"I've already assembled a team of our best warriors, they will retrieve the core, and then a tournament will be hosted, the strongest will be rewarded with the core and will be given the protection and security needed to refine the core and cultivate without disturbances" Lyrielle spoke after waiting for the crowd to calm down. She couldn't blame them and their excitement, who wouldn't want to become stronger than their Empress and also become a God in the process?
However, for Lyrielle, her tactics and strategic approach towards this situation was calculated. But one thing to note, is that nobody here was born yesterday, they all had a functional brain and were not stupid enough to just blindly follow through.
So they asked the important questions first, "My Empress, if you don't mind me asking, I get that this information was said to be shared among us by her holiness, but why not keep it for yourself and ascend?" One of the seniors in the crowd asked. It was a valid question.
Why tell them this, when she herself could in fact obtain the core herself, and shed her mortal skin for immortality? They all wondered what her angle was, and what she was planning, after all they knew their Empress thoroughly, at least that's what they thought.
Lyrielle only smirked seemingly expecting this, its almost as if she had already prepared a good excuse for them, "My Goddess has laid out a purpose for me...and that purpose is to remain the Empress of this Clan, and never leave my post, that's why I've been blessed with the strength and courage to hold onto this Mantle for the past 30 years"
Seeing the crowds faces still etched with uncertainty, she continued "Believe me when I say my Goddess has laid out a path for my growth, after all I'm not where i am today simply because of luck, I'm here because of the potential and determination our holiness has recognized in me...so I will not defy her grace and go against her...not when I've come this far because of her".
With brutal efficiency, the speech hit the right spot and the crowd seemed to accept this answer more willingly, it seemed fitting of their Empress since she was the most devoted and closest to their Goddess in every aspect.
So they didn't want to question her devotion any further as that would be disrespectful. With this, the meeting concluded with expectations for the future. The timing couldn't be more perfect as this was a time of peace between the major clans of the 7 continents. Originally there were 12.
But the Clan wars were merciless, bringing mass slaughtering and genocide in hopes of securing young talents and enslaving them. Every 15 years the Divine Barriers protecting the Earthly planes would crumble at the will of the Gods and would be revealed and entirely easy to access.
The Earthly planes were a different plane of existence from this one, where creatures with no magic or cultivation dwell in an infinite universe. But what makes them valuable is their innate spiritual potential. This potential once brought into the world of Eldora can be awakened, and nurtured on the path of cultivation.
That was the purpose of Clan wars, they were organized by the gods in the heavens, to compete for possession of these worlds, the winner was able to keep the world for themselves, so they could scout and recruit those with the highest potential, while those with low potential would be recruited at most for cannon fodder in wars.
The only downside to these wars, was that the battlefield was literally on the world itself. Sometimes, the World would suffer billions of casualties from the natives alone, this ruined the chances of finding many individuals with high potential at the end of the wars.
The good thing however was with every victory comes full authority over the world. For example, the Azura Empress clan currently has 4 worlds that they had won in the Earthly planes.
They were able to fight off and compete against the other 6 clans and win these worlds by slaughtering the oppositions armies. Now they maintained a steady supply of talent by sending scouts every 10 years to recruit high-potential youths without needing to fight the other clans since they had won the battle. These were the benefits of participating in this battle.
This made sure that their clan remained the strongest compared to other clans. One might wonder, if they only take females with high potential back to their clan, wouldn't that hamper the reproduction of the world?
To put it simply, each world after suffering from the fighting of powerhouses and cultivators often repopulates after many years, for example the current world's possessed by the Clan has a total of 6 billion natives, originally it was 32 billion.
But fighting amongst cultivators was chaotic and sometimes unfriendly, resulting in misdirected fire; it's not like they do it on purpose. Fights would often take place on barren lands, but the destruction was just too great when behemoths clashed.
This results in the loss of over 26 billion natives from these planets. However, 6 billion was still more than enough.
As of now the Clan maintains a steady supply of talent, often atleast 100 000 low grade talents as cannon fodder, 10,000 medium-grade talents for higher positions and governance, and 100 high-grade talents for the highest positions in the clan and generals on the battlefield.
And this was per world every 10 years, so one can imagine the supply was very good keeping the Clan very strong. Other clans only maintain 3 or 2 worlds at most. So their biggest enemy was the Auzra Empress clan at every Battlefield since they had the strongest individuals with the most numbers.
However, if these seniors were to obtain the Divine core and ascend to Godhood, it would be game over for the other Clans. Each Clan had one God, so a clan with 2 God's would spell massive trouble, but this also came at a cost.
Like the other clans colluding to get rid of you permanently this time. Waging a Divine Invasion.