Death... and me

Zangron imagined the same thing as Rean and Havek. If Havek was here, he probably came as a subordinate of another participant in the Free Continent Competition. As the head disciple of Lanstreo, Zangron obviously had to do everything he could to dominate the other regions. Which meant also becoming enemies with Havek.

Worse than that, due to his cultivation, it would be nearly impossible to reach the continent where Havek was located without being caught by other participants. The wars couldn't start yet, after all. Then again, showing his face inside another continent's region was the same as asking for death. "Guess I can only conquer my way to the region Havek is located," said Zangron.

"What will you do once we get there?" Zlois asked back.

Zangron shook his head, saying, "If he decides to be my enemy, I won't hold back. I need the Lanstreo Organization's help to go look for my family. As small as the chance may be, I don't want to give up. Of course, since he came from the same world as us, I'll try to spare his life while I take down his region. Perhaps he'll join my side on his own volition once I get close."

Zlois and Frinke nodded in response. "Let's hope he does so."

Back in the Walfure Region, Rean passed the message for everyone to look out for visitors. He didn't know when Zangron would come, after all. Unfortunately, not a single soul by the name of Zangron would appear during the next four years and a half. Well, Rean's group also expected that Zangron might have had no way to come, so they weren't too surprised.

At the end of the sixth year, after the start of the competition, the entire Walfure Region was completely connected. There wasn't a single corner of the region that wasn't covered by the communication system, making everything easier.

However, Rean's group didn't participate that much in this expansion. Rean and Havek only had to build a few more DPUs to control the overall communication passing through the antennas. Other than that, the antennas could simply be produced en masse before being installed in their respective locations.

Of course, some bugs in the programming were found here and there. After all, it was one thing to operate the communication system in the sect. Doing the same thing on the scale of a continent was another thing altogether. In those instances, Havek and Rean would intervene and fix or upgrade them.

The distribution of antennas was left in Franga's hand in the end. Franga didn't mind it at all, as he wanted to learn more about the circuitry formations. Sadly, it didn't matter how many times he asked. Rean and Havek never even uttered a single word about the core circuitry formations and runes used in the DPUs and other important systems.

Roan, on the other hand, only stopped to work on the war effort. Controlling the distribution of armies, battle formations, commanders, he did it. He was in charge of literally everything. The good thing for Roan was that he had a lot of capable subordinates from the System Sect. With that being said, he only made the most important decisions, while the rest were carried out by the rest. That gave Roan a lot of free time as well. He was pretty satisfied to have that free time since it meant that all the positions in the Walfure Region army were occupied by the proper personnel.

Where did the twins use most of their time then? Cultivation! They joined Celis and Kentucky and began using their Rank Four Divine Stones nonstop. Only the first two years were really busy for them. After that, even considering the research Rean did on formations or Roan's effort in the upcoming war, they still had a lot of free time.

Naturally, they cultivated inside the Soul Gem Dimensional Realm. Let's not forget that the Dimensional Realm's environment always had 50% or so more Divine Energy than the outside world. That was one of the perks it got after the upgrade that took Celis' sprouts as part of the development.

In any case, they had Celis himself, gathering most of the Divine Energy at the center while the four of them cultivated. Kentucky's nest on Celis only contributed to increasing that pace even more. It was hard to tell how many perks their alliance of four had related to cultivation.

It went without saying that being able to focus entirely on cultivation was the best thing. By the time they got close to the ten-year deadline, Rean, Roan, Celis, and Kentucky had already broken through to the Peak Stage of the Transition Realm. Sister Orb even said that, at their current pace, they wouldn't need more than six or seven years to enter the Void Tempering Realm. Of course, now that the deadline was almost here, what they would lack the most was time. Who knew how long it would take for them to actually attempt that breakthrough.

[Rean, Roan, there's only one month remaining until the borders are open to attacks,] warned Sister Orb.

The twins nodded in response and exited the Soul Gem Dimensional Realm with Kentucky. Celis, on the other hand, decided to stay in the Dimensional Realm. In any case, he was the one who could absorb Divine Energy the fastest. Since they shared their Divine Energy, it would be beneficial if Celis continued cultivating for the four of them.

Luina noticed when they appeared and couldn't help but complain. "I thought you guys would never come out. Everyone is becoming quite tense because of the approaching war, you know?"

Rean shrugged his shoulders in response. "I'm only responsible for logistics and management. That's Roan's problem as I probably won't take part in any battles."

Roan nodded, saying, "With an army of this size, joining the front lines while we're the ones commanding it is nothing but ridiculous." After that, he looked at Rean. "Though, I want to know if you succeeded in your part of the plan for the first regions we'll take."

Rean smiled after hearing that. "Don't worry. Everything worked out just fine."