At that moment the crowd was still buzzing with low laughter when Damien Steel arrogantly turned toward the king’s chamber, intending to push Tyler aside like he was nothing.
But before Damien could take another step, a calm, unhurried voice broke the tension.
“Stop right there.”
Everyone froze, Even Damien paused mid–step, glancing sideways with a sneer, It was Tyler.
Standing tall, his clothes torn and dusty, but his presence steady, sharp, unmovable cut through e air like a blade.
There was no anger in Tyler’s voice.
No desperation, no shouting.
no need to prove anything.
“I don’t have time to waste with you,” Tyler said flatly, his eyes cold and unshaken.
Upon hearing what Tyler just said, The crowd blinked, stunned by his calmness.
Damien turned fully now. facing him a mocking grin plaving on his lins
Chapter 19
But Tyler didn’t flinch. He didn’t even seem interested in the reaction he caused.
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“You can talk all you want about the Supreme Forest,” Tyler continued, his voice firm, steady, “and about who got kicked out.”
Then he took a slow step forward, his eyes never leaving Damien.
“But that has nothing to do with this moment.”
The air around them grew heavier.
Tyler’s next words dropped like stones in a silent pond.
“I passed the first stage to get here,” Tyler said simply. “I passed the test at the gates.”
He paused, letting that truth hang in the air.
“And now… it’s my turn.”
He tilted his head slightly, his expression almost bored.
“I don’t have time to argue with people like you,” Tyler added coldly. If not because of his mother, Tyler wouldn’t even be standing here bothering with any of this in the first place.
At that moment there was no shouting, no outburst, Just an overwhelming, unshakable certainty in his voice.
The certainty of a man who had faced death itself and no longer feared anyone.
Without wasting another second, Tyler turned and began walking toward the king’s chamber.
His steps were calm, firm, each one sending a ripple of tension through the hall.
They couldn’t believe a homeless man could be this bold.
The guards tensed instinctively, moving to block his path.
At the same time, Damien, his face darkening with rage and humiliation, barked at the guards, “Stop him! Who does he think he is?!”
The guards hesitated for a second, ready to obey.
But then, the moment Tyler stepped closer, the air shifted.
A sudden pressure rolled off him, quiet and invisible.
Immediately the guards stiffened.
Their instincts screamed at them this wasn’t an ordinary man, their bodies froze for a heartbeat too long.
And before they could even lift their weapons, Tyler’s fingers moved with smooth, precise gestures.
Chapter 19
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A series of complex hand signs flashed through the air, faster than most of them could even comprehend.
And then tyler’s eyes sharpened.
He gazed at them no words, no threats just a single cold glance backed by the raw, brewing aura rising from deep within him.
The guards faltered, feeling the suffocating pressure descend over them like a heavy mountain.
The moment Tyler completed the final hand sign and locked his cold gaze on them, the effect was immediate.
The guards froze, their bodies stiffened like statues, their hands still half–raised, caught mid-
motion.
A deep, cold fear wrapped itself around their hearts, gripping them so tightly that even breathing felt heavy.
It was as if an invisible force had punched the air out of their lungs.
They couldn’t move, they couldn’t even speak.
Their instincts, trained from years of serving in the royal palace, screamed at them to react to draw their weapons, to defend themselves but their bodies simply refused to obey.
Every fiber of their being told them the same thing.
Danger,
real danger, the kind of danger that didn’t come from shouting or sword–swinging.
The kind of danger that came from something… higher.
Some of the crowd noticed it too.
The sudden shift in the atmosphere the way the guards seemed rooted to the spot the way the very air trembled for a heartbeat.
Immediately Whispers died.
The hall fell into a tense, eerie silence, and among the stunned onlookers, even Damien the proud, arrogant top five apprentice felt it.
For the briefest second, a chill prickled the back of his neck.
His body tensed involuntarily as a faint but unmistakable pressure brushed over him, passing like a phantom touch.
He stiffened, his sharp senses, honed through brutal training in the Supreme Forest, immediately picked up on it.
There had been a pulse, a pressure.
Chapter 19
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A glimpse of something powerful hidden underneath the surface.
At that moment Damien’s sharp eyes narrowed, scanning the hall quickly, trying to find the
source.
Then his gaze landed briefly on Tyler, who was still calmly walking toward the king’s chamber as if nothing had happened.
A small frown creased Damien’s brow, Was it…. him?
Was it Tyler who just released that aura?
“No.”
Damien immediately shook the thought out of his head, his pride refusing to even entertain
the idea.
Impossible, he scoffed inwardly, Someone like Tyler someone kicked out of the Supreme Forest, someone dressed in rags, someone who barely scraped past the crystal ball’s test, he couldn’t possibly have that kind of pressure.
It must have been something else, a trick of the wind, a flicker of fear in the air.
Anything but Tyler, there was no way a piece of trash like that could make someone like Damien feel even a flicker of pressure.
Absolutely impossible, and with that, Damien pushed the thought out of his mind completely, unwilling to even consider it for another second.
Without wasting even a heartbeat, Tyler continued walking forward.
The guards, rooted by fear and confusion, could only watch helplessly as he moved past them like a shadow slipping through the cracks of their defenses.
No one dared lift a hand to stop him, no one even dared to speak.
The heavy doors to the king’s chamber loomed ahead.
At that moment Tyler pushed them open with a quiet strength, stepping into the inner
sanctum.
The room beyond was filled with a heavy, suffocating stillness.
The scent of incense barely masked the smell of sickness that lingered in the air.
At the center of the vast room was the king’s bed, raised slightly on a dais.
Tyler’s sharp eyes immediately swept over the scene.
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