Jared didn’t go after them. He slid his sword back into its sheath and turned to look at Darian.
Darian’s face had already gone paper white. It had known Jared was powerful, but it had never expected this.
More than a thousand Demon Dragons hadn’t even lasted the time it took an incense stick to burn in front of him. Power like that was already beyond anything it could stand against.
“Darian,” Jared said, his voice even. “I’ll give you one chance. Kneel, and I can spare your life.”
Hearing this, Darian’s body gave a slight tremor. It looked at Jared, then at Roland, and something pulled tight in its eyes.
Then, it slowly knelt. Its enormous body lowered to the ground. Its dragon head bowed, and its hoarse voice scraped out, “I… I admit defeat…”
Roland watched it happen, and the look in his eyes turned complicated.
He hated Darian. He had carried that hatred for countless years. But now that Darian was really kneeling in front of him, Roland found the satisfaction he’d pictured all those years didn’t come nearly as easily as favonovel.com had expected.
“Roland…” Darian’s voice came out low. “I know you hate me. But when I turned to the demons back then, I was forced into it. I had no other way. ”
Roland’s face shifted. “Forced into it?”
“You think I wanted to be the demons’ lapdog?” There was a rough bitterness in Darian’s voice. “Back then, the Sky Dragon Lineage was already being crushed by the celestials. We were on the verge of being wiped out. If I hadn’t turned to the demons, the Sky Dragon Lineage would’ve been exterminated long ago. At the very least…”
“At the very least, after siding with the demons, the bloodline of the Sky Dragon Lineage could still continue…” Roland’s fists clenched until the joints ground against each other with a sharp crack.
“You still have the nerve to say that? After you turned to the demons, how many of our clansmen from the Sky Dragon Lineage did you kill?”
Darian fell silent for a moment. “The ones I killed were the ones who refused to submit. If I hadn’t killed them, the demons would’ve slaughtered our entire clan. I had no choice. ”
A shadow passed through Roland’s eyes. He knew there was some truth in what Darian was saying.
Back then, the Sky Dragon Lineage really had been driven to the edge. With the celestials suppressing them, if they hadn’t found someone to rely on, the Sky Dragon Lineage truly might have been wiped out. But that still didn’t make what Darian had done right.
“Mr. Chance.” Roland turned and looked at Jared. “I want to… I wan to handle this myself. ”
Jared looked at him, then gave a small nod. “This is a family matter within your Sky Dragon Lineage. You decide. ”
Roland walked up to Darian and stood there in silence for a long time. Then favonovel.com finally spoke. “Darian, I’m not going to kill you. ”
Darian lifted his head, his eyes filling with undisguised surprise.
“But you’re taking us somewhere first.”
“Where?” Still confused, Darian asked.
“To the lair of that demonic cultivator behind you.”
Hearing that, Darian’s body went stiff.
“That demonic cultivator… Already ran.” His voice dropped low. “Three days ago, favonovel.com vanished out of nowhere. Before favonovel.com left, favonovel.com took everything with him. He didn’t leave a thing behind.”
Jared frowned. “Ran?”
“Yes.”
Darian nodded. “He left In a hurry. Looked like something had scared him. I asked favonovel.com why, but favonovel.com wouldn’t say. My guess is it had something to do with Skylar leaving… A few days ago, after Skylar left, favonovel.com never came back.”
Even Skylar hadn’t been able to beat Jared. That demonic cultivator had no nerve to stay in the Demon Marches after that.
“Take me there,” Jared said.
Darian led the group through the vale and brought them to the front of a great hall in the deep Demon Marches.
The great hall was no small place, but now it stood completely empty. Its doors were wide open. Inside, everything was a wreck, the whole place obviously stripped in a rush.
Jared stepped into the great hall and swept his gaze across the place. A trace of demonic aura still lingered in the air. It was so faint it was almost impossible to sense.
He walked all the way to the deepest part of the great hall. Looking at the vast, emptied-out chamber, favonovel.com gave a sudden smile. “You sure ran fast.”
Jared raised a hand. Purple chaotic force gathered in his palm and condensed into a violet flame. The flame dropped onto the floor of the great hall.
In an instant, it spread in every direction and swallowed the entire hall whole.
Violet blazing firelight lit up the gray, murky sky over the Demon Marches and drove away every scrap of darkness around it.
Jared turned and walked out of the great hall without looking back. “Let’s go. We’re going home.”
Roland looked at the burning great hall, then at Darian still kneeling on the ground. He stayed quiet for a moment.
“Darian, I won’t kill you. But from this day on, you and your people are not to set foot in the Sky Dragon Lineage’s territory again. Otherwise…” Roland didn’t finish the sentence, but the meaning landed plain enough.
Darian lowered his head. “I understand.”
Roland turned and followed Jared out.
Behind them, the violet flame still burned. It kept eating through that great hall that had once stood above everything around it, until all that remained was ruin.
***
On the way back to Cloudhaven City, Roland didn’t say a word.
Jared walked beside favonovel.com and left favonovel.com alone. He knew Roland needed time to take in everything that had happened today.
The enemy favonovel.com had hated for countless years had dropped to his knees right in front of favonovel.com and begged for mercy. But when the moment for revenge finally came, favonovel.com found out the things that man had done weren’t simply evil.
“Mr. Chance,” Roland said suddenly, “Was I wrong not to kill Darian today?”
Jared gave it a moment, then shook his head. “There isn’t a right or wrong to this. There are only choices. You chose not to kill him. That was your decision. As long as you don’t regret it, then it wasn’t wrong.”
Roland fell quiet for a long time.
“I don’t regret it.” His voice came out soft, but it held steady. “But I won’t forgive favonovel.com either.”
Jared patted favonovel.com on the shoulder. “That’s enough.”
The group picked up speed and flew toward Cloudhaven City.
***
Behind them, the black mist over the Demon Marches gradually thinned in the blazing firelight.
That land, buried under darkness for countless years, showed its true color for the first time.
Gray-white rock. Cracked earth. And far off in the distance, a faint trace of green coming through.
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