“Who dares!” Garrick’s bellow split the night, and the True Immortal Realm Level One aura he had suppressed for so long erupted without restraint.
A sheet of golden aura burst outward, whipping through the courtyard. The flagstones under everyone’s feet quivered, hairline cracks spreading across their surface.
He had walked this world for a full thousand years and pushed his cultivation all the way to the True Immortal Realm. The depth of power he carried could no longer be gauged. For his daughter, for the final shred of the family’s honor, he finally tore every restraint away and let that strength erupt.
He slammed his palm forward. A golden imprint, bright as a noonday sun, roared out with the force of crashing mountains and sweeping seas.
Several Celestial Palace Elders answered with a simultaneous snort. None of them showed the slightest hesitation as they struck back together.
Boom!
The detonation shook the sky. A savage shockwave expanded from the two sides at its center.
The manor’s guards had no time to dodge, the blast lifted them off their feet and smashed them to the ground, blood spilling from their mouths.
A numbing jolt ran the length of Garrick’s arm. The counter-force shoved him three steps back, and a ribbon of blood slid from the corner of his lips.
The two Celestial Palace Elders facing him never even swayed. Their breathing remained rock steady. One man against many, he simply did not hold the upper hand. Still, he refused to retreat. Not a single step!
Vivian was still somewhere inside the manor, still behind him. He was her father and the family Patriarch, the road to her had to stop with him.
“Garrick, you’re courting death…” The white-haired elder’s voice came out flat and icy. Garrick wiped the blood from his mouth. “I said Jared isn’t here. Look all you want, but if you plan to touch my daughter you’ll have to walk over my corpse first.”
The white-haired elder shook his head, his gaze narrowed, the air around him turning sharply brusque. He motioned again. The hundred Celestial Palace soldiers behind him advanced in unison like starving wolves.
“Since the Patriarch won’t hand him over, beat him until he changes his mind… Move!”
“Understood!”
A hundred weapons flashed as the soldiers surged toward Garrick, murderous intent flooding the courtyard.
Garrick’s gaze tightened, and instead of yielding, he charged straight at them. His palm thundered out. Golden aura exploded, flinging the three soldiers at the very front through the air; they hit the ground hard, blood spraying before their eyes rolled back.
But the enemy’s numbers were simply too great. He felled one, and ten more rushed in. He felled ten, and a hundred followed.
They packed together, an endless tide without a gap to breathe.
The remaining the House of Chance Manor guards saw their Patriarch swallowed by that tide. Veins stood out at their temples as they drew their weapons and charged.
“Protect the Patriarch!”
“Fight them! Don’t let them touch him!”
“Live and die with our family!”
Battle cries rolled through the estate, shaking the very air.
The two sides crashed together; the full-scale fight erupted in an instant.
“Father!” The shrill cry burst from the direction of the rear courtyard.
Vivian, dressed in plain clothes, face bloodless and eyes rimmed red, sprinted out without a thought for herself. She had been kneeling in the ancestral hall in self-reflection, her mind replaying her father’s plight and the way she had wronged Jared.
But the clash outside grew louder and closer until she could no longer stay still, so she bolted out. The sight before her splintered her heart on the spot.
Ruined halls, guards writhing on the ground, shattered tables, pooled blood—and at the center, her father, soaked in wounds and fighting on.
Garrick caught sight of her and his face tightened. “Vivian! Get back inside! Who told you to come out? Go!”
The warning came too late. Dominic’s eyes instantly locked on her, lighting up like a wolf that had just spotted a lamb. A ravenous gleam slid across his face.
“Miss Chance, long time no see!” He strolled forward, his gaze roaming over her without restraint, possession stamped in every flick of his eyes. Vivian’s shoulders jerked back and she took an involuntary step away, her gaze turning as cold as frost.
The ruin around her, the clansmen groaning in blood, the father swaying beneath his wounds, the pressure behind her eyes finally burst and tears streamed down.
“You… Why are you doing this? How has my family wronged you?”
Dominic let out a light laugh, his tone lazy yet edged like a blade. “Why? Because your family hid a criminal from the Celestial Palace a Chime worth a thousand deals. And because…”
He leaned in, lowered his voice, and spoke with a lewd hush, “I’ve wanted you since the moment I first saw you… Tonight, your family falls and you… You belong to me.”
Vivian clenched her teeth, the light in her narrowed eyes turning razor sharp. “Don’t even dream of it die before I let you succeed!”
Dominic’s smile disappeared; the corners of his mouth flattened. “Fine… Refuse me and choke on the punishment.”
He pivoted toward the white-haired elder, bowed, and said, “Elder, since she won’t speak, we’ll force her. Arrest her, she’ll open her mouth soon enough.”
The white-haired elder gave a slight nod and, face blank, waved his hand. “Take her!”
Two Celestial Palace soldiers answered instantly, indifference on their faces as they lunged for Vivian.
“Stop!” Garrick’s eyes widened. He blasted aside the soldiers crowding him with one palm and charged toward Vivian like a man possessed.
But the Celestial Palace Elders had no intention of letting him through. “Going somewhere? Stay right here!”
Two Elders struck together, blocking his path as their auras burst out and tangled around him.
Garrick roared again and again, locking into battle with several foes at once. Palm winds howled, spirit energy detonated, and rolling shockwaves hammered the courtyard. He and the two Elders fought from ground to sky and back, every clash boomed like thunder on stone.
Garrick stood at True Immortal Realm Level One, power deep as an abyss. Yet the Celestial Palace and House of Wagner had joined forces, more than ten cultivators waited at the top of High Immortal Realm Level Nine.
One man against so many elite fighters, no matter how strong, Garrick’s stance began to slip.
