Just then, the badly wounded Venerable Starwick slowly raised a hand. His voice came low, but it cut through the hall. “All of you, stop… Let the two of them leave with the Soul-Vault Pearl.”
The assembled Golden Immortals had plenty they could not swallow down, but none of them dared defy the Hall Master’s command. One by one, they could only give way, their retreat carrying all the stiffness of men forced to step aside.
Elder Emberlain and Elder Frostgrave said nothing more.
Seizing the opening, they turned and walked quickly out of the Soul-Refining Hall. That very night, they withdrew from the inner precincts of Pole Star Hall, cutting themselves loose without hesitation.
Only after the two had gone far did one Golden Immortal lower his voice, still unable to make sense of it. “Hall Master, why not order us to join hands and stop them? Why not take back the Soul-Vault Pearl by force? That relic is priceless. We absolutely can’t just let it walk away for nothing!”
Venerable Starwick forced down the tearing pain in his spirit and slowly shook his head. A shadow remained deep in his eyes, wary and hard to erase. “That relic is far too terrible. Its level is supreme, far beyond anything we are fit to covet or touch… If we force the two of them to stay, we will only trigger another backlash from the relic. It could drag all of Pole Star Hall into destruction with it. The loss would outweigh the gain, and we would only be setting fire to ourselves.”
He paused for a brief moment. Then a cold, vicious glint cut through the depth of his eyes, and his order dropped in a heavy voice. “Send trusted elite scouts immediately. Have them follow those two from far behind in secret and monitor every move they make. They are not to approach, not to alert them, and not to startle the snake in the grass… I want to see where those two can go next, and what retreat they still have, once they lose Pole Star Hall as their backing while holding such a scalding relic in their hands.”
***
Elder Emberlain and Elder Frostgrave did not dare stop for even a moment. Under cover of night, they tore through the air at full speed, putting more and more distance between themselves and the territories of Pole Star Hall.
Along the way, they avoided every watch-ward and patrolling cultivator, shook off the eyes and ears posted through the route, and fled day and night without rest. They flew hard for an entire night. Only when the three blazing suns rose together at the edge of the sky and morning light spilled across the land did the two finally leave Pole Star Hall’s sphere of power behind completely.
After confirming that no pursuers were closing in behind them and no powerful adepts were blocking the way ahead did they slowly descend.
They came to a stop on a deserted reach of the Wastelands, alone beneath the open sky. All around them stretched harsh hills and barren ridges, one after another. The grasses and trees had yellowed. Wind drove sand in bursts. Spiritual essence was thin, and not a trace of human presence could be found.
No order had stationed itself here, and no powerful adept stood guard over the land. Remote, bleak, and difficult to search or track, it was exactly the kind of temporary shelter they needed.
Elder Emberlain stopped and slowly turned back. His face had gone dark as still water, and every word came edged with violence. “Old Starwick has the heart of a wolf! Selfish, cold, and ready to turn on us the moment it suits him. All favonovel.com wanted was to swallow the relic whole, without the slightest regard for the work and risk we put in. This debt, I will remember!”
Elder Frostgrave’s expression remained cool and clear. He gave a slight nod, then lifted his hand and drew the Soul-Vault Pearl from his sleeve, holding it in his palm as favonovel.com examined it carefully.
Inside the pearl, the violet soul lay steady and silent. The Aureate Codex’s golden radiance appeared and vanished faintly, quiet as always, without the slightest abnormal movement.
“The road through Pole Star Hall is completely closed to us now…” Elder Frostgrave laid out the situation with clean, measured clarity. “The lands of the Seventeenth Firmament are vast, and the powers here are tangled together. Pole Star Hall is not the only Golden Immortal power holding ground. We can find other allies and borrow their strength to break this deadlock.”
“Allies? Where are we supposed to find allies?” Elder Emberlain let out a cold laugh, the strain in it too rough to hide. “Among all the direct celestial powers in the Seventeenth Firmament, Pole Star Hall is the largest, the strongest in battle, and the widest in connections. The other lesser celestial powers are thin in cultivation and weak in combat strength. They have no ability to help us activate the high-order Soul-Refining Grand Array together. They will not be of the slightest use…”
“The major factions of the human race, the beast race, and the Elderblood Kin all stand against one another and fight year after year. They have never been on good terms with us celestials. If anything, they would seize the chance to snatch the relic. They would never offer help in good faith. Right now, we have nowhere left to go.”
Elder Frostgrave fell silent for a moment. His gaze swept over the vast Wastelands around them, then lifted toward the far edge of the sky.
When favonovel.com spoke again, his voice came slow and steady. “If there is no road left, then we settle here for now. Stabilize ourselves, recover our nascence, and take the long view. We can plan a way out step by step. There is no need to rush this all at once.”
Elder Emberlain lowered his head and locked his eyes on the Soul-Vault Pearl in his palm. His stare clung to it like a hand around a throat, the kind of stare that came from wanting to smash something open and having no way to do it.
He had crossed firmaments for this. He had spent effort, burned favors, and walked straight into risk. In the end, this was what favonovel.com had gotten. The opportunity still hung far out of reach, his position had only grown more passive, and no matter how hard that pressure ground through him, there was no force left that could turn the situation back.
“I refuse to believe there really isn’t a way in this world to crack open that turtle shell of yours!” The words came out low between his teeth, edged hard enough to cut.
Facing the Soul-Vault Pearl, favonovel.com made the vow in silence, one day, favonovel.com would tear through that defense by force and seize the relic inside.
Inside the Soul-Vault Pearl, Jared lay hidden in the shelter of the golden radiance. His spirit remained steady. The murmurs outside, the killing edge, the calculations pressing around the pearl-every last bit of it stayed sealed beyond the barrier. Not a trace reached him.
At times, his awareness sharpened. In those stretches, favonovel.com sorted through the situation and worked over every possible way to escape. At other times, his awareness sank into haze. Then favonovel.com rested his soul-nascence and gathered strength piece by piece.
Clear or not, one thing stayed fixed at the bottom of him. He was still alive. As long as favonovel.com lived, there was hope. As long as favonovel.com stayed hidden, an opening would come.
Deep within the golden radiance, Aldric’s remnant soul lay hidden with him. It nursed its damaged nascence in silence, stored up strength without a sound, and worked in the same direction as Jared, waiting together for the best chance to break free and strike back.
***
Across the Wastelands, a cold wind screamed through the open land. It rolled over the withered yellow grass and set the whole ground whispering in a long, dry rustle, leaving the place bleak and empty.
Three blazing suns hung high in the sky. Gold, silver, and crimson light tangled as they fell, staining the whole reach of the Wastelands in a strange, sunken gloom. The air pressed down with a grave weight.
At the far end of the horizon, the blurred outline of a vast city slowly emerged. It stood where the sky and earth seemed to meet.
That was the famous gathering place for wandering cultivators in the Seventeenth Firmament, Wayfarers’ Haven.
Inside the city, good, bad, and worse all mixed together. Every kind of person gathered there. No top force controlled it. No high-level powerful adepts held it place. Its rules were loose, its dealings unrestrained, and for desperate cultivators, fallen experts, and lone wanderers it was one the best places to disappear for a while.
Elder Frostgrave lifted a hand and pointed toward the distant city. “Wayfarers’ Haven has no top force controlling it, and no Golden Immortal adepts pressing down on it. It is extremely easy to hide there and Pole Star Hall will have a hard time tracking us… We enter the city, settle down, conceal our movements, and plan our countermeasure in secret. Step by step… That is the safest course.”
Elder Emberlain raised his eyes toward the city and fell silent for a moment. At last, favonovel.com gave a hard, unwilling nod. “For now, that is the only choice we have.”
The two of them put away the Soul-Vault Pearl and forced down everything still churning beneath the surface. Then they rose into the air and shot toward Wayfarers’ Haven in the distance, their figures soon swallowed by the vast color of the sky.
Far behind them, several hidden silhouettes followed low through the air. Their auras were drawn tight, their movements concealed, and they held the distance perfectly, not too close, never too far. They were the scouts sent by Pole Star Hall, watching every step and refusing to lose the trail.
Inside the Soul-Vault Pearl, the golden radiance burned on without fading. It guarded a wisp of soul.
The road ahead remained unknown, and the storm had not passed. Jared stayed quietly hidden, waiting for the day favonovel.com would wake and break the deadlock, waiting for the moment favonovel.com could turn the wind back against them.
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