The impact of the Underworld Cataclysm on the entire Central River Continent—and indeed the entire cultivation world—swept across every corner of the world like a storm. When everyone received this information, their first reaction was disbelief. But after repeatedly confirming its accuracy, they quickly turned to shock. Based on Akatsuki's achievements alone, this was absolutely an organization capable of sweeping aside the vast majority of factions.
Soon afterward, following careful evaluation and analysis, the Great Sound Pavilion classified Akatsuki as the cultivation world's only second-tier cultivation faction without a Mahayana cultivator.
That was right! Akatsuki, with only a dozen or so members, had become a second-tier cultivation faction overnight. More importantly, no other faction raised any objection to this conclusion.
The Great Sound Pavilion's reasoning was that although Akatsuki lacked Mahayana cultivators, it possessed the spatial ability Yomotsu Hirasaka, something even Mahayana cultivators found difficult to restrain. Its members were also nearly invincible among those at the same stage, and when some of them erupted with their full strength, they could temporarily reach the level of Mahayana cultivators—such as Mu Yuyi in Tenseigan Chakra Mode.
Furthermore, every divine envoy in Akatsuki possessed an exceptionally unique and powerful domain ability. The might they could unleash left many second-tier cultivation factions far behind. If all of them acted together, few second-tier cultivation factions would be capable of threatening them.
The final reason was Akatsuki's gains during the Underworld Operation. Wealth was naturally one part of it. Having plundered so many factions, including places like Prince Gong's Manor, Akatsuki's financial resources no longer lagged behind most second-tier cultivation factions. Beyond that, the late-Mahayana ferocious beast Thunder Breathing Beast, abducted from the Qin Clan of Thunder Region using the Beast King Seal, and the three Mahayana puppet statues taken from Prince Gong's Manor meant