The second those wordsnded, the elders of the Celestial Pce exploded, voices rising all at once.


    "Outrageous! You Demon Dragon bastard, how dare you act this wild!"


    "Hall Master, there''s no need to waste words on him. Give the order. We''ll join forces, wipe out the Demon Dragon Lineage first, and then seize Jared!"


    "A bunch of Demon Marches leftovers think they can run wild in the Fourteenth Firmament? We''ll erase thempletely today!"


    Godric''s face turned ashen. The aura around him surged, and he lifted a hand to shut down the uproar and restless movement around him.


    He locked his eyes on Darian. The killing intent in them churned so hard it nearly spilled over, yet he still held back.


    The one he truly watched the whole time was that ck-d young man beside him, the one whose presence stayed tucked away and somehow felt all the more deadly for it.


    "Darian,"


    Godric spoke again, his voice pressed t under the weight of what he was holding down. "This is thest time I''ll say it. The score between you and me can wait for another day. Today, I''m only here for Jared. This has nothing to do with you.


    Move aside and clear the way. I won''t make things hard for you. If you don''t, then don''t me me for whates next."


    Darian let out a coldugh and was just about to fire back when Skr lightly raised a hand and tapped his shoulder.


    Darian paused for half a beat, then caught the meaning at once.


    He shut his mouth immediately and stepped back with open respect, giving the spot


    in front to Skr without the slightest hesitation.


    The way he stood there said enough. Whatever stood between them, Darian feared him.


    Skr walked forward at an easy pace.


    Each step came down softly, yet to everyone watching, it felt like itnded right on the tip of their nerves.


    His calm gaze settled on Godric. Then he spoke in an even tone. The voice wasn''t loud, but it carried cleanly into every corner. "So you''re the Hall Master of the Celestial Pce, Godric?"


    Godric''s brows pulled tight as he looked Skr up and down. The man in ck looked absurdly young, and the longer Godric looked at him, the heavier the pressure in the air became. His voice came out cold. "That''s right. And who are you? Why are you standing with the Demon Dragon Lineage?"


    Skr didn''t answer a single question. It was like the man wasn''t even worth answering. He only spoke in that same t tone, but every word came down with the force ofmand. "I''m giving you three breaths. Take your people and get out of Cloudhaven City right now. If you don''t, you can bear the consequences yourself."


    His voice stayed calm from start to finish, without the slightest ripple. Even so, the authority in it left no room for doubt, no room for refusal, and everyone there was struck still by it.


    Godric froze where he stood. Then the heat in him surged straight up from the bottom of his chest and mmed into his head.


    He was the Lord of the Basilica, a powerhouse at the peak of True Immortal Realm Level Two, one of the rulers who had stood over the Fourteenth Firmament for tens of thousands of years. He had crossed the world at will. No one had ever treated him with this kind of contempt, this kind of disregard.


    And the one doing it was a boy who looked barely past twenty.


    "Whelp!"


    Godric let out a sharpugh instead, but the sound was colder than ice and packed with killing intent. "What the hell are you supposed to be? You think you can stand in front of me and run your mouth like that?"


    "I''ll give you onest chance on ount of your youth and ignorance. Drop to your knees and beg. Cripple your own cultivation, and maybe I''ll still leave you a whole corpse. Otherwise, today I''ll wipe you out sopletely your soul won''t survive, and you''ll never be reborn."


    Skr looked at him, and the corner of his mouth lifted just a little. It was a faint smile, light and dismissive. The way he looked at Godric was the way someone looked at a clown making noise for attention, and not a single ripple showed in his eyes.


    "One breath."


    Skr spoke slowly and counted off the first one.


    Godric''s face changed on the spot. Whatever restraint he had left snapped. He shouted, his voice cutting through the air. "Arrogant little whelp! You think killing a few Elders from my Celestial Pce means you''re qualified to stand against me?" "Today I''ll show you what real strength is. I''ll show you what a gap in cultivation level looks like!"


    The instant the words fell, the aura around him exploded. The terrifying pressure of the peak of True Immortal Realm Level Two crashed out like a towering mountain carrying endless weight, bearing down on Skr with brutal force.


    Even the space around them warped under that pressure.


    Down below, the buildings of Cloudhaven City started creaking, like they were about to give way.


    "Two breaths."


    Skr didn''t move.


    His face stayed calm, his posture straight, his feet rooted where he stood, as if that crushing pressure that could tten everything else was nothing more than a light breeze brushing past him.


    His aura remained drawn in, but under that stillness, something even more terrible was quietly waking.


    That was it.


    Godric snapped and refused to waste another word.


    "You''re dead!"


    He barked it out and struck at once, throwing a full-force palm straight at Skr!


    The palm wind screamed.


    The golden light red to its absolute limit, packed with his lifetime of cultivation and the highestws of the Celestial Pce.


    It carried enough force to ruin heaven and earth. Wherever it passed, space broke apart and the air currents twisted backward as it shot straight for Skr''s chest.


    A trace of disdain flickered through Skr''s eyes.


    In the same t tone, he gave thest word.


    "Three breaths."


    The instant the words left his mouth, he slowly raised his right hand.


    The movement was slow and light, like a casual lift of the hand.


    There was no effort in it, no sign of force gathering, not the slightest trace of preparation.


    But the moment his hand came up, heaven and earth changed color.


    A violent wind tore through the sky.


    Demonic aura rolled and churned. The dark red devil clouds overhead surgeddike mad, and an aura far more terrifying than Godric''s far gore overbearing far older exploded out of Skr''s body.


    It was like some primeval beast had woken after sleeping for hundreds of millions of


    years.


    Like a demon god descending from above all the heavens.


    The instant that aura appeared, it crushed Godric''s pressure to pieces and erased it


    into nothing.


    Godric''s alfout strike, poured out with every bit of cultivation he had, that brilliant golden palm seal, met Skr and vanished like snow under a zing sun, like an ant in front of a


    mountain.


    It dissolved in an instant.


    It didn''t even stir the slightest ripple before it turnedpletely into nothing and


    disappeared.


    Godric''s pupils shrank hard.


    All the color drained from his face in an instant until it looked like paper.


    His voice broke loose on its own. "Th-this is impossible! Your cultivation level... just


    what level have you reached?!"


    Godric had lived for thousands of years. He had fought his way across the Fourteenth Firmament, and in all that time, he had never seen anything this terrifying.


    The young man in front of him had already stepped far beyond anything Godric understood. He couldn''t believe that in the Fourteenth Firmament, someone could exist who stood this far above him.


    Skr gave him no time to react, and no chance to run.


    He lifted a hand and lightly tapped forward with his index finger.


    The move looked casual, almost careless, but it carried the force to destroy heaven


    and earth.


    A beam of pure ck light shot from his fingertip.


    It moved so fast it made no sense, as if space itself couldn''t hold it back, and in the


    next instant it punched straight through Godric''s shoulder.


    "Pfft!"


    Blood sprayed out.


    Godric let out a ragged scream, and his huge body flew backward like a kite with its


    string cut.


    A momentter, he mmed hard into the railing of the golden warship.


    The solid railing shattered on impact. He coughed up a mouthful of blood, and his


    aura dropped to the brink.


    "Hall Master!"


    The Celestial Pce Elders went pale and cried out as one.


    They rushed forward without a second thought and pulled Godric into the middle of their formation, guarding him tight. Fear and disorder covered every face. Never


    once had they seen their Hall Master


    this wrecked, this helpless, this easy to crush.


    Godric clutched the shoulder that had been pierced through while blood kept


    pouring between his fingers.


    His face had gone paper white. He stared at the ck-d figure in the sky, and


    everything in him narrowed down to one thought.


    Run. Run now. This was not someone they could stand against.