Chapter 182: Nothing Escapes the Patriarch’s Notice

Nothing Escapes the Patriarch’s Notice

Golden dragon embroidery glimmered faintly beneath the sunlight.

Then Victor activated the Primordial Divine Art: Eternal Void Roc Sovereign Scripture.

Space rippled around them.

It moved like gentle waves upon a calm lake.

The surrounding landscape began to distort.

The distance between places became meaningless beneath Victor’s power.

They were preparing to return to the Sovereign Blessed Land.

Then Victor suddenly looked behind him.

His golden eyes seemed to pass through the surrounding mountains.

His lips curved into a faint smile.

"Will you come on your own? Or shall I carry you?"

The words immediately made Damien and the others tense.

They exchanged glances.

Another Salvatore family member was here?!

They remembered.

The Salvatore family had four spots.

But only three of them had come.

Someone qualified to enter this place had to be a Salvatore family Rank member!

Could it be...?

Their expressions slowly became strange.

They exchanged another glance.

Could it be the mysterious Everlasting Puppet?

The one who had never shown his face?

Had their clansman simply watched while they fought for their lives?!

Damien’s eyes twitched.

Austin’s mouth opened slightly.

Even Nux, who was usually the most forgiving of his clansmen, felt a flicker of dissatisfaction.

They had nearly died.

They had fought a Lunar Saint.

They had even been forced into desperate situations.

And someone had apparently been hiding nearby the entire time?

Perhaps sensing their thoughts, Victor simply smiled.

Victor rose his hand and swept it through the air.

His movement was casual.

Almost lazy.

Yet the moment his fingers passed through the empty space before him, the void trembled.

A faint golden ripple spread outward.

Then—

With a wave of his hand, thousands of killing formations manifested across the void.

One after another, ancient formations emerged from nothingness.

Some were hidden beneath the mountains.

Some floated between the clouds.

Others were buried so deeply within the fabric of space that even a Grand Saint Realm expert might not have noticed them without deliberately searching.

Every formation carried an aura capable of destroying heaven and earth.

For a moment, the entire Red Cliff Mountain fell silent.

Nux and the others stared upward.

Their expressions slowly changed.

They had been fighting here for so long.

They had crossed mountains.

They had battled enemies.

They had pushed themselves to their limits.

Yet not once had they realized that such terrifying formations had been surrounding them from the very beginning.

If even a fraction of those formations had activated during their battle, the consequences would have been unimaginable.

They would have been annihilated in an instant.

Nux’s red eyes widened.

Damien’s black eyes narrowed.

Even Austin, who had just survived a battle against a Lunar Saint, felt a chill crawl down his spine.

Had the Everlasting Puppet laid all of these formations?

Victor glanced toward the empty void.

His golden eyes remained calm.

"As I said—each of you has your own path to walk."

His voice carried no blame.

There was no anger in it.

Only quiet certainty.

"He did not simply stand by. He did far more. But this is his path."

The meaning behind those words was obvious.

Leandro Salvatore had been watching.

He had been protecting them.

He simply hadn’t chosen to step into the center of their battlefield.

Victor looked once more into the depths of the void.

Seeing no movement, he did not linger.

He turned around, gathered Nux and the others, and departed.

His black robe fluttered gently behind him.

Golden dragon embroidery shimmered beneath the sunlight.

His long black hair brushed against his shoulders as he walked away.

It was only after a long while that the remaining prodigies, who were still frozen in shock, finally recovered.

No one dared remain.

They fled Red Cliff Mountain in haste.

Only when the entire mountain range had become completely empty did a figure finally emerge from the peak.

Leandro Salvatore stepped out from the shadows.

His black hair moved gently in the mountain breeze.

His green eyes carried a complicated light.

He looked toward the direction Victor had disappeared.

Then he gave a helpless smile.

"Nothing escapes the Patriarch’s notice, does it..."

There was bitterness in his voice.

When the Falling Goose Lunar Saint had first appeared, Leandro had immediately sensed danger.

He had known that something was wrong.

He had therefore begun laying formations throughout the void.

Quietly.

Carefully.

Without revealing himself.

The reason Austin and the others hadn’t been instantly killed was not simply because of their own strength.

Among the formations Leandro had prepared, hundreds were weakening arrays.

They had continuously weakened the Falling Goose Lunar Saint’s power.

Every clash.

Every exchange.

Every terrifying attack.

His formations had quietly absorbed part of the impact.

Without those formations, the situation would have been far worse.

And when the Lunar Saint had launched his final desperate strike, intending to annihilate them all—

Leandro had already been prepared to reveal himself.

He had been ready to activate every formation at once.

But then Victor had descended.

Like a heavenly god stepping into the mortal world.

One hand.

One movement.

The Lunar Saint had been crushed.

Leandro slowly exhaled.

There had been no opportunity for him to act.

And perhaps that was precisely what Victor had intended.

"Patriarch..."

Leandro’s gaze became distant.

"’All ages are wrong’..."

His brows slowly tightened.

"I don’t understand those words..."

The words had been left behind by the Eternal Emperor.

The existence who had surpassed the ordinary limits of an Emperor’s lifespan.

The being whose inheritance Leandro had obtained.

He could still remember that ancient voice.

It had carried unwillingness.

Fury.

Regret.

And beneath all of those emotions was something far more frightening.

Despair.

The final message had been only a few words.

"All ages are wrong!"

Leandro had never forgotten them.

But what had those words truly meant?

Was the Eternal Emperor speaking about himself?

Had he realized that everything he had pursued had been wrong?

Or...

Was he speaking about the vast eternity itself?

Leandro didn’t know.