After a few more moments, the Pakals decided to excuse themselves. Patriarch Pakal had said all he needed to say and had established the fact that he would do his best to help Dyon when possible. But, he also made it clear that he would only do so at a critical juncture.
Few cared for Dyon’s celestial deer sect legacies. Why? Because few believed the soul was useful, and even fewer believed in the practicality of array alchemy. Which was ironic considering how they swarmed for Dyon’s Queen Fairy pill.
That said, the truth of the matter was that in this universe, few placed an emphasis on such things.
However, the demon sage was much different. Although energy cultivation was without a doubt the most followed path, unlike soul cultivation, everyone recognized the practicality of body cultivation. The only problem was that the available body cultivation techniques were so few, and those that existed were too poor to make any large difference. So, one could imagine what would happen if a successor suddenly appeared with access to the peak-most legacies in the discipline.
Ironically, Dyon only had one body cultivation technique at the moment. The reason was because he hadn’t had the time to unlock higher levels of the demon sage’s tower, let alone find his way to the Chaos universe to inherit the remaining portions.
That said, the body cultivation techniques Dyon needed were supplementary. Meaning, he had no use for a cultivation method. Why? Because he had the demon sage’s blood essence… The work was already done for him.
To put things in perspective, an expert on the demon sage’s level would never give the entirety of his blood essence to a single person. Often, clans would withhold portions of their ancestor’s blood essences and hand out very small bits as rewards to outstanding younger generation members. This would provide small boosts to cultivation over time and lengthen the impact the ancestor had.
But, not only had Dyon gotten the entirety of the blood essences of his master and her husband. He had also gotten the entirety of the blood essence of a man who was known as the greatest human body cultivator in this quadrant.
This wasn’t to say that as long as Dyon integrated 100% of the demon sage’s blood essence, that he’d reach the demon sage’s level, though. There were many things he still needed to learn. For example, the Demon Emperor’s Will technique was merely a single one of the techniques the demon sage had access to. In addition, aside from techniques, there was a dao of body cultivation Dyon had yet to comprehend. This dao covered things like body control, power output and even extended to things like vibrational laws and bloodline suppression.
That said, you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone who would have an easier path to success than Dyon.
“One last thing Dyon.” Patriarch Pakal turned back for a last time, “You likely don’t know how important being in the top ten is. From afar, it seems like you’re only participating to prove yourself – or else you wouldn’t provoke so many enemies.”
Dyon shook his head, not responding. Whether he knew what the prize for being in the top ten was or not, he wouldn’t allow anyone to just walk all over him. Those who deserved death, would still die.
“However, it is important you know that the benefits this time are truly worth it.”
Dyon had a hard time believing that this universe could provide him with anything he didn’t have, especially if you counted the Epistemic Tower as one of his resources. After this world tournament, he wouldn’t even bother coming back to this universe for a long while. As long as he had his wives and friends by his side, he didn’t see the point.
‘Patriarch Pakal’s goal right now is likely for Caedlum and I to grow enough to conquer Earth’s gate and move us into the Uidah universe. He doesn’t know that I already have the means to manipulate the gate as I see fit…’
The Epistemic Tower key, as long as it was conquered before the field of spatial tears was deactivated and the defenses disappeared, gave you more power than just the ability to teleport to any connected gate within this universe. It also gave Dyon full control over the gate the Epistemic Tower was found in. Technically speaking, Dyon had already conquered the gate, this was why he was number one. The tracking system that the celestial deer sect had put in place already recognized this. But, clearly these people hadn’t.
Dyon couldn’t help but wonder if it should really be like this. To someone less intelligent, this seemed like a useless ability. After all, so what if you were able to teleport to another gate? The amount of people you could take with you was limited, on one trip that is, and just teleporting to a gate didn’t mean you could conquer it. On top of that, even if you did conquer the gate, you’d then be stuck between two hostile universes who had no idea where you came from.
However, Dyon had already seen how useful this would be if he used it cleverly… His grand teacher seemed fond of games, and who was more fit to play this strategy game than Dyon?
Patriarch Pakal suddenly laughed, seemingly seeing through Dyon’s thoughts, “I know what you must be thinking, child. You’re someone who took out billions of dao stones to casually bet on yourself. On top of that, you’re the last disciple of the former strongest sect in the quadrant, and the successor of one of the most talented cultivators in history. However, whether you know it now or not, there are many places in this universe that even your master or even our very own demon sage would risk life and limb to take part in.”
Dyon’s eyes flashed, ‘Even them?…’
“There’s a reason why this universe was once the strongest.” Patriarch Pakal looked off into the distance, “There was a point where even those with the weakest of talent could become peak meridian formation experts just by eating and sleeping – the energy really used to be that dense. There were countless places of will manifestation that would take the form of the essence of cultivation paths. Places that housed the purest forms of ice will and lightning will and demonic will…
Yet, that all changed… Great wars broke out and the structure collapsed. But, what anyone will tie the most to this change isn’t those wars… no.
What they’d attach the most to this change would be the expansion of our very own Earth by millions of times.”
Patriarch Pakal flashed into the distance with his sons, grinning.
“Wouldn’t you like to take a journey to the center of the Earth?”
Shock was Dyon’s most prevalent feeling as he watched Patriarch Pakal disappear from sight.
His mind began immediately working things together. It wasn’t as though he had any concrete evidence for his thoughts, but if he were to assign percentage points to his ideas, in his estimation, the likelihood that he was wrong was negligible.
In his trip back to his home realm, he had learned that General Mace was coordinating something behind the scenes, something he needed, for one, needed human world help to accomplish.
The second thing Dyon knew was that this was all revolving around this world tournament. At first, he had been confused. Why this tournament? These people had been alive for hundreds to thousands of years before Dyon’s birth, what were the odds that it was just this year they decided to act?
There was of course the possibility that Dyon’s grasping of the soul kernel had pushed up their time table. After all, they may be scared that other mortal children might break through the seal as Dyon had. If they suddenly had an unparalleled body and energy cultivator to deal with, all of their plans would be in ruin.
But then, because of Patriarch Pakal’s words, Dyon thought of another possibility.
The world tournament cycled its hosts and only occurred once every hundred years… This meant that the last time it had been Earth’s turn to host was 500 years ago!
Why was this significant? Because Dyon now knew what the prize for being in the top ten was… They’d be doing something they almost never did… Opening Earth’s own inner world! A reward that no other planet could provide.
What were the odds that the population of sealed people would be from Earth? That the expansion of Earth was tied with the dramatic dip in quality of the universe? That Dyon’s enemies would choose the exploration of this phenomena to execute their plans?
The likelihood of all of these things being coincidence was zero! And Dyon refused to believe otherwise.
‘It seems I’ll have to be careful…’ Dyon thought to himself as he closed the door and headed back to the dining room.
In the end, he hadn’t told Caedlum about the opportunity he planned to provide. The secret of the Epistemic Tower was truly too sensitive. For now, he’d keep the information to only those he trusted the most.
As soon as Dyon entered the room, his mother and father in law reappeared as though nothing had happened.
“What do you think of Patriarch Pakal’s story? You must know a lot more about the landscape of the universe than I do, mother in law,” Dyon had never had anyone, who was alive anyway, that could talk to him about the way of the martial world. He was very much interested in this.
Kawa pondered for a bit, “In terms of era, I believe the timeline of this demon sage’s existence was very much odd.”
Dyon nodded. Although he hadn’t said anything, he had seen it as well.
The existence of the Epistemic Tower had been erased from common knowledge after the destruction of the celestial deer sect. That meant that the demon sage had to have lived before the celestial deer sect was destroyed.
However, by the same token, during his prime, the demon sage controlled almost 50% of the quadrant and he was the closest to transcending. By this logic, the celestial deer sect couldn’t have been the most powerful in the quadrant as they had come to know. Or, more accurately, they hadn’t been yet.
At the same time though, this same demon sage had come back and built of the Pakal clan with was currently vying for most powerful with the Ragnor clan – each controlling about 25% of this quadrant. But, this obviously had to happen after the celestial deer sect was destroyed.
This meant that the demon sage had to have lived for a ridiculously long time… He had to have been born well before the celestial deer sect established itself. And couldn’t have died until well after the celestial deer sect had been destroyed.
“It seems you understand this as well,” Kawa said, nodding with approval. As cultivation increased, intelligence and computational abilities did as well. For Dyon to be able to keep up with her thought process was beyond impressive. “That said, though, the Kitsune were once allies with the celestial deer sect during their reign, and we never heard of this demon sage. But, Patriarch Pakal said that he was running rampant and attacking entire empires on his own. With the information network of the celestial deer sect, it’s impossible that we wouldn’t have known of him. This only means one thing.”
Dyon nodded, “His enemies were from other quadrants. Which meant that the demon sage level existences that came out of nowhere, came out of nowhere because they were never part of our section of the cosmos.”
Kawa smiled. It seemed the more time she spent with this son in law of hers, the more fond she grew of him. “You must be wondering how the other quadrants could have formed resentment for this demon sage. Although I can’t claim to know for sure, I do have a pretty good guess. In fact, this guess is something I know because we Kitsune relocated to another quadrant.”
“Ah, patience, patience,” King Acacia suddenly interjected. “One problem at a time. We’ll of course tell them when they’re ready to know. But, for now, they should focus on first making it into the top ten to earn a right to travel to Earth’s inner world.”
Dyon lightly laughed, choosing not to say anything. They would talk about it soon enough.
“So, father in law,” Dyon’s hand flashed as an ancient tome appeared in his hand.
King Acacia imperceptibly trembled at the sight, his eyes reddening.
“Shall we cure you?”
The next day, one hundred warriors stood at the center of the large arena as cheers rained down from the crowd of millions.
In the front, stood ten. Dignified and mighty in their approach and seemingly unfazed by the glances of envy given to them by the remaining ninety.
It was no secret how difficult it was to break into the top ten from the bottom ninety. Because of the system of challenges, a member of the top ten could receive up to the maximum of ninety should the challengers feel so inclined.
But, the problem with this was that even if you fought and won a battle with a member of the top ten, you’d then have to immediately start accepting challenges as well. This meant that despite what looked like an unfair setup to the top ten rankers, it was actually the more desperate for the bottom ninety. This was because if you managed to win a spot, it would have without a doubt been a hard fought battle, leaving you tired and vulnerable – the perfect target.
That said, many of the bottom ninety were hopeful, many just wanted to test themselves against the best of the best, and there were a select few that felt they deserved to be in the top ten and were only missing the accumulated campaign points. And maybe that last group would be the most troublesome for the top ten rankers…
First in line geniuses like Thor, Vidar and Caedlum all fell into this category. None of whom were even twenty years old, but all of whom had a faith seed and unlimited untapped potential.
In addition to them, there were some black horses that may very well have taken their shot at the top ten. But, them being black horses, very few even noticed them.
However, maybe the most striking part about this line up was just who made up the top ten.
(1) Lionel Belmont
(2) Tau Aumen
(3) Zabia Jafari
(4) Saru Shruti
(5) Jace Clyte
(6) Arivata Shruti
(7) Yazid Jafari
(8) Uma Hanu
(9) Dofi Nuru
And lastly, much to the surprise of everyone…
(10) Dyon Sacharro.
Dyon had been the most surprised out of much anyone else. Never had he expected the Cavositas would cave as they had and given him his top ten spot back, albeit at the bottom. This surprise was especially odd considering how domineering and disregarding Dyon had been. It smelt…. Fishy.
The truth was that the Cavositas had no real choice. Dyon had displayed too much power. And, if he was in a setting where he could wantonly challenge, then he would likely destroy the proceedings again. Their safest bet was to tuck him away in the top ten and in hope he didn’t find a way to do anything to cause a ruckus.
That said, they still hadn’t given Dyon his top one role, instead handing him spot ten reluctantly. Dyon didn’t know how this subdivided the rewards. But, one could assume that the higher your rank the more benefits you received.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” Elder Den’s voice boomed. “As you all know, Earth has the great responsibility of hosting the world tournament this century. And, make no mistake about it, we’ve prepared the open up our most sacred of places.
Many of you are too young to remember a time where the Earth was small, but know that Earth is still among the great anomalies of the world. This inner world of ours is rarely explored due to the danger it poses, but when has fear of the unknown ever deterred us cultivators?!”
The blood of the participants began to roll.
“Fight well. Put your pride on the line. If you’re talented enough, you’ll earn your spot amongst the top ten.
However, do also remember that Earth’s inner world is not made for everyone… You’ll be guided by experts, and yet still the chance of dying is very real. This is why we can only allow the top ten in and this is also why the investment we place with you is directly correlated with the rank within the top ten you achieve.”
Dyon sighed to himself, tuning out Elder Den’s words, ‘It seems Delia really isn’t coming.’
Ever since he had sent the Patia-Neva family away to talk, Dyon hadn’t seen a trace of them. And, with Patia-Neva’s cultivation, Dyon wouldn’t be able to unless he deliberately allowed him to. So, Dyon could only accept it.
‘I guess that true story is a lot deeper than I thought. Hopefully she’s doing okay…’
Off in the Clyte Royal God Clan section though, King Clyte was still fuming.
Just yesterday he had had Sofia in the palm over her ands, to stress and torture to his heart’s content. But, now she was gone, right from under his nose! He couldn’t stand it!
According to those who were there, Sofia had been there one moment, then gone another. He knew fully well her cultivation was too low to accomplish something like that. Someone had helped! But he had no idea who!
And now, because Delia was gone, he couldn’t ruin her in the coming bouts. He could only sit there, letting his anger temper his heart more and more.
‘Patia-Neva… It has to be you! You’re probably also the reason that feeble of daughter of yours managed to survive the onslaught between Aiko and Elric.’
“I hope you’re all ready,” Elder Den grinned looking from the warriors to the crowd. “This will be among the fiercest competitions to have ever taken place. The top ten vs the bottom ninety. We’ve already proved once today that maybe not everything is as it seems…
I can only wish you the best of luck.
Start!”