Without question, these people were the personal divine servants of the two guardians. They knew far more than anyone had imagined.
A list was produced in short order.
The number of names on it was noticeably larger than anyone had expected.
Once the list was in hand, the expressions of the Ten Great Sacred Ancestors turned grim in an instant. The Ancestor of the Hundred Sacred Grounds, in particular, was practically seething with rage.
On the Blue Smoke Island Domain's end, panic had clearly set in. Several of its major figures looked about with frantic, desperate eyes, scanning in every direction for some avenue of escape.
But every one of them was under close watch. There was no hope of flight whatsoever.
Thud! Thud!
The Blue Smoke Island Domain's higher-ups dropped to their knees one after another and scrambled forward on all fours toward the Ten Great Sacred Ancestors. "Venerable Ancestors, we are guilty! We confess our sins—we confess!"
The Ten Sacred Ancestors' faces had turned a sickly shade of iron. They stared down at the Blue Smoke Island Domain's leadership, their gazes surging with killing intent.
Five factions in total were implicated on the list.
The other four factions each had only one or two names apiece.
Of the three cultivators who had already confessed, the other two on the list had perished in the earlier waves of battle.
In other words, they had died before they ever lived long enough to face punishment.
Whether they had killed themselves out of fear, deliberately sought death in combat, or simply fallen by chance in the chaos — none of it mattered anymore.
What mattered was that the vast majority of the names on the list came from the Blue Smoke Island Domain. The entire domain, high and low alike, had been thoroughly infiltrated.
Several of the names belonged to senior leaders, let alone the young prodigies also listed.
In essence, nearly every generation across the Blue Smoke Island Domain had been compromised.
"Venerable Ancestors, we are guilty! We are truly guilty! Please show mercy and spare the Blue Smoke Island Domain. We are willing to take our own lives as atonement!"
"We were bewitched — we were coerced by Old Man Guangdu!"
"Venerable Ancestors, please grant us extraordinary leniency! The Blue Smoke Island Domain will be eternally grateful!"
None of the Ten Sacred Ancestors were soft-hearted. If they had been, they could never have risen to the heights they now occupied. Faced with these pleas for mercy, every one of them was utterly iron-willed, without a shred of pity.
These were the death rattles of the doomed, and they moved no one.
"We already gave you a chance before. You chose to cling to your luck, didn't you? You figured we'd never trace it back to you?" The Eternal Sacred Ancestor's voice was glacial, cold to the bone.
"No — no! We wanted to come forward on our own, but we knew the Blue Smoke Island Domain was too deeply involved. We feared that once the truth came out, the entire domain would be gutted — never to recover!"
"Venerable Ancestors, we are filled with the deepest regret. Please give us one more chance!"
The Ten Sacred Ancestors remained unmoved.
The Radiance Ancestor was the first to erupt in fury: "When we gave you your chance, you didn't seize it. Now you come begging for another? Too late!"