Chapter 1963 - Chess Pieces (2)

Five Core Universes.

The shift in Faith was felt immediately. Even those who wielded the smallest Faith of their Clans – distant heirs not even fifth or sixth in line – felt the drastic changes.

A meeting was called without hesitation, leading to the converging of several dark faced elders. This was truly trying times for the Five Clan Beast Alliance.

The hook-nosed Golden Crown Ravens. The brown skinned Earth Skinned Salamanders. The silver haired Silver Needle Wolves. The green eyed and violet haired Purple Scaled King Vipers. And finally, the numbingly beautiful Crystal Boned Eagles.

The faces Dyon was familiar with were nowhere to be seen. Considering how slow their cultivation was, most of them were still Lower Celestials. They simply didn't have cachet to be a part of this meeting. In fact, only the current Grand Elders took part in this meeting, even the Matriarchs and Patriarchs of the Five Beast Clans were cast out from the meeting, not because they weren't worthy of taking part, but rather because a quick decision needed to be made.

This matter was too important. The less people who attended, the quicker a resolution could be met. As such, on the Grand Elder participated.

"I've lost connection to Supreme Universe."

In a dark room, around a small circular table, five Grand Elders sat, each old and wrinkle faced.

The one who spoke was the hook-nosed Grand Elder of the Golden Crown Ravens, Grand Elder Raven.

Because of its special circ.u.mstances, "Supreme Universe", which Dyon renamed Universe Thirteen, held special significance to the Five Beast Clans.

Due to the odd shape of quadrants, it just so happened that Universe Thirteen acted as a choke point. Not only did it have by far the most Gates Dyon had come across, it was connected to five universes to the North and three to the south. However, none of the five northern universes or the three southern universes were connected to each other, leaving Universe Thirteen as the only bridge.

This was why Dyon waited universe he conquered Universe Thirteen to take attempt a universe spirit's trial. Only this way could he ensure the Five Beast Clans kept their guards lowered to the greatest extent.

This aside, the Five Beast Clans chose to name this universe the Supreme Universe. As a Five Clan Alliance, they had need of some checks and balances. According to their governing system, the Clan which controlled the Supreme Universe had extra powers amongst the five of them. This was why the most powerful Clan, the Raven Clan, controlled it.

The significance of the loss was monumental, not just in their Alliance's culture and government, but also in regard to the ramifications of losing connection to more than half of their territory.

"Because this also led to a dip in our overall Faith, it's safe to assume that no one here is the direct perpetrator." The Grand Elder continued.

The room seemed to plunge into a darkness. Such news was incomparably grave. Just a few days ago, they realized that they had yet to receive the due report from the universe touching Chaos Universe, now this.

"Direct perpetrator?" The astute Grand Elder of the Silver Needle Wolves spoke, his silver hair having long since given way to pure white.

Grand Elder Raven's sharp, bird-like eyes swept across four gazes.

"You all know as well as I how difficult it is to find a Universe Spirit. It takes tens of thousands of years of exploration and astrological calculations. However, my connection to Supreme Spirit has been cut off. The only explanation is that there's a spy amongst us."

The atmosphere grew heavier.

"In addition, other than our upper echelon, no one else knows just how important Supreme Universe is. Yet, it was the very first among our universes that was conquered. Am I supposed to believe that this is a coincidence?"

As Dyon had said many times. Information was one of the things that held ambitious individuals back the most during their conquests.

To the five Grand Elders, it should be impossible for anyone to understand the significance of Universe Thirteen outside of their circle of people. Entering their territory should be like feeling out a maze.

However, not only was Universe Thirteen the first of their universes to be conquered, it was important to note that Universe Thirteen was only connected to their own universes. This meant that whoever did this purposely skipped over several universes and specifically chose to conquer Thirteen.

Couple this with the fact they had lost all connection to their people outside of their Five Core Universes and sabotage was hard to overlook.

Unknowingly, the Five Beast Clans had once more begun to play to Dyon's tune. Tensions only grew worse as the Grand Elders began to feel more and more Faith slipping from them, one by one.

Universe after Universe was conquered. There was no suspense about it. Even though Supreme Universe was weaker than their own Universe Spirits, of the 13 back end universes, it was the most powerful. If it could be conquered by their hidden enemy, the remaining universe spirits wouldn't be a problem.

The most heart wrenching part was that they couldn't do a single thing about it.

The Gates were closed, all of their elites were concentrated in the five core universes, their teleportation formations no longer worked… They could only watch without a single idea of what to do…

In the end, they made a decision. All of their people and infrastructure were still within those 12 universes. They believed that the enemy had snuck in with inside information and directly challenged their universe spirits and hadn't actually subdued their people. With this reasoning, they still had a chance.

In 7 months, they would make a swift counterattack and force whoever it was to regret their foolish actions.