However, the thoughts of the weak were never the true concern of the strong. The Six Paths Demon Sect were not newcomers to the situation of besieging an entire sect, and indeed, their airship was fully equipped with enough weaponry to decimate the entire Black Heaven Sect in one blow.

At the bow of the ship stood a group of Third Realm powerhouses that had been put in charge of the entire war. They were not Path Ascenders, as those were still subscribed to the path of discipleship, but rather those in a situation above that of a Path Lord yet below a deputy Hall Master.

They were called the Path Controllers!

A large majority of those at this realm were from the Divine Deva Hall, as Path Controllers were mainly administrators at the highest echelon for foreign expeditions and at various outposts outside of the Tianmo Empire.

The airship held 23 Path Controllers who were at varying levels in the third realm: 11 of the Divine Deva Hall, 5 of the Asura Blood Hall, 3 of the Hungry Ghost Hall, 2 of the Wild Beast Hall, and a single fellow of the True Human Hall.

They were currently surrounding two people in particular of their own group: one young woman of the Divine Deva Hall who wore a golden bonnet with lacy frills at the edge and had two heterochromic eyes—one white and one black—and one young man of the Asura Blood Hall with wavy red hair and arms partly covered with red fur, his body well built without being burly.

"Have you decided on the distribution yet?" the young woman asked in a tone that mixed authoritative force with disdainful coldness.

"Why ask me? I'm just here to kill till I'm satisfied," the young man replied in a tone that contained mild amusement along with a hint of condensed killing intent.

The young woman pursed her lips as if, indeed, she should have known better than to ask, but an answer came rather quickly from behind as a middle-aged man walked over with his arms in his sleeves.

"Countless blessings, countless blessings! It is my honor to greet the esteemed Young Lady Wen Susu of the Noble Wen family and Young Master Liu Sha of the Red Monkey Clan!" the middle-aged man greeted with cupped fists and a bow, wearing an ingratiating smile.

However, the others glanced at him with strange expressions, while the two he referred to—the young man and woman—turned to face him with slightly gloomy faces.

"Dongfang Wang, what is the meaning of this? Are you so bored now that you come and greet your juniors with respect?" Wen Susu asked with furrowed brows.

"Old man, don't insult me. Just because you are strong doesn't mean you can be frivolous!" Liu Sha responded, his Blood Power beginning to emerge from his pores.

Despite their strong reactions, the middle-aged man called Dongfang Wang was not bothered at all. Rather, he patted his long silver hair as if he were forgetful, his gleaming yet strangely pale eyes full of playful cunning.

"Oh! It doesn't matter to me whether you two are younger, older, weaker, or stronger. After all, is it not good to pay respects to those appointed as leaders for the operation?"

This made the other Path Controllers stir visibly as they glanced at the premier duo, seemingly understanding something in their hearts as the meaning in their eyes shifted.

Meanwhile, the two's faces changed significantly, partly shocked by the revelation and partly pleased. After all, this entire sting had its own overlord, but that person had not made a move since the start and was quite mysterious.

Not to mention that the strange events surrounding this particular war had drawn attention among the Six Paths Halls. For one, there was the reason behind it, which was the discovery of an Ascension-tier Flood Dragon corpse that had been withheld from the sect.

Even if one used their toenails to calculate, they could infer the obvious meaning that the corpse was still there and held something valuable.

So whether it was Cao Xian, Ding Yan, and all the special characters Li Ling had 'dug out' in this period of time—minus Bai Yegui—all were actually initially sent here by the force behind them to investigate.

Was the corpse of the flood dragon taken away? If not, then why? Also, was there anything good left behind that was either intentionally left by the inspector, or did they miss something?

The place where the Flood Dragon fell should definitely have become some form of treasure land by now, so what was the situation with that?

In the end, it was just as Li Ling feared from the moment he was captured by Bai Ruyi and changed his modus operandi. It seemed that the moment the Infinite Slaughter System awoke in him, it also made him a beacon of trouble and calamitous events.

How could it be that the War of Annihilation he chose almost randomly back then turned out to be one with such a 'heavy' background to it?

The truly heartrending part was that he was only partly aware of this thanks to his own discovery of the hidden dragon ball and even knew that there was a big plot going on with this war, which was why he played things carefully.

But how could he have known that his involvement in this war would escalate things in the shadows?

It was as the Infinite Slaughter System revealed at the moment of scanning them: those like Cao Xian and Ding Yan had indeed changed their focus to him, because his duel with Bai Yegui was something shocking.

It stirred up the previously stagnant pool that was this outpost, as no one could find any leads about the situation with the Flood Dragon corpse until the siege on the Black Heaven Sect began, in which the race to acquire the most benefits would begin both internally and externally.

But then these two stellar geniuses appeared and dueled live for everyone to see?

What exactly did this mean? Who was behind these two? Where did they come from?

Doing a bit of research, both overt and covert, left all spectators speechless, as these two were new recruits—Bai Yegui being here only a month while Li Ling had been here barely over a week!

To those various powerhouses in the shadows, it seemed less like a coincidence and more like someone was planting two powerful chess pieces to destabilize the table.

Bai Yegui had his own problems, so the focus came on the stronger, more enigmatic, and more confusing Li Ling, even leading to the Six Hall Masters being pressured by those above them to come and test him out.

Hence their various plans and schemes, which ultimately came to no end since the attempt was mostly a probe for all—minus Cao Tian, and to a lesser extent Yan Moqing—who were serious about their intentions.

And to test him further, the duel happened, which seemed legitimate in the eyes of all but the Six Hall Masters and their backers, causing more chaos to be thrown into the underbelly of this war, especially with Li Ling winning.

What were they supposed to take from that outcome? Was it a message from the Hall Masters and the upper echelon of the sect that the 'champion' of this scramble had been chosen and Li Ling was the one to reap all the rewards?

Especially since they quite literally paid him out such huge sums of sect merits on the spot, why did it feel like they were trying to use legitimate means to feed their chosen representative?

Hence, when the airship moved out this morning, there had been countless eyes watching his courtyard from all sides, wondering what he was going to do.

Imagine their puzzlement when he didn't appear from start to finish, even when the airship was purposefully delayed to wait for him by the Path Controllers who thought they had figured out the situation.

So what the hell was actually going on?

Or had the fellow moved out already, having long pinpointed the key area of desire?

So many had initially thought, coming to stand behind the two most influential and powerful Path Controllers to join their power together to resist Li Ling's tyranny and demand some benefits from the side.

But what was this? Wen Susu and Liu Sha were actually directly appointed as the leaders for the siege operation, which meant the bulk of the merits would go to them, as well as the chance to obtain the treasured items!

Hence the confusion among the Path Controllers, with the previously firmly tight group now splitting apart slowly as each one considered their position and their benefits.

Most of them began forming smaller groups that purposefully excluded the duo who had just received the news, which made their surging joy quickly calm down as they realized that they were not yet in a position to be jubilant.

Now, they had to seize the chance to consolidate their power and block any external party—like the strangely missing Li Ling—from coming in their way!

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