While Dyon was dealing with the celestial beast fallout, a storm was brewing in the universe adjacent to Universe Cathedral, and it was all centered around the entrance of a campaign gate.
The remaining 99 universes of the Soul Rend Quadrant were far too complex to delve into. The hodgepodge of sects, clans and factions were simply far too numerous. However, what was clear was the fact that they were far better off than those of Universe Cathedral and far more than Dyon could handle by normal means.
That said, there was good news. Because Dyon shut off the function of the Master Key arrays, the sub arrays under them also lost the ability to be of any use. The unfortunate part was that universes as developed as theirs wouldn’t only have a few hundred teleportation stations.
Still, although they had means of teleportation outside that of the sub arrays, they were far less efficient and far more inconvenient to use. And, the most important point was that these arrays wouldn’t allow them to teleport into Dyon’s universe directly, making Dyon’s effort garner fruit.
At the moment, a few elders were meeting as their armies organized. While some of them were quite worried and dark-faced, others were more annoyed than anything else.
“57! 57! That’s how many teleportation sequences I went through to get here! That’s sequences, not actual teleportation stations. This is fucking ridiculous! I’ve spent half my life savings on this one mobilization. And for what? Because some of you had a “gut feeling” that something was wrong?
“Who cares about some bullshit soul market? It’s you bastards who sought to make a profit and gain a leg up that should be paying for all of this, what the hell does any of this have to do with me?!”
Many others of the various family heads agreed with these sentiments. When they were originally tasked with their various assignments, this wasn’t supposed to be a money grab or a chance for their various clans and sects to soar past their original limits. The compensation stipulated in their contracts should have been more than enough… There was no need for this added level of greed.
Yet, as years passed with no change, generations turned over, causing new ideologies to surface. It was clear that these bastards didn’t remember just how fearsome their “employer” was.
That said, many did remember. It was just that they thought this employer wouldn’t care if they made a few advances on the side, it wasn’t as though they’d ever be able to rival that family, even in their wildest dreams.
But, now that everything was backfiring, they began to panic.
A few months ago, those families who had participated in the construction of soul market, and even invested some of their own family techniques, came back in a panic.
After that, it felt like everything was going downhill. Their best teleportation stations stopped working, the gate’s cultivation restriction suddenly dropped to the essence gathering level, and they could no longer contact Elder Nova!
Everything happened so quickly that they had hardly digested one set of information, before another came storming in.
For obvious reasons, this set off chain reaction of finger pointing. And, unfortunately for those who sided with Soul Market, they were in the inferior position.
Still, this wasn’t even the worst part. With the failure of the sub-arrays, they had lost their means of communication with their employers, which was an absolute worst-case scenario.
The last time these employers had come of their own volition was already more than a thousand years ago, who knew when or if they’d ever come again!
While their employers could afford to be negligent, they couldn’t. If things went south, all of this would be blamed on them and their years of relaxation and comfort would come to an end. So, no matter how they felt, they all had to come.
As weird as it might sound for them all to refer to this one family as their employer, this was just the truth of the matter. Plus, when the details were laid out, it was just simpler to refer to them as an employer versus anything else…
For one, none of them knew which mysterious family this was outside of their business transaction. Two, none of them understood the motives of this family for crippling the soul path in such a way. And three, their performance was graded and compensated according to this grade. In fact, the strongest families and sects among them were those that had contributed the most during the war.
Before this employer appeared, the energy path of Soul Rend Quadrant was at a fierce disadvantage, and for good reason. It was only because of these subtle strings being pulled in the background that they managed to fight their way back up and eventually overthrow the soul path in a bloody war.
Still, it was a bit odd, was it not? How could they all still be so fearful of this mysterious employer despite not witnessing their deeds firsthand? Well, that was because only those of Soul Rend Quadrant understood just how powerful those of the soul path were… Yet, this employer destroyed them without sending a single warrior…
There’s only one family name that needs to be mentioned for anyone and everyone to understand just how fear-inducing such a feat was. Just the fact that this family couldn’t survive the machinations of this employer was enough…
It was a family that had existed for trillions of years, a family that stood among the founding fathers of not some random civilization, or city, or universe… They were among the founding fathers of cultivation itself.
This family name was one Dyon had come to learn was rooted with astounding foundation. And yet, they were almost completely wiped out by an invisible hand playing tricks under the cover of night.
This family was none other than the Jafari family.