The laughter of the First Elder erupted when he heard this, not because of the words, but because he had just noticed something else.

"A Silver Mancer? This is who you expected us to have so much respect for? Are you kidding me? But I guess you've never been good at raising disciples. Why else would your precious Lilac and Violet come to me?"

Lyrah simply closed her eyes and said nothing more. However, from his sneer, it seemed the First Elder didn't care at all. He had said his piece, and the doubts the others had toward Lyrah had only become clearer than ever.

The only one amongst them who had an internal raised eyebrow was Second Elder Ilzan.

If this boy was really just a Silver Mancer… why was Lyrah so confident?

**

Matriarch Macie's gaze slowly lowered from the screen down toward Lyra, who seemed to still be trying to figure out exactly what to say.

The First Elder of the Nightingale Sect looked at the screen with bulging eyes. Let alone the elders above, even the elders down here hadn't been paying attention to the screens. The event hadn't even begun yet—who would be expecting the first kills to happen now?

And now his disciple was dead, fallen before he even had a chance to change his fate.

Blackmaul had undergone a great change after reaching the Quasi Cloud Realm, even triggering the true Echo of the Nightingale Sect. And yet… he died so pitifully no one noticed.

"You…"

The First Elder's temper flared, a claw reaching out toward Lyra sharply. She was the only one of all their disciples to survive. Why should she? She should die just like all the others.

However…

Chi.

Crack.

Pain spiked through the First Elder's body and he fell to a knee, looking up pitifully to see Matriarch Macie standing over him.

"Hm?"

Third Elder Lyrah was mere moments from killing the First Elder of the Nightingale Sect where he stood. When she saw him targeting her daughter, she nearly lost her temper.

However, before she could, she noticed Matriarch Macie and her Third Resonance Ascended Cloud Realm cultivation.

Since when did the Nightingale Sect have such a powerful cultivation?

There were tiers to the subordinates of the Hall, and the Nightingale Sect was on the lowest rung. However, Matriarch Macie had the strength of the powers that could be considered on the middle rung, just a step away from the highest rung.

Those like the Mercenary Guild were at the top of that list, having a First Resonance Treading Cloud Realm expert at their helm in Kempe.

It didn't make sense. Something was fishy.

"Are you planning to humiliate my Sect with your foolish actions?" Matriarch Macie asked calmly.

"No—No, Matriarch! My apologies!" he hurriedly tried to explain himself.

"Just die."

Matriarch Macie waved a hand. The First Elder of the Nightingale Sect's hand slapped against his own head, shattering it into a rain of blood, both impacting with the force of thunder against one another.

In the same motion, Matriarch Macie sent a swath of Dark Mana over the dead man's body. When the black fog vanished, there was nothing that remained of their First Elder at all.

As for Matriarch Macie, she clasped her hands behind her back as though nothing at all had happened.

"Let's watch Theron's performance, then," she said calmly. After giving Lyra a pointed glance, she turned back to the screen.

Lyra felt her heart constrict. Somehow she felt her life and death would be decided by how well Theron did.

"Oh my, trouble in paradise, I see. Maybe it would have been easier if you just returned when I gave you the option." Mercenary Kempe's voice echoed with his own chuckle. However, once again…

Matriarch Macie completely ignored it all, her eyes watching Theron's back like a hawk.

**

Theron could pretty much guess everything that was happening in his absence. Though, even he couldn't guess that no one would see him kill the others until the deed was long done.

In his opinion, such a thing was little more than incompetence. It was as though he had hidden his action.

Cold.

Theron couldn't remember having had this thought in a long while. It was even more impossible now that he had completely formed his Chilling Mandate.

Four Mandates swirled in his body and he had the strength of a Celestial Beast rolling through his veins. It made little sense unless…

It's my soul itself that feels cold. Fascinating.

Theron suddenly stomped a foot toward the ground, coming to a sudden stop as a blade shot by him. His eyes followed it as it flashed by his nose, catching every little imperfection on its edge.

This wasn't a blade a human warrior held at all. It was one made of ice, and to Theron's surprise, it was thrown by an odd humanoid formed entirely of ice.

His head snapped over to witness this humanoid, the icicles that formed its hair falling in waves that rippled almost too closely to natural hair.

So quickly? Theron's eyes narrowed.

Humanoid Ice Spirits should have a certain level of rarity to them. They shouldn't appear this quickly. The vast majority of these Ice Spirit Beasts should be, well… beasts.

Interesting.

He didn't expect to have to fight a Cloud Realm expert so soon, but that was fine by him. His points would be decided based on the strength of the expert.

To get one point, he'd need to kill fifty Gold Mancy Ice Spirits or one Touching Cloud Realm one. A single Ascended Cloud Realm Ice Spirit was worth fifty points all on its own.

This Humanoid Ice Spirit was a rarity and came with specialty points. Even though it was of the Touching Cloud Realm, it was worth 10× more than usual.

Why would he turn his nose up at 10 points?

Let's test the waters a bit. How powerful have I grown truly?

This was no normal Cloud Realm expert like those of the Nightingale Sect. This creature was at least the equivalent of an Arcane Talent. On top of that, it gained a territorial advantage in the Forest of Ice.

Theron opened a palm and the box on his back morphed, landing in his hand as a spear as black as night, formed of countless protruding jigsaw pieces.

Then, he took a step forward.

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