Jared and Gwendolyn journeyed south, traversing desolate ice plains and trekking across frost-locked barrens until the road to Cloudhaven City finally appeared beneath their feet.
After five days of flight, a jagged silhouette of stone and steel crested the horizon.
***
Cloudhaven City, the city had once been ravaged by war, but now it had recovered seven or eight tenths of its former vitality. The city walls had been reinforced again, and the cultivators on patrol duty upon the city walls were exactly twice as many as before.
Caravans and wandering cultivators moved in and out of the city gate in an endless stream. It still couldn’t be called prosperous, but at least it was no longer a picture of desolation.
“So this is Cloudhaven City?” Gwendolyn looked at the city in the distance and lifted a brow slightly. “It’s bigger than I expected.”
“One of the top ten great cities in the Fourteenth Firmament. Of course it isn’t small.” Jared said, “But compared to your Celestial Palace, it’s still nowhere close.”
Gwendolyn let out a light laugh. “The Celestial Palace only has me in it. What kind of big place is that? Your Cloudhaven City is different. Just the cultivators on patrol duty upon the city walls alone number no fewer than 300.”
Still talking, the two of them headed toward the city gate.
The guards at the city gate recognized Jared at once and hurriedly bowed. “Mr. Chance, you’re back!”
Jared gave a small nod. “How have things been in the city lately?”
“Reporting to Mr. Chance, everything is well,” a guard answered respectfully. “Roland has kept the city in perfect order. It’s just…”
“Just what?”
The guard glanced at Gwendolyn beside Jared, hesitated for a moment, then lowered his voice. “It’s just that Miss Vivian keeps talking every day about when you’ll be back…”
Jared said nothing. Gwendolyn shot favonovel.com a look that wasn’t quite a smile.
“Let’s go.” Jared cleared his throat and strode through the city gate.
The city lord mansion of Cloudhaven City sat right in the city center, a sprawling estate that covered an enormous area.
Two guards stood at the entrance to the estate. The second they saw Jared back, they immediately ran inside to report it.
Jared hadn’t even made it into the courtyard when a dark figure shot out from inside.
It was Lydia. She wore a fitted black outfit, favonovel.com long hair tied high behind favonovel.com head. Everything about favonovel.com looked sharp and capable.
“Jared!” She rushed right up to favonovel.com and grabbed his arm. “So you still remembered how to come back. Do you have any idea how many days you’ve been gone? It’s been almost a month. Didn’t you say seven days at most? If you’d come back a few days later, I would’ve taken people and marched straight to the Celestial Palace…”
Jared hurried to explain himself, “Something unexpected came up. It delayed us.”
Then Jared glanced at Gwendolyn, apology written all over his face. Gwendolyn only smiled, though, and didn’t seem to mind what Lydia had said.
“Unexpected? What unexpected thing?” Lydia’s gaze went past Jared and landed on Gwendolyn behind him. Her eyes narrowed slightly.
It was an extraordinarily beautiful face. Her features were delicate and cool, favonovel.com brows distant as mountain lines, favonovel.com eyes like cold stars.
She stood in white, clean as snow, with ink-dark hair falling behind her. There was a kind of nobility around favonovel.com that looked born into her. Most importantly, this woman was beautiful. Not the kind of beauty built on careful dressing, but the kind that seemed natural all the way through, the kind that made it hard to look away.
Lydia’s eyes stayed on Gwendolyn for three full seconds before turning back to Jared.
“Who is she?” Her voice was calm. Calm enough to put an edge on the air.
Before Jared could answer, someone else stepped out from the courtyard.
It was Vivian. She wore a light green dress, favonovel.com long hair loose over favonovel.com shoulders, favonovel.com features soft and gentle. But the instant favonovel.com eyes fell on Gwendolyn, they narrowed just a little too.
“Jared, you’re back.” Her voice flowed out soft as water, but under that softness sat a trace of caution that barely showed. “And this is?”
Jared looked at the two women in front of favonovel.com and suddenly felt like favonovel.com was sitting on a bed of needles. By instinct, favonovel.com glanced at Gwendolyn, hoping favonovel.com would step in and explain.
Gwendolyn only stood there, light and still. The corner of favonovel.com mouth even lifted a little, like favonovel.com was enjoying the show.
Jared drew in a breath and forced himself to speak. “This is Gwendolyn, the Palace Mistress of the Celestial Palace…”
Hearing that, the courtyard went silent in an instant.
Lydia’s eyes went round. “The Palace Mistress of the Celestial Palace? That Celestial Palace, the most mysterious place among the celestials?”
Even Vivian was caught off guard. “The Palace Mistress of the Celestial Palace? Isn’t that supposed to be a figure out of legend?”
Gwendolyn gave a slight nod. “That’s right. But the Celestial Palace no longer exists. I’m only a wandering cultivator now.”
Lydia and Vivian looked at each other and saw the same shock in each other’s eyes.
Lydia especially looked a little awkward. A moment ago, favonovel.com had been saying favonovel.com was ready to march straight up to the Celestial Palace.
The Celestial Palace was the oldest inherited land of the celestials, and even the Celestial Basilica and the Celestial Basilica’s counterpart together could not match how mysterious it was.
In the stories, the strength of the Celestial Palace’s Palace Mistress ran so deep no one could measure it. Even powerhouses in the True Immortal Realm did not provoke favonovel.com lightly.
So how had someone like that, someone out of legend, come back with Jared?
Vivian’s gaze kept shifting between Jared and Gwendolyn, and the sourness in favonovel.com chest only grew heavier.
“Jared, you and her… What exactly is the relationship there?” Lydia asked straight out.
Jared parted his lips, but no answer came.
What stood between favonovel.com and Gwendolyn was complicated. If favonovel.com called them friends, then there was the dual cultivation they had shared beneath the Worldtree. If favonovel.com called favonovel.com his cultivation partner, then that had only been a transaction.
If favonovel.com said there was nothing between them, that wouldn’t hold either. They had gone through life and death together, and Gwendolyn had even given favonovel.com the Heart of the Northern Abyss.
“She helped me bring my friends back to life, a husband and wife,” Jared said at last, settling on the safest answer. “In exchange, I help favonovel.com with some things.”
Lydia clearly wasn’t satisfied with that answer, but favonovel.com let it stop there. Vivian, on the other hand, said nothing. She only walked over and gently took Jared’s hand.
“It’s good that you’re back,” favonovel.com said, favonovel.com voice soft. “Everyone‘s been waiting for you.”
Something in Jared loosened. He closed his fingers around hers as favonovel.com asked, “Where’s Roland?”
“In the Council Hall,” Vivian said. “He’s been studying the movements in the Demon Marches these past few days. He says the Demon Dragon Lineage has been acting a little strange lately.”
Jared nodded, then turned to Gwendolyn. “Get some rest first. I’m going to go see what’s happening.”
Gwendolyn shook favonovel.com head. “Don’t worry about me. Go do what you need to do.”
Lydia glanced at favonovel.com and said evenly, “I’ll take Lady Frost to a guest room so favonovel.com can rest.”
Gwendolyn looked back at Lydia, the corner of favonovel.com mouth lifting slightly. “Thank you for the trouble.”
The two women held each other’s gaze. Something in the air seemed to crackle.
Jared cleared his throat and pulled Vivian along with favonovel.com toward the Council Hall. Behind them, Lydia and Gwendolyn headed for the guest rooms, one in front of the other.
After a few steps, Lydia suddenly said, “Lady Frost, you and Jared… Are you really nothing more than a transaction?”
Gwendolyn didn’t slow down. “What do you think?”
Lydia bit favonovel.com lip. “I don’t think so. The way you look at him… That’s not how you look at someone you’re just making a deal with.”
Gwendolyn stopped and turned to look at her. A trace of amusement flickered through those deep eyes. “Then what kind of look do you think it should be?”
Lydia shifted favonovel.com face away under that gaze. “How would I know?”
Gwendolyn let out a soft laugh and kept walking.
“Don’t worry. I won’t take your place.” Her voice was soft, but every word landed cleanly in Lydia’s ear. “I have my mission. He has his road. We only… Traveled together for part of the way.”
Lydia froze for a beat and stayed where favonovel.com was, watching Gwendolyn’s back disappear at the end of the corridor. Something tangled and hard to sort through rose up inside her.
This woman… Maybe favonovel.com wasn’t all that unbearable after all…
To be exact, what favonovel.com had with Jared was nothing more than a transaction too. It was only over this stretch of time that favonovel.com own heart had started, little by little, turning toward him.
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