Dustin dared not argue. "Yes, Elder Quill. I will ry the order immediately."


    In the wavering torchlight, Elder Quill''s lips curled into a crescent of cruelty. "Jared...


    I wonder how many heartbeats you canst inside the Netherworld Triple-ughter Array. After you fall, even your wandering soul will feed my cultivation-hee-hee- hee." His icyughter slid along the stone walls like a serpent tasting air.


    Three days slipped by in the blink of an hourss.


    Dawn of the third morning found Jared and the Vermilion Demon Lord standing once more outside Sandrock City''s eastern gate, every precaution taken.


    Jared now wore a tealbat suit cut for freedom of movement, several storage pouches, and a miniature array of tes dangling at his belt.


    Though his surface aura still mimicked a Heavenly Immortal Realm Level One cultivator, chaotic celestial energy flowed steadily inside him, ready to explode at a flicker of intent.


    Vermilion, d in a dark-crimson robe etched with ult sigils, kept his demonic essence banked low; yet his hawk-bright stare promised violence. In his breast pocket rested vials of life-igniting elixirs-final measures for the worst.


    Jared had stowed the small fire unicorn inside a storage ring; its zing majesty would draw too many eyes.


    Jared nced eastward, toward the direction of ckwind Gorge. "Time to move."


    The two rose into the sky, streaking away as twin trails of light toward Darkwind Gorge three hundred leagues distant.


    Level eleven''s fabric proved denser, the very air pushing back against flight.


    Jared estimated that his top speed here had dropped by roughly forty percentpared with the previous level.


    Which meant that, should disaster strike, retreat would be far harder.


    Half an hourter, a stretch of obsidian canyond surfaced on the horizon.


    Sheer ck cliffs walled the chasm on both sides, and perpetual cyclones of sable wind whipped sand and stone through the gorge, reducing sight to a ghostly blur.


    They called this ce ckwind Gorge. Every gust roaring through its fissures carried coal-ck grit, a savage breath that had scoured the canyon walls for ages until even daylight seemed bruised.


    Guided by the markings, Jared had studied on the device; he and Vermillion touched down at the mouth of the gorge. More than twenty cultivators had gathered there already. Each one pulsed with power in the middle tiers of the Heavenly Immortal Realm, their auras bristling like unsheathed steel.


    Dustin, smiling broadly, pushed through the wary crowd and hurried toward them, the tails of his cobalt robe snapping in the restless wind.


    "You two are right on time." Dustin''s voice carried an easy warmth, but his eyes kept a merchant''s tally of every de and badge on their persons. "Allow me to introduce Conrad Hawke. He stands at the very peak of Heavenly Immortal Realm Level Six and will lead today''s expedition. And this distinguished friend beside him..."


    Name after name spilled from Dustin''s lips until each principal figure had been presented like pieces on a freshly set game board.


    Connor, expression cid, let his gaze drift across the assembly. Most were veteran rogues or minor-sect fighters-seasoned, distrustful, and careful to leave a sword''s length of space between alliances.


    Conrad looked every inch his reputation: broad-shouldered, bare-armed, a coffin- wide Ghoulde strapped over his back. His stare raked Connor with open disdain. A Heavenly Immortal Realm Level One? Not worth a full breath, that glint seemed to say.


    "We''re moving," Conrad barked. Without waiting for agreement, he tramped into the gorge, boots cracking loose shale. The rest of the party fell in behind, the clink of talismans and the hush of caution merging with the mournful wind.


    No sooner had they crossed the threshold than Darkwind Gorge exhaled its signature storm—ck, knife-edged currents that pped their protective light with a hiss of sand. Worse, the wind gnawed at the mind. Connor felt his spiritual sense cramp until it could barely stretch a hundred paces.


    "Stay close. This gale muddles perception-lose the line, and you''re done," Dustin warned from the safer middle ranks, voice low but firm.


    They threaded deeper through a maze of gullies. Conrad moved as though following an invisible map, pausing to study faint sigils etched into the basalt before choosing each turn.


    Perfect ground for an ambush, Connor thought, noting the overhangs that could rain stone and the blind corners begging for traps. A single misstep here would cage us like crabs in a pot.


    After the time it took an incense stick to burn, the group halted before a low opening half-hidden by bs of obsidian rock.


    "This is it," Conrad announced, pointing with two fingers still stained by old blood. "Intelligence says an ancient barrier seals their. We break it together-brace yourselves."


    At once, treasure lights red-swords, gs, and jade seals rising like a field of tiny suns while their owners funneled celestial energy into them.


    Conrad roared, swung the Ghoulde, and unleashed a crescent of blood-red light that hammered the doorway.


    Boom-stone exploded, shards whirling past protective shells in lethal streaks.


    Behind the rubble shimmered a translucent veil, rippling with pale runes ancient, stubborn, still intact.


    The others attacked in waves-spears of frost, arcs of me, sonic talons-each strike denting the shield and sending rings of silver light coursing across its face.


    Connor added only a few understated sword arcs, their glow deliberately dim. Better to watch for now, he decided, than to show the cards the wind had not yet read.


    Jared caught a flicker of motion at the edge of his vision and realized Dustin had joined the assault. Yet, like Jared, Dustin withheld a portion of his true power releasing just enough force to lookmitted while secretly gauging the field.


    Half a quarter-hourter, the barrier cracked with a rubbery pop. Shards of red light dissolved into smoke, and a yawning, soot-ck tunnel mouth appeared where polished stone had stood only seconds earlier.


    "Move!" Conrad barked, his great de already shing ahead of him as he dove into the darkness.


    The rest of the party poured in after him, a staggered river of anxious silhouettes that vanished one by one beyond the lip of the opening.


    Inside, the passage sloped downward inzy coils. Walls wide as city streets bulged with age-polished rock, their faces etched with fading murals-mes, magma rivers creatures half serpent half bird each panel pulsing with old, furnace-hot breath that mocked the valley''s usual chill.


    A voice drifted from the rear. "Whoever owned thisir must have practiced some ancient fire technique." The words trembled between awe and greed.


    Jared''s skin prickled. Those mes... that molten abyss... Dustin spoke of a ze Region, of an Infernal Lava Abyss. Could this ce be linked? The timing feels too neat, too convenient.


    After another quarter-hour, the corridor abruptly widened into a vast subterranean chamber, the ceiling lost in shadow.


    At its heart stood a crimson dais nearly twenty feet tall. Upon it rested a jade casket that shimmered with liquid light, exhaling waves of tempting spiritual energy. Around the daisy brittle skeletons and shattered relics bleached by


    centuries.


    "Treasure!" a wide-eyed cultivator cried and sprang forward, hunger smothering


    caution.


    "Hold it!" Conrad roared, sweeping his de sideways. "There''s a trap!" His warning came a heartbeat toote.


    The instant the first two zealots crossed within thirty yards of the dais, blood-red sigils spidered across the floor, glowing like fresh scars.


    Boom!


    A crimson curtain-wide as a parade ground-erupted, swallowing both men. Their screams rose, shrank to gurgles, then stopped as flesh, bone, even soul vapored


    into nothing but oily mist.