“So that’s how it fits together…” Jared’s voice came low and steady, the words hanging in the charged air of the ruin. “The Fallen immortal Valley does hide a tunnel to level five, and the only way to pry it open is by awakening the core ward sealed here. That’s why every power risked the valley’s curse. We were never the true quarry, they were after the doorway all along…”
“Which means,” Flaxseed rasped, frowning as the truth curdled in his gut, “We were bait from the first step, weren’t we?”
“Almost certainly,” Jared replied. “Lunaria and Seraphina must have known this method for ages. They announced a bounty on us just to lure the major factions inside and use our blood to spark the ward.”
Before his words could fade, the sigils encircling the altar blazed alive.
Light flared, and overhead a vast rift in space peeled open, exhaling the unmistakable breath of level five.
“The passage, it’s opening!” Flaxseed shouted, excitement and terror tangling in his throat. Jared’s brow knit at once. He felt several brutal auras knifing toward them. Lunaria and Seraphina, every heartbeat told they were moments away.
“Move, now!” Without hesitation Jared seized Flaxseed’s wrist, sprang upward, and plunged into the swirling rift. Only inside level five could they both outrun their hunters and uncover the truth of the Flaxseed clan’s massacre.
The instant the two vanished, Lunaria and Seraphina burst into the clearing, faces lit with feverish delight.
Seeing the passage yawning above, they vaulted in after their prey.
The spatial rift knitted shut behind them, and silence swept across the valley once more. Only the scattered bones and shattered relics whispered of what had taken place.
High over Darkwind Ridge in level five, space twisted like molten glass and spat Jared and Flaxseed out in a tumble.
Cough… Cough…
They hit hard, hacking as the denser, richer energy of this realm flooded their lungs and set every vein thrumming.
“So this is level five?” Flaxseed wheezed, raking curious eyes across the alien sky.
Mountains dwarfed any they had known below, jagged crowns clawing at a violet-tinged firmament while raw spiritual energy roiled through the air like thunderclouds about to break.
“Yes, but we can’t stand here gawking,” Jared said, feeling his own reserves knit back together almost too fast to follow. “Lunaria could be on our heels any moment.”
They had barely climbed to their feet when a murderous presence snapped onto them like a drawn bowstring.
Jared dragged Flaxseed to bolt, but a spear of gold light slammed into the earth ahead, halting them.
From its fading brilliance stepped a giant of a man, easily two meters tall, shoulders broad as city gates, a scar carving his face. The aura of a fifth tier Earthly immortal Realm cultivator rolled off in punishing waves.
“You two crawled up from level four?” the stranger asked, his tone colder than iron as his eyes glittered with threat.
Seeing this, Jared’s heart sank, they had landed straight under a predator’s shadow.
“State your name and reason for blocking our path,” Jared said, lifting the Dragonslayer Sword and meeting the giant’s gaze without flinching.
“No one talks to me that way on Darkwind Ridge,” the burly cultivator scoffed, his voice rolling like distant thunder. “I am Ursan Blackbear, lord of this range. You two look new-fresh pups from level four, am I right?”
“Well, it just so happens I need two servants. Congratulations, you’ve been chosen!” He swept an appraising glare over Flaxseed and Jared, then jabbed a thick thumb at a third man standing nearby. “And you, little wanderer, reaching level five on your own is impressive. Serve under me, and no one will dare bully you…”
Flaxseed barked a laugh, the sound sharp as flint striking steel. “Dream on! We’re no pushovers!”
