Yet amid such torment, the nine great powers discovered that the Soul-Subduing Palace's Supreme Elders had still failed to appear.
This took the nine great powers from their initial tension, through conflict and doubt, to eventual delight.
Their fighting spirit grew ever stronger, their momentum as magnificent as a rainbow!
In stark contrast, unrest began to arise within the Soul-Subduing Palace.
They had fought for several years, always hoping that the two Supreme Elders who could return from nowhere and settle the world in one stroke would appear, yet neither had shown themselves.
News from the lone peak in the back mountain left the disciples with no choice but to continue waiting. The formation restrictions around the Supreme Elders' seclusion site were too solid; at present, only a little over thirty percent had been broken.
To break the formation restrictions around the seclusion grounds of Integration cultivators to such an extent in merely a few years was already remarkably fast.
But the nine great powers were no fools. Naturally, they intensified their psychological offensive, spreading all manner of unfavorable rumors—that the Soul-Subduing Palace's two Supreme Elders had long since fallen—and even producing all kinds of evidence.
The evidence came in countless forms. So long as no old monster of the Integration Realm appeared, those rumors would only become increasingly convincing.
This led many cultivators within the Soul-Subduing Palace to begin discussing the matter in private. Following some of the evidence spread by the nine great powers, they secretly attempted to verify whether things were truly as claimed.
After conducting their tests, the results they obtained often left them shocked. The situation really was as the nine great powers had said.
At once, undercurrents gradually began to surge within the Soul-Subduing Palace, and the atmosphere throughout the sect became oppressive.
Meanwhile,