"What was that?" the Ice Saint asked as he closed the door behind him.

"Oh? You mean the cannon scene? It was a field exercise. The appearance of weakness is not a tool to be used lightly." Pef replied in a serious tone, as he ran to lounge on an expensive leather sofa, made from some kind of Sovereign Realm beast at a first glance.

The Saint just stared at the blonde boy for a long minute, trying to understand some hidden meaning. "I hope you did not sabotage that cannon out of spite. If the city gets breached here, they will know..." he warned the Holy Son in a grave tone.

"Nothing like that, frosty guy. It's just amazing that someone has figured out to project an artificial Domain via a qi array, yet all they did with that was build a line-of-sight weapon that can barely be aimed." Pef whispered with his eyes closed, while from his hands a real Water Domain began to manifest, even if still shaky.

"Another epiphany, Holy Son?" the old man asked, not even trying to hide his amazement. Forming a Domain was the exclusive privilege of an Overlord Realm cultivator, and his senses could see clearly the little boy was only a one Star Emperor.

"I've found that much of the cultivation, especially the meditation part, is a harsh subject of apophenia. People tend to see patterns in everything, and being cultivators we expect to see the Dao in everything. But we are almost always wrong. Even worse, the whole process is sealed inside our minds, so we can not find out we are wrong, unless someone tells us. I'm quite lucky to have found Icefire so young..." Pef mused in a low voice, while internally discussing with the little Icefire more applications for the qi cannon's principles.

Guided by strange memories of similar formations and energy cannons, an entire list of possible devices began to emerge and get stored in the blonde boy's brain, then the list was further sealed by memory blockers and an incipient mind maze. These were dangerous secrets, able to shift the balance of power among sects and even among continents.

Sometimes, knowing too much was a real burden.

The two cultivators remained silent afterwards, both of them meditating on the day's events, yet both reaching different conclusions.

"Wake up, little one. The Alliance Congress will begin soon." Pef heard all the sudden. He rose a tired eyelid, while he diligently checked his inner screen.

Possibly surprising, another Dao had appeared in the inner list, the Dao of Illusions. The second Star lit beside his cultivation realm was not even worth noting, compared to the more memorable appearance of the new Dao.

'How can the screen know what Dao I have achieved, before I even know it myself?' the boy wondered inward. 'Is this some kind of system story like I remember?' Pef mused as he marveled at the inner screen's accuracy.

'Screen, I see it too. It is linked to the tiny golden runes in your soul flame.' the Icefire replied, seeming rather curious as well.

'Do you think it is an application of the Dao of Illusion itself?' Pef asked while he used his new Water Domain to clean his skin and clothes to a more presentable state.

'This isn't something possible for Emperor Realm. Not even a Saint can anchor such a complicated formation into a soul. Big Icefire will try to copy it for your grandpa.' the little Icefire answered as it studied the screen.

Before Pef could learn the results, the Saint just yanked him and flew out at speed, then landed at the Flame Anvil Palace just as the other delegations began to arrive.

More urgent matters took precedence, as Pef and Icefire started matching faces to the previously unseen Netherservant traitors that infested the Congress.

"You should advise the other Saints here to be careful, there are a dozen traitors in this Congress right now." Pef whispered to the Ice Saint in a very low voice.

Of course, the five other Saints present had keen enough senses to hear this anyway, just as Pef expected. A Saint Realm cultivator, if he wasn't damaged too greatly could hear the marching steps of an ant from a kilometer away.

As expected, the revelation brought Pef to the attention of the other Saints in the Alliance, yet it was done so subtly that various Sect Masters and Grand Elders didn't even notice.

Stolen novel; please report.

"Ice Saint, I haven't seen you for twenty thousand years, yet you're still in the third Star. One might think you have frozen solid, along with your cultivation." A certain bald man wearing a red armor spoke while nodding politely at the Icefire Saint.

"People see the Dao in everything, Saber Saint. But they are almost always wrong." the Ice Saint replied in a dignified voice, making the other Saints and various other high realm cultivators frown in confusion. Pef just smiled angelically, presenting the very image of a young and pretty Holy Son brought to such an illustrious Congress just as a pleasure trip.

However, the recipient of the lesson, the Saber Saint himself didn't argue and instead stared at Pef as if trying to figure something important.

"The congress here was called to deal with this plague of infiltrators in the Righteous Alliance. I think we should first unveil the traitors in our midst, before we begin planning any further." the red armored Saint demanded in a deadly voice, while a sharp and heavy Domain emerged over the entire assembly. His eyes however, remained focused on the blonde boy at the Ice Saint's side.

'Showtime, Icefire. Make it look nice!' Pef demanded as his hand moved up, using his own Domain to counter the restriction of the Saber Saint.

Icefire blossomed onto Pef's little palm, then grew into a gigantic fire that also covered the assembly, before rapidly retreating and sinking into Pef's dantian to rest. In the wake of the Icefire's conflagration, a dozen people from various sects began to glow with an azure light, while their skin shifted and darkened.

"Our Holy Son has a special connection with Icefire. Anyways, the marked ones are certainly the traitors, we have sadly found some in our sect as well." the Ice Saint explained with a level voice, while trying to act as if the Icefire flare was something natural. Yet, the man's cold blue eyes began to burn with inner fire, as they often did from proximity with the larger Icefire flame.

All over the Congress, people remained first awed then angry at the revelation, even if perhaps suspicious.

"My last disciple cannot be a traitor! I raised him myself..." the Sect Master of the Thousand Fist Sect yelled, while trying impotently to protect the azure-glowing disciple.

"Allow me, Fist Master. It will take a single moment." another Saint spoke gently, as she glided unbothered by the restrictive Domain and placed a jade-like palm onto the disciple's forehead. After several seconds, the woman sighed and withdrew her hand. "He also killed your other two disciples, Fist Master. You were the next on the target list, if he got the chance." she explained in a soft voice, then nodded gently towards the little Holy Son of the Icefire Sect.

'I haven't seen Icefire in a million years, little one. It seems it can do much more than just burn people to ash.' she sent with a qi transmission towards Pef, before she returned to her seat, and resumed an immobile posture like a jade statue.

Pef just scratched at his cheek in a crass display of ignoring the restriction Domain, as the sharp qi of the Saber Saint simply slid off himself as he moved. While One with the Sword, or even One with Saber were a fabulous achievement on this random planet, the little blonde boy was well into recovering the third stage of the Sword, One with the Heavens.

Perhaps others in the Congress thought the little boy was simply being excluded from the oppressively Domain, perhaps because of his young age, or some other reason, but the Saber Saint knew better. He knew the strange Holy Son just ignored the restriction, proof a a higher comprehension in the Saber Dao or possibly the Sword.

His face changed a dozen colors, before he just walked towards the little blonde guy and bowed deeply. "Allow me to learn, Holy Son!" the man asked in a subdued voice, as surprised exclamations erupted from all over the Congress.

Pef just nodded and patted the red armored man on his bowed bald head. "You did well on your own so far, saber guy. I can give you a few pointers, and we'll see. My standards are quite different"

"..." the saber guy swallowed his words and sat on the other side of Pef, while an angry hand clenched on the pommel of his hip-worn saber.

The frosty guy just threw the Saber Saint a pity look, already suspecting what other tribulations the he will have to endure from the blonde devil.