"There is no need to worry about that."
"This is only the beginning."
"The Observer Diviner has said that even if the ten great powers fight amongst themselves, we should not intervene. As long as everything is allowed to take its natural course, the Cultivation Treasure will surely be found."
"The fact that the Chu Heavenly Clan's Clan Chief had his Star Guide Stone snatched away — that can only be described as fate."
The Hall Master of the Purple Star Hall spoke.
"Then this subordinate can rest easy."
After hearing the Hall Master's words, the elder's face lit up with anticipation.
Just thinking about it — so many ancestors had failed to find the legendary Cultivation Treasure, and now it would be them who finally located it. He was so excited that his body began trembling uncontrollably.
The Purple Star Hall's objective was simple.
They would arrange everything according to the prophecy. As long as someone truly managed to find the legendary Cultivation Treasure, they — the Purple Star Hall — would claim it for themselves.
As for the supposed promise that whoever found the Cultivation Treasure would keep it — that was nothing but a lie.
However, what the Purple Star Hall had not anticipated was that someone had leaked their secret.
Someone had revealed to the public what the Purple Star Hall had told the ten great powers.
As a result, everyone both inside and outside the Purple Star Hall now knew about the promises the Purple Star Hall had made to the ten great powers.
This gave the Purple Star Hall a tremendous headache.
In their eyes, the ten great powers were nothing more than pawns.
Forget about handing over the Cultivation Treasure if it was found — they had never even intended to give the ten great powers the Three-Stage Exalted Martial Technique.
That… was nothing but a lie to deceive the ten great powers into working hard on their behalf.
But now, this information had leaked, and everyone believed it to be true.
That put the Purple Star Hall in an impossible position.
Setting aside the Cultivation Treasure for the moment — the Three-Stage Exalted Technique alone was enough to make the Purple Star Hall's hearts bleed.
Were they really going to hand it over?
The answer, of course, was no.
The Purple Star Hall was, in truth, an extremely domineering power.
Though they cared about their reputation, when it came to profit, they would always choose to protect their interests.
However, this leak had still damaged their reputation.
So they launched a thorough investigation into who had let the secret slip.
At first, they assumed it had been someone from the ten great powers who spread the word.
But after investigating, they discovered that the person who had spread the information was actually someone from the Purple Star Hall — and not just anyone, but a Purple Star Hall Elder.
What shocked them most was that among those responsible, there was even a Supreme Elder — one who held an extremely lofty position within the Purple Star Hall.
No wonder the information, once leaked, had not been dismissed as a rumor. People had readily believed it to be true.
Who would dare call the words of a Purple Star Hall Supreme Elder a rumor?
Upon learning of this, the Purple Star Hall Master flew into a rage. He had all of those elders seized and prepared to subject them to severe punishment.
But something bizarre happened.
Every single one of those elders denied it — without exception, they all refused to admit that they had leaked the information.
If that had been all, it would not have been particularly strange.
What made it truly bizarre was that numerous people could testify that these elders had indeed been the ones to spread the information.
And there was absolutely no chance of impersonation — they had heard it from the elders' own mouths.
Faced with this testimony, the accused elders were utterly dumbfounded.
At the same time, the Purple Star Hall began to realize that the situation was not as simple as it seemed.
Eventually, they discovered that every one of those elders had recently experienced brief episodes of memory loss.
As for what they had done during those episodes, they had no recollection.
At first, the matter had not been taken seriously. But who could have guessed that during those bouts of memory loss, they had committed acts that amounted to leaking the Purple Star Hall's most closely guarded secrets?
…
Back inside that same great hall, before that same formation.