Book 8: Chapter 146: Change of Plans (2)

Dyon’s confusion was warranted. While the Mist Clan’s Faith was partially tied to the Sect, it seemed obvious that they had strong power centers irrelevant of the Sect. So shouldn’t…?‘Wait. This young man. I’ve never seen him before, nor have I ever heard of the Mist Clan having such a genius… Why are they hiding him?’The more Dyon thought, the more he realized that his hopes at an ‘easy’ takeover of the Water Mist Quadrant was slipping further and further away from him.‘I can’t kill Grand Elder Mist… I was wrong. If I do that, they’ll definitely react in a manner I can’t control.’Dyon was uncertain, but he felt that if Grand Elder Mist died, the Mist Clan might not deem their patience and low-profile worth it anymore. In that case, they might directly sweep the Water Mist Sect away. If that happened, Dyon would have no choice but to abandon his foothold in this quadrant.Of course, he still had the Dark Ocean now, and he also had a newfound appreciation for just how hard it must have been on Jasmine to distract the Mist Clan for so long. But, his path toward an easy victory would be gone.Dyon sighed. ‘I don’t have time… Jade said I needed to grow quickly. I can’t just leave…’Dyon was facing a major dilemma. If he left the Water Mist Sect alone due to this hiccup, then he’d have to conquer it in a more straight forward way in the future. That would waste valuable time and resources.‘But it’s already impossible to use that method… With the Mist Clan here, Ri’s rise to power won’t be smooth. And, if the Mist Clan begins to feel that Ri is taking over too smoothly, they might just forget all about their original plans and force her out. I don’t know if I have the skill to keep that delicate balance.’‘I need information. I need more information.’Dyon thought of the Shadows Faction once more, but it only filled him with depression. He had been working on it for more than a hundred years already, but he had yet to succeed. It really was too depressing.‘If the Shadows Faction won’t work for now… I’ll have to become the Shadows Faction myself.’Dyon immediately got to work. Thanks to the Mortal Network, the process was far easier. He created multiple monitoring arrays. They’d record sound and visuals. Then, he gave them to Little Yang to place them in strategic places around the Mist Clan’s grounds.He wasn’t worried about the Mist Clan finding his arrays. He was going all out. Each and every array was of the Moon grade. In addition, because he was relying on the Mortal Network, even if they somehow sensed odd fluctuations, it would be mistaken for the work of the Network.The choice to make the arrays moon grade made the process take an incredibly long time, but Dyon had to be meticulous.As he quickly completed these tasks, he continued to listen in on the meeting.“… I still believe that we should send someone to investigate Dark Ocean.” A lesser elder of the Mist Clan spoke. “It’s too valuable at this time to give it up so easily. Even if it takes time, it will be worth it.”The other elders frowned. Just a few days ago, they realized their teleportation formations to Dark Ocean stopped functioning all together. As a result, the only method they had to check what happened was to go the long way… travelling to another universe took five to ten years at a minimum. Then there was the return trip to account for.What they didn’t know was that their efforts were futile. If they tried to find Dark Ocean based on the previous coordinates they were aware of, they’d end up lost in the void. Dyon had long since changed the coordinates, meaning the only method of finding Dark Ocean was through Dyon himself, or with the help of a spatial and void will expert.“This is too coincidental.” Another elder chimed in. “Just as we were about to focus our attention on the Dark Ocean again, we started to experience a constant barrage of attacks. We even lost several elders, and countless pseudo-dao experts…“Then we got a message from that informant to stir up trouble for Alexandria Snow. And then, not long after she disappears along with her husband, who, mind you, left through a portal toward Dark Ocean, we suddenly lose contact with Dark Ocean entirely?”“This might not be that much of mystery. They may have simply destroyed the teleportation array on the other side.”“How could that be possible? There were many public arrays we set up, but there were even more secret ones. Dark Ocean was too valuable to not have several fail safes.”“That’s enough.”The room suddenly fell into silence. It was none other than because the head of the Clan, Patriarch Mist had spoken.“These matters are irrelevant. I hope you didn’t interrupt my cultivation only due to this.”“N-n-no.” The other elders seemed flustered, but it was Grand Elder Mist who righted the ship.“The resources of Dark Ocean have always been unknown to us. We were more infatuated with the possibilities than anything else. However, I do think it’s appropriate to pay more attention to this.“Still, this isn’t the main reason we’ve called you out today. The main topic of today’s meeting is the Sapientia. If matters continue along this path, the auction will be cancelled. There are a lot of individuals very unhappy with this.”Finally, Dyon heard something that made his ears perk upward.