The three deputy leaders blinked, stunned. “What do you mean, Mr. Vayne?” “Well, don’t you think it’s odd?” Malcolm replied, his tone dropping to a conspiratorial whisper. “Chaotic energy, Golden Dragon Bloodline, Earthfire True Scripture… Each rules a different supreme law, yet Jared can bind them as one. If we sacrifice him to the Door of Reincarnation, the one within it might attain immortality, and in turn, we’ll also become immortal.”
“What?” The shout tore from all three throats at once. Fanatic light blazed in their eyes. Immortality, that was the dream every cultivator chased in sleepless nights.
Malcolm straightened, voice iron-hard. “Send the order. No one is to set foot on level eleven. Jared will come to us, and when he does, we make him bleed for eternity. Also, tell everyone in Malevolent Path Hall to accelerate their harvesting of souls. I intend to drag every supreme elder and ancestor our order has ever lost back into the realm of the living!”
The three subordinates answered as one, their pledge ringing like iron striking iron, “Yes, Mr. Vayne!”
Malcolm turned toward the Door of Reincarnation. The shifting gray light washed over his features, and for an instant, a tangle of hope, dread, and calculation flickered behind his eyes.
What exactly waits on the far side of that door?
Does it truly grant eternity, or merely a different kind of cage?
He had no answer, and by now no retreat. From the moment he first unlatched that cosmic door and bargained with the presence lurking beyond, his path had narrowed to a single, merciless line.
If he succeeded, he’d live forever. If he failed, he’d be scattered to dust. There was no third choice.
***
Back at Earthfire Pavilion’s forbidden ground, Jared snapped awake, lungs dragging in heat-laden air.
A ripple of unnamed terror shivered through his chest before fading, leaving his heart hammering against his ribs.
“What is it?” Lindsay asked, her ember-bright eyes tightening with concern.
Jared shook his head, forcing the unease down like smoldering ash beneath stone. “Nothing much… Just a sense that something awful has begun to stir.”
He lifted his gaze to the looming Pentacarna Tower. “Great Elder Earthfire, what are some of the signs that indicate the Door of Reincarnation has been opened?”
Gerald’s aged voice drifted from deep within the tower. “When that door yawns, every creature for leagues will feel its heart seize, a forewarning of catastrophe. And those dragged back from death carry the door’s scent upon them, a pressure that crushes the living.”
Jared’s pulse quickened.
The jolt I felt a moment ago, was that due to the door’s opening?
Have those three deputy leaders truly been pulled back from the dead?
“Great Elder Earthfire, how long more do we have?”
“Three days at most,” Gerald replied. “By then, my body shall be restored. I will stand at High Immortal Realm Level One, far from my prime, but it will be enough to hold Malcolm Vayne at bay.”
Jared drew a steadying breath. “Three days, then. We’ll work with that. Lindsay, in these three days, I will pour every scrap of my power into rebuilding Great Elder Earthfire’s body. I’ll leave Earthfire Pavilion’s defenses in your hands, and Father’s…”
Lindsay nodded hard, copper hair dancing like sparks. “Don’t worry. You can count on us. No one will breach these walls.”
Jared turned to Vermilion Demon Lord, whose very presence seemed to stain the air with heat. The young cultivator’s voice was low but steady. “Mr. Vermilion, I need you to hold the line for the next three days. No matter who comes, don’t let a soul get through.”
Vermilion Demon Lord bared a grin sharp as broken glass. “Relax, boy. While I’m here, even a gnat will think twice before buzzing in.”
Jared nodded once, offered no further words, and stepped into the looming Pentacarna Tower.
***
Time twisted inside that ancient spire, one day outside became one hundred within. Jared now had what felt like three hundred days to master the ninth level of the Earthfire True Scripture and, at the same moment, rebuild Gerald’s long-lost physical body.
The clock, whether measured by sand or heartbeats, was already screaming.
When the tower doors finally yawned open, only three thin days had passed outside. Inside, nearly a year had burned away.
Jared strode out with his cultivation level at Heavenly Immortal Realm Level Three, and Gerald followed, a body once dust, now wholly reborn.
Seeing them emerge side by side, everyone erupted with joy, their cheers cracking across the courtyard like summer thunder.
No one beamed brighter than Lindsay. With Gerald back in Earthfire Pavilion, they could now stand unrivaled across the entire level eleven.
Jared shrank the Pentacarna Tower to a glimmer and tucked it away. Then, together, they left the forbidden ground and made for Earthfire Pavilion.
Ignatius led the wounded to recover, bandaged arms, splinted ribs, scorched pride. The clash with Malevolent Path Hall had cost Earthfire Pavilion dearly.
“Great Elder Earthfire, have you truly recovered?” Ignatius blurted, half laughing, half weeping.
Unable to contain himself, lunged forward for an embrace, only to freeze mid-stride when Gerald released a single lazy breath that rooted Ignatius in place like stone.
“We’re both men… It’s fine to be happy, but we can do without the hugs,” he said plainly.
Embarrassed, Ignatius stepped back, yet awe flickered behind his eyes. He was a Top Level Heavenly Immortal Realm Level Nine cultivator, but one exhale from the old man had pinned him cold. The gulf between the Heavenly Immortal and High Immortal realms was wider than any canyon he had ever seen.
Jared glanced at his father-in-law. “Father, any word from Malevolent Path Hall these three days?”
“They’ve recalled every disciple from level eleven back to the twelfth,” Ignatius answered darkly.
Jared’s brow creased. “What are they up to?”
Ignatius exhaled through his nose. “Most likely they’re waiting for you to step into level twelve, and then they’ll strike.”
Jared nodded.
The possibility felt all too real…
Gerald folded his arms, sparks flickering across the sleeves of his molten-red robe. “Well, Jared, where to next? Straight to level twelve? If that’s the plan, I’ll go with you.”
Jared lifted his chin, then gave a slow, deliberate shake. The movement was gentle, yet final, like a door closing on a conversation that had barely begun.
“Great Elder Earthfire, I’d like to secure the Jadeheart Marrow first, and then, there’s also someone I need to find,” Jared said, his voice low but unwavering.
Gerald’s ancient eyes narrowed beneath snowy brows. “And who might that someone be?”
“Soul Devourer… I chased that fiend all the way from level nine to here.”
“Soul Devourer?” Gerald repeated, a faint crease scoring his brow. “That monster has clawed his way up to level eleven? There has been no news of him for ten thousand years… To think the wretch is still alive…”
Jared then recounted, in a lean soldier’s cadence, how Soul Devourer had once been sealed, reduced to a single ghost-thread of a soul, yet had endured for ten thousand years.
Gerald nodded slowly. “That demon’s a lucky b*stard. Even so, level eleven offers scant refuge for a wandering specter. Finding him should not prove difficult. However, we must not let him slip into level twelve. An alliance with Malevolent Path Hall would spell disaster.”
“I know. The next time our paths cross, I will end him,” Jared said, his chin dipped in grim promise. “Now, Great Elder Earthfire, please tell me where the Jadeheart Marrow is.”
“Yes… I do indeed know the precise location of the Jadeheart Marrow,” Gerald said at last. “It rests at the core of the Chthonic Abyss, inside the Magma Heart. The dangers there are layered like scorpion shells, even in my prime, I dared not reach its center.”
Nevertheless, Jared’s gaze did not waver. “No matter the cost, I must get there. A woman dear to Mr. Vermilion’s heart will die without the Jadeheart Marrow. I gave him my word, and I’ll make sure to honor it.”
At that pledge, Vermilion Demon Lord, silent in the shadows, let a spark of gratitude flare across his crimson eyes before darkness swallowed it again.
