Shortly after Palace Master Ragnir finished talking to the warrior in charge of tracking down Young Master Zion, a High-rank Battle King turned to him.
"Palace Master, if Third Palace Lord's youngest son was caught by the Holy Sunfire Tribe, wouldn't it be too late to stop them from learning what happened inside the Battle God Palace?" a High-rank Battle King asked.
"Not necessarily," Palace Master Ragnir replied with narrowed eyes.
"The entire Battle God Palace was locked down during our house-cleaning operation to seal all news from escaping Steelpeak Mountains. Furthermore, Steelpeak Mountains is isolated from the rest of the Central Region."
"As such, no one outside of the Battle God Palace would know what's going on inside. If the Holy Sunfire Tribe captured someone important like that little brat, their first thought wouldn't be to interrogate him but to use him as a hostage and gain an advantage over the Third Palace Lord."
"But the Third Palace Lord is dead, along with the rest of his family and everyone else from the First Palace Lord and Second Palace Lord," the High-rank Battle King mentioned.
"Exactly," Palace Master Ragnir affirmed with a nod.
"However, the Holy Sunfire Tribe doesn't know that. I don't know why they are waiting, but they will realize the little brat has no value as a hostage once they try to blackmail our Battle God Palace."
"Until then, the little brat wouldn't spill anything on his own if he is smart enough," Palace Master Ragnir said.
"But what if the Holy Sunfire Tribe didn't actually follow what Palace Master said and interrogated the Third Palace Lord's youngest son first to gain intel on our Battle God Palace?"
"Then forget I said anything," Palace Master Ragnir casually said.
"Nevertheless, if there's a chance that the Holy Sunfire Tribe hasn't learned anything, it's best that we kill the little brat before they learn something. At the very least, it would save us some trouble. If not, it doesn't matter too much anyway."
"I see..."
...
"Chief, the Battle God Palace's forces are pulling away early," a warrior of the Holy Sunfire Tribe notified after discovering the movements of the Battle God Palace.
Chief Whiteflame glanced at the retreating forces of the Battle God Palace before he casually said, "Ignore them. The Battle God Palace was useless against these creatures anyway. It was our Holy Sunfire Tribe doing all the work anyway."
"But what if the Battle God Palace takes this chance to attack our tribe while we are busy here?" the warrior mentioned.
After hearing that, Chief Whiteflame's expression changed immediately.
"Whiteash, I'll leave you in charge of matters here with half the warriors. The rest will follow me back to the tribe in case the Battle God Palace targets our tribe."
"Understood, Chief. You can leave it to me."
Shortly after the Holy Sunfire Tribe's forces finished dealing with some of the Whitebone Fiends on the eastern side of the crater, Chief Whiteflame immediately left the region with half his forces.
"Since Chief Whiteflame left, we will also start moving," Whiteash informed the remaining warriors left under his command.
Meanwhile, some distance away from the southern edges of the newly-formed western crater that neighbored the larger one, Chief Blackbear and his people gradually approached the edge of the crater after recovering from their shock.
The violent spherical storm of chaotic energy was gone, but the devastation it left behind forever scarred the land.
Within the newly-formed crater, the blackened ground still sizzled with intense heat.
Chief Blackbear and his people stared hard at the hot black soil before a warrior decided to approach a little closer to investigate.
"Don't touch it!" Chief Blackbear barked, causing the warrior to retract his hand immediately.
"We don't know what kind of power caused such destruction here. It would be unwise of you to touch anything here without proper knowledge of what it could do to you. Of course, if you think you have too many lives to spare, you can try again."
The warrior smiled awkwardly without attempting to touch the blackened soil again. He had lost his courage—or rather, he hadn't thought about the potential danger when he made the first attempt.
Nevertheless, the warrior paused in thought before tearing a piece of his cloth and tossing it onto the blackened soil.
Poof!
The piece of cloth immediately vaporized into the air.n0veluSB.C0m
Upon seeing that, the warrior's body trembled with shock and fear. Fortunately, the chief had warned him.
At the same time, Chief Blackbear and the other warriors turned solemn after witnessing what happened.
"Such destructive power...!" a High-rank Battle Master exclaimed after taking a deep breath to calm his nerves. Then, he added, "This can't be the work of mortals."
Although the chaotic energy storm had disappeared, the lingering danger had not.
Nevertheless, while Chief Blackbear and his people were trying to make sense of what happened on the western side, several warriors spotted the huge figures of the Golden Suanni and Earth Dragon returning.
"Chief, look! It's the Divine Beast-level Earth Dragon! And there's also a... flying Golden Suanni?! Don't tell me it's also a Divine Beast?!"
After the warrior from the Black Warbear Tribe alerted, Chief Blackbear and everyone else were also startled as they cast their gazes in the pointed direction.
"It really is a Divine Beast-level Golden Suanni..." Chief Blackbear uttered with astonishment before wondering, "Since when did Divine Beasts become so common?"
"They're flying towards that hill over there, Chief!" a warrior alerted before mentioning, "I think I see some people over there. Could they have something to do with the destruction in this place?"
"We'll know once we head over there," Chief Blackbear firmly decided.
"We're going to where the Divine Beasts are headed...? Is that a good idea?" a warrior had misgivings regarding Chief Blackbear's decision.
"If someone had this much power, don't you think it is wise to quickly submit to such a person or being? Or would you rather be the enemy of such a powerful being?" Chief Blackbear casually said.
He made it pretty clear what the obvious choice was if they wanted to live.