“Great Elder Earthfire, how did you learn any of this?” Jared asked, forcing his breath to steady. A ghost of memory flickered behind Gerald’s ember-bright eyes. “Many years ago, I descended to the deepest vault of the Chthonic Abyss. Down there… I saw things no living soul was meant to see. It was an ancient ruin, every wall etched with records of the Door of Reincarnation…”
“The instant I understood those carvings, a terror beyond death knifed through me… The dread of a presence that defies all reason. I tried to wipe the murals away, hoping ignorance might shield whoever followed, yet the moment the last stroke vanished, I was struck by the Earthcore Demonic Flame…”
“In that battle, my body burst apart, my divine soul was shredded, and only one ragged wisp managed to crawl back to the world above.”
Jared’s heartbeat slammed against his ribs as the tale unfolded.
The Door of Reincarnation… The real mastermind behind Malevolent Path Hall… So there’s more to it than meets the eye, huh?
The idea stretched far past the borders of everything he thought he knew.
Jared drew a deep breath. “So, you’re saying our real enemy isn’t Malevolent Path Hall itself, but whatever power is behind the Door of Reincarnation?”
“Yes, you could say that,” Gerald replied. “But to reach those beings, we must first erase Malevolent Path Hall and shatter the Door. Otherwise, they will resurrect warriors without end, and we will drown in the tide.”
Resolve flashed in Jared’s eyes. “Then we wipe out Malevolent Path Hall first and grind the Door of Reincarnation to dust!”
“Spoken like a man of courage,” Gerald said, a spark of approval kindling in his gaze. “Yet with our present strength, we are nowhere near ready. The entities behind that Door may have surpassed the High Immortal Realm and stepped into the True Immortal Realm, or higher…”
“True Immortal Realm…” Jared muttered to himself. That was a realm of legend, and perhaps not even a single cultivator in all of the twelve levels had reached it.
“That is why our priority is to restore my physical body,” Gerald continued. “At my peak, I had one foot on High Immortal Realm Level Three. If I can reclaim even a fraction of that power, I can buy you precious time.”
Jared gave a solemn nod. “I understand. Tell me what you need, and I will see it done.”
A glint of sharpness flashed in Gerald’s eyes. “Continue using the Pentacarna Tower to help refine my soul, and at the same time, I will teach you the ninth level of the Earthfire True Scripture, Earthfire Heavenburn Technique…”
“I created this technique when I first touched the threshold of the High Immortal Realm. Its power is boundless. If you can master it, you’ll at least stand a chance against Malcolm in battle.”
Jared’s eyes lit up. “Thank you, Great Elder Earthfire!”
Gerald waved his hand. “No need to thank me. We are on the same boat now. The stronger you become, the greater our chances of survival.”
He paused, suddenly sensing something, his expression darkening. “Oh, no…”
“What is it?” Jared asked.
“The Door of Reincarnation has been opened,” Gerald replied, his voice low and grave. “And on a large scale, too. Looks like Malcolm is truly angry now.”
***
Meanwhile, back at Malevolent Path Hall’s headquarters in level twelve, an ocean of blood churned beneath the vaulted chamber, and countless wraiths rose wailing from its crimson waves.
Malcolm stood upon that violent tide, motionless, his expression carved from obsidian as he stared into the distance.
Before him loomed a jet-black stone gate, more than three hundred feet high, its colossal frame blotting out what little light seeped through the blood-mist.
The gate’s ancient panels remained sealed, yet their surfaces writhed with twisted runes, symbols that squirmed like living worms, each pulse releasing a dread that squeezed the heart.
This was the fabled Door of Reincarnation itself, a passage mortals were never meant to behold.
At that moment, one hundred thousand bound souls knelt in neat ranks before the gate.
Plucked from every faction, young and old, men and women alike, they wore the ashen pallor of the dead, their eyes drowning in despair.
Malevolent Path Hall had harvested them in recent days, herding the captives here to serve as living offerings for the gate’s awakening. Ordinarily, as long as a cultivator’s soul endured, hope remained, whether to forge a new body or seize another.
Now, having been snatched away, they did not even know what fate awaited them.
“Begin…” Malcolm ordered, his voice as calm and final as a guillotine’s fall.
“Understood!” a black-robed elder barked, sweeping up a bone staff that gleamed with sickly phosphorescence.
“Let the sacrifice commence!” he roared. One hundred thousand voices shrieked in perfect, unbearable unison. Their divine souls withered, soul energy torn from them and spun into crimson streams that surged toward the Door of Reincarnation.
A thunderous boom shook the realm, the sound like worlds colliding. The titanic doors quivered, then parted just enough to reveal a hairline fracture of night.
Beyond that slit yawned endless darkness where distorted silhouettes writhed and wailed. They were the damned of the Reincarnation Realm, souls denied relief for all eternity.
“With these one hundred thousand souls, we welcome the return of our three deputy leaders!” Malcolm proclaimed, his echo rolling across the sea of blood.
Raising both hands, he wove intricate seals, chanting an archaic litany that tasted of grave-soil and ice.
The words, born of the depths of hell, pierced the Door of Reincarnation and slipped into that abyssal night.
Moments later, three hazy figures drifted through the narrow breach. Soulbane, Bonefiend, and Annihilum, the three deputy leaders, had returned. Yet something about them was eerily wrong.
Their bodies were half-transparent, no more substantial than smoke, their eyes vacant, stripped of all spirit.
“Return now! Time waits for no one!” Malcolm thundered. With that, he bit through his own tongue, and three spurts of shimmering blood essence arced into the air like molten comets.
Those scarlet strands twisted into living ribbons of light. They shot across the throne room and slammed into the chests of Soulbane, Bonefiend, and Annihilum.
A low, metallic hum vibrated through the chamber, as though the very stones remembered how to scream.
The three broken husks swelled, flesh knitting, color surging back into their hollow cheeks. Clouded eyes cleared, focusing with dawning awareness. Within a few heartbeats, they were whole again, and all three jerked upright, breath rasping like bellows.
“Mr. Vayne…” Soulbane croaked, voice sand-scarred. “W-We have returned…”
Bonefiend and Annihilum blinked awake beside him. The trio traded a silent glance and saw the same terror, and the same grateful relief, shining back.
Moments earlier, they had truly died, their souls carved apart by Jared’s single sword slash. Only the soul seals they had hidden inside the Door of Reincarnation allowed this foul resurrection.
Yet resurrection carried a price. Their auras guttered like candles in a storm, and Annihilum’s outline was already turning translucent, as if a breeze might scatter him forever.
“Useless!” Malcolm scolded. “Three Top Level Heavenly Immortal Realm Level Nine cultivators defeated by a mere Heavenly Immortal Realm Level Two? How utterly embarrassing. I can’t believe you still have the guts to return.”
The trio quickly fell to their knees. “Forgive us, Mr. Vayne… That Jared Chance is truly bizarre. We’ve never seen a power attribute like his, he seems capable of countering every form of Demonic Cultivation. Additionally, he carries the Golden Dragon Bloodline and Earthfire True Scripture, his strength dwarfs his cultivation level.”
“Enough!” Malcolm cut them off with a raised hand. “Failure is failure. I will hear no excuses!” He turned toward the towering Door of Reincarnation.
A flicker of fear, and greed, darkened his stare. “Jared Chance must be taken alive. Perhaps by sacrificing him, we can free ourselves from the Door of Reincarnation and claim eternal life…”
