Making his way towards the Palace of the Blue Sea together with Xu Bao and the others, Xuan Hao could not help noticing that although they had come a few hours before the meeting officially started, they were not the first people to show up for the meeting.
Other than them, it also seemed like some of the weaker sects who only had someone at the Peak of the Nascent Soul Realm watching over them had shown up to make sure they would be there in time.
After all, even if they didn't have to worry about being blocked like the independent sects. Most of these weaker sects were still unfamiliar with the capital city and didn't want to risk getting lost while making their way to the core of the capital in the last minute. For them, it was a good idea to show up early and not have to worry about something like that happening to them.
"Hm? This is... The sect master of the Seven Fates Sect...?" Looking around at the different people who were slowly making their way inside the Palace of the Blue Sea, a person that Xuan Hao had only heard descriptions of through Shu Yao made his way through the entrance before disappearing inside the palace.
Although he had never seen the sect master of the Seven Fates Sect himself before and had no idea what he was up to after his sect had left for the core region of the Sky Empire, Xuan Hao was still curious what had happened to the Seven Fates Sect. Especially after learning how hard independent sects had it in the core region of the Sky Empire.
Even if the Seven Fates Sect had the support of their sect master who had reached the Domain Lord Realm, the sect itself was still extremely weak when compared to other sects and kingdoms in the core region of the Sky Empire and would be easy to weaken and possibly destroy as long as those kingdoms targeting Xu Bao and the other independent sects turned their attention towards the Seven Fates Sect!
"Well... Considering that the sect master of the Seven Fates Sect decided to move his sect to the core region of the Sky Empire, he should have investigated the situation and gotten a grasp over the attitude that most kingdoms showed independent sects.
For him to still move his sect into the core of the Sky Empire even knowing this, he should at the very least have a plan on what to do to avoid the attention and attacks of these powerful kingdoms..." Muttering this to himself as he continued looking at the continuous stream of people entering the Palace of the Blue Sea, Xuan Hao could not help shaking his head before throwing this matter to the back of his mind.
In the first place, what the Seven Fates Sect did had nothing to do with them after they left their old territory behind and entered the core of the Sky Empire. For now, the most important thing in front of him was to get through the sect alliance meeting without and secure a leader position for the independent sects without getting his true identity or strength leaked!
Only doing so would he be able to turn most of the Sky Empire's attention away from the Star Shattering Sect that was currently developing at the border and have them focus their attention on the sect alliance by having the independent sects secretly cause chaos between the rest of the sects controlled by different kingdoms in the sect alliance.
Of course, the independent sects that would be doing this... Did not yet know anything about this...
...
At the same time Xuan Hao, Xu Bao and the rest of the experts from the different independent sects were making their way inside the Palace of the Blue Sea to prepare for the sect alliance meeting, a group of people covered in a hazy mist like aura met up not too far away from the gate to the core of the capital that Xuan Hao and the rest had passed through just a few minutes earlier.
"What!? Those people actually went to the core of the capital ahead of time without any of us noticing anything!? Hah... I should have expected this, you people are really useless! How did you even fail to find out where those independent sects were staying inside the capital!?"
"We are useless!? Was it not you and your little friends who were supposed to keep an eye on those independent sects while they approached the capital? How come I don't seem to remember you contacting us about them getting close to the capital?"
"You... They left far earlier than expected and had already left for the capital when me and my people reached their sects!"
"Hmph! What a convenient excuse!
"YOU-!"
"Now-now, calm down you two, we still have to consider what to do next now that we failed in stopping those independent sects from making it to the sect alliance meeting."
As two of the mist like figures began arguing with each other over who was at fault for allowing the independent sects to easily enter the core of the capital without any problems, a far older and more powerful voice sounded out from one of the remaining figures who had been silently observing the argument until now.
"Senior... Fine, I understand..."
"I guess I will let this matter go for now on behalf of senior, but don't get happy too fast! I will make sure to come and ask you for some compensation for the time wasted by me and my people at a later!"
Understanding that they would not be able to continue their argument any longer now that one of the seniors had grown impatient, both of the mist like figures who had been arguing with each other just a moment ago quickly stopped and quietly fell to the side as the mist like figure who had made them stop just a second ago stepped forward and faced the rest of the people present.
"I think we all understand why we are here, none of us want those independent sects to gain any more power. Especially that Xu Bao, I fear he will soon breakthrough to the Seventh Stage of the Domain Lord Realm and allow the independent sects to gain an official position of power inside the Sky Empire.
No matter how much we fight with each other normally, we have to work together when it comes to dealing with the independent sects! We can't allow a new power to appear inside the Sky Empire and take away the resources that would normally be ours!"
""...""
Not saying much after hearing what the old senior said, most of the people present just silently agreed with what he said as they waited for him to come up with a way that they would be able to do this.
"Because of this, I plan for us to work together and have the sects we nurtured over the years work together to suppress the independent sects during the meeting. Even if we can't prevent them from joining the meeting at this point in time, we should still be able to stop them from getting a leader position if the sects we nurtured works together to suppress them together!
I know that all of you want to get a leader position for your own sect and secure the resources offered by the imperial family, but if we want to prevent the independent sects from gaining any power and a chance to surpass us, we will have to work together now!"
"But... Who is to say that you won't just get your sect to secure a leader position while we waste our chance trying to suppress the independent sects? We will have to talk this through in more detail and come up with a better plan that prevents you or others from doing something like that! After all, it's not like any of us are friends and will just happily follow what is said..."
""...""
Hearing someone spoke out the moment the owner of the old voice finished telling them his suggestion on how to suppress the independent sects, the people present all turned their eyes towards the mist like figure of the old voice's owner.
"Hah... It seem like we do have to talk about how to go about suppressing the independent sects. After all, all of you people don't seem to trust my word-"
"You damnable half dead fossil! Don't forget how you stabbed me in the back 50 years ago and stole a spiritual herb from me! And you want me to trust your word now!?"
"As I said... We will have to talk about the method we want to use... We should be fine, there is still a few hours before the start of the meeting..." Not knowing what else to say after hearing a familiar angry voice screaming at him filled with killing intent, the owner of the old voice could only retreat a bit as he said this. Understanding that he would not be able to get anywhere without the method of suppressing changed or they managed to get a way to guarantee that everyone would follow the plan...