Phosphorescent eyes glowed within those statues, bending the very air around them until light itself seemed to shudder. Jared’s Golden Dragon Bloodline roared, resonating with the crystal.
Through that link, he sensed Cyanna and Coall trapped inside, their emotions surging with urgency and hope. Cautiously, he muted his aura and watched from afar. The void around the tower rippled ceaselessly, a tapestry of overlapping spatial fractures far deadlier than before.
Like a boulder hurled into a still lake, the tower‘s ancient waves had already alerted every power across the Ninefold Heaven.
Within half a day, the barren rim of Nullrift Gorge swarmed with hundreds of cultivators, turning the wasteland into a simmering powder keg.
Robed disciples, armored mercenaries, and lone wanderers ringed the Beast-Subduing Tower like flotsam around a maelstrom. Their breaths told the tale of realms conquered, from the tentative glow of the Human Immortal Realm to the blinding brilliance of the Heavenly Immortal Realm, and every gaze burned toward the ancient tower, where muted bursts of light teased from beneath weather-scarred stone.
“There’s no doubt, that is the Beast-Subduing Tower recorded in the oldest chronicles!” a voice cracked with excitement. “Its inner space never ends. Somewhere inside lie the heirlooms and legacies of prehistoric beasts!”
“Legend says the tower drifts through a thousand realms at whim. Who would have dreamed it would show up on Level Nine? This is fortune on a cosmic scale!”
“Look at the four stone lions at the base. Those statues anchor the formation. Until that core shatters, the doorway is nothing more than a dream!”
Temptation soon outweighed caution. Someone lunged.
A wandering cultivator at the early Heavenly Immortal Realm unfurled into a streak of argent light, knifing straight for the entrance.
Buzz!
When he crossed the three-hundred-meter mark, the lions’ hollow eyes lit with eldritch flame. An invisible wall of space congealed out of thin air.
He slammed into it like a sparrow into granite. The rebound fired him back even faster, ribs shattering, blood fountaining from his lips. By the time his broken body hit the dust, life clung to him by a single, fraying thread.
The spectacle doused every impulsive heart as surely as winter rain.
“That formation is brutal. Brute force won’t cut it.”
“The formation weaves the laws of dimension itself, subtle beyond belief. Only combined strength will crack it!”
“Friends!” an elder of the Sunfire Sect called, voice rolling like drums. “Such fortune belongs to all who stand here. Let us join hands, break the shield first, then race for whatever waits within, each to his own skill!”
Murmurs of agreement rippled through the circle; weapons lowered just a fraction. Yet the newborn alliance was spun of cobwebs and wishful thinking.
As they probed the array, testing positions, measuring force, old grudges and fresh slights surfaced like daggers beneath silk.
“Scum of Blackwater Grotto! That gust of wind was aimed at me, was it not?” a barrel-chested giant with a rust-red beard roared across the rubble, eyes like molten iron.
“Breaking arrays causes splash damage. Dodge better next time, or blame your own incompetence,” the Blackwater leader hissed, voice seeping from a shroud of black mist.
“Lies! Old scores and new injuries, let’s settle everything right now!” the bearded titan swung his mountain-cleaving axe. Silver light carved the air, streaking toward the mist-clad crowd.
That single blow struck the powder keg.
Factions already bristling with suspicion erupted. In a heartbeat, the makeshift siege line dissolved into a frenzy of blades, spells, and vendettas, each combatant using chaos as the excuse he had been craving.
From somewhere within the roiling melee, a rasping roar tore through the sulfur-laden air.
“Curs of Sunfire Sect! You stole our treasure in the last secret realm raid, pay with your lives!”
Another furious cry answered, dripping with murderous contempt. “Aurum Gate cowards, time to die!”
A third shout, savage and reckless, shattered what little order remained. “Kill! Clear everyone first, then smash the array!”
Chaos spread like a plague, feeding on every heartbeat. Blinding spell-fire flashed, artifacts clanged like iron thunder, and the gorge filled with overlapping howls and death-screams.
Attacks meant for the tower instead ripped into supposed allies, each misfire stoking deeper resentment.
Blood painted the fractured stone crimson, severed limbs spiraled through acrid smoke, and the battlefield became an abattoir. Beneath a hulking boulder on the gorge’s edge, Jared slid into shadow; silent, unseen, he watched the carnage with frost-cold eyes.
