Standing not too far from the territory of the Tetrachroma Palace, Theodore ignored it completely, instead rereading the messages that his trusty Vigdis had sent just now, detailing the situation that she had encountered–and especially Sarasvain, the Undying President.
His capabilities were far beyond what either of them had expected, of course, and he was very much looking forward to having a good friendly exchange with the guy himself as well–but that was not what had really grabbed his attention.
No, it was the way in which Vigdis had described the man overall that simply seemed... unusual. She would rarely exert this much effort on talking about a person's appearance and demeanour, and neither would she normally recommend working with them this strongly.
Admittedly, if he hadn't already spent about a century cooperating with her, then he might not have caught any of this, especially because it was barely noticeable. She herself likely wasn't even aware of her actions yet either.
'Could it be... that our Vigi has developed a crush?'
With a gossipy glint in his eyes and an amused, entertained smirk on his lips, he considered this possibility... and had to admit that it was rather likely to actually be the case. Of course, it was currently all just in the beginning stages of attraction, therefore it would take a while to properly materialize, yet he was already looking forward to it!
He had never kept his Subordinates from developing feelings for others, or entering relationships. They could not betray him anyway, so why should he be a bad boss to them as long as they still did their jobs well?
In a way, with many outstandingly gorgeous people under his command, it could also be seen as a large-scale, unusual recruitment campaign. After all, wouldn't outsiders fall for his people, and they for them? That could bring even more capable folks under his banner!
Naturally, he would only be fine with this if it concerned the ones that he wasn't romantically involved with–nobody devoid of mental abnormalities liked it if somebody else desired their lovers. Fortunately, Vigdis and Theodore had never felt any attraction of such a kind towards each other whatsoever, which is why he was in full support of whatever this eventually would turn out to be.
With a number of success stories under his faction's belt in this regard–chief of which being the relationship between Satoru and Vigdis' personal maid that had developed during the latter half of the first round–there was much to happily anticipate.
'Sarasvain better not turn out to actually be a scumbag, though.'
Narrowing his eyes, killing intent was about to envelop his surroundings, yet he suppressed it, considering that he shouldn't allow himself to get discovered at this time.
With a small shake of his head, he got rid of these thoughts, as they were all a matter for the future anyway. At the moment, investigating the Tetrachroma Palace and potentially dealing with it in whatever manner that he judged to be appropriate had to be done first.
Having broken through once more during his lengthy travels, he was now at the Apex Mortality Realm. At this current point, all that he had to do to progress further was to allow his Numen to suffuse him in his entirety–whether that be his body, soul, Dantians or Golden Cores. Only after he got them as accustomed to it as possible and had refined them to the ultimate achievable limit could he consider advancing to the Deiform Soma Stage.
But by now, he judged his strength to be sufficient to face even peak Celestial Stage strongmen with relative ease! Well, unless they were treasured descendants originating from a Pillar or Supreme Pillar. In that case, all that he could do was to protect his sorry little life and escape.
The reason as to why he had not yet ventured into the Tetrachroma Palace's territory was that it–just like the Sarasvain Federation and his own area of influence–was wrapped in an extensive Array, encompassing all of the worlds within.
Even he couldn't just casually stroll inside without investigating it properly, to assure that he could deal with its detection mechanisms and figure out what dangers it could pose. That was exactly what he had been busy with for about a day now.
'I've got to say, if this Array got created by this local faction without any help from a Named Family at all, then that would make the one who had come up with it a true prodigy. And without the necessary resources and knowledge at hand to train one's Array Formation proficiency, then even a person like that would be incapable of coming this far all by their lonesome.'
Regardless of how he looked at it, an outside helper should have intervened here in some way, whether that be by teaching this particular Array to the locals, by training an Array Formation genius for them, or by doing both. That last one was in all likelihood what had happened.
He had mostly deciphered the Array's various functions by now, and judging by what he saw, he could once more strengthen his suspicion that the Tetrachroma Palace was a pawn of the Ur Family. The various worlds all appeared to extract the essence of the four Foundational Elements and sent it deeper into the faction's territory.
Most of the Array's capabilities were focused on this, with relatively lacklustre defensive and detection arrangements in place. Clearly, the Ur Family didn't really care about these underlings here, solely using them to create a favourable cultivation environment for their offspring to utilize.
'It's not a bad strategy. This way, they can rapidly advance to the round's limit, giving them a head start over most others. It will ensure that they will be in their optimal state and have the power to defend themselves. The local faction here can also provide them with some points, if handled properly.'
He couldn't help but internally give them a thumbs up for their approach, as there truly weren't any apparent flaws with it. With means such as these, combined with their members somehow being equivalent to those from Supreme Pillars, they had a strong fighting chance.
'It's a shame that father doesn't look highly upon 'cheating' in the competition like this. The Winter Family could have easily set up some hidden cards as well, but instead, he focused on having the best possible children, and fighting above board.'
Shaking his head, he couldn't help but sigh. Who wouldn't like to make their own life easier? Well, his father, apparently. Credit where credit was due, though: All of his siblings were true forces to be reckoned with, surpassing Theodore at the time of the Heavenly Succession's beginning in terms of Talents, if his Existence's Foremost Calamity–formerly Grim Reaper's Levy–was to be ignored.
'Oh well, enough about that for now. I'll have a closer look at the Tetrachroma Palace, and if an Ur Family heir is here, I'll exchange a few probing blows.'
Relying on his Array Formation expertise, he created a Compound Array Disk specializing in shielding him from the Array's influence, making it appear as if he didn't even exist. Then, he cloaked himself further courtesy of his Camouflage Shroud Talent, and stepped forward.
Just as expected, everything went smoothly, and no alarms blared to life. Carefully spreading out his perception, he investigated the nearby worlds, as well as the streams of Foundational Element essence that got syphoned away.
Surprisingly, he didn't see any signs of devastation or imbalance, despite these worlds functioning basically as batteries for an ideal cultivation environment somewhere. This didn't serve to confuse him, however–instead, he furrowed his brows, growing a little bit vexed.
'It's impossible to achieve this without coming to an understanding with the various World's Wills. Only they can ensure that their worlds will inherently produce a significant surplus of Foundational Element essence. In other words, they have become lackeys of the Ur Family too. I've got to be extra careful if I want to avoid getting discovered.'
It wasn't that he hadn't considered such a possibility, yet he still didn't want to have this particular suspicion be confirmed. World's Wills were tricky to deal with, and although they wouldn't instantly sense him, once he messed up, they would never lose his traces again as long as he was still within their worlds.
Deciding against personally entering, he observed everything from afar via his perception, filtering out all important information that he could see or hear. It wasn't much, but he could tell that there appeared to be four branches of official forces, corresponding with each of the Foundational Elements, and their uniforms plus combat styles reflected as much.
There were also mentions of four 'Masters' that they were all subordinate to, as well as hushed rumours about someone referred to as 'the Dame'–yet information regarding that latter figure was extremely scarce.
Making his way further into the Tetrachroma Palace's territory, he realized that the essences that had been extracted didn't all get funnelled to just one singular location. No, there were actually five, with four of them being relatively unremarkable, merely receiving a tiny fraction of the whole, and the rest getting directed towards one central, massive world.
A couple of careful glances at the lesser four revealed that they all had Energy concentrations that would allow peak Celestial Stage experts to be born. He could also sense a few individuals who had at least ascended to become 'divine' in each of those four worlds.
'... but none of these should be their truly mightiest fighting forces. If I had to bet, then those have already been relocated elsewhere, in preparation for my arrival.'
He wasn't just arrogantly bragging here. Having activated the Lesser Void Guarding Array and deliberately made a big deal out of it, it instead would be strange if the Tetrachroma Palace hadn't taken any measures in response.
'They probably didn't expect that I could simply waltz in here without much trouble, though.'
Spending some more time investigating the rest of the few hundred worlds belonging to the faction to ensure that there was nothing that could stab him in the back, he was eventually left with solely the central world of them all. There, where all Foundational Element essences ultimately converged, he could sense a fair number of threats, all far stronger than Spitamaneh had been.
They had erected a defensive perimeter around the core of their faction, patrolling the area at high alert. Even for Theodore, recklessly expanding his perception here could possibly lead to them noticing him.
That was why he couldn't fully tell what the situation in this protected world was like–but his instincts were whispering to him that a danger far greater than these guards at the periphery could be found there.
'It should be an Ur Family descendant–likely that Dame I've been hearing about. And based on my gut feeling, she should be a considerably strong one amongst her peers. The last time that I encountered a sensation like this was when I was still with Eleanora.'
Not one to rashly throw his life away, he had utilized three of his Talents–Prognostication, Improved Threat Perception, and Spatiotemporal Harmony–to probe for fatal dangers that he couldn't handle. Back before he had set off from Pytho, none of them–in conjunction with his instincts–had warned him that he would encounter something unsurmountable in this place.
And even now, after double-checking on site, there had been no changes to the feedback that he had received. His third save point to return to in the event of his demise had also been set to right before he had set off to the Tetrachroma Palace, so that was another layer of insurance.
'There is still some danger. But no risk, no gain. Let's see what the Ur Family has to offer, shall we?'
His smile widening, he waited until the nearest patrols had passed him by, then he darted towards the world in front of him.