Quincy and the others stood frozen for a heartbeat, then hurried after Jared as strode toward the distant Obsidian Stone Sect.
Inside the sect’s grand hall, Marius paced beneath towering braziers, an itch of dread tugging at his nerves. His eyelids twitched without cause. “Activate every restriction at once!” Marius barked. “I don’t want a single trespasser slipping through!”
Ever cautious, watched attendants sprint to obey, rune-lamps flaring as the barrier sealed shut around the mountain stronghold.
Immortal Lord Nimbus had laced the headquarters of Obsidian Stone Sect with a shimmering barrier, runic light flowing over the walls like moonlit water. Everyone thought it was unbreachable.
Yet the instant that barrier was activated, Jared strode onto the forecourt with Quincy and their weary companions at his heels, boots crunching across the black gravel as though the earth itself had summoned them.
Marius spotted Quincy and scowled, the scar running down his cheek twitching.
“Quincy Lee, why aren’t you breaking rock in Quarry No.7? You looking to die?” barked, voice echoing off basalt pillars.
His gaze slid past Quincy and locked onto Jared, a stranger in simple robes whose calm eyes gave away nothing.
Marius tried to probe the young man’s cultivation level. But, nothing answered. It was like staring into mist that swallowed every shred of spiritual sense.
Quincy’s anger flared. He jabbed a shaking finger at Marius. “You animal! For a hundred years, you’ve chained human and beast race cultivators alike, worked us until our bones cracked. Today, someone has finally come to the end of you!”
Marius‘ smile flattened. “Big words, Quincy. Sounds like a century of pain hasn’t broken you enough.”
“Broken?” Quincy laughed, voice raw. “Blood ran like rivers when you first arrived. In these hundred years, the quarries have swallowed our kin, dead, crippled, forgotten. Did you really think we’d stay quiet forever?”
Marius snorted. “You’re still alive only because you’re useful. Strip that away and I’d have fed every last one of you to the furnace.”
Quincy trembled. “Devil!”
He turned, voice ringing across the courtyard. “Listen, everyone! This is Jared Chance, our savior, an immortal from the celestial realm. He‘s to punish these Demonic Cultivators and lift us from the abyss!”
For a heartbeat, the Demonic Cultivators blinked, then laughter tore through their ranks like dry branches snapping.
Marius pointed at Jared. “A Celestial Immortal? That brat? Quincy, the mines have rattled your skull. A whelp like him? A Celestial Immortal?”
“Please!” one Demonic Cultivator sneered. “He probably hasn’t even touched the Immortal Realm.”
“Where’d you find the actor, Quincy, tavern stage?”
“A Celestial Immortal visiting our little backwater? Funniest thing I’ve heard all year!”
Marius marched up to Jared, eyes dripping contempt. “Whoever you are, trespassing on Obsidian Stone Sect means only one ending, death.”
Jared’s smile was faint, almost kind. “Death? From you?”
Marius’ face reddened. “Brat, do you even know where you stand? This is our main sanctuary. Immortal Lord Nimbus built the barrier himself, real Celestial Immortals would think twice before forcing entry.”
Marius drew himself taller, shadows flaring behind him. “And I just triggered the highest-grade restriction. Step Inside, you never leave!”
Jared let his gaze wander. Invisible currents pressed against his skin, dense, intricate, proud. To him, those currents felt no fiercer than a child’s paper kite in a spring breeze.
His lips curved. “A barrier? In my eyes, every barrier Is mere decoration.”
“Hahaha! You sure know how to talk big!”
