Chapter 691: Chapter 691: Scapegoat

Cloud Hall had significantly risen in strength during the past few years. It was not just Letitia alone who had grown stronger, but Cloud Hall's martial artists had all steadily improved.

After it had set up the Small Circulation Killing Array, Cloud Hall was considered a quasi-fifth grade sect, though, in the eyes of the entire Central Region, it was already as good as a fifth-grade sect which could measure up to the Ethereal Spirit Sect. It was only a bit inferior to the Ethereal Spirit Sect in terms of history and legacy.

Once Letitia successfully made it through to the Life and Death Realm, Cloud Hall's status as a fifth-grade sect would be unshakeable. By then, by taking advantage of the soaring influence of Cloud Hall, Letitia might be able to develop the Cloud Hall into a sixth-grade sect, and also the first sacred place in the Central Region.

Unexpectedly, during a very critical moment for Letitia's breakthrough, a serious internal conflict arose within Cloud Hall.

It wasn't anything sudden. The seeds of internal strife within the sect had already been planted decades ago.

Cloud Hall was initially established through Cloud School's constant development and its alliance with several third-grade clans like the Zhuo Clan, Shen Clan, Fei Clan, and Wu Clan of the Cloudy City. Over the years, it eventually grew out of Cloud School and slowly developed to what it was today.

No matter how the Cloud Hall developed, the position of Cloud Hall's leader had always been taken up by the descendants of these several great clans.

Back then, Imogen had not come from any of these noble clans but was an extremely talented disciple of Iridescence Sect which was affiliated with Cloud Hall.

She was powerful, strong, and extremely talented. A few major clans in Cloudy City were a bit dissatisfied with her origins but could not really argue against Imogen's skills and competence.

It was different with Letitia. Although she was raised up in Cloud School, the origin of her birth made it pretty clear that she was an outsider. Moreover, there was no shortage of talents from the various big clans. Emanuel, for instance, had the strength and competency to vie for the position of leader.

However, Imogen passed the position down to Letitia which caused quite an uproar for the other large clans, especially the Zhuo Clan led by Emanuel.

Though they could admit that Letitia was more outstanding than Emanuel in certain areas, her leadership had brought about a great change to the sect that a lot of them didn't quite agree with. For example, her treatment of Zen was contested upon by many. It was only after Zen had built an indestructible sect-protecting array for the Cloud Hall that they shut up.

However, it wasn't enough. Those large noble clans were not as far-sighted as Imogen was. Even if Letitia brought many benefits to the Cloud Hall, they could not allow an outsider to take control of Cloud Hall.

Emanuel was the one who opposed Letitia the most, which was why he had practically seized every opportunity to try and take down Letitia from her position. Unfortunately, none of his efforts succeeded.

However, Emanuel had seen an opportunity.

Imogen had gone overseas with the independent warrior, the Venerable Starry to try to seek fortune and survive her next life and death crisis. With her gone, Letitia effectively lost her strongest support while she was on the verge of breaking through to the Life and Death Realm.

She was about to face a horrifying life and death crisis and any pressure exerted on the side would be enough to cause her to fail.

How could Emanuel let go of such a good opportunity?

Imogen had long since been due for a life and death crisis. Couple this with the fact that not many people really returned from their overseas exploration for lucky chances - Imogen was as good as gone in Emanuel's eyes.

Emanuel would never get such a golden chance as this one. He had plotted this for quite a while now and all he needed to do was to take advantage of Letitia's current situation to push his plan towards fruition.

The outside of Letitia's Ice Palace had been covered with long and thin ice thorns which made it resemble a giant hedgehog.

In the Ice Palace, there were also a couple dozen martial artists that tried to resist Emanuel with all their might.

Now, the people of Cloud Hall were divided into three parties. The first party was led by Emanuel who vied for the position of leader.

They were pretty resolute and understood that if they failed, all of them would be implicated and even wiped out by Letitia once she made her breakthrough.

The second party led by Fernandez was neutral. They were unwilling to topple Letitia but they all came from the third-grade clans in Cloudy City. They found themselves caught in a dilemma so they decided to take the easy way out and support neither side. That did not mean that they escaped the pressure though. Fernandez, for example, came from the Fei Clan who fully supported Emanuel. The conflict between his family background and morals undoubtedly put a huge strain on him.

The third party consisted of those who stood on Letitia's side.

It was led by Morphens and many disciples of the younger generation. These younger disciples did not have much relationship with the large clans in Cloudy City and regarded Letitia as the core figure of Cloud Hall. ȐÀ₦ốꞖÊṥ

For the past few days, Emanuel had launched a series of attacks upon Letitia's Ice Palace but all of them had been forcefully blocked by Morphens.

The problem was, the party led by Morphens was not very powerful in strength. They were also greatly outnumbered by Emanuel's forces. Moreover, disciples of the younger generation were not as powerful as the other elders. Besides the few elders who were at the Virtual Tribulation Realm, most of them were only at the Internal Elixir Realm or even at the Illuminating Soul Realm.

It was a miracle that they were able to hold out for so many days, and it was all thanks to Rocher!

Rocher sat in the middle of the square in front of the Ice Palace with a dark green sword in his hand. His eyes bled and blood surrounded him for at least twenty feet.

Patrick, Lewis, and the others stood guard beside Rocher with Saint Morphens and the other martial artists gathered around them.

Rocher, Patrick, and Lewis had all greatly improved their cultivation levels over the past two years. All three of them had managed to step into the Internal Elixir Realm with Rocher recently ascending to the middle stage.

However, with his cultivation level alone, it was impossible for him to change the situation.

After all, no matter how talented Rocher was, he would still find it difficult to fight against Virtual Tribulation Realm warriors. Good thing he had a trick up his sleeve.

As luck would've had it, Rocher had unintentionally comprehended a higher level of the Heavenly Sword, specifically, the “Sword Eye.” This enabled him to gather the momentum of the heavens into his sword and store as much of his sword intent as he wanted!

As long as he was given enough time, he could manage a strike capable of killing masters at the Life and Death Realm and Soul Sea Realm.

Of course, this was only in theory. The momentum of the heavens was powerful, but Rocher's capacity was limited. If he absorbed too much for too long, it could greatly damage his body which was evident with how much his eyes bled.

However, it was Rocher's presence at the entrance that prevented anyone from charging in.

He could only launch one strike with his sword but that one strike alone would immediately kill the fool who dared to charge into the palace.

No one in Emanuel's force was willing to take that strike.

The last time he used this technique was three days ago to kill the Fei Clan's master, Laurie Fei who was a martial artist at the late stage of the Virtual Tribulation Realm and cultivated the Earth Law.

Laurie Fei could be considered as a master of defense in the Cloudy City. His Stupid Earth Cultivation, which was a perfect display of Earth Law, enabled him to diffuse enemy attacks dealt to his body and reroute it to the ground where the earth could bear the brunt of the damage.

He had used this Stupid Earth Cultivation to block the attacks that were launched from the Ice Palace. Even Saint Morphens' attacks failed to immobilize him.

Once he reached the square, Rocher immediately rushed forward and struck him with his sword.

Nobody expected that a disciple at the mere Internal Elixir Realm would be able to unleash such powerful strength!

Laurie Fei was madly channeling the Stupid Earth Cultivation to try and fight the sheer amount of force contained within Rocher's strike. It was so powerful that the force diffused into the ground managed to turn the earth within a hundred feet into fine powder. But he was still unable to break Rocher's strike.

In the end, Rocher's strike was too great and ended up killing Laurie Fei with a single strike.

This sheer demonstration of inhumane force was enough to scare all the warriors at the Virtual Tribulation Realm from charging towards the palace. Whoever dared would certainly die.

Thus, Emanuel could only occasionally attack the Ice Palace from afar, which could barely cause real harms.

“We can't keep on like this!” Emanuel screamed in frustration. He had initially planned to capture Letitia in the shortest time possible but his warriors refusing to storm the palace in fear of Rocher significantly prolonged things. If Letitia made it through to the Life and Death Realm then all his efforts would have been in vain.

“You!” he pointed at a Virtual Tribulation Realm warrior from the Shen Clan. “You go up there and take them on!”

As long as they forced Rocher to attack one person, Emanuel's forces could rush in and kill the rest of Letitia's supporters. To put it bluntly, what they needed was a scapegoat.