Veronica had expected what came next. Her return stirred mixed reactions throughout the clan.
While her immediate family greeted her with open arms, relief, and tearful embraces, the atmosphere beyond that warmth was cold, charged with hostility and judgment.
Whispers buzzed through the corridors of the main hall like venomous insects, each one heavier than the last.
The top elders had gathered swiftly. They were seated in a crescent on raised platforms in the council chamber, a place carved from obsidian and jade, echoing with authority.
Their eyes bore into Veronica—not with curiosity, but with thinly veiled contempt.
"She has endangered the clan with her recklessness," one of the elders, a gaunt man with sharp features and colder eyes, declared.
"I propose we abolish her cultivation and send her to the Austere Clan. Let her learn humility where the sun does not shine. Perhaps then we'll no longer need to hide like turtles in the dark, fearing retaliation."
