“Who?! Who did it?!”
“It… It was Jared!” He… Jared?! Those two syllables hit Godric’s mind like a thunderclap. The reincarnated Dragon Emperor. The one who had brought the Celestial Palace to total ruin. Destroying the Celestial Palace hadn’t been enough. He had gone after the Sacred Mountain too, and smashed the last hope Godric had left.
“Argh!” Godric threw his head back and roared. Then he slammed out a palm strike, and violent spiritual power burst loose on the spot. The stone hut exploded apart in an instant. Broken rock blasted in every direction, and dust swallowed the air.
Godric stood in the ruins, his whole body shaking. His eyes were red as blood, and the spiritual power around him churned in complete disorder, so unstable it was nearly driving him off the edge.
“Jared! Jared! Jared!” He roared the name out, the sound ripping from his throat like a wounded beast. Every word came out raw, packed with fury, ruin, and refusal.
“You destroyed my Celestial Palace! You killed my disciples! And now you wouldn’t even spare my last bargaining chip! Me and you, Jared! We can’t exist under the same sky! This doesn’t end until one of us dies!” He struck out with another palm. The ground exploded beneath the force, and broken stone sprayed in every direction.
Several Celestial Palace disciples rushed over when they heard the noise. The moment they saw the Hall Master like this, they dropped to their knees on the spot and didn’t dare move.
Godric raged on for a long while before the strength finally ran out. At last, he dropped to one knee and dragged in rough breaths. His eyes were webbed with bloodshot streaks. What was left in him had sunk all the way down.
It was over… All of it was over… The Sacred Mountain was gone… The Venerable’s physical body was gone… The last chip in his hand was gone too. What was he supposed to use to bargain with the Celestial Basilica now? What was he supposed to use to rise again? What was he supposed to use to avenge the dead disciples?
Elder Shaw crawled over to him and said through his tears, “Hall Master, you have to hold on. We… We aren’t at the end yet…”
Godric lifted his head and looked at him. A bleak smile pulled at his mouth. “Not at the end? Tell me. What road do we still have left?”
Elder Shaw parted his lips, but nothing came out. Yeah… What road was left? The Celestial Palace was gone… The Sacred Mountain was gone… And the disciples were down to a little over 200 people… Now they were living under someone else’s roof, worked like dogs. And once the Celestial Basilica found out the Sacred Mountain had been destroyed, once they learned the people here had nothing of value left in their hands…
Godric’s whole body jerked. The Celestial Basilica… If Aurelius found out the Sacred Mountain had been destroyed, found out we didn’t have a single bargaining chip left, what would that ruthless bastard do?
Godric saw that mild smile on Aurelius’ face again. He saw the way Aurelius had wiped out one of his Elders with a casual flick, like it meant nothing at all. And he heard that line again, “Once they’ve squeezed every last bit of value out of them.”
Now that value was gone. So what reason did they still have to exist?
“No… No!” Godric shot to his feet, his face hard and dark. “He can’t know. He absolutely can’t!”
He turned and looked at the Elders gathering around him. He dropped his voice, fast and sharp enough to cut. “Listen to me! The news that the Sacred Mountain was destroyed cannot get out. No one says a word. Especially not anyone from the Celestial Basilica.”
The Elders’ faces drained. “Hall Master, this… Can we really keep that hidden?”
“Whether we can or not, we still hide it!” Godric ground the words out through clenched teeth. “As long as Aurelius doesn’t know, we still have time. We still have a chance!” He paused. Something hard set in his eyes. “We can’t stay here anymore…”
“Hall Master, you mean…”
“Leave!” Godric said, each word landing like a hammer blow. “We’re leaving the Luminous Sanctuary and going back on the run.”
Elder Shaw’s voice shook. “B-But Hall Master, where can we even go? We can’t go back to the Celestial Palace. We can’t stay in the Luminous Sanctuary. Are we supposed to go to the Fifteenth Firmament? It’s even more dangerous there than it is here!”
Godric fell silent for a moment before he finally spoke. “The Demon Marches.”
The second those words came out, the Elders blanched. “The Demon Marches?! Hall Master, those people are lunatics! We have a blood feud with them!”
“So what if we do?” Godric’s voice turned cold. “Skylar and the Demon Dragon Lineage are in power now. If they can run wild across the Fourteenth Firmament, then they definitely have a place in the Demon Marches too. We’ll go find them and throw ourselves under their banner.”
“B-But… They killed so many of our people!”
“I know…” Godric closed his eyes and drew in a long breath. He opened his eyes again. What sat there now was all bitter weight and hard resolve. “But what other choice do we have left? The Celestial Basilica won’t keep us, and we can’t go back to the Celestial Palace. Only the Demon Marches—only Skylar’s side—might still leave us one thin chance to live.”
“That Skylar…” one Elder said after a pause. “Will he even take us in? Back when we talked about working together, he killed the Grand Elder on the spot.”
Godric stayed quiet for a long time before he finally said, “I don’t know. But it’s still better than waiting here to die. Besides, this time we wouldn’t be talking about cooperation. We’d be throwing ourselves under him.”
He turned and looked at the Celestial Palace disciples gathering around him. He looked into their eyes and saw nothing but confusion and dread. Something in him clenched.
“Everyone,” he said, his voice low. “I know you’ve suffered by following me. The Celestial Palace is gone. The Sacred Mountain is gone. And me, your Hall Master… I haven’t been able to give you anything… But right now, we still have one road left. A dangerous one. We may die on it. We may end up worse than dead. But at least it’s still a road.”
He paused, then said each word with crushing weight. “Anyone willing to come with me, gather outside the mountain gate at midnight tonight. Anyone who isn’t… Stay behind and find your own way to live. I won’t blame you…”
The disciples looked at one another. After a brief silence, they all dropped to their knees. “We swear to follow you to the death, Hall Master!”
Godric looked at them, the rims of his eyes turning red, then gave a heavy nod. “Good! Good! Every one of you is the real thing!”
Then he turned away and looked off into the distance. A sharp, vicious glint cut through his eyes. Jared… Just wait… And Aurelius. You too! As long as Godric doesn’t die, this debt will be collected sooner or later!
***
At that same moment, at the summit of Saintlight Peak, inside the Basilica Hall, Aurelius sat on the throne with a Messaging Jade Slip pinched between his fingers, a faint crease pulling at his brow. “Jared… Destroyed the Celestial Palace’s Sacred Mountain?”
Below him, a Guardian Elder bent at the waist and said, “Yes, Hall Master… The message just came in. Jared led his people in and destroyed the few Sacred Mountains the Celestial Palace still had left. The Venerables’ physical bodies were all reduced to ash too.”
Aurelius went quiet for a moment, then suddenly laughed. “Interesting…”
He set the jade slip down, and something amused flickered through his eyes. “This Jared really is something. The Celestial Palace moved to surround him, and he turned around and ripped out the Celestial Palace’s nest instead. That old thing Godric probably can’t even cry right now, can he?”
The Guardian Elder tested the waters carefully. “Hall Master, then should we still keep an eye on Godric and the others? With the Sacred Mountain destroyed, they don’t have any value left in their hands.”
Aurelius glanced at him. “What’s the rush?”
He rose to his feet, then slowly walked down the steps with his hands clasped behind his back. “Right now, Godric is probably more rattled than anyone. He knows that the second I learn the Sacred Mountain has been destroyed, they lose all use to me. He’ll definitely find a way to run.”
“Then what about us?”
“Let them run.” Aurelius’ mouth curled into a cold smile. “Send someone after them and see where they think they’re going. If we can follow the trail and dig up anything else they’ve hidden, wouldn’t that be even better?”
“Hall Master, brilliant!”
Aurelius flicked a hand, and the Guardian Elder bowed himself out. That left Aurelius alone in the great hall. He looked out the window, his gaze going deep into the night.
“Jared…” He murmured it under his breath, and the smile at the corner of his mouth turned harder to read. “Interesting. This is getting more and more interesting…”
***
Night fell at the mountain foot of Saintlight Peak.
Godric left the camp with more than 200 disciples, using the darkness to slip away without a sound. They didn’t dare use the Teleportation Array. If the Celestial Basilica noticed, it would be over. So they could only go on foot, climbing over mountain after mountain as they ran hard toward the border of the Luminous Sanctuary.
Godric led from the very front, eyes sharp and watchful, spiritual power already moving through him in secret. Behind him, the disciples stayed tight on his heels, not daring to make the slightest sound.
The night wind swept through the hills, dragging fallen leaves along with it. Under the moonlight, Godric’s back looked especially lone. Even so, there was still something hard in it, something that refused to bend. And behind Godric’s group, a faint figure stayed on their trail the whole time.
