The trial continued...

The elder immortal who had been speaking finally reached the final point of his speech. He immediately started to announce Clover's sentence.

"In consideration of various events leading to the loss of the Obelisk and the deaths of Casimir and Pricilla Newell, Clover Newell has been pardoned and would be exempted from having his soul and life force extracted from him."

"But... although Clover Newell has been pardoned, a crime cannot go unpunished. In order to atone for his crimes, Clover Newell will hereby be exiled from this realm never to step foot inside ever again until such a time comes when he is able to find and retrieve the obelisk and return it to its rightful place."

"This is the final verdict and it will become effective immediately starting down."

Following those words, the large bronze bell... Big Ben... rang loudly once more.

Once again, the entire observatory was thrown into an uproar.

Every living being, intelligent or not, started to clamor at the results of the trial. This was as a result of the final sentence Clover received.

Although clover had not been given the highest sentence available, it was still shocking enough for him to be exiled. It should be noted that being exiled was an even rarer punishment than having one's soul and life force extracted.

In the past couple of millenniums, although there had been records of evildoers among the universe immortals that had had their souls and life force extracted by the Obelisk, there had been none who had been truly exiled and expelled from the Observatory.

There were not many crimes that would warrant a serious punishment, like having one's soul and life force extracted, or even exile, for that matter. In fact, there was actually only one kind of crime that would warrant such a punishment.

That was if a universe immortal went against the most serious taboo of the universe immortal clan and used the life cultivation art to wantonly plunder the life force of other living beings in order to supplement their own life spans and increase their powers.

This crime was the most serious crime that a universe immortal could commit because it was completely banned.

Although the Life Cultivation Art was capable of stealing the life force of others to supplement their own just like what the Obelisk could do, it could still not be done as perfectly as the Obelisk could.

The Life Cultivation Art had been developed using the Obelisk as a blueprint and it was most effective in order to allow a universe immortal to absorb the boundless life force in the universe. It was not meant to be used against another living being. Although it was possible to absorb the life force of a living being, doing such a thing had a very serious consequence.

The life force of other living beings is mixed up with a lot of other things, making it not as pure as the life force that could be absorbed from the universe directly. Although stealing the life force of living beings could greatly increase one strength at a faster speed, it can lead to one being contaminated with the other impure things contained in that life force.

These things may include the memories of the living being whose life force was stolen, their resentment after death, and a lot of other impure things. Doing something like this occasionally might not lead to any severe problems, but in the long run, this kind of act would make a person go mad and turn them into a kind of nefarious being.

In the entire universe, the only thing capable of separating the life force of living beings without having any consequences was the Obelisk, and it was why it was so closely guarded by the universe immortals.

Most of the time, whenever a universe immortal violated this supreme taboo and wantonly kills and plunders the life force of other living beings, they would be hunted down and killed before having their own life force absorbed by the Obelisk and purified. Then this purified life force would then be released into the universe to nourish it.

This was how the highest punishment of the universe immortals came about. As for exile, it had never actually been carried out before.

There had never been anybody in the history of the universe immortals who had actually deserved such punishment as exile before. Clover was the first.

As for those who had been said to be exiled in the past, that was only a self-imposed exile by those who had run away like fugitives after committing heinous crimes.

Right now, Clover Newell was the very first universe immortal to be officially exiled by the elder council in the entire history of the universe immortal clan. Although there was a clause that stipulates that clover would be allowed to return to the clan if he should find the Obelisk and return it to its rightful place, who knows if Clover would be able to do this and even if he could when would that day come.

This was why everybody in the observatory had been shocked by this result.

Everybody stared at the sky in wonder as various thoughts went through their minds.

In fact, there were some people among those watching who felt that such a sentence was too severe for someone like Clover. It was true that from the evidence, Clover was actually the one responsible for the loss of the Obelisk, but still; he had only been a child at the time and there was also evidence that showed he had been manipulated.

Thinking of all this, was it not too much that Clover still had to bear such a severe punishment. People should know that Clover was only a little over two hundred years old.

In human years, Clover was only the equivalent of an eighteen-year-old young man. How was he supposed to survive out there in the universe? Nobody could understand what the elder council was thinking.

Apart from these people who felt Clover's punishment was unfair, there were also others who had their own thoughts about the matter. But whatever thoughts anybody had on Clover's sentence, there was nothing they could do about it.

The trial was already over.

With the sound of big ben ringing throughout the Observatory, the image of the trial in the sky gradually disappeared.

The final sight that could be seen as the image in the sky disappeared was Clover's calm face as he received his sentence without an expression on his face.

It was as if the sentence did not affect him at all, and he remained stoic and steadfast.

Finally, the image in the sky disappeared and no signs could be seen of it anymore.

At this point, only Clover's stoic face remained in the minds of everybody and most people could not help themselves from admiring this young man who had been forced to go through such a tragedy at a very young age.

Nobody knew what Clover's outcome would be from now on henceforth, but most people knew that this very day would likely go down in history as an event to be remembered.

It was the day a young universe immortal was forced to brave the challenges of the universe alone and without any support.

...

No!!!

A loud shout resounded in the small garden the Clover and his sisters resided in.

After Clover's exile was announced to the entire observatory, Arya and Verna naturally also heard this.

Immediately after the sentence was announced, Verna burst into a loud shout and roared violently into the sky. She could not believe what's she had just heard.

Verna's brother... her beloved big brother who had always been there for her and her sister Arya... at the moment when Clover was sentenced to exile, Verna's world almost collapsed.

She could not accept this result at all.

As for Arya, she had immediately broken down and was crying loudly in the small garden.

Large beads of crystal pure tears flowed down her face and landed on the ground, watering the soft grass below her feet.

Arya was crying nonstop while Verna's mind was blank. Just like that, both sisters did not know what to do now.

They were about to lose their big brother, and they didn't know when they would be able to see him again.

Suddenly, as if she had been struck by lightning, Verna's body shook and her eyes became resolute.

There was a fierce light in Verna's eyes, like those of a ferocious tiger's, and she said through tightly gritted teeth.

"No!"

"This is not possible... they can't do this to big brother. I can't accept it!"

"I won't accept it!"

Verna's words were laced with venom, and her palms were clenched tightly into fists. It could be seen that her emotions were not stable at all as her body kept on shaking even till now.

Arya seemed to realize that something was wrong with her sister, so she looked up.

With tears in her eyes, Arya asked tearfully, "B-big sister Verna... what will happen to big brother? What will we do when he is gone?"

Hearing Arya's tearful question, Verna felt her heart lurch, and she immediately tried to calm down.

Arya was the youngest one of them, and she relied on her and Clover very much. Verna could not afford to let Arya see her in such a state.

After managing to calm down slightly, Verna patted Arya on the head reassuringly and said to her, "Don't worry Arya... nothing is going to happen to us or big brother."

"Big brother is not going anywhere!"

"Are you sure?" Arya asked.

"I'm sure." Verna nodded her head in assurance.

"Then what are you going to do?" Arya continued asking.

"Don't worry Arya, I'm going to head over to the lighthouse right now and demand that they give big brother back to us. I'm sure they will listen to me. And if you join me, it will be even better. Nobody can ever refuse you cause you're so cute." Verna said with a smile.

Hearing this, Arya seemed to be placated, and she responded.

"Ok big sister..."

"Let us go and get big brother back."

At this moment, from outside the garden, a beautiful voice immediately sounded.

It said, "I'm afraid I can't let you do that."

Immediately after that, a slim figure came through the garden doors and stopped in front of the sisters.

Seeing who it was that had come, Arya and Verna immediately exclaimed, "Big sister Ursula!"

"What are you doing here!"