The announcement came as a shock to the Floating Sect, many of the guardians were rather startled by this. Given that for more than half a year, the conflict had been restricted to the Squire Realm, the prospect that the war would escalate to the Senior Realm seemed low.
Yet, the Kaddar Treaty Organization had decided that enough was enough and that it was time to finish this once and for all.
This was unnerving to all of the guardians of the Floating Sect because it meant that they were now part of a conflict where their strength was no longer going to be deciding the outcome.
Of course, given that the strongest forces of both sides of the war were at the Senior Realm, it could be said that they never truly were the deciding outcome.
Of course, Rui had not come to learn that Martial Squires was not as irrelevant in battles pertaining to the Senior Realm as he had expected.
The reason for that was because the Martial Heart was the thing that truly separated Martial Seniors from Martial Squires. Without the Martial Heart, their combat prowess would fall off from the Senior Realm and plummet well below.
It was possible for large groups of powerful Martial Squires to make a difference in the outcomes between Martial Seniors.
Or one extremely powerful Martial Squire.
Regardless, it would explain why the Kaddar nations would have liked to mow down the guardians of the Floating Sect.
And it wasn't as though they hadn't been successful about that whatsoever, it was just that although they had mowed down a lot of guardians, they had suffered an even greater loss in exchange. They had suffered tremendously in their efforts to kill the Martial Squires of the Floating Sect.
The Martial Squires of the Floating Sect were special, they were the cream of the crop. Not only were they powerful Martial Artists, but their mental qualities were also very high.
They had overcome many life-threatening obstacles to reach where they had gotten to, and to maintain where they had gotten to required a strong mentality that could not be found in the average Martial Squire.
Even if the Kaddar Treaty Organization did its best to gather the best of the best that it could, it simply couldn't beat the years of filtering initiatives and the refining of guardians. On average, the Floating Sect simply had a higher quality of Martial Artists.
The Kaddar Treaty Organization compensated for the gap in quality with sheer quantity, throwing seemingly endless waves of Martial Artists at the Floating Sect.
This led to an extremely costly expenditure on maintaining the war effort. The Floating Sect did not have such expenditure, and that was one of the advantages that it had over the Kaddar nations.
All of the guardians fighting for the Floating Sect fought in exchange for the privilege of training at the Floating Sect. The Floating Sect did not have to go above and beyond to bring them over only for them to die, it had already amassed highly elite defenders.
That was probably one of the reasons that the Kaddar Treaty Organization eventually relented.
Trying to win the war in the Squire Realm was untenable.
The same could not be said for Martial Seniors. The Martial Seniors of the Floating Sect were most certainly not at the peak of the Senior Realm the way that the guardians of the Floating Sect were.
However, they did have the home-court advantage. It meant that as long as they fought anywhere above-board the island, the Martial Seniors of the Kaddar Region were going to have to struggle even if they arrived with a numerical advantage.
However, this did not mean that the situation was comforting for a lot of the guardians because it meant that they would have to be too close to Senior-level combat. While all of the guardians were confident about fighting against their peers, it was an entirely different matter when Martial Artists of higher Realms were involved.
Regardless, it meant that things were changing, but not necessarily for the better.
As soon as Rui had learned that the war had escalated to the Senior Realm, he knew that he would probably be called by the three Martial Seniors
He also predicted that Kane and Ieyasu would also be called.
And he was right.
Shortly after the sect spread the message about Martial Seniors, both he and Kane were instructed to meet the three Martial Seniors of the sect in the main office.
"Do you think we're in trouble?" Kane asked as the two of them walked towards the main office.
"Probably the opposite," Rui replied, before pausing to reconsider his words. "Well, actually, we might be thrown into troubling circumstances."
Kane was surprised to see Tokugawa Ieyasu already standing in the office.
In front of him were the three Martial Seniors of the Floating Sect. The three of them were not actively flexing their aura, but the pressure that they exerted on the three Martial Squires was not little. It was pressure that came with a whole other Realm of power.
"You're finally here," Senior Xanarn let out a small smile.
"We were instructed to come here to meet with you," Rui replied.
The office was quite raw and bare for a main office. The three Martial Seniors were seated on the other side of the table.
"Now that all of you are here, we can begin," Senior Sarak stated with a composed tone.
He was seated in the middle, between Senior Xanarn and Senior Leonil.
Rui's senses told him that he was the most powerful Martial Artist in the room.
"As was announced earlier today, the Kaddar Region had decided to cease holding back," Senior Sarak began. "The battle has escalated, and while the Kaddar Treaty Organization will not cease deploying Martial Squires, the focus of the battle will soon be on the battles between Martial Seniors like ourselves. The three of us will have to take our part in the war."
