Lightning Is the Only Way

Gravis and Stella traveled back to the Myriad Sect to prepare for every eventuality. Chances were high that the remaining two members of the Shining Purity Sect would attack them soon. However, even if they did, they wouldn't be a real danger.

The Myriad Sect had already won the war before it had even started.

Meanwhile, the remaining members of the Shining Purity Sect were trying to come to terms with their new reality.

They only had three Ancestral Gods, one level four Star God, and one level two Star God left. Sure, there were also some level one Star Gods outside on missions, but they wouldn't make a difference.

All the other Sects had several level two Star Gods.

The entirety of their power and future now solely relied on Austin.

"If you had simply accepted to become a level five Star God, nothing like this would have happened!" One of the Vice-Sect Masters shouted while pointing an accusatory finger at Austin. "We would have already conquered all the other Sects by now!"

Austin looked with even eyes at the Vice-Sect Master.

However, even though Austin appeared calm on the outside, he was the one that had been most shaken by the event.

He had destroyed his Sect.

"Stop trying to find someone to blame!" the actual Sect Master shouted at the Vice-Sect Master. "If that girl hasn't lied, she came from a new Sect, the Myriad Sect. They should have arrived only recently. They should have overtaken the territory of our neighbors."

"But if he had just-"

"And then what!?" the Sect Master answered with fury. "Then even our last remaining level two Star God would have been destroyed! This would have made things only worse!"

The Vice-Sect Master only grew angrier. "But if he had more power, he might have been able to see through whatever illusion had been put up! I've seen it near the end! He has attacked someone from our own Sect! That was also why there was no Judge!"

"And you think that would have made a difference?" the other Vice-Sect Master asked with a scoff. "Not even we have been able to see through the illusion. We three are all Ancestral Gods, and we haven't noticed anything! Don't try to blame Austin for our own shortcomings! The demise of the Shining Purity Sect is our fault."

The first Vice-Sect Master gritted his teeth.

However, instead of arguing, he looked to the side with a bitter expression.

He had realized that he couldn't blame this on Austin.

This was on them.

Silence.

The silence dragged on for minutes.

Everything they had worked for had been destroyed in a single day. They had built up the Shining Purity Sect for over 500,000 years!

Now, everything was gone.

This was the destructive effect that Star Gods had on their environments.

Without The Heaven Company or someone more powerful overlooking a fight, entire Sects would be decimated by a single attack.

It just needed a single slip-up for an entire Sect to be destroyed.

"What now?" the second Vice-Sect Master asked the Sect Master. "What do we do now?"

The Sect Master remained silent for a while.

Then, he sighed.

"What is there to do?" he asked helplessly. "All our Karmic Luck has been depleted. The gathered Karmic Luck of 500,000 disciples has been evaporated."

The two Vice-Sect Masters grimaced.

"Could we build a new Sect?" one of them asked.

"Do you have the time?" the Sect Master asked.

Silence.

"No," the Sect Master answered.

"This time, we lost thoroughly," the Sect Master said with regret. "Our work has been destroyed. We can't join the Eternal Fire Sect as Elders-In-Training anymore. If we want to join the Eternal Fire Sect, we have to enter as Inner Disciples."

The two Vice-Sect Masters didn't answer.

Entering as Inner Disciples?

Chances were high that they wouldn't be able to survive.

Why was Karmic Luck so important to get a good position in the Eternal Fire Sect?

The reason was that these three Ancestral Gods only had average Battle-Strength. If they could jump a level, it wouldn't be an issue to become an Elder in the Eternal Fire Sect in the future.

Sadly, they couldn't jump levels.

So, that only left two other methods to become a powerful member of the Eternal Fire Sect.

One of the methods was God Stones.

If they paid enough God Stones, they would be able to buy their way into a good position where they wouldn't have to constantly fear other powerful disciples.

However, the amount of wealth was insane.

In fact, one person needed ten God Crystals.

God Crystals, not God Stones.

What was a God Crystal?

One God Crystal had the amount of Energy of one billion God Stones. However, that wasn't everything.

It needed a Divine God that knew the True Law of Matter, a level nine Law, to combine the one billion God Stones into a God Crystal.

One God Crystal was often sold for two billion God Stones precisely due to that.

What was the use of a God Crystal?

They could either be absorbed incredibly fast, or they could be used to create powerful Virtualization Arrays.

High-Grade Sects often traded Law Comprehension Areas. Yet, instead of straight-up handing them over, they infused their God Crystals with the Laws of the Law Comprehension Area.

Then, they could hand over that God Crystal to the other Sect. This would allow them to lease out a Law Comprehension Area safely. They wouldn't need to fear a sudden attack. They didn't even need to show the locations of their Law Comprehension Areas.

The Eternal Fire Sect had no issues with giving someone a good position if they could pay ten God Crystals.

That was worth far more than some position.

Sadly, it was very difficult for early Ancestral Gods to get their hands on God Crystals.

The three of them couldn't possibly pay that.

So, that only left the second method.

Karmic Luck.

Karmic Luck was incredibly important for the war between Sects. If one Sect had more Karmic Luck, they would sometimes be informed about an upcoming ambush by coincidence. Their own ambushes would also succeed more frequently.

In an even fight, their own fighters would probably win due to luck.

If one Sect was more powerful than the other Sect, Karmic Luck wouldn't make a difference. However, if they were about equal in power, Karmic Luck could decide everything.

So, where did the Sects get their Karmic Luck from?

From disciples.

Teaching a disciple would increase one's Karmic Luck. The more outstanding the disciple, the more Karmic Luck the teacher would get.

Another method was to get more disciples in one's organization. Part of the Karmic Luck of the disciples would gather in the Sect, and the Sect would have the effects of Karmic Luck.

500,000 disciples with over 20 Star Gods had already created a terrifying amount of Karmic Luck for the Shining Purity Sect.

Sadly, even that ridiculous amount of Karmic Luck wasn't enough to buy one's way into the Eternal Fire Sect. After all, in comparison to the entire Eternal Fire Sect, some 20 Star Gods were nothing. The Eternal Fire Sect had hundreds of Ancestral Gods and millions upon millions of disciples.

This was where the Sect wars came into play in this area.

This wasn't an annihilation war in which every living being of the other Sect would be eradicated.

No, the survivors would simply join the other Sect.

As long as the war was won by one side, they would put the survivors of the other Sect before a choice.

Submit or die.

If they decided to submit, they had to sign a contract that forced them to remain in the new Sect for 20% of their longevity.

In that time, the new disciples would be treated very, very well.

Because of that, when the mandatory time was up, most of the disciples would simply decide to stay in their new Sect.

Peak Immortal Emperors would have already remained in the new Sect for 40,000 years, and it was basically their new home by now.

So, when one Sect consumed all the other Sects in the surroundings, they would have hundreds of Star Gods and millions of Peak Immortal Emperors.

On top of that, the Ancestral Gods often also joined the other Sect to take a piece of the pie.

However, negotiations for Ancestral Gods were far different from the negotiations for Star Gods or Immortal Emperors.

Star Gods and Immortal Emperors would get lots of enticements to join the winning Sect.

Yet, for Ancestral Gods, it was the opposite.

The Ancestral Gods of the winning Sect would enter the Eternal Fire Sect with good positions. However, depending on the amount of Karmic Luck, the things they would get might become better or worse.

This meant that every additional Ancestral God would decrease the reward for the other Ancestral Gods.

Because of that, the Ancestral Gods of the losing Sect would either need to abandon their Sect, going home with nothing, or pay their way into the other Sect.

So, because of all of these reasons, the three Ancestral Gods of the former Shining Purity Sect had essentially gotten the shaft.

They had lost the game.

They only had a couple of options.

Pay to join another Sect.

Create a new Sect.

Join the Eternal Fire Sect as Inner Disciples.

Don't join the Eternal Fire Sect and simply do whatever.

These were all the options.

Gravis had worried for nothing.

The three Ancestral Gods hadn't even considered attacking the Myriad Sect.

Why would they?

They wouldn't gain anything.

The Myriad Sect had destroyed their entire Sect, which was about as direct of a declaration of war as it got.

They were probably certain that the Shining Purity Sect would attack them, and they probably also knew that Austin was an incredibly powerful Star God.

This meant that the Myriad Sect was confident in being able to deal with Austin.

The Ancestral Gods knew that if they attacked the Myriad Sect, they would only lose even more.

There was no point in attacking the Myriad Sect.

After some talking, the Sect Master decided to join the Eternal Fire Sect as an Inner Disciple.

The Vice-Sect Masters decided to go their own way.

Austin followed the Sect Master to the Eternal Fire Sect, and he would join them as a normal disciple.

The remaining level two Star God was left behind.

She was alone now.

In the end, she sighed.

'Maybe I should just join the Myriad Sect,' she thought. 'It's better than to directly join the Eternal Fire Sect.'

And with that, the entire debacle with the Shining Purity Sect had ended.

Gravis had destroyed an entire Sect without even entering it or attacking it.

Gravis had simply played them to death.