“Boom!”
Before he could clear his thoughts, a massive wooden beam fell from the sky, slamming heavily into the ground beside him.
Starlight looked closely and saw it was the very beam Moen and Xia Duo had been standing on earlier. The two sisters, carrying Little Gold, landed lightly and stood firmly to one side.
As they landed, the rotund figure of Yserazor suddenly appeared several meters away, coldly watching the two sisters as they shielded Little Gold behind them.
Through a quick exchange via the soul link, Starlight soon understood the current situation.
It turned out that after Yserazor had sent the initial wave of assassins flying, he had immediately pursued the two sisters onto the ceiling beams.
His goal was simple: to take Little Gold away. However, in the midst of the chaos, the sisters couldn't determine his true intentions.
Consequently, Xia Duo had decisively struck out, severing the beam with her sword. This not only interrupted Yserazor's pursuit but also allowed them to successfully regroup with Starlight.
“You guys—”
Starlight was about to speak when Xia Duo raised a hand to cut him off.
Her gaze was locked onto Yserazor, her eyes filled with vigilance.
At this point, Yserazor, having been repeatedly interrupted, was on the verge of an explosion. A suffocating pressure radiated from his body. His eyes were bloodshot as he ground out the words through his teeth: “Hand him over to me!”
Yserazor's appearance naturally drew the attention of Philip, who was still locked in combat with Po Kong.
As one of the executors of the deal with the Rift Dragon King, Philip knew Yserazor's true identity and understood all too well what the Dragon King’s rage entailed.
If he wasn't stopped, this castle—built by the House of Red at a massive cost—would likely be reduced to ashes in the Dragon King's fury.
However, just as Philip was about to take action, his gaze fell upon Little Gold behind Moen.
Since his outer clothes had been torn away by Yserazor earlier, Little Gold's upper body was bare. The Dragon Ancestor's Legacy Scale on his chest shimmered brilliantly under the stage lights, looking exceptionally dazzling.
“Is that... the Dragon Ancestor's Legacy Scale!?” Philip's pupils constricted violently. A look of sheer ecstasy instantly surfaced on his face, and even his breathing became ragged.
“Get lost, brat! I don’t have time to play house with you anymore!” Philip roared. The longsword in his hand suddenly shifted forms, and a fierce blade light forced Po Kong back several steps.
Immediately after, he shouted toward the upper floors: “Activate the highest level counter-measures! Clear out all the nuisances!”
“What does he mean by that? Tell me, Bella!” Sui Yun, who was being suppressed to the side, felt his heart skip a beat when he heard this. He quickly looked at Isabella and shouted his question.
Isabella's mood was equally foul, but a flicker of confusion crossed her eyes at Philip's command. Even with her authority, she had never heard of Crimson Smoke having any 'highest level counter-measures.'
A second later, low rumbles echoed from the roof of the hall, as if someone had activated a mechanism.
Following that, the ring of luxurious private boxes on the second floor reserved for VIPs suddenly lit up with a dazzling radiance. The pre-engraved teleportation formations were activated simultaneously.
In a flash of blinding light, those boxes and the VIPs inside vanished instantly, leaving behind nothing but hollowed-out sections in the walls.
“Is this... a protection mechanism for the VIP rooms?”
Sui Yun murmured in a low voice, shock flashing in his eyes. He hadn't expected Crimson Smoke to activate such a legendary device at a time like this.
However, this was only the beginning. Once the VIPs were safely evacuated, the teleportation formations in the hall also activated, but only the ring nearest the main entrance lit up.
Those attendees closest to the door were teleported away in a state of panic, while those further away were heartlessly left behind.
“Lord Philip! What’s happening!? Let us out!”
“I am the head of the House of Roll! Open the doors!”
...
Panic-stricken cries erupted within the venue, but Philip turned a deaf ear to them.
His eyes remained fixed on the Dragon Ancestor's Legacy Scale on Little Gold's chest, a sinister smile creeping onto his face.
“Since you’ve seen things you shouldn't have, don't blame me for being ruthless. You can only blame your own bad luck...” Philip muttered to himself before raising his voice to command, “Initiate the Extermination Protocol! Leave none alive!”
Following his order, countless eerie runes suddenly lit up on the walls surrounding the hall, and a heart-palpitating energy ripple filled the air.
Those runes wriggled like living things, gradually converging into lethal beams of energy that began to sweep indiscriminately across everyone in the venue.
“Not good! Get down!”
Starlight shouted as he scooped up the unconscious Lian and rushed toward Moen and Xia Duo. Simultaneously, his hands moved rapidly through a series of signs, and a thick ice wall instantly rose from the ground to shield them.
The ice wall had barely formed when the energy beams poured down like a torrential rain. Deep pits were immediately blasted into the ice, and cracks spread rapidly, as if it would collapse at any moment.
Based on the feedback from the mana ripples, Starlight was certain that the power of this attack was not something anyone below the Saint Rank could withstand.
If it weren't for the fact that he still had a decent amount of mana in his body, supplemented by Moen's Power of Nature, they would likely have been overwhelmed by this indiscriminate, dense barrage already.
But even if they could barely hold on, the situation remained grim. Those attendees who hadn't managed to evacuate in time were in a far more wretched state.
In just a few seconds, over a thousand ordinary people fell in pools of blood. The entire hall was instantly transformed into a living hell.
“Philip! Have you lost your mind!?” Isabella’s voice was filled with rage and disbelief.
If it weren't for the lightning shield around her body blocking all the attacks directed at her and Sui Yun, Sui Yun would have been turned into a sieve by now.
“Mad? No, I’m just clearing away the obstacles.” Philip sneered, his eyes gleaming with greed and madness. He raised his hand and shouted, “Come forth, Elders!”
At his command, three figures suddenly leaped from a hidden passage on the second floor, landing steadily beside Philip.
The auras of these three were deep and dangerous; they were clearly all Saint Rank powerhouses.
“Four Saint Ranks!? The House of Red was actually hiding this many experts?” Po Kong exclaimed while swinging his giant scythe to deflect the stray energy beams.
Under normal circumstances, the four of them might stand a chance against one or two Saint Ranks.
But now, they were not only in the center of a magic formation's attack but also had to face a Rift Dragon King whose stance was ambiguous. The situation had become extremely precarious in an instant.
In this critical moment, Yserazor suddenly stepped forward, his rotund body standing before the group like a mountain.
With a wave of his hands, a spatial barrier unfolded instantly, blocking all the lethal energy beams.
“Philip! I need an explanation!” Yserazor’s voice boomed like thunder as he questioned him.
Seeing Yserazor intervene, Philip seemed entirely unconcerned. Instead, he replied with a smile, “Is this not our dragon friend? I truly didn't want to fall out with you, after all, you’ve brought us quite a lot of profit. But I have no choice! You all showed up with the Dragon Ancestor's Legacy Scale, so I had to resort to this.”
“What?” Yserazor’s expression shifted drastically, shock and fury flashing in his eyes. “How do you know about the Dragon Ancestor's Legacy Scale!? As I suspected, it was you despicable wretches who stole Aidanach from Dragon Valley!”
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