Max rely shrugged, his mouth curving into the faintest ghost of a sardonic smile as he replied with careless ease, "What can I say? I don’t go looking for trouble—but if trouble cos knocking on my door, I demolish those troubles down to rubble."
His tone was light, almost playful, yet underneath it humd a dark, unmistakable finality that sent a faint shiver along Lyra’s spine.
She let out a small chuckle, the sound soft and brief, before her amusent faded, replaced by a grave seriousness as she leaned in a fraction closer, lowering her voice as she said, "Congratulations, Max—you’ve just officially offended the Thunder Monarch Hall, the Void Soul Tower, and most likely the Mountain Gods Valley too, considering they’re allied with the Thunder Monarch Hall. When you enter the secret domain, you’ll have to be extrely careful around the mbers of those three forces. After what happened just now, they’ll definitely target you."
Max’s brow furrowed slightly, a flicker of irritation crossing his face as he countered in a low voice, "Aren’t they afraid that killing would provoke the wrath of the Great Ruler Empire?"
Princess Lyra exhaled slowly, her gaze shifting toward the swirling purple portal as if gathering her thoughts before turning back to him, her eyes glimring with a mixture of resignation and warning as she explained, "You don’t understand how it works here. In the Middle Domain, there’s this unspoken rule: if soone dies in the secret domain—whether from monsters, traps, or by being killed by another person from other forces—nobody can be held responsible once they’re inside. No force is supposed to seek vengeance outside for deaths that happen within. So even if they kill you inside the secret domain, our Great Ruler Empire would be forced to accept your death and do nothing about it."
Max’s eyes narrowed, a faint shadow flickering in their depths as he processed her words, and then, in a voice suddenly edged with steel and icy calm, he let out a low sneer as he asked, "So you an... if I kill the mbers of those three forces inside the secret domain, they can do nothing to afterward either?"
Princess Lyra blinked rapidly, montarily stunned by the dangerous glint she saw in his eyes, and for an instant, she couldn’t quite fathom how this young man’s mind seed to leap straight to retaliation rather than self-preservation, and she stamred slightly before recovering her voice to say, "Yeah... that’s true. They could do nothing to you afterward—but you’d have to survive it. You have to understand, Max, you’re likely going to be heavily targeted by those three forces. You should be careful."
Max gave her a calm nod, his expression placid as though her warning had rely confird sothing he’d already decided, but deep inside his mind, a far colder, more ruthless thought surged forward, his eyes glinting briefly with a predatory light as he thought to himself, ’If they dare co for in the secret domain... then I’ll make sure none of them ever leave it alive.’
Just then, as though the heavens were determined to keep the tension mounting, another void shuttle streaked across the sky and ca to a graceful halt before the swirling purple portal, its hull gleaming faintly with mystic runes.
As its doors parted with a low chanical hum, a fresh group of cultivators from the Void Soul Tower disembarked, their figures gliding down through the air with practiced ease, robes billowing around them like dark wings, each one exuding an aura of quiet arrogance that imdiately drew wary glances from many of the surrounding forces already gathered.
Max, standing beside Princess Lyra, cast them only a cursory glance at first, his eyes sweeping over the familiar dark uniforms and the chilling confidence on their faces, but then, in the next heartbeat, his gaze snagged on a figure among them, and he felt his entire body go rigid as though an invisible cord had yanked him to a halt, his eyes narrowing sharply, ’Is that... Lenavira?’
For trailing a few steps behind the main cluster of Void Soul Tower disciples was a slender, graceful woman who, at first glance, bore an uncanny resemblance to Lenavira.
The sa delicate elfin features, the sa elegant posture—but whose entire appearance seed draped in shadows, her once brilliant golden hair now replaced by a silken waterfall of dark strands that shimred like obsidian under the light.
And her eyes, which Max rembered as vivid green like spring leaves glistening in the rain, were now pools of fathomless black, cold and unreadable, while faint grey markings traced over her pale skin, giving her face an otherworldly, almost haunting beauty that seed carved from moonlight and midnight mist.
She looked so much like Lenavira, and yet so profoundly different that Max felt a chill run down his spine, and as he stared at her, a mory stirred, echoing in his mind of a quiet conversation he’d once had with Lenavira, in which she’d confessed, her voice barely a whisper, that elves who succumbed too deeply to killing and slaughter, who could not control the darkness festering inside them, would inevitably fall and transform into dark elves, creatures driven by bloodlust and shadow, forever severed from the radiant paths of their kin.
Max’s expression grew solemn, shadows gathering in his eyes as he watched her, and he felt a flicker of sothing—worry, perhaps, or a vague ache of sorrow—curl in his chest as the woman joined the Void Soul Tower’s ranks without a word, moving as though she belonged there entirely, while his unbroken gaze eventually drew her attention, and she turned her head to look straight at him.
For a fleeting mont, their eyes t, black locking onto pinkish red, but though he searched her face desperately for any flicker of recognition or emotion, he found nothing but an unreadable blankness, as though every mory and feeling had been buried beneath a layer of ice.
Max’s frown deepened as a storm of questions churned through his mind, ’Is she Lenavira... or not?’
Just as he stood there, his thoughts tangled with uncertainty and concern, a sudden shift of color in the massive portal before them caught his eye, and he snapped his gaze forward to see the roiling purple light of the portal flicker and gradually transition into a shimring blue, the glow rippling outward in waves like liquid sapphire, filling the air with a resonant hum that seed to vibrate through the bones of everyone present.
Emperor Hers, who had been standing with regal composure, took a step forward, his robes catching the new glow as he announced in a voice deep and steady, carrying clearly across the entire grand assembly, "The portal to the secret domain has stabilized now."
His gaze swept over the gathered young geniuses of the Great Ruler Empire, his eyes stern yet tinged with an unmistakable pride as he continued, "It will be ready to use in an hour. You will have three months inside the secret domain. When those three months end, you will be forcibly expelled from the domain—unless, of course, you are dead."
His tone grew more somber, each word weighed with the gravity of countless years of rule and experience, as he added, "You should all be careful inside. Whatever happens in the secret domain stays in the secret domain, so even if you die, no one outside will do anything about it. Rember that above all else, your life is the greatest priority. Nothing—not treasure, not glory—is more important than staying alive."
The gathered geniuses, many of whom had been standing with eyes wide and breaths shallow at the spectacle of the shifting portal, now nodded solemnly at Emperor Hers’ words, their faces a mixture of determination, fear, and silent resolve, while beside them.
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