Chapter 451: Guilty for the Mess

Priam looked deep into the Sect Leader’s eyes and let out a slight snort. Before launching his attack on the factions, as soon as he had returned to the sect, he had conducted a thorough investigation to verify every detail. That was why he had acted with such absolute confidence.

After a brief moment of silence, he began recounting everything that had happened from the very beginning.

He explained that he had joined the newly recruited soldiers of his faction and taken them to the Corrupted Battlefield to train them properly.

Everything had been proceeding normally until something extremely anomalous and dangerous erupted within the area.

A colossal horde suddenly emerged from all directions. They were high-ranking Corrupted Beasts, creatures that had abandoned the planet’s depths to converge en masse on an isolated point—a sector where, according to the official map records, nothing of that scale should ever have existed.

Fortunately, Priam had been there and was prepared. He had ‘burned through valuable resources’ and unleashed his full power, managing to contain the turbulence and save his troops.

But… he had also uncovered the real masterminds behind the disaster.

Two covert groups belonging to the Favonian Alliance and the Seiche Alliance.

Not only had they secretly followed his faction using obscure techniques to remain invisible, making their hostile intentions perfectly clear, but they had also lured the horde there to wipe everyone out.

“How could they do something like that?! The Sect Inscription would immediately mark them as traitors!” someone in the crowd shouted in disbelief.

Priam flashed a faint, mocking smile. “Obviously, none of the disciples involved in either faction knew anything about it. They were simply used as disposable pawns in an attempt to get rid of me. Under the original plan, EVERYONE was supposed to die miserably. Fortunately, I uncovered the entire scheme after capturing one of them…”

Priam recounted everything with cold composure, making it clear to everyone present that he had read the memories of those individuals.

He didn’t have every single piece of information precisely, but he had managed to reconstruct the complete picture with perfect logic.

In short, there was an extremely old figure within the sect who was connected to the Aciestor Sacred Family without actually belonging to its bloodline.

This person had always worked as an obscure, nameless servant of the Inner Sect, and now had only a handful of years left to live.

She possessed intermediate Alchemy knowledge and had descendants within the Inner Sect, although none of them were particularly talented.

This veteran figure had secretly met with the leaders of the groups that had pursued Priam and handed them three types of pills to be consumed by every member assigned to the mission.

The first was a special concealment pill designed to mask their presence and aura from the Corrupted Beasts.

The second and third were diametrically opposed support pills, designed to be consumed together at the appropriate moment.

According to the old woman’s promise, the pills would grant them the power to ‘cloud’ the perception of the Scoring Inscription, allowing all the points accumulated by Priam’s soldiers to be invisibly transferred to them.

It was utter nonsense—a grotesque lie that any more experienced figure within the sect would have exposed instantly.

However, the members selected for the expedition from both factions were mediocre, ambitious individuals willing to take any shortcut to climb the ranks. Without questioning anything, they accepted the mission and swallowed the pills.

As a result, they surrounded Priam’s army while his troops were fighting. Then they consumed the two pills together, hoping to steal their points.

That was when they discovered the true purpose of combining the two pills.

Together, they generated an overwhelming attraction pulse capable of summoning every powerful Corrupted Beast on the planet, as if they were receiving a direct command from the Sorcerers themselves.

After finishing his explanation, Priam turned his gaze directly toward the Grand Elder.

“Do you remember now? The ancient figure who orchestrated this trap is named Zenipha. She was your mentor during your childhood, wasn’t she?”

Priam’s voice crashed over the crowd like a thunderclap.

“When I returned to the sect, it didn’t take much effort to connect the rumors. Zenipha is an old woman known for employing unconventional methods, always pushing things to the absolute limit of what the rules allow. However, just a few days ago, she suddenly ‘retired’ from the Inner Sect and chose to spend her final years on her home planet, galaxies away from here.” Priam paused briefly, letting the weight of his words hang in the air.

“But here’s a fascinating coincidence! All of that old woman’s living descendants within the sect seem to have been enjoying an incredibly prosperous life lately. According to the records I dug up, they’ve acquired the finest weapons, elixirs, and resources available over the past few days… Must be nothing more than a coincidence, right?”

Priam fell silent, studying the Grand Elder’s icy, pale, and almost catatonic face. She seemed unaware of all this, yet she couldn’t bring herself to believe the obvious truth Priam was laying out before her.

Beside her, the Sect Leader maintained a completely blank, somber expression.

Everyone there was experienced and intelligent. This last part Priam had revealed was easy to verify, since all transactions were properly recorded. As the Principal Disciple, he had simply gone to the department in charge and requested the records. No ordinary disciple was allowed to do that, but he had no such restrictions.

As for Zenipha’s actions… they were even more obvious.

She had left the Inner Sect because if she ever set foot there again, the Central Inscription would immediately mark her as a sinner.

Priam continued, looking directly at the Sect Leader. “I’ll get straight to the point…”

He calmly laid out the rest of his reasoning. All four Sacred Families already knew about his new status—someone had leaked this confidential information not long ago. However, the Aciestor and Ceruleren Sacred Families had an even deeper grudge against him, to the point of skirting the red line of the rules.

Old Zenipha, aware of the situation, had offered her underhanded services to ‘solve’ the problem in exchange for securing a prosperous future for her descendants.

No one from the families knew the precise details, since that would implicate them before the Central Inscription. They had simply trusted the old woman. After all, she was a publicly acknowledged protégé of the Grand Elder.

Rhys and Neel, the faction leaders, hadn’t been directly informed of the technical details either. However, they had given the old woman free rein to select and use their soldiers however she saw fit.

The groups sent on the mission were supposed to die, buried forever on that isolated planet alongside Priam and his troops.

Meanwhile, the mastermind behind the entire scheme—the only person who knew the full picture—would never return.

It was a glaring loophole in the Central Inscription’s design. All you had to do was pay someone to take the full blame, while the real masterminds, despite accumulating a little residual karma in the process, wouldn’t receive enough to be identified as directly responsible.

After all, it was just an automated Runic Inscription, not an infallible judge. It worked like a program designed to check predefined patterns. It had limitations and flaws that could be exploited.

Having finished laying out his reasoning, Priam turned back to the Grand Elder, taking in her completely distraught expression.

“Are you going to tell me again that you’re innocent? Are you going to claim that you’re not an indirect traitor to the sect? Do you think everything is fine just because the Central Inscription can’t punish you directly?”

He spat out the words with utter contempt.

“That old woman was known by everyone as someone who could ‘solve’ any problem, as long as she was paid enough. Yet even though everyone knew that, no one dared to mess with her because you protected her. Of course, if she were marked by the Inscription, they couldn’t just turn a blind eye. But how many shady schemes had she arranged before? That alone is enough to implicate you pretty badly…

But things get worse. In the memories of one of those idiots I read, he heard directly from the old woman that I was the Principal Disciple. And guess what? She claimed she’d received that confidential information directly from the Grand Elder.

The Sect Leader ordered everyone to maintain absolute secrecy, but you can’t be directly implicated just for talking unless the Sect Leader had formally and explicitly issued that order to you. But… I don’t think he imagined you’d do something like this, so he probably considered it unnecessary to reinforce the order.”

The moment Priam said that, the Sect Leader narrowed his eyes, barely containing his fury. Indeed, he had issued the order to everyone at the level of the Central Elders and ordinary Elders, but he hadn’t explicitly forbidden the Grand Elder from revealing the information. After all, why would she do something like that?

Priam turned toward the Grand Elder.

“Did you really believe she’d keep her mouth shut? That she wouldn’t sell that information for a fortune?

Of course you knew she’d do exactly that.

Okay, I’ll admit it was only a matter of time before they found out. And since the old woman had less than a hundred years left to live, you wanted to do her a favor. After all, she could gather enough resources to retire comfortably.

But in the end, you brought the Sacred Families’ discovery forward by several years.

Taking all of this into account, you’re just as guilty for this mess as that old woman.” Priam finished in a tone as cold as death.

And as always, any Golden Tickets and Stones are welcome. ??