The three of them kept moving forward, passing through layer after layer of dense forest.
The forest trees here were older than the ones in the Shrouded Wood, and thicker by far. Moss and vines covered the trunks. Roots twisted across the ground in winding coils, forming one natural barrier after another.
The wood-aspected spiritual essence in the air was so rich it almost looked ready to condense into liquid. A deep breath was enough to set the spiritual power inside the body surging wildly. It left the whole body loose and light.
Jared kept his spirit sense spread the entire way, carefully feeling for every shift around them. He could tell that this realm of Evershade was hiding countless powerful presences. Their cultivation ranged from True Immortal Realm Level Five to Level Eight. And among them were even a few that had reached True Immortal Realm Level Nine. Those were plainly the upper ranks of the Sylvan Kin. And more than that, the spirit flora and spirit beasts here all possessed awareness of their own.
They lived alongside one another in harmony, guarding Evershade together. Their auras carried nothing but peace and stillness. Set against the brutal world outside, the contrast couldn’t have been clearer.
As they went deeper, Gwendolyn gradually eased. The icy divine radiance around favonovel.com slowly began to fall into harmony with the surrounding wood-aspected spiritual essence. It no longer clashed against it the way it had before.
She looked at the strange flowers and rare grasses around them. Then at the spirit beasts darting through the woods.
A faint spark showed in favonovel.com eyes. She had never seen a place like this. There was no conflict here. No slaughter. Only peace and stillness. It was like a paradise that had fallen into the mortal world.
After walking for about 1 hour, an open vale appeared ahead. The vale was vast. So vast favonovel.com couldn’t see where it ended, as if a small world had been sealed away inside it.
Jared’s breathing cut off on the spot.
Ancient trees stood everywhere within the vale. Some trunks were as thick as small mountains, wide enough that it would take hundreds of people locking arms to circle them. Some crowns rose straight into the clouds, thrusting up toward the sky. Some roots coiled and twisted across the ground, forming natural bridges and platforms. Between the ancient trees, clear streams ran through the vale.
The water was so clear the bottom showed through at a glance, and petals in every color drifted across the water’s surface. The streams murmured as they flowed, their crisp sound carrying like a song someone might stop and listen to.
The ground was carpeted with all kinds of strange flowers and spirit herbs. Some gave off a soft glow in the dark, while others swayed gently in the breeze. Some even sang in low voices, releasing a faint, clean fragrance.
The wood-aspected spiritual essence in the air had grown rich to the limit, so dense it nearly condensed into droplets. One breath of it into the body cleared the head at once, and the spiritual power inside surged into motion.
But Jared’s gaze did not stay on any of that beauty. His eyes locked on the ancient pine in the deepest reach of the vale.
That ancient pine was larger than any tree favonovel.com had ever seen. Its trunk was as massive as a palace, so wide it would take hundreds of people to encircle it. Its bark was split and weathered, every crack stamped with age, as though it had taken root there in the oldest ages of the world. It had watched era after era turn.
Its canopy blotted out the sky and the sun, casting the whole vale under its shade. Its branches and needles grew thick and full, green enough to seem ready to drip, pouring off a crushing abundance of life. The roots of the ancient pine heaved up out of the earth, forming natural steps. They twisted upward, all the way to a massive hollow in the trunk.
The hollow was wide and bright. A curtain woven from vines and flowers hung across the doorway. A faint fragrance drifted from the curtain.
A middle-aged man stood in front of the hollow. He was tall, with a hard, chiseled face. Long blue-green hair spilled over his shoulders and moved with the wind. His skin carried a pale blue-green cast, and his pupils were a deep green. Wood-grain patterns seemed to flow inside those eyes, and a steady, immense presence pressed off him.
He wore a long robe woven from leaves and vines. A few tiny flowers no one could name hung from the robe, giving off a faint trace of spiritual essence and blending perfectly with everything around him.
His cultivation had reached True Immortal Realm Level Nine. His aura stood as firm as a mountain, as if it had fused with the entire vale. It was almost as if favonovel.com were the ruler of this realm of Evershade itself. Every move he made carried an authority no one would dare question.
“That’s the Clan Chief of our Sylvan Kin, Chief Greenwood…” Elder Cillian stopped and spoke to Jared in a low voice. Even that quiet tone carried clear respect.
“The Clan Chief has lived for 100 thousand years. His cultivation runs too deep to measure. He’s the strongest person among the Sylvan Kin of the Sixteenth Firmament, and the Warden of this realm of Evershade. Be careful with your words. Don’t offend the Clan Chief,” Elder Cillian warned.
Jared gave a small nod. Under that towering presence, even drawing breath felt heavier.
True Immortal Realm Level Nine was beyond any enemy favonovel.com had faced before. Even with the chaotic force in his body, bringing down Chief Greenwood was next to impossible. But favonovel.com didn’t back away. He knew this was his only chance. No matter what stood in the way, Jared had to convince Chief Greenwood to work with them.
Elder Cillian led Jared and Gwendolyn slowly up to the hollow and stopped just short of the entrance.
He bowed with full respect and said, “Chief Greenwood, I’ve brought them… This is Jared. He carries the chaotic force within him. He says favonovel.com can restore the spirit veins of the Sylvan Kin and wants to discuss cooperation with us so we can stand together against the Celestial Alliance.”
Chief Greenwood said nothing. He did not even spare Elder Cillian a glance. His eyes stayed locked on Jared. They were cold enough to make the air around them seem to drop by several degrees in an instant.
There was no warmth in that look, no trace of feeling at all. Only the detached scrutiny of someone looking down from high above. It was the kind of look a man might give an ant that had wandered into his territory, edged with disdain and indifference.
His gaze remained on Jared for a long time. He examined favonovel.com with painstaking care, as if favonovel.com meant to see straight through him, inside and out.
Then his eyes shifted to Gwendolyn and swept over favonovel.com once. A moment later, that gaze returned to Jared, just as cold as before, without the slightest change.
“Humans…” At last, Chief Greenwood spoke. His voice came low and heavy, like wind moving through a pine forest. A crushing pressure rolled out with his words and settled over Jared and Gwendolyn.
“The Sylvan Kin and the human race have always been mortal enemies. Since ancient times, there has never been anything for us to discuss… You humans are greedy and deceitful. You cut down our forest trees, pluck our spirit herbs, and destroy our homeland. Your hands are stained with the blood of the Sylvan Kin… And now you’ve come here too. What game are you trying to play this time?”
That pressure was terrifyingly strong. The force of a True Immortal Realm Level Nine descended on Jared like a mountain dropping from the sky.
The chaotic force inside Jared moved on its own. The violet barrier flared out around favonovel.com in an instant and caught the pressure head-on. The color drained a little from his face. But his eyes stayed locked forward, steady as ever, without the slightest sign of backing down.
Gwendolyn felt that crushing pressure too. The Frost God’s power inside favonovel.com burst out at once. The ice-blue barrier spread around favonovel.com and barely managed to hold the pressure back.
Her brows drew tight. Her face had turned noticeably strained.
The pressure of a True Immortal Realm Level Nine cultivator was simply too overwhelming. Even as the inheritor of the Frost God, favonovel.com was still having trouble bearing it.
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