Affinity: Chaos

Chapter 1856: Strange Rule

Grey found a place for Cormac to hide. He did not need to take anyone with him if there’s a chance he would confront those from the Twilight Faction. Alone, he was confident he could escape from an encirclement, but once he has to look out for someone else, the situation becomes difficult for him, just like the case of when he tried to rescue Arkhos.

Cormac knew he could not go with Grey, so he had no issues with hiding and waiting for him. Even if he could, he would not want to cross the Twilight Faction. A few Forces with multiple Peak Sovereigns can act as they want, but a Force like the Vallarian Tribe that only had three Sixth stage Sovereigns, it was basically a death wish.

Leaving Cormac behind in a self made cave, he rushed to the place where the core was located. As long as the members of the Twilight Faction were not in the area where the core is located, he would not bother with them.

Heading in the direction of the core, Grey realized it was as he expected, he would have to deal with people from the Twilight Faction, this was because the Twilight Faction, as well as the other Forces he sensed in this place were all gathered in the abandoned Manor he was supposed to check. He could not even blame them because he too would have been drawn here if he got this close.

Before him was a glowing light coming from a dilapidated building, from his guess, whatever is about to be born in that place is by no means ordinary. The only downside to it was that the place where the treasure might be coming to birth was only a few meters away from the open space where the Affinity Stone is standing. As long as he tried to approach the Affinity Stone, he would be noticed by these people. While thinking of a plan, he counted the number of Twilight Faction members present, and adding the few weaker ones in the surrounding, keeping watch, there were about twelve people from the Twilight Faction, and only two of them were Ninth stage Sovereigns. If a fight really broke out, he was certain he could deal with the duo. But his only concern was if the other Forces would want to help the Twilight Faction, after all, they were the number one Faction. Anyone that could get their favor will naturally not want to miss out on such an opportunity.

At first Grey was a bit interested in whatever the treasure coming to birth was, however, he soon lost interest when he noticed it was of no use to him. Given his current cultivation stage, there were very few treasures in this world that could help him improve his cultivation rapidly. Since breaking through to the Seventh stage of the Sovereign Plane three months ago, he has been ensuring his foundation becomes very strong. After absorbing Jakob Vaerghal’s blood essence, he noticed a little abnormality after he broke through to the Seventh stage, so he focused on not improving his cultivation, but consolidating his realm. Only after consolidating his realm did he realize just how powerful Jakob Vaerghal’s blood essence was.

Although whatever that is coming to being in that place looked interesting, it had little effect on him. And to be honest, he had a few treasures that served the same purpose as this one, but stronger even. Of course, this did not mean that this treasure is not valuable enough to get Ninth stage Sovereigns accompanying the weaker members of their Forces to come claim it.

The first thing Grey learned after coming close was that the Ninth stage Sovereigns will not be the ones fighting for the treasure, rather, it was a rule that if a treasure is found by more than one top Force, then the younger generation will be able to fight for it, even if it was a treasure needed by those at the Peak of the Sovereign Plane. Grey was shocked that they all held to this rule, especially the Twilight Faction. According to Grey’s information, only one of the Factions present here other than the Twilight Faction could be considered a top Force in this world, yet the Ninth stage Sovereigns from the Twilight Faction did now try to chase the others away.

Grey could not understand how such a rule could exist in the cultivation world where the only rule has always been survival of the fittest. It’s just like how the Twilight Faction is regarded as the number one Faction in this world and most other Forces would not want to offend them. This naturally made most members of the Twilight Faction cocky, so seeing them agree to want to fairly compete for the treasure with the others seemed strange to Grey.

‘Do they really follow this rule?’ Grey studied the members of the Twilight Faction and noticed their seriousness. Grey could tell they were a little upset, but by the fact that these people were also drawn to the treasure at the time they arrived.

The whole situation seemed strange to Grey, but he did not have to worry about it since he would not be staying for long. Realizing he had to wait, he found a good place in the Manor to wait. There was no point fighting the Twilight Faction, at least not now.

Closing his eyes, he waited with the members of the Forces present here. He could take the core and leave, but he would be exposed to these people while doing this, so rather than get exposed now, he would wait until they have started fighting for the treasure and then step out. After taking the core, he will have time to deal with those from the Twilight Faction. He might not kill them, but there was no way he would let them obtain this treasure.

Eight hours went by in a flash.

Grey was still hiding in one of the buildings of this abandoned Manor, when he sensed an energy wave coming from the place where the treasure was about to be born.

“Finally…” He muttered to himself and got him.

He was not the only one who noticed the energy wave, the members of the Forces present also felt it and all turned their attention to it. None of them have been speaking all this while, waiting for the treasure to come to being. Seeing it now, they all showed signs of wanting to make a move. Anyone above the Sovereign Plane is not allowed to fight for treasures in such situations, unless there were no one below this stage. Of course, there’s a chance that a Faction with more experts can generally scare the other away. Nevertheless, a situation like this where there are more than one Force is usually rare, so they always tend to respect the rules.

The Twilight Faction was the only one with two Ninth stage Sovereigns, the other three Ninth stage Sovereigns were from three other respective Forces, and one of this Force is considered a top Force, only barely inferior to the Twilight Faction. This was the Faction that acted as a deterrent to the Twilight Faction, hence they could not suppress the others. None of the Forces made a move even though they could see that the treasure had been born. They all stood outside the building, staring into it.

Grey did not have to wait for long, one of the Forces could not hold it any longer and sent someone to rush into the place. As soon as this person made a move, the four other Forces, excluding the Twilight Faction made a move. Those from the Twilight Faction did not show any signs of making a move, only showing a cold and haughty expression. The reason for this was soon revealed as the first person that managed to get to the door of the building screamed as soon as they stepped a foot into the building. Before anyone could react, the body of the young man burnt to crisp.

Those from the Twilight Faction burst out into laughter when they saw this. The reaction of the other Forces was vastly different, especially the group the dead person came from. With ashen faces, they turned to look at those from the Twilight Faction.

A figure Grey is familiar with soon stepped forward to speak, “I know that according to the rules we all have the right to fight for this. But other than us, no one else knows how to retrieve that treasure. Doesn’t that make it ours?”

The figure who stepped out to speak was none other than the Fifth stage Sov Grey saw with Lord Everard back when Arkhos and the other Magical Beasts were captured. He had broken through to the Sixth stage of the Sovereign Plane over the past three months or so.

The top members of the other Faction turned to look at him after he finished his sentence. The members of the Faction the dead person belonged to all glared at the young man for not speaking up earlier