Lydia looked at him, and something like approval shed across her eyes.
This man really was different.
He had juste through a life-and-death disaster, yet the first thing he did after waking wasn''t to drown himself in romance.
He cut where he needed to cut and moved fast once he made the call.
"I''m going with you," Lydia said. "You owe me two lives. I need to be there to watch you pay them back."
Jared let out a shortugh. "Alright. Then I guess I''ll owe you one more favor."
Luther stepped forward too. "I''m going as well. Those bastards from the Celestial Pce should''ve been dealt with a long time ago."
Jared nodded, then swept his gaze past the courtyard.
Not far away, Evelyn and Grace were standing there. The second Jared looked their way, they hurried over.
"Young Master Jared, we''re going too!" Evelyn''s little face had gone tight. "Those bastards almost destroyed Cloudhaven City. I want payback too!"
Grace didn''t say anything.
She only stood quietly at Luther''s side and gave a small nod.
Jared looked at the people in front of him.
Something hot pressed up in his chest.
These were thepanions who had walked beside him all this way.
They had faced life and death together.
"Alright. Then we go together."
He paused, then looked at Vivian. "Vivian, you stay in Cloudhaven City and help me look after Rnd and the brothers from the Sky Dragon n. Rnd''s injuries are too severe. He needs someone there to take care of him."
Vivian wanted to go with them too, but she knew what mattered more.
She nodded. "Don''t worry. I''ll hold Cloudhaven City."
Jared looked at her for a long moment.
He didn''t say anything else.
Then he turned and set out for the Celestial Pce with Lydia, Luther, Evelyn, and Grace.
The Grand Basilica stood in the deepest part of the Celestial Dominion of the Fourteenth Firmament.
It stretched across the entire Sacred Mountain range, vast and towering, with a presence that swallowed everything around it.
It took Jared''s group 3 days to reach the mountain gate of the Celestial Pce.
But when they stopped in front of the mountain gate, every one of them went still.
The mountain gate stood wide open.
Not a sound came from inside.
There were no guards.
No patrol disciples.
Not a trace of living presence anywhere.
Inside the mountain gate, the whole ce was a mess.
Dead leaves had piled up. Dusty over everything. The Celestial Pce had
clearly been abandoned for days.
Jared''s brow tightened a little.
Then he stepped through the mountain gate.
As he walked deeper in, every pavilion and tower sat empty.
The doors to the hidden chambers were all hanging open, and even the most basic formation had been left inactive.
The entire Celestial Pce felt like a deadnd, heavy and still.
"What..." Evelyn''s eyes widened. "Where is everybody? How is there not a single person here?"
Luther looked around and said, "Looks like the men of the Celestial Pce already ran."
"Ran?" Evelyn said. "They''re that big a force, so why would they run?"
Lydia said, "The Celestial Pce lost all its elites in that battle, and its strength took a massive hit. If they stayed in the Fourteenth Firmament, their enemies would tear them apart piece by piece. Instead of sitting around waiting to die, they made ns early."
Jared said nothing.
He only kept walking, moving slowly through every corner of the Celestial Pce.
Not long ago, this had still been one of the strongest powers in the Fourteenth Firmament.
Its name had shaken every direction, and no one had dared provoke it.
Now, all that remained was an empty shell.
Bleak. Broken. Left to rot.
He stopped in the great hall and looked at the throne sitting there with nothing on it.
There was no sense of satisfaction on his face, only a faint trace of reflection.
"What a waste," he said quietly.
He hadn''t been able to wipe out the Celestial Pce with his own hands.
That still left a little regret behind.
Still, it was fine. If they had run, then they had run.
What mattered now was finding Josephine, and dealing with the threat hanging over them from Skr.
Jared turned around, about to speak, when his gazended on Luther and Grace. The two of them stood side by side, and at first nce everything looked normal.
But Jared''s eyes were sharp. Right away, he caught Grace''s hand resting lightly on Luther''s wrist.
Luther shifted a little toward her and lowered his head to say something by her ear. The corners of Grace''s mouth lifted before she forced them back down and looked away with a straight face.
And the way Luther looked at Grace was so soft it was almost spilling over.
Jared raised a brow.
Well, damn.
When had these two gotten together?
He didn''t say a word. He just looked a little longer.
And that extra look showed him even more.
Grace was keeping a straight face, but the smile at the corners of her eyes wouldn''t stay hidden.
Luther usually kept his face cold, but right then he looked openly pleased, and every so often his eyes drifted back toward Grace.
Jared understood at once.
No wonder those two had seemed off before. So that was what this was.
He didn''t call them out on the spot. He only smiled, then led the group onward and kept searching through the Celestial Pce.
As they kept moving, the way Luther and Grace acted around each other grew harder and harder to miss.
Whenever they took the mountain road, Luther kept drifting in front of Grace without even seeming to realize he was doing it, always making sure she wouldn''t slip.
When they stopped to rest, Grace would quietly pass Luther a waterskin.
As he took it, their fingers would brush, whether on purpose or not, and then both of
them would pull back fast and pretend nothing had happened.
Evelyn, that careless little girl, somehow managed not to notice a thing.
Lydia did notice, but she only gave them one t nce and said nothing.
Atst, after they finished checking one of the side halls, Jared stopped and turned
to look at Luther with a half-smile that didn''t hide much.
"Luther."
"Hm?"
"You two," Jared said, looking at him and then at Grace, his voice slow and easy. "Since when?"
Luther froze. The look on his face locked up in an instant.
Grace stopped short too.
Then color rushed straight into her cheeks, and she reflexively shifted half a step behind Luther.
"W-what do you mean?" Luther said stiffly, his gaze sliding off to the side. "I don''t know what you''re talking about."
Jaredughed.
"You don''t?"
He strolled over and made a slow circle around Luther.
"Then tell me this. Why is it that from the moment we left until now, your eyes
haven''t left Grace for a second?"
"Why were you always stepping in front of her on the mountain road? And why when she handed you a water pouch during the break just now, did your fingers touch and then fly apart like that?"
Luther opened his mouth, then stalled.
By the time any sound came out, his whole face had turned bright red.
Only then did Evelyn catch up.
Her eyes went wide. "Huh? Luther and Grace? You two... you''re together?"
Grace''s face burned even hotter.
She looked like she wanted the ground to split open and swallow her whole.
Luther could see there was no hiding it anymore.
He gave up trying, lifted his chin, and forced the words out. "So what if we are?
Grace and I... we... we''re really in love!"
Jared looked at him standing there, red-faced and stubborn all at once, and augh
slipped out.
"I never said I wouldn''t allow it. Why are you getting worked up?"
Luther froze.
He looked at Jared, uncertainty in in his eyes. "Y-you don''t object?"
"Object to what?"
Jared patted his shoulder.
His tone turned sincere. "You''ve
followed me for a long time. You''ve gone through life and death with me,
and you''ve never once had divided oyalties. Now you''ve found a woman you truly like. I''m happy for you before anything else. Why would
I object?"
Luther just stared at him.
His eyes slowly reddened. "Mr. Chance... I... I thought, with how lustful you are,
you''d take Grace in too."
"Damn..."
Jared went speechless for a second.
"Yeah, I''ve got plenty of women, but not one of them was forced. That doesn''t mean I take every woman L
run into, does it? I''m not some stud horse."