The Celestial Tribunal, the great hall.
The Tribunal Venerable sat high on the golden throne, his face dark as the sky before a storm.
He released no pressure at all.
Even so, the air in the entire great hall had gone rigid, to the point that drawing breath itself became hard.
In the middle of the great hall, more than a dozen celestial cultivators knelt.
Their clothes were torn apart, and their bodies were covered in wounds.
They were the same people who had fled back from Thunderpeak.
Gwendolyn''s Winter''s Reach had trapped them for less than an hour before the ice crystals shattered.
But Jared and Gwendolyn had already left.
All they could do was slink back to the Tribunal in disgrace.
"Magnus Storme... is dead?"
The Tribunal Venerable''s voice was calm, calm in a way that crawled under the skin.
The fourth-tier True Immortal cultivator kneeling in front shook all over, his forehead pressed t to the floor, not daring to lift his head.
"Y-yes, Hall Master. That Jared... killed him in one strike."
The great hall went dead silent.
Magnus Storme was a True Immortal Realm Level Seven, the Deputy Hall Master of the Tribunal.
For 5 thousand years, he had run wild across the Fifteenth Firmament, and no one had ever dared challenge him.
Now he was dead.
A human cultivator at the Top Level High Immortal Realm Level Eight had cut him down in a single strike.
The Tribunal Venerable said nothing for a long while.
Then he smiled.
It was the faintest curve, so slight it almost wasn''t there at all.
But every man kneeling in the great hall caught the same chill, a cold rush shooting
from the soles of the feet straight up to the crown of the skull.
"Jared," he said, his voice still level. "And Mchy Vane."
He rose and stepped down from the ck throne.
His golden robe dragged across the floor with a soft, rasping hiss.
He stopped in front of the dozen or so cultivators and lowered his eyes to them.
"You watched him kill Magnus Storme, and none of you stopped him?"
"Hall Master, we did! We moved against him, but Jared had an aplice, the woman in white. She trapped all of us with an ice art, and we—"
The cultivator never finished.
The Tribunal Venerable lifted a hand and gave a light flick.
The man''s body crumpled like it had been crushed inside an invisible giant''s grip.
In the next instant, he burst into a cloud of blood.
The blood mist spread through the air and rained down over the cultivators beside him, painting them red.
No one dared move.
No one dared make a sound.
"Magnus Storme is dead, and you''re still alive."
"That is your good fortune," the Tribunal Venerable said, still in that same t voice. "But I don''t like looking at trash."
He turned and walked back to the ck throne.
"Send the order out. Starting today, any force anywhere in the Fifteenth Firmament that dares work with Jared is an enemy of the Tribunal.
Kill them without exception."
"The moment Jared is found, kill him on sight."
"His head is worth one divine relic."
"Yes!" the celestial cultivators in the great hall answered as one.
The Tribunal Venerable closed his eyes and leaned back against the ck throne. "Mchy Vane... You think using another man''s de to kill for you means I can''t touch you?" he murmured. "Once Jared is dealt with, you''re next."
That same day, the Tribunal''s ban swept across the entire Fifteenth Firmament.
At the Wandering Cultivators Alliance, when Windclear received the news, he sat there without a word for a long time.
Then he burned the contents of the ban and told the disciple beside him, "As for Jared, we know nothing. And no one ever came to ask us."
In the beast-race Skywolf Tribe, after Wolf-Fang got the news, a coldugh slipped out of him. "What the hell is the Tribunal? Since when do they get to meddle in my Skyr?ff Tribe''s business content
He ripped the ban to pieces.
At the demon Shadow Hall, when Mchy Vane received the news, he only smiled.
He said to Shade, "The Tribunal Venerable is rushing now. And once he starts rushing, he starts making mistakes."
The smaller powers, meanwhile, were caught in the middle.
They didn''t dare offend the Tribunal, and they didn''t dare offend Jared either that monster who had killed
a True Immortal Realm Level Sever
expert in a single strike.
For a time, the undercurrents moving through the Fifteenth Firmament burned even
hotter than the mes in the Pyre Chasm.
Moonshade Realm, Council Hall.
ric''s face looked even heavier than before.
He set the Tribunal''s ban on the table and looked at Jared.
"Mr. Chance, the Tribunal has already issued a kill order against you. And they''ve
warned every force out there not to work with you."
Jared picked up the ban, swept his eyes across it, and said nothing.
"As for the Skywolf Tribe..."
ric paused, then went on. "They may have ignored the Tribunal''s ban on the surface but the Soulkindling me is one of their greatest treasures. With things the way they are now, they may not be willing to lend it."
Jared put the ban back on the table and rose to his feet.
"I''ll go take a look."
Lydia walked over and caught his sleeve. "Your injuries still aren''t fully healed."
Jared smiled. "I''m mostly fine now. Besides, I''m not going there to fight this time. I''m going to negotiate. There won''t be any danger."
Lydia bit her lip and didn''t let go.
"You say that every time."
Jared looked her in the eyes and said, with quiet certainty, "I promise you. I''lle
back."
Lydia stayed silent for a moment. Then, atst, she let go of his sleeve.
"Then be careful."
Jared gave her a nod, then turned and walked out of the Council Hall.
Gwendolyn followed behind him.
The two of them rose into the air and turned into streaks of light, flying straight
toward the Skywolf Tribe.