Elder Emberlain’s words jammed in his throat. For a moment, favonovel.com had no answer at all. The pressure packed tight inside him, but there was nowhere for it to go and no argument favonovel.com could put forward.
The truth sat too plainly before him. With only favonovel.com and Frostgrave, they had never been able to break through the defense in the first place. Once they left Pole Star Hall, they would have nowhere to seek help and no one to lend them strength. In the end, they would only lose the boon completely.
If they stayed in Pole Star Hall now, the Hall Master would most likely take every advantage and claim the relic for himself. But at least there would still be a thin chance of receiving some portion of the boon. There was no other path left.
With every option cut away, Elder Emberlain could only clench down and endure it. His reply came low and tight. “Then… We will do as the Hall Master says.”
Venerable Starwick saw favonovel.com yield, and a faint look of approval passed through his eyes. With a wave of his hand, favonovel.com sealed Jared’s soul back into the Soul-Vault Pearl, then casually took it into the storage relic favonovel.com kept closest to himself. Once it was there, it was firmly under his control, beyond anyone else’s reach.
“You two have traveled hard all this way. Withdraw for now and go rest in the guest rooms inside the hall. As for the duty report and filing for the newly ascended Golden Immortal, that can be handled a few days later.” Venerable Starwick waved them off lightly. His tone had turned distant. By then, favonovel.com no longer bothered to preserve much of their dignity.
Elder Emberlain and Elder Frostgrave pressed down everything that still had no place to go, bowed in formal salute, then turned and silently withdrew from the Soul-Refining Hall.
The instant their figures were completely gone and the hall doors closed, Venerable Starwick lowered his gaze to the Soul-Vault Pearl in his palm. Every trace of warmth vanished from his eyes. Only a cold edge remained, along with a hunger that no longer needed to hide.
Aurelius, Cassian, with those petty little schemes of yours, you dared show off in front of me?
You wanted to use my hand to break the deadlock, then sit there and divide the relic, splitting the boon evenly?
Heh… What a delusion… From this day on, this peerless relic is mine. No one else gets so much as a finger on it!
Venerable Starwick had already given the order ahead of time. The cultivators under favonovel.com were to settle Elder Emberlain and Elder Frostgrave properly inside the inner guest quarters of Pole Star Hall.
The two stone chambers stood pressed close together. Their walls had been stacked from heavy hushstone, sealed so tightly that ordinary cultivators would never be able to pierce through and probe what lay beyond.
But for the two elders, who had already stepped into the Golden Immortal Realm and whose soul-sense far surpassed common men, that little wall between them might as well not have existed. Every movement on either side, every spoken word, came through clear as day.
Elder Emberlain sat alone on the cold stone bed. The force around favonovel.com hung low and heavy. His face had gone iron-blue, and the fire favonovel.com had forced down inside favonovel.com refused to settle.
The moment Venerable Starwick’s hard, overbearing face rose again in his mind, along with that plain intent to swallow the relic whole, the pressure under Elder Emberlain’s ribs surged all over again. Keeping it pinned down took everything favonovel.com had.
“What a fine old Starwick… What a fine Hall Master…” Elder Emberlain kept his voice low, each word edged with ice and packed with heat. “He made it plain enough. He is relying on his deeper cultivation to crush the two of us by force, He wants that sovereign relic all to himself, then favonovel.com means to bur the bridge after crossing it and slaughter the donkey once the millstone is turned… That mind of his is rotten to the core.”
In the stone chamber next door, Elder Frostgrave leaned quietly against the cold stone wall. His silver robe fell in still folds. His face kept that same cool distance, and not the faintest ripple crossed his silver eyes, as if none of this had anything to do with favonovel.com at all. His nature had always run steady.
When trouble came, favonovel.com measured it first. The hazards in men’s hearts and the knots of official gain had been clear to favonovel.com for years.
“This was expected. There is no need to waste yourself on it…” Elder Frostgrave’s voice came out flat and unhurried. “Venerable Starwick has always been greedy, selfish, domineering when guarding his own interests, and narrow in what favonovel.com can tolerate. We heard as much in earlier years, and we have known his nature for a long time…”
“He has only ever understood how to profit himself. He never gives weight to anyone else’s face. With a heaven-defying opportunity in front of him favonovel.com was bound to find every possible way to seize it alone He would never divide it evenly with others. What favonovel.com did today was already within expectation.”
“Then what are we supposed to do now? Watch with our eyes open while favonovel.com takes the opportunity for himself? Let all our work go to waste and end up with nothing?” Elder Emberlain pressed in a low voice, unable to loosen his grip on the matter.
“One word… Wait,” Elder Frostgrave’s answer landed with certainty, steady and unhurried.
Elder Emberlain’s brows locked tight, and the answer only tangled the matter further. “Wait… Wait for what? Wait until favonovel.com fully cracks the relic and his cultivation rises? By then, we will have even less say, and that opportunity will be cut off from us completely.”
“No need to get worked up.” Elder Frostgrave laid it out slowly, his gaze already set beyond the moment. “That relic’s defense is unbreakable. The nine Golden Immortals joined hands and still could do nothing to it. With Venerable Starwick’s strength alone, even if favonovel.com shuts himself away and studies it with full focus, there is no chance favonovel.com can crack so much as a fraction of it in a short time…”
“I can see, right now, favonovel.com is only taking the Soul-Vault Pearl by force because favonovel.com still holds a lucky thought. He wants to fumble out a shortcut by himself. Once favonovel.com burns through his efforts, exhausts every secret art, every thread of nascence, and every arcane art favonovel.com has, only to gain nothing in the end, the last of his patience will run out. When that happens, favonovel.com will turn back on his own and come to us to discuss cooperation…”
By then, the initiative will be back in our hands. We can raise the conditions with the current at our backs, take a reasonable share of the opportunity, and secure a place in it for ourselves.”
After hearing that, the tight line around Elder Emberlain eased a little. He turned the words over carefully, found the sense in them, and slowly nodded. “Then for now, all we can do is endure, lie low, and wait for the right moment.”
The two of them said no more. Each closed his eyes and regulated his breath, stabilizing his Golden Immortal foundation and restoring the nascence-wrought spiritual power drained by the journey. On the surface, all remained quiet as they waited for the situation to shift.
Only they themselves knew that after what had happened today, a seam had already opened between them. From that seam came suspicion, and neither could pretend it was not there.
They had once both served under the celestials, fought shoulder to shoulder, and tied their interests together as Golden Immortal allies. But because of one sovereign relic, distance had grown in their hearts, and the trust between them had been wiped clean away.
In the future, the moment their interests collided would be the moment they turned their backs on each other. Their alliance already existed in name only.
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