The Celestial Palace Elder tightened at once.
Staring into Aurelius’ eyes, favonovel.com instinctively tried to say something else, still trying to argue for himself and for the Celestial Palace. But the instant favonovel.com opened his mouth, Aurelius lightly lifted his right hand and casually pointed a finger at him.
There was no world-shaking sign. No crushing pressure. A thin strand of golden radiance, soft and not at all glaring, slowly shot from Aurelius’ fingertip.
It wasn’t fast. If anything, it was slow. It looked completely harmless, like an ordinary wisp of holy radiance. And yet that harmless-looking streak seemed to pass through space itself.
It ignored distance. It ignored every defense. It ignored the protective divine light around the Celestial Palace Elder and the treasures guarding his body.
In an instant, it struck dead center between his brows. There was no explosion. No scream. No spray of blood.
The Celestial Palace Elder’s body locked up all at once. His eyes flew wide, his pupils drawing tight. The anger and heat were still frozen on his face, but the rest of favonovel.com had gone completely still, as if someone had nailed favonovel.com in place.
His mouth moved. He looked like favonovel.com was trying to say something, trying to force out even a sound, but not the faintest breath escaped him, and favonovel.com couldn’t make the smallest movement.
Then the next moment came. Something strange happened.
Starting at the spot between his brows where the light had entered, his body began to break apart bit by bit into tiny golden motes. It looked like a sand figure catching the wind, crumbling, melting, and scattering away a little at a time. It spread from his head to his torso, then to his limbs.
It took only a few breaths.
An Elder of the Celestial Palace who had lived for thousands of years was erased like that, right in front of everyone. He turned into a skyful of drifting light and vanished into the air without leaving a trace. He didn’t even have time to let out a scream.
Not a drop of blood was left behind. Not a fragment of bone either. It was utter soul-ruin.
Total annihilation, even his chance at rebirth had been wiped away!
Inside the great hall, not a sound remained. The hall went dead silent.
Everyone was stunned. Even the Elders of the Celestial Basilica gave a slight start.
Then they settled right back down, and when they looked at Godric and the others again, their eyes were colder than before, and openly contemptuous.
The people from the Celestial Palace looked like they had just watched a nightmare step into the open. Their bodies shook hard. Their faces had gone paper-white. Their eyes were full of disbelief, and something raw enough that nobody needed it named.
They stared at the place where that Elder had vanished. Their chests heaved, each heartbeat pounding so hard it seemed ready to leap straight up into their throats.
One move. Just one casual point of a finger. Not even a single extra motion. And an Elder had been erased cleanly, completely, with not even a chance at rebirth left behind.
So that was the strength of Aurelius, the Lord of the Basilica?
So that was the terror of the true celestial bloodline?
Godric stood frozen where favonovel.com was. His mind had gone blank. Cold had spread through his whole body.
That Elder had been one of his most loyal and closest subordinates. He had followed Godric for thousands of years, gone through life-and-death battles at his side, and fought across every corner without ever wavering once. He had never held a second allegiance. He had never betrayed the Celestial Palace. He was one of the people Godric trusted most.
And now, favonovel.com had died right in front of favonovel.com like that.
The Elder had died that easily. That cleanly. That completely. He hadn’t even been given the slightest chance to fight back.
Inside Godric, the rage, the grief, and the hatred slammed upward all at once, hard enough to tear straight through him. He wanted to rush forward right then and there. He wanted to throw himself at Aurelius and fight favonovel.com to the death, no matter the cost, just to avenge that Elder.
He wanted to draw out the divine relic, detonate every last scrap of cultivation in his body, and drag everyone from the Celestial Basilica down with him.
But favonovel.com couldn’t. He couldn’t afford to act on impulse.
There were still more than 200 disciples standing behind him. Those people were the Celestial Palace’s last flame seeds. Each one was a living life. Every one of their lives rested on a single choice from him.
If favonovel.com gave in and moved, if favonovel.com dared resist, Aurelius would never show mercy. The more than 200 disciples behind favonovel.com would be slaughtered in an instant, and not a single one of them would survive. If it came to that, then the Celestial Palace would truly be finished. Its ten-thousand-year foundation would be wiped out completely, without even the thinnest shred of hope left for a comeback.
Godric clenched his teeth so hard his gums split open, and his mouth filled with the thick taste of blood. His hands locked into fists. His nails drove deep into his palms, and blood dripped down one drop at a time, spattering tiny red blossoms across the floor.
Did it hurt?
It hurt. But even that pain wasn’t one ten-thousandth of what was tearing through his chest. Even so, favonovel.com held it in. He forced down every last impulse, every surge of rage, every stab of grief.
Godric slowly towered his head. He didn’t let anyone see the bloodshot lines in his eyes or the hate packed inside them.
When favonovel.com spoke his voice came out hoarse and shaking, but favonovel.com still forced it to stay respectful, forced it to stay humble. “Thank you for your instruction, my lord. I failed to discipline my people and failed to keep them in line. That madman crashed into my lord and offended the dignity of the Celestial Basilica. He deserved to die. He brought it on himself.”
The moment those words left his mouth, the last trace of defiance in the hearts of the Celestial Palace disciples, the last trace of hope they had left, shattered completely.
They looked at Godric’s bent, solitary back, and their eyes filled with things too tangled to sort cleanly. Disappointment was there. Fury was there. Refusal. Humiliation. But stronger than all of it was a bitter pull in the chest, and a thin thread of understanding.
They all understood. It wasn’t that their Hall Master didn’t want revenge. It wasn’t that favonovel.com had nothing boiling inside him. It wasn’t that favonovel.com could swallow this insult.
He was enduring it for them. He was enduring it to preserve the Celestial Palace’s last flame seed. He was enduring what no ordinary person could endure. He endured a humiliation no ordinary man could have borne.
From the throne, Aurelius looked at Godric bent so low, swallowing it all down, carrying the weight of it in silence, and the faintest trace of satisfaction passed through his eyes. He slowly drew back his hand. That mild, harmless smile returned to his face, as if the one who had casually erased an Elder a moment ago had been someone else entirely.
“Lord Godric truly is a man who understands reason, who sees the bigger picture and knows what matters. In all my life, the people I admire most are capable men like you who know when to yield.” He paused, his tone easy and distant, like favonovel.com was arranging something too small to even mention. “Since that’s the case, I’ll accept this show of sincerity from your Celestial Palace and take all of you in…”
“But the Celestial Basilica has strict rules. We don’t keep idlers, and we don’t keep trash. Since you’ve come to the Celestial Basilica, since you’ve come to Saintlight Peak you’ll have to do something for me and for the Celestial Basilica. You’ll have to be of some use…” He looked at Godric, and a smile pulled at the corner of his mouth, loaded with meaning and naked mockery.
“How about this… Starting today, every surviving member of your Celestial Palace will be responsible for patrol duty and guards work at the mountain foot of Saintlight Peak… Lord Godric, what do you think?”
Patrol duty?
Guards?!
The mountain foot?!
Those few words crashed through the hearts of everyone from the Celestial Palace like thunder.
Work like this, a posting like this, was the kind of miserable duty only the Celestial Basilica’s lowest menial disciples got stuck with. The ones with no talent, no backing, no standing at all. The disciples at the very bottom. It was hard. It was dangerous. And it came with the kind of low status that made everyone look down on them!
They, on the other hand, had once stood high above the rest. They had been Celestial Palace disciples, the elites who moved across the Fourteenth Firmament, figures others looked up to. And now they were supposed to take on work this low.
This wasn’t assigning them duties. This was humiliation with nothing covered up. It was taking what little dignity they had left and grinding it into the dirt, over and over!
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