The three Peak Transcendant elders were still smoking on the royal terrace when the first wave of royal guards finally surrounded them.No one rushed toward Jayden and that alone said enough.A dozen spearheads lowered around the fallen assassins while several commanders barked orders for healers and investigators, though everybody present already understood the important part. Those three men had not slipped into some forgotten alley or attacked during a private journey. They had crossed the upper galleries of the Royal Grand Colosseum, penetrated a protected viewing section and tried to murder a recognised City Lord while the King himself sat only a short distance away.Two hundred thousand people had seen it and that made things very very inconvenient.The King remained seated for several seconds, staring at the cracked marble below where one of the elders had landed. His face was controlled, almost too controlled, but the hand resting on his throne had tightened around the golden

The blood-binding betting contract was still warm in Jayden’s hand when Mira returned from the competitor area.She had barely finished changing out of her battle robes when he held the glowing slip up between two fingers, and the look on his face immediately made her suspicious. Nia, who had already found another meat pastry somewhere inside the Skyreach viewing section, leaned closer as though whatever her father was holding might somehow involve food.Mira glanced at the contract and understood almost immediately. “You’re going now?”“Why wait?”“The tournament only ended for the afternoon ten minutes ago.”Jayden slipped the betting contract back into his spatial ring. “Then they’ve had ten minutes to prepare my money.”Mira stared at him for a moment before laughing under her breath. She should have expected this. Jayden had barely reacted when the preliminary board announced her undefeated first-place finish, but now that the wager was officially settled, he suddenly looked far

The Crimson Demon Pill incident should have embarrassed the tournament organizers enough to make them cautious.Instead, it made the Crown Prince furious.The broken pill casing had barely been removed from the arena when the Royal Grand Colosseum began filling with arguments over how forbidden contraband had entered one of the most protected competitions in the kingdom. Several ministers demanded an internal review, Royal Academy officials denied involvement, and tournament inspectors suddenly became very interested in checking records they had ignored the day before. Through all of it, Jayden simply returned to the Skyreach viewing section and sat beside Mira as though he had not just exposed yet another failure inside the Capital’s grandest event.Nia immediately handed him half a pastry.“Daddy, you slapped him.”“He needed it.” Jayden chuckled “He flew far.” Nia made that dramatic display making him grin“Not far enough.”Mira gave him a look. “Do not encourage her.”Jayden took

By the time Jayden’s quarterfinal was called, the atmosphere inside the Royal Grand Colosseum had changed again.Nobody treated his matches like ordinary tournament bouts anymore. Some spectators came expecting another humiliation, some came hoping the Capital would finally produce someone capable of forcing him to fight seriously, and a smaller group had already begun placing private bets on whether his next opponent would actually survive long enough to use a second technique. Even the officials behaved differently around him now. The smiles had become thinner, the announcements more formal, and every time Jayden approached the arena, more eyes shifted instinctively toward the royal pavilion as though waiting to see what new rule or convenient surprise might appear.Mira noticed it too.“They’ve stopped being subtle.”Jayden looked toward the arena while Nia sat between them eating roasted nuts from a paper cone. “They were never especially good at subtle.”Mira studied him for anot

By the time the Zenith Tournament resumed the following morning, the mood around Jayden’s matches had changed completely. The exposed Nine-Coffin Soul-Lock Formation, the arrest of tournament officials and the King’s forced appointment of an independent panel had stripped away whatever confidence remained in the old administration, and for the first time since arriving in the Capital, Jayden entered an arena where the referee seemed more interested in enforcing the rules than helping someone kill him.His first opponent apparently appreciated the change too.The young man stepped onto the arena in dark blue sect robes, took one look at Jayden waiting across from him, then glanced toward the section where three Peak Transcendants had fallen only days earlier. He did not even wait for the gong. Instead, he bowed politely and raised one hand. “I withdraw.”There was laughter from the stands, but considerably less mockery than before. The contestant ignored it and continued with surprisin