothold directly within the Southern District, leveraging this precise incident to crack open the regional power structure in a single, decisive stroke.
He would mobilize the collective influence of the broader Southern District lords to exert overwhelming pressure upon the Holy Spirit Alliance.
Toji Hisami understood that the monopoly held by the region’s sole major alliance naturally bred widespread apprehension and resentment among independent lords.
In the Eastern District, the catastrophic miscalculations of local lords had resulted in near-total annihilation under foreign pressure, leaving surviving entities too demoralized to voice dissent.
The Southern District, by contrast, had sustained far lighter historical casualties and retained the highest survival rate among trial candidates, fostering a complex network of independent mutual-defense alliances.
Under these conditions, those independent factions would eagerly leap at the opportunity to act as Elara’s proxy blade, utilizing her grievances to humble and restrain the arrogant Holy Spirit Alliance.
Elara felt a surge of profound admiration for Toji Hisami’s brilliant, sweeping strategic vision.
The situation she had viewed as a nearly inescapable diplomatic dead-end had been untangled and transformed into an offensive masterstroke with a few crisp directives.
Furthermore, what Elara had yet to fully comprehend was that Toji Hisami’s ambitions extended far beyond merely leaning on regional lords to check the Holy Spirit Alliance.
His ultimate objective was to officially thrust Elara onto the central stage, establishing her domain as the primary trade and logistical transshipment hub connecting the Eastern District to the Southern sector.
Elara would effectively function as the premier ambassador and economic representative for the Southern District.
Utilizing her status as an integrated member of the Heaven Drive Alliance, she would forge formal commercial treaties with independent lords across the entire southern region.
Once those channels stabilized, the Heaven Drive Alliance could initiate comprehensive, cross-district trade operations.
Through mutually beneficial exchanges of scarce resources, Elara’s territory would experience an unprecedented, hyper-accelerated phase of growth.
Securing dual-region economic and strategic dominance under Heaven Drive’s umbrella represented the absolute optimal deployment of their current assets.
As Toji Hisami systematically laid out the architecture of the long-term plan, the light in Elara’s eyes burned with renewed brilliance.
The surrounding elven officers listened with undisguised reverence.
Every person present realized why Toji Hisami commanded the undisputed crown of the global gold list; his profound strategic foresight and capacity to synthesize complex geopolitical realities were simply beyond the reach of ordinary minds.
The sustainable expansion of any territory was inextricably linked to the visionary clarity of its supreme lord.
A leader lacking foresight, or one whose grand ambitions outstripped their administrative execution, inevitably doomed their domain to stagnation.
Every member of the elven domain felt an overwhelming wave of excitement take root in their chests.
Having officially allied with Heaven Drive and placed themselves under Toji Hisami’s direct guidance, their collective future gleamed with boundless, visible promise.