The Grand Elder did not answer their questions. He merely had someone clear away the Ninth Elder's corpse, then motioned for the Second Elder to speak.
The latter slowly explained why the Grand Elder had acted as he did. For immortality, what did killing a few of their own matter? Feudal emperors could even abandon their own flesh and blood!
There was once a record: "Extinguish humanity, consume one's own flesh and blood, make up for deficient roots—such was Hui King."
This Hui King had been the ruler of a small country. By chance, some villagers presented him with a wild Otherworldly species. He found that he could not activate it no matter what he did, so he believed a Witch's words and ate ninety-nine of his own children to make up for his innate deficiency.
In the end, he actually activated it. Yet he did not gain immortality, because when the ruler of the neighboring great nation heard of it, he immediately sent troops to attack, slaughtered Hui King's entire family, then imitated him by eating ninety-nine of his own sons and activating the Otherworldly species as well.
Of course, the ruler of the great nation did not gain immortality either. After the few remaining sons escaped, they gathered men and assassinated their wantonly lecherous and drunken father with powerful crossbows.
After later generations of Otherworldly Users researched it, they discovered that it had been a Seed of Fear. The palace terror created by that ruler's brutal deeds had happened to meet the conditions for activating the Otherworldly species.
Yet some elders still protested. "If that was the case, you could have told us beforehand. We would naturally have cooperated."
The Second Elder shook his head. "Actually, the Grand Elder had another purpose in doing that: to identify those