After that event, Irina runs into two groups of 2 from the other territories, specifically troops from the County of Kaltstein and those from the Viscounty of Falkenburg. Apparently, they also move in squads of 5. Killing them is no problem because they have about the same power level as those from Krötenheim. She kills both groups using the arrows from the Krötenheim corpses she looted, from the items no one would notice were missing.
The reason is simple: she doesn't know if they are just very stupid or very arrogant. The arrows clearly bear the Krötenheim family seal. She doesn't know if all the blacksmiths and refining-smiths of that county belong to the Krötenheim family or serve them or what the hell is going on, this of course without counting the members of the guilds union of Inscription Masters, Alchemists, and Refining-Smiths, but it is really stupid to send your troops to infiltrate and arm them with non-hybrid or energy bows or at least unmarked arrows.
This works perfectly for her objective, causing conflict among the 7 invading forest territories her young master Feicui Long plans to take. So she kills them all with sealed arrows. On top of that, by killing them with arrows she gets to take all their spatial bags and their items and equipment. Unfortunately, only Falkenburg uses arrows, and they are not marked, but not everything is bad. Falkenburg's arrows are very identifiable because they use red and blue feathers, which makes them very distinctive, while Kaltstein uses the same element as Irina, the secondary element – Ice.
With that, Irina is able to fully set her plan in motion without delay. Irina is jumping from tree to tree, being chased by the same pack of fire wolves accompanied by ember wolves and flame wolves. She lets herself be seen on purpose so they chase her. Her target is a group of 15 people Kagetsume has spotted. It appears to be a completely new group they haven't encountered before…
Soon, the wolves also notice the group, which is distracted fighting a wounded ice lynx about to die. The wolves change their target. Why devour one target when they could devour fifteen…
The scene that follows is a complete massacre, because this time the fire wolf pack is at full strength, including members in Mystic Realm from Grade 5 to Grade 9. The group of 15 people, with only one Mystic Realm Grade 5, can only watch as they are overwhelmed and killed. Of course, she's not going to just sit here waiting for the wolves to come at her, so she leaves silently thanks to her Grade 6 mortal-quality boots.
…
Four days have passed. Her exploration is supposed to end in 3 days because the young master ordered her to keep her explorations at 14 days, half a month. So 11 days have passed, and even though during these 4 days they have brought death to many of the troops from the 7 territories, she hasn't neglected her exploration much. She has discovered several unknown safe sites, also discovered a coal mine, more energy trees, and she believes an energy ore vein, as she could feel the energy coming from the cave.
As for the troops, everything unfolds much more calmly than it seems. She discovers the identifiers of each faction in the forest. She also discovers the plans and goals of each faction, as well as the political alliances, the infiltration routes they used to pass undetected, the specific merchants they bribed, the tactics they are planning to use. On top of that, the motivations behind each of them, as each wants the forest for their own reasons.
Krötenheim is acting alone in this, since no one wants to risk being annihilated by the Skylion barony if their presence here is discovered, while Kaltstein and Heligheim are together and allied. Silberthal is acting alone as it is the strongest force present, even sending a peak Earth Palace Realm cultivator, while the Viscounty of Rotenberg, the Viscounty of Falkenburg, and the Barony of Tannenwald are working together in a temporary alliance.
She uses this to her advantage during attacks, using the identifiers of non-allied forces to attack each faction, particularly those where she senses hostility between them, since in some letters one can occasionally see the hatred toward a specific force or several. She also uses many times the tactic of luring beasts to kill them or of pretending after the killing that it was a beast attack.
In fact, right now she is watching another fight between the 7 forces, from the top of a tree, calmly, not worried thanks to the Grade 6 mortal-quality armor that Feicui Long made for her and the bracelet. No one could perceive her unless they were very close or directly in front of her and not by smell or vision. In fact, she is taking more notes like she did in the previous fights.
…
Meanwhile, below her, a burly bald man in black armor with blue accents leading a group of 10 from the County of Kaltstein says: "You damn bastards from Falkenburg, I finally found you. You killed the squad of my younger brother. Don't think you'll get away with it."
Another elegant man in very polished armor leading another 10 from the Viscounty of Heligheim nods and says: "Yes, my cousin also died at the hands of you damn Rotenberg bastards. Today we'll settle this."
In front of them are 30 people from the temporary alliance faction of Rotenberg, Falkenburg and Tannenwald, 10 people from each of the three forces, the strongest one from Falkenburg says: "Don't be so arrogant you damn barbarian of the icy rock, no matter how strong you are we have the numbers on our side, besides your people also kill ours even if ours kill yours it's an equivalent exchange."
Next to him a man from Rotenberg with reddish armor says: "Exactly, the Helighnens are very arrogant just because they have the barbarians of the icy rock on their side, if it weren't for them we would have conquered you already."
The bald and burly man laughs and says: "HAHAHAH, I see you're still just as arrogant, if it weren't because the merchants of Tannenwald manage to bring the Skylion barony to your side, none of you would be able to face our icy rock legion, no more talk let's do what we came to do."
Soon the ones from Kaltstein take out their rock golems, with two golems standing out in particular, with a blackish tone and dark blue glowing lines, these are the most iconic of Kaltstein county, they possess a bloodline that although it doesn't guarantee obtaining the skill of golem and puppet creation, every now and then one appears in the count's family, with that in their rock-filled environment, especially energetic rocks like icy rock, from there the county's name – icy rock, they create golems with which they force their troops to sign a companion creature pact and the most privileged ones are the squad leaders who have the luxury of signing with the icy rock golem.
The ones from Falkenburg don't fall behind and also release their own pact creatures, all of them are energetic beasts from the minor clan or family of hawks, that's where their name comes from, the city of hawks, soon combat erupts, in overall strength the ones from Kaltstein and Heligheim have the advantage, but in terms of numbers the Rotenberg faction has more, Irina watches all this while taking notes.
When everything finally ends, only the bald man and the man with polished armor survive, as well as the leaders of the Rotenberg faction, but they are very injured, soon a frosty blast of golden arrows shoots out and the last thing they hear before dying is the voice of a woman saying: "It was fun watching you fight but I have to continue with my mission."
While picking up the remains, Irina is happy that all this effort pays off, especially seeing the above, since even though she only kills about 10 or 15 from each faction, except for Krötenheim who she kills 30 from, not including the previous five, the numbers now drop to 50 from each force, that is, from the 700 who enter now there are only 350 left, this makes them extremely paranoid and fearful both of the forest and of opposing factions.
…
Irina continues along with Kagetsume terrifying the 7 forces during the remaining 3 days… until on day 14 of her exploration, while she watches the conflict between the 7 forces and the different factions unfolding until no one is left standing something, then changes…
The leader of the expedition force of Silberthal arrives along with his 9 living subordinates all in the ascending realm, along with him all the other 6 forces each with 10 members from the 7 forces, among them the leaders in the earthly palace also arrive at the battlefield.
The Silberthal leader with arms crossed says: "So you're the one who has been pulling the strings in the shadows huh?, I must say you're a very vicious woman, in just 7 days you manage to make all the men we brought kill each other due to collective paranoia and so it would have been, if we hadn't noticed that giant crow of yours."
Irina who is finishing picking up the war loot calmly on the battlefield where 25 people die from the remaining 35 people left from each force, is surprised by this and quickly takes off running, fortunately there's still some distance between them.
The 7 leaders and the other 63 cultivators follow her and although the shadow lizard leather boots with the wind gremlin core give her an effect just as strong as the light feet spell, the speed of an earthly palace versus a mere elemental realm like hers is incomparable, but even so Irina has four cards up her sleeve, she quickly pulls out four different talismans given to her by Feicui Long to escape danger, one of them is the light feet spell talisman, another wind feet, mind steps and spiritual speed, four talismans with the same function and that on top of that being different can completely stack their effects.
The leaders are amazed but it's too late to stop her, quickly these talismans along with her boots run at high speed, faster than the leaders themselves, but the earthly palace realms cannot be underestimated, even if they can't catch her they keep following her more or less 1.5 kilometers (0.932057 miles) behind and the ascending realms follow a bit farther back.
Irina isn't stupid, she leads them through several places making them even fight against the fire wolf pack, but that only delays them slightly, this gives her time to change her route towards Sky Dragon village, as long as she reaches the village's protection formation none of them will leave alive, she's sure of it since she has seen how no beast or creature dares to get close.
Also, Irina speaks with Kagetsume and says: "Kagetsume I need you to inform the young master about almost everything that is happening and that I am being chased, take this paper and deliver it."
Kagetsume quickly understands and grabs it with her paws using her skill Meld into the Shadows to make sure the energetic beasts from Falkenburg county cannot follow her, after all, even though she has advanced on this journey to Mystic Realm grade 3, she cannot take on beasts in the Ascending Realm and Earthly Palace.
Irina continues being pursued for several hours, fortunately the quality of the young master's talismans is very high and they last between 24 to 72 hours, depending on the duration he wants and the resources he uses, although of course these are at least the ones she knows… in any case, if it weren't for this high level of talent, she would have had to burn more talismans.
Even so, Irina is far too tired, her energy is almost depleted then she remembers she can use Blood Call of her twin swords the Bloody Queens to burn the blood she collected on the previous battlefield and with that she gains another burst in her speed, the leaders, annoyed, then start to use their movement techniques just like the 93 Ascending Realms.
Irina of course notices and thinks about how stupid she has been, how could she believe they would only send cultivators of the Elemental Realm and the Mystic, besides the leaders in the Earthly Palace level, it is obvious they would send some Ascending Realms as support to help the ones in the Earthly Palace, now she doesn't feel so sure about bringing so many to the village but she is far too tired to think clearly, so Irina can only resign herself and keep running and running…