Lightning Is The Only Way

"What do we do with the situation regarding the Ancestral Water Sect?" a person in white robes asked the other five people in the room.

"Difficult," another person said. "They keep acting against us in untraceable ways, making it difficult for us to find an official reason to attack them. If we do, the Alliance will put heavy restrictions on us."

"Can't we just ask the Eternal Fire Sect for support? They should be willing to help their subsidiary Sect when they are in a crisis," another person asked.

"Are we in a crisis?" a woman asked.

Silence.

"No," the other person said.

"Then don't say stupid things. Your will has already weakened to a considerable degree due to your position as the Teaching Elder. Never forget that, as Cultivators, we need to go through mountains of swords and oceans of fire to become powerful. Don't search for help when you don't need it yet. Also, don't forget that all of the Sects are subsidiaries of the Eternal Fire Sect," the woman said.

"Yes, Sect Master. I apologize, Sect Master," the Teaching Elder said.

SHING!

Suddenly, a new person appeared in the room.

The people jumped up in shock and readied themselves for battle, but when they saw the person, their eyes widened.

"S-Sect Master!" the woman said with deep respect.

Everyone in the room immediately bowed deeply.

This was the Sect Master of the Eternal Fire Sect.

He had never visited their Sect before!

Why had he come!?

The Sect Master looked around the room and inspected the people. "You have proven yourself to be… very original in terms of using your resources."

The Sect Master had difficulty finding something positive to say about this trash subsidiary Sect of theirs.

The people in the room felt even more shocked.

The Sect Master of the Eternal Fire Sect was praising them!?

Finally, acknowledgment!

"You are hereby allowed to fully integrate into the Eternal Fire Sect," the Sect Master said. "The Elders and higher will become Elders-In-Training, and your inner disciples will become our inner disciples."

Everyone's eyes nearly fell out of their head in shock.

Really!?

Were they dreaming!?

Everyone bowed even deeper, and some of them even started crying. "We are eternally grateful to the Sect Master for such a magnanimous present! We are unworthy."

'Yes, you are, but I don't really have a choice in the matter,' the Sect Master thought to himself.

"Gather all the people in the Sect and your wealth. In a week, an Elder will come to accept everyone into the Eternal Fire Sect. This territory will belong to us," the Sect Master said.

Everyone still bowed in gratitude.

This had been the entire Sect's dream for such a long time!

They had worked so hard under the Eternal Fire Sect so that they would finally accept all of them!

Inside the Eternal Fire Sect, they would have far more options for tempering, more Law Comprehension Areas, more money, more everything!

The territory they currently owned was nothing in exchange for such a chance!

SHING!

The Sect Master teleported away again, leaving everyone.

As soon as he left, everyone cheered in happiness.

Finally, their days of trouble were over!

They immediately made an announcement to everyone in the Sect, and the Sect cheered.

They could finally all join the Eternal Fire Sect!

The Eternal Fire Sect was the most powerful Sect for billions of kilometers around!

Everyone packed their stuff, and a week later, an Elder came to accept them.

Just this random Elder was already more powerful than their previous Sect Master!

The Elder gathered everyone and left.

However, his neutral eyes hid pity in them.

'These young fools,' he thought. 'Do they really believe that the Eternal Fire Sect is some holy land? No, the Eternal Fire Sect has only become this powerful due to our cruel training and brutal competition.'

The Elder glanced at the hundreds of thousands of inner disciples.

'Over 95% of them will be dead within the next ten millennia. They do not realize that their power is incomparable to our normal inner disciples.'

'Most of them will only act as food for tempering. Only the very few talented disciples will be able to truly join the ranks of the inner disciples,' the Elder thought.

The Elder also glanced at the upper echelon of the Sect.

'Elders-In-Training, huh? If you manage to keep up with the training, you will be Elders, but from what I'm seeing, you will fail. You will probably end up in the Ancestral God Army, like nearly all of our Ancestral Gods.'

This Sect had believed that being part of such a powerful Sect was a blessing.

And yes, it actually was a blessing.

However, it was only a blessing for the truly powerful people.

For everyone else, it was death.

Being part of a Sect that nearly had no enemies was arguably even more difficult than not being part of an organization at all.

Because, in order to remain so powerful, the future generation had to be just as powerful as the previous generation.

The first generation had gone through hell to become so powerful that they could establish such a powerful Sect.

This meant that the next generation had to go through a similar amount of pressure and danger.

And the one following that.

And the one following that.

If a Sect had nearly no enemies, they had to be their own enemies.

Enemies were irreplaceable on the path to supreme power.

The more powerful the Sect and the fewer enemies they had, the more dangerous it was to be in that Sect.

However, the ones that managed to get through this hell would have access to resources that people of smaller Sects could only dream of.

These new disciples didn't know that they were happily jumping into a meatgrinder.

Yet, even if they knew, they would probably still accept.

The eventual rewards were just too enticing.

Also, Cultivators thrived in danger. It was normal to risk one's life.

The Sect was left behind.

The wealth had been transported away, but the buildings and Formation Arrays were still there.

A couple days later, an army of people arrived in the sky above the deserted Sect.

A red-haired Elder pointed towards the Sect.

"This will be your Sect," she said.

Everyone inspected the Sect, and Manuel nodded.

This Sect had a couple more Formation Arrays, and it was quite a bit bigger. 

It also had around double the amount of Law Comprehension Areas.

Obviously, the Sect Master of the Eternal Fire Sect had repaid Manuel for his friendly reminder. 

This place was definitely better than the Myriad Sect's old place.

"The surrounding Sects are all subsidiary Sects of the Eternal Fire Sect," the Elder explained. "This is one of our meat grinders. The Sect that manages to take over the other nine Sects is allowed to join the Eternal Fire Sect."

"The other Sects all have, at least, three Ancestral Gods, but you don't need to fear them. As discussed, you officially count as a subsidiary Sect of the Eternal Fire Sect, but only in name. Since you do not have an Ancestral God, the Ancestral Gods of the other Sects are not allowed to act against you. They can only send Star Gods."

"However, keep in mind that every Sect has at least ten Star Gods. Some of them already nearly have a hundred," the Elder explained. "If you die, you die. It will have nothing to do with the Eternal Fire Sect."

Manuel nodded with a polite smile. "Of course. Thank you for escorting us."

The Elder nodded and teleported away.

Manuel looked at his new Sect.

This was perfect!

As long as he knew the power of the surrounding Sects, he could increase everyone's Realm to perfectly fight another Sect. 

However, Manuel had to be careful when it came to numbers.

If the number of enemies was too high, the Myriad Sect would be destroyed.

In the war between the Myriad Sect and the Eternal Fire Sect, Gravis and Mortis had only gotten involved when someone above the power of the Myriad Sect had gotten involved.

Gravis and Mortis would have only watched if Ishtar had been a level two Star God.

At that point, the war could have gone very differently.

Exar would have had to contend against two Star Gods, and he would definitely be on the losing side. At that point, someone else would have to finish their fight first to help him.

The entire war would have become far more dangerous.

Gravis knew that the Myriad Sect needed genuine danger. That was why he would only get involved if someone appeared that could dominate the entirety of the Myriad Sect alone.

If there were a hundred level two Star Gods, Gravis wouldn't involve himself.

At most, he would grab the people that knew the Law of Freedom and flee with them since that wouldn't injure their Will-Aura.

Everyone else would die.

The danger had to be real for the Myriad Sect to grow.