Chapter 199: Breaking the Rules
Chapter 199: Chapter 199: Breaking the Rules
Chapter 199: Breaking the Rules
Following Dean Carmilla’s abrupt and mysterious departure, the tension that had gripped the courtyard finally evaporated.
Outer Palace disciples let out long, shuddering exhales, collapsing onto the ground in relief.
They had just survived an encounter with the most powerful entity in Stormveil City, and their minds were still struggling to process the sheer absurdity of it all.
Seris immediately sat beside Liana, holding her hand gently.
"It’s over now, Sister Liana," Seris murmured softly. "No one will bother you again."
Liana nodded slightly.
With Zobek gone, the pressure upon their shoulders had indeed reduced significantly.
But while the girls talked and the Outer Palace disciples let out sighs of relief, one person in the courtyard did not share their optimism.
Rhain stood slightly apart from the group, his dark grey eyes staring at the courtyard gates through which Zobek had fled.
Zobek had been banished, yes. But Zobek was merely a corrupt tool, a convenient shield used by the true culprit.
The root of the problem, the one who had orchestrated the extortion, ordered the beatings, and targeted Liana in the first place—was still sitting comfortably in his luxurious Inner Palace pavilion.
Braxton.
Rhain knew exactly how men like Braxton operated.
As long as that arrogant snake remained untouched, he would continue to scheme from the shadows, nursing his bruised ego and looking for any opportunity to strike back.
Leaving a venomous snake alive was not his style.
He preferred to pull the weed out by its roots.
"Seris," Rhain spoke, his calm voice cutting through the quiet murmurs of the courtyard.
Seris turned her pale purple eyes toward him. "Yes, husband?"
"Stay here and keep Liana and the others company for a while," Rhain instructed calmly, his face revealing nothing of the violent intentions brewing in his mind. "I have a minor errand to take care of."
Seris blinked, tilting her head slightly, but she didn’t question him. "Okay. I will wait for you here."
Without explaining any further, Rhain turned around and walked out of the courtyard.
____________
Meanwhile, deep within the most luxurious sector of the Inner Palace.
Inside his extravagant, heavily warded courtyard, Braxton was in a state of mind-numbing panic.
He was pacing back and forth across the floor, his usually handsome and arrogant face was ashen and dripping with cold sweat.
In his trembling hand was a crushed transmission talisman.
He had just received the frantic message from one of the fleeing Outer Palace disciples.
His uncle, and his greatest protector had been caught red-handed by the Dean herself.
Stripped of his title. Banished from the Academy. Ruined in the span of a single breath.
"Dammit! Dammit! DAMMIT!"
Braxton kicked a wooden chair, sending it crashing into the wall.
His mind raced through the implications with frantic speed.
Dean had personally intervened! If the supreme Domain Master of the Academy decided to investigate Zobek’s corruption further, she would inevitably uncover the Astral Alliance’s extortion racket.
Would the Dean punish him next? Would he be stripped of his Gold Badge and banished alongside his uncle?
Just as Braxton was haunted in his own terror, a deafening explosion ripped through the air.
BOOM!
Entire pavilion shook, as if a localized earthquake had struck directly beneath it.
Braxton stumbled, barely catching his balance as the high-tier defensive arrays surrounding his residence that were specifically designed to withstand prolonged bombardments from Core Formation Realm experts shattered like fragile glass.
Rhain hadn’t even bothered knocking.
Channeling his overwhelming physical strength, he had simply raised his leg and delivered a crushing kick to the courtyard gates.
"Who dares?"
A half-dozen Astral Alliance memebers stationed inside the courtyard drew their weapons, their auras erupting as they rushed blindly toward the shattered entrance to defend their leader.
But just then, an invisible, primordial pressure descended upon the entire courtyard like the hand of an ancient god pressing down from the heavens.
Overlord’s Tyranny.
Rhain hadn’t even released the full extent of his spiritual suppression.
A mere fraction of the Abyssal Sovereign Physique’s innate terror was projected through a tiny portion of his vast Spiritual Sense.
But that fraction was more than sufficient.
The half-dozen memebers, all of them Spirit Manifestation Realm cultivators ranging from the first to the third level felt as if the sky itself had collapsed onto their shoulders.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
The charging memebers didn’t even make it three steps.
They dropped to their knees, their weapons clattering uselessly against the stone tiles, completely paralyzed by an instinctual fear that told them they were standing before a god of death.
CRASH!
The inner chamber doors burst open.
Braxton stormed out, his fifth-level Spirit Manifestation aura erupting around him with a violent rage.
The moment his eyes locked onto the intruder, his pupils contracted to pinpoints.
"Rhain!" Braxton exclaimed in shock.
He seen Rhain before during the Battle Arts Division classes, so he recognised him instantly.
But what shocked him even more was the oppressive aura rolling off Rhain’s body, an aura that made his very soul tremble with fear.
But the sheer panic of losing his uncle forced Braxton to cling desperately to the one shield he had left.
His status.
"You dare attack my residence?!" Braxton roared, pointing a shaking finger at Rhain. He puffed up his chest, trying to project the authority of a Top 5 Gold Badge disciple. "Academy’s rules strictly forbid unprovoked attacks on Gold Badge disciples within the academy! If you lay a hand on me, the Disciplinary Hall will cripple your cultivation and throw you out! You wouldn’t dare touch me!"
Rhain’s dark grey eyes stared at Braxton with a chilling emptiness.
"I told your dogs to deliver a message," Rhain stated, his devoid of any emotion. "Did you not hear that?"
Shadow Flicker Step.
Rhain’s figure blurred.
Braxton’s eyes widened.
How dare he...?
This was the last thought in his mind as he desperately tried to raise his arms, channeling his Level 5 essence to form a defensive barrier.
It was entirely useless.
Rhain materialized directly in front of him, bypassing the essence barrier as if it were made of thin paper.
Rhain’s hand shot forward, gripping Braxton’s right wrist.
CRACK!
"AARGHHH!"
Braxton screamed in agony as his wrist was snapped completely backward, the bone shattering under Rhain’s monstrous grip.
But Rhain wasn’t finished.
Before the scream could even fully leave his throat, Rhain smoothly shifted his stance and drove a brutal elbow directly into Braxton’s stomach.
Pfft!
Braxton vomited a mouthful of blood, his eyes bulging as the sheer physical force lifted him off his feet.
But Rhain didn’t let him fly. He caught Braxton by his left arm, jerking him back down.
CRACK!
His left arm snapped at the elbow with the same ruthlessness.
Rhain completely ignored the sacred Academy laws against unsanctioned violence, dismantling the 5th ranked genius of the Inner Palace with the casual ease of breaking dry twigs.
Braxton collapsed onto the stone tiles, coughing up blood and gasping weakly, his shattered arms lying at unnatural angles.
"I—I’ll kill—the rules—you can’t—" Braxton gasped incoherently through the agony, his mind refusing to accept the reality of what had just happened.
CRACK!
Rhain’s boot drove directly into Braxton’s ribcage.
Four ribs shattered simultaneously.
This time, the force of the kick launched the fifth-ranked genius off his knees and sent him skidding across the courtyard tiles, leaving a smear of blood in his wake before his back slammed into the base of a pillar.
Braxton stared ahead, his vision was rapidly darkening at the edges as he saw Rhain walking toward him unhurriedly.
The dark-robed figure came to a stop directly above him.
Then Rhain’s boot pressed down.
It landed squarely on Braxton’s shattered chest.
"GAAAAH—!"
Braxton’s scream turned guttural as the pressure bore down on his fractured ribs. Tears and blood streamed down his twisted face.
He looked up at the figure standing above him through blurred, pain-filled eyes.
What he saw made his soul nearly leave his body.
Rhain’s dark grey eyes stared down at him with such detachment that Braxton understood one fact with perfect clarity...
This man genuinely did not care about the consequences.
If Braxton gave him even the slightest reason, he would kill him right here, right now, and walk away without losing a single night’s sleep.
"Astral Alliance is officially dissolved as of this moment," Rhain looked down at Braxton and spoke with the authority of a judge passing the judgement.
He leaned down slightly, the pressure on Braxton’s shattered chest increasing.
"If you, or anyone affiliated with you, ever looks in Liana’s direction again..I will find you. And I promise you, no Academy law will save you."
Rhain lifted his boot and stepped back.
He turned around, clasping his hands behind his back, and began walking leisurely toward the destroyed gateway.
Behind him, the Astral Alliance memebers remained paralyzed on the ground, their faces pressed against the ground in soul-crushing terror as they saw the man leaving calmly after crippling their leader.