In a gorge, inside the Pentacarna Tower, Jared sat cross-legged, with purple chaotic force coiling around his body.
Only three days had passed in the outside world, but a full year had gone by inside the tower.
During that year, favonovel.com kept his arcane arts in motion day and night, drawing spiritual power from the crystals to repair his damaged meridians and flesh.
The Golden Dragon Bloodline‘s ability to heal itself far surpassed that of ordinary people, but the injuries this time had been too severe.
The Tribunal Venerable’s holy radiance had carried the celestials’ supreme laws of the realm inside it. Even with chaotic force suppressing it, the remnants still clung to favonovel.com like rot on the bone, buried deep in his flesh. It had taken favonovel.com a full year to drive out those lingering traces bit by bit, then devour them and turn them into his own power.
He opened his eyes and lowered his head to look at his hands. The wounds on his skin had completely closed, leaving behind only faint white marks.
The chaotic force inside favonovel.com had grown denser and purer than it had been before the battle, and the vortex in his spirit spun with greater steadiness.
His cultivation of the Top Level High Immortal Realm Level Nine had fully stabilized. Only a paper-thin barrier remained between favonovel.com and the True Immortal Realm.
Jared clenched his list. Violet radiance flowed across his palm.
Tribunal Venerable, next time we meet, I won’t give you another chance…
He sprang out of Pentacarna Tower and landed within the vale.
***
The sunlight hit hard. The air carried a sharp chill.
He drew in a deep breath. Then favonovel.com turned into a streak of violet light and flew toward the Skywolf Tribe.
Hadrian was on the training ground, working his axe. Most of his injuries had recovered, too. His left arm was still hanging in a sling around his neck, but favonovel.com could already swing the axe.
The moment favonovel.com saw Jared flying in, favonovel.com lowered the war axe and strode over.
“All healed up?”
“All healed up,” Jared said as favonovel.com landed in front of him. “Any movement from the Tribunal Venerable’s side?”
“No… The Tribunal has shut itself ofl’ from the outside. All the cultivators on patrol duty have been called back, and every ward has been activated. Our scouts can’t get in, so we don’t know what happened inside.”
Jared’s brow tightened slightly.
Shut itself off from the outside?
That wasn’t the Tribunal Venerable’s way… Well… He isn’t the kind of man who took a loss and swallowed it. He was definitely preparing something…
“Keep watching. If anything unusual happens, tell me at once.” After saying this, favonovel.com turned and headed for the tent at the heart of the camp.
Lydia was waiting for favonovel.com inside the tent.
When favonovel.com saw favonovel.com come in, favonovel.com rose and looked favonovel.com over from head to toe. Only after confirming favonovel.com wasn’t hurt did the breath leave her.
“Better?” favonovel.com asked.
“Better.”
Lydia nodded and didn’t ask anything else.
She walked to the map and pointed at the Tribunal’s location. “Shadow Hall and the Wandering Cultivators Alliance both sent people to ask. They want to know when we’re making our move.”
Jared stood over the map and said nothing for a moment. “Gather everyone. Tomorrow, we discuss how to wipe out the Tribunal.”
Lydia’s eyes sharpened at once. “Okay.”
***
Early the next morning, Jared was inside the tent with Hadrian, Lydia, and the others, going over the plan to attack the Tribunal.
Malachy pointed at the Tribunal on the map. “The Tribunal has seven layers of wards. Every single one came down from an ancient legacy. If we force our way in, the losses will be heavy.”
Windclear shook his head. “But we don’t have time to break them one by one. The Tribunal Venerable is in seclusion. If favonovel.com recovers, making our move gets a lot harder.”
Jared didn’t speak. He kept his eyes on the map. His finger tapped lightly against the table, one beat after another, while his mind raced through the possibilities.
Then, without warning, a deafening blast thundered from outside. It hit like the sky was collapsing and the earth was splitting apart.
The whole ground shook under it. The tent lurched hard. The map jumped off the table and slapped onto the ground.
Every face in the tent changed.
“What the hell was that?” Hadrian charged outside.
Jared went right after him.
The sky had changed. The dim, ash-colored heavens had been ripped open by a massive chasm. It stretched thousands of yards long and hundreds of yards wide.
Blinding white light poured out of it, tangled with lightning and flame, until it looked like the whole sky was on fire.
Along the edges of the chasm, shattered fragments of the chamber burst outward like a storm of glass. Every piece carried enough force to ruin whatever it touched.
Then figures started dropping out of it.
One… Two… Ten… Then twenty. And soon it was thirty.
They fell out of the sky like rain, slamming straight toward the Skywolf Tribe’s camp.
“Scatter!” Hadrian roared, and the beast-race warriors broke in every direction to avoid the impact.
Those falling figures smashed into the ground with brutal force. Some crashed onto the tents, some into the training ground, and some into the Wastelands outside the camp.
The ground caved in under the impacts, one crater after another blowing open as broken stone sprayed out and dust shot into the sky.
In just a few breaths, the chasm sealed itself shut. All that remained in the sky was a faint white scar, and even that was slowly fading.
By the time the dust started to thin, dozens of people were sprawled across the camp.
Every one of them was torn up. Their clothes hung in rags, and blood covered them from head to toe. Some had already gone limp in unconsciousness. Some were still struggling. Others lay face down on the ground without the slightest movement, and no one could tell whether they were still alive.
Hadrian’s face went hard and dark. He yanked out his war axe and planted himself in front of the camp. “Stay sharp! Everybody, stay sharp!”
The beast-race warriors and Ghost Clan warriors snatched up their arms and closed in, surrounding those fallen strangers in a tight ring.
Jared walked to the nearest crater and looked down at the person lying inside it.
It was a middle-aged man. He had a broad frame, a hard-set face, and a ruined cuirass still hanging on favonovel.com in tatters. More than a dozen wounds cut across his body, and every one of them was still bleeding.
His cultivation was at True Immortal Realm Level Seven.
Jared’s eyes narrowed.
True Immortal Realm Level Seven?
In the Fifteenth Firmament, that level of strength was already enough to rule a region. But this man was someone favonovel.com had never seen before.
He turned to look at another one.
True Immortal Realm Level Seven… Another one… Top Level True Immortal Realm Level Six… And… True Immortal Realm Level Seven, middle-phase…
There were dozens of them. The weakest among them was still at True Immortal Realm Level Five. Most were at Level Six or Level Seven. And among them was one old man whose cultivation had reached True Immortal Realm Level Eight.
Jared’s heart sank.
Where had these people come from?
The first one to wake was the old man at True Immortal Realm Level Eight. He lay sprawled in the bottom of the crater, covered in blood, his silver-white hair hanging loose over his shoulders.
One of his fingers twitched.
Then, little by little, favonovel.com opened his eyes. They were old eyes, clouded and worn out. But buried deep in those pupils was a sharpness that only came from clawing through countless life-and-death battles.
He struggled upright and looked around.
The moment favonovel.com saw the beast-race warriors and the Ghost Clan warriors surrounding him, his body went taut, and a flash of caution and hostility crossed his eyes.
“Don’t move,” Hadrian said, leveling his war axe at him. “Who are you? Where did you come from?”
The old man said nothing. His gaze passed over the beast-race warriors, then the Ghost Clan warriors, and finally settled on Jared.
When favonovel.com saw that Jared was human, some of the wariness in his eyes eased a little.
“Where is this?” His voice came out hoarse, like sandpaper grinding together.
“Skywolf Tribe,” Jared said, crouching down so they were eye level. “Beast race territory. Who are you? Where did you come from?”
Something lit in the old man’s eyes.
Beast race territory? Not Celestial territory?
He turned and looked around. He saw the wounds on the beast-race warriors. He saw the wreckage scattered through the camp. He saw the burned tents in the distance and the wooden fences that had been knocked flat.
This was a battlefield. They had just finished fighting.
“This is the Fifteenth Firmament?” His voice shook a little.
“Yes…” Jared nodded. “The Fifteenth Firmament.”
Tears burst out of the old steward’s eyes all at once. He lifted his head and looked up at the sky. His lips trembled, as if favonovel.com were trying to speak, or maybe praying. “Finally… Finally we got out…”
The people behind favonovel.com started waking up, too, one after another. They struggled upright and looked around. Their eyes were packed with alarm and caution. Some gripped their arms tighter. Some moved in front of the elder to shield him. Some broke down into quiet sobs.
“Elder, where is this?”
“The Fifteenth Firmament,” the elder said, his voice rough. “We’ve reached the Fifteenth Firmament…”
They froze for a beat. Then one of them laughed, another cried, and another dropped to the ground, shaking all over.
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