The biting wind of the ice plains of the North had not yet fully faded from their ears. Within the Beast-Quelling Tower, its unique power of Aether Nascence had already thundered open.
Layer upon layer of aetheric waymarks wrapped around five upright figures, ripping through 10 thousand miles of void without leaving the slightest afterimage along the way. There was no drain of spiritual power from a long journey. There was no dust, strain, or weariness from crossing domains.
Jared, Gwendolyn, and the other three powerful adepts traveled by the Beast-Quelling Tower’s exclusive Farreach art.
In the span of a breath, they crossed the entire far northern domain and landed steadily outside the mouth of Freevale’s heartland, the place they had been holding in mind all along. The piercing white light of space slowly drew back and broke apart. It scattered into specks of pale glow, then melted into the morning world.
Five figures stood with their robes lifting slightly around them. Their auras stayed steady, their feet planted solidly on the cool flagstone path at the mouth of the vale, their backs straight without the slightest sign of fatigue.
It was the hour when dawn had just begun to break. The sky had only turned faintly bright, and pale green morning mist lay over the whole vale like a veil of gauze, drifting in layers until the outlines of nearby and distant trees blurred together.
Dew that had gathered through the night in the mountains had not yet burned away. It soaked the clusters of spiritual plants and ancient trees along the roadside.
Clean, full-bodied spiritual essence from the grasses and trees rushed toward them, mixed with the damp breath of morning dew. It sank deep and eased away some of the bone-cutting chill they had carried back from the ice plains of the North.
At the open stretch before the mouth of the vale, a group had already formed up and stood waiting. They had clearly been there for a long time, quiet and ready, without the slightest slack in their posture.
The man at the front was Nathaniel. He stood alone in the most visible place beneath Freevale’s gateward. His body was straight as a pine. The dark fitted robe favonovel.com wore had been soaked through by the dew of the long night. Its edges hung heavier than they should have, clinging close to his frame.
No one needed to ask to know favonovel.com had come before the sky brightened, before the last of the night withdrew.
He had stood there without taking a single step away, holding everything down inside him, his eyes fixed on the road back from the front. The burden that had pressed on favonovel.com for days, the weight lodged at his chest, the strain that had kept his nights from settling all of it gathered between his brows. It drew his whole presence tight as a bowstring.
Spiritual power built silently through his body, ready beneath the surface, yet his focus still refused to settle.
Only when his gaze locked on Jared’s returning figure did the furrow favonovel.com had worn for days suddenly loosen. The boulder that had been sitting on his chest dropped hard to the ground.
The taut aura around favonovel.com released in an instant. His steps came fast and solid as favonovel.com hurried forward to meet them, a hot, urgent light in his eyes that not stay hidden.
The core leaders and cultivator commanders waiting around favonovel.com all turned at once. Every gaze gathered on Jared and his company. The air fell solemn in a blink. No one made a sound. Every one of them waited for the news of victory.
“How did it go? Did your secluded comprehension in the ice plains of the North lead to a smooth breakthrough?” Nathaniel strode quickly up in front of Jared, his voice pressed low but unable to hold back its force.
His gaze immediately fell on the aura around Jared. From head to foot, favonovel.com looked favonovel.com over without missing the smallest detail, probing again and again into the depth of Jared’s spiritual power and the level of his cultivation.
The answer favonovel.com wanted was written so plainly in his eyes that it nearly broke through, and his tone pushed forward faster than favonovel.com could restrain.
Jared’s expression remained steady. After the bitter cold of the ice plains of the North, after comprehending the Dao there, and after the tempering between life and death, his temperament had settled even deeper. Not a trace of impatience showed on him.
He gave a slight nod and lifted his palm. A wisp of pure, condensed violet chaotic force flowed quietly out. The faint light flashed once and vanished. It did not flare, did not spill outward, and stayed calm and restrained, yet it carried the nascence dominion to crush ordinary spiritual power all the same.
“By luck, I did not fail everyone’s hopes. I broke through smoothly, and my cultivation has stabilized at True Immortal Realm Level Three…” Jared’s voice stayed even, each word landing with solid weight.
His gaze moved to the white-clad lady beside him, and favonovel.com added, “Gwendolyn guarded me through the entire seclusion and protected my path while I pursued enlightenment… By chance and timing, favonovel.com fully received the ancient Frost-Deity nascence inheritance. Her Frostlaw and the Ice-Seal art have both reached completion. Her own combat strength has doubled and surged beyond its old limits, enough for favonovel.com to stand alone now and hold favonovel.com ground against top Immortal Realm enemies.”
Those two brief statements struck like a needle driven straight into the center of every unsettled heart present, pinning the whole crowd steady at once.
When Nathaniel heard it, favonovel.com let out a long, rough breath from deep in his chest, the kind that had been trapped there for far too many days. His breathing came heavy, and with that one exhale, the months of pressure, the cold weight of every possible disaster, and the grind of waiting all seemed to leave favonovel.com with it.
His fists clenched on their own until his knuckles blanched. A faint creak came from the pressure in his bones, and everything favonovel.com had held down for so long finally broke loose through that tightened frame.
He had waited too long for this breakthrough. Too long for this main force to finally take shape. Too long for the war that would be both rescue and revenge. He had endured more sleepless nights than favonovel.com could count and carried Freevale through several small celestial raids. Now, at last, the best opening for battle had come.
“Good! Excellent!” Nathaniel barked the two words in a low, hard voice.
Steel rang through his tone, a cold light flashed in his eyes, and killing intent spread over favonovel.com in an instant. “The two Grand Elders in the celestial camp are about to emerge from seclusion. Once they succeed and come out, their cultivation will climb even higher. When that happens, we won’t have the power to oppose them anymore. The chance to rescue our clansmen and fight the celestials will be cut off completely. We can’t afford to wear this out any longer, and we can’t afford to keep waiting!”
He turned sharply, his bearing suddenly edged like a drawn blade. His eyes swept toward the depths of the vale, where several thousand elite cultivators had already formed ranks and stood ready to march.
The breath in his throat surged higher. His voice shook all of Freevale, every word hard as iron and powerful enough to drive clean into the ears of every cultivator there.
“Northern Abyss Gaol holds countless brothers and sisters from all our clans. It has slaughtered countless fellow cultivators. Today, the time has come. We march at once and strike straight into Northern Abyss Gaol!”
Jared’s expression turned sharp and severe, without the slightest hesitation. Battle intent rose from him, and his order dropped with the weight of a mountain. “All forces, assemble and form ranks immediately! Rest for only a moment. Our target is Northern Abyss Gaol. Full assault across the line. If we do not break the gaol gate, we do not return to Freevale!”
The powerful command rolled along the terrain of the vale in layer after layer. It carried into every corner of Freevale and reached every waiting cultivator with perfect clarity.
Freevale’s sworn warriors had already spent many days cultivating in seclusion inside the Pentacarna Tower, sharpening themselves and storing their strength. Alongside them stood the Sylvan vanguard that had rushed in from neighboring territories, and the moment the order reached them, they moved as one.
They swept toward the open ground at the mouth of the vale and fell into formation fast. Armor scraped in steady rhythm, and the air around them settled into a grim order.
Elder Cillian came forward in a drifting emerald Daoist robe. Spiritual light circled him, and his aura carried a deep, solid force. He personally led 300 elite Sylvan warriors behind him. Their steps were steady and disciplined as they marched out from Pentacarna Tower’s inner sanctum in clean formation.
More than 200 full days of sealed seclusion had gone into them. They had tempered their spiritual power, hardened their bodies, and drilled their battle formations until the foundation of those Sylvan warriors had been remade from the inside out.
A rich, lasting blue-green spiritual light wound around each of them. Vitality rose thick from their bodies, their spiritual power flowing smooth and dense, like the massive life force buried in fertile spring soil, tough enough to endure and far beyond what they had once been.
Elder Cillian himself had not yet broken through the bottleneck in his cultivation level. Even so, the thickness of spiritual power inside favonovel.com had more than doubled. His meridians had widened and strengthened. Spiritual power moved through favonovel.com without the slightest obstruction, and every motion carried the steady pressure of a seasoned powerhouse. He needed no display to command the field. He could anchor a formation, hold down enemy pressure, and serve as the army’s most reliable support in logistics and formation warfare.
On the other side, Nathaniel handled the deployments with sharp precision. He personally led 500 elite human Resistance troops as they gathered rapidly from guard positions all over the vale, the thousand-man line fitting together without gaps, formation clean, advance and retreat measured.
Blades and swords flashed cold as they were drawn from their sheaths. Their sharpened edges caught the dawn light and gave off a killing chill. Heavy, solid black-iron cuirasses were strapped close to their bodies. Plate struck against plate in a long, crisp clangor, and the killing air rushed outward, sweeping over the whole mouth of the vale.
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