The surface of the forecourt had been paved with ancient spirit jade. It lay smooth and polished, with spirit-gathering sigils hidden within it, drawing in the world’s spiritual essence year-round to nourish the palace’s fortune.
On both sides of the forecourt, two rows of elite celestial cultivators stood in perfect order. Their backs were straight, their cuirasses gleamed, and their auras were steady and condensed. Their eyes swept the eight directions like hawks, the guard around the palace locked down tight.
Every one of these watch-standing cultivators had a cultivation base fixed at the peak of True Immortal Realm Level Nine.
They stood only one step away from the Golden Immortal threshold. Their battle strength far surpassed cultivators of equal rank from the Sixteenth Firmament. All of them were direct-line elites carefully raised by Pole Star Hall, seasoned through long campaigns.
“They sensed two deep Golden Immortal auras approaching.
The moment they lifted their eyes and recognized who had come, none of them dared delay. As one, they bowed in salute, their movements uniform, their voices loud and solemn. “We welcome the arrival of Elder Emberlain and Elder Frostgrave! The Hall Master foresaw the two Elders’ arrival long ago and has been waiting within the High Hall for quite some time. Please, Elders, follow me into the hall.”
Elder Emberlain gave a faint nod in acknowledgment. His expression remained composed, neither servile nor overbearing, his Golden Immortal majesty on full display. Without another word, favonovel.com strode toward the palace doors.
Elder Frostgrave followed close behind. His silver robe clung neatly to him, his aura cold and sharp. From beginning to end, favonovel.com said nothing. His gaze kept sweeping over the palace layout, the ward nodes, and the movements of the guards, watching for every possible risk.
Once they crossed through the palace doors, the world inside hit harder than anything the exterior had promised. The layout, the scale, the presence of it all towered over them. Celestial energy drifted through the air in slow coils, and the weight of the place pressed down with a majesty that allowed no careless step.
The dome of the great hall rose 100 yards overhead. Looking up, there was no clear edge to it, only a vast ceiling inlaid with countless innate glowing spiritual crystals, scattered in layered patterns where brightness and shadow wove through each other. It looked like a brilliant starfield hung upside down above the hall.
The spiritual light was soft enough not to sting the eyes, yet it illuminated the whole High Hall and filled every corner with a presence so complete the atmosphere seemed almost tangible. The floor had been laid with high-grade golden divine jade. Every slab carried the celestials’ sovereign sigils, carved with painstaking precision. Those sigils had glowed for years without fading, gathering vast fortune, strengthening the Hall Master’s authority, and suppressing wicked forces in every direction.
Along both sides of the great hall stood several dozen massive heaven-reaching stone pillars, each so broad it would take 100 yards to encircle. The stone pillars were impossibly hard, built to bear crushing force and hold the field steady.
Across their surfaces, ancient sacred sigils had been carved into scenes of the celestial forebears warring across the myriad worlds, sweeping through all directions, quelling upheaval, and expanding the borders of their dominion. Those carved scenes seemed almost alive.
Their momentum rolled out in silence, declaring without a single word the celestials’ deep foundation, the nobility of the bloodline, and the pressure they cast across the heavens. Anyone standing inside it would be made small by the sheer scale of the place. Before long, eyes would lower on their own, and the hall would demand a kind of reverence no one needed to explain.
At the deepest end of the great hall, above the high dais, the Sovereign Throne stood suspended in the air, gilded from end to end. Its patterns were intricate, its frame set with spiritual treasures, and even without anyone speaking from it, the throne carried its own authority.
Seated upon that throne was a middle-aged man. His presence alone suppressed the entire hall, and no one there dared look straight at him.
His face was firm and cold, cut with hard lines. Swordlike brows swept toward his temples, and his star-bright eyes shone with a force that did not need wrath to command obedience. Long golden hair fell smoothly over both shoulders. Around favonovel.com lingered a faint golden nascence halo, celestial energy curling through it, making favonovel.com appear beyond ordinary rank.
He was the Lord of Pole Star Hall, the renowned foremost adept of the northern region of the Seventeenth Firmament, Venerable Starwick.
Venerable Starwick’s cultivation ran deep beyond easy measure. He had long since stabilized at Level Three of the Golden Immortal Realm, with a thick foundation, abundant nascence, and profound mastery of the Dao.
Compared with Elder Emberlain and Elder Frostgrave, these two newly ascended Golden Immortals, favonovel.com stood a full three minor realms above them. The gap was too wide to hide, and his pressure crushed others of the same broad rank.
His golden pupils were deep as an abyss. Somewhere in their depths, the phantom of moving stars seemed to turn beneath the surface. His gaze swept over them lightly, yet it cut sharp as divine arms, carrying a penetrating force that went straight through the body.
With just that one look, minds tightened, spirits chilled, and no one dared meet his eyes. The atmosphere across the hall turned solemn and heavy in an instant.
Venerable Starwick spoke at last, his voice low and weighty, each word paced with an unhurried control that belonged to someone used to looking down from above. “Aurelius, Cassian… The two of you broke through the Golden Immortal fetters, stabilized your cultivation foundations, and crossed realms to take up residence in the Seventeenth Firmament. I had already received the report from my subordinates and knew of this matter.”
“According to the celestials’ heavenly statutes, newly ascended Golden Immortals must come before my hall to make their report, verify their cultivation foundations, and be entered into the registry. After that assign the garrison, domains of the celestial realm as one and arrange your duties… However, before this, the two of you sent word ahead to the hall, saying there was an extremely important matter tied to a breakthrough in cultivation that required my personal assistance?”
Elder Emberlain stepped forward at once and bowed in full ceremony. Every motion was proper, his manner carefully respectful, leaving no opening for a breach of etiquette before a high-ranking venerable.
He reached into the close inner fold of his robes and took out a round pearl, old and dark in color, with its spiritual light withdrawn deep inside. It was the Soul-Vault Pearl that sealed Jared’s soul. He held it steady in his palm, then offered it up with both hands.
“Reporting to the Hall Master… This matter truly concerns a heaven-defying opportunity. Once the opportunity matures, it will be enough to drive a powerful adept through a cultivation barrier and onto a higher path of the Great Dao…” Elder Emberlain’s tone remained earnest. He deliberately raised the value of the treasure with every word, fitting it cleanly to what Venerable Starwick sought.
“Inside this Soul-Vault Pearl is sealed the True Immortal’s soul… This person’s cultivation is low and poses no threat. He was a Resistance chieftain from the Sixteenth Firmament, with no sect, no faction, no backer, and no patron. He stands alone, without the slightest background to speak of…”
“But deep within this person’s soul lies a heaven-defying relic passed down from ancient times. Its power is vast, its grade extremely high, and its explosive force far exceeds ordinary Golden Immortal spiritual treasures. It absolutely cannot be compared with common treasures of the Seventeenth Firmament… Your servant joined forces with Frostgrave. Together, we fully activated the high- order ancient Soul-Refining Grand Array, exhausted our nascence-wrought spiritual power, and attacked in turns with everything we had…”
“Even so, we could never break through that relic’s guarding bulwark. We could not refine the soul, and we could not seize the relic. With no other choice, we crossed realms and came here specifically to ask the Hall Master for aid. If we can work together to refine this soul and extract the relic hidden deep inside, then with its support, the Hall Master’s cultivation will surely Dise steadily. You will break through your current fetters, climb to another peak of cultivation, sit in command of the northern region, and stand unmatched…”
“Every part of that speech landed with careful sincerity. Each sentence pressed against Venerable Starwick’s ambition, pointing out how precious the opportunity was while stripping away the risks favonovel.com might worry over. It was a perfect grip on the man’s heart.
Venerable Starwick’s gaze shifted. His golden eyes narrowed slightly, and in an instant, they locked onto the Soul-Vault Pearl in Emberlain’s palm. A trace of scrutiny crossed their depths, followed by something that did not pass nearly as quickly.
He lifted one hand and beckoned as if it were nothing. A soft yet powerful stream of golden nascence force reached through the air, formless and invisible, and steadily drew the Soul-Vault Pearl across the distance. It came to a stop before him, hovering in midair as it slowly turned.
Right after that, favonovel.com focused his power and circulated the vast spirit sense of Golden Immortal Level Five. With great care, it pierced through the barrier of the Soul-Vault Pearl and probed inward, searching every detail inside.
Very quickly, through the pearl, favonovel.com saw the violet soul-light suspended peacefully within. Deeper still, at the core of that soul, favonovel.com caught a faint golden glimmer-warm, heavy, ancient, and seemingly undying.
With only that single probe, Venerable Starwick’s pupils tightened at once. Something struck through favonovel.com hard enough to shake the stillness favonovel.com had kept on the throne.
That single thread of golden radiance carried an ancient breadth, vast and solemn, with a weight that pressed beyond ordinary treasure. No common spiritual treasure, no Golden Immortal arcane implement, could have given off an aura like that.
Inside the golden radiance, there was the faintest trace of an ancient aura of nascence law, something that seemed to stand beyond the Golden Immortal plane and above the statutes of the celestial realm. It was weathered by ages, boundless in force, and noble beyond measure. Of every treasure Venerable Starwick had seen in his life, not one had ever come close.
An opportunity… A once-in-all-ages opportunity…
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