Rivers of the Night

Chapter 562: Scheme



Matriarch Macie frowned and pressed down a palm. Blackmaul was caught before he smashed into the pillar, a soft cloud of Dark Mana stopping him.

"Your disciples are weak, and you don't seem to treat me the way you should. You aren't a very good Matriarch, now are you? If you were worried about me betraying you in the future and thus you're acting like this, you're only guaranteeing I'll do so in the future. A smarter person would stop pressing my buttons," Theron said coldly.

Theron's words caused the world to seemingly freeze over. The might of a Cloud Realm expert pressed down and many of the weak directly fainted.

Despite feeling an extra bit of weight on his knees, though, Theron hardly reacted. His own Echo was still active, so even a Cloud Realm expert's ability to control the atmosphere around him was limited.

"Your actions might have crippled him."

"And his actions might have killed me. But I'm sure you already knew that."

"His actions were misguided, and I would have stopped him if he sought to kill you just the same," Matriarch Macie said indifferently.

"How cozy and reassuring."

Matriarch Macie didn't say a word for a long while. But then, she suddenly waved a hand.

BOOM!

A slender rectangular box slammed into the ground before Theron. Despite not having a single sharp edge and having only dropped from a height of two feet or so, it sunk into the ground a full foot before it stopped, cracks spreading in all directions from its landing spot.

"You can have this as a reward." After saying this, Matriarch Macie looked up toward the rest of the Sect. "The Sect is in dire straits right now and we have been too soft on you all. This is why a single Demon Chosen could leave us so devastated despite having such weak cultivation.

"This new disciple here is no Demon Chosen, but you may choose to treat him like this if you would like. Or, you can choose to treat your own neighbor in this way.

"For the next three months between now and the coming gathering, there will be no penalties for murder, none for thieving and stealing, none even for rape. Do as you please, kill as you please, pillage as you please.

"The elders will not raise a single finger to stop you. In fact, if you are strong enough to target even the elders themselves, feel free to do so.

"This may be cruel—no, in fact, it is cruel. However, you will not receive sympathy from me nor anyone else.

"If the Sect cannot perform well come three months from now, there will be no Sect to return to. Everything you have built here will be dissolved. Do everything you can to strive to improve. I will not stop you.

"And if you perform well, you can be rewarded just the same."

Matriarch Macie formed a seal with her hands. At first it was slow, but then it began to rapidly change as though she had first loosened the screw before unwinding it with speed.

As she acted, the black box that landed before Theron began to unravel itself, folding in on itself like a jigsaw puzzle until it formed a spear with an aura so radiant it spilled out in all directions.

There was only one word Theron could use to describe it.

Dark.

The blade was carved from a rough cast iron that looked like it couldn't slice even butter. The body was formed of the same jigsaw pieces that the box had collapsed from, protruding out in odd, boxy angles that looked incredibly uncomfortable to hold.

Even buried in the ground as it was, it was still two heads taller than Theron, but all of that paled in comparison to what was most important…

Its aura.

This spear, it was no Treading Cloud Resonance Blade, nor an Ascending Cloud Resonance Blade. To even Theron's shock, it was a Treading Cloud Realm spear, one of the Arcane Resonance—the same exact level as the dagger Theron received from the unnamed cultivator.

This was a weapon the Nightingale Sect shouldn't have even had access to. Even their Patriarch was only at the Ascending Cloud Realm, how could they so boldly reveal a treasure a full level beyond that?

Even in the Hall of Ice and Heart, this weapon would cause a great deal of commotion.

Only the head of the Hall of Ice and Heart, and two elders, would have weapons superior to this.

Theron looked up from the spear and his eyes landed on Matriarch Macie. It seemed that this woman was far more of a schemer than he knew.

Maybe she was just like Blackmaul. Even if she had no proof, there were too many coincidences. So she chose to have her pie and eat it too.

On the one hand, giving Theron such a powerful weapon would keep him more loyal and show that she was sincere. She wasn't treating him cruelly because she hated him, but instead because that was how she planned to treat everyone in the Sect from now on—at least in this coming period.

Without these drastic measures, it would be impossible to improve enough to guarantee they performed well.

But on the other hand, giving Theron something like this would put him at the center of the storm. The disciples were no match for him, but what about the elders of the Sect? Would they be greedy?

Maybe Matriarch Macie didn't want to see the Sect she had grown up in fall by her own hands, so she couldn't stand to make the decision to directly kill Theron herself. But, if he just so happened to die at the hands of someone else, she would feel that her conscience was clean.

Even if Theron hid himself away and didn't interact with any of the elders, or maybe the elders found their own conscience and didn't act to take him out, what about at the gathering?

How many powerful geniuses would be participating? And how far could Theron take his pitiful cultivation?

Some of them would certainly want such a powerful weapon, now wouldn't they?

The fact not just one, but two of the Nightingale Sect's Core Disciples hated Theron ensured that others would find out.

And if Theron managed to weather through all of this… well, wouldn't that just mean the Nightingale Sect would rise again?


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