By this point in time, the entrances to the Valley of Geniuses were lined with millions of young geniuses. Of course, like many opportunities provided by the Epistemic Tower, its presentation wasn't so simple.
The Epistemic Tower itself, no matter which floor one was speaking of, except for the top-most few, had relatively similar layouts.
One could imagine the tower's inner world as a massive and perfect circle. The edges of this circle were perfectly carved out into 100 pieces representing each of the 100 quadrants. Of course, these pieces were known as Corners.
Then, there was Central City. The central portion of its name didn't just refer to center from the corners, it was also center from the sky!
Central City was equidistant not only from each of the one hundred Corners, but was also equidistant from the ground and the upper-most limit the saint floor. It was essentially a city, spanning tens of kilometers across, hovering in the air.
Of course, this central hub was designed this way with purpose. Its position allowed all of the mysterious realms of the tower to find their own place in between all of the corners, randomly laid through out.
The tower was truly magical, containing a wide-ranging number of extreme conditions, wild beasts, and comprehension opportunities. And, this all didn't include the exclusive 'event' type occurrences of the Valley of Geniuses that only opened once in a while.
It was for all of these reason that Dyon looked down upon those of the 98th quadrant for not taking advantage of this opportunity because of their cowardice. There were very few places in the outside world better for training than the tower!
Unfortunately, not every quadrant raised disciples too cowardly to enter the tower, or else the coming event would be much easier.
Currently, Ri and Dyon were making their way to the entrance closest to them. Due to the nature of these special events, it wasn't possible to directly teleport there, instead, it was almost like a mini-trial to make it there. As such, Dyon had taken Ri in his arms and was flying at the highest speed one pair of wings would bring him while cutting through a dense arctic-like blizzard.
However… Since this was the closest entrance to Dyon and Ri, wasn't this also the case for the rest of the Kitsune?
...
Ri's happy mood was instantly dampened. "Annoying rats."
With her break through into the celestial realm, her divine sense had shone through. Although her range wasn't as large as Clara's it was still more than enough to sniff out busybodies.
They were currently flying through a land of extreme cold. It was actually only ranked 7th among the extreme cold environments of the saint floor, but it still wasn't something a normal essence gatherer could withstand.
However, it seemed like those of the kitsune clan had left some stragglers behind. Although Ri never stepped out and her and Dyon had seemingly disappeared, the Void clan didn't think that Ri would willingly miss such a big event.
Since the opening of the Valley of Geniuses didn't have a set date, it was a pleasant surprise for everyone when signs of its opening spread. Obviously, this also allowed Aki Void and his lackies to set up a few traps.
That said, since Aki Void could think of it, how could Dyon not? The problem was that there were a total of seven 'doors' that opened whenever a special event was taking place, how could Aki be certain that Ri and Dyon wouldn't purposefully choose another entrance just to avoid problems?
Knowing that Aki would think this, Dyon chose the closest entrance without hesitation. Why? Because he knew that the kitsune was be forced to spread themselves out seven ways in order to cover seven entrances. Since that was the case, why would Dyon bother to go to the trouble of going to another entrance? He would just let his enemies do all the work and look stupid in the end.
It wasn't long before dozens of groups of kitsune, together in combinations of two and three came into view. Seeing the wide assortment of tails, it was clear that all the kitsune were acting as a cohesive unit. It seemed those old fogies didn't enjoy the slap to the face that Dyon and Ri had given them. The embarrassment of having their 'number one' genius publicly laughed at was clearly too much for them.
The hit to their prestige that the kitsune took after Aki 'went viral' couldn't be ignored. It was made even worse by the amount of resources it took to heal such heavy injuries placed in the beast of the peak saint level. Dyon had truly made them suffer a terrible loss.
When the kitsune saw Dyon and Ri getting closer, there was a mixture of reactions. Everything from trepidation to eagerness could be seen.
Many of the smarter individuals understood that they were only cannon fodder, here to let Aki know which entrance Dyon and Ri had used. Unfortunately for them, their commander was too stupid. Since Aki was so sure that Dyon would try to outsmart him by going to another entrance, those stationed here were the weakest. In fact, they were all of the lower saint tiers.
Maybe in the 98th quadrant, such a showing would be amazing. After all, many of those who came from the 98th quadrant were still in the essence gathering tier, while less than a dozen were saints. However, what did lower saints count for in the 30th ranked quadrant? They were nothing but members of the lower dregs.
But, what could they do? Ri was an Empress, yet they were all Dukes, what could they do in face of her? The worst part was that Aki had left behind a King to force their hand and watch over their actions. That King wouldn't care about their lives at all!
"STOP!" An eight black tailed young woman stepped forward. Her name was actually Aiya Void and she was Aki's younger sister.
Since the kitsune only have seven Kings on the saint floor, they all had to be used for this mission. But, Aki had unilaterally used his power to place his younger sister in what he thought was the safest and furthest place from danger. Although this left the others dissatisfied, what could they do? If they wanted to change something, they should become more powerful than Aki first.
Aiya had felt high and mighty when she took on her responsibility as well, thinking about how amazing her elder brother was. Since he was so amazing, what right did a pitiful young miss from a mere Snow clan have to refuse to give her hand in marriage? In her views, no one was better than her elder brother, so obviously, he deserved everything he wanted as well.
Obviously, from her childish view of the world, Aiya had never suffered hardship because she was always under her brother's protection. Even her title as Queen was too easy because considering her eight tails, she should have pushed herself to enter the Empress trials.
Seeing that Dyon didn't listen to her, Aiya felt anger to the depths of her heart. "Did you not hear me?!"
When had she ever been ignored in her life?! She was the little princess of the Void clan, who didn't give her everything she wanted?
Ri's gaze turned cold, her expression becoming just as frosty. "Let's me do it."
Not even bothering to leave the comfort of her husband's arms, Ri stretched out a delicate finger.
The only reason Aki dared to do all of this was because none of the Kitsune knew Ri's cultivation. In their eyes, even if Ri had ten tails, the fact she took so much time to become and Empress would definitely hamper her progress.
What none of them knew was that not only was this beauty a ten tailed kitsune, she also have the Elvin Queen's constitution, something that put her amongst the most talented Elves ever. Even those of the dark elvin clans would be hard-pressed to match her in talent.
The moment Dyon perfectly balanced her two dispositions, using the constitution awakening pill, Ri had become like a butterfly throwing away her cocoon…. She had already stepped into the same cultivation tier as Aki had!
"[Ice Queen's Dance: Immortal Pillar]!"
