This was why Dyon waited until 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.
...
As Dyon plundered the Faith of the Five Beast Clan, his pieces within the Uidah Clan were moving as well.
With Dyon's help, Abraham, Dravil, Kaeghan, and the rest of the sons and daughters systematically moved the chess pieces as Dyon saw fit.
With Dyon guidance and resources, provided over several decades, Dravil had established himself as First Celestial Son. Such a title resulted in him taking the former First Saint Son's title as heir apparent, not to mention his wife, the former First Celestial Daughter.
In a quadrant so weak, the title of celestial held more weight than one could imagine. Dravil alone controlled more power within the Uidah Clan than even his father did despite having yet to enter the Dao Realm.
Of course, this wasn't because he wrested it away. Instead, King Uidah willingly ceded this control to his son, looking forward to a bright future and being none the wiser about the brewing plot.
There was only a single hiccup to the progress of this plan, and that was the birth of Abraham, a genius that even Dyon's resources couldn't overshadow.
Back then, despite being able to break into the Saint Realm, Kaeghan remained at the Essence Gatherer Realm in order to maintain control over the Essence Sons and Daughters. However, it was then Abraham's meteoric rise occurred, resulting in Kaeghan losing his seat as First Essence Son to Abraham.
Seeing how talented this son of his was, King Uidah began to hesitate. What if Abraham shone brighter than Dravil? King Uidah began to pull the reins in tighter on his elder son as of that moment.
One had to remember that King Uidah had sent his previous heir, Baldric, to find information about the Epistemic Tower. Yet, he easily tossed that son of his away with the appearance of Dravil. Simply put, he wasn't a kindhearted man. After so many years stalling out at the Peak of King God Clans, he was willing to do anything to breakthrough.
Luckily, that was when the Heavens smiled down upon Dyon. Due to the betrayal of the Aumen Clan, the Uidah entered Dyon's home universe without any resistance, leading Abraham right to his front door.
Back then, Dyon was an essence gatherer. Abraham, who was also an essence gatherer, had never lost to anyone of his power level in the whole of his life. So, blindly self-confident, he challenged Dyon, only to lose miserably and become yet another one of Dyon's puppets.
