Jared chuckled softly, piecing the pattern together. So the lord of Eastshire was funneling cultivators to the Sixth Hall-offering them up at so-called lectures, and in return pocketing favors could only guess at.
He waved the notion aside like trivial smoke. “Take us anyway. If your lord slams the gates in our faces, we won’t force the issue.”
“Very well, if that’s your choice, I’ll guide you,” Luna said, steeling herself. She bit lower lip, voice dropping to a tense whisper. “But we must tread lightly. Our lord trusts no one. I suspect he’s trading with the Sixth Hall-shipping off our cultivators to them. Some vanish completely. Those who return stare into nothing, their minds and strength broken. I secretly investigated the matter as my father was taken away this time, but before I could find him, I ran into these two cultivators.”
Jared offered a gentle, almost pitying smile. “Your suspicions are dead on. Those so-called public lectures are a sham. They drain the soul itself into clay jars. After that, the victim turns dull, their cultivation frozen forever.”
Luna gasped, eyes widening. “How could you possibly know that?”
A quiet laugh slid from Jared’s throat. “Because only days ago I smashed one of their altars, shattered the Soul Urn they were filling.”
Astonishment washed over Luna, had never imagined anyone daring to destroy the Sixth Hall’s property. Throughout level seven, the Sixth Hall was a branch of the Celestial Palace, powerful enough that most cultivators would rather swallow humiliation than cross it.
Fury blazed across Luna’s face, ground teeth so hard they nearly cracked. “Our district lord is despicable! That means my father may already be in danger. I’m taking you to him, right now!”
Jared’s gaze slid toward the two black-clad cultivators standing nearby. Now that they had overheard the entire plan, could not allow them to live.
Cold intent flashed in his eyes, twin blades of ice. The men sensed the shift, terror bled into their faces, their breaths turning ragged as prey cornered by a silent predator.
“P-Please, spare our lives! We know nothing, nothing at all. Have mercy on us, we beg you, let us go!”
The two black-clad cultivators collapsed onto the coarse earth in unison, foreheads grinding into dust. Their shoulders shook violently, the way a lamb shivers beneath the butcher’s shadow.
Jared stood motionless.
A sliver of cold purpose flashed behind his half-lidded eyes. He had never shown the Celestial Palace’s Sixth Hall a fragment of mercy, and would not start now. Every rumor of their cruelty flared in his memory, sealing an iron vow to settle the score.
Only the master of the Fourth Hall remained an exception to that rule.
“Since you serve that hall, you die here.” Jared’s voice fell like a verdict-quiet, final, and unarguable.
Twin tongues of Black-White Flame leaped from his fingertips, lashing forward like wrathful dragons intent on erasure. The fire swallowed the kneeling men before a scream could form, in a blink, they were ash, then dust, then nothing.
A wandering gust stirred the powder into the wide, barren sky. and the world looked exactly as though those men had never drawn breath.
Luna could only stare, lips parted. The sudden ferocity left frozen. She had never seen Jared hesitate. He chose and struck. Life and death bent to his will.
“S-Sir… Y-You…” Her voice cracked, the words breaking apart like fragile glass. Jared offered a brief glance, eyes already cooling.
Seeing this, Luna wondered to herself. The Sixth Hall is steeped in sin. Their deaths were overdue. Now, we head for Eastshire District. What has this man lived through to wield such power, and such resolve?
“We leave, Eastshire waits.” Jared turned, ending the matter as though it weighed no more than dust on his boot.
Luna pivoted toward the eastern horizon. Flaxseed and Jared fell in behind her, three silhouettes swallowed quickly by drifting sand and restless wind.
