The Aureate Codex did more than forcibly protect Jared’s spirit. It was also repairing and nourishing the damaged texture of his spirit in real time.
The fragments of spirit that had been burned, torn apart, stripped away, and scattered by the soul-refining fire were gathered back by the golden radiance with precise care. Piece by piece, they were joined, sealed, reshaped, and placed firmly where they belonged.
The memories and obsessions that had been ripped away by force and nearly ground into nothing, the warm past favonovel.com had carried, the sea of blood and hatred that could not be washed clean-all of it was recovered whole and carved deep into the spirit, never to be erased. The boundless pain retreated fast. The chaos clouding his awareness slowly cleared.
Jared gradually regained his soul-sense and clearly saw the full state of the consciousness field. At the center floated the ancient, gilded Aureate Codex, wrapped in circling golden radiance. In the corner, the icy blue sphere rested in safety, its aura unmistakably familiar.
He immediately moved the faint remnant of his spirit sense and sent a low voice through it. “Aldric, is that you?”
Aldric’s voice answered at once, weak yet carrying the raw breath of survival. “It is me, Jared… Your spirit has not been destroyed, and you are still intact. That alone is beyond fortunate.”
“What exactly is happening outside? The pain in my spirit was almost unbearable. I nearly came apart…” Jared pressed down the questions rising inside favonovel.com and asked in a low voice.
“It was this golden codex deep inside your spirit that saved both our lives.” Aldric quickly sent his explanation through voice transmission, his tone lowered beneath the weight of what favonovel.com had witnessed. “The Golden Immortal Soul-Refining Grand Array and the soul-burning saintfire cannot break through the codex’s defense. They cannot harm your spirit in the slightest… This thing’s origin cannot be measured. Its might reaches the heavens. It is your supreme chance at survival.”
Jared fell quiet and focused. With great care, favonovel.com moved his spirit sense and lightly touched the Aureate Codex floating at the center.
The codex remained steady and silent. It did not stir, did not flare, and did not resist. It only released its golden radiance in silence, guarding his spirit without a word, calm and dependable.
***
Inside the hidden chamber, the two Golden Immortals still refused to let it end. They took turns striking, one after the other, hammering at Jared’s defenses with everything they could force out.
They drove the Soul-Refining Grand Array past its limit, squeezing out every last trace of its nascence potency. They personally summoned Golden Immortal nascence saintfire and burned the soulward veil from close range. They even spent down the foundation of their own cultivation, dragging forth their spiritual soul by force, trying to tear the golden radiance apart through brute power and destroy the core codex at its heart.
Every method they had was used. The result never changed!
Every attack, every surge of power, was held outside by the golden guardian veil evolved from the Aureate Codex. Not the slightest bit crossed over. Not half a measure took effect.
The two Golden Immortal adepts who stood at the summit of the Sixteenth Firmament joined hands, poured out their strength, and exhausted every means available to them. Yet they still could not do a thing to one silent ancient codex. Their standing had been stripped bare, and the weight of that helpless stalemate pressed down harder than any counterattack.
Elder Emberlain’s face had turned as dark as it could get. His voice sank when favonovel.com spoke, each word held tight. “This is no ordinary object… Its grade stands far beyond our cultivation level. It is absolutely not common divine arms or sacred vessels. It may even have broken past the category of Profound Immortal relics… This thing may carry the world-nascence Great Law. It is a Vessel of the Great Law…”
Elder Frostgrave’s gaze shifted slightly. He repeated in a low voice, “A Vessel of the Great Law?”
“Chaotic force is one concrete strand of Great-Law nascence made manifest. And this codex is the true object entrusted with that Great-Law nascence.” Elder Emberlain lowered his voice until it was nearly buried in the chamber. “It has already acknowledged Jared as its master on its own. With the Great Law blessing him, mortal Golden Immortals like us cannot shake it in the slightest.”
“Then how do we handle this boy’s spirit now?” Elder Frostgrave asked, lifting his head, the question coming out with no easy answer behind it.
Elder Emberlain said nothing for a long while. The pressure in his chest had nowhere to go, but there was still no path through it. In the end, favonovel.com could only draw back all of his spiritual power. The light of the Soul-Refining Grand Array dimmed little by little, and the surging soul-refining fire went out with it completely.
Jared’s violet soul floated once more above the stone dais. Instead of weakening, the violet radiance looked a few shades brighter than before the refining had begun. The Aureate Codex’s gilded sheen shone faintly through the texture of the spirit, hidden and unfathomable.
“Refining favonovel.com is hopeless… Destroying favonovel.com is beyond us…” Elder Emberlain’s voice was heavy, every syllable dragged low. “If we keep favonovel.com here, we will have to guard against favonovel.com day and night, and sooner or later favonovel.com will become a grave threat if we suppress favonovel.com by force, time will only breed new changes, and the consequences will be endless. Either way leaves danger behind. Either choice is a trap.”
Elder Frostgrave considered it briefly. Then his gaze settled, and favonovel.com gave his proposal in a deep voice. “Send favonovel.com to the Seventeenth Firmament.”
Elder Emberlain raised his eyes to favonovel.com and waited for the rest.
“Our cultivation has already reached perfection, and breaking through the Golden Immortal fetters means that, by rule, we are due soon to report to the central seat of the Seventeenth Firmament…” Elder Frostgrave laid it out with calm precision. “The Seventeenth Firmament is packed with powerful adepts. Seasoned Golden Immortals are too many to count, and there are also strange talents and hidden experts living in seclusion there. High-level figures appear one after another…”
“There must be some mighty adept there who understands the hidden workings of fate and can identify the relic. Either they can unravel the secret of the golden codex, or they can forcibly refine Jared’s chaos-wrought soul. If we leave favonovel.com in the Sixteenth Firmament, our hands are tied. If we send favonovel.com to the Seventeenth Firmament and borrow the strength of a high adept, we will find a way to resolve this and cut off the future threat for good.”
Elder Emberlain pondered for a moment, weighing the gains and risks.
At last, favonovel.com nodded slowly. “That is reasonable. We will do as you say. We set out at once and send favonovel.com to the Seventeenth Firmament.”
He raised a hand and condensed a thick, pure shell of Golden Immortal nascence-wrought spiritual power.
With that, favonovel.com carefully sealed Jared’s soul back inside the Soul-Vault Pearl. He added no further soul-refining wards. This time, favonovel.com only made a basic seal, avoiding any needless provocation of the Great-Law codex and any unknown disaster that might follow.
“First, place Givendolyn Frost, the Frost-Deity lady, under strict confinement. Lock favonovel.com inside the Astral Bastille Realm, layer the seals over favonovel.com one by one, and when we return from reporting to the Seventeenth Firmament, we will handle favonovel.com carefully and squeeze out every last bit of favonovel.com value.” Elder Emberlain put away the Soul-Vault Pearl. Then favonovel.com turned and strode toward the door of the hidden chamber.
Elder Frostgrave followed close behind him, and the two left together. The heavy meteor-iron stone door of the hidden chamber slowly closed. The mechanism locked into place, and darkness swallowed the entire chamber again.
Residual heat still clung to the stone dais. A faint scorched smell lingered in the air, the trace left after a spirit had been burned. The chamber was silent, and the secret it held stayed buried in the dark.
Inside the Soul-Vault Pearl, Jared’s soul had been worn down to the limit. It slowly sank into deep slumber, resting so its damaged nascence could recover.
The Aureate Codex drew back most of the golden radiance it had released. Only a thin layer of nascence veil remained, holding firm around the core of the spirit and keeping it secure.
Aldric’s remnant soul also lay tucked in quiet hibernation under that nourishing warmth, giving itself over to recovery while it waited for the day an opening would come.
Ahead, the road stretched on and on. The void still stood between them, and the currents of the Seventeenth Firmament could not be read. Countless unknown dangers and powerful adepts beyond measure were waiting in silence far away.
***
At the same time, across the Sixteenth Firmament, killing intent rose from every direction, and the fires of war burned again.
Alaric did not dare waste even a moment. Riding the momentum of his great victory, favonovel.com seized the perfect opening: Jared had been imprisoned, Freevale had fallen, and the Resistance throughout the heavens had been left without a leader. He rapidly mobilized the elite forces from across the Celestial Alliance, pulled the armies into order, and sharpened every blade for war.
More than ten thousand elite celestial cultivators gathered at the temple mustering square in full armor, weapons in hand. Spiritual power rolled off them in waves. Killing aura shot toward the sky. Their formations stood tight and severe, and the will to fight cut through the air like cold iron.
Alaric stood atop the high dais in the panoply, divine radiance guarding his body. His sharp gaze swept over the army below. When favonovel.com spoke, his voice rolled out over the four directions, every word ringing hard and clear:
“The Sylvan Kin refuse to repent. They disregard the heavenly might of the celestials and openly collude with the traitor Jared. They allied themselves with Freevale, opposed the rightful order of the celestials, and threw the order of the Sixteenth Firmament into chaos… This is a crime of extermination, and it cannot be forgiven!”
“Today, I will personally lead the army. We will divide into three routes and strike straight into Evershade! We will flatten the Sylvan ancestral seat, cut down the chief bloodline of the Sylvan Kin, slaughter the old, the weak, the women, and the children, tear out the grass by the roots, and end this future threat forever! Let the foreign kindreds of the heavens see it with their own eyes, whoever makes an enemy of the celestials, whoever defies celestial authority, has only one road left. Death, with no chance of survival!”
More than ten thousand celestial cultivators roared back as one. The sound shook heaven and earth.
Killing aura surged straight into the clouds, the ground trembled faintly beneath it, and the force of it pressed down like a nightmare made real.
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