Rivers of the Night-Chapter 431: For What

Theron stared out into a room filled with Bloomstone and began to pull out all of the jades that he had personally carried here, tossing them in.

As expected, the moment the jades made contact, the room bloomed with light and the Bloomstones began to multiply.

Even as he watched this, he was very confused. Was this world just a method of keeping up with the stock of Bloomstone? But if whoever created it could somehow forge beasts capable of crafting the energy needed to multiply Bloomstone, then why all the extra steps? Just to challenge him?

It felt so very odd, as though it wasn’t even really meant to make sense in the first place. But Theron didn’t like that answer at all. How could something be designed not to make sense?

’I guess that I can take this library away now...’

Theron hadn’t even tried before, for obvious reasons. But now he and Patriarch Gian were practically destined to stand on opposite sides from now on, and he didn’t fear the man nearly as much.

He was in need of a storage device that didn’t have so many limitations. And this... would do.

**

In the outside world, the Luminescent Moon Sect rumbled. A familiar tower shook on its very foundations before it suddenly began to sink into the ground, slowly vanishing from sight.

Patriarch Gian sighed when he saw this scene. The foundations of the Luminescent Moon Sect were all connected. Their ancestors had managed to use some special means to bring out things they could take advantage of, but ultimately, everything they had here was owned by that Secret Realm.

Many of the things Theron couldn’t figure out were actually because the library he stood in was only one piece of the puzzle. As for the other pieces? Well, the tower was one of them.

But unfortunately for the young lad, Gian was only in possession of one of those pieces. As for the others...?

The Nightingale Clan rumbled next.

The Mandate Guild rumbled soon after that.

The Daggers of the Night followed suit.

And then came the Seijin.

One after another, powerhouse Clans and organizations alike found themselves losing key pieces of what had made them so grand in the first place. Secrets long buried to time—and those that had been revealed unwittingly, leading to destruction—appeared in the world once more.

The Luminescent Tower.The Ebonstone Mines.The Mandate Core.The Dagger Call Platform.The Karmic Needle and Thread.

All of them vanished at once, while Theron himself was entirely unaware. He had already stepped out of the Secret Realm. Unbeknownst to him, these treasures had returned home, causing sweeping changes in the opal ring of violet and blue that now fastened itself to his finger.

That was because there weren’t five treasures—there were a perfect nine. As for the four that hadn’t been mentioned?

His father’s necklace.His father’s short sword.The slab.And finally...

The library itself.

**

Theron looked up into the skies, his breathing steady. He hadn’t been in there for long, no more than a week, but it still felt, somehow, like everything had changed.

He felt several gazes on him. Gazes that had been there during his talk with Grand Elder Acer as well, but now they somehow felt more feverish, more unwilling.

The disciples of the Luminescent Moon Sect.

Part of Theron wondered why they were so angry with him this time. And another part... simply didn’t care.

BOOM!

A heavy pair of feet landed on the ground before Theron, the intent of someone surprisingly quite familiar blazing before him.

Aeryn Vermouth. Malaya’s elder brother.

Last Theron had heard, Aeryn had fallen unconscious after surprisingly surviving his entry into the Luminescent Tower. As for what happened after that, Theron actually didn’t know because he had been immediately distracted by the Secret Realm opening before having to leave himself.

What happened to Aeryn after this had been none of his business. He had used the Thistles in order to get what he wanted, and after they were useless to him, he left. If he didn’t care about the Thistles anymore, why would he care about their underlings?

He looked down from the skies slowly, only to find Aeryn’s fist coming for him with a speed that crackled the air. Theron didn’t know what technique Aeryn ended up getting from the tower, but it seemed to have made him quite a bit stronger.

Theron let his fist land on his chest.

It was too bad that that hardly mattered at all.

Theron didn’t even sway as the sickening crack of Aeryn’s bone reverberated through the air. His wrist went first, but then his forearm followed, compound fracturing so grotesquely it split his skin open as his arm snapped.

To Aeryn’s credit, though he was sent a heavy three steps backward, his only reaction was a shuddering breath that seemed to withhold a scream that shook his very soul. His body trembled, blood leaking from his arm in waves.

It wasn’t too long ago now... Theron remembered the day of his and Malaya’s wedding, a procession that should have gone quite smoothly if not for the fact Aeryn had heavily injured him before he even took a step out.

Back then, he was just a little Bronze Mancer, and Aeryn was already in the mid-tiers of Silver Mancy.

Now, Aeryn had surprisingly become a Seventh Resonance Silver Mancer—quite the speed given this small corner of the world. But even if one ignored Theron’s ability to leap cultivation levels to do battle, what was someone in the Seventh Resonance to a Quasi Gold?

Aeryn’s strong suit was strength, and Theron was just an Elemental Mancer. Yet, it made no difference at all.

His knees wobbling, Aeryn barely managed to stabilize himself, holding onto his arm. Tears of fury streamed down his face, but he actually looked like he would attack again.

"It’s your fault. It’s all your fault. You and your schemes... They’re going to kill my little sister, your wife! And for what?"

"For what, indeed," Theron said calmly, his figure flickering as he began to vanish into the distance. "Maybe you should take some of that anger and direct it to those who actually deserve it."

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