The devastation in the marketplace of the Main City was a visceral wound upon the perfection of the Shen Clan's architecture.
Cracks spider-webbed through the pavement, and several low-hanging balconies of the surrounding mansions had been reduced to splinters by the sheer atmospheric pressure of Ye Feng's sudden eruption.
Amidst the settling dust and the terrified whispers of the crowd, Shen Xinye stood alone.
She looked profoundly melancholic, her short golden hair still messy from the shockwave and her eyes fixed on the distant horizon where the shadows had finally swallowed her husband.
The pain in her chest wasn't just from the physical impact that had slammed her into the wall, but more of a hollow, aching void of betrayal.
'Have I been deceived?' she asked herself, the answer tasting like poison. 'Yes. Absolutely. Beyond a shadow of a doubt.'
