Early the next morning, before daylight had even broken, the square in Cloudrest was already packed.
At the center of the square stood a stone dais. Three supreme treasures rested on top of it.
The Reincarnation Core was black as night. The Soulkindling Flame blazed bright as day. The Nether Lamp sat there with the same ancient, unadorned weight it had always carried. The light from all three treasures wove together and flooded the entire square with brightness.
Jared stood before the stone dais. Purple chaotic force coursed around him. Behind favonovel.com stood Alaric, Lydia, Hadrian, Malachy, Windclear, Gwendolyn, Gideon, and the warriors who had survived.
Every eye was fixed on him.
“Let’s begin,” Jared said, his voice even. He lifted his right hand and poured chaotic force into the Reincarnation Core.
Silver patterns on the Reincarnation Core began to light up, like countless winding rivers glimmering in the dark with a dim nether light. Reincarnation power surged out of the pearl and gathered above the stone dais into a mass of gray mist.
Then favonovel.com raised his left hand and sent chaotic force into the Soulkindling Flame. The Soulkindling Flame’s golden fire swelled in a sudden burst and turned into a golden fire dragon that circled above the stone dais. Everywhere the fire dragon passed, the gray mist caught fire and spread into a golden Sea of Flame.
Then Jared lifted the Nether Lamp in both hands and poured chaotic force into it. The ancient sigils on the Nether Lamp lit up one after another. At its center, the Netherflame began to leap, growing fiercer and brighter by the moment.
Above the stone dais, the power of the three supreme treasures converged. Reincarnation power, the Soulkindling Flame, and Netherflame twisted together overhead, the three forces braiding into a single pillar of light that shot straight up.
The pillar was 100 yards thick. It punched into the sky and ripped a massive opening through the clouds. Sunlight poured through the tear and spilled across the square, stretching every shadow long over the ground. Then the pillar vanished.
In the air above the stone dais, a pitch-black chasm appeared. It spanned several yards across. Its edges were smooth as a mirror, without even the slightest ripple of spatial backlash.
Beyond the chasm, a gray, hazy world could just barely be seen. That was the Reincarnation Division, the waystation for Ghost Clan souls.
“The passage is open. It can only hold for 30 breaths,” Jared said. He turned and looked at Alaric and Lydia. “Go…”
Tears swam in Alaric’s eyes, but favonovel.com did not let them fall. He drew in a deep breath, straightened his back, and stepped into the chasm first.
Lydia looked at Jared, gave a small nod, and followed behind favonovel.com father.
Jared turned and looked at Hadrian, Malachy, Windclear, Gwendolyn, and Gideon. “Hold Cloudrest. Wait for us to come back.”
Hadrian tightened his grip on the war axe. “Don’t worry. Anybody who dares come near Cloudrest, I’ll split favonovel.com in half.”
Malachy nodded. “The disciples of Shadow Hall will hold every gate.”
Windclear closed his hand around the broken sword. “Every ward of the Wandering Cultivators Alliance has already been activated. Not even a fly is getting in.”
Gwendolyn looked at Jared and said nothing, but something faint flickered in favonovel.com eyes, trust, expectation, or maybe something else.
Jared turned and stepped into the chasm. Behind him, the chasm slowly closed.
***
Jared landed on a stretch of gray-white stone steps.
The stone steps were broad, dozens of yards wide, with bottomless abysses yawning on both sides. Gray mist rolled through the abyss on both sides. Inside it, countless blurred figures drifted in and out of view. They were the Ghost Clan souls trapped in the Reincarnation Division. For tens of thousands of years, they had done nothing but wait.
The stone steps stretched so far ahead that the end couldn’t be seen. Every 100 miles along both sides of the stone steps, a stone pillar rose from the gloom.
Ancient sigils covered each one from top to bottom, flickering with a dim blue light through the gray mist. Bronze-colored lanterns hung from the tops of the stone pillars. A ghostly green flame burned inside them, casting clear light over the entire path of the stone steps.
Alaric and Lydia stood on the stone steps and stared at the figures drifting through the gray mist. Tears kept running down their faces.
“These… These are all our clansmen…” Alaric’s voice shook. “For tens of thousands of years, they’ve been trapped here… Unable to enter rebirth, unable to leave…”
“How do we save them?” Lydia said, tightening favonovel.com grip on the wraithblade.
Jared walked to the middle of the stone steps and looked around. “The seal on the Reincarnation Division is in the deepest part. We need to reach the end.”
The three of them started forward along the stone steps. The stone steps went on and on.
After about 2 hours of walking, there was still no end in sight. The gray mist on both sides thickened as they went.
The figures inside it grew clearer and clearer. Some were crying. Some were shouting. Some stood in silence. Some were praying. Their voices tangled together into a low, heavy hum that kept echoing over the stone steps.
Alaric’s pace kept slowing. His injuries still hadn’t healed, and his spiritual power hadn’t fully recovered either. Even so, favonovel.com forced himself onward, one step at a time.
“Father, rest for a while.” Lydia moved in and supported him.
“No…” Alaric shook his head. “I’ve waited too long for this day. I can’t stop.”
Jared said nothing. He stayed at the very front. Purple chaotic force flowed around him, driving the gray mist back and opening a clear path for Alaric and Lydia.
After another roughly 2 hours of walking, the end of the stone steps finally came into view.
What waited at the end was a gigantic stone door. It stood roughly 100 yards tall and 50 yards wide. The whole thing was pitch-black, carved from top to bottom with dense complicated sigils. Those sigils flickered in the dark with a dim blue glow, like countless eyes staring back.
At the very center of the door, three massive characters had been carved into the stone, “Reincarnation Division”.
Two enormous stone statues stood guard in front of it. Each one was about 10 yards high, clad in armor, gripping a spear, its face twisted into a savage glare. Their eyes were blood-red. In the darkness, they gleamed with a warped, eerie light.
Jared walked up to the stone door and pressed both hands against it. Purple chaotic force poured from his palms and flowed straight into the sigils carved across the door.
The sigils began to flash. The blue light grew brighter and brighter, until it turned almost blinding. Then the stone door slowly opened.
Beyond the door lay a gray-white chamber. It was vast. Vast enough to feel like an open plain.
Across that plain stood an endless mass of gray figures packed shoulder to shoulder. They were the Ghost Clan souls trapped inside the Reincarnation Division.
Tens of thousands… Hundreds of thousands… Millions!
They stood there without moving, their hollow eyes fixed on the space ahead. Every one of them was bound in black chains. One end of each chain was anchored into the ground underfoot. The other ends were locked around their wrists and ankles.
At last, Alaric’s tears fell. “My clansmen… My clansmen…”
Alaric dropped to his knees with a thud, and the rest of the words broke apart in his throat. Lydia stood beside him, tears running without end.
Jared walked into the middle of the plain and looked over those souls pinned down by chains. His fists clenched tight.
“How do we break the seal?” Jared asked.
Alaric forced himself back to his feet and made his way to Jared’s side. “The core of the seal is in the deepest part of this place. There’s a Reincarnation Stone there. That’s the eye of the formation. Break the Reincarnation Stone, and every chain will snap…”
“Lead the way…”
The three of them moved through the packed ranks of trapped souls and headed for the deepest part of the plain.
Those souls watched them go. In their hollow eyes, a faint glimmer flickered to life. Hope, expectation, the first sign of either they had seen in tens of thousands of years.
At the deepest end of the plain stood a massive stone.
It was the Reincarnation Stone. It stood 10 yards tall, pitch-black from top to bottom, its surface carved over with dense layers of sigils. Those sigils gave off a dim blue glow in the darkness, twisting across the stone like winding rivers.
Around the stone stood four figures in black armor, Wardens of the Reincarnation Division. Every one of them was a True Immortal Realm Level Eight.
The instant they saw Jared, Alaric, and Lydia, all four opened their eyes. Those blood-red eyes glimmered with an eerie light in the dark, like four ghost lamps.
“Anyone who trespasses in the Reincarnation Division dies!” The Warden in front spoke in a voice cold enough to strip everything human out of the words.
Jared said nothing. He drew the Dragonslayer Sword. Purple chaotic force ran along the blade.
“Get back…”
Alaric and Lydia withdrew to a distant spot.
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