It was only over the course of those few months that Dyon began to understand the potential problem.
As of now, no one was entirely certain of the location of the Epistemic Tower. For whatever reason, the Sapientia were pretending to not have knowledge of it, or, maybe more likely, they had lost communication with Dyon's universe long ago.
However, after knowing Dyon was likely very young and comparatively very weak, it became possible to deduce a few things.
For one, the Celestial Quadrant had not had a key wielder for a tens of thousands of years. They were, without a doubt, the Corner that had had its fog barrier up for the longest time.
What did this mean? It meant that for Dyon to be chosen as the key wielder, he would have had to fight for the opportunity.
There were two main branches of this so-called Celestial Deer Quadrant Theory (an article released and written by Aritzia Sapientia personally).
The first branch assumed that after the destruction of the Celestial Deer Sect, something every quadrant knew about, it took the time between the fog barrier going up, and Dyon entering his first trial, for a new peak-level clan to come into existence, and thrust their genius, ie Dyon, into the world of the tower.
The second branch assumed that after the destruction of the Celestial Deer Sect, the Epistemic Tower was completely forgotten. Over the course of years, one young genius, namely Dyon, finally cracked the secret of the tower and entered it.
The reason these two possible theories were deduced is obvious. After disappearing for so long from the main martial world, something must have been occurring in the celestial deer quadrant to keep them away. As such, there were only two possible explanations: Inner Strife or simply forgetting.
So, the question was, how did these thoughts lead to the narrowing down of where their Epistemic Tower might lie?
It was simple. If the second branch, and Aritzia's favored theory, was true, that meant that Dyon would have had to be fighting in a campaign. And, for him to have been fighting in a campaign, he would have had to be within a gate that matched with his power level. And for him to still be within the tower meant one thing: That gate had to be an essence gate!
If the first branch was true, although the deduction was more roundabout, it was still sound.
Every quadrant understood that even if you were the supreme clan or sect of your quadrant, you had to compromise and allow others to use the Epistemic Tower benefits. In addition, you also had to provide the opportunity for other clans to compete for the key wielder position.
If the first branch was true, that would mean the celestial deer quadrant wouldn't have forgotten about these traditions and unwritten rules, and it would also mean that Dyon would have to prove his worthiness.
In the end, no matter how much of a genius he was, being below sainthood cultivation would mean you were still far too weak to compete! The exceptions to this rule were very few in number, and although Dyon might be one, it was less likely.
Either way, it didn't matter. To Aritzia, she made it clear that her first branch theory was only a formality. In her belief, the second branch was far more likely.
The reason for this was also obvious.
War between universes, meaning intra-quadrant warfare, was very difficult UNLESS one uses the gates as a means of attack. However, the gates were closed off for 66% of the year, staying open for only about 3 to 4 months.
This all meant one thing: universes would only war with each other during those time periods.
If the celestial deer quadrant was only warring during those three to four months, what the hell were they doing for the remaining eight to nine? Even if you were enemies, wouldn't it be smarter to make use of the tower to increase your strength during those eight to nine months? Yet, they obviously hadn't because the fog barrier remained!
As a result, two branches eventually became a consensus single branch as everyone was convinced of Aritzia's theory: The celestial deer quadrant had lost their knowledge of the epistemic tower during their war, and it wasn't until the young genius Dyon Sacharro was born that they had the right to rise up again.
Although Aritzia didn't explicitly state it, everyone was clever in their own right. After all, they were all geniuses of the tower!
By the end of Dyon's four months of vacation, everyone was sure that the Epistemic Tower was hidden within an essence gate… And unfortunately, those people included Hela Ragnor, the genius of the Pakal clan and…. The first saint son of the Uidah…
These three had all left the celestial deer quadrant after the incident of the Dukes and Duchesses. From the very moment the name of their quadrant began to rise, their eyes heated up with greed because they all knew one thing: This Dyon Sacharro wasn't from any one of their clans…
Now that they had solid clues about just where this Dyon might be hiding, the hunt was on…
Of the 100 universes, there were thousands of gates. Originally, this had made searching for the Epistemic Tower a massive headache, especially since they wouldn't allow each other into each other's territory.
However, now… Not only were they absolutely certain that the second branch theory was correct, because they were actually from the quadrant in question, they had also narrowed down the gates they had to check by more than 70%...
...
Dyon had personally read Aritzia's article when it came out, so he knew that trouble was lurking around the corner.
Although the deductions on his power level were slightly off, they weren't entirely so. In fact, they could be considered quite accurate. In addition, he was also far younger than more God title characters considering he finished in 13 years rather than the customary centuries. Only the top ten geniuses and a few within the top 30s of a couple rankings could compare with his speed.
So, although the route of deduction was false, it still ended on the correct note, which resulted in the current problems Dyon faced.
In truth, Dyon wasn't completely certain that characters like Hela were in the tower. If he was, he would likely go all out to kill them before they could return with news. However, Hela's performance in the tower clearly wasn't as eye catching as his.
For one, she was comparatively old when she entered her trials, so they were far more difficult than Dyon's. So, she had no fate with the rankings at all.
Secondly, Dyon would have no idea which quadrant she went to. Although he was certain that it was either the 30th or the 98th, because they were adjacent to his quadrant and traveling further would take exponentially more energy, that still left 200 possible universes they could be in, as well as thousands of sects and clans on top of trillions of people.
He simply had no fate with finding them.
So, Dyon immediately went to the worst-case scenario: this information would soon be received by those of his quadrant.
That said, Dyon managed to calm himself and think rationally.
Firstly, despite only roughly 30% of gates being of the essence level, 30% of thousands was still thousands in this context.
Secondly, because of the fog barrier, it would take forever for Hela and the other two to get information back to their respective clans. Unlike Clara, they couldn't make use of the internet as they saw fit because the Sapientia had put many restrictions on it. And, even if they could, it wouldn't mean anything considering the celestial deer quadrant hadn't had contact with the outside world, and thus had no internet to speak of either.
Thirdly, even if they found his universe, so what?
Dyon already had a mole within the Uidah, and the Pakal and Ragnors couldn't encroach on Uidah territory. Since he controlled all the sons and daughters of the meridian and saint level, the Uidah had no chance of attacking an essence gate successfully, and for obvious reasons, they couldn't send any higher powered beings into the gate, lest they wanted to die an ugly death.
The only thing Dyon had to worry about was the Uidah using other devices to enter their universe like the Kitsune and Madeleine estranged parents had.
Unfortunately for them, Dyon highly doubted they had access to such a treasure.
