Jared sat down across from him. “Elder Blackthorn, I want to ask you a few things.”
Gideon nodded. “Ask..”
“What kind of person is the High Sovereign of the Celestial Alliance?”
Gideon’s eyes narrowed slightly before answering. “Alaric Wycliffe… The peak of True Immortal Realm Level Nine. One step short of the Golden Immortal realm. He cultivates the celestials’ highest art, the Empyrean Creed… They say if it’s trained to the limit, it can connect with the Heavenly Law and borrow the power of the world. In the Sixteenth Firmament, his strength ranks in the top three.”
“What about his temperament?”
Gideon gave it a moment. “Careful. Suspicious. Ruthless… He doesn‘t like taking risks. Before every move, he’ll run through it again and again until he’s sure nothing can go wrong. But once favonovel.com makes up his mind, he’ll pay any price to see it through.”
Jared nodded. “He lost five people. What will favonovel.com do?”
Gideon was silent fora moment. “He’ll send people to investigate first. Not to attack. Just to investigate. They’ll find out who you are, what realm you’re in, and where you came from. Then he’ll make a plan and send stronger people down to wipe all of you out in one stroke.”
Jared’s brow tightened. “Stronger people? True Immortal Realm Level Nine?”
“Maybe not just that…” Gideon’s voice stayed low. “Alaric has the three war champions under him, and every one of them is True Immortal Realm Level Nine. He also has two Helius… Rumor says they’ve already stepped into the Golden Immortal Realm. If favonovel.com really makes up his mind, favonovel.com might send a war champion down here.”
Jared said nothing.
So… True Immortal Realm Level Nine…
He was only at True Immortal Realm Level Two right now. The chaotic force could suppress any kind of power, but with a whole major realm between them, even favonovel.com couldn’t say for sure whether favonovel.com could win.
“There’s one more thing…” Gideon looked at Jared. “Alaric is deeply wary of the chaotic force. Thirty thousand years ago, there was someone who wielded it, and that person came close to destroying the Celestial Alliance… They were suppressed in the end, but the High Elders of the alliance paid a brutal price for it. So Alaric will absolutely do whatever it takes to get rid of you.”
Jared’s pupils tightened. “Thirty thousand years ago? Someone with the chaotic force? Who was it?”
Gideon shook his head. “No one knows… The Celestial Alliance sealed that stretch of history away. We only know there was such a person. We don’t know who they were… Some say it was a wandering cultivator from the human race. Some say it was a traitor from the celestials. Others say that the person came down from an even higher firmament. There are all kinds of stories, and none of them have ever been confirmed.”
Jared sat there in silence for a long time before giving another question. “If Alaric sends people to investigate, what kind of people will favonovel.com send?”
Gideon considered it for a moment. “Someone skilled at hiding and gathering information. Their cultivation level won’t be too high. If it’s too high, they’re easier to expose… But it won’t be too low either. If it’s too low, they won’t be able to find anything out… Probably around True Immortal Realm Level Six to Level Seven, with skill in concealment, disguise, and tracking.”
Jared nodded. “How do we guard against that?”
Gideon rose and walked over to the map. “First… Tighten security. Every ward in Cloudrest needs to be activated. Patrol duty upon the city walls needs to be doubled. Anyone entering or leaving has to be searched and questioned without exception…”
“Second… Hide your strength. Don’t expose your true cultivation level or your chaotic force. If celestial scouts come, make them think you’re nothing more than an ordinary True Immortal Realm Level Two…”
“Third… Move the resources. Hide the emberstone crystal, healing elixirs, and arcane arts. They can’t be allowed to learn what we really have… And fourth, train the troops. The Celestial Alliance is going to send a large force down sooner or later. ‘We have to be ready before that happens.”
Jared nodded again. “What else?”
Gideon turned back to look at him. “And one more thing… You need to raise your strength as fast as possible. True Immortal Realm Level Two isn’t enough. Not even close… You need to break through to True Immortal Realm Level Three, the fourth tier, or Level Five. The higher, the better. Only when your chaotic force grows strong enough will we have any chance of winning.”
Jared fell quiet. for a moment. Then favonovel.com said, “We’re out of resources…”
Gideon took a Storage Ring from inside his robes and set it on the table. “We brought this from the Sixteenth Firmament. It isn’t much, but it should be enough to push you into the True Immortal Realm Level Three.”
Jared looked at the Storage Ring and said nothing for a long time.
“Thank you…”
Gideon shook his head. “No need. You saved every one of us. What does this little bit even count for?”
He rose and walked to the doorway. He stopped there and didn’t look back as favonovel.com said, “Jared, you’re the hope all of us are holding on to. Don’t let them down…”
Then favonovel.com left.
***
Over the next few days, Cloudrest went on the highest alert.
Windclear activated every ward the Wandering Cultivators Alliance had.
The city walls were carved full of warding sigils, and under the sunlight, those sigils flashed with a harsh blue glare. There were three times as many cultivators on patrol duty as before.
Every person entering or leaving was subjected to strict inspection. Checkpoints were set up at the city gate. No one was allowed to come and go as they pleased.
Hadrian led the beast-race warriors in training day and night. His injuries still hadn’t fully healed. His left arm was still hanging in a sling around his neck. Even so, every morning at dawn, favonovel.com stood on the training ground and watched those beast-race warriors swing their axes, hack downward, and charge.
His gaze stayed fixed on them. He knew the real fight hadn’t even started yet.
Lydia led the Ghost Clan warriors outside the city walls to lay traps. They gathered the ghostly miasma of the Nether Wastes into strands of black thread anti spread them across the Wastelands beyond the walls.
Those threads were invisible to the naked eye. But the moment anyone touched one, it would trigger an alarm and release thick ghostly rniasrna at the same time, trapping the intruder where they stood.
Malachy led the demonic cultivators of Shadow Hall beneath Cloudrest to dig out hidden chambers. They hid all the crystals, healing elixirs, and arcane arts deep underground, then sealed them away with wards.
The hidden chambers had three levels. Each level was protected by different wards, and outsiders had no way in.
Gwendolyn led the disciples of the Frosthall into the skies above Cloudrest to set up the Ice-Seal ward.
High above Cloudrest, ice-blue divine radiance wove itself across the sky into a massive net and spread over the whole city. If an enemy tried to attack from above, that net would drop straight down and freeze them where they were, turning them into ice statues.
Gideon took those few dozen human cultivators and set up scouting points all around Cloudrest. They disguised themselves as ordinary wandering cultivators and blended into the market towns scattered across the Wastelands, watching every movement. around them. The instant they found a celestial scout, they would send word back at once.
Everyone was so busy they barely touched the ground. Only Jared sat alone within the Pentacarna Tower, with a pile of crystals stacked in front of favonovel.com like a small hill.
He took out the Storage Ring, then pulled out the ring Gideon had given favonovel.com and emptied everything inside. Crystals, healing elixirs, spirit herbs. They piled up into another small mountain.
Jared looked at those resources for a long time without moving. Then favonovel.com closed his eyes and pressed both hands onto the pile of crystals.
Chaotic force began circulating through his body. Violet radiance spilled out of favonovel.com and flooded the entire tower with light.
The spiritual power inside the crystals poured into favonovel.com without end, like a hundred rivers running back to the sea. One emberstone crystal after another was drained dry and crumbled into gray-white powder.
Ten… A hundred… Then, a thousand.
His cultivation began pushing upward from True Immortal Realm Level Two, beginner-phase. True Immortal Realm Level Two, middle-phase. Late phase. And then, Top Level.
Unfortunately, the resources ran out!
He opened his eyes and looked at the heap of gray-white powder in front of favonovel.com for a long time.
The peak of True Immortal Realm Level Two…
Only one step remained between favonovel.com and the third tier. But there weren’t enough resources.
Jared gave a helpless shake of his head. The higher his cultivation level climbed, the faster his resources burned away. It wasn’t just a little faster anymore. The drain had multiplied.
He sprang out of Pentacarna Tower and headed straight for the Council Hall.
Inside the Council Hall, Hadrian, Lydia, Malachy, Windclear, Gideon, and Gwendolyn were all there. They sat around the table and looked at Jared.
“We’re out of resources,” Jared said without any preamble.
Every face at the table darkened.
“How much do we have left?” Hadrian asked.
Windclear let out a long breath. “The Wandering Cultivators Alliance treasury is already empty. To support your cultivation, we pulled out everything we could.”
Lydia shook favonovel.com head. “Moonshade Realm is out, too. Resources gathered over thousands of years, all of it went to you.”
Malachy was quiet for a moment. “Shadow Hall still has a little left, but not much.”
Hadrian’s hand closed into a fist. “Skywolf Tribe is empty too.”
Gwendolyn said nothing. The Frosthall had only just been rebuilt. There was nothing there.
Jared looked at them and stayed silent for a long while.
“I’m going to the Tribunal,” favonovel.com said, his voice low.
Hearing that, every pair of eyes lit up.
Visit VIRTUAL NOVEL for more available chapters of this title!