“How I obtained it is irrelevant,” Jared said, expression unshakable. “From this moment, the entire Celestial Palace answers to me.” His tone carried the chill of iron drawn across stone; no anger, no boast, only immutable fact.
Doubt shadowed Celestial King’s brow. Jared’s cultivation, after all, sat only at Human Immortal Realm Level Three, scarcely equal to even a mid-level hall master, let alone someone capable of commanding the whole Celestial Palace.
Sensing that skepticism, Jared continued, his words threading urgency and truth. “Back on level eight,” he said, “Enaricus conspired with Malevolent Path Hall to seize your Celestial King Palace… Maxwell intervened, and Onneas witnessed every moment. Onneas was the one who sought me out when you vanished; he could no longer reach you…”
“It was then that I learned Jaehaerys and Brennan had imprisoned your mind, planning to deliver you to Malevolent Path Hall. Had I not arrived when I did, you would already be chained in their dungeon.”
At the mention of Maxwell, a name no imposter would dare invoke lightly, Celestial King’s resistance wavered. Conviction settled over his features, and for the first time, he regarded Jared not as a trespasser but as the unexpected savior he claimed to be.
“Where is our founding ancestor now?” Celestial King asked, his voice low yet echoing through the broken colonnade like a bell struck at midnight. The question lingered in the air, heavy as storm clouds gathering over a battlefield.
“Shattered to dust long ago,” Jared answered, meeting Celestial King’s gaze without flinching.
“A single scrap of his soul survives, trapped in a void passage. For all these years, he has been imprisoned there by the clan leader of the celestials, claiming he violated the laws.”
Celestial King exhaled, a sigh that felt older than stone walls. He nodded slowly, as though paging through a grim record he already knew by heart.
Evidently, he was already aware of that matter.
“If the ancestor entrusted his token to you, then the Celestial Palace shall follow your lead. Whatever you require, Mr. Chance, speak it…” Gone was Celestial King’s earlier pride. In its place stood a man bowing to destiny, his tone steeped in reverence.
“First, we head for Heaven Gate Sect’s ruins,” Jared said, his words clipped, decisive. “You are healed now; return at once to the Celestial King Palace. The palace bleeds. Only Onneas still holds the line. You must rise to level eight again and rebuild the Celestial Palace’s strength. When you choose new officers, look deeper. Jaehaerys, Brennan, and Enaricus nearly had your head. Remember how close that knife came.”
“You are right. I will be vigilant,” Celestial King replied, nodding with a resolve born of fresh scars.
Celestial Palace had once loomed unassailable across level eight, yet great empires seldom fall to foreign blades. Their crumbling begins within.
Had Jaehaerys and the others not betrayed him, the Celestial Palace would still stand proud today.
After offering Jared a solemn bow of gratitude, Celestial King summoned a beam of light and vanished toward level eight, leaving Jared and Sylvia to limp back to the mountain cave where they had first taken shelter.
Both were wounded, bones aching, veins bruised. To charge into ancient ruins now would be to hand their lives to fate’s dice.
Inside the cave, Jared set the Pentacarna Tower on the ground. After laying the arcane array, he brought Sylvia into the Pentacarna Tower.
Time inside the tower flowed a hundred times faster than outside. One year beyond its walls became a hundred within.
Realization widened Sylvia’s eyes until they shone like frost under moonlight. In that instant, she understood how Jared’s strength had soared beyond common measure.
“Ms. Vale, this Pentacarna Tower is my deepest secret,” he said, voice gentle yet firm. “I bring no one here unless they stand closest to my heart.”
“I know,” she whispered, a smile curving her lips as delicate fingers began to loosen the clasps of her robe.
Jared did not protest this time. Need and trust collided, and he swept her into his arms, their silhouettes merging beneath the tower’s jade-lit vault.
Through dual cultivation, their wounds knit with breathtaking speed, vitality flowing between them like twin rivers meeting in a fertile plain.
When they finally emerged from the Pentacarna Tower, both stood whole once more. Jared’s aura blazed brighter than before. The threshold of Human Immortal Realm Level Four lay a single breath away.
“Let’s move,” Jared said, the mountain wind catching in his hair. “The Heaven Gate Sect‘s ruins await.”
“Mhmm,” Sylvia answered, cheeks blossoming with shy color as she slipped her arm through his.
When the final fortress of a woman’s heart falls, closeness becomes instinct, especially after a first shared night that burns like dawn over new lands.
People said a woman never truly forgot the very first man who entered her life. The claim hung in Jared’s mind like fog on a cold dawn, an old proverb, echoing even here among mountains and shifting clouds.
Guided by Sylvia, he reached the summit of Heaven Gate Mountain. The peak looked barren, nothing but wind-scraped rock, a disappointing sight for a place rumored to hide an ancient gateway.
Before he could voice doubt, Sylvia flicked her sleeve. Space rippled, bent, and the entire mountaintop re-shaped itself as if a curtain had been torn away to reveal a hidden stage.
