The aura streaked forward like a viper, arrowing straight for Jared’s chest. Jared gave a curt, disdainful snort. With a lazy flick of his sleeve, a torrent of invisible force poured out of him, a tidal wave of power that slammed into the two robed cultivators.
The pressure gathered above their heads like a mountain carved from midnight stone. Every breath they tried to draw collapsed in their lungs, every tendon locked beneath a weight that felt geological.
“What…” The syllable scraped out of their throats, raw and panicked, before either man could think of anything wiser to say.
Color drained from their faces, and muscles twitched. Knees buckled until the pair hung partway to the ground, shivering as though winter had crawled inside their bones.
“Y-You… Who are you, really?” one of them managed, the question quavering so hard it was barely a word at all. Jared did not answer. He simply walked-slow and deliberate, the wind of the wasteland parting around his boots, each step a hammer, blow against the men’s pounding hearts.
A single glance told they sat only at Human Immortal Realm Level Two, children playing at war before a veteran general. They were never meant to survive him.
His footfalls thudded like drums. With every measured pace, their ribs rattled, as though his soles pressed directly on their chests.
“Speak. Where is the Celestial Palace’s Sixth Hall?!” The command rang out like a bell forged from thunder, deep, resonant, and utterly unquestionable.
Terror rippled through the pair. Whatever scraps of courage they had evaporated beneath that single sentence.
“Mercy, please!” the first man babbled, voice cracking into a sob. “We… We’re nothing but ordinary cultivators of the Sixth Hall. We scarcely know its true location ourselves!”
“He speaks truth!” the second added, shaking so hard his teeth clacked. “Only the upper echelons know its location. We’re only grunts, nothing more!”
Irritation flickered behind Jared’s eyes-a brief, sharp spark of disappointment. He had hoped the chase might end here, yet these two were barely worth the breath it took to question them.
Must I really keep scouring this endless plain? Before the thought settled, the captive woman, still half-kneeling beside Flaxseed, lifted chin. “Sir, I know where the Sixth Hall is located!”
Jared and Flaxseed turned as one, surprise sharpening their gazes. The howl of wind filled the brief silence.
“My name is Luna Linford of the Linford family in Eastshire District,” explained, voice clear and bell-like despite the gale. “Many from our district were shipped to the Sixth Hall by our lord. Question him, and you will have your path.”
“Oh? Your district lord knows?” Jared asked, interest kindling in his eyes.
A thin smile curved across his mouth, sharp and expectant, while the storm-lit wasteland seemed, for one charged heartbeat, to hold its breath.
Hope rekindled inside Jared, bright and crackling like dry pine catching flame. The prospect of finally tracing the hidden trail to the Sixth Hall of the Celestial Palace sent his pulse hammering.
Luna gave a small, definitive nod, loose strands of hair brushing cheeks. “Yes. But the entrance to the Sixth Hall is buried so deep that ordinary folk could search a lifetime and never glimpse its doors.”
Flaxseed leaned forward, eyes gleaming through the dust always clinging to his lashes. “Can you take us to Eastshire District?”
Behind the playful grin wore, Flaxseed’s mind raced. If we find the hall, we could rake in a mountain of celestial gems, and with them, push Jared through his next breakthrough.
Luna hesitated, worry clouding bright eyes. “I can take you, yes… But our district lord forbids outsiders beyond the gates. I’m afraid you might run into trouble.”
Jared let his lips curl into a cool, almost lazy smile. “Is your district lord truly that powerful, powerful enough to bar strangers from setting foot in Eastshire?”
in Jared’s view, only overwhelming strength could justify such an edict; without it. the decree was nothing but a joke.
Luna shook head. “Not exactly. But keeps friendly ties with the Celestial Palace. With the Sixth Hall backing him, few dare provoke him.”
