Genetic Ascension

Chapter 2273: Elder Bash

A heavy silence fell over the common area.

It was odd. Even now, the arena itself was still bustling, loud, and boisterous. With all the protections in this area, most of the common disciples simply couldnʼt see what was happening here in the first place.

But those present were practically pulled into a quagmire, not understanding what it was they were experiencing here at all.

”What… why… how…?”

The aura of a superior and perfect Virtue Seed couldnʼt be faked. The Seeds were commanders of Will to begin with. If you could so convincingly fake their aura, there was little difference between you and the real thing.

The irony was that this was exactly what the two guilds were trying to do in the first place.

Of course, there was a huge issue with all of this.

If Sylas was really to the Lust Path what Nosphaleen was to the Envy Path, then they should be intimately familiar with his existence, they should feel the same awe and worship toward him that the Efivara felt toward Nosphaleen.

So what exactly was going on? Why did she not recognize his face?

It didnʼt make any sense. Something here was off. But Sylas… didnʼt seem intent on explaining himself. He just stood there as though his presence alone should be enough despite the fact he, too, should know the problem with his claims.

Oddly enough, that only made Ryn more hesitant.

Over-explaining often caused the opposite of what one would want in situations like this. Taking a back seat and letting people fill in the blanks on their own would always be best.

No one could gaslight a person better than they themselves could.

The question was how far such gaslighting could go without intervention.

Ryn looked back toward Stone. Their eyes had the same flickering thought.

They had to report this.

The moment their gazes met, their hearts felt startled as they looked back to Sylas to see him walking away. No, he wasnʼt walking away, he was just walking back to the exact same chair he had been sitting on before.

He took a seat and closed his eyes indifferently.

And once again, that only made them hesitate all the more.

By this point, Cheri was in better control of her faculties as well and she realized that this was the most pivotal point of her plan.

The thing was that it was impossible for Cheri to be more intelligent than Sylas was. The reason it was her plan and not his was because she was familiar with the ins and outs of the two guilds while Sylas was not. And unfortunately, Sylas didnʼt have the option to slowly gain information.

As such, the frame of the plan was Cheriʼs. She knew what buttons to press and what would work against the guilds, but Sylas did not.

However… this plan also put Sylas directly in the line of fire in a way that she was surprised he was willing to take on. Whoever these two Grimblades were to him, they must be extremely important.

”We will… humbly dismiss ourselves for the time being,” Ryn said with a slight bow.

Stone followed suit, a bit stiffly. And then he disappeared even faster than Ryn did.

There was no doubt what the two of them had gone off to do.

However, what maybe surprised everyone was that even after a half hour, they had not returned, but Sylas showed no signs of moving or escaping. He simply… sat there.

And then, after the sun reached its highest point in the skies, two roaring portals appeared on opposite sides of the arena before. One flickered with dancing lightning and one swirled with colors of violet and black fitted with twinkling stars that reminded one of the night sky.

An old man appeared high in the skies, his hands clasped behind his back. He looked down below toward the arena with a calm, almost lazy expression on his face.

He would have looked quite stoic and serious if he didnʼt have three lipstick marks on his face. Well, one on his cheek, the other on the side of his lip, and the last on his neck.

It was either he hadnʼt noticed, though, or simply wanted to show off.

”Welcome one, welcome all.”

The crowd cheered for the appearance of this man. He wasnʼt the strongest of the elders of the Stormfall Covenant, but he was most definitely the most beloved. It was said that in the prime of his youth he managed to slap the ass of the Matriarch of the Genesis Concord and live to tell the tale.

He became a living legend after that. Though, many thought the reason he wasnʼt the strongest of the Stormfall Covenant now was precisely because of the damage he took back then.

Even so, that didnʼt seem to dampen his spirits. He was just pretending to be serious now.

As though on cue, he chuckled a bit when he saw the response of the crowd before sliding a hand over his face to shift from a laughing to a serious expression once again.

”This humble Elder Bash here will be host for the day. I know you all have been waiting for the longest time, and how could you not? I, too, canʼt wait to watch the youths wrestle for dominant mount—I mean for the pride of their guilds!”

The crowd wildly cheered as though live broadcast rape was exactly what they were here for. They didnʼt even care about Elder Bashʼs correction.

”Now, ready yourselves. Because this yearʼs batch of candidates are truly sharp and spunky. But as with tradition, their sight and hearing will be stripped of them until they enter the holy lands. Then their hearing will be returned to them, but their sight will be restrained until the very end.

”This is the true trial of love, a trial of blind love!” Elder Bash opened his arms wide…

As Sylas slowly stood to his feet.