The moment the trial results were announced, Lord Yachan's last thread of hope finally snapped.
Just a moment ago, he had been looking down from on high, treating all living beings as pawns. In the blink of an eye, he had crashed and fallen from power. The enormous reversal left him on pins and needles, ill at ease from head to toe.
"I still have important matters to attend to. Make your own decisions regarding the subsequent arrangements."
He tossed out a line of pleasantries, then strode away as fast as his legs could carry him, becoming the first to leave without looking back.
"The rewards haven't even all been collected. Why has the Vice Sect Master left already?"
The disciples of Wuhui Cliff looked at one another, their faces blank with bewilderment.
Before they could even sort out what had happened, gazes from all around surged toward them like a flood—mockery, derision, schadenfreude... It was as though everyone were gathering around to watch a bunch of buffoons make fools of themselves.
Seeing this, everyone stiffened. At last, they understood.
Lord Yachan must have done something earlier to offend quite a few powerful figures present. Now that he had lost his influence, they had immediately seized the opportunity to make things worse and kick him while he was down.
"The trouble he caused—why should we bear the consequences..."
The disciples were so miserable they could have wept. One by one, they hunched their necks and kept even their breathing as light as possible, terrified that if anything stirred, they would become the targets of everyone's anger.
Even someone like Ten-Step Yama could not help feeling his scalp go numb at this moment. When he stepped onto the platform to receive his reward, he was so constrained that it seemed he