Blazing sun reflected on the sharp edges of swords and spears shoe thudded on the dirty grass. Hammers held upon the shoulders of soldiers and bows had been clasped in the hands of shooters. The chorus thundered and boots thumped, shouting echoed and cursing spread—a man rode a white horse at the very front of the army, his hair green and eyes sharp. He was none other than renowned Tenth Elder Del Life. Behind him the horse cavalry and after that foot infantry and then heavy cavalry.

"Stop!" he commanded and soldiers complied and stopped at his order. Del peered far away but there was nothing other than broken tents and wild dogs that roamed around, trying to sniff out some leftovers. At this moment a man walked out behind the broken tents and fell on his knees. "My Lord!"

"Hmm," Dell said. "Do you know what those peasants are up to?"

"They are hiding on the Barren Hill milord. I did not follow them, otherwise it would be difficult to come out and inform you." The man informed, looking ahead at the so-called Barren Hill. there was a vast field in front of them and then, the forest of dead trees. Though they weren't sure if their enemy was present in that forest as well. After that there was a hill—the hill was surrounded by the dead trees and large boulders could be seen laying at the top. Therefore Del and his army could not see what was going on the hill.

"Alright, General Nubul" nodded Del. "Take a hundred horse man and five hundred man from light infantry and four hundred from heavy cavalry and attack those bastards."

The man looked up in bewilderment and shock. "But milord it would be akin to going to our death. Why don't we attack with full force?" his face turned a little pale.

"No," Del Shook his head. "We can't take risks. That Alexander is one cunning bastard. I want to probe his strategy first."

"But…"

"Dismiss!" Del's eyes turned cold as he gazed at the poor spy and the man shivered and bowed and in the end, reluctantly nodded.

"Soldier, be ready for the battle!" Nubul shouted at the thousand men in front of him. There were few men who looked excited and eager to slaughter those people who dared to oppose Heavenly Palace. Some of them had nervous faces, and some looked completely scared, shivering and whimpering in terror.

Nubul looked at those people who had excited faces and shook his head disdainfully. He knew they were new recruits, hot-blooded and stupid, eager to make their names known in this world. But they were unaware of the cruelty of the war—unaware that they were going into the mouth of death. He turned towards another group scared and filled with terror and crying like babies and did not show any expression—it was normal to fear death and he himself feared it, and fear sometimes could become your motivation and fear could also prolong your lives, nevertheless, he doubted this time it would help. Because he knew they were nothing but sacrifices to probe their enemies.

"Everyone be ready to slaughter," Nubul shouted. "Remember one thing—cowards have no place in the war, it is normal to have fear death, but it's stupid to fear your enemy. You need to have one goal in mind and that is to kill, kill and more kill. No matter who it is, just slaughter them. After all we are the soldiers of the Heavenly Palace. We can't show any sign of fear to those peasants!" although he knew he was deceiving these experienced soldiers, he had no choice but to do this. He needed to motivate them, alas he knew that this motivation would make them run towards their death.

"So are you ready to slaughter?!" he shouted.

"Yes!"

All the soldiers shouted even those who had scared faces showed faces full of determination. But could the determination and true heart win the battles? Those things looked good only in fairy tales. In real life only strong and wise and experienced win the battles.

"Alright, charge!"

Nubul shouted and charged his horse at the very front and only he knew he was on the verge of pissing himself—at the behind Del looked at the soldiers nonchalantly and turned towards the man at the side he was the commander of the army. "Be ready to send two thousand in the next layer."

Though the commander wanted to say something, in the end, he let out a sigh and remained silent. He knew these soldiers were nothing but the tools for this man and for the Heavenly Palace. He just felt sorrow for those people who were eager to die for the palace as it was their everything.

"Charge! Charge! Charge!" excited shouts echoed as the soldiers proceeded. "Destroy those fucking traitors!"

"Cut their head!"

"Smash!"

Just when the army reached the edge of the dead forest, the ground shook and sank, and sank hundreds of soldiers along with it. "Ahhh!" the excited shouts turned into the agonising shrieks and mournful wails, because inside the ditch there were spears and snakes that greeted the unlucky soldiers—some with good luck died instantly while others had to go through the

Painful stinging of snakes and dying slow deaths.

In this process around two hundred soldiers died, and many became injured, but no one stopped and continued to dash towards the dead forest. However, just when they thought the nightmare had stopped—enormous boulders rolled out from the hill towards the dead forest. Looking at those boulders even Nubul turned pale who was Peak Embryonic Realm Cultivator.

"Boom!"

The first boulder smashed into the horse rider and crushed him into the minced meat. However the boulder did not stop and flattened all the soldiers behind that particular person. And turned them into stickers on the ground while their guts and faeces, blood and bones scattered all about and reek spread in the dead forest, turning it even more eerie and dead than before.