“But if even people like the celestials in the Celestial Basilica are rotten…” She lifted her head and looked at him. “Then what is the righteous path, really? What is light supposed to be?”
Jared looked at her for a long while before he finally spoke, “The righteous path isn’t something people claim with their mouths. It’s what they do with their hands. Light isn’t something other people give you. It’s something you carry inside yourself.”
He rose and walked over to the window, then stood there with his hands behind his back. “The people who parade around calling themselves righteous aren’t always good. And the demonic cultivators everybody spits on aren’t always evil either. What’s righteous and what’s wicked doesn’t depend on identity. It depends on the heart.”
Evelyn nodded, only half understanding. Jared said nothing more. He only looked out toward Saintlight Peak in the distance, his gaze deep and unreadable.
***
A few days later, Luther and Grace were the first to return. Neither of them looked good.
“Mr. Chance, we found something,” Luther said as he sat down, lowering his voice. “The Celestial Basilica really is secretly capturing demonic cultivators.”
Jared’s expression didn’t change. “Go on.”
Luther said, “Not just demonic cultivators. They also took some celestials who were wandering cultivators with ordinary talent. Once those people were taken, they never showed up again. When their families and friends went to the Celestial Basilica to demand answers, all they got was the same reply: the person has already left Saintlight Peak. Their whereabouts are unknown.”
“Whereabouts unknown…” Jared repeated it once, and a cold curve touched the corner of his mouth.
“There’s more,” Luther went on. “I found someone at the edge of the Demon Marches. His younger brother was one of the demonic cultivators taken by the Celestial Basilica. He said that before his brother was taken away, he secretly sent him a message through the jade slip.”
“What did it say?”
Luther drew in a deep breath. Then he said, one word at a time, “The Celestial Basilica is working on a crazy plan. They want to fuse the bloodlines of celestials and demons and create super cultivators who carry the power of both races at the same time.”
The teahouse went completely still. Evelyn’s eyes went wide. She just stared, disbelief written all over her face. Jared, though, stayed calm, as if he had already seen this coming.
“So that was it,” he said lightly.
Luther continued, “That demonic cultivator said the Celestial Basilica had captured a lot of people and locked them away in a secret place. They were forcibly injected with another bloodline. Most of them died during the fusion process. The ones who lived… they turned into monsters too. They lost their minds and only knew how to slaughter each other.”
“Those monsters…” Evelyn’s voice came out shaking. “They’re the same ones we ran into before?”
Luther gave a heavy nod. Jared fell silent for a moment. Then he asked, “Where is that place?”
“Deep in the forest, 300 miles east of Saintlight Peak,” Luther said. “The Celestial Basilica set wards around it, so outsiders can’t get in. But that demonic cultivator said that before his brother was taken away, he’d seen the place from far off.”
Jared rose to his feet and stood with his hands behind his back. A cold glint passed through his eyes. “The Celestial Basilica…” he said quietly. His voice stayed even, but the chill in it cut straight to the bone. “It’s even worse than the Celestial Palace.”
At that moment, Lydia came back. Her face didn’t look any better. “We found it,” she said as she sat down, her voice heavy. “The Celestial Basilica really is carrying out bloodline fusion experiments. And… They’ve already succeeded.”
Jared’s brow tightened. “Succeeded?”
“Yes.” Lydia nodded. “I secretly captured a Basilica Elder and used a secret art from the Ghost Clan to cloud his mind. That’s how I got it out of him. He said the Celestial Basilica had already created a finished product a few months ago. That monster carried both celestial and demon bloodlines, and its strength was terrifying. The Celestial Basilica had locked it in the depths of the forbidden grounds and was still observing it…”
“Only one?” Jared asked.
“For now, only one,” Lydia said. “But the Celestial Basilica is still capturing demonic cultivators and wandering cultivators. Their goal is to create an army like that.”
An army of monsters carrying both celestial and demon bloodlines… Jared closed his eyes and drew in a deep breath. A long while later, he opened them again. His eyes had gone hard and cold. “This Celestial Basilica deserves death even more than the Celestial Palace.”
The Celestial Palace had drawn out cultivators’ bloodlines to revive a Ghost Clan Venerable, but at least it had a clear purpose: revive a powerhouse and strengthen itself. The Celestial Basilica was worse. They took living people and turned them into test subjects, leaving them to die in agony or come out the other side as mindless monsters that tore each other apart. It was a stain on life itself. A boot grinding straight down on whatever was left of human nature.
“Mr. Chance, what do we do now?” Luther asked.
Jared looked out the window. His gaze went past the market town, past the plain, and settled on Saintlight Peak in the distance, wrapped under that golden barrier. “No rush,” he said. “The Celestial Basilica is on full alert right now. Charging in head-on wouldn’t be smart.”
He paused for a beat. “Besides… Someone will be in a bigger hurry than we are.”
“Who?” Luther blurted, caught off guard.
The corner of Jared’s mouth lifted a little. “Those demonic cultivators they took weren’t people with no backing. After the War of Gods and Fiends, there were fewer demonic cultivators around, but that doesn’t mean they vanished for good. They still have fellow disciples. They still have clansmen… When the time comes, we won’t even need to make the first move. Someone will naturally go settle the score with the Celestial Basilica.”
He turned back to the others. “We watch for now and wait for an opening.”
***
At the same time, deep in the Demon Marches, inside a hidden chamber in the Demon Dragon Hall, Skylar stood with his hands behind his back and stared at a map hanging on the wall. The map showed the power distribution across the entire celestial realm. Luminous Sanctuary had been marked with a red circle.
Darian stood behind him, barely daring to breathe. Ever since Skylar had burned Godric to death with a single fire, Darian’s awe toward the young man had only grown heavier, until it edged into something close to dread. Every day, he moved carefully, watching every step, afraid one wrong move would set off that living scourge.
“Darian,” Skylar said suddenly.
Darian jolted all over and hurried forward. “What do you need, sir?”
Skylar turned around and looked at him. “Have there been reports lately about demonic cultivators going missing?”
Darian froze for a second, then thought it over. “Yes, sir. There have been. Lately, people from several lesser tribes near the border of the Demon Marches have disappeared. I sent men to investigate, but they never found anything. I figured they’d been eaten by fell beasts, so I didn’t pay much attention.”
Skylar’s eyes turned cold. “Eaten by fell beasts?”
“That was only my guess…” Darian kept his eyes off Skylar’s face.
Skylar let out a cold laugh. “The people who vanished were taken by the Celestial Basilica.”
Darian jerked upright. “The Celestial Basilica? Why would they seize demonic cultivators?”
Skylar didn’t answer. He only looked at the Luminous Sanctuary on the map, and something hard flashed through his eyes. “Darian, how much do you know about the Celestial Basilica?”
Darian gave it some thought. “The Celestial Basilica is one of the oldest forces in the Luminous Sanctuary. They’ve been established for tens of thousands of years, and they claim to be the true orthodox line of the celestials.
They’ve always acted like they stand with the righteous path, and they’ve never hidden how little they think of our demon people. But these past years they’ve kept a low profile and rarely had any contact with the outside world.”
