In the past six months that Rui had set out to master Weaving Blood, and then improve it with the Reaper's Dew, much had changed on Floating Island.
The war had not ceased, nor had it ended. The Kaddar Treaty Organization had rolled out assault after assault chipping away at the strength of the Floating Sect
They deployed nearly a hundred Martial Squires each time, forcing the Floating Sect to deploy a similar number of Martial Squires each time to defend and prevent the Kaddar Martial Artists from reaching the surface of the island.
The conflicts around the island often affected the island, yet it never destabilized or showed any concerning signs as the Kaddar Treaty Organization deployed their mysterious long-range weapon that affected the esoteric substance that served as the gravitational core of the island to hold the island together, making it impossible to destabilize.
The Floating Sect didn't even need to bother too much with active surveillance because they already knew that the Kaddar Treaty Organization was coming ahead of time. Every time the gravity on the surface of the island fluctuated and reduced, they knew that the Kaddar Treaty Organization had employed its weapon to get rid of one of the greatest deterrences that the Floating Sect had against the Kaddar Region; the collapse of the island onto the Kaddar Region.
The Floating Sect had considered the possibility of getting rid of the weapon once and for all with a targeted covert attack. But unfortunately, that was almost impossible to do. The Kaddar Region would see such an attack coming from a mile away.
Covert operations required bypassing awareness by definition, and there was simply no way for the Floating Sect to hide their approach to the Kaddar nation at this point. The fact that it was so physically, economically, and socially isolated from the Kaddar Region meant that there was no way to disguise its operations to the Kaddar Treaty Organization.
That was why the plan to destroy the weapon was temporarily put off.
It wasn't as though there was absolutely no way this was possible whatsoever or anything, after all, there existed people like Kane who would be able to bypass even the intense surveillance of the Squire patrols that the Kaddar Treaty Organization had set up to ensure that nobody could enter or exit.
It was unfortunate, but the Floating Sect was running out of options. It was forced into a defensive position where it could not do much.
A war against the Kaddar Region on its own soil was out of the question. The net military power of the Kaddar Region far outstripped the Floating Sect when it came to their home turf, the Floating Sect would suffer a devastating loss if they moved out of their home turf and attacked the Kaddar nations on their home turf.
All they could do was weather the attack and make it extremely costly for the Kaddar Region.
As long as they could make the disincentives much greater than the incentives when it came to waging war against the Floating Sect, they could deter the Kaddar Region from waging war against the sect.
There were considerations on how to go about this.
One of the ideas that they had was simply escalating the battle to the Senior level. Perhaps one day when the Kaddar Region had sent a particularly large platoon of Martial Squires with some of their most powerful Squires, the Floating Sect could choose to annihilate them all with a Martial Senior.
This would put the Kaddar Region in an extremely difficult position since it was clear that they were unwilling to escalate the battle to this level easily.
The internal division, as well as external pressure from states outside but around the Kaddar Region, were one of the weaknesses that the Floating Sect could exploit this way, it meant that they would have to make a strong decision then and there, whether to bite the bullet and move forward, or whether to give up and end the war.
It could work, but if the Kaddar Region decided to go all out and deploy all their Martial Seniors, then there would be big trouble. Three Martial Seniors simply could not defend against the might of more than a dozen Martial Squires, regardless of the environment.
However, those three could kill a few Martial Seniors each at the worst, even if they did lose.
It was fear of that outcome that was the biggest reason that the Floating Sect did not escalate.
It was a messy situation where both sides were limited and restricted, and both sides were bleeding due to the war. Yet the Kaddar Region refused to give up so easily.
From the very start, it was the Floating Sect's victory if they could make the Kaddar Region cease. As long as they could do that, it would not only be a victory for this war, but it would also make future wars more unlikely.
If the Kaddar Region could not get what it wanted despite the presence of a weapon that got rid of the deterrence of the island, then there probably was no way for the Kaddar Region to ever get what it wanted.
Unless, of course, they got a Martial Master, in which case it would be game over.
Regardless, the Floating Sect spent half a year gritting its teeth and putting up a heavy guard to withstand the assaults from the Kaddar Region.
Guardians died inevitably. Every attack and every assault killed many guardians inevitably, as a result.
Unfortunately, there wasn't much that could be done about that. They increased the number of Martial Squires that fought back in order to give their guardians a numeric advantage, but the Kaddar Region simply threw even more Martial Squires to attack the sect, forcing the Floating Sect to bleed even more as huge chunks of the sect were forced to go out there and defend against the incoming waves of attacks.
