Chapter 5986

Ten-thousand-year Profound Ice pillars rose from the center of the platform, each streaked with old, dark blood. Frost-laced air wrapped around Jared, sharp with iron and cold.

This was the Execution Platform.

He stepped closer to the wooden railing. The rough grain scraped against his palms as he looked down.

Thousands of robed cultivators packed the plaza—locals, drifters, people with nowhere better to be than watching someone else face death.

At the center, the Ice-Jade Throne shimmered on its dais, radiating a pale, frigid glow. The seat itself—sharp, imposing, arrogant—sat empty.

That emptiness said everything.

The City Lord hadn’t arrived yet. The entire plaza seemed to hold its breath around that vacant throne.