CHAPTER 670: RESIGNING FROM THE POST

His voice was barely above a whisper, but the words echoed.

"The palace..." he murmured. "Right there. Just thirty light years gone in a single step."

The realization weighed on him—not with dread, but exhilaration.

After all the fighting... the mines, the forging, the supply chains, the warzones, the killing. Now, a door. To the very center of it all.

To the heart of the Feline Empire.

To The Demon Cat Empress.

Mark let the silence hold for another breath before turning away. "We’re not going yet," he muttered. "Let’s be patient for now. As long as I can get that army into this place, we can strike her Empire straight in the heart."

*

Just like that, two weeks passed in the blink of an eye.

The atmosphere on the unnamed planet had shifted.

Where once it was full of tension and urgency, now it sat in anxious stillness.

The wreckage of the White Lion King’s Elite Fleet still littered the valley floor, a graveyard of shattered flying boats and scorched earth. The soldiers of Legion 52 rested, healed, sharpened their blades, and repaired armor. But most of all... they waited.

They waited because the higher-ups told them to.. Whether it was for further reinforcements or preparations for incoming forces, they had no idea. They can only wait for further orders.

Mark stood at the edge of a cliff again, arms crossed, looking down at the bustling camp. "We could’ve been halfway to the capital by now even if we take the normal route," he muttered. "Unfortunately, according to Ark, the energy in that portal is sufficient to teleport only ten people. Too bad... Anyways, Ark is working as fast as it can, creating the antimatter as much as it can. In a few days, I’ll be ready to launch a preemptive strike on my own."

One more week later, the order finally came from the Sky Pavilion Sect through a sky-message scroll, glowing runes falling from the heavens.

"Do not advance. Wait until Legions 11 and 29 arrive. Mobilization in three weeks."

It was met with silence in the camp.

But not from Mark.

Inside the war tent, Mark stood face to face with the Commander.

"We have the momentum," Mark said sharply. "We should move. You saw what happened—we can’t let this chance slip and let them prepare to send another elite force."

"And risk walking into another trap?" the Commander snapped back. "You got lucky, Lu Zhen. Clever traps don’t win every war."

"Luck?" Mark’s voice dropped. "You think I decimated thousands of those elite soldiers, killed the White Lion King, while saving every soldier because of luck?"

"You laid landmines and baited a fool," the commander growled. "That doesn’t make you a strategist. It makes you a gambler. Had your gamble not worked, we would have seen half of the army would have been lost."

Mark’s hands curled into fists, but he kept his voice steady. "If you’d trusted me, this war would’ve ended sooner. But I’m not going to sit here twiddling my thumbs while the other Legions die."

"We follow orders," Fei Yuan said. "You’re not a special snowflake. You want to run off? Fine. But the Sky Pavilion Sect will hunt you down as a deserter."

Mark stared at him a few seconds. He took a deep breath and slowly reached into his robes. "Alright, I’m done."

He pulled out the silver medallion that marked his honorary officer’s rank and tossed it, letting it clatter at Fei Yuan’s feet. "I’m not your soldier. Commander," Mark said coldly. "I never was."

"I joined the war to kill Felines, not to be someone’s dog."

He turned and walked away.

"Lu Zhen! Lu Zhen..." the commander shouted, fury lacing every syllable. "You dare turn your back on your superior?!"

With a snarl, Commander Fei launched forward, ether blade in hand, moving to strike him down.

But before the blade could fully leave the sheath...

"Gravity Dome. 100,000g. Radius: two meters."

A pulse of invisible energy surged out from Mark’s body—an explosion of pressure, crushing down like a mountain. Everything outside the six foot radius was untouched.

But within it, the commander collapsed hard.

His knees cracked into the ground, eyes wide, his blade snapping against the sheer pressure as he coughed blood.

Mark didn’t even glance back.

"Don’t push your luck, Commander," he said simply. "When I was only an ascendant, I killed a second-stage transcendant beast. Now, I’m a transcendant."

The dome collapsed with a quiet shimmer, like air sighing back into place.

Commander Fei Yuan gasped for breath as Mark walked out of the tent.

After resigning his position, Mark walked through the camp, past stunned soldiers and silent officers who stepped aside as he passed. He wasn’t wearing armor. No badge. No flag. Just his usual black robe, fluttering with each step.

Lan Xia was waiting for him at the camp entrance. With her arms crossed, she stopped him, asking. "What happened? You seemed a bit displeased."

Mark told her what happened, and her expression immediately changed. "What is our next move? Without an army, we can’t move forward. It is too dangerous to go alone. We need the Sky Pavilion Sect’s information network, too. Or else, we wouldn’t know the situation ahead."

Mark responded with a question. "Do you trust me?"

Lan Xia blinked but nodded. "Yes, of course, what kind of wife wouldn’t trust her husband?"

At that, Mark wanted to say that you are not my wife, but he didn’t say anything on that and simply said. "I want you to do something for me. Take the four of them with you to the Lan Sect and wait for me."

"Eh? Why?"

Mark replied with a straight face. "No questions."

She stiffened at the order.

He then thought about something and took out a pocket watch from his inventory. "This is something that’s been there since my birth. I thought it was no longer important after finding my real parents and heritage, but I still couldn’t help but carry it with me. I want you to hold on to it." As he handed over the pocket watch to Lan Xia, she took it and observed. There’s indeed nothing special about it, but she could sense that it is atleast older than Mark. She nodded, "Alright."

And then two hours later, much to the Commander’s anger, Mark personally sent Lan Xia and the other four through the portal back to the Sky Pavilion Sect’s controlled realm portal, before they leave for the null point and then to the Plane of Ice and Fire, and then to the Lan Sect.

Once they were gone, Mark flew, finding a remote location in the mountains, and then took out the Eternal Pagoda. With a flicker of thought, he entered it.

There, Tens of thousands of women stood in perfect formation, spanning a marble floor that stretched like an indoor city plaza. Their attire had changed from back when he first found them.

All of them now wore sleek maid uniforms, black and white with crisp edges, subtle frills, and matching dark gloves. The outfits looked like a fusion of combat attire and traditional servant garments, tailored for movement and practicality rather than allure.

And each one of them carried a machine gun across their chest like it was a holy artifact.

Once they saw him, the purple lotus on their foreheads glowed, and they went to one knee in unison. "Welcome Back, Master."