718 Army
At this point, Zabia was numb to it. He could only silently continue to listen. Dyon had likely said all of this to the others already, so Zabia was happy that he was being filled in as well.
“Aside from that, I also want to repeat that process for ascending floors. From my understanding, aside from the innate aurora room, every other technique training room has another increased level.”
Zabia nodded, “The first-floor ones correspond to the foundation stage. There are meridian formation stage rooms, essence gathering rooms and so on.
“As for the innate aurora room, it’s the only exception because it’s also the most exclusive and difficult to complete. There’s only one level for it. In the higher levels, it’s replaced by soul training rooms that are exclusive to innate aurora wielders. They essentially speed up soul cultivation speed… Not that you need it.”
Dyon laughed, but didn’t say anything. It was true that those rooms would be wasted on him.
“Aside from this, most of the 20 years will be spent climbing and clearing the tower. From my understanding, we won’t have to deal with encountering warriors from other towers until the top saint floors, correct?”
Zabia nodded, “Before then, everything is done individually. However, when you reach the top saint floor, the trials change and it becomes a quadrant versus quadrant competition. There will still be individual trials, but all in all, the dynamic will change. It’s likely because celestial level treasures and above are rare even for this entity. So, he has to make it difficult on us.”
Dyon understood this, of course. But, it also gave them time.
“Tell me, Zabia. In your opinion, do you think a faction of 3000 can survive on the top saint floor?”
Zabia thought a bit. In fact, he was silent for almost ten minutes before he answered.
“By the time you all reach that floor, if you take the hardest route possible, just about 15-20 years would have passed. In all likelihood, your cultivations will still be handicapped.
“However, even if that is the case, the mere fact you made it to that floor means you have the right to compete with those there, it will just be harder.
“Remember, other universes aren’t united. Even if they send billions, those billions might be from millions of clans, which means their factions might reach ten thousand warriors at the most. In fact, even the largest factions in the tower might break fifty thousand, as far as I’m aware.
“This is simply because even within families, there are divided interests.
“The problem with all of this is that if an unknown faction appears, especially one that will dominate like yours, it will be difficult to avoid being ganged up on. Truthfully, the best choice is to pretend as though you all were never a faction to begin with. This way, you can be a lone cultivator, and although you may anger some factions, they wouldn’t have the face to attack you with millions. Plus, it would be easier to hide.”
Dyon nodded. He too thought the same thing. In addition, if they split up when they reached that floor, it would be good training for the demon generals as well. All in all, the plan made sense until they grasped their footing.
“There’s only one more thing.” Zabia continued. “It won’t be possible to stay lowkey forever.”
“Because of the leader boards?”
“Exactly.” Zabia sighed, “It’s a double-edged sword. If you don’t do well, you won’t be fulfilling your goal. But, if you do, do well, then you’ll be exposing yourself. And that’s just for the individual rankings. If you 3000 do too well, people will notice when a quadrant that’s been dead last for thousands of years suddenly moves up. Especially considering there are only a hundred quadrants to keep track of.”
Despite Zabia’s words, Dyon grinned wildly.
Who was he? Was he not Dyon Sacharro? How could he be afraid of a little fame? To him, if they let him get big enough to make any noise on these rankings at all, it was already too late!
He told the Daiyu and Ragnors that he would announce his existence to them, and in the end, they would fail to beat him anyway. And was he not correct about that?
Although Dyon had matured since then, and would definitely not be so brash again, he also wouldn’t lower his head and hide.
They would know he was coming, and he would make sure they knew that it was too late to do anything about it from the very beginning.
Dyon had grown. Although he very much still missed his parents, he wouldn’t allow their memory to consume him. Although he still wanted to make himself known in honor of their memory, he would jeopardize those with him now for such a goal. Although he wanted them by his side, he wouldn’t blindly search for methods that didn’t exist.
From now on, his arrogance was his own. His purpose was driven by his self and the family he still had here now. One day he would build an unshakeable empire and make the quadrants bend to his will.
His predecessor built a clan that spanned half of the quadrant, and still failed in the end because too many enemies attacked him at once. Dyon wouldn’t make that same mistake.
He wouldn’t leave his family to chase after a dream. He would always be by their side. Always protecting them.
Dyon stood, “It seems they’re done.”
Zabia smiled and followed Dyon out and toward the Epistemic Tower, thinking of his own family as well. He wanted to see just how far Dyon could go.
Unfortunately, he would never guess just how far and deep Dyon’s plans went.
If Zabia knew that part of step 1 of Dyon’s plan was making an enemy out of the whole Drago-Qilin quadrant, maybe he wouldn’t be so happy right now.
But, even if he knew he wouldn’t be able to stop Dyon from doing it. After all, how could Dyon let all of the reverse scaled in his spatial ring go to waste? He wasn’t just going to raise an army of Demon Generals. He was going to raise an army of Dragons.