In Cloudhaven City, on top of the ruins of the Celestial Palace Branch. Jared’s gaze moved slowly across the wreckage at his feet.
Collapsed temple pillars. Shattered shrines. Cold bodies sprawled among the broken stone. His eyes didn’t stir in the slightest. There was no satisfaction from revenge in them, and nothing savage from the killing either.
It was as if this Celestial Palace Branch, the place that had once made all of Cloudhaven City bow its head and had wiped out the Chance Family, was nothing more than an ordinary pile of rubble in his eyes. No different from broken stones and wild grass by the roadside.
He had already gone past the kind of love, hate, rage, and obsession that tied ordinary people down. He had fought his way through level thirteen, walked over endless mountains of corpses and seas of blood.
What lay before him now, this destruction and slaughter, was no more than a trace of dust on the road ahead. He could brush it aside with one hand.
Vivian stood at his side. Her plain white dress was already stained with blood. Loose strands of hair clung to her cheeks, and the marks of tears still hadn’t dried on her face. The weariness left behind by the fighting was still there too.
Her eyes dropped to the bodies strewn everywhere. Too much sat in that look at once. Revenge had landed. So had the grief of losing her family. And under it, a thin stretch of uncertainty about what came next. The revenge was done.
The hatred that had hung over the House of Chance for decades, the weight that had pressed on her through countless days and nights, had finally come to an end today.
Those Celestial Palace disciples who had humiliated her family and butchered its people, those lofty Celestial Palace powerhouses who had treated the family like dirt, had all turned into cold corpses now.
They lay inside the ruins of the Celestial Palace Branch they had once been so proud of.
But what now?
The House of Chance was gone. Her clansmen were gone. Only she was left, alone. The glory and prosperity that had once belonged to them had vanished like a dream along with the destruction of the Celestial Palace Branch.
She had no idea where she was supposed to go from here, or what she was supposed to do. It was like the road in front of her had dropped away, leaving behind nothing but a hollow stretch of blankness.
She slowly lifted her head and looked at Jared’s cool profile. Her voice came out soft, carrying a faint rasp and something unsteady beneath it. “Jared, what are you planning to do next?”
Jared slowly turned toward her.’ His eyes settled on her face. They were cool and calm, yet there was a trace of softness buried in them too, as if the uncertainty and helplessness she was trying to hold down hadn’t escaped him.
His voice wasn’t loud, but it carried a firmness that left no room for doubt. “I came to the Fourteenth Firmament for one reason. I needed to go to the Luminous Sanctuary. Now that things in Cloudhaven City are settled and the revenge is done, it’s time for me to leave.”
“The Luminous Sanctuary?” Vivian froze for a beat, a question flashing through her eyes.
Then she pressed on. “What are you going there for? The Luminous Sanctuary is the holy ground of the Fourteenth Firmament. Security there is airtight. If you’re heading there, is it because something important is waiting for you there?”
Jared stayed silent for a moment. The aura around him eased a little. Then he slowly raised a hand and drew a soul crystal from his robe, smooth and luminous, faint blue light spilling across its surface.
The soul crystal was about the size of a fist. Clear and pure, like it held a pool of still autumn water inside. A closer look showed two faint figures curled within it.
Their eyes were shut. Their presence was weak, sunk in sleep, as if they might scatter and vanish at any moment.
“Two people’s souls are sealed in here.” He spoke slowly, his voice lower now, carrying a grave weight that wasn’t usually there.
“They’re my friends. The Celestial Palace got to them. Their bodies were destroyed, and their souls were forcibly sealed inside this soul crystal, barely holding on. And the Celestial Basilica in the Luminous Sanctuary is said to have the power to awaken souls… I need to go there, find the Celestial Basilica, and figure out a way to bring them back.”
Vivian looked at the soul crystal. Looked at the two weak, shadowy figures sleeping inside it. Something in her eyes shifted.
She knew what Jared was like.’ Cold by nature. Few words. Rarely did he place this much weight on any person or any matter.
Anyone who could make him treat this so seriously, enough to risk going to the dangerous Luminous Sanctuary, had to mean something far beyond ordinary to him.
She gave a light nod.
What had been drifting inside her settled down by force, and her voice firmed with it. “I understand… To get to the Luminous Sanctuary, you’ll need to use the cross-realm transit gate, right? As for the Teleportation Array…”
Jared cut her off, “Before, I planned to use the your family’s resources to gather celestial elixir. Then the Celestial Palace suddenly made its move, and everything that followed happened. After that, there was no point bringing it up again. But now…”
He paused, then looked at Vivian again. There was evaluation in his voice, but there was trust too. “Your family may be gone, but Cloudhaven City is still here. This city is the foundation your family built over hundreds of years. If you’re willing, you can stay here for now, take control of Cloudhaven City, gather the remaining forces, build your strength, and rebuild your family.”
Vivian heard that and immediately shook her head.
Her voice came out firm, with an earnest edge to it, and a stubbornness she didn’t bother hiding. “Jared, you helped me that much you helped my family avenge a blood debt this deep. Without you, I would’ve already died at the hands of those Celestial Palace disciples, and my family’s revenge would never have been repaid…”
“I can help you arrange the Teleportation Array too. I can contact the wardens of the Teleportation Array and make sure it starts smoothly without any accidents… Even if my family is gone, I don’t believe anyone in Cloudhaven City would dare stop you from using the city’s Teleportation Array.”
