“T-That… what’s that?!”
“The sky… why is it all golden light? That aura is terrifying…” “It’s the Celestial Palace! That’s the Celestial Palace uniform! That’s the Celestial Palace army!”
“Dear heavens… so many cultivators, such a massive force… the Celestial Palace is… is it here to wipe out Cloudhaven City?!”
Terror swept across the whole of Cloudhaven City in an instant, fast and vicious as the worst plague. The calm ease that had been sitting on the people’s faces vanished in a blink and was replaced all at once. They broke. Order broke with them. The fear showed everywhere.
The lively streets turned into chaos in the span of a breath. Vendors threw down their stalls in panic. Goods spilled all over the ground, and no one even tried to pick them up before running for their lives.
Passersby went white and sprinted for home without caring about anything else. Children started crying from the crushing atmosphere, their sharp sobs cutting through the streets. Women clutched them tight and screamed. Men wore hard, ashen faces, but even they dragged their families around looking for somewhere to hide.
Crying, screaming, shouting, running, the crash of things shattering—all of it tangled together into one frantic uproar. In a single moment, all of Cloudhaven City went from a Peach Blossom Haven to a place where panic ruled every street. As for the different forces that had attached themselves to the House of Chance and taken shelter under Cloudhaven City, they were even worse off, their faces as gray as ash.
They hid inside their homes with doors and windows shut tight, peering through narrow cracks at the Celestial Palace army hanging over the sky, blotting out the sun and boiling with killing intent. Despair and regret filled every house.
“It’s over… it’s all over…”
“The Celestial Palace isn’t playing around this time. They’re here to slaughter the whole city!”
“If we’d known… if we’d known, we never should’ve stayed in Cloudhaven City, never should’ve thrown in with House of Chance… and now it’s too late to leave. There’s nowhere to run!”
Under full power, the city-ward array slowly came to life. A pale golden curtain of light rose from all four sides of the city. It spread upward like a massive dome and sealed all of Cloudhaven City beneath it. Spiritual light flowed across the barrier, and a protective force ran through it. But under the terrifying pressure of the Celestial Palace army, it looked so fragile, so small, as if a single touch would be enough to shatter it.
On the city walls, Roland stood at the very front, straight as a spear. Behind him, dozens of Sky Dragon champions waited in full readiness. Draconic energy rolled off every one of them, and every face had gone hard and solemn.
Their numbers were laughably small compared to the thousand-strong elites of the Celestial Palace, but not one of them stepped back. Not one of them showed a trace of fear. They were the Sky Dragon Clan, the proud descendants of the Draconians. They would die before they surrendered.
Roland drew in a deep breath, lifted his head, and looked straight at the golden warship hanging in the sky. Then he drove his spiritual power through his whole body and shouted at the top of his lungs.
His voice crashed out like thunder, rolling across heaven and earth and spreading in every direction. “Lord Godric! You moved an army for no reason and brought it down on Cloudhaven City. What exactly are you trying to do?!”
At the prow of the golden warship, Godric stood high above, looking down at the tiny Cloudhaven City below and at Roland on the wall. His face did not change at all, and when he spoke, his voice came down flat and cold, carrying the kind of authority that left no room to resist.
“Roland… I did not come here today for anything else. I came for one thing only. Hand over Jared.”
That one sentence carried clearly into every ear. Roland’s face changed on the spot, and something in him dropped. So it really was Young Master Chance they had come for… In the end, the Celestial Palace still refused to let Jared go. They had actually mobilized an army this massive just to force Cloudhaven City to hand him over.
Roland’s gaze sharpened, and when he answered, every word rang like steel without the slightest retreat. “Jared is the Dragon Emperor acknowledged by my Sky Dragon Clan. He is also an honored guest of Cloudhaven City. If you want to take him, get past me first. Step over the corpses of every last member of the Sky Dragon Clan first!”
A cold, contemptuous curve pulled at the corner of Godric’s mouth. “Roland…” His tone stayed flat, but the scorn in it could not have been clearer. “Your Sky Dragon Clan only has a few hundred people. Even if every one of you counts as an elite, what can you really do? Behind me stand more than a thousand Celestial Palace disciples and countless Immortal Realm experts…”
“Do you really think this handful of people and this broken city-ward array of yours can stop even one strike from the Celestial Palace army?” He paused, and when he spoke again, the chill in his voice deepened, the threat laid bare for everyone to hear. “I will say this one more time. Hand over Jared! I promise I will only take him alone.
This matter has nothing to do with your Sky Dragon Clan, and nothing to do with the people of Cloudhaven City. If you know what’s good for you and hand him over obediently, I can leave you a way to live. I can give the order and make sure not a single innocent person in the city is harmed…”
“Otherwise…” Godric did not finish the rest.
But the words he left unsaid, the cold killing intent, and that crushing pressure had already made the meaning of the threat perfectly clear. Otherwise, the city would be slaughtered. Otherwise, not even the dogs and chickens would be left alive.
Behind Roland, several Sky Dragon elders shifted, their expressions changing as hesitation crept across them. They looked at Roland. Their lips moved, but the words never came out. They were not afraid to die.
What they feared was the Sky Dragon Clan being wiped out here and the innocent people in the city getting dragged into it until blood ran through the streets. On one side stood Jared, the Dragon Emperor. On the other stood the lives of their whole clan and the entire city. There was no easy choice.
But Roland never turned his head even once. He kept staring at Godric in the sky, his eyes locked and unmoving. Then, word by word, with each syllable falling like a blade, he said, “If you want to seize the Dragon Emperor, then step over my corpse first. My Sky Dragon Clan would rather die than betray him! Cloudhaven City would rather die than surrender!”
Seeing that, killing intent surged in Godric’s eyes. Roland’s stubborn refusal finally pushed him past restraint. He let out a cold laugh, and his voice came down sharp enough to freeze the bone. “Good! Good… so you’d rather die than surrender. Since you’re so determined to throw your life away, then I’ll grant your wish!”
As soon as the words fell, Godric suddenly raised his right hand and slashed it through the air. “Attack!”
With that single order, the thousand Celestial Palace disciples in the sky all stepped forward at the same time, every movement perfectly aligned. They raised both hands together, and all kinds of spiritual arts gathered in their palms. Gold light, blue light, red light—the blaze from it lit up the whole sky, and the violent spiritual fluctuations were so terrifying that even heaven and earth seemed to change color.
The battle was one breath away. The air seemed to lock solid in place, and the shadow of death settled over all of Cloudhaven City.
