"Central Heaven-Origin Sacred Continent... Grand Venerable..."


    The half-spoken phrase drifted into the air, soft yet weighted, as though the speaker feared the very sybles might crack open a wider secret.


    Jared''s gaze sharpened. Cold focus gathered behind his eyes, like a de sliding free of its sheath, ready to cut through whatevery ahead.


    So the Eastern Region Divine Punishment Hall was only the tip of the iceberg.


    That single thought settled, heavy and certain, inside his chest.


    Venerable cier''s rank fell short; the man''s reach never touched the deepest vaults of knowledge.


    Core secrets remained outside his grasp.


    Jared swept the copsing pocket of chaos with ast measuring look. Fractured space groaned. He flicked a sleeve, pulling pure divine power and scattered treasures into his ring before the realm tore apart.


    He closed his eyes.


    Light and shadow rippled over his skin.


    Bones popped, ligaments tightened, flesh reshaped.


    With every muted crack the old face dissolved, reced by another, colder mask.


    Only a few breathster, Venerable cier stood where Jared had been.


    The transformation ended in a hush, as though the world itself acknowledged the swap.


    A dark robe trimmed in blue draped the new figure. Snow-white hair glittered like ice crystal. High Immortal Realm Level Seven pressure seeped from him, and the contempt in his eyes rang true.


    Jared rolled his neck, testing the borrowed shape. The higher status felt like a heavier mantle, yet it fit him perfectly.


    "Since cier knows so little... time to chat with the other venerables."


    The words came out in cier''s measured, arctic monotone.


    His gaze swung toward the memories of four halls: Venerable Redme, Venerable Greenwood, Venerable Goldsteel, and Venerable Terrabold each upied their own domain within the Eastern Region Divine Punishment Hall.


    Those four sharedmand with cier, yet rumor held theypeted in quiet, never forming a single iron front.


    That rivalry opened the door for him to break them one at a time.


    The n was simple: wear cier''s face, cite urgent deliberations, lure each venerable to a secluded spot—or walk straight into their pces—and repeat the method now perfected.


    He smoothed the borrowed robe. The familiar chill of cier''s perpetual indifference slid over his features once more. One step carried him out of the soon-to-shatter chaos world.


    Outside, inside Frigid Silence Hall, everything sat in its ordinary ce, as if the earlier life-and-death struggle had never taken ce.


    He did not linger.


    His stride angled toward the nearest target-Redme Hall.


    Venerable Redme cultivated firews, quick-tempered and explosive.


    Of all the venerables, he shed most fiercely with ice-ruled cier, which ironically made him the least likely to suspect cier''s approach.


    Common sense said cier, if plotting violence, would first rope in Greenwood or Terrabold, allies of milder temperament.


    Before long, the scarlet gate of Redme Hall came into view, its surface flowing like liquid fire.


    Two god-guards steeped in me arts stood watch.


    They froze at cier''s arrival, then bowed in unison.


    "Greetings, Venerable cier!"


    Without so much as a nce, Jared-wearing cier-let a sheet of frost line his voice. "This venerable has urgent business with Redme. Summon him."


    The tone carried cier''s trademark chill and absolute authority.


    The guards dared not dy.


    One wheeled around and sprinted inside to announce the visitor.


    Momentster, a thunderous, impatient roar rolled out of the hall.


    "cier? You frozen relic-why are you here? Spit it out! I''m busy refining a newly won Earthcore me Crystal!"


    A giant of a man—nine feet tall, red hair zing, robe the color of molten iron— strode forth.


    Venerable Redme radiated waves of searing heat with every step.


    The heat distorted the air. His eyes, arrogant and bored, slid across Jared with open impatience.


    Jared answered with a cial mask and a faint crease between his brows exactly how cier always signaled disgust at Redme''s presence.


    "Not here. Follow me."


    The words were clipped.


    He turned at once, as if another second in Redme''s furnace aura would contaminate him.


    Redme blinked, then barked, "cier! What game are you ying? Why can''t we talk here?"


    Muttering or not, he still lengthened his stride to keep up.


    Curiosity tugged at him.


    Why had the icebound rival sought him out so suddenly?


    The pair, one cold front, one zing storm, moved through corridor after corridor


    until they reached a rarely used Star-Gazing tform deep inside the Divine Punishment Hall.


    Few visited this ce.


    Barrier runes warded the perimeter, perfect for hushed discussion.


    "Well? Speak."


    Redme''s patience burned thin.


    He snapped again, voice rough with me-fed annoyance.


    Jared''s eyes darkened. "Redme, have you ever heard... of Primal Origin Breath?"


    Redme''s pupils shrank to pinpoints. Shock and sudden wariness wiped away the earlier disdain. "How do you know that term? The Grand Venerable forbade anyone from uttering it!"


    A pulse flickered behind Venerable Redme''s eyes-first shock, then frantic calction. Jared caught the flicker and, in that instant, knew cier''s earlier im had struck sotid bedrock.


    Keeping cier''s monotone, he let sybles fall like sleet. "I have traced signs of a leak of the Primal Origin Breath The fate of the Eastern


    Region Divine Punishment Hall and those above-hangs on it."


    He let the wording hang, half veiled, half dire, heavy enough to bend a mountain without naming the mountain.


    Color drained and red across Redme''s face. The phrase those abovended like molten ore on snow, hissing, forcing him backward a step.


    He shot questions in rapid fire. "What signs? Where did you find them? Have you reported to the Grand Venerable?"


    Jared steadied himself inside the borrowed body. The fish was nibbling. He angled a shoulder, inviting Redme closer, and whispered, "The clue lies..."


    The moment Redme leaned in, instinct overriding caution, breath brushing cold robes the air bucked.


    Jared''s right hand, hidden behind his back, snapped forward. Two fingers together, Chaos Shatterfingerpressed into a single needle of gray chaotic force, darted for Redme''s brow faster thana thought could form.


    The strike had simmered since they left the hall; at arm''s length it became


    inescapable.


    Redme had nursed a general wariness, yet ughter from cier''s hand still


    blindsided him.


    Worse, the attack held no hint of ice. It was a gray annihting power cier never disyed, reeking of erasure itself.


    "You" He red protective divine fire and sprang backward.


    Toote.


    The gray spike slid through the hastily risen mes as a hot knife through fat,


    Pop.


    A muffled crack split the silence.


    The retreating giant froze mid-step, every joint locking.


    His eyes bulged, horror etched deep.


    At his brow, a pinhead-sized gray mote spread like ink in water.


    Yet Redme was still a High Immortal Realm Level Seven master of fire, life force


    dense and stubborn.


    One finger blow wrecked his soul but fell short of the instant obliteration that had


    ended others before.


    "Raaah!"


    Agony and fury fused into a roar. A tidal wave of me erupted from him.