By now, months had passed since the Demon Generals made their name known across the cosmos and it was about time for Madeleine’s core disciple ceremony.
Actually, the ceremony would have taken place immediately after the campaign ended if it wasn’t for the fact the Flaming Lily Sect spent much of the time between then and now negotiating with the Golden Crow Sect.
After those negotiations were finished, the Flaming Lily Sect underwent a period of negotiations with the Flame Rebirth and Fiery Lotus Sects who both wanted their high-ranking inner disciples back. Of course, the price they had to pay far outweighed that of the Golden Crow Sect.
Following a grand ceremony that many of the Demon Generals attended, Madeleine became the very first core disciple to be accepted by the Flaming Lily Sect before stepping into the Celestial realm.
Soon afterward, she was called into a meeting where many high-ranking elders were present.
“Esteemed Elders, Vice Master, Master.” Madeleine bowed respectfully. Unlike her husband, Madeleine’s aura was far sweeter and more reserved. Although it was ill-advised to anger her, when facing those she respected and trusted, she gave off a lovable air. Coupled with her beautiful violet hair and eyes, and it was hard for anyone to say a bad word about this young lady.
The elders couldn’t help but sigh. They felt very lucky to have this genius among their fold. Even though the Demon Generals played a large role, it could be said that Madeleine’s impact was the greatest. Whether it be fighting two first ranked inner disciples alone, or capturing the third ranked inner disciple of Golden Crow Sect, Angela, so easily. Any one of these feats was very impressive.
A middle-aged woman who sat at the center of them all smiled amiably. Those who knew this hard-nosed Master of theirs were very much shocked by her demeanor toward this core disciple. It might have been millennia since they last saw her lips curl in anything but disdain. Yet, she smiled so lovably for Madeleine.
It seemed that the Goddess’ Disposition constitution was too much even for an old monster like her to ignore.
“Do you know why we’ve called you here?” The Master suddenly asked.
“I believe that it’s related to the Golden Crow Sect?” Madeleine responded after a moment.
The Master nodded. “What do you think about their actions?”
“… Troubling? Confusing?” Madeleine paused. “It seemed they wanted to conquer our gate, but at the same time didn’t?
“They could have conquered all four of our gates 2 years ago during their sneak attack if only they had used all of their top ten inner disciples instead of just sending Egan Goldeen. But, instead, they sent the Flame Rebirth and Fiery Lotus Sects.
“Plus, even though there are many restrictions on the abilities of key wielders in order to give the opposing party a chance, there is still more than enough power their key wielder could have used to end the battle far more quickly. Yet, they did none of these things. It seems like this was a distraction… or a test?”
Madeleine was correct. The movements of the Golden Crow Sect were far too… odd.
For example, a key wielder cannot lower the cultivation requirements of a gates before quickly raising it. However, a key wielder can arbitrarily increase the cultivation requirement whenever they want. Such an ability for a sneak attack would be devastating. This was like what Dyon did with Thadius during his meeting with the Uidah.
Had God Goldeen raised the limit to the celestial realm, they might have been able to conquer the tower before the Flaming Lily Sect even responded.
The restriction to these raising and lowering abilities was simple.
For one, this ability only worked in one universe. It couldn’t be used on gates outside the universe that was home to their Epistemic Tower. If they wanted to change the cultivation threshold of a gate outside this region, they’d have to do it the conventional way and conquer all of the towers within.
Secondly, when lowering the realm, any who were above it the limit would be teleported out, not killed. The only time one would be killed is if they knowingly tried to enter a lower threshold gate with a higher cultivation.
Thirdly, after this teleportation occurred, one couldn’t simply raise the realm once more. In that case, raising it would have to wait until the next campaign began.
These were just one of the many restrictions placed on key wielders in the essence of fairness. However, as Madeleine said, there were other tricks they could have used.
Had the Golden Crow Sect utilized celestials in their sneak attack by raising the gate from a saint gate to a celestial gate, the Flaming Lily Sect would have definitely lost all of their towers.
“You are right.” The Master said. “Their actions are too odd, but the reason they are odd revolves around you.”
“Around me?” Madeleine’s brows raised.
“Well. Particularly around your husband.” A particularly young elder chimed in, shamelessly teasing Madeleine.
“Dyon?” Madeleine’s surprise increased.
“Simply put, these past two campaigns were put in place to test if you truly were the first wife of True God Sacharro. In the case that you were, the Golden Crow Sect would negotiate with us on equal terms…” The Master paused.
“And in the case that I wasn’t?” Madeleine asked with a serious expression.
“I’m sure you can make some guesses, just like I’m sure you know that most of those guesses would result in bad things. The best case being your being taken away to be used as a cultivation furnace, and the worst case being the Golden Crow Sect’s rise far beyond our imagine and the inevitable destruction of our sect.”
Madeleine’s expression turned cold. Amethyst’s flames were simply far too enticing for fire cultivators, especially males mesmerized by Madeleine’s beauty. To think the Golden Crow Sect would go so far.
Just like musicians who cultivated their own compositions, flame specialists cultivated their own unique flames. The idea of adding the legendary violet flames to their cultivated flames was enough to make many of them drool with desire.
“Still, your flames were only one of the two reasons they needed to probe the depth of our strength, including your connection to True God Sacharro.”
“And the other?” Madeleine asked.
“The Golden Flame Mystical World’s entrance has been found.”