Above Cloudhaven City, heaven and earth had changed color. Demonic aura rolled like a furious tidal surge, and the black crush of mist nearly swallowed the entire sky. Inside that darkness, so thick it looked impossible to break apart, streaks of scarlet lightning flashed from time to time, carrying a savage force that looked ready to destroy everything. At the same time, vast dragon might rose like an ancient divine mountain waking after endless ages.
The surrounding void twisted under the pressure, and visible golden ripples spread through the air. Everywhere they passed, even the demonic aura was forced back again and again.
Those two completely different powers, both terrifying to the extreme, slammed into each other and tore at each other in midair. Every collision kicked up a world-breaking gale, and the wind carried shattered stone and sword aura as it ripped outward in every direction.
The city walls of Cloudhaven City shook violently. Inside the city, the cultivators were already flattened against the ground, too crushed to even lift their heads and look up. To them, those two pressures felt like two mountains pressing down at once, squeezing the breath out of their chests and making even their spirits tremble.
Jared and Skylar stood a full 100 yards apart, facing each other from afar through the raging wind and demonic aura. The force around them had locked onto each other completely, and neither side gave even the slightest inch. Their gazes collided hard in midair. That was no ordinary meeting of eyes, but a direct clash of spirit and cultivation. It was as if real sparks were bursting and exploding through the void, one after another, while sharp blasts kept cracking through the air.
The pressure in the air had built until it reached a suffocating extreme, like frozen ice locking everything in place. Even the Demon Dragons coiled behind Skylar, savage and twisted as they were, had all gone still.
Their roars cut off at once, and their enormous wings drew in slightly, as if none of them dared make the slightest sound. One pair of scarlet eyes after another stayed fixed on that figure wrapped in golden light. Their beast-born instincts had already caught the danger clearly. It was lethal. The awe rising from deep in their blood kept them from making a single reckless move.
Around Jared, golden draconic energy rose slowly, curling around him like a sea of golden clouds. Every strand of it carried a sacred, unquestionable weight. Behind him, the phantom of the Five-Clawed Golden Dragon flickered in and out of sight. Its scales showed clearly.
Its whiskers moved with the wind. A dragon’s cry echoed faintly between heaven and earth—low and heavy—pounding against everyone’s ears until they went numb. That was the majesty of the Draconians’ supreme ruler, something no evil creature had any right to profane.
He had only just stepped out from seclusion. His aura had not fully settled yet, and the spiritual power inside him was still surging wildly through his meridians, forcing itself into balance. But the force pouring out of his bones—the kind that looked down on the world and everything living in it—made every cultivator present hold back instinctively. Even the old powers of the celestial realm didn’t dare look down on him in the slightest.
And yet, even with that overwhelming dragon might rolling off him, Jared still couldn’t fully pull his gaze away from the woman in violet. It was as if some invisible thread had tied itself around his spirit and kept dragging his attention back, until every bit of his focus was caught there.
That violet figure stood quietly a half step beside Skylar. Her sleeves and hem lifted lightly in the wind, tracing out a slim but upright frame. She looked cold and untouched, like an immortal maiden fallen from the highest heavens, not carrying a trace of worldly dust.
The chill in her brows and eyes looked like ice that hadn’t melted in ten thousand years. But to Jared, that face was still the one carved into the deepest part of his spirit—the face that had followed him and haunted him all this time.
When she looked at him, there was only unfamiliarity and confusion in her eyes. None of the softness she once had. None of the old attachment or reliance. Not even the faintest ripple of recognition. It was as if they had never met before and were nothing but strangers.
Jared’s heart tightened as though an invisible hand had seized it and kept crushing and tearing at it again and again. The sharp pain spread through his limbs and bones until breathing itself nearly turned impossible. For one instant, even the draconic energy around him slipped out of order.
He wanted nothing more than to rush over, pull that person he’d longed for day and night into his arms, and tell her how deeply he’d missed her. But what stood between them now was like a chasm. It cut straight across the space between them and left him unable to take even a single step.
But he could not go down. He could not go down now. The countless cultivators of Cloudhaven City were still waiting on him. The friends behind him were still waiting on him. No matter how hard the pain kept cutting through him, he had to hold.
Jared drew in a deep breath. His chest rose hard, then he forced everything down—the twisting ache, the pull of missing her, all of it—burying it in the deepest part of the spirit. Then he slowly lifted his right hand and closed it lightly on empty air. In an instant, golden light burst out. The blazing gold tore through the demonic aura, and a longsword appeared in Jared’s hand out of nowhere.
The blade was black from end to end, but fine golden lines flowed across it. It was broad and heavy. Dragon patterns were carved into the hilt. When it settled into his grip, warmth spread into his palm with a touch he knew by heart.
It was the Dragonslayer Sword!
The blade gave a faint tremor, then a low, drawn-out sword cry rolled from it. It sounded like a divine weapon waking after ages of sleep, answering its master’s call. It also sounded like a declaration to heaven and earth that its master, after everything he had been through, had finally returned.
The golden lines on the blade spread along Jared’s palm and merged with the draconic energy inside him. The aura coming off the sword turned sharper and sharper.
Jared held the Dragonslayer Sword with the tip angled toward the ground. The disorder around him slowly settled. What had been showing in his eyes was gone, replaced completely by a cold, naked intent to kill.
He stood there like a volcano that had slept for ten thousand years and was just about to erupt. On the surface, nothing moved. Underneath, power churned hard enough to wipe everything out. And that killing intent was aimed straight at Skylar, with nothing hidden.
Skylar looked at Jared’s restrained, iron-set stance, and the smile at the corner of his mouth only deepened. His eyes were full of mockery and ridicule, as if he were looking at some ridiculous clown. The demonic aura around him surged even harder, making his face look darker and more sinister.
“Oh? The Dragonslayer Sword?” He spoke lightly. His voice wasn’t loud, but carried by the demonic aura, it spread across all of Cloudhaven City and landed clear in every ear. The contempt in his tone wasn’t hidden at all.
“Jared, you really are sentimental… after all these years, you’re still using this broken sword. What has someone with the Golden Dragon Bloodline fallen so far he can’t even take out a decent divine weapon anymore?”
He paused, then swept a disgusted look over the Dragonslayer Sword in Jared’s hand. His tone turned even more scornful, with the kind of mockery that sounded almost like charity. “Then again, you’re only in High Immortal Realm Level Four now. In the Fourteenth Firmament, that cultivation level puts you at the very bottom.
Even with an old relic like the Dragonslayer Sword in your hand, how much power could you possibly bring out? I’m guessing you can’t even use a full sword technique anymore. With this little bit of strength, you think you’re worthy of fighting me? You’re only humiliating yourself.”
Jared looked at him quietly. He didn’t flare up. Nothing changed on his face. He only answered in a flat, cool voice, without a trace of extra weight. “Skylar, you talk too much. If you want to fight, then fight. Why keep yapping here and making yourself a nuisance?”
“Heh…” Skylar let out a cold laugh, and a cruel curve pulled at the corner of his mouth. He was just about to open his mouth and keep mocking Jared when a clear, cool female voice suddenly rose from below and broke the deadlock hanging in the air.
