He blurred forward, one heartbeat, then the next, becoming a streak of living lightning. Invoking Blazing Stride, Jared’s soles burst with scarlet flame, doubling his speed In a single pulse. Two steps were all needed to close the gap, by the third, was already at Immortal Lord Nimbus’ back, heat ripping through the air in his wake.
With effortless strength, seized the fleeing Immortal Lord Nimbus by the collar, hauling off the ground like a squirming chick snatched by a hawk.
Jared pivoted and drifted back to the battlefield, one-handed, as though the captured Immortal Lord Nimbus weighed no more than a feather.
“What?!”
“T-That’s impossible!”
The remaining Demonic Cultivators went corpse-pale. If even Immortal Lord Nimbus crumpled in Jared‘s grasp, then that day’s outcome was carved in stone, they could almost taste the cold edge of death descending upon them.
Jared tossed Immortal Lord Nimbus onto the cracked earth. Stones shattered under Immortal Lord Nimbus’ body, dust blooming around them.
“Talk! Why did you run?” His stare bore the weight of judgment itself. Immortal Lord Nimbus quivered, arms wrapping around his own ribs as though that might steady the shaking.
“I-I know who you are…” whispered, the words rattling with fear.
Jared’s brow lifted a fraction. “You know me?” The curiosity in his gaze was quiet, dangerous, like a blade contemplating whether to strike again.
Immortal Lord Nimbus nodded in short. frantic jerks. “Yes. While I served in the Celestial Palace, the commander of the Sixth Hall, Mr. Hexford, spoke of you. He warned us you were unimaginably dangerous and ordered us to treat you with the utmost caution.”
Awe, or was it abject dread, quavered in every syllable, as though merely repeating Drystan‘s warning might stay Jared’s hand.
Jared’s voice cracked like a whip through the half-ruined courtyard. “So that’s it, you answer to the Celestial Palace!”
A razor-bright glint flashed behind his eyes, as though had already peeled back every veil shielding Immortal Lord Nimbus’ true allegiance.
“Yes, it’s true! I serve Mr. Hexford! My sole task here is to refine these spiritual stones into celestial gems and deliver the tribute upward!”
The confession bled out of Immortal Lord Nimbus in a tone edged with helplessness, as if each word were pried loose by unseen pincers.
Jared’s reply rode on frost. “And how, exactly, did the Sixth Hall learn the secret of turning spiritual stones into celestial gems?”
Suspicion rippled across his features, a silent demand to expose the darker machinery moving behind the Celestial Palace’s curtain.
Just as Immortal Lord Nimbus was about to speak, dark clouds suddenly gathered in the distant sky. A surge of power, stronger and far more sinister, came sweeping in.
The aura was like that of a vicious beast, roaring with world-ending fury as it surged forward, engulfing the entire Cardinal Realm in the blink of an eye.
The once-still air felt as if an invisible giant hand had gripped it tight, making every breath a struggle.
Down on the shattered plain, Demonic Cultivators who had been drowning in despair suddenly lifted their heads. Hope, wild, blazing, ignited in every crimson pupil, banishing terror like torches hurled into the night.
“I-It’s an even higher-ranked Immortal Lord!” one of them stammered, voice trembling with messianic fervor.
“We’re saved! That aura eclipses Immortal Lord Nimbus a hundredfold!” another cried, his face alight with post-cataclysm joy.
“Must be the power behind Immortal Lord Nimbus himself. Only such an expert could carry that kind of dread!” a third declared, reverence and expectation twisting together in his gaze.
On the opposite side, Quincy and the rescued cultivators went sheet-white, as though frost had laid a sudden hand on their hearts.
Knuckles whitened. Bodies shook like leaves caught in a gale. Every pulse of the incoming aura drummed raw malice against their souls.
