The bitter, unwilling roar echoed down the corridor outside the hall, fading until it vanished.
Silence returned to the hall, but the oppressive atmosphere made it hard to breathe.
Many lowered their heads, not daring to look at Fang Chen's face.
Fang Chen slowly swept his gaze over the crowd, his eyes sharp as knives. "Desperate times call for desperate measures. I have my own judgment about Lin Xiao's injuries. But anyone who puts private interests before the common good, disrupts our plans, or shakes morale will suffer the same fate! Is that clear?"
"Yes!"
A chill ran through the crowd, and they answered in unison.
"Continue the meeting."
Fang Chen said no more, as though the interruption had never happened.
But while Lin Xiao was being escorted to the dungeon, something went wrong.
The dungeon lay inside a secluded mountainside west of the Heavenly Chasm Gorge camp. Layers of restrictions surrounded it, and security was tight.
Six elite guards escorted Lin Xiao, led by an Immortal King.
As they passed through a mist-filled area generated by a formation, disaster struck!
Hiss! Hiss! Hiss!
Several nearly inaudible sounds tore through the air. Swift as lightning, they struck with unerring precision at the six guards' vulnerable necks!
The attacks were not physical arrows but highly condensed spikes of sinister energy, laden with poison and the power to corrode souls. This was plainly a premeditated ambush!
"Ambush!"
The Immortal King captain reacted instantly, raising a shield of Immortal Light around himself as he roared a warning.
But the attackers clearly knew exactly how the guards would react, and they were formidable.
The captain's Immortal Light held for barely half a breath before it was pierced. He grunted as a cloud of black energy burst from his neck. His body went rigid, his