War!
The room descended into a tense, stifled silence. The various elites and influential figures exchanged gazes, assessing the reactions of their peers. There was dismay, intrigue, disdain, concern, ridicule, and elation in some of those gazes. They had more or less determined that these movements perfectly fit the tactics of preparing a siege under the guise of business expansion, under the guise of providing the Neo-Dawn Eclipse Pill and Sharded God Domain Pill to the masses, under the guise of overt competition against the Everlore Association, and yet revealing very little of the truth.
Tian Lingyu snorted coldly; she was one of the few that had disdain in her eyes. "Pavilion Master Ma is a little too scheming. This is why I dislike these old, sly codgers." She openly revealed her frustrations with Ma Zheng's actions. "Does he think the Imperial Clan would simply allow him to gather strategic advantage against us?"
An old Imperial Monarch thought for a second, frowning as he considered himself a sly fox of the older generation, but decided not to take Tian Lingyu to task for that comment. After a while, he said doubtfully: "Old Ma might be many things, but stupid he is not. Who says he's preparing against us?"
"..." Once again, a silence fell for a while as thoughts flew. The Imperial Clan of the Aeternal Sky Starfield was undeniably the strongest force in the entire Grand Cyclic Stellar Region, this was without a doubt as their Emperor had powers that vastly exceeded an Earthly Saint. He was unmatched.
Tian Lingyu digested his words properly, then asked: "If not us, then who? Everlore Association?"
Yang Chaoyue received some barely concealed probing glances. Everyone knew that the grievance with the Everlore Association stemmed from Wei Wuyin, as Evergod tried to slay him and killed billions of innocents to do so under the guise of an 'accident'. Moreover, since Wei Wuyin took the field, the two have been in direct contention with each other, with the Saint Cyclic Renewal Summit being a highlight of that conflict.
The issue was that Wei Wuyin's forces were not at all weak. As long as he doesn't waltz into the territory of the Everlore Association without oath protection, the chances of the Everlore Association eliminating him could be considered very slim. He had Bai Lin—an Ancient Fire Phoenix that Earthly Saints felt threatened by, the Grand Knight of Neo-Dawn—an 8th Runic Ascendant Earthly Saint, that mysterious armored Earthly Saint, and alliances with several peak organizations such as the True Element Sect, United Source Starfield, Hexaflame Starfield, and Golden Life Pavilion. This mortal was no less powerful than the top five Starfields with just that alone.
In fact, if Wei Wuyin established his own organization in a starfield, except the top three Starfields, he would unquestionably rule with little resistance.
Considering the gazes directed her way, Yang Chaoyue was left without a choice but to speak her opinion. "We've long received news that Yue Songli was targeted by Trueborn, who revealed herself as Wei Wuyin's, and Wei Wuyin had launched a multi-Earthly Saint-led operation to interfere against their attempts to capture her, dealing them a blow, effectively declaring war against them after the Shadow Egg situation."
"Trueborn? He's preparing for war against Trueborn?" A Sky Monarch was astonished. The clandestine organization that operated in the shadows was equally as unfathomable as they were powerful. While the Imperial Clan didn't fear them, they kept themselves in a constant state of incognito, even said to have infiltrated some of the lower-ranked starfield's leadership, perhaps even higher.
Before long, a clamor erupted with all sorts of speculations. Most felt that Wei Wuyin had a deep-seated grudge against Trueborn and the Everlore Association, but the reasons for the Golden Life Pavilion's recent actions were highly debatable.
Why?
"Impossible! The Golden Life Pavilion couldn't have made their alchemical product preparations for this assault on Everlore Association and to use as fuel for their aggressive expansions without centuries of preparations. However, all this seemed to stem from Wei Wuyin's personal grudges. Remember, he's less than seventy-years old and stayed in the Everlore Domain until recently—less than three decades, in fact." The old Imperial Monarch refuted. He continued, "Old Ma has never revealed any indication of going after Trueborn, and he should know better than most about their terrifying might."
"..."
This tactic couldn't have been planned in the span of Wei Wuyin's life, yet all of it stemmed from his grudges. It didn't make sense.
Empress Xiaocheng kept her smile, but there was a glint in the depths of her soul-arresting eyes. In their opinion, most of these actions were Ma Zheng's carefully curated plan that was planned centuries ago, if not thousands of years ago, and Wei Wuyin was simply riding along.
After an hour of back and forth, Tian Lingyu spoke up, causing expressions to darken: "What will our response be?" The Golden Life Pavilion was acting with strange intentions, expanding their business, influence, territory, and societal reliance with this move, and they, the Imperial Clan, were the top force of the Stellar Region. While they could sit back knowing that the Golden Life Pavilion could never threaten them due to the Aeternal Sky Divine Emperor's existence, including their own cultivated might, was that correct?
"Suppress their efforts to expand?" A Sky Monarch suggested, but as he did, there was a ripple in his gaze. A few echoed his suggestion. What else was there to do?
Empress Xiaocheng swept her gaze across all those present and then settled on the Sky Monarch who spoke. "Sky Monarch Bai," her call out caused focus to draw irresistibly to herself, and she continued: "Any suggestions on how we should go about suppressing the Golden Life Pavilion and Wei Wuyin?"
When Wei Wuyin was mentioned, glints of light flickered through many of the Sky Monarchs' and Imperial Monarchs' gazes. Sky Monarch Bai was taken aback, caught off-guard as he stayed silent seemingly trying to think. If it was just the Golden Life Pavilion, that wouldn't be difficult at all. But Wei Wuyin…
Tian Xiaolu looked at this Sky Monarch, intrigued by what he would suggest. In truth, she felt bitter about Wei Wuyin taking her cauldron away, and scurrying back to the Sealed Regions.
"Haha," Empress Xiaocheng let loose a peal of elegant, comfortable laughter that caused the hearts and lower halves of many present to react. While it wasn't deliberately seductive, her smile and actions were just too stimulating. "How do we go about organizing a suppression when our own has long been compromised?"
"..."
Suddenly, the atmosphere grew abnormally glacial. Sky Monarch Bai's heart jumped, but he kept an outward appearance of confused shock and suspicion, quick to glance about with questions in his gaze. As if to ask: Who?
Yet most gazes settled onto Yang Chaoyue. Yang Chaoyue's eyes gradually grew grim, but she didn't act, simply looked to the Empress for an explanation. She wasn't a traitor, no matter her relations with anyone beyond the Imperial Clan. She couldn't be! Mythical Oaths prevented it.
"There's no need to put on an act," Empress Xiaocheng placed her arms across her ample chest, sweeping her gaze once again, "Who here isn't compromised? Over the last few decades, all of you have had contact or another with those with suspicious origins, including Wei Wuyin."
"...!"
"Your Emperor sees all," she said indifferently as if reminding them that her husband, the Aeternal Sky Divine Emperor, wasn't so useless, blind, and deaf.
"What do you mean?" The old Imperial Monarch questioned gravely. "What are you insinuating, your Highness? That we're all traitors?"
"Oh? Traitors? You wouldn't dare. But compromised, most definitely." Empress Xiaocheng gave the old Imperial Monarch a sharp gaze, then turned to look at Yang Chaoyue, Sky Monarch Bai, Tian Muyang, Tian Lingyu, and a few others. They were all the ones who'd seen Wei Wuyin's incredible feat of making Ma Zheng ascend to an Earthly Saint.
"A mortal that's a Saintmaker, granting a 30,000-year-old nearly dead Demi-Mortal Lord salvation, and obtaining the King of Everlore's former servant as his Alchemic Knight. That's who Wei Wuyin is, and he's tethered himself to the Golden Life Pavilion." Empress Xiaocheng's words caused a few to be taken aback.
"..." Tian Muyang's eyes constricted slightly, but he remained outwardly calm.
Empress Xiaocheng eventually sighed, "If we act against the Golden Life Pavilion in any way, we'll have to first kill Wei Wuyin. That's unavoidable. A Saintmaker at his age, less than a century, should we hinder his allies or their progress, wouldn't that be asking to become his enemies? Should he become the next King of Everlore, the regret we'd feel would reach levels that even the King of Everlore would have no pill for.
"Moreover, any plans we decide to make here, who says it won't be leaked? Taken advantage of? Trueborn? Everlore Association? They would love for us to act, even have the thought of doing so." After Empress Xiaocheng said this, she didn't continue with the discussion, outright ending the meeting.
"His Majesty will decide what to do. Await orders."
When they scattered, Tian Muyang and Tian Xiaolu returned to their palace. When they did, barely entering the door? Tian Xiaolu finally asked the question that seethed in her heart: "What did the Empress mean by that?" In her mind, Wei Wuyin wasn't very talented, simply lucky, and had no chance of becoming the next King of Everlore.
That position might never be filled, but if it did, it would be by her.
Tian Muyang didn't even look her way, silently sighing.