Book 8: Chapter 91: Stomping Faces (1)

The battle raged on.By now, the news of what was happening on the middle tier was no longer capable of being hidden. The news of failure to teleport to Middle Lily City had been curious to some in the beginning, but it soon became a massive question mark.One had to remember that Violet Bloom Pavilion was a very popular entertainment center. When teleportation to the city was cut off, Sabona wasn’t the only one who noticed.This was when large movements started to catch the attention of those in the surroundings. Due to Madeleine’s movement, the encirclement of Middle Lily City collapsed, leaving the west, north and south of the city completely free of scouts after they had all converged on the east.At the same time, others realized that teleportation to Middle Lily City wasn’t the only teleportation that was restricted, every Golden Crow City seemed to be cut off as well!Initially, Aritzia had been prepared for something like this to happen. After all, one of the hardest things to do was keep a secret, especially when so many pieces were involved. However, she took advantage of the fact the movement of information was strictly controlled by the SNN. Even if a few stragglers pieced some information together, just how long did it used to take for information to spread organically through the martial world before the Sapientia came along?However, how could Aritzia know that pissing off Dyon’s wives wasn’t a good move?The implementation of the third phase took the martial world by storm. Numerous restrictions that had been put in place suddenly vanished without warning.At first, only Clans and Sects vetted and accepted by the Sapientia could pay a hefty price, plus a monthly fee, to establish a “forum”. On this forum, they would be able to do a myriad of things from posting about their accomplishments to boost their Faith, to posting up missions and calls for help.This forum purchasing ability only extended past this level to a minor extent to allow well established businesses to take part in it as well. However, gaining a forum of your own was too expensive and too difficult. Up to this date, the total forums didn’t surpass 100. Considering the trillions of individuals in the martial world, this number was too pitiful.The third phase blew this out of the water. Restrictions on those who could create forums were completely lifted. In exchange for single payment, anyone could create a forum of their own. It could be used for even something as simple as quickly communicating with your companions over large distances. This use alone blew up the popularity of the Sapientia Network.The lack of regulations and the steep drop in price excited members of the martial world. Even large clans who hadn’t participated in the past raised an eyebrow. This sort of use would definitely be worth it, especially after they learned of the second change to the SN: encryption!Clans were now allowed to make changes to their own towers, communications and the code of their forums to encrypt information they only want their allies understanding. Before, the Sapientia had barred any changes to the system at all, which resulted in many never taking the network as a serious alternative to their previous means. But now these individuals were changing their minds.Though the single time fee would increase to a monthly fee that grew proportionally to the number of individuals using a forum, no one blinked an eye at this. The intrigue of the Sapientia Network only grew.The next change was an absolute bombshell. It was the release of the soul contract signed by Clara and the Sapientia!According to its fine print, signed off by both parties, the Sapientia weren’t allowed to act to harm Clara or her interests. If this occurred, Clara would be allowed to make one unilateral change to the Sapientia Network. Depending on the degree of profit increase this one change garnered, the shareholding percentages of the Sapientia Network would shift. Should it shift enough, even changing the name of the Network was allowed!Clara implemented a change known as Open Phase! This Open Phase fundamentally changed the structure of Sapientia Network, thus practically making the contract null and void.Why would the Sapientia agree to this clause, yet Aritzia act the way she did? It was simple. Aritzia, with all her intuition, had no idea that Clara and Dyon/Jaws were husband and wife! As a result, Dyon fell under the “interests” clause of the contract, thus shattering the Sapientia Network to form the Mortal Network!This wasn’t all either. Aritzia, due to not being a key wielder, couldn’t have her actions represent the Sapientia Clan. Theoretically, no matter what she did, it wouldn’t breech the contract. So, just how was the contract breeched?!One might ask at this point that wouldn’t capturing Clara have been harming her interests anyway? And the answer to that would be no. If Clara had her own protections, how could the Sapientia not have their own as well? The Sapientia were well within their rights to “call” Clara in for a meeting. One had to remember that it was Clara who attacked first and not them!According to the contract, since Clara attacked first, the Sapientia were allowed to respond in kind. This was why Aritzia felt that she was in the clear to send in whomever she pleased. What she didn’t know was that the moment she made an enemy out of Dyon, the Sapientia Network had already slipped through her fingers. The only reason she hadn’t felt a change was because Clara had yet to implement Open Phase.Not only had the Sapientia Network become completely open to the public, its name had become the Mortal Network and the change was so large that 95% of the shares were now under Clara’s control.This remaining 5% was the only leeway the Sapientia had left for themselves. This was the stake the actually deserved for building the infrastructure of Sapientia Network, now Mortal Network.The world was absolutely shocked, but even more were happy. Many Clan and Sect Heads who knew the dirty dealings of the Sapientia erupted into laughter, filling their planets with a jovial, hearty happiness.With phase three in effect, the Open Phase, not only would the profits of MN skyrocket, 95% of it would be owned by the Sacharro Clan!