Death... and me

While the other regions thought they were at a disadvantage, Walfure was extremely quiet. The scouts of Crimew, Povast, Invank, Legoger, and Antifas stayed at their borders with Walfure en masse, making sure Walfure would be the one to attack them while they were attacked by others. All of them thought they would have a terrible time once Walfure and its soldiers at the Transition Realm and below decided to attack one of them.

However, such a thing didn't happen. During the several months that followed, Vresxiblae, Jutras, Qitanda, and the other regions advanced more and more into their territories. One city after another was lost on all sides with their armies, already somewhat damaged thanks to their attack on Walfure, being wiped out here and there.

Nevertheless, Roan remained steadfast in his orders to not attack anyone. He was waiting for an opportunity first. "The participants can't come out unless they're at serious risk of losing their region. However, there's a big problem. Be it the five regions around us or the regions attacking them, none of them want to risk losing their Space Bending Realm participants. If they do that, they'll be at a disadvantage once they need to fight the participants of deeper regions in this continent."

That was something everyone was having trouble thinking of a solution for. Even if one conquered a region, that would only happen once one pushed it to the edge and got the chance to fight their Space Bending Realm participants. Then again, to defeat them, one would need to use one's own. How many Space Bending Realm participants would fall during that moment?

Olly and the others knew that. "That may be the case, sure. But we can't wait here for the next 190 years. That will only end in everyone's defeat."

Roan nodded, replying, "That's true. That means everyone has only one choice. Force the participants who lost their region under the winner's command. If they do so, they'll still have more Space Bending Realm participants to fight once they attack other regions."

"That's not gonna happen," Luina immediately answered in response. "First of all, you would run the risk of being betrayed by them in the future. If they haven't been killed, that means their continent hasn't lost yet, right? They can wait for the right chance and counterattack from the inside to take control over the power that conquered your region."

Roan agreed with Luina, saying, "Exactly. However, they don't have any other choice. If they don't accept these time bombs into their forces, then defeat is guaranteed once they find a region with more Space Bending Realm participants remaining. Let me put it this way. Take the defeated participants and have a chance of being betrayed but also winning. Don't take the defeated participants and lose for sure due to the lack of manpower. Which one do you think they'll choose when given a chance?"

"This..." It was a meaningless question. Everyone would absolutely take the first option. If they could prepare for possible betrayal and contain it, the time these participants were used to fighting on their side would be a huge advantage. "However, the winning force would definitely ask for the defeated participants to take the front lines. I refuse to believe the defeated participants will follow those orders."

"If you continue with that line of thinking, you will return to the start,' said Roan. 'There's a very simple way of using the defeated participants when the winners go after another region. You just need to reach an agreement where both sides will attack that region at the same time."

"Wait!" Olly then found a huge problem. "Doesn't that mean that once Crimew and the rest are conquered, the regions attacking them will have a lot more Space Bending Realm participants? We can defend for a very long time, but we'll become more stuck after that."

Roan smiled in response as he looked at the time. "Let me see... it has been five months since Crimew and the other regions retrieved their armies from inside our borders to head back and defend against the other attackers."

Roan then looked to the side, where one of the scouts he trained during the past ten years was standing. "How is it? Did any of the regions around us already send out their Space Bending Realm participants?"

The guy shook his head, replying, "No, Sect Master. However, we recognize that the region closest to do that is Crimew. Their region is quite big compared to the other four, so it's very hard to defend after they were suddenly attacked. We believe it shouldn't take more than a few weeks until Crimew's Space Bending Realm participants come out and fight the Jutras Region's participants."

"That's good enough. Send the emissary to Crimew to ask them to surrender," Roan ordered.

"What?!" Everyone in the room was taken aback. "Are you asking Crimew to surrender to us even though they're being attacked by Jutras instead?"

Roan nodded, replying, "Why wouldn't I? That's their best choice, after all."

Leticia didn't think so. "You must be dreaming. It would obviously be better for them to surrender to Jutras in case they lose the Space Bending Realm battles. That way, they could join Jutras and make sure to take us out just like they intended at first."

Rean, who was also listening, immediately shook his head, saying, "Naive. You forgot the main problem of attacking our region. Unless you also have forces with anti-cultivation suppression formation badges, no one can pass through our defenses."

"Isn't that one more reason to ally with another region and increase the attack power? They could use their combined numbers to wear us out," Ramon mentioned.

Neither Rean nor Roan answered, though. Instead, Roan sent out his own orders. "Make sure to attack Crimew Region as soon as our emissary delivers the message. However, I don't want the other armies on the other regions' borders to move. Only the ones at the north are to enter Crimew."

Sure enough, the emissary was received by the participants of Crimew as he went straight to the point. "Surrender to Walfure."