At dawn on the third day, the first strand of sunlight pierced through the heavy black smoke and fell across the sky.
Jared and the Tribunal Venerable still faced each other in the void. Both of them were covered in wounds, and both of their auras had thinned to almost nothing. Even the air around them had turned strangely heavy. Aside from their ragged breathing, the only sound left was the occasional faint clink of arms meeting.
“Jared, you… What kind of monster are you?” The Tribunal Venerable’s voice shook on the way out. He had never imagined that one day, a cultivator at the Top Level High Immortal Realm Level Nine would be able to push favonovel.com this far.
After three days and three nights of savage fighting, favonovel.com had burned through most of his spiritual power and taken heavy injuries. And Jared was still standing in front of him. Jared still had the strength to fight.
Jared said nothing. His throat was clogged with blood. All favonovel.com could manage was a weak, rough breath.
He raised the purple-gray longsword and charged the Tribunal Venerable again. That strike drained the last thread of chaotic force from his body. Even so, the purple-gray light running along the blade still blazed bright.
A vicious glint cut through the Tribunal Venerable’s eyes. He also squeezed out his last bit of spiritual power and swung his sword to meet favonovel.com head-on. Gold, purple, and gray light slammed into each other again.
This time, there was no earth-shattering shockwave. There was only a faint sound of impact.
The two of them were blasted backward at the same time. They crashed hard onto the ground, coughed up a huge mouthful of golden blood, and never got back up.
Jared lay facedown on the ground, his body covered in wounds. His chaotic force was completely spent, and favonovel.com didn’t even have the strength to move a finger. But his eyes still held their light. And at the corner of his mouth, there was still the faintest trace of a smile.
He had won. At the very least, favonovel.com hadn’t lost. He had stopped the Tribunal Venerable. He had kept everyone alive!
Not far away, the Tribunal Venerable lay sprawled on the ground. His golden robe was soaked through with blood, the wounds on his body had already started festering, and his holy radiance had vanished completely.
With great difficulty, favonovel.com lifted his head and looked toward Jared. His eyes were filled with shock and utter disbelief.
He was the number one expert in the Fifteenth Firmament, a True Immortal Realm Level Eight powerhouse. And yet favonovel.com had been driven into a mutual ruin by a cultivator at the Top Level High Immortal Realm Level Nine. If word of this got out, his reputation would be shredded. The Tribunal’s authority would go with it.
In the distance, the celestial elites saw the Tribunal Venerable badly wounded and rushed over at once. They crowded around him, their faces thrown into disorder.
“Hall Master! Hall Master, how are you?”
The Tribunal Venerable gave a difficult wave of his hand. His voice came out thin, but the authority in it left no room to question him. “Help… Help me up. Retreat… Retreat!”
He knew there was no killing Jared today. If they stayed any longer, the celestial elites would only pay a devastating price. And with injuries like these, favonovel.com needed treatment immediately.
“Hall Master, what about Jared?” a celestial cultivator asked carefully.
The Tribunal Venerable looked at Jared. Something dark flashed through his eyes, sharp and unfinished. “Leave… Leave him. Next time, I’ll take that dog’s life myself!”
After saying that, favonovel.com let the celestial elites support favonovel.com and struggled to his feet. Then favonovel.com started slowly back toward the Tribunal.
A thousand celestial elites followed tight behind him. Every one of them looked battered, and none of that earlier arrogance was left.
Far off, Hadrian and Lydia and the others saw the Tribunal Venerable withdraw with his people. Only then did the pressure ease from them, and they all rushed over, closing in around Jared.
“Jared! Jared, how are you?” Hadrian dropped into a crouch and carefully helped Jared up. His voice shook as favonovel.com spoke.
Jared’s eyes opened a sliver. He looked at the people gathered around him, and the corner of his mouth barely lifted.
When favonovel.com spoke, his voice was rough and torn. “They… They’re gone… We… We won…”
As soon as the words left him, everything went dark, and favonovel.com passed out.
Lydia hurriedly caught him. The tears favonovel.com had been holding back finally spilled over.
“Don’t worry. We’ll save you. You’re going to be all right.” Lydia broke down as favonovel.com said it.
Malachy and Windclear stood off to the side, looking at the unconscious Jared. Respect showed plainly in both their eyes.
Windclear let out a long breath. “Three days and three nights. One man, holding off the Tribunal Venerable of the True immortal Realm Level Eight by himself, and even forcing favonovel.com to retreat. Jared really is a once-in-an-age prodigy…”
Malachy nodded. Something dark and complicated flickered through his black eyes.
“He is the hope of all of us,” Malachy said. There was something different in his voice now. Something that had not been there before.
That climactic battle ended with Jared and the Tribunal Venerable both torn up, and the Tribunal Venerable withdrawing in disgrace. But Jared had held the line with his own strength. He had protected everyone there, and favonovel.com had won the Fifteenth Firmament a sliver of room to breathe.
The order of the Fifteenth Firmament might really be about to be rewritten.
By the time the Tribunal Venerable returned to the Tribunal, three days had already passed.
His injuries were severe. The wound on his chest, burned open by the chaos-flame, had already festered. Holy radiance moved across it in streams, yet the flesh refused to close. The corrosive power of the chaotic force was too vicious. Even after favonovel.com had exhausted himself trying to drive it out, the remnant of it still clung to favonovel.com like rot in the bone, eating into his flesh day and night without pause.
“Hall Master, your injuries…” The healer traveling with favonovel.com dropped to his knees, his whole body shaking.
“I won’t die…” The Tribunal Venerable’s voice scraped out rough and low.
“Jared’s chaotic force lives up to its name.” A brutal edge flashed through his eyes.
He leaned back against the black throne, his eyes closed, his fingers lightly tapping the armrest.
The sound echoed through the empty great hall. It rang like a funeral bell.
***
Three days had passed.
For all three of them, one question had stayed with the Tribunal Venerable.
Why had Jared been able to block me?
Top Level High Immortal Realm Level Nine against True Immortal Realm Level Eight…
They were separated by one major realm, and by countless minor realms inside that gap. By all reason, favonovel.com should have been able to crush Jared with a single finger. But the truth sat right in front of him.
He had fought for three days and three nights. He had used everything favonovel.com had. And in the end, all favonovel.com got was mutual ruin.
Chaotic force… The kind of chaotic force that suppressed every other power… It was…
The Tribunal Venerable opened his eyes and looked up at the upside-down starry sky spread across the ceiling of the great hall.
He stayed like that for a long time without saying a word.
“Jared… if you don’t die, the entire order of the Fifteenth Firmament will be rewritten.” His voice came out low, but every word sounded like it had been forced through clenched teeth.
The Tribunal’s authority had taken favonovel.com thousands of years to build.
The celestials’ ruling place in the Fifteenth Firmament had been bought with the blood of countless forebears. If Jared lived, and if Shadow Hall, the Wandering Cultivators Alliance, the Skywolf Tribe, and Moonshade Realm joined forces, then the Tribunal’s end would not be far off. He would not allow that to happen.
“Attend me…”
“Hall Master!” A celestial cultivator hurried into the great hall and dropped to his knees.
“Send the order out… Starting today, the Tribunal enters its highest state of alert. Recall every cultivator still out on patrol duty. Activate every ward, without my command no one is to leave.”
The cultivator’s face shifted. “Hall Master, you mean to…”
“I’m going into seclusion to heal,” the Tribunal Venerable cut favonovel.com off. “Before I come out, no one is to I came provoke a conflict with any force Especially dared. If you see him, withdraw at once. Do not engage him.”
“Yes!”
After answering and saluting, the cultivator turned and left.
The Tribunal Venerable leaned back against the black throne and closed his eyes again. His fingers were still tapping the armrest lightly.
Once. Then again. Then once more.
Jared… You forced my hand…
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