Dyon sent a questioning gaze over toward Donari who pretended to not notice.
Anyone who understood how the gates worked knew that it was impossible for a non-member of a quadrant to freely enter the fog barrier. The only way was if you had the permission of someone who was ranked Duke or above, who also, obviously, was a citizen of the quadrant.
Clearly, the 98th quadrant didn’t have any Duke or above title holders other than Violet’s father and the well-loved Legatee of Soul Rending Peak, Donari’s cousin.
However, Violet’s father had already continued to the celestial floors and was actually quickly approaching the age limit for that floor as well. At the same time, Donari’s cousin, Kernick Caedes, was well past the age limit of the saint floors and had failed to progress to the celestial floors.
Long story short, since neither of them could enter the saint floors, obviously they couldn’t give Clara permission. That only left Donari.
Dyon sighed and forgot about it. He didn’t want Clara to come here because it was too dangerous. Despite her soul and body being powerful, she was still an essence gatherer.
Luckily, the Jade Queen Bee’s honey had improved her meridians to the 6th grade, slightly speeding up her cultivation speed. But, it would take decades more before she reached the 3rd grade standard, which was what set true geniuses apart from others.
What intrigued Dyon, though, was that his meridians were still at the 7th grade despite taking the honey just as frequently as Clara – a single drop a day.
‘It seems that awakening my constitutions could speed up that process… I’ll have to make a decision on that soon then… Maybe the time could be drastically cut down?’
This aside, Clara didn’t have something like the Demon Sage’s essence. So, although her body had already broken into the saint stage, it was still far too weak to protect her here, especially while suppressed.
The best thing she had were her souls and her will, not to mention her array alchemy, but not much else. There was a reason many said soul cultivation couldn’t be directly inferred into battle power despite how useful they were for wills. Not everyone could create arrays as quickly as Dyon because not everyone could withstand the strain of the split mind’s technique, nor the stamina drain.
At least within the gates, Clara would only have to deal with members of the younger generation.
In the end, Dyon could only push these to the back of his mind. With him here, he wouldn’t allow anyone to harm a single hair on her head.
“I’m about to make some changes that will no doubt anger many of you.” Dyon began.
Murmurs spread through the crowd.
This was already different from other rulers. Many would either be too timid to change status quo, or too domineering to care about the festering hatred in their subjects. This was an… interesting approach.
“However, what you have to understand is that this is for the benefit of you all.
“Soul Rending Peak has been rotting from the inside out for too long now. In as little as three years, maybe even less, a major calamity with befall this land.
“I don’t say this to scare you, nor am I saying this to act as though I am some sort of prophet.” Dyon pointed to the side toward the shit stained Elder Nova. “Many of you don’t understand what happened a few days ago, and, strictly speaking, it’s not necessary for you to. All you need to understand is that this man is an enemy and he has allies.”
A cold breeze blew through the crowd.
What did the allies of a dao formation expert look like? Wouldn’t they be dao formation experts too? Didn’t that mean they were all doomed?
Clara’s expression grew serious as well.
A few days ago, she had distinctly felt Dyon’s soul undergo massive changes. In the beginning, she was happy because that meant Dyon’s soul had been unsealed. But then, a few days more passed and she felt as though Dyon’s soul was mere moments away from collapsing!
She panicked, understandably. Even Ri almost underwent cultivation deviation and suffered some backlash while she was forming her pseudo-domain in closed door training.
However, there was nothing they could do because they had no way of entering the 98th quadrant.
It wasn’t until after Dyon awoke that he used the chain Clara forged for him to communicate with his wives and calm their worries. But, it would still take a few more weeks for Ri to recover, which made Dyon feel terrible.
Still, he insisted that they remain in the tower because it was too dangerous here. Who would have known that Donari would be such a busy body and try to use his connection with Dyon to get Clara to forge him some weapons while Dyon was dealing with other matters?
It was too bad for him that he mistook Clara for some soft-hearted lady who would do whatever her husband bid her to do.
“I can promise you all that I won’t stake your lives in vain.”
Dyon’s words helped the crowd relax. Albeit, only a small amount.
“However, while I won’t expect you to fight opponents far stronger than you, I do expect absolute loyalty.
“That said, expecting such a thing would be ridiculous. Although I could seal you all like Elder Nova, I won’t. What I will do is take steps toward building that loyalty.”
Just as the crowd was relaxing, Dyon said something completely contradictory. “Starting today, you’re all expelled of your status as disciples of the six peaks.”