Instead of taking offense, Skylar laughed. He walked straight to the middle of the great hall on his own and stopped at a spot as casually as if he were picking a place to stand in his own courtyard. Then he spoke in an even tone. “I heard everything clearly from the back just now.
Your Celestial Palace wants to work with the Demon Dragon Lineage to deal with someone named Jared? And all that talk about being the true orthodox celestials, carrying some great duty, maintaining order in the Fourteenth Firmament?”
He shook his head. The ridicule in his voice wasn’t hidden at all. “Tsk, tsk… that was dressed up so nicely you almost had me believing it.”
The Grand Elder’s face darkened, and his voice crashed through the hall. “Ignorant child! What could you possibly understand? Everything my Celestial Palace does is open and righteous. How dare you spout nonsense here and smear the dignity of the celestials? Shut your mouth at once, or I’ll tear you into pieces!”
The three True Immortal elders behind him stepped forward at the same time. Celestial power surged around them as they fixed Skylar with savage looks, ready to erase him the moment the Grand Elder gave the order.
Darian saw that and his face changed on the spot. He moved in front of Skylar at once, demonic aura rolling off him again as he glared at the Grand Elder. “Grand Elder! Don’t you dare overstep! This Senior is the highest honored guest of my Demon Dragon Hall. If you dare show him disrespect, then you’re making an enemy of my entire Demon Dragon Lineage!”
The Grand Elder let out a mocking laugh, his face full of contempt. “An honored guest? He’s just a half-grown brat, and he deserves to be called an honored guest of the Demon Dragon Hall?! Darian, you’ve lived for tens of thousands of years, and somehow you’ve only gotten more muddled with age. Treating a junior like some treasured guest—what a joke?!”
Darian’s fury surged, and he was just about to strike when Skylar lifted a hand and stopped him. Skylar patted Darian on the shoulder, his tone calm and steady, backed by complete certainty. “No need to waste yourself on this. They’re just a bunch of clowns. There’s no point getting worked up over them. Leave it to me.”
Darian paused. Looking at Skylar’s unhurried expression, the turmoil in him settled on its own. He nodded at once and stepped back respectfully, saying nothing more.
Skylar walked forward at an easy pace. His eyes settled on the Grand Elder, and the smile on his face slowly faded, replaced by a cold, detached look. “You just said this wasn’t my place to speak? And that I’m some nameless junior who doesn’t know what’s good for him?”
The Grand Elder straightened proudly and said, “What? Was I wrong? A junior like you who hasn’t even stepped into the True Immortal Realm has no right to open his mouth in front of me! In front of four True Immortal Realm experts from the Celestial Palace, you’re no different from an ant. If you keep running that mouth, death is the only thing waiting for you!”
Skylar suddenly smiled. It was a mild, easy smile. But when it landed in the Grand Elder’s eyes, a chill ran straight through him, as if some ancient beast had fixed its gaze on him.
“Grand Elder, do you know something?” Skylar spoke slowly, each word clear and measured. “What I hate most in this life is your kind. The ones who call yourselves the true orthodox celestials, stand over everyone else, and act like you’re never wrong.”
The instant the words fell, Skylar’s aura changed. There was no world-shaking roar. No blinding burst of light. But a crushing pressure from the deepest level of the spirit spread out in silence like an ancient abyss and covered the entire Demon Dragon Hall in an instant. The Grand Elder and the three elders from the Celestial Palace all changed color. Their bodies went rigid. Even their spirits trembled, as if every force between heaven and earth had been stripped away from them, leaving them without even the strength to lift a hand.
“You… who exactly are you?!” The Grand Elder’s voice shook. For the first time, something broke through his eyes that had never been there before.
Skylar didn’t answer. He only slowly raised his right hand. The movement was slow and light, as casual as brushing dust from his sleeve. But the moment his hand came up, the void around them locked solid. The dark red demonic aura and the golden celestial power both submitted in place, obedient and still, not daring to stir even a little.
“Arrogant brat! You think we’re actually afraid of you?!” One of the True Immortal elders from the Celestial Palace roared, all restraint gone. He poured every bit of celestial power from his body into a golden divine fist and smashed it straight at Skylar. The golden fist tore through the air with boundless force, enough to blow apart a mountain.
A trace of disdain flickered through Skylar’s eyes. He bent one finger and gave it a light flick. A thread of black force, so faint it was almost impossible to see, shot through the air and slammed into the divine fist.
Pfft!
With a soft sound, the Elder’s all-out divine fist shattered on the spot. The black force didn’t slow at all. It punched straight through his energy center.
“Argh!” The Elder let out a shrill scream. His energy center burst apart, his cultivation was wiped clean, and his body flew backward like a kite with its string cut, crashing hard into a pillar before dropping unconscious.
One move! Just one move had crippled a True Immortal Realm Elder! The Grand Elder and the two remaining Celestial Palace Elders nearly lost their minds on the spot. Every trace of arrogance vanished from their faces, leaving only naked dread.
“Together! Kill him!” The Grand Elder roared and stopped holding anything back. He poured out the cultivation he’d built over thousands of years and condensed a long golden divine sword. Sacred runes flashed across the blade as it hacked straight at Skylar with overwhelming force! The other two Elders brought out their life-bound treasures at the same time and closed in from the left and right, boxing Skylar in!
Three True Immortal Realm treasures struck at once. The force of it hit a terrifying extreme. The Demon Dragon Hall started collapsing around them as pieces of the ceiling came down and broken stone flew everywhere. Darian’s face went white. He instinctively wanted to back away, but he didn’t dare leave Skylar’s side, so he could only force himself to stay where he was. Even with the three of them throwing a desperate, all-out assault at him, Skylar’s face didn’t change. There wasn’t a hint of disorder in him.
He tapped the ground lightly with one foot. His figure blurred like a ghost and slipped away in a flash, dodging all three attacks with ridiculous ease. “Too slow… too weak…” Skylar gave a faint shake of his head, his voice thick with disgust. “A True Immortal Realm cultivation in your hands is a complete waste.”
As soon as the words left his mouth, Skylar closed his right hand gently. In the frozen air, countless black flames appeared out of nowhere. They were black as ink and carried no heat at all, yet they could burn away all spirit and spiritual power. It was the Inferno Devil’s ultimate fire.
The black fire condensed into three flaming whips. Like living serpents, they lashed at the three Celestial Palace Elders with blinding speed.
“Divine shield, protect me!” The Grand Elder was shaken out of his wits. He hurriedly summoned his life-bound divine shield and threw it in front of himself. The other two Elders also drove their treasures with everything they had to defend themselves, but in front of that ultimate fire, every divine shield and every treasure was like paper. They were burned clean in an instant, without leaving behind even a speck of ash.
Pfft!
Two dull impacts sounded. The remaining two True Immortal Realm Elders were wrapped in black fire. Their shrill screams echoed through the great hall, and in the space of a breath, they were burned into drifting ash, their spirits erased with them.
The Grand Elder, relying on his deep cultivation, managed to hold out for a moment. But the black fire had already wrapped around his arm, madly burning through his divine bones and his spirit.
“N-No… impossible! What kind of monster are you?!” The Grand Elder’s face twisted violently, and his eyes were full of despair and refusal. “I’m the Grand Elder of the Celestial Palace, a mighty True Immortal Realm cultivator! You can’t kill me! The Lord of the Basilica will never let you go!”
Skylar walked over to him at an unhurried pace and stopped in front of him. Looking down from above, he watched him with the same detached gaze as a god.
