Fitzroy laughed heartily. "Your grandson, eh? Has that boy finally gained your acknowledgment?"

"Absolutely not, he's still an abomination," it was Vienna who replied before her husband could. He placed a hand on her shoulder to stop her from saying any more. He looked around the room and saw the disgust in the eyes used to look at his wife.

He smiled wryly, "that boy is so shiny that even the blind have to take notice of him. I can't help but want to have a conversation with him one of these days."

Fitzroy shook his head. "That is easier said than done, not even I will be able to help. Your best shot is to approach your daughter and have her consider it. Even then, your chances of meeting him are slim. Thanks to your wife's bigotry and your complicity, that boy hates both of you more than he does anyone else on the continent." Fitzroy patted his brother's shoulder reassuringly. "You've made your bed brother, I wish you luck."

Three days later, the sky above Stardust City was full of airships large and small, coming down to dock. Fitzroy had called an emergency assembly, and the venue was none other than Stardust City. This has never happened before, the assembly was hosted by a different province every three years and the allotment went in alphabetical order. Stardust Province was not set to host a meeting for another few hundred years. This meeting was not scheduled and the reason for this meeting laid solely in the Stardust Province, thus exceptions were made.

Over the years, the speed and efficiency of airships improved. Now it did not take a week to reach anywhere on the continent even with the slowest airships. As these ones used etchings instead of magic circles a language Xasha refused to share with the other member states saying it was incomplete.

No one believed him before and just believed him to be greedy and wanting to exploit them but after getting those books with the full language they had to say that Xasha was not joking around. What he had used up until this point was like a toddler's doodle compared to the complete codex.

As the different Patriarchs and their teams, all entered the forcefield around Stardust Province everyone of them had the same reaction. The high concentration of mana that assaulted their bodies made them feel pained as it gusted through their veins and into their Valdis.

Some recalled having this reaction the first time they entered Imperial City. This was several hundred times more potent than even that, they felt this was the highest concentration of Imperium on the continent. This sentiment was then shattered after entering Stardust City and on their visits to other cities.

Inside the City, the Imperium was several dozen times more potent than outside and several dozen folds more potent inside buildings. Astonishment could barely explain what they felt after spending a day in Stardust Province. They felt like village idiots venturing into a metropolis for the first time.

Even more, was the strength of the people within the city. There were Thorium Realm existences casually walking around, buying groceries, even selling at fruit stands. They asked around and found out that they had been rejected from joining the army and no raid team would accept them. So they are forced to live a normal life until they are strong enough to pass the required assessment.

Everyone who heard the answer was left wide-eyed? Which power would turn down tens of thousands of Thorium Realms and have them become normal citizens? Were they in their province they would be elders if not grand elders revered by all. Here, however, they were selling fruit and picking fields. Then another thought came that sent shivers down their spines, "if the rejects are so powerful, some even stronger than them, how strong are those who have been accepted?"

"Sir you are under the wrong impression," a big man explained as he saw Lusha before him near shitting his pants in fear. "Joining the army has nothing to do with cultivation, it's a long list of criteria, and cultivation is just one."

Lusha's worry lightened up quite a bit upon hearing this, "what are these criteria."

"This is no secret so I can tell you this much. Its things that make a complete mage or practitioner rather, things like teamwork, perception, mana control, and manipulation. Ability to follow orders, critical thinking, ability to perform under pressure and most important of all willpower and loyalty."

"Willpower? Loyalty? What does that have to do with anything?" Lusha asked in confusion.

"The world of cultivation is long and painful, without willpower you will easily give up. Especially when things get hard and without loyalty, you might abandon your teammates in a time of need in order to protect your own skin. I don't know about you, but an organization like that is one that I yearn to be a part of."

"So why were you rejected?" Lusha was interested to know.

The big man seemed embarrassed, he scratched his head and said, "my perception is not strong enough. I cannot pass the 45th assessment for the life of me and you have to pass the 50th assessment before you are even considered for a spot in the army or for any raid team to take you."

"You said raid teams, so there are more than one?"

"Oh, there are well over a hundred raid teams all filled with elites of the Province. The most outstanding is the Stardust Raiders or Burning Stardust as we call them, led by Xasha himself. The most accomplished is the Shadow Corp, as they have the most merit points for finding dungeons and other resources during their scouts. There are a few others that stand above the rest and a few rising stars who have everyone is keeping an on. Me personally, I'm aiming for Roaring Raiders led by Flame emperor Saxon of Draconic City. They take on the most dangerous dungeons and ruins we find and are second only to the shadow corps in merit points."

Lusha's eyes shown, he couldn't believe what he was hearing. Even the Devos family only had one raid team and a team of reserves. One should know that raid teams of made up of mages Thorium Realm or higher and a single raid team can have up to 1000 members.

Now, this man was saying there are over a hundred thousand Thorium Realm existences in the raid teams alone. The Army is not even counted yet, he released a cold breathe before walking away from the man with quick steps, he needed to find Fitzroy and warn him.

"Fitzroy!" Lusha burst into Fitzroy's mansion and shouted with all his might. "Get me a drink," he barked at an attendant passing by.

"Boy stop shouting, I'm right outside," he heard a voice behind him. He ran back outside and turned to see a garden he had not noticed. Every plant inside the garden was of the purification affinity. This astonished him, these things are supposed to be so rare that they could only be happened upon and not sought after. There were thousands of these plants here, casually growing in a random flower garden.

"Come over here and stop staring, you're making me look bad." He heard his brother's voice again.

He walked along the path and found Fitzroy sitting lazily on a bench by a small lake feeding a baby energy beast as they frolicked and jumped from the water to catch the treats he tossed.

Lusha stomped over. "Fitzroy, did you know that kid has over a hundred thousand highly trained Thorium Realm practitioners under him?"

"A hundred thousand?" Fitzroy chuckled, "it's closer to half a million than a hundred thousand."

Lusha grabbed his collar and asked in anger, "you knew? How could you allow this to happen?"

"What was I supposed to do? Stop them from cultivating? Even if I had your mind, this place is protected by a forefield we couldn't break if the entire continent joined hands. Moreover, the thought never crossed my mind. Besides that, is that kid not impressive?" He asked with a bright smile.

"Impressive? You have time to be impressed? What if he decides to destroy the lot of us for annoying him? What if he decides to take rulership of the continent? Who can stop him? The entire Henosis combined only has an little over half a million Thorium Realm practitioners and that's only with his help. Before that, it was only a few tens of thousands."

"Exactly? You think he wouldn't use his knowledge to help his own organization too? Don't be naive, as for whether he would ever attack us, I'm not worried about it." Fitzroy released his brother's grip and returned to feeding the energy beasts or rather Fantasma.

"Loyalty." was all Fitzroy said.

Another three days passed and the auspicious time had Arrived. Everyone had assembled in a conference center to the south of Stardust City. Xasha stood in the center of the room with Ari and Alexi standing on either side of him. He couldn't help but notice the gazes of the crowd as they looked towards him.

He was sure they had a shock after spending several days inside Stardust Province. Be it the beastmen, the Imperium, the military might, or the property. They now knew without a doubt the gap that existed between Stardust Province and the rest of them.

Once everyone entered the room Xasha spoke up, "welcome everyone to my Stardust City. In light of the new information I shared with you all, I'm sure you all have questions. I understand, I'm still having a hard time believing it as well. Ask me anything you need to know, I will try and answer them as beat I can."

Unlike before, instead of sharing the speaking platform, each person stood up and asked a question then two follow up going in alphabetical order based on the name of their province.

The first to stand up was a lady. "Before all that, what is this place? I thought we are to share everything with other member states, so what is this disparity between you and us?"

"I don't understand your question, what have you seen here in Stardust City that is not available to everyone else here?" Xasha asked casually.

The lady froze, not quite sure what to say, there really was nothing here that wasn't in their provinces but even with this the picture was quite different.

"Let's straighten this out, the only difference between mine and your provinces is the concentration of Imperium. I proposed several years ago to connect our provinces forcefeild and share our mana equally. You all know well the response I got to this proposal. I was accused of all sorts of nefarious things and was turned down promptly."

Xasha glances at those around the room, "What you're seeing now is the consequences to your decision, you could be as powerful as the Stardust Province but you voted against your best interests. Do not blame me."

"But, but. Even the moon forest and the moon gardens in every residence in your continent, you gave us a few plants each while you have a massive forest for yourself." The crowd all nodded in agreement with the lady's sentiment. They were all shocked by the volume of moon plants owned by Stardust Province.

"Did you think we happened upon billions of moon plants and decided to spare you a few seedlings. Those plants were found, each by chance, some were but seeds or seedlings from dungeons and ruins or in the land we cleared to create our province.

"Our practitioners risked their lives and in some cases lost their lives to acquire those plants. Our team of herbalists spent over a decade, budding, grafting, and nurturing seedling until their Valdis ran empty to create what you see. It did not come overnight, the only reason you all don't have a moon forest of your own is solely your decision."

The crowd remained silent, even the lady took her seat. She was still upset but this time she was upset with her self and she was not the only one.

Xasha didn't wait for a next question, "this meeting was not called for you all to voice your grievances but to discuss the new information about the continent and discuss the future. That discussion begins now, I'd like to introduce you to the sources we got the information from, you may asked your questions directly to them."

Xasha, Ari, and Alexi activated their mana weapons and from them, three shadows shot into the sky. One was a little girl, the other a naked woman and the third was a fairy whose body was made of lightning.

"Nice to meet you, humans, this Celestial is called Xandria."

"I am Harpy Queen Mylyn."

"I am Umi."