"My allies were meant to come the day after the original date of the auction, which just so happens to be the day after tomorrow." Elder Nova sneered. "That old bat wouldn't have the courage to tell them that she changed the original date."

Dyon's foot flew forward, slamming against Elder Nova's chin before he buried his face into the dirt. Although Dyon didn't have the ability to harm a dao formation expert, he could definitely humiliate one that didn't have the ability to retaliate.

Elder Nova roar out like a ravenous beast, but that only sent a surge of pain through his body. He could only shiver in anger as Dyon grinded his face into the ground.

However, doing this didn't make Dyon feel any better.

According to the original plans of Soul Market, the auction was meant to be held tomorrow, it was just that the now dead "Mother" had moved the date up because she had a gut feeling.

The good news was that the "Mother", despite being right about her gut feeling, failed even after shifting the date up. The bad news was that she didn't have the courage to tell her bosses her shift in plans because she was afraid that that would reflect poorly on her.

Think about it, how could a mere Cathedral steal children from the remaining 99 other universes? How did they deploy teleportation formation in their territory without ever being found out?

The truth was that there was no need to be "found out" or "steal" because those of the Energy Path were in on the plan from the very beginning. In fact, they would have enacted the plan themselves if it wasn't for the fact they were using this universe as bait. They actually hoped that the existence of Soul Market would enrage the dregs of the Celestial Deer Sect to come out.

Those children stolen from their families were from impoverished areas with little to no protection. Those of the Energy Path would never give up their own children!

Dyon sneered. 'You all gave your core techniques to be learned by those poor soul slaves, I bet you never thought that those techniques would now fall into my hands.'

After a moment, the panicked expression that Elder Nova hoped to see never appeared on Dyon's face. Even as a clone, if you gave Dyon time to prepare, you were setting up your own downfall.

With the combination of the Soul Tome, the Energy Core, and the ridiculous amounts of soul energy in this universe, Dyon knew that his main body would recover in just a few hours.

Dyon realized that his encounter with Evangeline had given him more than he thought. He originally believed that it would take him months to recover, but suddenly, what should have taken months shrank to just a few hours.

It was at that moment that he had a thought that made his thought tremble.

When he had sex with Clara for the first time, they split the body kernel into yin and yang portions The energy kernel, from Dyon's observation, also had yin and yang halves So, the question was, what happened to the yin half of the soul kernel? It was impossible for it to be in Dyon's body, so who the hell had it?

'Could it be that Evangeline fused with the yin portion?...' Dyon's eyes flashed with an indiscernible light.

This line of thought added more questions than answers. If she had the yin portion, how did she receive it? Was she from Dyon's universe? Why hadn't he met her before then?

Although this line of thinking made Dyon even more confused, he had to think of this as the most likely possibility. His soul had received too much of a boost for him to ignore.

Half-step transcendent or not, Dyon didn't believe that was anyone in existence who could match his soul talent enough to boost it, yet Evangeline had. There was only one explanation for that.

Dyon thought of one more thing. If Evangeline was truly the wielder of the yin half, then it was likely she had sex with Dyon to help herself. After all, just as much as Dyon benefitted, she had to haveS as well.

Poor Dyon was still looking for reasons to explain away a half-step transcendent being in love with him. It seemed that the entity was correct, Dyon wasn't as arrogant as he pretended to be.

However, almost in sharp contradiction, Dyon's eyes still flashed. 'Don't think of escaping now that I have your primordial yin. If you dare think of another man, I'll spank you into submission. No one can touch a woman I've claimed, half-step transcendent or not.'

Dyon removed his foot from Elder Nova's face and picked him up, slapping his cheek as though it was an action of endearment.

"From now on, you're my henchmen. You'll watch from the sidelines as I destroy everything you and your people have built.

"Your life is no longer your own. Your thoughts are no longer your own. Your dreams, your ambitions, your hopes None of them are yours.

"The moment you made me your enemy was the day you made the worst decision of your life."

Dyon's eyes blazed. Heaven's blessings seemed to shimmer and twinkle on his caramel skin, giving him the presence of a God.

The crowd couldn't help but acknowledge that Dyon was born to rule.

...

The first thing Dyon did was give key wielding responsibilities to Donari.

Originally, he didn't plan to do this. He actually wanted to give the key to his little brother, Zaire, so that he too could become a God level figure. After all, he didn't want his little brother to live in his shadow. Zaire had the talent to stand shoulder to shoulder with Dyon, he was absolutely certain of it.

However, Dyon was forced to change his plans. The abilities of the key wielder was something Dyon needed immediately.

From his interrogation of Elder Nova, Dyon learned that the Epistemic Tower Gate of the Soul Rend Quadrant was actually a Dao Gate and the only reason that campaigns weren't prevalent in this universe was because the Energy Path didn't bother to attack.

On the outside looking in, it seemed as though the other universes were too weak to think about campaigning, when the truth was that they were too powerful to even waste their time. After all, Cathedral Universe was meant to be bait.

If this continued, it was obvious the kind of trouble this would bring. So, to save future troubles, Dyon immediately had Donari shift all six connecting gates, one to each planet, into essence gates. This way, if they dared to attack, Dyon could single-handedly wipe out all of their forces alone.

Dyon's thinking was simple. Without the gates, travelling between universes would take years, not to mention a ridiculous amount of resources.

The moment those of the Energy Path realized they were sending their younger generation to their deaths, they would stop using the gates.

For obvious reasons, they wouldn't be able to use the tower either. Not only did they not have access to the tower with the gate being a death zone.

There was also a second layer of protection Donari provided. Unlike Virvor, Donari had never taken a trial. This meant that the fog barrier would protect their 98th quadrant for as long as he didn't.

It was very important to Dyon that the fog barrier remained, even more so than before. The realization the Elder Nova was a spy put his guard on high-alert. He couldn't be complacent with his fail-safes.

This feeling became even more fierce when Dyon learned from Elder Nova that there should have been a dao formation expert stationed in his home universe as well.

After hearing this, Dyon couldn't help but burst into a cold sweat. This was because he could still remember when he arrogantly proclaimed his identity after stopping Madeleine's wedding. If that dao formation expert had decided to act, Dyon's life would have ended, just like that.

As for what happened to that expert? Dyon wasn't entirely sure, but he had some ideas Many of which revolved around Madeleine's parents and the fact they too were dao formation experts If he was correct, it seemed that he'd have to thank them when next he saw them.

In all likelihood, that dao formation expert was long dead. Luckily, it was impossible to communicate easily between quadrants, so even Elder Nova had no idea that that expert had been compromised.

'I've been too complacent' Dyon's fists tightened as laid out the rest of his plans.