There were roughly 5 to 6 Holy Lands in every sector aside from the Human Domain, a total of 40. Along with the subsidiary forces that joined them, there were a total of 53 influences in the atrium.
After they'd all taken their seats and organized themselves, Luciel and his fellows from the Heavenly Clan, as well as Lucifer and his group, took their places in the head of the space.
They were the arbiters of this conference, a privilege granted to them by their position as the strongest influences in the universe.
"My fellow practitioners, now that we have arrived in this place, it is time to drop all personal feelings and plan for the future," Luciel said, standing up and facing those around him.
"There are three main subjects that this discussion will cover. Our counterattack plan is the most important, followed by internal problems, and the nurturing of the younger generation. The order in which we address them will be decided through a vote that we will hold now."
Luciel snapped his fingers and a formation activated, lifting dark barriers between each group so they couldn't influence each other's decisions.
After establishing privacy, he listed the topics and allowed those present to cast their votes.
When the barriers fell, he spoke again.
"Then, we will begin with a discussion of our internal struggles."
A few whispers spread through the audience as they questioned why talk of the younger generation didn't start the convention, but they didn't cause a fuss.
The topic of internal struggles didn't pertain to the relationships between influences. These personal matters were left for them to sort out by themselves.
The only exception was if their conflicts impacted the big picture.
The main point of consideration was traitors.
Everyone had surely experienced it on their own, but the raid on Holy Light Star was a true eye-opener to just how corrupted the universe's internal structure was.
There were over a thousand influences that were wiped out due to their participation in the previous event, and the fact that the Nox were willing to easily discard so many rats was a testament to the sheer number of outlets they had!
Luxurion was able to locate traitors, but not many other locations had the same specifications as the Sky Castle, and recently…
"We've found that it has become difficult to detect the breath of Nox Mana in the defectors. They must've evolved some new technology or technique that is at least Demigod-rank for it to be able to fool our ancestor-level figures," a man said solemnly.
He was a Demigod from Supreme Soul Palace, a Holy Land specialized in soul and spirit techniques. If anyone had the right to speak on detection, it was them.
The eye techniques of Supreme Soul Palace were second only to the Ancient God Clan, after all.
And after the demigod spoke up, Di, who was also in attendance, raised his voice in support.
"The Ancient God Clan has also noticed this issue. We were not able to see through the traitors who infiltrated Luxurion until after they had been captured."
"Has everyone else been experiencing the same?" Luciel asked, eliciting a wave of nods and murmurs of agreement.
"I see…what is the opinion of Hephaestus?"
A group of dwarves stood up in response. Their height wasn't too great, but their builds were muscular like giants, an odd combination.
"The smitheries have already been notified of the issue. We'll start working on a solution right away," the dwarf at their head promised.
"Very well. Until then, we will have to keep a strict watch for prospective traitors. The best temporary solution is the same as we've always done, universal checks and balances, however, we must be more domineering in our approach," Luciel concluded.
"Wait…"
A voice came from the Human Domain section.
It was Tian Yang who stood up to speak.
"Being domineering at this juncture will startle the snakes. Now that Luxurion's attack has failed, we have the opportunity to play arrogant and let the traitors reveal themselves."
He panned his eyes across the atrium, not even pausing briefly as his eyes scanned past Damien, who stood with Hidden Death Valley, until his gaze connected with Luciel's.
"The greatest advantage we have is our perceived weakness. Now is the time for us to hold our cards close to our chest and prepare for the perfect chance to attack."
The line of reasoning was very similar to what Damien thought when he chose to maintain the Infected Source Worlds, and in fact, it was Damien himself who urged Tian Yang to speak.
After all, his current status was that of a heavenly genius, a member of the younger generation who didn't have enough strength to speak in a conversation like this.
He was planning to maintain this status for now, but he was also aware that his deeds had already been spread and the people here understood how much of the universe he'd seen.
It was just, Damien didn't want to take his chances this early. He still wanted to see how the situation would pan out.
Tian Yang's opinion was relatively well-received by the other sectors, and even Luciel gave a nod of approval.
"This is a good idea, however, such an operation cannot be carried out without cooperation. Everyone needs to watch their own sectors in tandem and communicate information efficiently so we can assess the proper timing mentioned by the Void Old Immortal."
Luciel said a few more words, and several other experts offered their own opinions. As minutes passed, the structure of a plan began to arise.
At this juncture, Luciel brought up the most important aspect of correcting Grand Heavens Boundary's internal situation:
"Infected Source Worlds. After the destruction of the Elven Domain and Eden, there are seven remaining. If we can destroy them, we can eliminate the threat of new traitors and focus on the ones already existing."
"Ah…" Parsiel suddenly gasped, realizing he'd forgotten to tell Luciel an important fact.
Lucifer spoke up in his stead.
"Actually, there are only 6 Infected Source Worlds left."
His eyes turned to the Human Domain group in amusement.
"Isn't that right?"
Tian Yang grinned.
"That is right. Our Human Domain forces destroyed the Infected Source World in our domain roughly 2 years ago. Since then, we have been focusing on eliminating traitors and cleaning the domain…"
"…at this time, we can proudly declare that the Human Domain is free of Nox influence," Tang Lingzi finished his words.
It was the second shocking revelation of the conference, and perhaps the greatest one so far.
Admiration wasn't enough to describe the feeling the crowd felt hearing this news.
To thoroughly root out the Nox from an entire domain was unheard of. After all, even if one could kill every traitor, as long as the Nox occupied a world in the domain, new traitors would always appear to replace them!
Infected Source Worlds were strange and unexplainable. Even if one killed every Nox produced by it, halting its production or destroying the world totally had been impossible to this point.
This was due to the convoluted world laws they held, laws that protected the core facilities of the worlds and gave them an ability bordering on immortality.
But unlike the Infected Source Worlds of other domains, the unnamed world was filled with surprises, such as the Fifth Primal Sovereign and the untouched World Core that Damien stole.
The influence of Hassan's law bindings on it was far weaker than those on other worlds, and the situation in the unnamed world was vague to begin with.
While the Human Domain's victory could be considered a product of supreme luck…
Nobody else needed to know that, did they?
