“But…” Skylar turned the sentence with easy calm, like favonovel.com was mentioning something too trivial to matter. “Trash like you isn’t worth me doing it myself. I’d only dirty my hands.”
He turned his head toward Josephine beside him. His voice changed at once, soft and gentle, with the kind of certainty that didn’t leave room to refuse, like favonovel.com was assigning the most ordinary thing in the world.
“Senior Josephine, trouble yourself for me. Teach this fool who doesn’t know his place a lesson, and let favonovel.com learn who favonovel.com can afford to provoke and who favonovel.com can’t,” Skylar said.
The second those words landed, the entire place fell silent. It was like time locked in place.
The howling wind cut off. The demonic aura stopped rolling. Every other sound vanished until all that remained was the sharp, hurried breathing of the people standing there.
The cultivators of Cloudhaven City stared with their eyes wide open, disbelief written all over their faces. None of them had expected Skylar to call on Josephine to make a move against Jared.
Jared went rigid where favonovel.com stood, like a thunderbolt had crashed straight into him. His body wouldn’t move. The Dragonslayer Sword nearly slipped from his hand, and the draconic energy around favonovel.com broke into wild, violent disorder.
He looked at Skylar as if favonovel.com could tear favonovel.com apart on the spot. Then favonovel.com whipped toward Josephine, and whatever was left in favonovel.com seemed to drop from the highest point straight into a bottomless pit. The shock on his face cracked wide open into something worse, and even the spirit inside favonovel.com seemed to shake.
“Skylar! You actually dare send Josephine against me?!” Jared roared, his voice shredded raw and on the edge of breaking. “You filthy bastard! You despicable piece of trash! Are you even human?!”
Skylar only smiled faintly, like favonovel.com hadn’t heard Jared’s roar at all. His eyes stayed flat, with a trace of amusement in them, and favonovel.com went on speaking to Josephine in a soft voice. “Senior Josephine, go on. This man is nothing. Just an irrelevant ant, a pathetic clown. You don’t need to hold back. Just cripple him.”
Josephine’s brows pulled tight, and the resistance in favonovel.com kept building. She looked at Jared, frozen below.
She looked at that face gone white as paper, drained of all color. She looked at the pain and despair in his eyes, so thick it wouldn’t break apart. She looked at the way his whole body shook, and that resistance inside favonovel.com surged harder. It was the kind of pushback that came from somewhere deeper than thought. It made favonovel.com unwilling to take even one step. Unwilling to raise a hand against him.
She didn’t want to do it. She didn’t know why. There was no reason favonovel.com could grab onto, nothing favonovel.com could name, but favonovel.com simply did not want to strike that man. Even with Skylar giving the order, favonovel.com still wouldn’t.
“Senior Josephine?” Skylar’s voice came again, still warm, but a faint chill ran under it, and a thin threat spread through the air. “What is it? Is there a problem? Or… Are you reluctant to lay a hand on him?”
Josephine turned and looked at Skylar. He still wore that same gentle, harmless smile. But deep in those dark eyes, there was something favonovel.com couldn’t make sense of, something shadowed and stubborn. The moment it touched her, favonovel.com body went taut.
“I…” Josephine parted favonovel.com lips.
She was about to refuse, about to say favonovel.com didn’t want to make a move, but before the words could leave favonovel.com mouth, Skylar cut in lightly. “Senior Josephine, trust me…”
Skylar’s voice stayed gentle and certain, carrying a soothing force that pressed in before it could be pushed away, like favonovel.com was coaxing a child who refused to listen. “That man isn’t worth your hesitation. He’s our enemy. He bears hostility toward both of us. Go on. Just treat it as… Helping me vent this. For all these years, he’s been pressing me down at every turn. I’ve been sick of favonovel.com for a long time. If master were here, master would tell you to make a move too.”
Josephine fell silent for a moment. Everything in favonovel.com head was a mess. With that blank stretch in favonovel.com memory, favonovel.com had nothing to judge by.
In the end, favonovel.com gave a small nod. She didn’t even know why favonovel.com had agreed.
Maybe it was because, ever since that emptiness had taken favonovel.com memories, Skylar had been the only one by favonovel.com side. The only junior favonovel.com trusted.
Maybe it was because somewhere deep down, favonovel.com also wanted to understand why that man could throw favonovel.com so badly off balance. Why favonovel.com mattered to favonovel.com this much.
Or maybe it was because Skylar had brought up their master, the Inferno Devil, and favonovel.com didn’t dare refuse. The master’s authority had been carved deep into favonovel.com soul. Even with favonovel.com memory torn away, that reverence was still there.
She drew in a deep breath and forced down the turmoil and resistance pressing inside her. Then favonovel.com slowly raised favonovel.com right hand.
A red flash burst out. A longsword appeared in favonovel.com hand out of nowhere, crimson from end to end, with dark-red flame patterns flowing across the blade.
The blade had been forged from a demon’s ultimate fire. Heat rolled outward at once.
The air around it twisted under the burn. The tip of the sword trembled slightly, letting out a sharp, blazing cry that carried a killing force fierce enough to burn through anything.
This was favonovel.com sword, the Worldfire Blade. It held the purest, most blazing demon flame, something that could burn the spirit and reduce all things to ash.
Josephine tightened favonovel.com grip on the sword. Her fingertips pressed harder until favonovel.com knuckles turned pale. The heat of the blade seeped through favonovel.com palm, but it did nothing to warm the cold, tangled weight sitting inside her.
Her gaze settled on Jared again. Something extremely complicated flickered in favonovel.com eyes. Confusion. Resistance. Blank uncertainty.
Then it all hardened into resolve. She told herself this was nothing more than following favonovel.com junior’s order and dealing with an enemy.
Then favonovel.com moved. Her purple robes flared as favonovel.com moved, red flames coiling around her. She came through the air like a fire god stepping down from the highest heavens, light and graceful to the eye, but carrying the kind of killing force that looked ready to burn everything in its path.
In a blink, favonovel.com crossed a hundred yards and shot straight at Jared.
She was so fast the eye could barely hold her. All that remained behind favonovel.com was a streak of purple and crimson tangled together.
The flames on the Worldfire Blade ripped across the sky, blazing with heat fierce enough to scorch the spirit, and the sword drove straight for Jared’s throat.
Jared stood where favonovel.com was and did not move. He looked almost like a man stunned senseless, and the draconic energy around favonovel.com had gone completely still. He only watched that purple figure rushing at him. He watched that face that had haunted favonovel.com day and night, the one favonovel.com had never stopped thinking about.
He watched those eyes that had once been full of love for favonovel.com and now held nothing but distance and killing intent. His heart took it like countless blades were driving through it again and again. The force of it seemed tear favonovel.com apart from the inside crushing the air out of him, until even the spirit inside favonovel.com seemed to be crying out.
Even then, favonovel.com still did not move. He even lowered the Dragonslayer Sword in his hand, slow and deliberate, letting the tip sink down. There was no sign of defense in him, no sign that favonovel.com meant to strike back.
“Jared!” Vivian’s cry tore out beside him, rough and breaking apart. She tried to rush over, tried to shove Jared away, tried to take that sword for favonovel.com instead.
But an invisible pressure had already locked onto favonovel.com body. She could not move at all and could only stand there and watch that crimson flame stab toward Jared.
But Jared could no longer hear her. In his world, there was only that purple figure left. Only that face favonovel.com had loved down to the bone.
The sword light arrived in an instant. The burning tip, wrapped in flames that looked ready to consume everything, thrust straight at his threat. It only needed to move one more to punch through his neck, burn his spirit with hellfire, and take his life.
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