Theron's name was nowhere to be seen on the leaderboard. After the series of events related to the Ice Spirit, the bags of holding he was using to contain his Ice Spirit Crystals had shattered, leaving nothing at all behind.

His name plummeted off the list, falling into the zeroes around disciples that had long died or had far too little sway to even get their hands on a single crystal.

However, this wasn't an unexpected result to the spectators. If the Tribulation was truly Theron's, then this made perfect sense. It wasn't something they couldn't see coming, but it was something that left them filled with uncertainty.

Was Theron alive? Was he already dead?

They wouldn't have the answer to this until the Forest of Ice closed and the disciples came out.

However, unsurprisingly, First Elder Bertrum was having the time of his life. Did it matter all that much?

Whether Theron lived or died, there wasn't enough time left for him to make up for the Ice Spirit Crystals he had lost. Without getting into the top ten, whether Lyrah vouched for Theron or not, he wouldn't be able to partake in the special ceremony of the Trial of Heart.

Lyrah once again mostly ignored the gloating of the First Elder and the Grand Elder. But there was one other person who was frowning.

Mercenary Kempe.

The behemoth of a man was quite conspicuous in the crowd—not just because of his radiant Fire Mana, but also the twin pair of scythes that hung off the holsters on his back, crossing almost like the bones of a pirate ship's flag.

There was a deep frown on his face at the moment because not long before Theron's Tribulation began, he had received proof that not just one, but all three of his disciples had died.

This left him completely shaken.

Was this really a coincidence?

Given the strength Theron had displayed, would he really be so foolish as to trigger his Tribulation even if he didn't have to? Which genius would risk their future like this when they could have had the protection of a Quasi Dome of Heaven expert?

Kempe had also been paying attention to the conversations of the Hall of Ice and Heart elders. They made no attempt to hide their tone or voices, so it wasn't exactly difficult. So, he was well aware that Lyrah had quite some favor for Theron.

Maybe Kempe would have found this odd if he knew exactly who had instigated their targeting of the Nightingale Sect at the start. But Lyrah was too clever to leave such obvious clues, and Kempe had obviously had other things on his mind.

As far as Kempe was concerned, he guessed that it was probably one of Lyrah's enemies who had done it. But none of that helped with the state of his disciples.

The truth of the matter was that Rauther, Tyran, and Ophan weren't Kempe's disciples at all. In fact, they were actually disciple brothers under the same leader.

Well, Rauther, Tyran, and Ophan were in-name disciples, while Kempe was the youngest disciple of their master.

The irony of First Elder Bertrum mentioning others hiding their age was that the only person doing so was none other than Kempe himself. He looked like a middle-aged man right now, but the truth was that he was actually younger than any one of Rauther, Tyran, and Ophan, having only recently turned twenty years of age.

The reason he didn't personally join the gathering was because of the Mercenary Guild's stance on neutrality.

He was too great a talent. It would be seen as bullying the Hall if he were to participate, and that would put the Mercenary Guild's neutrality into question.

So when a treasure appeared and he had sensed the changes here, he had given the task to his in-name junior brothers.

An Ice Spirit seemed worthless to a Fire Mancer like himself. But just as Theron had deduced… their path of Fire Mancy wasn't as simple as it seemed.

And, also as Theron had seen many times before now, the extremes of an element tended to help its opposite a great deal.

Now, though, whatever plans Kempe had had for this Ice Spirit seemed to have gone up in smoke unless he could find a way to sneak into the Forest of Ice after all of this was over.

The trouble was that the only person who could freely enter and exit the Forest of Ice was the Matriarch of the Sect. Otherwise, it required several elders working together. This was how they stopped the Ice Spirit Beasts from becoming an uncontrollable tide.

'Fuck!' he cursed in his mind.

If he was caught, the punishment wouldn't just be severe—it would be his life if the wrong person heard about it.

The politics of the Mercenary Guild were probably some of the most difficult to grasp in the entire universe. His master, of course, had his enemies, and by extension, there were many people looking for him to slip up.

Much like all things in the martial world, there was very little about the Mercenary Guild that was as it seemed on the surface.

If he had gotten his hands on this Ice Spirit, he would have had a chance to enter the Dome of Heaven Realm within the next month. But now, he was back to his slow, laboring preparation.

Slowly, Kempe unclenched his fists, the wisps of Fire Mana around him calming.

He would have to control his temper; otherwise, his Seventh Cloud Resonance cultivation would be exposed as fake.

He would cut his losses for now because there was something else that had him curious.

Turning his head, Kempe saw a sight of Matriarch Macie and then looked away.

There was something odd about that woman… something that also made his Mandate restless. He just didn't know how yet.

Suddenly, the Forest of Ice shook, and the low murmurs of the crowd erupted into something far more shocking.

—

[Rankings]

[1. Theron Galethunder - 100,000]

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