A day went by, and the intense investigation into all the Elders and High Elders of the conservative faction continued. Raoni’s punishment, related to the main event, had been postponed. However, by killing that first young man outside the arena, he had already broken the rules, which wasn’t entirely linked to the investigation, so they tried to arrest him.
A vote was held, and to everyone’s surprise, when the disciples of the Heroic Pill Hall voted, almost all expressed support for Raoni. Both the neutrals and those from the radical faction favored him; besides them, all the women from the conservative faction supported him too.
As a result, this incident didn’t cause him any trouble. The disciples of the Phoenix Cry sect directly influenced the decisions with their votes.
Alm and Bruno only found out about this event after it happened. Raoni was taken by Zemuo, and after taking a lot of pills, his ’mental and physical degradation’ improved quite a bit. He spent a day meditating to fully recover.
Zemuo wasn’t worried about Raoni’s life but rather about his confidence inflating too much. If he kept being so arrogant, he wouldn’t listen to others’ orders and would ruin their plans.
Raoni, on the other hand, was obedient and acted as if he had suffered a setback, adjusting his condition. But Alm and Bruno knew those idiots planned to use him as a disposable weapon.
Keeping up this act all this time wasn’t easy. After enduring so much and alternating between acting foolish and impulsive, the High Elders finally found, in this moment of apparent weakness, the perfect opportunity to act.
While Raoni was deep in meditation, a shadow slipped into his room unnoticed and approached him from behind. When it touched Raoni’s head, he woke up with his eyes wide open.
In short, Bruno put on a dramatic performance worthy of praise. One of the High Elders attacked him, implanting a slave seal in his mind. He pretended to be startled, scared, and then obedient.
After making sure the seal was properly implanted, the High Elder tried to sense it, but the fire fluctuations coming from the beast runes were too intense. Without investigating his mind directly, it would be impossible for anyone to notice something was off.
The shadow spoke coldly, "Come on, the rest is over."
"Yes."
Raoni immediately stood up as if any thought of rebellion had been ripped away.
They were taken to a secret location of the faction, underground. To Alm and Bruno’s surprise, the place was directly beneath the mountain where the Sacred Pavilion was, the spot where sect members did their shopping.
’A spatial concealment formation... it’s perfect. Not even with our divine souls can we sense any fluctuations,’ Bruno murmured, surprised and excited.
In the queen’s universe, there were many incredible things they couldn’t even conceive. They needed to get these things before leaving; how many surprises could be hidden there?
Raoni was taken to a vast underground hole that looked like an empty pool. Seeing Zemuo and the other superiors, he said:
"Master, this time, drown me in all the fire runes. I want to keep getting stronger; I want to shake the entire Phoenix Cry sect!"
Everyone nodded, pleased with his determination. The slave seal on Raoni wasn’t extreme enough to prevent his thoughts or desires, as that would be too risky. However, whenever one of the High Elders gave him an order, it would be absolute, and he could never betray them.
Fire runes surrounded Raoni like glowing lava. He lay directly on them, letting out a roar that echoed through the skies. More and more flame runes swirled around him as he frantically absorbed them.
After three full days, Raoni had absorbed an ocean of fire runes. Inside his inventory, thousands of beast souls were accumulating, but at this pace, they wouldn’t be able to absorb even a third of all the runes from the sect.
’We’re going too slow... but if we start absorbing everything too fast, they’ll get suspicious. We need a way to save all of them,’ Bruno thought, worried.
Alm murmured coldly, ’Look at the greed in these bastards’ eyes. They’re willing to commit serious crimes to deliver the final blow to the conservative faction.’
Bruno, sensing the High Elders nearby, agreed and huffed, ’Humans are complicated. This sect is completely doomed. Everyone just thinks about their own benefit and wants to destroy each other... Well, whatever. Let’s stick to the script.’
***
Two days later, news came from the sect leader: in two more days, the world of the Nine Red Lotuses would be opened.
As soon as Zemuo received the news, an urgent message from another High Elder arrived: "Bad news!"
Zemuo hurried nervously to where Raoni was. "What happened?"
"Raoni… he… he absorbed half of everything..." The High Elder’s voice trembled.
To ensure the plan went perfectly and that the conservative faction wouldn’t find out anything, they didn’t buy the runes with their merit points. Instead, they secretly smuggled the runes from the Sacred Pavilion.
These runes were crucial for the sect, but only for the new disciples who hadn’t had the chance to enter the world of the Nine Red Lotuses yet. The sect didn’t have much surveillance on them, allowing them to be temporarily hidden until everything was finished.
The goal was to let Raoni absorb freely, but obviously, it was impossible for a young guy to absorb that much. The plan was to seal the runes in his body, so when he entered the world, he could use them to kill everyone inside, in exchange for his own life.
Of course, with the slave seal, he would be ordered to stay away from the radical faction’s disciples, drawing in the enemies and killing them, minimizing the deaths in his own faction. With the slave seal, he wouldn’t be able to go crazy and would be forced to follow the orders.
"Damn... his control over the fire runes has grown so much that he managed to master and seal the runes in his body without triggering them. Now, the limit of what he can hold in his body is terrifying," Zemuo said, irritated.
The other High Elder nodded. "What are we going to do? When they find out, it’ll be extremely problematic."
Zemuo looked at Raoni in the center of the pool, meditating, and felt his aura. His fluctuations were chaotic, as if his body was about to explode.
He sighed and said, "He’s at his absolute limit. Don’t worry, those runes aren’t that important to the sect; half may be gone, but they can be replaced in a few centuries."
"But... the loss is too great; it’ll be easy for someone to find out before the time," the other High Elder said, worried.
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"The important disciples are focused on preparing to enter the world of the Nine Red Lotuses and haven’t tried to obtain new runes. We’ll seal this place and prohibit others from entering. If a random disciple shows up, be strict in intimidating them and say that the formation needs to be repaired and that they should come back later. Prohibit anyone from getting close until he leaves for the location. It’s only two days; everything will be fine."
The High Elder nodded, understanding; for two days, only mediocre disciples shouldn’t cause any problems.
"I got some powerful techniques for him, all moves that trade injuries for injuries," Zemuo added. "Also, prepare some Furious Flame Explosion Pills for him. With that, everything will be 100% guaranteed."
The Furious Flame Explosion Pill would allow a person’s power to increase drastically, but once its effect wore off, the consumer would have only minutes to enjoy their life.
Zemuo and the High Elder, excited, began to prepare. Meanwhile, Alm and Bruno, who had heard everything, were also smiling, equally thrilled.
And so, the hours passed quietly before the storm. When all the disciples moved enthusiastically, with little time left until the opening of the legendary sect location, Raoni finally opened his eyes in the secret underground.