Elder Frostgrave understood in the same instant. He did not waste even a breath!
He tore himself free of the clash at once, swept in behind Elder Emberlain, and fled at full speed beside favonovel.com as the two joined forces again to break through.
Elder Pennyworth and Elder Leary exchanged one look.
The meaning struck them at once. Both men barked out sharp orders and launched after them, keeping tight on their heels. Farther off, Elder Rowe and Elder Sunter, who had failed to seize the relic, wheeled back at the sound.
Four streaks of golden light closed in again, locking back into a killing pursuit that threatened to encircle them.
Six streaking figures raced across the Wastelands once more. They tore through the open air at terrifying speed, and the sound of their passage split the sky like thunder.
Elder Emberlain‘s wounds worsened with every passing moment. Each step through the air drove tearing pain through his chest. Blood and qi churned without stopping, his aura thinned by the second, and the speed of his movement kept dropping where anyone could see it.
Elder Frostgrave had been fighting without pause. His spiritual power had nearly run dry. Blood kept pouring from the wounds across his body, and his silver robe had long since grown heavy with it. His strength had been pushed to the last edge.
The two of them ran shoulder to shoulder. But the lamp had already burned down to its final drop of oil.
The Wastelands ahead stretched on without end. Behind them, killing intent rose like a storm tide. There was no room left to maneuver, not even half a step.
Elder Emberlain forced himself onward while sending a low voice through transmission. The words came rough, scraped thin by the run and the wounds. “No good… My spiritual power is gone, and the injuries are tearing open. We can’t outrun them.”
Elder Frostgrave went silent for a moment. His silver eyes swept over the four streaks of golden radiance pressing in from behind, and when favonovel.com answered, his voice stayed level, each word set in place. “If we can’t run, then we stop running. Halt. Fight to the death!”
Their fleeing lights died at the same time. Side by side, they turned and stood firm upon the Wastelands, facing the four Golden Immortal adepts closing around them.
Neither man stepped back. Neither one gave the enemy so much as a flinch. All that remained was the decision to fight until there was nothing left.
Elder Emberlain said nothing more. He lifted his hand without hesitation and forced the Soul-Vault Pearl from his palm into Elder Frostgrave’s hand.
His voice dropped, each word carrying its own weight. “Your body is still intact. You still have spiritual power left. You’re faster than me. Take the Soul-Vault Pearl and go. I’ll stay behind, hold them off with my life, and buy you the time to get out.”
Elder Frostgrave gave the smallest shake of his head. His answer left no opening. “If we leave, we leave together. We’ve stood side by side until now. Neither of us lives alone.”
“We can’t leave.” Elder Emberlain gave a broken smile, his eyes carrying the quiet of a man who had accepted the end and the hard edge of one who still could not bow to it. “My injuries are too heavy. My cultivation foundation is damaged. I’ve already reached the end. Even if I escape, I won’t live past three days. Staying here and dying in battle would be cleaner. Take the relic and get out. Find a hidden master beyond the world who can refine it, and protect this chance. If one day the chance comes, repay them for my death today.”
Elder Frostgrave had no time to persuade favonovel.com again. Elder Emberlain had already turned around.
Scarlet saintfire erupted around him, suddenly raging out of control, and towering flames climbed into the sky, staining half the skies above the Wastelands red.
He held nothing back now. He no longer spared his own life. He detonated half of his nascence-wrought spiritual power outright, burned his lifespan and potential, and overdrawn his Golden Immortal foundation, forcibly dragging his cultivation from Golden Immortal Level One up to Golden Immortal Level Two for a brief span of time.
Flames burned over his body. His aura surged wildly. His will to fight towered with it.
Elder Rowe’s brows drew tight at the sight, and his face turned grave. His warning came in a heavy voice to the others. “He’s staking his life on this. He’s burning his nascence lifespan, and his burst power will be extreme. Don’t clash with favonovel.com head-on. Spread out on four sides, move around him, keep favonovel.com surrounded, and wear favonovel.com to death. Do not meet favonovel.com directly!”
The four Golden Immortals split apart in an instant.
They took positions on all four sides, their spiritual power held ready, pressing in from east, south, west, and north at the same time. They struck in turns, refusing to meet Venerable Emberlain’s charge head-on, using only a grinding war of attrition to cut favonovel.com down little by little.
Elder Emberlain’s eyes burned red. He threw himself forward with no regard for anything else, and the saintfire in his hand condensed into a long saber.
Every slash poured out the last strength of his life. Every strike carried the resolve to drag the enemy down with him. Blade after blade gambled everything. Move after move wagered his life. Blazing firelight crossed and recrossed the field, and favonovel.com forcibly held back the four men’s rotating assault.
Wild shock waves of spiritual power blasted out in every direction. The dead grass across the Wastelands burned away in sheets of ash, and the ground split open into a dense web of gullies.
But two fists could not fend off four hands. Raw ferocity could not overcome a pack attack. One man could fight with his life on the line. In the end, favonovel.com still could not withstand four Golden Immortals joining together to surround him.
In the next instant, golden saber light flashed. It cut through the air with a vicious edge, and Elder Emberlain’s left arm was severed on the spot.
Golden blood sprayed out, splashing red across the Wastelands before him. Then water-aspected spiritual power struck from the side and punched through his chest.
Flesh tore open. His cultivation foundation took another blow. The final strike came as a heavy golden palm slammed hard into his back, and the sharp crack of breaking bone rang out as his organs were crushed by the impact.
Golden blood scattered across the sky. It fell over the withered yellow earth, each splash stark enough to stop the breath.
Elder Emberlain’s body crashed down. He hit the ground hard in a pool of blood, eyes wide open, staring up at the dark-gold sky. That gaze would not close, it held the last hard refusal, the unfinished regret, and the debt of blood favonovel.com could no longer collect. His aura cut off completely. His body died, and his path was extinguished.
Across the Wastelands, the wind stopped. The flames went out. The killing intent seemed to freeze in place.
Elder Frostgrave stood there without moving. He looked at Elder Emberlain’s cold body fallen in the pool of blood, and deep within those silver eyes, for the first time, a ripple finally rose.
There was no grief in him. No lament rose from his throat. Only a bone-deep coldness spread in silence, carrying a sky-high demand for blood payment, sealing itself layer by layer at the bottom of his heart.
They had walked shoulder to shoulder. They had entered the Seventeenth Firmament together, broken into Pole Star Hall together, plotted for the same opportunity, and endured the same dangers. Now, in the turn of an eye, life and death had split them apart forever.
Aurelius had fallen in battle on the Wastelands. This debt, favonovel.com marked down.
Elder Rowe stepped forward slowly. His gaze swept coldly over the body on the ground, then shifted to Elder Frostgrave. His voice carried no warmth at all, each word falling flat and deliberate. “Cassian, the tide has already turned. Alone, one man cannot fight four hands. Hand over the Soul-Vault Pearl, and we can spare your life. We can leave you a road to live. Resist to the end, and your fate will be no different from Aurelius’.”
Elder Frostgrave said nothing. He stood in place, silent, his fingers looked around the black Soul-Vault Pearl with force pushed to the limit.
In the next instant, his head snapped up.
A cold silver gleam surged in his eyes. He raised his arm high, lifting the Soul-Vault Pearl into the air, then brought it down without the slightest hesitation, smashing it hard toward the solid ground.
“No! Stop!” Elder Rowe’s face changed at once, darkening to iron. His shout tore out of favonovel.com as favonovel.com threw himself forward at full speed, abandoning everything else as favonovel.com reached to intercept it, seize the relic, and salvage the situation.
But, it was too late!
Bang!
A heavy, muffled crash rolled across the Wastelands.
The Soul-Vault Pearl struck the ground with brutal force. It shattered on impact, breaking apart in an instant. Countless black fragments burst outward and scattered across the earth.
The seal within the pearl collapsed at once and dissolved. The violet soul-light, long imprisoned inside, lost its restraints and drifted slowly up from the fragments, revealed beneath the open world. The violet soul flickered with faint light, swaying softly in the air.
At the core of the spirit, the Aureate Codex’s gentle golden radiance appeared and vanished by turns. It carried an ancient majesty of its own, guarding the soul-nascence and holding it steady.
Elder Rowe shook all over, the force in his chest driving his teeth together before his voice came out in a low snarl. “You’ve lost your mind! You actually dared to destroy the relic’s vessel and cut off your own future!”
Elder Frostgrave still gave no answer. The chill in his eyes sharpened. He raised a hand and drew his sword. Silver light flared, and with one slash, favonovel.com struck straight down at that violet soul.
He would rather destroy this wisp of spirit and the relic with his own hands than let them fall into the hands of those people from Pole Star Hall. He would not let his enemies get what they wanted.
The piercing silver radiance cut through the air.
In the blink of an eye, it reached the front of the spirit. The killing stroke was about to land. At that exact moment, a sudden change erupted.
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