The King Of Warriors novel (Jared Chance) novel Chapter 6713

She remembered the clansmen who had died. She remembered the Demonic Cultivators killed while fleeing celestial hunters.

But she also remembered the people under her command—the brothers who had followed her through life-and-death battles.

If they kept fighting, every one of them would die here.

If they submitted, at least they could survive.

Across the mass of frightened faces, she found Jared and Skylar still standing apart from everyone else.

Neither young man had lowered his head. They remained upright, two drawn blades refusing to yield.

What did that defiance actually change?

Before a Grand Zenith Immortal, what difference was there between a rigid sword and a blade of grass bending in the wind?

She closed her eyes and drew a long breath.

When she opened them again, the hesitation was gone.

The first person to move was the woman in blood-red robes.

She moved slowly, every step seeming to land on the edge of a knife.

One pace at a time, she crossed the clearing until she stood before Aureon. After a short pause, she bent both knees and knelt.

"I... will submit."

Her voice was hoarse and shaking, every word squeezed painfully through her teeth. "From the beginning... I argued that we should make peace with the celestials. Please show mercy, Your Majesty. Spare me and my people..."

Aureon looked down at her without the slightest change in his golden eyes.

He did not nod.

He did not shake his head.

He did not speak at all.

He simply left her kneeling there.

That indifference was more frightening than any threat.

Her surrender landed among the crowd like a stone thrown into still water.

The second person to step forward was the thin man who had earlier suggested fleeing the Twentieth Firmament.

He kept his head down and hurried to the woman's side before kneeling as well.

No one could see his expression, but his shoulders shook as he lowered himself, whether from terror or humiliation no one knew.

A third person came forward.

Then a fourth.

A fifth...

The trickle became a steady stream.

Every new footstep triggered whispers nearby and made uncertain eyes flicker toward the kneeling group.

Those still hesitating watched companion after companion submit, and the balance inside them began to tip.

One man clenched his fist, then slowly released it.

Another ground his teeth before finally letting out a long sigh.

Someone looked up at the golden radiance surrounding Aureon, then down at the tiny artifact in his own hand, and silently walked out of the crowd.

The kneeling group spread across the clearing.

At first there were only a scattered few. Then a small cluster. Then a broad mass of bodies.

Some kept their heads down and refused to meet anyone's eyes. Some quietly exhaled in relief once their knees touched the ground. Others immediately bowed their foreheads toward Aureon in utter submission.

No one condemned them.

No one tried to stop them.

Everyone understood that with a gap this enormous, simply surviving had become a luxury.

Fewer and fewer remained standing. They watched familiar faces leave their sides one by one, their own expressions growing paler and more complicated.

The sinister-looking man stood among them, clenching and unclenching his fists over and over.

His lips trembled. He wanted to say something, but no words came.

Anger and unwillingness churned in his eyes as he watched his companions kneel. Yet mixed beneath them was a strange flicker of envy.

At least the people already on their knees no longer had to endure the agony of balancing on a blade.

He began to waver.

If I die, everything is gone.

My people. My inheritance. Everything I've protected my entire life will disappear with me.

If I stay alive, even if I have to live in humiliation, at least I'll still see tomorrow's sun.

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