[Holy shit! Was that explosion seriously that intense?]
[I am still seven or eight miles out from the perimeter of the Holy Spirit Alliance, and I could feel the ground shake. What on earth was that blinding golden flash?]
[Elara went to war with the Holy Spirit Alliance. She literally fought her way in to rescue her butchered comrades.]
[??? What are you even talking about upstairs?]
[Idiot, there is a massive internal purge happening inside the Holy Spirit Alliance! Musa is trying to slaughter everyone who refuses to bow down!]
[Damn it, Stage Two has barely begun, and we’re already getting a melon this massive?]
[Haha, I’m telling you, even from out here without stepping inside, you can feel how terrifying the combat intensity is.]
[Tsk, tsk, tsk. Elara is secretly a powerhouse. I never realized she had this in her.]
[Who is saying she isn’t? I used to think her reputation was mostly hollow...]
The discourse across the public channel entirely centered upon the immense tremors and shockwaves rippling out from the capital of the Holy Spirit Alliance.
Onlookers stationed near the perimeter broadcasted real-time visual descriptions, predictably detonating a wave of furious regional debate.
Several independent lords who had been advancing at a leisurely pace abruptly accelerated their marches.
Their instincts screamed that something monumental was transpiring tonight.
Particularly the various private coalitions and regional federations, every single one of them spurred their columns into a dead run toward the Holy Spirit Alliance’s coordinates.
They were all trial geniuses and tactical elites; their intuition told them tonight’s crisis extended far beyond a simple political squabble.
A localized skirmish could never generate that magnitude of violence, nor could Elara’s isolated force match the premier combat units of the alliance alone.
Everyone familiar with the region understood the military composition of the Holy Spirit Alliance.
Their Giant Elephant battalions excelled at shattering heavily fortified positions, while their aquatic units specialized in absolute battlefield containment and regional control.
The elven marksmen provided devastating ranged suppression.
Yet universally acknowledged above them all stood the supreme trump card: Alliance Leader Musa’s half-dragon legion, serving unequivocally as the premier standing army of the coalition!
During their historic assault against the S-class light pillar, Musa’s half-dragon vanguard had spearheaded the offensive, smashing through rival regional legions back-to-back.
None of them believed that Elara, commanding a mere handful of auxiliary forces, possessed the capacity to withstand that lineup of elite legions.
Unseen, formidable variables had to be in play.
At that exact moment, a system broadcast posted by an affiliated lord of the Holy Spirit Alliance dropped into the public chatroom:
[Stop guessing. Toji Hisami is here.]
The entire public channel of the Southern District plunged into dead silence.
It felt as though every trial lord across the global network had simultaneously lost connection; not a single soul chimed in for several long moments.
That single sentence,Toji Hisami is here, remained suspended in the public feed for all to read and process.
Every trial lord across the Southern District abruptly became acutely aware of their own heartbeat.
Thump-thump, thump-thump, thump-thump.
Toji Hisami had arrived.
By this stage of the trial, that designation had achieved legendary status among the candidate lords.
During routine daily arguments in the chatrooms, whenever a faction found themselves losing a debate, the universal retort was: If you’ve got the courage, go challenge Toji Hisami!
You think you’re so invincible? Why don’t you try taking down Toji Hisami?
That name stood as a monument built upon an unbroken series of staggering military miracles.
Solely within the First Stage, he had subjugated nearly every prominent regional lord across his sector.
Yet his native theater was the Eastern District, while they operated within the Southern District.
Transitioning into Stage Two, every candidate had naturally assumed an eventual cross-district collision would occur.
Yet nobody had anticipated that convergence materializing this early...
Barely two months had elapsed since the trial’s inception, correct?
Had Toji Hisami genuinely carved a path across the treacherous, monster-infested mist barriers all the way from the Eastern District down to the Southern sector?
What had he done with his home domain? Did the Heaven Drive Alliance permit their supreme leader to embark on unassisted, solo expeditions of this scale?
Rumor held that Elara’s entire retinue numbered barely three hundred souls. Exactly how many of those combatants belonged to Toji Hisami’s core retinue?
How on earth could he dare plunge deep into foreign territory with such an infinitesimally small force?
[I must be hallucinating secondary rank delusions!!!]
[No wonder Elara was moving with such terrifying confidence! How could she not be brave when the big boss himself is backing her up?!]
[The supreme boss has arrived! That explains why the fighting inside the Holy Spirit Alliance sounds like a collapsing mountain range!]
[The boss is single-handedly dismantling the Holy Spirit Alliance? Damn it! Is the global gold list crown holder truly operating on that level of insanity?]
[Where are all the fanatical loyalists from the Holy Spirit Alliance? Come out and speak!]
Following the half-minute of absolute vacuum, the public channel exploded with unbridled fury!
This eruption surpassed even the initial shock of Elara’s ultimatum broadcast.
Countless lords who had previously intended to maintain a safe, neutral distance immediately spurred their territorial garrisons forward, dashing toward the coordinates of the Holy Spirit Alliance regardless of cost.
Though their arrival might take several days, the sheer adrenaline surge drove them to mobilize instantly.
Lords positioned closer to the theater abandoned their administrative supply wagons entirely, sprinting toward the capital sector on foot to witness history unfold.
In stark contrast to the absolute frenzy consuming the public channels, the internal alliance networks of the Holy Spirit Alliance experienced an eerie, tomb-like stillness.
A deathly silence reigned supreme across their command frequencies.
Sentinels struggling to maintain discipline at their watchtowers received urgent recall orders from their respective regional lords.
Patrol commanders found themselves paralyzed, completely uncertain whether they were supposed to reinforce their beleaguered supreme leader or continue strictly enforcing the order to intercept intruders.
Logically, this remained their sovereign home base, backed by optimal geographic conditions and overwhelming numerical parity; what conceivable threat warranted panicking over reinforcements?
Yet that catastrophic, earth-shattering detonation told a very different story...
Ever since Musa pulled the half-dragon phalanx from defensive lines to spearhead the offensive, command cohesion had completely unraveled.
Panic gripped every structural echelon of the Holy Spirit Alliance.
Within the central impact crater, rolling billows of dust and ash choked the visibility, reducing the landscape to an opaque gray fog.
The surviving regional lords who had been forced back into the formation stood completely numb, their cognitive faculties paralyzed...
They knelt directly upon the shattered turf, lifting their gaze toward Toji Hisami, who stood composed and unruffled a short distance away.
That mythical lord, aside from possessing a slightly diminished complexion from exhausting his mana reserves, maintained an absolute, terrifying serenity.
The shockwave that had just leveled the command hill left their ears ringing with a persistent, high-frequency whine, leaving the world around them spinning in structural chaos.
"Very well. Disperse and withdraw."
Toji Hisami’s voice carried a calm, resonant clarity that seemed to drift from a distant horizon, gradually drawing the survivors back to reality.
The elven domain’s soldiers and officers stared toward Toji Hisami with unabashed adoration, the profound pride swelling within their chests defying articulation.
Even Elara felt as though she were walking through an impossible lucid dream...
A mere three hundred combatants...
They had marched straight into the administrative heart of the Holy Spirit Alliance, treating the enemy’s heavily fortified capital like an empty courtyard.
First, they shattered the alliance’s primary charge wave; next, they pivoted to obliterate the elite elephant battalions blocking the exit; finally, they pulverized the invincible half-dragon ace legion with a single, sweeping doctrinal invocation.
This was what it meant to reign supreme at the apex of the global gold list...
This was universally acknowledged as the undisputed sovereign of the Lord’s Trials...
Overwhelmed by absolute conviction, Elara stepped forward and dropped gracefully onto one knee to offer a formal, submissive salute.
"Your commands are absolute, my supreme lord."
"Understood! All units acknowledge!"
Triggered by Elara’s salute, the collective rank-and-file roared their confirmation in unison, every soldier executing a synchronized, flawless bow.
Within the Jiuzhou vanguard, Chen Wei and Li Xu stood with their chins held high, the unyielding pride of their domain radiating outward.
Marta and Lin Yifei exchanged exhilarated grins, their adrenaline still humming through their veins.
Amidst the settling veil of dust and smoke, the vanguard formed up with immaculate discipline, turning their backs on the shattered capital as they began a leisurely, unhurried march toward the exterior perimeter of the Holy Spirit Alliance...
Not a single hostile soldier stirred to bar their path.
Not an enemy dared raise a blade to test their resolve.