Hundreds of core elders sat in the Main Hall, arguing over the recent personnel transfers along the border defenses.
Suddenly.
Crack.
A crisp sound rang out from the deepest part of the Main Hall.
It was not loud, but at this moment, it sounded particularly piercing.
All the elders stopped talking and looked toward the sound.
There, at the head of the Main Hall, on the altar holding the elders' life-bound Jade Slips.
A wide crack had split Elder Huo Chen's Jade Slip.
Then, before everyone's eyes, it shattered into a pile of powder.
The Main Hall instantly fell silent.
Even the sound of breathing stopped.
Elder Huo Chen was a genuine Immortal Grade Heavenly Sovereign!
He had gone out to guard a Lower Plane passage, and he was dead in less than half a day?
Without even sending a distress signal, his soul had been erased outright?
"This..."
An elder seated in the front row rose, sweat covering his head, unable to speak clearly.
Before he could finish.
On the Throne at the very front of the Main Hall.
Xiao Yan, who had kept his eyes closed all this time, slowly opened them.
The instant he opened his eyes, every flame above the Endless Fire Domain stopped flickering, as though even their heat had frozen.
Xiao Yan did not fly into a rage.
There was not even any discernible expression on his face.
He merely rose and reached out to brush the dust from his black sleeve.
"Huo Chen is dead."
Xiao Yan's voice was calm as it carried throughout the Main Hall.
"They didn't conceal their aura."
"They're coming for us."
With that, Xiao Yan took a step forward.
He vanished into thin air from the Throne.
The Martial Realm.
Atop a lone peak a hundred thousand