Death... and me
chapter-2005

With everyone there, the Elder Devils finally announced the results. "The Light Devil Clan has won the contest."

Glanvi, Timboa, and the other participants were still puzzled, so they had to ask. "How's that possible? Only one day has passed so far. We can't just accept losing like that. This is ridiculous!"

In response, they all received Divine Sense Messages from their clans, showing everything that happened during the first day of competition. In the end, they all looked at Rean and Roan, feeling like the two had cheated. But then again, it would be a lie if they said they wouldn't have done the same thing if they had the power to. The twins' Soul Guiding Power was just too strong. Even if they didn't stay put at the entrance to the Path of Reincarnation and reused the dead souls, they still would have most likely won anyway.

In any case, the Elder Devils had already accepted the results. Not to mention that Rui guaranteed the twins wouldn't be back for the next competition. After all, Void Tempering Realm experts could live up to 9000 years, so if they simply stopped cultivating at all, they could be present for the next eight ones at least.

Rui and Mephisto weren't focusing too much on that, though. Mephisto had already passed the Underworld Relic to Rui, so what remained now was for Rui to confirm his suspicions about the two brothers. 'Gean and Doan are here, bring the Relic out and check it yourself.'

With that, Rui nodded and pulled the Underworld Relic out of his own Pocket Dimensional Realm. If Mephisto was right, the twins should experience the same thing as before. Above all, he should be able to feel the resonance between the twins and the Relic that Mephisto talked about. However...

"Oh! So Elder Rui has already received the Underworld Relic, huh?" Rean suddenly asked Rui with a smile on his face.

Roan, on the other hand, just sent Rui a Divine Sene Message. 'We kept our part of the deal, so we want to enter the Swamp of No Return.'

Rui looked at the twins, who didn't seem to be feeling any pain at all. Let alone that, the Underworld Relic didn't seem to have any reaction to the twins' presence. Whatever happened before was definitely not happening now.

Rui then looked at Mephisto with a dark expression. 'So it was really you who attacked them with the Relic's power, huh?'

Naturally, Mephisto was taken aback by that. Although he passed the Relic to Rui, remnants of the connection he had to it still remained. Although this connection would disappear after a few days, it was enough to tell that the Relic really wasn't reacting to the twins' presence at all. That only made it look like the previous event was caused by him. 'No, that's not right! They must have done something while they were in the Path of Reincarnation's periphery.'

'Is that so?' Rui asked back, not believing Mephisto's words at all. 'That sounds awfully convenient, don't you think?'

Mephisto insisted. 'Think about it! I had no reason to tell you the truth about the resonance. Nevertheless, I willingly did so to find out why a connection exists between the Relic and those two guys. The Relic is in your hands already, right?'

Rui shrugged his shoulders. 'Perhaps that was simply you trying to make sure I wouldn't bring these two brothers to the Soul Guiding Contest anymore. Whatever! Since I can't verify your words, I'll end the matter here. You better not try to lay your hands on my clan's pupils anymore. I'm pretty sure no one will complain if I use the Relic's power to beat you up if you try to pull something like that again.'

Unsurprisingly, Mephisto was fuming inside. Unfortunately, he couldn't do anything about it at the moment. At the very least, not with all the Elder Devils present. Even if Rui had the Relic, it was his first time keeping ownership of it. Mephisto was pretty confident that he could deal with Rui if he acted quickly. But then again, that would only cause the other Elder Devils to turn against him.

At the same time, Rean and Roan were checking things with Sister Orb. 'How is it, Sister Orb? Is everything okay?'

[Don't worry. After the previous system problem, the system created a blockage that isolated the empty section of the system that caused the error.]

"That's to say that the Underworld Relic is truly part of the Soul Gem System, right?" Celis asked from inside the Dimensional Realm.

Sister Orb agreed. [Correct. Even I didn't know about it before the error. But now we do know the system isn't complete. Gem's Soul is still sleeping, so I can't ask him either. All the system can do for now is separate the lacking area from the system itself.]

"That pretty much confirms it," said Luan, who was obviously there as well. "Father, Uncle, that Underworld Relic has to be another one of the fourteen fragments of the Universe's Foundation. Sister Orb herself is most likely another one."

Rean, Roan, Celis, and Kentucky nodded in response. Of course, none of them had any intention of trying to get it from Rui. The Underworld Relic was literally the Underworld's most desired treasure. Not to mention that all Elder Devils were able to tell where it was at all times. Without a proper plan or the necessary strength to enact their plan, taking it away from Rui was simply impossible. First of all, by the time they got strong enough to contest for it, Rui probably wouldn't be its holder anymore.

Roan decided to change their focus. 'Let's leave it at that. We now know the location of twelve of the fourteen fragments. That's enough for the moment. What we need to do now is see if Rui will bring us to the Swamp of No Return or not.'

The Elder Devils didn't stay in the meeting hall for much longer. After all, since the contest was over, none of them wanted to be there anymore. Only the High Devils stayed behind as they had their own things to decide using the contest. Naturally, Rui also took his clan members and left, heading straight back to the Light Devil Clan.