Chapter 308 - A Small Banquet and a Larger Shadow

Chapter 308: Chapter 308 - A Small Banquet and a Larger Shadow

Radiant Zenith Peak had not hosted a gathering in a very long time.

By the time Li Xuanzong returned with the guests, the Grand Hall had already been prepared.

That preparation had required sacrifices from several people.

Yao Ding had stared at the sealed jars of spiritual wine in his storage for a painfully long time before finally surrendering several that had been aging for decades.

Mo Shanyue had been equally reluctant when asked to provide suitable spirit beasts for the meal, although he eventually returned with enough to ensure that nobody could accuse Radiant Sky Sect of being stingy.

The actual cooking had been entrusted to disciples from Verdant Peak.

They took the responsibility far more seriously than anyone expected.

For many of the younger disciples helping prepare the hall, this was the first time Radiant Sky Sect had received so many important guests at once. The excitement was difficult to hide, even among those trying their best to appear dignified.

Everything was ready by the time the procession reached Radiant Zenith Peak.

The visitors entered to find tables filled with spiritual dishes, warm wine, and enough carefully prepared food to make several of the elders revise whatever assumptions they had once held about Radiant Sky Sect’s hospitality.

Zhuge Tianhe accepted a cup of wine and examined it with interest.

"Old Li, I was beginning to think you didn’t know how to host people."

Li Xuanzong sat at the head of the gathering.

"I don’t."

Zhuge Tianhe looked at the wine.

"Then whoever does should be thanked."

Somewhere else in the hall, Yao Ding’s expression eased slightly.

The banquet began without unnecessary ceremony.

After everything that had happened outside the sect, nobody needed another round of grand speeches. The atmosphere gradually loosened as spiritual dishes were served and the visiting cultivators spoke more freely with the Radiant Sky elders around them.

The lower-realm delegates remained noticeably restrained.

After seeing the Sect-Scale Suppression Formation, Radiant Sky Sect’s internal atmosphere, and the comprehension walls on the Main Peak, none of them seemed eager to create a poor impression.

They listened far more than they spoke and readily agreed when discussions turned toward sharing information about suspicious demonic movements in their respective regions.

Li Xuanzong allowed the gathering to relax for a while.

Eventually, he placed his cup down.

The conversations around the Grand Hall gradually quieted.

"There is something we need to discuss before everyone leaves."

Nobody seemed surprised.

A banquet hosted by Li Xuanzong was unlikely to exist purely for drinking.

The doors opened soon afterward.

Huo Yan entered with several formation elders behind him, each carrying sealed containers recovered from the battlefield.

His eyes immediately moved toward the wine.

Yao Ding saw it.

"Don’t even think about it."

Huo Yan looked offended.

He eventually sat down while the recovered objects were placed on an empty table.

The intact Formation-Eating Nail drew the most attention.

Its dark surface had gone completely quiet. Nearby were broken pieces of the strange bells, fragments of the cracked bronze mirror, remnants of escape discs, and several damaged talismans whose structures had survived well enough to be examined.

Zhuge Tianhe’s expression became serious.

"You managed to preserve that Nail."

Huo Yan nodded.

"It stopped reacting once the demonic cultivators lost control of it. I haven’t dismantled anything yet because I wanted to compare them first."

Li Xuanzong reached into his storage and placed another object beside the battlefield remnants.

The mood shifted.

Several of the visiting elders recognized it only as an unfamiliar artifact.

Huo Yan recognized the formation structure more quickly.

"This came from one of the relay sites?"

Li Xuanzong nodded.

They were the ones capable of detecting communication talismans moving through an area and interfering with them before the messages reached their intended destinations.

Huo Yan leaned closer.

He examined the relay artifact, then the remnants from the battle.

The hall remained quiet while his spiritual sense moved carefully between them.

Several minutes passed.

His expression gradually changed.

"They weren’t made by the same artificer."

Li Xuanzong did not appear surprised.

Huo Yan continued examining them.

"The materials differ. The construction methods differ too. Whoever made this mirror fragment did not build that Nail, and these bells came through another hand again."

Yan Changkong frowned.

"Then there is no connection?"

Huo Yan shook his head.

"There is."

His finger stopped above one of the surviving formation lines.

"The way they isolate foreign Qi, the way they hide their true activation path, and the way several layers are made to respond only after a specific condition is met all follow very similar principles."

He moved to the relay artifact.

"The same habits are here."

Han Jianyu set his cup down.

"Different craftsmen following the same school?"

"That would be my first guess."

Huo Yan looked toward the Formation-Eating Nail.

"Or different people working from instructions that came from the same source."

Nobody spoke for several breaths.

The suspicion was no longer based only on what the demonic cultivators had said during battle.

They now had physical evidence suggesting a common foundation behind several artifacts that had appeared among different demonic groups.

Lian Qingyue’s gaze remained on the fragments.

"The Divine Artificer Citadel would struggle to reproduce some of these functions without studying them first."

Huo Yan gave a slow nod.

That was the uncomfortable part.

Nobody in the hall believed that the demonic factions had collectively developed an artificing tradition beyond the Divine Artificer Citadel without the righteous world noticing.

The more reasonable explanation was that someone had given them access to methods they had not possessed before.

Li Xuanzong did not declare that conclusion as fact.

"We still don’t know who is behind it."

His gaze swept around the gathering.

"Until we do, assume every unfamiliar artifact recovered from a demonic cultivator may be part of the same problem."

Zhuge Tianhe nodded.

"My clan will begin checking the relay routes around our territory."

Han Jianyu followed soon after.

"Myriad Swords Sect will do the same."

Yan Changkong and Lian Qingyue also agreed to investigate within their own spheres, while the other delegations offered to report communication failures, altered talismans, or suspicious relay sites they encountered.

For the first time, the strange disruptions discovered by Radiant Sky Sect were no longer its problem alone.

The discussion eventually moved toward Fallen-Star Sanctuary, and the quieter visitors began paying closer attention.

By now, the situation there was no longer completely unclear.

Fallen-Star Sanctuary had returned, but when the later factions finally entered the region, they found far less than anyone expected. In some places, there was almost nothing left worth taking.

That discovery had only made matters worse.

Zhuge Tianhe leaned back slightly.

"The fighting started before anyone had even settled what had happened inside."

Yan Changkong gave a faint nod.

"Too many forces arrived at different times."

Righteous, neutral, and demonic factions had all rushed toward the returned Sanctuary. Once the emptiness became obvious, suspicion immediately fell on those who had arrived first.

Some believed the earliest groups had already taken the valuable treasures before everyone else entered.

Others suspected that whatever had happened inside Fallen-Star Sanctuary had begun long before its return to the world.

Han Jianyu’s expression turned thoughtful.

"With so many factions arriving at different times, it was only natural for accusations to spread."

Zhuge Tianhe sighed.

"By the time people realized there was almost nothing left, nobody trusted anyone."

That uncertainty had quickly turned into conflict. Old grudges resurfaced, new accusations were added, and several factions fought before anyone could establish what had truly happened inside the Sanctuary.

The four Void-Shattering cultivators had already heard enough about the chaos before they came to Radiant Sky Sect. Once they learned that demonic experts were gathering near its territory, they decided not to wait for clearer information.

Several people glanced toward Li Xuanzong, hoping Radiant Sky Sect might know more.

Li Xuanzong gave them nothing.

The discussion continued for some time before naturally drifting back toward Radiant Sky Sect itself.

Eventually, someone mentioned the comprehension walls.

Li Xuanzong’s eyes changed.

The Peak Masters noticed immediately.

Zhuge Tianhe did not.

"Those walls are still bothering me."

Han Jianyu glanced at him.

"You mean because you were only allowed to look for several breaths?"

"I mean because putting that many useful inheritances in the open is unreasonable."

Yan Changkong gave a thoughtful nod.

"If our younger disciples could spend even a short period studying there, some of them would benefit considerably."

Several of the other elders became noticeably more attentive.

Li Xuanzong allowed the silence to stretch just long enough.

A quiet chuckle escaped him.

Zhuge Tianhe slowly turned toward him.

"I knew that expression earlier meant something."

Li Xuanzong lifted his cup.

"Since everyone is interested, I do have a proposal."

The entire table became quiet.

The Peak Masters drank their wine.

They had known this was coming.