Theron stood in silence, feeling the quiet chilly air around him. His hair flowed, the heavy black box on his back swallowing up every bit of light that attempted to bounce off of it. It almost looked like he was carrying around a black hole everywhere he went, and despite its heft, the snow beneath his feet didn’t depress in the slightest.
Every Sect was divided amongst various gates around the Forest of Ice and were told to wait. Once the gate opened, they would have a small ti to enter. If they missed the entry, they would forever lose their chance to enter. But much the sa, if they missed the exit period, they would also lose their chance to exit until the next ti the Forest of Ice was opened.
This was why this event required the efforts of the most powerful elders of the Hall of Ice and Heart. They had gathered early precisely to do exactly this, all of them standing near the main entrance of the Forest of Ice.
Rumble.
’Looks like it’s ti. What happens next will decide how I choose to play this out.’
Theron took a step. The barrier before him hadn’t even opened up, and yet his timing was so perfect that when he took this third step, looking as though he would crash right into it, he passed right through the rippling opening.
**
Matriarch Macie stood amidst the other Patriarchs and the elders of her Nightingale Sect. When she saw Lyra returning, there was a flicker in her eyes. However, her expression remained just as unreadable as it had been in recent months.
"What is the aning of this?" she asked calmly.
The spectators’ region was quite large, a huge square with screens littering the skies. This gathering was a huge event, so it wasn’t just the Sects here that had co, but also third parties that weren’t participating at all. This latter group was only here for the fun, and it was undoubtedly a funny spectacle to them for soone of a Sect to be giving up this early.
Lyra had co right out from the Forest line. There was no questioning that she had been amongst the participants.
Feeling the scrutiny, Lyra lowered her head, her earrings twinkling beneath the movent.
"Theron wanted to go alone," Lyra said softly.
She didn’t speak very loudly, but there were too many Cloud Realm experts around.
What did that an?
"Alone? Then why are only you here?"
"He..." Lyra hesitated. Theron had told her to just be truthful, but she couldn’t help but think she was harming him by doing this. That left her between a rock and a hard place.
...
High in the skies, on a viewing platform that cast a vast shadow over the ground, the Third Elder and the others stood, having returned from their duties.
Rather than a viewing platform, it was more accurate to call it a large flying disk carved out of white steel. Present upon it was every elder of the Hall of Ice and Heart without irreplaceable responsibilities.
And, of course, they noticed this oddity as well.
However, it was the Third Elder who had the strongest reaction. It was only a slight flicker of her eyes and the barest fluctuation of her aura, but she had beco the center of attention with the change to her appearance and strength.
Those that understood a bit of the background story about certain things imdiately grasped sothing.
Could this be the Sect that the genius the Third Elder had taken interest in ca from?
It couldn’t be. How could they...
Their gazes shot toward the screens. They hadn’t been paying much attention because there was simply no point this early, and especially not toward the screens focused on the far weaker Sects.
But that was when they saw it.
A group of corpses littered on the ground and a young man indifferently stepping into the Forest of Ice all on his own.
He had... killed his own Sect mbers?
Who was this psychotic youth?
The world of cultivation was truly an odd one. They all knew of the cruel underbelly that existed, but they all preferred to keep it behind closed doors, hidden beneath their pillows in the dead of night, anywhere the sun wouldn’t shine.
But Theron had ripped off the face of it all and displayed the bare, soft underbelly of it all.
Why would he enter the forest with Blackmaul, Kaelen, and another host of jealous disciples following after him? Why? So they could collaborate with others and make his life more difficult? Or maybe they would get caught and expect him to save them?
Absolutely not.
He had far better things to do with his ti.
"Is this the disciple you’ve taken a liking to, Lyrah?" the First Elder asked with a sneer. "What a good eye you have. Maybe you’ll find one of his daggers stabbing you awake in the morning."
The First Elder was obviously targeting Lyrah again, seemingly having already forgotten his fear toward sparring with her. But this ti, he knew many would be on his side.
Who could stomach a man who would kill his own fellow disciples? They were ant to be brothers and sisters—who would kill their own family?
Lyrah was baffled by this as well. Even if Theron felt Blackmaul and the others were liabilities, he should have taken a cleverer approach. Why do this?
She didn’t believe that Theron was a fool; otherwise, the things he had figured out would be an impossibility. He practically had her at his beck and call now.
’He did it on purpose.’
The mont she had the thought, she relaxed. Theron was too smart to make such a foolish mistake, and that fake gentle smile of his was proof that he also knew how to play the ga of optics as well. There were a million other ways he could have killed his fellow disciples covertly.
So why had he chosen to do things this way?
Her eyes narrowed.
"If Theron chose to do this, he has his own reasons. You only need to sit back and watch."
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