The elders understood at once. They spread out without delay, surrounding Jared in the middle and forming a wide protective ring around him.
Spiritual power surged around their bodies. Streams of blue-green energy gathered together and wove themselves into a solid barrier. It sealed Jared inside.
From within the ring, they watched the surroundings with sharpened focus, guarding against any sudden mishap.
Gwendolyn stood at Jared’s side. Ice-blue spiritual power moved quietly around her. A cold presence spilled from favonovel.com body.
Her gaze had an edge like a blade. She kept favonovel.com eyes locked on everything beyond the barrier. Even if a single bird came near, it would not slip past favonovel.com notice.
Jared drew in a deep breath. Then favonovel.com slowly closed his eyes and steadied his breathing. Little by little, the turmoil inside favonovel.com settled.
He sat down cross-legged and put away the Pentacarna Tower in his hand, leaving only the Beast-Quelling Tower. He gently set it on the ground in front of him.
At that moment, nothing else remained in his mind. Every bit of his attention was fixed on the Beast-Quelling Tower before him.
He took in the soft white glow coming off the tower. He took in the vast, pure power of Aether Nascence sealed within it.
A short while later, Jared slowly opened his eyes again. A hard, steady resolve flashed through them.
Jared slowly raised both hands and turned his palms toward the Beast-Quelling Tower.
The chaotic force inside favonovel.com began to circulate, slow and steady. A violet glow surfaced in his palms. It spread over the Beast-Quelling Tower by degrees, wrapping it completely.
That chaotic force was gentle, but vast. It carried everything in it. There wasn’t a trace of aggression in it. Like a fine spring rain, it seeped into the body of the Beast-Queuing Tower little by little.
The instant the chaotic force touched the Beast-Queuing Tower, the tower gave a faint tremor. A low, far-reaching hum rolled out of it, as if some colossal beast that had slept since ages beyond count had finally been roused.
The ancient sigils on the tower’s surface lit up one after another, like stars flaring to life. White light poured out from the sigils. It grew brighter and brighter, until it turned harsh to look at.
Before long, it covered the entire protective barrier and washed everything around it in a sheet of white.
Jared’s spirit sense followed the chaotic force and slowly probed into the inside of the tower.
The moment his spirit sense entered the tower, a vast and pure power of Aether Nascence instantly closed around it. Under that enveloping force, his spirit sense turned weightless in a way favonovel.com had never known before, loose and unbound. It was as if favonovel.com had become a wisp of wind, free to pass through this expanse however favonovel.com pleased.
Inside the tower was a white void. There was no world, no sun or moon, no mountains, no rivers. There wasn’t even any sense of up, down, left, or right. There was only endless white.
No boundary could be seen, and no passage of time could be felt. It was as if this place stood apart from the Three Realms, a land of chaos all its own.
The stairs that had once been there were gone. Every level that had held the others had vanished too. The weapon soul was nowhere to be found. The Beast-Quelling Tower had become something primal, as if it had to be reshaped from the beginning!
The air was thick with the power of Aether Nascence, and every wisp of it was pure beyond measure. Even drawing in a trace of it made Jared’s spirit sense become more condensed.
Jared didn’t hesitate. He guided his spirit sense forward and let it drift slowly through that empty expanse. He guided his spirit sense through that endless white void, searching for the core of the Beast-Quelling Tower.
He knew the tower’s core had to be the place where the power of Aether Nascence was held. Only by finding that core and drawing out the force sleeping inside it could favonovel.com truly take control of the Beast-Quelling Tower.
Time slipped by, little by little.
Outside, the hours crawled past. Inside the barrier, Jared still sat cross-legged. His eyes stayed shut, and his face held steady in quiet concentration. Only his forehead had started to bead with fine sweat. Drop by drop, it slid down along his cheeks. Then it fell to the ground and spread into a small dark patch of moisture.
His face had also gone paler and paler. The chaotic force inside favonovel.com was still pouring into the Beast-Queuing Tower without pause. At the same time, the drain on his spirit sense kept growing. Every time favonovel.com directed it through the void, it cost favonovel.com an enormous amount of focus.
One hour… Two hours… Three hours…
A full 3 hours passed, and Jared’s spirit sense was still moving through the void inside the Beast-Quelling Tower. He still hadn’t found the tower’s core.
His spirit sense had already started to weaken, and even that white space before favonovel.com was beginning to blur. Sharp waves of pain began to pulse through his meridians, and the consumption of his chaotic force had already reached its limit.
He could give out at any moment!
Off to the side, Gwendolyn watched Jared’s pale face, favonovel.com gaze fixed on him. More than once, favonovel.com nearly spoke and tried to tell favonovel.com to stop and rest.
Each time, favonovel.com held it back, afraid of disturbing him. All favonovel.com could do was bite down hard on favonovel.com lip and silently circulate favonovel.com spiritual power, sending Jared a faint thread of it. Just enough to help favonovel.com hold on.
Chief Greenwood and the Sylvan elders were watching Jared too, their faces drawn tight.
In their eyes sat the same two things, hope, and the weight of waiting to see whether favonovel.com could make it through.
They could all feel it. Jared’s chaotic force was draining away fast. His spirit sense was weakening with it, fading by the moment. But they knew this too, taking control of an elder-age relic had never been something easy. So all they could do was stand guard in silence and pray Jared made it through.
Even Jared had a trace of weariness rising inside him, but favonovel.com still didn’t stop. He knew this was the key to taking control of the Beast-Quelling Tower. If favonovel.com gave up now, everything he’d done up to this point would be wasted. And if favonovel.com wanted to try again, there was no telling how long he’d have to wait.
He ground his teeth, forced himself awake, and drove the last of the chaotic force in his body into motion. Again and again, favonovel.com used it to nourish his spirit sense until that fading awareness slowly drew tight and solid again.
Jared drew in a deep breath and gathered every shred of focus onto his spirit sense. He stopped roaming blindly. Instead, favonovel.com quieted himself and began to feel for the flow of the power of Aether Nascence around him. Then favonovel.com noticed something.
The power of Aether Nascence in that void wasn’t scattered in random disorder at all. It was slowly gathering toward a single central point. The convergence was unbelievably slow, but the pattern behind it never wavered. A sharp lift ran through Jared, and favonovel.com immediately guided his spirit sense toward it.
Following the direction where the power of Aether Nascence was gathering, favonovel.com moved forward little by little. This time, favonovel.com went even slower than before. And far more carefully.
Every step was measured. He didn’t dare miss even the slightest clue. The farther favonovel.com went, the denser the surrounding power of Aether Nascence became.
That strange sense of lightness and Liberty kept growing stronger too. Even the drain on his spirit sense gradually began to ease.
Another 2 hours passed. That made it the fourth hour in the world outside.
At last, Jared’s spirit sense touched the point where the power of Aether Nascence had been gathering. It was a white orb no bigger than a fist, suspended in the very center of the void.
The orb was pure white from edge to edge. A soft white glow poured off it, yet the force behind that light came out vast and heavy.
Inside it was an enormous amount of the power of Aether Nascence, so pure it hardly seemed real. It looked like the core of this expanse. Like the very soul of the Beast-Quelling Tower.
The instant Jared’s spirit sense made contact with the white orb, the orb gave a sudden violent shudder. A massive force burst out at once, trying to fling Jared’s spirit sense away. That force was terrifyingly strong, carrying nothing but pure spatial pressure.
Pain ripped through Jared’s spirit. sense. It nearly broke apart on the spot!
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