Lin Mu's eyes went wide as he looked at a particular person. Jing Luo and a few others followed his gaze and saw him looking towards High Elder Bugi. 

"W-what…?" The man questioned.

Combined with Lin Mu's earlier words, Jing Luo and others understood what had happened.

"N-No…" High Elder Bugi said, finding it very strange.

"High Elder Bugi… did you…" Patriarch You Yi muttered.

~RUMBLE~

The sound of thunder echoed once again as the entire palace started to shake.

'High Else Bugi broke the oath? How?' a few elders thought.

~BOOM~

And just as they thought that, the sound of an explosion was heard and a bolt of lightning pierced through the protective formation arrays of the sect as if they were nothing but paper and appeared within the hall.

~BANG~

~SPLAT~

It directly struck a person and reduced them to ashes before they could even say anything.

~thud~

"HEAVENS BE KIND!" High Elder Bugi cried out as he fell to the ground in fear.

He watched as the man who was standing behind him was just turned to ashes by the lightning.

~Rumble~

The rumbling of thunder got low and soon disappeared within a minute. Everyone stayed silent as they tried to comprehend what had just happened.

The silence was finally broken by a couple of confused elders as they spoke up, "it wasn't High elder Bugi who broke the oath?" 

"No… it was the man standing behind him." Lin Mu answered, resolving their doubt.

Even Patriarch was confused but felt like the misunderstanding was reasonable. He had simply followed Lin Mu's gaze and thought that he was looking at High Elder Bugi. His cause for doubt was also understandable since high Elder Bugi had been one of the High elders who had opposition to some of his opinions.

"Who was that?" Lin Mu asked, not knowing the identity of the man.

The person had not spoken once since they had come here and thus Lin Mu had not taken much interest in them. But now that they were killed by the lightning, he knew that there was more to it and the implications of it were serious.

"That was junior elder Lao Ming, wasn't he?" Elder Boqin spoke up.

"Yes… that was him." Patriarch You Yi confirmed.

Lin Mu furrowed his brows and looked at the man.

"You know what this means, right?" Lin Mu said in a serious tone.

"Yes…" Patriarch said before looking at some of the elders. "I want all his interactions and connections to be investigated. I want the first report by tonight!" He ordered.

"YES PATRIARCH!" A few elders replied before leaving the hall to of their assigned task.

"That was terrifying…" Elder Wenyan said, his hands still shivering.

"Mmm, Punishment tribulation lightning is indeed not something anyone can bear easily. It is many times stronger than the normal tribulation lightning one faces during the Nascent soul realm breakthrough." Patriarch You Yi explained.

~Sigh~

Lin Mu sighed and shook his head before speaking. "At least we know that the oath works. We have seen its effect first hand." 

"Wait, does this mean Junior Elder Lao Ming was a traitor?" one of the other junior elders at the back asked carefully.

"There is a chance. Just being a traitor is one of the conditions for breaking the oath. There are many other things they can be doing that can break the oath." Lin Mu spoke.

Jing Luo raised his brows and looked at Lin Mu.

"You don't think… he was under the control of Gu Yao too?" Jing Luo questioned.

"No, he was not. Which makes it even more difficult. I did not feel any presence of the blood curse on him, but it would mean that he is either doing it willingly or his goal was something else." Lin Mu answered.

You Yi stroked his beard and thought to himself for a bit before making up his mind.

"I shall call all our allies. The higher ups will have to take the oath as well," Patriarch You Yi stated.

"Of course. It's the best if they are here as soon as possible so that there is no information leaked. We don't want Gu Yao or the Northern Tribes to get a hint of this." Lin Mu replied.

"Very well. I'll contact the Black Dune Sect and the Light Harmony Sect and have them here as soon as possible." Patriarch You Yi stated.

Lin Mu nodded his head in approval and recalled the information about these two sects.

The top ten sects were ranked as follows:

1. Sky Precepts Sect

2. Rainbow Pill sect

3. Centennial Sword Sect

4. Zither Wind Sect

5. Long Cloud Sect

6. Black Dune sect

7. Ripple Mist Sect

8. Light harmony Sect

9. West Ocean Sect

10. Noon Grass sect

Of these, the top three sects were currently independent and then there were the two alliances. The Zither wind sect, the Ripple mist sect and the West Ocean sect formed the Zither wind alliance's main members and along with them there were many mid and low tier sects.

While the Long Cloud Alliance was composed of the Long Cloud sect, the Black Dune sect and the Light Harmony sect.

The Black dune sect was located in the north western part of the continent while the Light Harmony sect was located to the north eastern part. The ninth ranked sect which was part of the zither wind alliance, the West ocean sect was located on the west coast of the continent just like its name.

Lin Mu calculated how long it would take for these sects to arrive for the oath, and realized that it might take up to a month for that.

'The Black Dune sect is located in the desert in the north west while the Light Harmony sect is in the high hills of the Eastern Ming Dynasty. At the earliest, they will take a month while if they are delayed it might take them far longer..' Lin Mu thought to himself.

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