After killing a hundred more goliths, Pef took a bit of rest beside his wife, gulping from the Godwine jug.

Yue drank from hers more delicately, but she also seemed tired.

"They never end, hubby. And these Green Menace ones take too much energy to kill." she complained in a soft voice.

Pef sighed in agreement. He was still much too weak to forcefully break through the siege layers around the Haze Gap, although he could faintly sense the Gap in the far distance.

Only there were millions of goliths between him and his target.

Pef dragged his fingers over the blade of the Ruler, sensing its new strength. Just as the Taotie had suggested, the Ruler did grow through combat and killing, becoming heavier and more damaging. Even the normal Voidswords released through the Ruler were now able to kill lower ranked goliths, but this took a great toll on his qi and drained his soul.

And Yue seemed even more tired, as she lacked his Skill to destroy an enemy with a single cut.

'Let's fight more!' the Ruler demanded cheerfully.

"Hey, old badger. Can we move into the Gap with a portal or something?" Pef wondered in a low voice.

The spirit beast sprang out from Yue's ring, then checked on them with calculating eyes. "Tired already?"

Pef waved a hand in disgust. "I can eventually kill them all and I will. But there is a message I need to deliver to the General. Time is important, probably."

"Time...I see. Give me your hand." the Taotie demanded with a thin smile, which looked weird on its beastly face.

Pef offered his left hand, only for it to be ripped out forcefully, then devoured in a single bite. "How will that help?" Pef muttered in a despondent tone, as he grew out a new hand.

"That was for my time. I want to take Yue back to train, and this is wasting my time. Have fun with the siege" the Taotie answered with a toothy smile, then flicked Pef far into the Gap, making him crash at the feet of the General.

"Hello..." Pef murmured a bit surprised, as he took a glance around to find a thousand Soldiers staring at him with stern and deadly eyes. They were possibly surprised as well by the intrusion.

"Rise, Pef Xi. I see you've brought me a letter." the General spoke firmly and patted Pef on his head, making the green leaf float out into her hand then vanish.

"I have brought some wine as well." Pef offered with a smile, taking out most of his wine to share with the besieged Soldiers.

"General....this..." A Legion Captain intervened, seeming outraged with the breach of protocol and the outlandish gift of alcoholic beverage.

"Wait, Captain Shan. This is not just wine. It is Godwine made from the blood of the Desolate Beast. Sergeant Hong, come here and drink this jug." the General demanded with a powerful voice that silenced everyone in the camp.

"At once, General!" the Sergeant shouted, then ran to grab the indicated jug and gulped it in a few seconds. Before he could report, he fell on his ass and began glowing fiercely, as the Godwine had been enough to push him over the limit and into Ascension.

"How is your father, Pef Xi?" the General asked in a kinder voice, now that the initial tensions had transformed into hope.

"Errr. He should be Ascending into Tier 7 right now. I gave him a Tier 7 Ascension Pill..." Pef answered with a careless shrug.

"What? That's not..." A young looking woman muttered in disbelief.

"Colonel Jia, patience. This young Soldier has breached the Gap to carry letters and supplies for me. Perhaps we can afford him some respect, eh?" the General intervened politely, while also raising an eyebrow as a warning.

The Colonel nodded cautiously and closed her mouth, although her eyes seemed to burn a hole into Pef's back.

Pef just took out the last remaining pill, still covered in pill lightning. "It was something like this, but without the cloud. Former Captains are much easier to Ascend anyway..."he explained while flicking the pill up, and letting the entire camp see it. As they were all high tier gods, they shouldn't have a problem discerning the pill's rank and attributes.

"Made from the body of the Desolate Beast as well, huh? Clever." the General mused softly as she grabbed the pill and observed it intently.

Pef just scratched his cheek, as there was little use arguing with a Tier 8 Goddess.

With a small smile, the General handed the pill back to Pef. "Good Job, Pef Xi. You have done outstanding service for the Legion. As of now, you're promoted to Master Sergeant rank. As for you naughty glove...You can stop hiding from me. I made you, remember?" she continued while taking Pef's right hand into her own, and forcing the glove to re-appear.

'There are reasons...General. I was damaged badly...' the glove muttered in an embarrassed voice.

'Yes, I know. The Silent Monk saw it happen, and who did it. Anyways, you did an exemplary job reforming the Legion and recovering the lost Captains. And you even Ascended to Tier 7 as well...hereby, you're promoted to Legion Captain rank, detached for special operations. Mission details as follows...' the General spoke towards the glove with a mind transmission, even including Pef in most of the talk, except the classified details of the next mission.

With a flash of her eyes, every Captain took charge of a jug of wine, and began portioning small cups to the more deserving Soldiers, possibly those closer to Ascension.

In a few minutes, the entire camp was filled with a hundred glowing Soldiers pushing into their next Ascensions from the wonder wine brought by Pef.

Pef just watched curious, as the real Legion had always been too far. Now, they were really close.

"Colonel Jia...do you have to stay so close?" he muttered a bit shy, as the woman loomed over him and examined him curious.

"You're so weak...how did you ever made it here? There are millions of nu-goliths between us and the Breach." she asked while poking Pef's shoulder strongly with a finger, making Pef scowl from the pain.

"I'm not very good at fighting cultivators. But, I could fight goliths even at Tier 5. They're pretty easy to kill." Pef answered with an embarrassed tone.

"...Easy?" The Colonel muttered in disbelief.

"You're going to have to show us your skills quite soon, Sergeant. Hualitep is bringing his best troops out." the General intervened just in time, and her eyes began glowing with a silver hue.

Instantly, the entire Legion formed into ranks, and higher level ranks began deploying their Regiments, then various war implements like siege cannons, turrets and golems.

In a minute, the Legion was prepared for siege once more, as a haze of snow began falling onto their camp. Only it wasn't snow, it was an unending wave of goliths descending towards the besieged General and her Legion.

Pef also deployed his Avatars and clones, then began lining up Voidcutters with the glove's aid, bisecting thousands of goliths with each strike. It was hard to miss anyway, but the glove liked to be very efficient.

Pef blinked forward and rushed into melee, covered with a storm of Voidswords and Tribulation Lightning. All around him, thousands of weak goliths exploded into shreds of flesh and nightmare, soon obliterated by heaven's wrath.

"He makes it look quite easy, isn't it so Colonel Jia?" The General observed with a small smile.

"...Yeah. It seems the Mirror did bless us with hope in the end." the Colonel admitted with frown.

The General nodded gently as she released her captured Tier 8 weapon. "Go and fight Hualitep, beast. Maybe you can actually wound him this time."

With an angry screech, the beast rose above the battlefield and lined its target, then blasted its way through the golith sea and began attacking the master of the goliths, all but invisible in a whirlwind of claws and elemental spells. Most likely, the beast will fail again, but the important thing was keeping Hualitep in check.

With the main threat now stalled, the General began her favorite game, commanding the troops on the battlefield. And with the addition of the extra Tier 7s on her side, this new trap will be much simpler to solve. If she had a dozen more Soldiers like Pef, she wouldn't even need to try so hard...

She grabbed her own Godwine jug and took a sip, then smiled. Things were looking great for once.