The Tribunal Venerable’s hidden chamber for seclusion lay in the deepest part of the great hall, sealed behind seven layers of ancient wards.
The walls of the hidden chamber had been forged from meteoric iron, and every surface was covered in the celestials’ highest sigils. At the center of the hidden chamber stood a stone dais. A complicated ritual array had been carved into its surface. It was the celestials’ oldest summoning art, one that could call down the phantom of a powerhouse from the Upper Realm into the Lower Realm.
The Tribunal Venerable had never used this summoning art before.
The price was too steep. One summoning would burn away a full hundred years of his cultivation. And even then, there was no guarantee the summoned powerhouse would answer.
The powerhouses of the Upper Realm all stood with their eyes above the heavens. Who would bother with a call from the Lower Realm?
But at this point, favonovel.com couldn’t afford to care about any of that.
He sat cross-legged on the stone dais, formed seals with both hands, and drove the holy radiance inside favonovel.com into motion. Golden radiance poured out of his body and streamed into the ritual array on the stone dais. One sigil after another lit up across the ritual array. Blinding golden radiance flooded out and turned the entire hidden chamber bright as day.
“With the bloodline of the celestials as the guide, with the laws of the realm as the bridge, let the honored one of the Upper Realm descend here!” The Tribunal Venerable’s voice rolled out low and solemn.
Every word carried surging spiritual power.
The light of the ritual array kept growing stronger, brighter and brighter, until the whole hidden chamber started to tremble. Then a beam of light shot up from the ritual array and punched straight into the sky.
The Tribunal Venerable’s face went deathly pale. The loss of a hundred years of cultivation had nearly hollowed his body out. He clenched his teeth and stared at the center of the ritual array without blinking, waiting for that phantom to appear.
A phantom appeared. It was a blurry human outline. Its face couldn’t be seen clearly. The only things visible were a suit of golden armor and a pair of enormous wings of light spreading behind its back.
A terrifying pressure rolled off it. It came down like a mountain over his head, pressing the Tribunal Venerable so hard favonovel.com could barely draw breath.
A sharp glint flashed through the Tribunal Venerable’s eyes.
It has come… A powerhouse from the Upper Realm…
Before the Tribunal Venerable could get a word out, a second phantom rose inside the ritual array. Then a third appeared right after it. Then a fourth. Then a fifth.
Five apparitions. Five people. All of them stood inside the ritual array at the same time!
The Tribunal Venerable’s pupils tightened all at once.
I only summoned one person. So why did five people come?
The five apparitions gradually solidified, and the faces of the five companions came into view.
They all looked young, no more than twenty or thirty at a glance. But in every pair of eyes, time had already settled into something old and weathered, like they had watched endless years pass.
Their cultivation was all at True Immortal Realm Level Eight, exactly the same as the Tribunal Venerable’s. But the force pressing off them was on an entirely different level from his. It was the kind of presence that seeped out of the bone, something only countless fights to the death could forge.
The one standing at the very front had a hard, cold face, sharp brows, bright eyes, and long silver-white hair falling down his back. He wore a suit of silver-white battle armor, and every inch of it was covered in sigils the Tribunal Venerable had never seen before. A spear rested in his hand, and blinding silver light flowed along the shaft.
He looked at the Tribunal Venerable with nothing in his eyes at all, only the detached indifference of someone looking down from far above. “You’re the one who summoned us?”
The Tribunal Venerable’s whole body jolted. He hurried down from the stone dais, dropped to his knees, and bowed with full respect. “This junior is the Hall Master of the Tribunal. I pay my respects to the Senior from the Upper Realm.”
The man’s eyes narrowed slightly. “The Tribunal? Never heard of it. One of the celestial branches in the Fifteenth Firmament?”
“Y-Yes…”
The man fell silent for a moment, then turned to look at the other four behind him.
The other four were looking at him, too. Each of them had the same faint, unreadable amusement in his eyes.
“Interesting…” The man turned back and looked at the Tribunal Venerable. “You called for me. What did you want?”
The Tribunal Venerable swallowed and answered with extreme care. “Senior, I ran into a powerful enemy His strength far surpasses that of cultivators at the same cultivation level. I am no match for him, so I wished to ask a Senior from the Upper Realm to strike and kill him.”
The man’s brows drew together a fraction. “A powerful enemy? What cultivation level?”
“Top Level High Immortal Realm Level Nine…”
Hearing this, the man paused for a beat. Then favonovel.com laughed. That smile carried no warmth at all. It was so cold that the temperature in the hidden chamber seemed to drop with it.
“So… Top Level High Immortal Realm Level Nine? You… You’re a True Immortal Realm Level Eight, and you can’t beat someone at Top Level High Immortal Realm Level Nine?”
Color rushed into the Tribunal Venerable’s face. “Senior, that man possesses chaotic force. It suppresses every kind of power. I truly am not his opponent.”
“Chaotic force?” A sharp light flashed through the man’s eyes. “Interesting…”
The four behind favonovel.com started murmuring to one another, and the same spark of interest flickered through all of their eyes.
“Senior…” the Tribunal Venerable asked carefully, “I only summoned one person. Why did five Seniors come?”
The man glanced at favonovel.com and said flatly, “We didn’t come in answer to your summons.”
The Tribunal Venerable froze. “Then, Seniors, you came here because…”
“To hunt down a rebel.” The man’s voice stayed cold. “A traitor escaped from the Sixteenth Firmament into the Lower Realm. We tracked his aura all the way the Fifteenth Firmament Your Summoning art only happened to resonate with our tracking art and drew us here.”
At that, the Tribunal Venerable nearly lost control of himself, where favonovel.com knelt.
To hunt down a rebel?
A traitor who escaped from the Sixteenth Firmament?
Then that meant all five of them are experts from the Sixteenth Firmament!
Their cultivation was only at True Immortal Realm Level Eight, but their real strength had to be far beyond anyone of the same cultivation level in the Fifteenth Firmament.
“Senior, that traitor…” the Tribunal Venerable asked carefully. “Do you need this junior’s help?”
The man glanced at him, and a trace of contempt flickered through his eyes. “You? You won’t be any help.”
The Tribunal Venerable’s face tightened, but favonovel.com didn’t dare say a word. He stayed on his knees with his head lowered, waiting for the man’s next instruction.
The man fell silent for a moment. Then favonovel.com said, “Still, now that we’re here, there’s no hurry to leave. That person you mentioned, the one with chaotic force… Where is he?”
The Tribunal Venerable’s heart slammed against his chest. “At the Skywolf Tribe… Senior, are you willing to make a move?”
“Chaotic force… It’s been many years since I’ve seen it.” The man murmured the words, and a cold glint flashed through his eyes. “Lead the way.”
Delight burst through the Tribunal Venerable. He hurried to his feet and bowed with utmost respect. “Senior, please come with me.”
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