“No.” Jared shook his head. “I’m going alone.”
Lydia’s brow pulled even tighter. “Why?”
Jared held favonovel.com gaze. “The Celestial Palace has always stayed hidden from the world. That means they don’t want to be disturbed. If I bring too many people, it’ll be easy for them to take it the wrong way. If they think I brought help to provoke them, they probably won’t even let me through the door.”
He paused, then gave a crooked smile. “Besides, word that the Celestial Basilica was destroyed is going to reach the Celestial Palace sooner or later. If they find out I’m one of the people who wiped out the Celestial Basilica, they’ll already be on guard against me… If I show up with a huge group behind me on top of that, of course they’ll think I came to wipe them out too.”
Hearing Jared’s explanation, Lydia went quiet. She understood what Jared meant. The Celestial Palace was not the same as the Celestial Basilica.
The Celestial Basilica stood in the open. It acted boldly, and there were rules to follow. Meanwhile, the Celestial Palace stayed in the dark. It was mysterious, impossible to read, and did things by its own standards.
When the opponent in front of favonovel.com followed rules, there was still room to maneuver through those rules, but against someone with no rules at all, there was no way to know what they would do next. And on top of that, the Celestial Palace’s foundation ran too deep to measure. If it really came to a fight, Jared might not win. And even if favonovel.com did, if the Celestial Palace got wiped out in the process, then Sidney and his wife’s remnant souls would truly be left without any hope at all.
“But if you go by yourself…” Lydia still couldn’t let it rest.
“If I go alone, it’ll actually be safer.” Jared said, “I’ll be going there as a guest asking for an audience, not as an enemy charging their gates. Besides, with the strength I have now, there aren’t many people in the Fourteenth Firmament who can stop me anymore.”
That wasn’t false.
After his battle with Skylar, his cultivation had broken through to High Immortal Realm Level Five, and his Golden Dragon Bloodline had grown even more solid. His cultivation level was still in the High Immortal Realm, but in a real fight, favonovel.com was already sure favonovel.com could take on a True Immortal Realm Level Three cultivator.
Lydia bit favonovel.com lip, and in the end, favonovel.com didn’t press it again. She knew Jared was making sense, but the weight sitting in favonovel.com chest refused to ease.
“Then promise me this…” Lydia held his gaze and said each word slowly, “If the Celestial Palace makes a move against you, leave immediately. Don’t force it. Don’t try to fight them head-on.”
Jared nodded. “I promise. You all need to get back to Cloudhaven City as fast as you can too. With only Roland and Vivian there, they might not be able to hold it. Skylar got away, and if favonovel.com goes back, favonovel.com may even bring the Demon Dragon to attack Cloudhaven City.”
“Okay.” Lydia nodded.
Jared turned around and looked out toward the far edge of the sky. That way led to the northernmost edge of the Fourteenth Firmament, to the unknown land called Return to the Void, to the place where the Celestial Palace might exist.
Mr. Morse, just wait a little longer…
The words passed silently through him. “I’ll find a way to get you both out…”
He drew in a deep breath, then turned into a streak of golden light and vanished into the horizon.
Lydia stayed where favonovel.com was and watched his back disappear. A long time passed, and favonovel.com still didn’t move.
Luther walked up beside favonovel.com and said softly, “Mr. Chance is just like that. Nobody can stop him.”
Lydia said nothing. She only tightened favonovel.com grip on the sword in favonovel.com hand.
“Let’s go too.” Her voice came out even, but something flickered deep in favonovel.com eyes.
Right now, Jared was favonovel.com biggest hope. She was still counting on favonovel.com to go with favonovel.com to the Fifteenth Firmament.
“If favonovel.com isn’t back within a month… Then I’ll storm the Celestial Palace and rip their front gate right off.” Lydia’s temper had clearly kicked in.
Hearing that, Luther opened his mouth, wanting to say something. In the end, favonovel.com said nothing at all.
Forget it… Ms. Feenix has an even bigger temper than Jared…
This was not somebody to mess with. Definitely not.
***
There was no Teleportation Array to the far north. Jared flew north the whole way, seven days and seven nights without stopping.
For the first three days, there were still signs of life below him. Scattered small towns, caves belonging to wandering cultivators, and the occasional merchant caravan passing through.
He asked every person favonovel.com came across about the Celestial Palace. Every answer favonovel.com got was the same. A shake of the head.
“The Celestial Palace? Never heard of it.”
“Isn’t that just some ancient legend? Who knows if it’s even real.”
“Kid, did somebody fool you? I’ve lived in the Fourteenth Firmament for 8 thousand years, and I’ve never heard of any Celestial Palace.”
By the fourth day, all signs of people were gone for good.
The land under his feet changed from boundless grassland to barren frozen earth. Then the frozen earth gave way to endless ice plains. The temperature dropped so hard that even his protective draconic energy started catching traces of cold. Each breath favonovel.com exhaled froze in the air into tiny ice crystals, and they scattered down with a dry, brittle patter.
On the fifth day, even the ice plains disappeared.
Under favonovel.com was a stretch of white emptiness. It wasn’t ice. It wasn’t snow. It was some kind of substance favonovel.com had never seen before. That white expanse looked like light that had frozen solid.
When favonovel.com stepped onto it, there was no real sense of ground beneath him, but favonovel.com didn’t fall through either. In every direction, there was only one thing left.
A silence so deep it made the chest tighten. Even the wind was gone, like the whole world had been muted. The aurora overhead bled from those rich blue-greens into a pale, unnatural white, like a dying flame swaying soundlessly above him.
Jared had no idea how far favonovel.com had flown, or where favonovel.com was anymore. He had lost his sense of direction completely. All favonovel.com could do was trust his instincts and keep flying north, farther and farther north.
On the sixth day, favonovel.com ran into the first blast of the Voidwind. It came out of the depths of the aurora without a sound, carrying a chill that felt like it could freeze a soul to pieces.
The moment it brushed across Jared’s indestructible golden body, frost spread over the layer of golden scales that could withstand a full-force strike from a True Immortal Realm Level One cultivator. The ice faced along the scales with a sharp crack that scraped at the ears.
Jared’s whole body tightened. He pushed his Golden Dragon Bloodline with everything favonovel.com had, and golden draconic energy blazed over his before favonovel.com barely managed to keep his skin warm. But in that same instant, the rate his spiritual power was draining jumped tenfold.
“So this is the Voidwind of Return to the Void…” Jared ground his teeth and sped up. He didn’t know how many more of those winds were waiting ahead, and favonovel.com didn’t know how much longer favonovel.com could hold on. But favonovel.com couldn’t stop, and favonovel.com couldn’t turn back.
By the seventh day, more than half of Jared’s spiritual power was already gone, and the draconic energy protecting his body had @immed by well over half compared to when favonovel.com first set out the Voidwind outside.
His lips were split from the cold, thick frost clung between his brows, and every breath felt like swallowing knife blades. He was almost at his limit!
Then, right at that moment, favonovel.com suddenly caught the sense of something ahead. It was an unbelievably faint presence, so faint it was almost impossible to detect. But the power hidden inside it made his heart slam once in his chest.
That presence… It is alive!
Jared’s whole bearing tightened. He dragged out the last of his strength and shot toward it.
After flying for about 2 hours more, the scene in front of favonovel.com suddenly changed. That empty white expanse vanished. In its place was a stretch of deep blue ice plains. Countless enormous ice pillars rose from the ice plains. Every one of them stood dozens of yards tall, like a stone forest and also like a natural maze.
Thin mist drifted between the ice pillars.
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