Chapter 195: A Warning to the Astral Alliance
Chapter 195: Chapter 195: A Warning to the Astral Alliance
Chapter 195: A Warning to the Astral Alliance
The voice was incredibly cold.
It descended upon the courtyard like a blade of ice pressed against the throat of every person present.
Trold’s fingers froze mid-reach.
Every single Astral Alliance member stiffened simultaneously, an inexplicable, primal chill racing down their spines.
Trold and his three Astral Alliance members snapped their heads toward the gateway, their faces twisting with fury.
"Who the actual f—!"
The curse never fully came out of Trold’s mouth.
It died instantly in his throat the second their eyes landed on the two figures standing at the gateway.
Stepping leisurely into the courtyard was a handsome young man and a breathtakingly beautiful silver-haired girl.
But it was the gleaming Gold Badge pinned to the young man’s chest that made their blood run cold.
Gold Badge.
Top thirty of the Inner Palace.
The arrogant sneer on Trold’s face crumbled.
His outstretched hand, which had been mere inches from snatching Liana’s spatial ring, retracted instantly.
"Liana!" Seris didn’t spare the terrified enforcers a single glance. She immediately rushed across the courtyard, her pale purple eyes filled with deep concern as she checked on her friend. "Are you alright? Did they hurt you?"
"S-Seris?" Liana’s voice trembled. The sudden appearance of her closest friend in this desperate moment shattered the dam she had been desperately holding together. Her silver eyes glistened, and she shook her head quickly. "No, I’m fine. They didn’t — they were about to, but —"
Seris squeezed her hands firmly, her expression hardening with a cold fury that looked entirely foreign on her usually gentle face. "It’s alright now. We’re here."
Rhain’s attention remained fixed on the scene before him.
"Liana," Rhain spoke without turning his head. "Tell me what happened."
Liana gritted her teeth, she knew it was impossible to hide it from Rhain anymore.
She gestured toward the arrogant Astral Alliance members who were now visibly shrinking back, and briefly recounted the escalating extortion — how the Astral Alliance had originally demanded twenty percent of their monthly resources as a so-called protection fee, how it had been raised to thirty percent as the Inner Palace Contest approached, and how their group specifically had been singled out for a crushing fifty percent rate.
"It’s all because of Braxton, their leader, he wants to force me into..."
As Rhain listened, his dark grey eyes turned chillingly cold.
The temperature in the courtyard seemed to plummet.
Rhain slowly turned his dark grey eyes toward the four Astral Alliance members.
Terrified by the power of a Gold Badge disciple, the four extortionists didn’t dare to utter a single word of disrespect.
Their previous arrogant sneers had been entirely wiped away, and their legs began to tremble uncontrollably under Rhain’s freezing gaze.
"S-Senior!" Trold stammered, offering a stiff, fearful bow. "Please, this is official Astral Alliance business! Our leader, Senior Braxton, is at the fifth level of the Spirit Manifestation Realm! He ranks in the top five of the Gold Badges! Furthermore... his uncle is Instructor Zobek of the Outer Palace!"
He forced a strained, ugly smile. "I’m sure Senior wouldn’t want to cause a misunderstanding with Senior Braxton over a few Outer Palace commoners..."
Rhain looked at Trold with the detached disinterest one might reserve for a buzzing insect.
He didn’t bother saying a word.
Smack!
The sound of a slap was crisp, and sharp.
Rhain had simply raised his hand and delivered an open-palmed slap across Trold’s face.
The casual blow carried an impossible power behind it.
Trold didn’t even register the movement.
His body left the ground entirely, spinning through the air before smashing into the courtyard’s stone wall with a crackling sound.
He slid down, his jaw hanging at an angle that suggested it was no longer properly connected to the rest of his skull.
He didn’t get up, falling unconscious on the spot.
The remaining three enforcers stared at their leader’s crumpled form with pale faces.
A Level 2 Spirit Manifestation expert, slapped unconscious like a common fly!
"Hand over your spatial rings to her," Rhain ordered indifferently, "Then scram."
The Astral Alliance members froze, their faces turning ugly.
They had always been the ones robbing resources from the weak.
Never in their wildest nightmares did they imagine someone would rob them in broad daylight!
But one look at Trold’s unconscious, wall-embedded body was more than enough to override their pride.
With trembling hands, all three enforcers reached for their spatial rings.
One by one, they pulled the glowing bands from their fingers and held them out toward Liana, their heads bowed so low their chins nearly touched their chests.
Liana hesitated for a second before Seris gently nudged her forward. She stepped up and accepted the three rings, storing them away without a word.
The memebers then moved toward Trold’s crumpled form, clearly intending to retrieve their unconscious leader and flee.
"His ring too," Rhain said flatly.
The memebers almost staggered and fell from the sheer humiliation.
Gritting their teeth in silent fury, they hastily stripped the spatial ring off Trold’s unconscious finger, tossed it to Liana, and hoisted their leader onto their shoulders.
"Deliver a message to Braxton," Rhain stated, his dark grey eyes narrowing dangerously. "Tell him to stay far away from Liana. If he knows what is good for him, he will pretend she does not exist. If I find out that any member of the Astral Alliance so much as looks in her direction again, I will personally pay him a visit. And I promise him, that visit will be the last meaningful event in his life."
"W-We will tell him!"
The terrified memebers didn’t dare to linger for a single second longer. Carrying their unconscious leader, they fled the courtyard like beaten dogs.
The moment the gates closed behind them, a massive, collective feeling of relief fell over the courtyard.
Liana, Sylvan, and the other Outer Palace disciples felt as if they had just survived a walk through the gates of hell.
"Thank you, Rhain," Liana breathed out, "If you hadn’t arrived..."
"Don’t mention it," Rhain simply shook his head.
Sylvan, clutching his own bruised chest, stepped forward with a pessimistic frown. "Now that you’ve openly provoked the Astral Alliance and humiliated their enforcers, they will definitely make our lives worse once you leave!"
Rhain let out a low, amused smirk.
He glanced at Sylvan with an unbothered expression, "Do not worry. I will come to check on this courtyard every few days. If I find that the Astral Alliance has done anything to harm Liana, or any of you... they will deeply regret their choices."
Hearing Rhain’s words, Liana frowned with concern.
"Rhain, you shouldn’t have struck them so heavily," Liana warned, her voice laced with anxiety. "Braxton is notoriously petty and exceedingly cruel. But what worries me most is his uncle, Instructor Zobek. Zobek is deeply corrupt. He uses his authority as a Core Formation Instructor to cover up all of the Astral Alliance’s dirty deeds. If they use the Academy’s rules against you, then I won’t..."
Before Liana could open her mouth to express her guilt over dragging him into this mess, Seris stepped forward and gently took both of Liana’s hands.
"Sister Liana," Seris said softly, her pale purple eyes warm but serious. "Don’t try to shoulder everything alone. Tell me in detail about whatever problems you have been facing in the Outer Palace. I want to hear everything."
"Alright," Liana whispered, managing a fragile smile.
The two girls sat down together, and Liana began to talk, quietly at first, then with increasing honesty, pouring out the accumulated stress and isolation of her weeks in the Outer Palace while Seris listened attentively.
The surrounding Outer Palace disciples could only stare in absolute amazement. Seeing the two most stunning girls they had ever laid eyes on interacting so harmoniously was a visual feast that left them completely spellbound.
One of the disciples, unable to contain his infatuation, nudged Sylvan with his elbow.
"Hey, Sylvan..." the disciple whispered, his eyes glued to Seris. "Who exactly is that fairy? She’s... she’s unbelievably beautiful. Do you know her?"
Hearing the question, Sylvan flinched.
The memory of that devastating night in the Silvercrest Clan’s training arena crashed through his mind with vivid clarity.
He looked at the younger disciple with an expression so haunted that the boy instinctively took a step backward.
"Stay at least ten feet away from her at all times," Sylvan said, his voice as serious as that of a war veteran counseling a fresh recruit. "She is every bit as dangerous as she is beautiful."
The younger disciple swallowed hard and wisely chose not to ask any further questions.