After listening to Horna's account, Claire nodded. "Mm, it was about what I expected."
Although Upton had already heard those speculations from Horna and had been convinced of them himself, he was still deeply shocked after receiving confirmation from Claire.
Then Claire walked to the corridor railing and looked down at the long, brightly lit buildings below. Her fingers began tapping rhythmically against the railing again.
"Tap! Tap! Tap! Tap..."
"It's entered a slowdown phase now. That won't do."
Claire's casual remark made both Upton and Horna's hearts tremble. The news they had gathered over the past few days had been bloody between every line—every report mentioned at least one wizard's death. Now that things had finally begun to slow down, Claire was actually saying that it would not do.
Upton began to feel fortunate that he was on the same side as Claire. Otherwise, there was a very real chance that he would have been one of the wizards mentioned in those reports.
Horna's fear of Claire rose to another level. Back when he had been a Legendary Wizard, he had killed quite a few people himself, but he had never been like Claire—deliberately plotting and arranging for that perfected Cultivation Method to spread, causing the Wizard World to lose more than a fifth of its wizards. And now she even thought too few people had died. Just what terrifying scheme was she laying out, if so many deaths were still not enough?
Just as Horna had thought, Claire really was planning something, and the most crucial part of it was eliminating as many wizards in the Wizard World as possible.
Claire had decided on this long ago. Horna's appearance had merely pushed her plan forward by a great deal.
Just when everyone believed the matter had finally