The atmosphere intensified again as the Sect Master of the Heavenly Divine Sect refused to comply in the investigation.
The Ancestor of the Twilight Council narrowed his eyes as he glared at the Sect Master of the Heavenly Divine Sect. "Weaker than you?"
The Sect Master didn't even look at him. "Yes," he answered.
The Ancestor waited for further clarification, but nothing came, resulting in him becoming quite angry.
"So, you admit that you were the one?" the Ancestor asked with a threatening tone.
"Don't try to change the topic with baseless accusations," the Sect Master said calmly. "You know that your threat is empty and that you don't believe me."
Then, the Sect Master looked at the Ancestor again. "If you want to go to war with the Heavenly Divine Sect, you don't need to make grand allegations."
"Just attack."
The others looked with unease at the exchange.
Dealing with the Sect Master of the Heavenly Divine Sect was easy and difficult at the same time.
As long as one was honest and talked openly with the Sect Master, the Sect Master would give them direct answers.
However, if one tried to skirt the rules or honesty, they would find the Sect Master to be very uncooperative.
"Everyone else has already sworn by the Heavens, and you are the only remaining person that hasn't done so," the Sect Master of the Twilight Council said with a strict but calming voice. "It is logical for us to suspect you."
"Logical," the Sect Master of the Heavenly Divine Sect repeated with a scoff. "You're only saying that it's logical so that you can justify to yourself to put me into life-threatening danger by swearing upon Heaven."
"You don't believe that I've done it because you know exactly that I wouldn't use such underhanded tactics. Yet, you want me to swear upon the Heavens regardless, even though you're already certain that I didn't do it."
"Is this some kind of political powerplay?" he asked.
It had been quite a while since the two leaders of the Twilight Council felt that frustrated with someone.
Everyone had made a small sacrifice to show their support and unity. As one entity, they had already paid their proverbial taxes, but the Sect Master of the Heavenly Divine Sect refused to pay anything, saying that he hadn't supported this decision.
If a majority agreed, one should follow the rules of the majority. Otherwise, things wouldn't work out, and all sides would be unhappy.
The Ancestor wanted to say something, but the Sect Master of the Twilight Council stopped him with an urging glance.
The two of them looked at each other for a while as they exchanged voice transmissions.
The Ancestor had wanted to declare that morality was on his side and that the Sect Master of the Heavenly Divine Sect had to comply with their orders. If he didn't, they would declare war on his Sect.
However, the Sect Master of the Twilight Council had stopped him.
Why?
Because every single person that had ever threatened the Sect Master of the Heavenly Divine Sect had died.
A threat was a show of enmity, which automatically made the threatening person into an enemy in the Sect Master's eyes.
So, why should he hold himself back if the other person was already his enemy?
Enemies deserved to die, and he would simply kill them.
If the Ancestor of the Twilight Council decided to threaten the Sect Master of the Heavenly Divine Sect, the Sect Master would directly attack the two leaders of the Twilight Council with the intent to kill.
The two leaders of the Twilight Council were certain that they could win against him, but it would be risky. On top of that, even if they won, the Heavenly Divine Sect would go against them.
There was still the Ancestor of the Heavenly Divine Sect left, and that Ancestor was no joke.
In comparison to all the other Sects, the Heavenly Divine Sect only participated in the wars because they wanted their disciples to get some tempering. They didn't exactly care for the resources and Law Comprehension Areas.
Why?
Because they had the most territory out of all of them, and they didn't need more.
The other Sects tried to survive and tried to own enough territory to create more powerful disciples, but the Heavenly Divine Sect only viewed these conflicts as an exercise or a hobby.
The Sect Master of the Heavenly Divine Sect could fight multiple Sect Masters alone, and the Ancestor of the Heavenly Divine Sect could fight multiple Ancestors alone.
There were only two ways to destroy the Heavenly Divine Sect.
First, at least three different Sects would need to go all out, risking their lives. However, that would still leave a chance of failure. To be sure, one would need four or five Sect Masters and their Ancestors.
Second, the Ancestor of the Lightning Peak Sect would need to get involved. She was the only member of the Peak Sects that could take out the Heavenly Divine Sect.
Of course, both methods were theoretically possible but would never be seen in practice.
So, what were they supposed to do now?
Fight him to the death or take a step back?
It wasn't even a choice.
"Then, do you know who was responsible for the death of our Vice-Sect Master?" the Sect Master of the Twilight Council asked.
The others looked at the exchange with bitter smiles.
The Twilight Council was helpless in front of the Sect Master of the Heavenly Divine Sect.
The Sect Master of the Heavenly Divine Sect looked calmly at the Sect Master of the Twilight Council.
"Yes."
For an instant, everyone acted as if nothing of note had happened, but then they registered his words.
Yes?
Wait, he knew?
The Sect Master of the Twilight Council was just as surprised.
He had only asked that question so that he could say that the Sect Master of the Heavenly Divine Sect had helped them in their investigation.
He hadn't expected that the Sect Master would give a positive answer!
"You know?" the Ancestor asked in surprise. "Who was it?"
"Why should I tell you?" the Sect Master answered evenly.
The Ancestor immediately gritted his teeth in rage and frustration, but his Sect Master stopped him again.
He couldn't lose his cool now.
The Ancestor didn't know the Sect Master of the Heavenly Divine Sect very well since that Sect Master had only come to fame after the Ancestor had already stopped being a Sect Master.
The Ancestor was too used to the normal kinds of people, which almost resulted in him committing two fatal mistakes.
Luckily, the Sect Master of the Twilight Council had followed the story of the Sect Master of the Heavenly Divine Sect very closely.
"What do you want for the information?" the Sect Master of the Twilight Council asked.
"Ten level nine Law Comprehension Life Fruits of my choosing," he answered.
The Ancestor wanted to object, but his Sect Master stopped him again with an urgent expression.
They were both fortunate that the Ancestor trusted his Sect Master.
"Fine," the Sect Master said. "We will bring your Law Comprehension Life Fruits."
The Sect Master of the Heavenly Divine Sect nodded absentmindedly.
"I'm actually surprised that you didn't guess it yourselves. It's actually really simple," the Sect Master said.
The others grimaced when they heard that comment.
Was he calling them stupid?
"Who benefitted the most from sowing chaos among us? Who benefitted the most from keeping the fight going until the Twilight Council arrived? Who benefitted the most from the Twilight Council's arrival?" he asked.
Benefit?
The others looked at each other with confusion.
Actually, none of them would benefit. After all, it was risky, but it wasn't impossible to clear their names.
None of them would have benefitted.
In fact, killing the Vice-Sect Master of the Twilight Council was a major risk without any potential reward.
The Sect Master of the Heavenly Divine Sect watched them for a couple of seconds and scoffed. "You are so used to being above everyone else that you believe everyone not on your level to be useless."
"You believe that everyone that isn't a level nine Divine God can't do anything against you, and you believe that they will never do anything against you."
"Cultivators younger and weaker than us aren't necessarily stupider. If you foresaw how something would go, they would probably also foresee it."
"Especially if they are a never-before-seen genius in the entire Cosmos," the finished.
Never-before-seen genius?
For a second, everyone was confused.
"He's gone!" the representative of the Mortal Sect suddenly shouted as she pointed towards the arena.
Some confused expressions appeared on everyone's faces, but their eyes quickly widened as they remembered the entire reason for their fight.
Everyone looked at the arena, and, sure enough, Gravis was gone.
In the beginning, only Gravis had been on their mind. After all, he was an unprecedented genius.
However, when the Vice-Sect Master of the Twilight Council died, Silver Seer's mind shifted to only thinking about his own survival, which made him attack the others.
The others' minds also shifted since they feared for their lives. After all, Silver Seer was attacking them.
Additionally, things only became worse. The fight dragged on, and even the entire Lightning Peak Sect was nearly destroyed.
Then, everyone focused on defending themselves from the Twilight Council.
They were too busy with their own survival to think about some Ancestral God.
Additionally, he was only an Ancestral God. Even with his incredible Battle-Strength, he wasn't as powerful as a Divine God.
What could he do in front of them?
"Where did he go!?" Silver Seer shouted with anger.
This little shit that was supposed to be his weapon had destroyed his Sect and had put him into life-threatening danger!
How dare he!?
Silver Seer didn't want to recruit Gravis anymore.
No, he wanted to kill Gravis!
This asshole had destroyed his Sect!
"He left," the Sect Master of the Heavenly Divine Sect said.
The other members of the Peak Sects looked at the Sect Master of the Heavenly Divine Sect with anger.
This insignificant little shit had nearly killed them!
All the stress, fear, and frustration had been put on Gravis' shoulders.
He was at fault!
"Why didn't you tell us!?" Silver Seer shouted with aggression.
"Because it had nothing to do with me," the Sect Master answered.
"I never fought for him. I only watched everything unfold without involving myself."
"He's not my problem."
Silver Seer gritted his teeth.
He was furious at the Sect Master of the Heavenly Divine Sect, but he couldn't do anything against him.
Was he supposed to attack him?
He couldn't do that without some serious backup!
The others didn't even dare to insult him, which meant that they obviously wouldn't help Silver Seer against him in a fight.
Instead, Silver Seer focused his rage on Gravis.
"Find him!"
"I want his head!"
