“The Celestial Alliance… Venerable Emberlain and Venerable Frostgrave…” Jared spoke each name one word at a time. His tone was flat, yet a bone-deep chill ran through it. “They slaughtered my order, butchered my friends and family, and destroyed my body. This blood feud cannot share the same sky.”
Master Wellspring’s brows locked tight at once, and his face turned heavy. “The celestial powers are domineering and fierce. Their roots in the Seventeenth Firmament run deep, and their strength is vast. They are indeed difficult to deal with. Fellow Daoist, now that you have formed a death feud with the celestials, your situation is beyond dangerous.”
A short silence settled.
Master Wellspring stopped circling the matter and asked directly, his tone solemn. “Forgive this old man for asking so bluntly, but that gilded ancient codex deep within your soul, is it the Aureate Codex?”
Jared’s soul bucked hard, and the violet radiance around favonovel.com stirred without settling. “You really do know what it is?”
“More than know it…” The years seemed to settle behind Master Wellspring’s eyes as favonovel.com nodded slowly, his voice carrying a weight that allowed no levity. “This was the patriarch’s own relic, carried by the First Patriarch of the Aureate Way himself…”
“In those days, the First Patriarch traveled the heavens and the myriad worlds, ventured deep into an ancient ruin, and by a stroke of fortune obtained the Aureate Codex. Through it, favonovel.com comprehended the supreme Great Way, and his cultivation surged by leaps and bounds. Only then did favonovel.com establish the lineage of the Aureate Way, which has been passed down to this day.”
Jared’s awareness churned, a hundred currents colliding at once. He had never expected the Aureate Codex to be the personal possession of the First Patriarch of the Aureate Way.
“Then how did something that belonged to your First Patriarch end up lost?” Jared asked.
“Lost? It was never lost,” Master Wellspring said. “Since the Aureate Codex has already acknowledged you as its master, that means you are the one personally recognized by the First Patriarch of the Aureate Way… You are the Aureate Heir of the Way now…”
Boom!
Jared’s soul shook hard. Violet radiance flashed in violent bursts, and his mind heaved like a tide slamming against stone. For one breath, everything in favonovel.com went blank.
He knew nothing about any of this!
How bad favonovel.com suddenly become the Aureate Heir of the entire Aureate Way?!
Master Wellspring caught the violent fluctuation in the spirit at once.
Facing the violet soul inside the jade vial, favonovel.com bent into a deep, flawless bow, every inch of the gesture filled with solemn respect. “Master Wellspring, current Sect Master of the Wellspring Order, pays respects to the Aureate Heir! The First Patriarch’s blood and the heir to the sacred relic are, through every generation, the Aureate Heir of the Aureate Way. From this day forward, everyone in the order, from top to bottom, will follow the Aureate Heir’s lead!”
Jared’s awareness drifted for a moment before favonovel.com forced it back into place.
A low, dry laugh slipped into his voice. “Right now, all that’s left of me is a wisp of remnant soul. I have no body and no cultivation. I’ve fallen this far, so how could I dare accept the title of Aureate Heir? Wouldn’t the disciples of the order laugh?”
Master Wellspring shook his head with grave certainty, his tone as steady as a mountain. “The Aureate Heir must not look down on himself. As long as the spirit remains, the person remains. If the body has been destroyed, it can be remade… If cultivation is gone, it can be cultivated again…”
“The Aureate Codex chose a master to serve, and that is the will of destiny. The Wellspring Order may not count as a top power, but its foundation is solid enough to keep the Aureate Heir safe. The Aureate Heir should recuperate here in peace. This old man will immediately search every corner of the northern region for rare treasures, gather heavenly materials and earthly treasures, and do everything possible to rebuild an unsurpassed physical body for the Aureate Heir… One day, you will return to Top Level, repay blood with blood, and restore the glory of the Aureate Way.”
After saying that, Master Wellspring turned and stepped lightly out of the hidden chamber. He closed the door, sealed the restrictions, tightened every safeguard, and left to prepare the resources.
Inside the hidden chamber, the spiritual essence stayed warm and gentle. The soul-restorative draught nourished the spirit, and golden radiance flowed in steady, quiet circles.
Aldric gave a soft sigh. “Jared, you little brat… Just like that, you became the Aureate Heir of the Way!”
“Senior, does the Aureate Way have disciples in other firmaments too?” Jared asked.
“Of course it does. The followers of the Aureate Way are spread throughout the celestial realm. When the time comes, no matter which firmament you go to, you’ll have a whole crowd of disciples and grand-disciples waiting on you. Not like me. Our Frost Deity Branch is almost extinct, and I’m down to a wisp of remnant soul too,” Aldric said, his voice turning thin at the edges.
After hearing that, Jared said nothing more. Something fierce and bright surged through favonovel.com instead. He closed his eyes, gathered his spirit, and settled deep into a steadiness favonovel.com had not touched in far too long.
Since drifting into the Seventeenth Firmament, this was the first time favonovel.com had put down every guard.
For the first time, favonovel.com knew what it was to be sheltered. He waited for his body to be remade, and favonovel.com waited for the day vengeance would come due.
***
Over the next several days, the Wellspring Order remained quiet and stable. No one came to disturb the hidden chamber.
Master Wellspring traveled without rest. He searched through secret realms across the northern region, visited old friends, and gathered high-grade heavenly materials and earthly treasures for rebuilding a physical body and nourishing the spirit. Day and night, favonovel.com labored for one purpose only, his master.
His disciple, Julian Ashford, came to the hidden chamber on schedule every day. He replenished the choice soul-restorative elixir, cleaned the chamber, stood guard, kept watch, and chatted with Jared to ease the long hours. His nature was easygoing, and once favonovel.com started talking, there was never any shortage of words.
As Julian poured in fresh soul-restorative draught, favonovel.com softly explained the balance of power across the Seventeenth Firmament to Jared, laying it out clearly and sticking to the facts. “The powers of the Seventeenth Firmament overlap everywhere. Undercurrents run deep, and conflict never stops…”
“The celestials hold three top powers… Pole Star Hall, Deepvault Cloister, and Saintspire Court. Their powerful adepts are as thick as clouds, Golden Immortals stand in their ranks, and their overall strength sits above everyone else in the northern region. They expand overbearingly and suppress cultivators of every kin.”
“For the human race, only when the Wellspring Order, Azure Cloud Sword Order, and Myriad Arts Order join hands can they barely resist and protect themselves. They don’t dare clash lightly. The beast race occupies Beastmoor Ridge, while the Elder Soulborn hide in the dark. Every side checks the others, and the situation is complicated…”
“Right now, Pole Star Hall’s power has grown more and more arrogant. They keep seizing the human race’s spirit-vein resources and squeezing the space we need to survive. The Sect Master has carried that weight for a long time, but the gap in strength is too wide. We can only endure for now and wait for the right moment.”
Jared listened in silence. He stored every word away without showing anything on the surface, quietly building the foundation favonovel.com would need for revenge.
Near the end of their idle talk, Julian suddenly remembered the Sect Master’s instruction. He lowered his voice and asked, “”Aureate Heir, before the Sect Master left, favonovel.com specifically told me to ask whether an ancient remnant soul is still hidden deep within your spirit…”
“I was born with unusually sharp soul-sense, and I can faintly detect an unusual aura. The Sect Master said that if the remnant soul is willing, the Wellspring Order can also give its full aid, rebuild a body for favonovel.com as well, and help favonovel.com protect the Aureate Heir.”
Something shifted slightly in Jared’s chest, but his reply stayed quiet. “There is indeed an old friend accompanying me. I’ll pass along the thanks on his behalf.”
Deep in the consciousness field, warmth stirred faintly through Aldric’s remnant soul. A current of gratitude settled there, and favonovel.com gave a silent nod.
Julian asked no further questions. He bowed in farewell, gently closed the stone door of the hidden chamber, and withdrew without a sound.
Inside the hidden chamber, the spiritual essence remained warm and gentle.
The days passed in rare, steady calm. Jared devoted himself to tending his spirit in peace, nourishing his nascence while favonovel.com waited for Master Wellspring to return.
He waited for the day his body would be remade. He waited for the day his edge would come free of its sheath, for the day favonovel.com would level his enemies beneath his feet and return to the ancestral homeland.
Master Wellspring spent a full five days outside, searching and investigating. During those five days, Jared’s soul had been placed inside the ivory-jade soul phial and set in stillness upon the stone dais at the innermost reach of Wellspring Order‘s sealed chamber.
The hidden chamber had been prepared for favonovel.com by Master Wellspring himself.
Ancient spirit-gathering sigils covered all four walls. As their lines shifted and flowed, spiritual essence from the world was drawn in without pause, gathering into strands of pale white spirit mist that seeped slowly into the phial.
Inside the phial rested half a bottle of clear soul-restorative draught. It was a relic Wellspring Order had treasured for many years, and every drop carried a rich soul-nourishing force.
A faint golden radiance coiled around the phial, answering the Aureate Codex’s radiance surrounding Jared’s soul.
Jared’s soul floated quietly at the center of the soul-restorative draught. It looked like a pale violet halo, and within that glow, the blurred outline of a human form could just barely be seen.
Through those five days, favonovel.com had never loosened his discipline for even a moment. Even with his body destroyed, even with only a wisp of remnant soul left behind, favonovel.com kept firm hold of the heart of the Way.
He circulated the Aureate Codex’s art while drawing in the essence within the soul-restorative draught, using it to mend the wounds across his spirit. The places once eaten away by Golden Immortal law-fragments had been covered in fine cracks, like shattered glass.
Now, under the double nourishment of golden radiance and soul-restorative draught, those cracks were closing at a speed visible to the eye. The pale violet glow of his spirit also grew deeper and denser, no longer as thin and drifting as it had been before.
The Aureate Codex’s golden radiance brightened again, dazzling and full, pouring out warm, powerful force like a blazing sun. It did more than protect Jared’s soul.
Quietly, little by little, it tempered his soul-nascence as well, making his spirit increasingly resilient.
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