Chapter 2239: Reinforcements It took several days, but Yuan finally recovered enough to move his body. "It’s a pity the Robes of Destruction got destroyed, but it served its purpose perfectly." Yuan gathered its scattered pieces and tossed them inside his spatial ring. The treasure was destroyed beyond recognition, and its material was no longer usable. Still, Yuan decided to keep what remained. Over the last several days, Yuan contemplated how he should prepare for his next fight with the Eternals. "If I want to fight Eternals without my treasures breaking left and right, I will need to create treasures that can handle Eternal Essence and surpass Celestial-grade." Unfortunately, Shiva—who was supposed to lead him to the Eternal capable of teaching him the Eternals’ crafting techniques—had vanished without a trace, leaving Yuan with no choice but to find another way to learn. He would’ve gone to meet the sealed Eternal if he had known their location, but Shiva never told him the location. Suddenly, Yuan recalled the sealed Eternal within the Heavenly White Tiger Clan’s territory. ’Since I was able to release Shiva from her seal, I should be able to release that Eternal, too.’ However, he wasn’t certain if it was wise to approach another Eternal so soon. After all, he’d just fought one and barely escaped with his life. In the end, Yuan decided to wait a little longer before returning to unseal the Eternal. He wanted to be more prepared just in case the Eternal had ulterior motives. ’Since I am already here, I might as well continue advancing my Power of the Void and strengthen my Eternal Essence at the same time.’ Thus, Yuan started cultivating in the void. A few days later, Yuan sensed his comprehension of the Power of the Void teetering on the edge of a breakthrough. Yet, no matter how much he tried, that final fragment of understanding eluded his grasp. Moreover, his Eternal Essence had stopped improving long ago. Just like his cultivation, which required his physique to advance before further improvement was possible, there was a limit to how much Eternal Essence Yuan could absorb at his current level. Unlike cultivation, however, refining more Eternal Essence demanded that he first strengthen his Soul Strength rather than his physique. However, Yuan was still satisfied with his progress. Even though his cultivation was still only at the True Immortal Realm, if he used his Chaotic Essence, True Dragon Awakening, and Eternal Essence, he could fight on par with a cultivator at the ninth level of God Ascension. In other words, he now stood at the peak of the cultivation world, only being below the Cultivation Gods. "Now then, let’s get out of here." He reached for his communication jade slip that connected him with Dong Ye. However, Yuan abruptly stopped moving when he suddenly sensed many presences approaching his direction. Fortunately, these presences did not belong to the Eternals. Unfortunately, they were likely Heaven’s Mandate’s reinforcements. "Dong Ye, can you hear me?" Yuan spoke to his communication jade slip. "My liege! Are you okay?!" Dong Ye immediately responded, sounding like he’d just found his lost son who had been missing for many years. "The issue with the Eternal has been dealt with for now, but another problem came up. The Heaven’s Mandate’s reinforcements are here." "Are you fighting them right now? I can open up a portal at your location, but it’ll take some time to locate you." "Not yet, but they should be here in about ten minutes." "An hour—no, half an hour! Do you think you’ll be able to hold them off for half an hour? If not, you should escape while you can, and I’ll open the portal once you’re safe." "That won’t be possible. They already know I am here. Even if I leave now, they’ll just chase after me," said Yuan. Despite the situation, his voice was awfully calm. "Half an hour, right? Start preparing the portal. I’ll hold them off until then." "As you command!" While Dong Ye immediately started working on the portal, Yuan calmly waited for the reinforcements to arrive. Eight minutes later, the reinforcements arrived earlier than he anticipated, mostly because they sped up the moment they noticed him. Over ten thousand soldiers, all experts within the God Ascension realm, wasted no time surrounding Yuan the moment they arrived. Most of these soldiers were between the first and fourth level of God Ascension, but there were two at the sixth level and one at the eighth level of God Ascension. "Even though you probably realized that running was futile, I’ll applaud you for not running away," said the soldier at the eighth level of God Ascension as he glared at Yuan. He then asked, "What happened to others?" "What do you think? They’re all dead." The soldiers wore shocked looks on their faces upon hearing Yuan’s words. "The Sixth Squad was wiped out?! There’s no way!" The eighth-level God Ascension expert, who was the commander of this specific squad, narrowed his eyes and spoke in a doubtful tone, "I don’t believe you." Yuan shrugged, "Whether you believe me or not is up to you. I won’t try to convince you, either." "You don’t have to talk if you don’t want to. There are plenty of ways to make someone talk, anyway," said the commander, his voice as cold as ice. "We can do this the easy way or the hard way. Which do you prefer?" Yuan smiled, "How scary. Are you sure you’re soldiers of the Celestial Emperor and not gangsters?" "The hard way, huh?" The commander muttered before shouting out loud, "Squad Leader Guang!" "Squad Leader Guang present!" One of the soldiers with a fourth-level God Ascension cultivation base moved forward, stepping out of the formation. "Cripple this little bastard and bring him before me!" "As you command!" The next moment, Squad Leader Guang charged at Yuan with a wide grin on his face.