Chapter 698: Chapter 698: The Cracked Alibi
The high-tier spiritual suppression shackles hissed as they locked tightly around Branch Leader Koma’s wrists, their black runic alloy instantly draining the vibrant golden light from her meridians. Deprived of her peak Golden Core energy, her shoulders slumped, and she was aggressively marched into the secondary interrogation theater of the flagship.
The Vice Sect Leader sat calmly behind a heavy slate table, his hands folded neatly inside his silver sleeves. Ethan stood at his right hand like a silent, calculating judge, his amethyst eyes tracking every micro-expression on Koma’s pale face, while Heidy guarded the exit.
"Elder Koma," the Vice Leader began, his tone deceptively warm and conversational. "There is no need for this heavy tension. We are all members of the same glorious pavilion. The General and I merely wish to understand what exactly transpired at your outpost. Why did your entire garrison vanish, while you and your two disciples were found locked inside the subterranean core?"
Koma forced her posture straight, trying to summon whatever aristocratic dignity she had left. "Vice Leader, I have already stated the truth. We were suddenly and viciously ambushed by a high-tier stealth vanguard from the Thunderdragon Sect. They utilized an unknown chemical array that bypassed our primary walls. To preserve the administrative archives, I ordered the men to execute a fighting retreat while I sealed myself in the bunker to activate the emergency distress runes. I must have inhaled a localized toxin during the chaos, causing my temporary exhaustion."
"An ambush," the Vice Leader repeated, nodding slowly with a look of profound, sympathetic understanding. "Yes, that maps out quite logically. The Thunderdragon Sect has indeed been highly aggressive along the northern line. It is entirely natural that a sudden strike would cause such administrative disruption."
He glanced up at Ethan, a faint smile playing on his old lips. "What do you calculate, Doctor Ethan? Does the Branch Leader’s testimony align with your clinical assessments?"
"Not by a single word" Ethan said, his gravelly voice cutting through the quiet room like a scalpel.
Koma’s eyes snapped toward him, a flash of defensive venom hiding behind her panicked gaze. "And who exactly are you to challenge a regional leader’s military report? A mere junior medic brought along for logistics?"
"This junior medic is the supreme divine physician who pulled your dying soul back from the underworld, Elder Koma," Ethan replied unbothered as he stepped forward, placing a crystal vial containing a dark purple fluid onto the table.
"Your alibi possesses a fatal structural flaw," Ethan continued, his amethyst eyes locking onto hers with a cold, predatory intensity. "You claim you were struck by a sudden Thunderdragon Sect chemical ambush just before we arrived. However, the chemical concentration of the tomb curse running through your blood metrics requires a continuous, uninterrupted exposure baseline of at least thirty days."
Koma’s breath hitched, her fingers tightening against the metal of her shackles. "That... that is merely a speculative medical hypothesis! You cannot prove—"
"I don’t need to hypothesize when the evidence is absolute," Ethan interrupted smoothly. He reached into his spatial ring and retrieved the glass vial holding the dormant, skull-marked Gravedigger Beetle, slamming it firmly onto the slate table right next to her blood sample.
The moment Koma saw the black insect with the bone-white skull marking, her eyes violently dilated, and a visible tremor ran through her entire upper body.
"I harvested this adult male specimen directly from the central courtyard of your outpost," Ethan stated, his voice dripping with certainty. "These creatures do not migrate to open battlefields, nor are they utilized by the Thunderdragon Sect. They exist in only one environment: the core of a five-thousand-year-old burial vault. You didn’t suffer an ambush, Elder Koma. You and your inner circle have been covertly mining an ancient imperial tomb right under the pavilion’s nose for months, and your male garrison didn’t retreat—they rotted away because you forced them to handle the raw miasma without a female yin baseline to protect them."
The entire interrogation room fell into a suffocating, dead silence. Koma stared at the skull-faced beetle, her mouth opening and closing soundlessly as Ethan’s ruthless presentation of evidence shattered her final line of defense.
Koma’s composure shattered entirely. Seeing her carefully constructed web of lies violently torn apart by a handful of biological evidence, she lost all restraint.
"You arrogant little bastard!" Koma screamed, her face contorting with a rabid, venomous fury as she violently slammed her spiritual suppression shackles against the slate table. "How dare you speak to me in that manner? You know nothing about the sacrifices I made for this frontier! That vault belongs to me! The pavilion ignored this northern wasteland for three centuries, and the moment I unearth something of true divine value, you scavengers move in to steal it from my hands!"
Ethan didn’t flinch. He merely watched her frantic, desperate tantrum with a pair of perfectly cold, amused amethyst eyes.
"It appears your psychological cognitive functions will refuse to accept the reality of your situation until you are staring directly into your own grave," Ethan said, his gravelly voice dropping into a dark, bone-chilling register.
He calmly picked up the glass vial containing the skull-marked Gravedigger Beetle and placed it precisely ten centimeters away from her trembling hands.
"The ancient imperial miasma you have been greedily inhaling for months is structurally incurable by any conventional medical science," Ethan continued, leaning forward until his shadow enveloped her trembling figure. "The volatile compounds are actively calcifying your core as we speak. The only way to synthesize a counter-agent and preserve your pathetic life is to extract a fresh, raw sample from the deepest chamber of that tomb. So, you will map out the exact coordinates and lead us there immediately... that is, if you possess even a passing desire to survive the week."
A ruthless, predatory smile slowly spread across Ethan’s face, his eyes flashing with a sudden, suffocating malice that caused even the veteran General standing near the door to instinctively narrow his eyes. The warm, benevolent facade of the helpful divine physician vanished instantly, replaced in a single millisecond by the terrifying presence of a clinical, soul-consuming demon.
"And if you choose to refuse..." Ethan whispered, his tone dripping with an understated sadism. "I can personally guarantee that my specialized alchemical tools can inflict a level of biological torment that will make you beg for the sweet mercy of execution before the sun sets."
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From this moment forward, to avoid confusion regarding cultivation ranks, I will include this footer with the current established levels.
Note: These are only the ranks mentioned so far to avoid spoilers.
Body Refinement Realm
Skin Refinement / Bone Refinement / Organ Refinement
Spiritual Gathering Realm
Spiritual Perception / Spiritual Mist / Spiritual Condensation
Spiritual Core Realm
Core Solidification / Core Awakening / Spiritual Collapse (Half-step Spiritual Core)
Spiritual Soul Realm
Spiritual Soul Awakening / Soul Nourishing / Soul-Core Fusion
Golden Core Realm
Prime Fusion / Core Perfection / Core Destruction
Spiritual Sea Realm
Stage 1 ?? / Stage 2 ?? / Stage 3 ??
Dao Manifestation Realm
Stage 1 ?? / Stage 2 ?? / Stage 3 ??
Spiritual Transcendence
Stage 1 ?? / Stage 2 ?? / Stage 3 ??
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Sword mastery levels
Sword Intent.
Sword Aura.
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