Rivers of the Night - Chapter 649

Chapter 649: Hardly Care Less

Theron stood across from a young woman he didn’t know. His eyes seemed half-closed, his spear still on his back, his expression unreadable.

The gentle and lively young man they were used to seeing wasn’t present at all. He was practically a completely different person.

Lyra clenched her small fists hard. Theron had only just failed a Tribulation. He might look fine on the outside, but he should almost certainly be suffering heavy internal injuries.

Rejecting this sort of challenge would have been a complete loss of face for the tenth-ranked Core Disciple, so she had no choice but to accept, and Grand Elder Milone could only take a step back.

So there they were, on a flat stretch of wide steps leading to a pavilion.

The pavilion was absolutely gorgeous, tall pillars carved of ice holding up a roof that seemed reminiscent of the skies. As the backdrop to a battle, it seemed all too perfect.

Maybe people were expecting a great spectacle from the ambience alone—the way the snow fell softly from the clouds above, the short gusts of wind that picked up and dropped their hair, and even the smell of a sweet, cold fragrance in the air that almost carried hints of a subtle vanilla.

Daboryah slowly unsheathed a white blade. It was a beautiful silvery-jade sword with a hilt that looked carved from pristine marble. It melded with the falling snow, and the white hair flowing from her almost added to the picturesque scene.

Her Mandate thrummed to life, her Echo sweeping out of her in cyclones of wind currents. The head of a snow leopard snapped over her head as though forming a helm from its open maw.

She didn’t seem to be holding back at all, her aura hitting its peak long before Grand Elder Milone made a signal to start.

No one would ever get this much time to prepare for battle, but Theron didn’t seem to notice at all.

“Begin,” Milone said coldly.

At the bottom of the steps, Rose and the others watched intently. Other than the twins, all they had seen was Theron’s points—they had never personally seen him in action. They were all curious if he really cheated or not.

If he used external sources, Mana more powerful than a Silver Mancer should have, or anything of the sort, they would be able to notice instantly.

This test was probably even more important to them than whether Theron received the chance to participate or not.

Daboryah took a strong but light step forward. It was purposeful and filled with vitality, sending a ripple of Ice Mana outward, but it was somehow also so flexible Theron felt that it could have changed to any other stance in a heartbeat.

Then she vanished in a step, the friction in the air plummeting as her body almost squeezed through the wind in an odd movement technique’s cadence.

In a flash, her blade was in front of Theron, thrusting at his throat from an odd angle. It curved up and right along the arc of his blind spot. Odd fluctuations rippled along the blade, a controlled soul method hiding it within Theron’s Third Eye as well, almost as though a lesser application of [Entangling Silence] but instead tied to a blade technique.

The skill of the tenth-ranked Core Disciple was truly something to behold.

BANG.

A fist drove right into her gut.

Daboryah’s eyes opened wide, her inner organs shredding to pieces beneath the force. Her back exploded with power that rippled through her skull, her spine fracturing despite the blow coming from the front.

Cacophonies of exploding concentric circles of air shot out from her, and yet the fist was so controlled that she didn’t even fly from Theron’s knuckles. She was practically attached to him, her limp body glued to his body as she slumped over and nearly collapsed on him.

Her skin was unblemished, her clothing left intact, and yet her body itself was already on the verge of death. Her entire digestive tract, her stomach, even her uterus were little more than bands of shredded flesh within her.

Any mortal would have died on impact.

And even as a Touching Cloud Realm expert, Daboryah immediately passed out, her body shutting down to protect itself, trying to cling onto what little hope for life it had.

Theron pulled his fist back. Looking at his knuckles, he realized he was wrong about not damaging her clothing. It seemed he still needed more work.

The heat generated by the speed of his fist alone was such that while there was no hole out her back, there was one at the front, singeing her sensitive skin with third-degree burns and taking the hole in her clothes with it.

With no one left to support her, she collapsed to the ground, blood leaking out of her orifices and her fingers twitching from time to time.

Barely anyone present was qualified to see how Theron moved. Maybe only the strongest of the Core Disciples and the elders had.

In a blink, the battle was over.

Injured…?

Where?

Theron began to walk up the steps toward the looming pavilion. His back seemed quite lonely in the falling snow, but at this point, there was nothing else to stop him.

Lyrah looked toward Theron, her gaze flickering. Was he really hiding his cultivation? Had he not failed a Tribulation at all?

Suddenly, even she was beginning to question things. But the answer didn’t matter to her.

“Go,” she said to the other disciples. “The Trial of Heart starts now. How far you make it will depend on yourselves. You’ve all heard the stories and seen the statues. Understand your own limits, learn from your predecessors, or you’ll become one of the many statues of ice that line that Heart Pavilion.”

Orin’s gaze flickered, and he was the first to move. Soon, the other Core Disciples followed, leaving an unfamiliar elder to help the half-dead Daboryah up.

It seemed that Theron had made another enemy…

But he could hardly care any less than he already did.