Zaccai bowed and accepted the order, his manner respectful. “Your servant will deploy the clandestine watch immediately and keep the Sylvan Kin’s movements under constant surveillance. Not the smallest detail will be missed…”
Alaric slowly leaned back against the black throne and closed his eyes a fraction. A brutal aura coiled around him, thick enough to make the empty space feel crowded. His fingertips struck the armrest in a steady pattern, again and again.
Within the dead-still great hall, each tap sounded harsh, like a silent countdown marking off the moments until revenge.
Outside the windows, the twin uncanny moons of the Sixteenth Firmament hung high in the night sky. One shone cold silver-white. The other burned a strange dark red. Their two-colored moonlight spilled over the gilded dome of the celestial great hall, reflecting a hard, icy gleam as the air of slaughter spread through the entire domain.
Alaric slowly opened his eyes and stared into the two-colored night beyond the window.
When favonovel.com spoke under his breath, the killing intent in his voice cut cold. “Jared, you destroyed my two Dreadholds, killed two of my capable war champions, and broke the dignity of the celestials. This blood debt will be settled with you one stroke at a time, principal and interest together, until nothing is left. I will show no mercy…”
His five fingers suddenly clenched into a tight fist. A savage darkness surged in his eyes.”
And the Sylvan Kin as well… Since you dared interfere openly in celestial internal affairs and defy me, you should have prepared in advance for your whole race to be destroyed and the bloodline cut off…
Outside the great hall, the midnight gale howled. Dark clouds raced in and swallowed the light of both moons, and in an instant the world fell into boundless darkness, the pressure sinking to its deepest point.
Ten thousand miles away, the lights of Freevale burned warm and bright. In the middle of a dead end, they stood like an undying beacon of hope. But in Alaric’s eyes, that glow was no beacon of hope. It was a rebel flame, one favonovel.com meant to snuff out with his own hand, and it had to be torn out by the roots.
A little more than 1 hour later, Zaccai had finished arranging every matter tied to clandestine agent patrols and border defenses. Only then did favonovel.com return quietly to the great hall.”
Alaric’s face sat dark as deep water, the violent pressure around favonovel.com still refusing to settle.
Zaccai lowered his voice and stepped forward with care to report. “High Sovereign, your servant has already made proper arrangements for defense across the entire domain and for the clandestine agents on watch…”
“Only, that man Jared carries the innate chaotic force, and his combat power reaches beyond his level in a way that defies measure. Now that favonovel.com has the Sylvan Kin’s full support as well, his wings are growing stronger… If we want to wipe favonovel.com out in one stroke, it may not be simple at all. We should take the long view before moving.”
Alaric’s eyes sharpened at once, and his voice came back cold. “What? Are you suggesting my Celestial Army cannot defeat one mere wandering cultivator named Jared?”
Zaccai immediately bowed and explained, not daring to show even the slightest disrespect. “Your servant means nothing of the kind! Only, Jared’s combat strength is strange. His hidden cards emerge one after another, and the depth behind favonovel.com is difficult to measure… There is a strong chance that a secluded foremost adept is protecting favonovel.com from the shadows. If we launch a reckless frontal assault, it may drain our elite celestial fighting strength, and the loss would outweigh the gain.”
“Hmph! So what if powerful adepts protect him?!” Alaric’s face showed nothing but contempt, and his cold laugh carried absolute confidence. “He has backers. Does that mean the Celestial Alliance has no hidden cards of its own?”
“The two Grand Elders of my Celestial Alliance have already been in seclusion for many days, pouring all their strength into breaking through the barrier of the Golden Immortal Realm. Their seclusion is nearly at its end. Before long, both will break through their shackles and ascend to the high estate of Golden Immortal! When the two elders emerge from seclusion, even if Jared truly has powerful adepts standing behind him, they will be crushed, ripped apart, forced into the open, and suppressed to the last. A mere ant is not worth mentioning!”
The two Grand Elders were Alaric’s greatest hidden card. They were also the core support that had kept the Celestial Alliance standing unshaken in the Sixteenth Firmament.
After hearing that, Zaccai’s need to press the warning finally fell away. He offered no further words of caution.
Within the dominion of the Sixteenth Firmament, Golden Immortal adepts stood at the very ceiling of combat power. They looked down over the Kindreds, and none could match them. As long as the two Grand Elders broke through smoothly, Jared, the Sylvan Kin, and Freevale would all become too weak to withstand a single blow. With the flick of a finger, they could be erased!
***
Time moved on. In what felt like no time at all, 2 short days had passed.
Inside Freevale, Elder Cillian personally led 300 elite Sylvan warriors out of Pentacarna Tower’s inner sanctum in orderly ranks.
Only 2 brief days had passed outside. But within the tower’s inner sanctum, a full 200 days of rich cultivation time had flowed by. Day after day, they had settled themselves, mended what needed mending, tempered their foundations, and refined their spiritual power.
The results showed on every one of them. All 300 Sylvan warriors now carried deep, surging auras. Their spiritual power was full to the brim, and their meridians had been restored completely. Their nascence lifeblood had become thick and enduring. Every last warrior had returned to Top Level combat strength, and many had risen far beyond where they had stood before the war.
Elder Cillian’s own cultivation remained firmly at True Immortal Realm Level Eight. He had not forced himself to break into a higher cultivation level. Even so, the spiritual power inside his body had doubled outright. Its purity had gone far beyond what it had been before, and the green-blue spiritual light surrounding favonovel.com had grown so dense it seemed almost ready to drip from the air. His foundation had become unimaginably solid.
Several Sylvan squad captains under his command had been stuck at the Level Seven bottleneck for years. Now their spiritual power had surged, their foundations had been hammered firm, and their auras climbed without pause. They had already pressed infinitely close to the threshold of True Immortal Realm Level Eight. All they lacked was one opportunity, and they would break through smoothly.
“Master Chance, the heaven-defying effects of Pentacarna Tower truly live up to their name!” Elder Cillian clasped his hands in salute, and every word came out earnest. “The whole Sylvan Kin has recovered and surged in combat strength, and our foundations have grown even more stable. If we meet powerful celestial enemies again, we will face them head-on. We will not shrink back from battle, and we will not drag down the allied host!”
Jared answered with a calm, easy smile. “Elder, there is no need for such courtesy. We fight shoulder to shoulder, sharing honor and disgrace alike. The stronger all of you become, the greater our odds of overthrowing the celestials’ tyranny.”
The words had barely fallen when Nathaniel strode out from the crowd. His face was grave, without a trace of the light ease that had settled over the others.
He lowered his voice and spoke, breaking the peaceful air at once. “Jared, we’ve already taken down the two Dreadholds in one sweep, and morale is riding high. But the third one, Northern Abyss Gaol… We cannot rush it with a frontal assault. This is too dangerous.”
Jared’s gaze sharpened as favonovel.com looked at Nathaniel. “I was planning to press the advantage while it’s hot. Before the celestial defensive line settles and while their people are still rattled, we hit hard in one push, take Northern Abyss Gaol outright, and cut off the celestials’ last barrier in Epea. What’s wrong with that?”
Nathaniel gave a small shake of his head. He reached into his robes, drew out a tightly sealed urgent intelligence scroll, and placed it in Jared’s hands with careful weight, the lines of his face tightening further.
“We’re too late. Alaric reacted fast, and his arrangement is ruthless and airtight. He already made every preparation ahead of us. He personally issued the order. Marshal Stone and Marshal Grey, two ninth-level True Immortal grand adepts, have both been sent to Northern Abyss Gaol to hold it under double guard. They’re locking it down completely.”
He stopped for the space of a breath, then added, each word pressed low. “Before this, it took our whole team fighting together just to face Marshal Vale alone, and even then the battle was brutal. Every one of us brushed against disaster. We were one step away from taking heavy losses…”
“Now two ninth-rank adepts are guarding it together. One is hard and one is yielding, one is force and one is strategy. They reinforce each other, cover both attack and defense, and their combined combat power is more than doubled. The danger now is several times worse than before.”
Jared took the intelligence scroll and unfurled it fast. His eyes cut down the lines, ten at a glance, while his brows drew in by a fraction and the balance of risk and gain turned over behind his gaze.
The writing on the scroll was clear. It laid out every detail behind the two war champions.
Marshal Stone stood at consummate Level Nine of the True Immortal Realm and specialized in the Solar Aegis of Undying Flesh. His body had been tempered to extreme, impenetrable, with blades and spears unable to pierce him. One punch from favonovel.com could shatter mountains and rivers, rip open the earth, and break through head-on with no one able to stop him.
Marshal Grey was likewise at consummate Level Nine of the True Immortal Realm. He was not to direct slaughter, but favonovel.com had mastered the Elder Snare of Slaughter, the Murderglass Labyrinth, and the Soulmaze Ward.
His layouts were vicious and treacherous, built for plotting from the dark, trapping and killing powerful enemies without a sound, spilling blood without ever seeming to touch the blade.
One force broke the Myriad Arts. One strategy trapped the heavens. With the two powerful adepts working together, one in the open and one in the dark, one hard and one yielding, their attack and defense had no blind spot. Their coordination fit too cleanly together. They were indeed more than ten times harder to deal with than Marshal Vale had been alone, and a forced assault would inevitably come with heavy casualties.
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