Inside Jared’s body, muffled thunder answered, the wall of Wandering Immortal Realm Level Six splintered like a levee smashed by floodwater. Jared sank cross-legged, steering the surging energy straight at the weakening barrier.
“Y-You’re about to break through?” Just then, Seraphina swept in with pursuers, spotting Jared mid-breakthrough, a feral grin twisted lips. “Fate smiles on me-Bone-rot Swamp will be your grave…”
Scarlet whip-shadows lashed out like venomous snakes. Flaxseed threw himself in front of Jared, offering his own body as a shield.
Jared’s eyes snapped open an instant before impact, the force of Wandering immortal Realm Level Seven erupted from like a tidal wave.
“Out of my sight!”
Golden sword energy exploded into a circular wall. shattering every crimson lash. Jared blinked forward, the Dragonslayer Sword screamed toward Seraphina’s heart.
Terror flooded features, never had imagined could advance in this accursed swamp, let alone gain such power so quickly.
She flung up primordial magical item Crimson Serpent Shield, but the blade’s impact drove stumbling back, blood streaking the corner of mouth.
“How can your cultivation level rise this fast?”
No one shattered a boundary in the blink of an eye, even a minor advance demanded time and safety. Yet Jared had done it amid poison fog and ravenous beasts, a feat that clawed at sanity.
The impossibility of it left trembling. Jared offered no reply, his gaze colder than the swamp’s stagnant water.
Wandering immortal Realm Level Seven power coursed smoothly through him, and the Purifying Lotus still poured gentle strength along every meridian.
He sensed it clearly, could now contend with an tier four Earthly immortal Realm cultivator.
“This one’s too strong! Retreat!” Seraphina knew the battle had turned irreversibly against her.
With a single, crisp command wheeled crimson cloak and ordered a full retreat. Yet even as followers melted into the mist, allowed herself one last, smoldering glance at Jared before vanishing into the ragged depths of the Bone-rot Swamp.
The moment their pursuers disappeared, Jared’s shoulders sagged. He dropped onto a slab of slick black rock and exhaled like a man who had been underwater too long.
Flaxseed hurried forward and steadied him.
“You all right?” asked, voice rough with worry.
“I’m fine,” Jared said, shaking his head and managing a tired smile. Energized heat still churned inside him-raw, untamed power unlocked by the Purifying Lotus.
“That blossom did more than purge the poison… It shoved me straight through the next level.”
He pushed himself upright, eyes narrowing toward the swamp’s darker heart. “We can’t linger. We cross Bone-rot Swamp tonight.”
After a brief rest they pressed on. Purifying Lotus energy pulsed through their limbs, turning every treacherous step into a swift stride over mud that had slowed them hours before.
Venomous vines snapped, sinkholes yawned, and spectral reptiles hissed from stagnant pools, but each threat shattered beneath Jared’s newly forged strength, leaving the swamp’s dangers to wither behind them like shadows at dawn.
Several hours later an amber glow spread through the fog. Ahead lay the swamp’s edge, and freedom.
Beyond the muck rose a sun-drenched forest, alive with birdsong and gold-flecked leaves.
Flaxseed whooped, and sprinted toward the trees. “We’re out!”
Jared followed, relief loosening the tension in his chest, until something bright winked at the swamp’s rim. He slowed, drawn by the glitter half-buried in black sludge.
Kneeling, pried free a palm-sized ebony token etched with a leering skull. A cold tremor rippled through him.
“Malevolent Path Hall,” muttered. He had seen such symbols back on level four. If their assassins had wandered this far, the web surrounding the Flaxseed clan, and himself-was wider than feared.
He slipped the token into his cloak, an uneasy weight settling beside his heart.
