The Mage King from the Judgment Palace looked at the Communication Crystal with narrowed eyes and gnashed teeth.
It was so humiliating.
Some random guy in the Sixth Realm was stopping the strongest Empire in the world.
She quickly created a small Isolation Barrier around her to keep everyone from watching and listening.
Then, she contacted the Mage King from the Land and Sky Empire.
"Yes?" the Mage King asked after accepting the transmission.
The Mage King from the Judgment Palace took a deep breath. "The Judgment Palace can't join the war as things are right now."
Silence.
"What?!" the other Mage King shouted in shock and rage. "Explain!"
"We can't get through that one territory," she explained. "The guy defending this place has been playing us for fools."
"At this moment, he is buying time while fighting against the most powerful Early Ancestral Mage in my entire Empire! That's someone that might have a chance of condensing a fivefold Spirit Sense in the future."
"And he's playing with him! Winning is so easy for him that he can keep the fight going for an entire week, or maybe he already managed to win without killing his opponent."
"There isn't a single person in the entire Judgment Palace that can win against this person at this very moment," she explained.
Silence.
Many kilometers away, a young man with green hair furrowed his brows as he took deep breaths.
This was the Mage King responsible for the assault from the Land and Sky Empire.
"You think he has a fivefold Spirit Sense?" the man asked calmly.
"Very likely," the other Mage King answered.
The man looked towards the northeast. He wasn't close enough to the territory in question to see it, but he still looked in its general direction.
Someone with a fivefold Spirit Sense.
Was it really so smart to unveil someone like that?
People with fivefold Spirit Senses were closely protected since they represented future Mage Kings.
Killing someone with a fivefold Spirit Sense was like killing a Mage King.
It would be devastating for an Empire.
And yet, the Lightning Manor was openly putting this peak genius of theirs in a vulnerable position.
Sure, in the short run, there wouldn't be any danger, but in the long run, things would be different.
There were other people with fivefold Spirit Senses out there, and with enough preparations, they could eventually kill that genius.
"What's our plan?" the Mage King from the Judgment Palace asked.
The man just furrowed his brows more.
Originally, he was pretty appalled and angry at the Judgment Palace, but after hearing that they were dealing with someone with a fivefold Spirit Sense, most of that anger vanished.
In the future, they might get someone that could kill Shang, but it would take many years.
But for now, there was nothing they could do.
The Mage King had several powerful geniuses under him that he had full confidence in, but he knew how powerful someone with a fivefold Spirit Sense was.
After all, the Mage King also had a fivefold Spirit Sense.
Sure, these people were extreme geniuses, but the Mage King knew very well how much more powerful someone with a fivefold Spirit Sense was.
There was nothing they could do at this very moment.
"I have a plan, but I have to ask our Ancestor for permission first," the Mage King said.
After that, he hung up and took out a different Communication Crystal.
"What is it?" came the heavy voice of the Land and Sky Emperor, Brutus Cesar.
"Sir, someone with a fivefold Spirit Sense is blocking the Judgment Palace from joining the war. I am planning on handing over our two closest territories to the Judgment Palace so that they may attack from-"
"Impossible," the Land and Sky Emperor immediately said.
The Mage King was surprised by the sudden and direct interruption. "Sir?"
"According to the contract, we are not allowed to hand over our territories willingly," the Emperor said.
At that moment, the Mage King's eyes shone.
The Emperor had specified everything with the words "according to the contract".
Did that mean that he wanted the Mage King to hand it over but couldn't give an affirmative answer?
"Sir, what if the Judgment-"
"I said it is impossible!" the Emperor shouted with extreme strictness. "If I notice that anyone of our Empire has had some dealings with another Empire that results in the voluntary loss of one of our territories, I will personally kill that person!"
The Mage King became quite nervous and scared as he heard the threatening words from his Emperor.
"Of course, sir. It won't happen, sir," he said before cutting the connection.
The Mage King released a nervous sigh.
Well, that plan went out of the window.
Meanwhile, in an absolutely humongous tower, over 10,000 kilometers tall, a green-haired man put his head in his hands as he gritted his teeth in frustration.
The Land and Sky Emperor cursed the contract's strictness.
Of course he wanted to give the Judgment Palace a couple of territories so that they could join the war, but he couldn't even slightly show any inclination of supporting that.
He literally had to do his absolute very best to stop this from happening.
And if the Mage King willingly acted and handed some territories over, the Emperor would literally have to kill his Mage King.
Even more, nobody but the Emperors knew about the strictness and exact contents of the contract, and the Emperors were not permitted to tell others about the content.
'I have to break this restriction as soon as possible!' the Land and Sky Emperor thought in frustration.
Meanwhile, the Mage King contacted one of the Mage Kings of the Twilight Dusk Family, who then contacted Emperor Amon Gus.
Just like Emperor Brutus Cesar, Emperor Amon Gus made it very clear that this would go against the contract and that he would kill whoever broke the rules.
The Mage King could only sigh in defeat and tell the other Mage King that they also couldn't do that.
Both Mage Kings were troubled by this development.
The entire strategy was based on the Judgment Palace joining, and they had already sacrificed many extremely talented Mages to put pressure on the Lightning Manor.
Without the Judgment Palace, the other two Empires were in danger of overextending.
Eventually, they decided to pause the assault for now and told the Judgment Palace to find a way to join.
Without the Judgment Palace, they weren't willing to keep up the heavy pressure.
Naturally, this put the Judgment Palace also under immense pressure, and the Mage Kings gathered to find a solution.
The Empress of Death was too busy dealing with the contract, and they couldn't ask her.
Yet, even after a full day of planning, they couldn't find a solution that didn't involve breaking the rules or assaulting their allies.
Eventually, the Mage Kings gritted their teeth and actually asked their Empress what they should do, even though she told them not to disturb her.
The Empress of Death coldly looked at them with apathy.
And then, she gave them a solution to the problem.
It didn't break the rules.
It didn't involve attacking their allies.
But the Mage Kings didn't like it.
They didn't like it at all.
