Seeing this, Garrick’s expression shifted at once. Search? Allowing the Celestial Palace to rummage through my thousand-year estate at will?
The manor had stood over Cloudhaven City for a millennium, a pillar of the family’s honor and pride. If outsiders tore through it today, overturning chests and cupboards, the family’s face would be wiped away. From that day forward, the House of Chance would never again lift its head in Cloudhaven, they would become every tongue’s joke. Besides, Vivian was still inside the grounds!
She was a young woman, if these Celestial Palace cultivators frightened her, the result would be unbearable to picture.
Garrick drew a deep breath. Resolve hardened behind his eyes as he said evenly, “Elder, I will say it again, Jared is not in the manor. If you refuse to believe me, there is nothing I can do, but I must ask that you not force the unreasonable.”
Cold light flashed across the white-haired elder’s eyes, and his voice dropped to an icy rasp. “Master Garrick, are you really set on hiding a criminal wanted by the Celestial Palace and making your family our enemy?”
Garrick shook his head at once. His words came out earnest and fast. “This old man would never dare! I have never thought of shielding anyone, much less opposing the Celestial Palace! But Jared truly is not inside the manor. Even if you turn our manor upside down, you will find nothing and only waste your strength!”
The white-haired elder stayed silent for a heartbeat. In the next instant, he laughed. The curve of his lips carried not the slightest warmth; the sound made every onlooker’s skin crawl. “Master Garrick, did you imagine I came here today to negotiate?”
He snapped his hand upward. Behind him, a hundred Celestial Palace soldiers stepped forward in perfect unison, murderous intent rolling off them.
“Search the manor! From the attic to the cellar, every room and every corner! Tear it all apart. Anyone who resists, kill without mercy!”
“Yes, sir!” With that single command, the order was set in stone.
The hundred soldiers surged out like a silver tide and flooded every wing of manor. They ransacked the study, bedrooms, attic, courtyards, secret rooms, and cellars, any space large enough to hide a person was overturned without restraint.
Chairs crashed, vases shattered, doors and windows splintered. The once-elegant manor became wreckage in the blink of an eye.
Garrick’s face went slate gray. Both fists clenched so tightly the knuckles whitened and veins bulged. The fury inside him roared, yet he dared not strike. He understood that the first blow would be a declaration of war against the Celestial Palace. With his family’s current strength, they could not win such a war; the clan would be wiped out to the last servant.
The six elders stood beside him, ashen and trembling, forced to watch the devastation with no power to stop it.
The search dragged on for a full hour. By the end, the House of Chance Manor looked as though a hurricane had passed through, ruin everywhere the eye could land.
A Celestial Palace soldier ran in, dropped to one knee, and reported to the white- haired elder. “Elder, we scoured every corner of the manor! No sign of Jared anywhere!”
The white-haired elder’s brows pinched, surprise flickering across his face.
Dominic’s expression twisted. He barked, “Impossible! Absolutely impossible! He has to be here you fools just missed him. Search again! Three more rounds, every inch!”
The soldier shot Dominic a chilly glance and answered with thin patience. “Lord Wagner, we have already searched three times. Not a crack escaped us. Jared is not here why would we lie?”
Dominic ground his teeth, anger and panic mixing in his eyes. Suddenly an idea flashed He shouted, “There’s still one more! Vivian! She’s Jared’s Soulshare Consort, the one he cares for most. She must know where he is!”
“Vivian?” The white-haired elder’s gaze sharpened; clearly he had heard the name before. Garrick’s face changed at once.
Bad! They are going after Vivian…
The very outcome he feared most was unfolding before him.
Dominic’s mouth twisted into a vicious grin He looked at Garrick. “Master Carrick bring your daughter out if she obediently tells us Jared’s whereabouts, I’ll plead for leniency. Otherwise, not a dog or a chicken in the House of Chance will survive today.”
Garrick drew a deep breath, forcing down the panic and rage churning in his chest. His voice came out steady. “Vivian… She is unwell. She’s resting in the rear courtyard. She isn’t here in the front compound.”
“Not here?” Dominic laughed as though he had heard the world’s funniest joke. “Master Garrick, do you take me for a child? I already questioned your guards, they swore Vivian never left the estate. Still trying to twist the truth?”
He turned back to the white-haired elder and bowed. “Elder, Vivian’s tie to Jared runs deep. Capture her, and Jared is bound to appear. Through her, we will find him.”
The white-haired elder nodded slightly, then issued his order without hesitation. “Search! Bring Vivian to me! Alive or dead!”
Soldiers from the Celestial Palace wheeled and sprinted toward the rear courtyards.
Seeing this, Garrick could bear it no longer. He strode forward, arms spread wide, blocking the path. His roar cracked like thunder. “Whoever touches my daughter dies!”
The white-haired elder eyed him, a trace of mockery in his look. “Master Garrick, you finally drop the act?”
Garrick’s face darkened, his eyes blood-shot. He bit off each word. “Jared is not in the manor. Search the ends of the earth if you wish it has nothing to do with us! But Vivian is my daughter. She is an ordinary girl, uninvolved in any of this. You will not lay a hand on her!”
“Uninvolved?” Dominic sneered, eyes gleaming. “She shares his soul and his bed! How could she be uninvolved? Master Garrick, step aside before things get ugly. Spare yourself the embarrassment!”
Garrick stood like a mountain, utterly unmoved, resolve carved into every line of his posture. The white-haired elder gave a slight shake of the head, voice gone flat. “If Master Garrick insists on this folly, I will not be courteous…”
He flicked his sleeve. Two Celestial Palace Elders, already brimming with power, strode forward, auras detonating around them. “Take him!”
