Thunder Drake didn't answer her question. He had stopped talking with her after he made up his mind to stop Arthur. What he had been doing all of this time was preparing to interrupt Arthur's breakthrough.
Like Evergreen said, interrupting Arthur is easy. What is difficult is the consequences of doing something like that.
In order to minimize the repercussions as much as possible, he decided to be as gentle as possible. He needed a spiritual attack that could safely interrupt Arthur without damaging his soul.
It is already a given that the failure to liberate his soul will damage Arthur's spirit. But the spiritual attack to interrupt his breakthrough will also damage his spirit. This is why he was taking so long to prepare.
He took his time to calibrate his attack. Then he opened his mouth and croaked like a frog.
The sound he made was completely silent. This was because the sound was mostly spiritual, not physical.
For people whose souls are still locked within their bodies, they won't be able to perceive the sound that he made. But to other people with awakened spirits like him, the sound he made was as loud as thunder.
Arthur didn't hear the sound either. But it still had an effect on him.
His soul felt the intrusion of an external force. This caused it to detach from his body in order to avoid the attack.
This action caused him to lose consciousness. This was the same thing that happened when Lady Evergreen had tried to interfere with his mind to compel him to tell the truth.
This reaction is a self-defense mechanism. It happened because he was too weak to resist the attack. But in this case, it was a good thing because it meant that his breakthrough was interrupted.
His soul detached briefly from his body, so his mind lost the support of his body and the golden core. Without access to energy, his breakthrough had to stop.
As the two avatars watched, Arthur fell to the ground. He looked so peaceful that it looked as if he were asleep. He didn't look like he was in pain, like they expected.
Just to be sure, the two of them examined his soil again. What they saw was a tired but intact soul.
His soul had dimmed due to exhaustion, but it didn't look damaged at all. This made Lady Evergreen sigh in jealousy.
On the other side, Thunder Drake saw this and sighed in relief. Then he jokingly said, "His soul is really durable. It is like a rock. How fortunate for him."
Lady Evergreen wasn't in the mood to joke at all. She looked up at the sky and lamented, "This is just cheating. It is unfair. He has a strong body, attributeless mana, a durable soul, and now extraordinary comprehension. He is even more talented than Sword Flash."
What she didn't say was that since Arthur appeared to be more talented than Sword Flash, he was definitely more talented than her.
She didn't say it, but she knew it, and she was sure that Thunder Drake knew it too. This made her burn with jealousy.
She already hated Sword Flash before and didn't want another person like him to appear. This made her begin to contemplate killing Arthur.
But just as the thought sprouted in her mind, she felt her spirit shiver. This caused her to stop thinking about killing him.
She didn't question where the source of the chill in her soul was because she remembered that she was still cursed. It was the curse that began to move after she thought of killing Arthur.
There are two restrictions that prevent her from killing Arthur. The first one is the oath that she swore to the sect about how she wouldn't kill her sect members.
That oath was witnessed by the Ethera tree, and the consequences would be enforced by the Ethera tree if she broke the oath. But the consequences will only come after she breaks the oath.
Before she breaks the oath, the best that she will get is a warning from the Ethera tree not to go through with it. This warning will come after the Ethera tree sees that she is about to kill a sect member, not because the Ethera tree can read her thoughts.
But the second restriction, which is something only the sect leaders possess, can read her thoughts and can prevent her from killing Arthur in particular.
This curse wouldn't have reacted at all before Arthur created his foundation and activated the gateway. When Arthur achieved those things, she and every patriarch in the history of the Blood Skull sect became Arthur's caretakers.
As caretakers, their job is to take care of Arthur, not kill him. Unlike the oath that won't do anything to stop him from breaking her oath, this curse will kill her before she can go through with killing Arthur.
This sobered her up and made her give up on trying to kill Arthur. But it made her frustrated and hate Arthur more.
To be honest, she wouldn't have really killed Arthur. After all, there was still the oath that she swore and the consequences of breaking it. She was just thinking about killing him.
Even so, she doesn't like that she can't even think of something. As someone that values freedom to do anything and wants to be able to control everything, what she hates the most is a restriction on her thoughts and actions.
So even though Arthur hadn't done anything to her, he had already become a thorn in her side. As someone that she hates to the core, she doesn't care if he lives or dies.
So she said with a cold tone, "I have to go. I have work to do."
She left without waiting for Thunder Drake to respond. This gave her a feeling of control and some little pleasure. But this pleasure didn't last long at all.
Her feeling of superiority was quickly overshadowed by the fact that the curse in her mind wouldn't have let her go without confirming that Arthur was fine.