Yet the elders could hardly say anything. He had broken no rules; he was merely exploiting a loophole here.
What loophole? Before they entered, the Divine Fire Pact's code of conduct issued by Artifact Cloud Valley had stated that this was a grand occasion for the artifact refining world. Everyone was an artifact refiner, and after entering the Divine Fire Domain, they were to refrain from wanton wrongdoing and compete fairly on their own merits.
Nor was this wording unique to this gathering. Every previous gathering had probably used much the same language. It was the expected routine. They could hardly announce publicly that once the artifact refining world entered the Divine Fire Domain, everyone was supposed to slaughter one another and seize whatever they were strong enough to take.
That might be the truth, but they could not express it that way. On the surface, they still had to put up a few seemingly solemn words that sounded and looked pleasant.
Those who wrote them knew they were false, and those who read them knew they were false. Writers and readers alike scoffed at them behind closed doors, yet they still had to be written.
As for the outcome, no one had ever pursued accountability. Those who dared to kill and rob were mostly the strong bullying the weak, mostly powerful major sects, while those qualified to step forward and enforce the rules belonged to those very same sects.
The elders stationed here, for instance, all came from the leading sects.
Everyone therefore understood that saying one thing in public and doing another in private was the true rule.
But no one could tear away that fig leaf right in front of the ten presiding elders, could they? Breaking the code before their eyes would be a slap in