Flaxseed sucked air through his teeth and growled, “This pace will kill us. Nine Serpent Mountain commands too many blades, keep bleeding power like this, and they’ll grind us into dust before nightfall.”
Jared wiped a smear of ash from his cheek, mind racing. They needed a place to vanish, replenish their strength, and resume the search for the Flaxseed clan’s killers before the mountain’s hunters boxed them in.
Through the ragged vapor ahead, a yawning canyon mouth emerged, its entrance wreathed in cloud like a gateway to myth. Shattered pavilions and toppled columns clung to the cliffs, hinting at an empire swallowed by time and silence.
“That‘s… The Fallen immortal Valley?” Flaxseed breathed, awe cutting through his fear.
“Perfect,” Jared replied, eyes bright with hard resolve. “A maze of ancient wards, no sane hunter will follow us in.”
In a heartbeat they shared a look and plunged into the silver mist. Behind them the bounty hunters skidded to a nervous halt, none daring to tread past the valley’s invisible boundary.
The moment they crossed, the air thickened, humid and heavy, as though the valley itself wished to crush intruders.
Ruined hails ghosted in and out of the fog, rust-stained weapons and sun-bleached bones strewn across the moss like offerings to some forgotten god.
“This place is anything but simple,” Jared murmured. “Step softly, one wrong move and the valley will eat us alive.”
Flaxseed gave a terse nod, knuckles whitening around his blade as an unseen pressure crawled across his skin.
They crept on, tracing a path between shimmering sigils and sinkholes masked by lingering illusion. Scattered skeletons in fractured armor told of a cataclysmic war that had once burned through this vale.
Flaxseed whispered, “Jared, what’s that slab say?”
Kneeling beside the stone, Jared brushed away lichen until faded runes emerged. After a tense silence breathed, “Level Five… Passage… Opening…”
A passage to the fifth level, hidden here all along?
A violent pulse of energy rippled from deeper inside, shuddering through the fog. Jared’s face tightened, dragged Flaxseed behind a fallen boulder just as new footsteps crunched over the gravel.
***
A cautious squad of cultivators emerged, led by Lunaria of the Blackshade Demon Palace, with Seraphina at side, eyes gleaming like fresh blood.
Behind Lunaria and Seraphina marched nearly thirty cultivators, every robe heavy with the quiet pressure of the Earthly Immortal Realm.
The sight alone announced a grim fact, two rival powers had set aside old grudges and closed ranks for the kill.
“Lunaria, are you certain they’ve already stepped into the valley?” Seraphina’s usually lilting voice carried a tremor, as though the very mist pressing against skin threatened to devour her.
The combined retinue pushed deeper, their silhouettes dissolving into the churning vapors until even the echo of their footsteps was eaten by sflence.
Jared and Flaxseed slipped from behind a split boulder. Moon-pale mist painted their faces with a seriousness rarely seen on either man.
