Free Web NovelChapter 146: Chapter 146: Heartbroken
Chapter 146: Heartbroken
RUMBLE—!
The violent vibrations grew more and more intense.
Every single pair of eyes in the Grand Colosseum, all hundred thousand of them, locked onto the trembling black steel monument.
"It’s the same! The exact same tremor as the fairy!"
"Another Heavenly Physique? Is that even possible?"
On the elevated platform, Fabian rose from his seat once more, his half-step Domain Master aura fluctuated with uncontrollable anticipation.
To witness two True Heavenly Physiques in a single day... and both in this remote, corner of the Outer Frontier?
Has the gods finally decided to bless his Stormveil Academy with unparalleled glory?
Beside him, Seris also watched eagerly, her pale purple eyes shining with pride that she didn’t feel even after reaching her own 10000 feet mark.
City Lord Cassian and Solari Patriarch felt their hearts stop.
"Another one?" Cassian whispered, his mind going blank. "Two True Heavenly Physiques in a single day? In our Mirravele City?"
If another ten-thousand-foot miracle appeared today, Mirravele City’s history would be entirely rewritten!
Among them, only Aurelian was relatively calm, for he had seen Rhain’s extraordinary talent.
The crowd held its collective breath, every neck craned upward toward the sky, waiting for the inevitable pillar of light to erupt and pierce the heavens.
Ten thousand feet had been a miracle.
How many foot would this one be?
But the expected radiant light did not appear.
Instead, an incredibly sharp sound echoed across the gravely silent colosseum.
CRACK!
And then... it continued.
KRAAA-CRACK!
Like a wild, uncontrollable spiderweb, the fissures rapidly tore across the entirety of the thirty-foot-tall monument.
"No—" Fabian blurted out, finally realizing something was catastrophically wrong.
But it was far too late.
BOOM!
The thirty-foot-tall indestructible tablet exploded from the middle.
Shattered fragments sprayed across the arena, breaking cleanly into more than a dozen massive chunks of blackened steel that crashed heavily against the floor, and sending a massive cloud of dust rolling across the stage.
The entire Grand Colosseum was seized by a bone-chilling silence.
One hundred thousand people stared at the shattered ruins of the Origin Insight Tablet with eyes that had forgotten how to blink.
How could an artifact forged by the Stormveil Academy break?
The silence held for three full heartbeats.
Then, like a dam finally shattering under impossible pressure, the crowd erupted.
"THE TABLET... THE TABLET EXPLODED?"
"Is he a madman? To destroy the Stormveil Academy’s treasure right in front of Elder Fabian... he’s a dead man!"
"NO, you idiot! He broke the thing that MEASURES ten thousand feet! His record must be beyond the measuring limit of the tablet!"
"He’s going to be flayed alive!"
The hundred thousand spectators dissolved into utter pandemonium.
Arguments rose across the people as they shouted over one another, trying to make sense of what they had just witnessed.
On the elevated platform, the reaction among the Stormveil Academy disciples was vastly different.
"WHAT DID HE DO?!" Calanthe shrieked, shooting to her feet so fast that her chair toppled backward with a crash, "He destroyed the Origin Insight Tablet! That artifact has been in our Academy for over five hundred years! It’s IRREPLACEABLE!"
The handsome disciple who had been admiring Seris moments earlier slammed his fist furiously against the armrest of his chair, "That commoner just obliterated our Academy’s property! Whether it was intentional or not, this is an unforgivable offense!"
"He must be a saboteur! Execute him!" another Stormveil disciple yelled.
Even City Lord Cassian, Patriarch Aurelian, and the Solari Patriarch felt their scalps turn numb.
Though Aurelian and Solas knew Rhain was an unfathomable monster, seeing him casually blow up an ancient Inner Province artifact still sent their minds spinning into storm.
Not just them, even Fabian looked utterly stupified.
The half-step Domain Master Realm expert — a man who had cultivated for more than two centuries, and as someone who had personally assessed tens of thousands of prodigies looked at the broken tablet with a puzzled face.
This was the Origin Insight Tablet.
An indestructible artifact forged from deep-sea dark steel, designed by the best refiners of the Inner Province.
An artifact capable of withstanding the full-powered blows of a Core Formation Realm expert without a single scratch.
In all his centuries of existence, he had never — not once — witnessed an Origin Insight Tablet shatter.
However, before he could think anything further, a slender figure beside him blurred from the elevated platform.
Swoosh—!
Seris didn’t care the hundred thousand spectators, her pale purple eyes filled with panic only looked at Rhain.
She descended onto the ruined arena floor like a falling fairy, her silver-blue hair whipping wildly behind her as she rushed directly toward the center of the rubble.
"Husband!"
She practically threw herself in front of him, her small, snow-white hands instantly reaching out to grab his arms.
"Are you hurt?" Seris asked, her pale purple eyes searching his body with a worried look. "That explosion was so close to you! Did any fragment hit you? Are you bleeding anywhere? Let me see—"
The words rang across the arena like a bell.
For a fraction of a second, the hundred thousand spectators — who had been too consumed by the destruction of the tablet to focus on anything else — collectively zeroed in on that single, devastating word.
Husband.
The ten-thousand-foot peerless fairy goddess... had just called this boy her husband.
She was his wife?
The collective hearts of every male in the Grand Colosseum shattered simultaneously.
In the spectator stands, countless young men clutched their chests, their faces contorting with anguish.
"H-Husband...? Did she just say... husband?"
"No... no, no, no... My immortal fairy is already married?"
"I thought... I thought I still had a chance if I entered the Stormveil Academy and became stronger... but she’s already taken!"
"What... What kind of qualification this lucky bastard has to marry such a goddess with True Heavenly Physique?"
"THE KIND THAT BREAKS AN INDESTRUCTIBLE TABLET WITH A SINGLE TOUCH, APPARENTLY!"
"My life... my life is meaningless..." A talented young swordsman spoke with a hollow gaze. "I hadn’t even confessed yet...
Across the arena, thousands of young men wore identical expressions of absolute devastation.
A few particularly dramatic souls had actual tears running down their faces.
"Why..." one of them sobbed quietly. "Why is fairy not married to me?" frёewebηovel.cѳm
"There is no justice," another replied in a dead, emotionless monotone. "There never was."
Up on the elevated area, the handsome Stormveil disciple who had been staring at Seris with enchanted eyes felt as if a bucket of ice water had been dumped over his head.
His elegant smile vanished without a trace.
"...Husband?" he repeated with a cold tone.
Calanthe, despite her fury over the destroyed tablet, couldn’t resist a savage, triumphant smirk. "Oh? What’s wrong? Did the fairy already have an owner? How unfortunate for you."
Her eyes were locked on Rhain, curiously checking him, trying to probe that what was so special about him to marry such a beautiful girl?
The handsome disciple said nothing. He also just stared at Rhain with icy chillness.
Down on the rubble-strewn stage, Rhain gently wrapped his arm around Seris’s shoulders, completely unbothered by the tidal wave of heartbreak, fury, and despair rippling through the Colosseum.
"I’m right here," Rhain held her hand gently. "Nothing happened. I promise."
A shuddering exhale escaped her lips.
"Don’t scare me like that again," Seris whispered.
However, the tender moment was destined to be short-lived.
A heavy, authoritative pressure suddenly descended upon the arena floor.
Fabian appeared before them, his half-step Domain Master aura carefully restrained but still emanating a profound pressure.
"Young man," Fabian asked, his eyes were fixed entirely on Rhain, "Explain what did happen just now?"
Rhain didn’t flinch.
He gently patted Seris’s hand to reassure her, then took a calm, measured step forward.
He offered a polite, completely unbothered bow.
"Elder Fabian, I merely placed my hand upon the tablet and injected my essence, exactly as every other candidate did before me," Rhain stated. "I used no artifacts, nor did I employ any hidden martial arts. I simply pushed my essence into the stone, and it shattered."
Rhain paused, meeting the half-step Domain Master’s piercing gaze without a single trace of fear.
"Since I stepped onto this platform, Elder has been watching my every move. If I had played any underhanded tricks, or attempted to sabotage the Academy’s treasure, it certainly could not have been hidden from your discerning eyes."
Fabian’s brow furrowed into a deep frown.
He couldn’t refute those words.
Because of Seris’s eager anticipation, Fabian had indeed locked his Spiritual Sense entirely onto Rhain the moment the boy had stepped forward.
He had seen it all clearly. Rhain had only injected his essence, that’s it.
But acknowledging the truth didn’t solve the immediate problem.
"I can confirm that you used no external tricks," Fabian said slowly, "However, this is an unprecedented situation. In the entire history of the Stormveil Academy, an Origin Insight Tablet has never been destroyed during a screening."
Fabian’s expression turned remarkably stern.
"Because the tablet shattered before projecting a pillar of light, there is no measurement of your talent. Without a clear evaluation to prove you have surpassed the ten-foot minimum... I am unsure if this can be counted as a pass. By the strict rules of the Academy, this might mean a failure."
The implication was clear.
Rhain might not be selected.
The moment those words left Fabian’s mouth, the brief relief in Seris’s heart instantly evaporated.
"No!"
She immediately stepped in front of Rhain, her delicate arms spread out protectively as she faced the half-step Domain Master Realm elder.
"Elder Fabian!" Seris spoke resolutely. "If my husband’s performance is counted as a failure, and he is not accepted into the Academy, then I will not go to Stormveil Academy either!"
