Jared studied the kneeling Demonic Cultivators, his eyes devoid of pity. For a century, they had painted their hands red with human and beast blood. Now the final reckoning had arrived.
“Forgiveness?” He let the word freeze in the air. “You chained the innocent and butchered the helpless, tell me, what right do you have to keep breathing?”
“W-We repent!” Marius stammered. “Every celestial gem we own is yours, only spare us!” “Celestial gems?” Jared scoffed. “To me, they are worth less than sand.”
“T-Then we will reveal Immortal Lord Nimbus’ secret, the truth of those refined stones! Grant us life, I beg you!”
A flicker of interest brightened Jared’s gaze when heard the mention of Immortal Lord Nimbus’ secret. He did, after all, wish to learn why Immortal Lord Nimbus had ordered Demonic Cultivators to smelt spiritual stones into celestial gems.
Jared allowed the last syllable of his question to hang in the air like an unsheathed blade. “Oh? So you claim to know some hidden truth about Immortal Lord Nimbus. Why don’t you share it? If what you tell me is worth hearing, I may, just may, let you keep breathing…”
“Immortal Lord, Immortal Lord Nimbus commands us to smelt ordinary spiritual stones into celestial gems because the place calls home is barren-starved for resources. He needs an ocean of celestial gems to survive there!”
“And, please, hear me, someone is pulling his strings. That is the only reason bothered to descend into our small realm at all,” Marius Blackstone revealed, sweat already beading along the dark ridges of his brow.
Jared’s eyes narrowed, flaring with molten gold. “Someone from above gives the orders? You’re telling me he’s backed by someone?”
Marius nodded. “Yes! We never learned who. We only watched sigh, pace, and tighten the screws on us day after day. Every appearance, demanded more celestial gems, always more. Whatever mission they’ve set on his shoulders keeps getting heavier, and dumps the weight onto ours.”
Jared fell silent, gaze drifting toward the mist-choked mountains ringing the quarry.
Whoever stood behind Immortal Lord Nimbus possessed the craft to refine spiritual stones into pure celestial gems, a technique that could enslave entire low-grade realms… A single scheme. An endless chain of labor camps…
Countless cultivators bent beneath the same yoke. “Where is now?” Jared asked at last, voice cool as a winter stream.
“I-I can’t pinpoint him,” Marius stammered. “He appears without warning at Obsidian Stone Sect, scoops up cartloads of gems, then vanishes. Last time was one month ago. Cardinal Realm holds more than a thousand quarries just like this one. He could surface at any of them, and I simply don’t know which.”
Jared inclined his head, accepting the grim mathematics. Finding Immortal Lord Nimbus would take patience and time.
He then straightened and said, “Very well. You’ve given me his secret. Now you can die…”
Panic split Marius’ face. “Immortal Lord, you promised! You said if our secret held value…”
“I did…” Jared’s reply was quiet thunder. “But your secret serves me not at all. Which means you serve me not at all. And that is unforgivable.”
He flicked his wrist. A ribbon of molten gold arced outward, then burst. In the next heartbeat, every kneeling Demonic Cultivator dissolved to gray ash, a low sigh of dust carried off by the breeze.
Quincy and the other prisoners felt their hearts soar. The shackles on their souls cracked in the same instant the slavers vanished. They had finally broken free from the Demonic Cultivators’ enslavement and reclaimed their freedom.
“T-Thank you, Immortal Lord! Thank you!” Quincy and a dozen more dropped to their knees, foreheads striking earth in ecstatic gratitude.
Jared waved the gesture aside. “Enough. Stand… I merely did what should have been done long ago.”
Quincy rose to his feet and looked at Jared, gratitude filling his eyes. “Immortal Lord, we will never forget your boundless grace. From this day forward, we pledge our allegiance to you and will serve at your command!”
