It was no surprise that along with identical layouts for their sects, the 6 peaks also had identical rule books.
When Dyon first read this rule book, he had, of course, taken an account of everything. Although these two pillars were in the core disciple pavilion, they contained the very same information as the pillars in both the inner and outer sect pavilions.
One was a ranking of disciples, while the other was colloquially known as the Pillar of Shame. Obviously, the first was a matter of glory, while the second recounted the names of the vilest villains in the history of not just Soul Rending Peak, but all of the Peaks.
What had caught Dyon's attention was that on the current core disciple rankings, there were well more than 13 names, unlike what he expected… In fact, there were 28.
Unlike the Pillar of Shame, the disciple rankings only applied to those currently in the sect or currently of that ranking. Which meant that the number that appeared accurately represented the number of core disciples.
Before, Dyon had thought that Lilith had completely made up the fact that Asyna was a core disciple, but there was her name, right there. He really didn't think that the Devil Path cultivators would go so far to ingratiate themselves with Soul Rending Peak… What did they gain out of it?
If it was before he spoke to the Dragon King, he might have found this odd. However, now that he had a better understanding of this quadrant, he actually had a good idea.
Asyna, although it was next to nothing against his Presence, actually had a very powerful soul. And, even though Dyon couldn't sense Lilith's because his own was sealed and she didn't release it, he was sure that she had a powerful soul as well. Following this line of logic, was it really so shocking that the former greatest Soul Path quadrant would still have something that powerful soul cultivators could want? Not to mention the Mystic ranked techniques, even the sect itself likely had inner workings that would be useful.
Although Soul Cultivation was banned, for the same reason Soul Rending Peak didn't dare to casually change its rules, it didn't dare to destroy the infrastructure that once held up the sect either. Dyon had a conjecture that maybe the reason they had so few core disciples was because the trial required soul talent to complete perfectly.
Considering Dyon's soul was currently sealed, he didn't think he would do too well on the trial. But, he was sure that he was at least good enough to pass.
Soon, Dyon had walked out of the core sect, through inner sect and eventually left the outer sect to glide into the forest that separated the sect from the Cathedral City.
'I've felt a pair of eyes on me ever since I left Evangeline's courtyard…'
Many people had looked to Dyon in awe, simply for the robes he wore. However, he kept getting an odd feeling. The problem was that he couldn't tell if he was being paranoid or not because his senses were incredibly dulled. Although he had his Perception, since it was a martial art, and thus relied on his body, if he couldn't physically see what he was dealing with, or at least be pointed in the direction of an illusion, its effectiveness would be nearly nonexistent.
Dyon suspected that if it hadn't been for the beast blood he received from his martial uncle and master, he wouldn't have even sensed that something was amiss.
This frustrated him, and for good reason. However, there was nothing he could do about his soul being sealed. Plus, given the fact his inner world had become far more difficult to build due to the Primordial Energy, he had lost his semi-accurate gauge on when the technique would have run its course.
For now, he could only rely on the Dragon King to sense things for him, but beasts, aside from a rare few, were never adept at sensory type aspects of cultivation because of their weak soul talent. Not to mention the fact that since he couldn't withstand the strain, the Dragon King's weapon was forced to keep countless seals on itself, even further worsening his ability to help out.
Dyon frowned. 'I have to get rid of this person before I use my mask, or else it'll cause issues later on…'
Clara had crafted Dyon quite a few array plates for the sake of emergencies, but he really didn't want to use a teleportation array for this meager situation, it just wasn't worth it. Not everyone was able to so easily draw arrays when compared to Dyon. Plus, Dyon had learned long ago that the spatial energies in his home universe were very weak because their life blood was being sucked away by the entity at the center of the Earth. This meant that teleportation was many times harder in other universes and the requirements for the array plates were many times more stringent.
Knowing this, Dyon realized that teleportation arrays were much more valuable that he had once treated them.
This wasn't even mentioning the fact that Clara had specifically constructed them so they could ignore the spatial sealing abilities of even celestials.
All in all, the price wasn't worth the result.
Dyon sighed. 'It seems I'll have to show off a bit then…'
Dense fog slowly pooled at Dyon's mouth as he pushed his body to the second act of Demon Emperor's Will.
In the next instant, black wings burst forth from his back, a tsunami of wind threatening to destroy the whole of the forest around him.
The bones in his legs cracked as a crater tens of meters blew apart beneath him.
Then. He disappeared.
What Dyon didn't see was that the moment he flashed forward with his highest speed, circulating his Celestial Movement Technique to the best of his abilities, the trees that were threatening to fall apart and the ground he had just destroyed began to slowly grow back.
In just a few minutes, it was as though he was never there.
The moment Dyon accelerated to his top speed, he felt as though those pair of eyes had left him. He soon reached the outskirts of Cathedral City.
Taking his broad sword off of his back, he placed it into his ring, knowing that if he kept it, wearing a mask wouldn't have any purpose considering how famous his blade had become.
Afterward, he allowed the mask to appear on his face.
The instant it appeared, it was as though Dyon's presence was completely erased from the world. Someone would only be able to spot him if they had their eyes on him. If they dared to probe with their divine sense, they would suffer the backlash of tribulation lightning within the mask.
Dyon took out an aurora stone, grimacing as he slowly channeled the violent flames into his body.
Slowly, but surely, a change form array formed, before covering his silver-gold mask.
Since Dyon had appeared with this particular mask already, it wouldn't do him any good to appear with it in that same form. He didn't want his identity as Ri's husband to be connected to his identity as Dyon Jafari, not yet anyway.
Soon afterward, the mask changed from its silver-gold appearance to a dark black mask.
'Ugh,' Dyon nearly collapsed to the ground, sweating profusely. 'I pushed myself too hard… to think I'd struggle so much with a mere grandmaster level array.'
Dyon knew that he had no choice, though. If he settled for a lesser array, those soul experts from the devil quadrants would see through it. Then they might begin to wonder why he would hide the appearance of his mask, and that would have obvious terrible repercussions, namely putting Ri in danger.
Wiping the sweat off his brow, Dyon looked around to find a massive rock. After changing the Dragon King into a long knife, he cut a small cave into it before locking himself in to recuperate. He didn't want to use Clara's pills to heal the damage to his legs, so he could only slowly circulate his Runic Flame. The problem was that his attainments in runic vein theory were… shallow, to say the least. So, it took him a lot of time and he needed to be very careful.
The more Dyon dealt with situations like this, the more and more he missed his soul…
