Jared forced himself back to his feet. Cold sweat kept breaking out across his forehead from the stabbing pain in his chest, but he still shook his head.


    "I won''t die."


    He lowered his eyes to the monster''s corpse on the ground.


    Somethingplicated passed through his gaze.


    A fused monster at the peak of True Immortal Realm Level Three...


    If Lydia hadn''t cut it down with thatst strike, he would have been the one left here today.


    "Where''s the Basilica Elder?"


    Something hit Jared all at once, and he snapped his head up.


    The end of the passage was empty.


    Cedric was gone.


    "He ran the second you drove your sword through the monster''s chest."


    Luther''s voice came from behind them, edged with regret. "I''ll go after him—"


    He hadn''t finished speaking when a scream suddenly tore in from the distance.


    That voice... it was Cedric''s.


    Jared''s stride hitched for a split second. Then he forced down the pain tearing through his chest and rushed toward the sound.


    Luther followed right behind him.


    The three of them pushed through the passage and came out on the other side of the vale.


    The moment Jared saw what was waiting there, his steps stopped hard.


    Cedric''s bodyy on the ground.


    A thin line of blood cut across his throat, and fresh blood was still slowly seeping from the wound.


    His eyes were stretched wide.


    That look was still frozen on his face too-something between shock and disbelief, like even at the very end, he still couldn''t ept that this was where he''d die.


    Lydia stood beside the corpse.


    Blood was still dripping from the wraithde in her hand.


    Her face gave nothing away.


    If anything, it looked almost cold.


    "He tried to run," Lydia said. "So I killed him."


    Jared stayed quiet for a moment before he spoke.


    "I... wanted to leave him alive."


    Lydia turned and looked at him. "What for? Keeping someone like that alive would only bring trouble."


    Jared said nothing.


    He couldn''t.


    He couldn''t tell her the only reason he''d wanted to keep Cedric alive was because he still needed him to control the soul-returning array and release Sidney and his wife''s remnant souls.


    But now...


    Cedric was dead.


    Jared turned and looked toward the stone dais at the end of the passage.


    It had already been blown apart. The soul-returning array had beenpletely


    destroyed in the fight just now, itsplicated markings shattered into countless pieces scattered across the ground, beyond repair.


    Something in him dropped straight to the bottom.


    "Jared?"


    Lydia caught the change in him at once and frowned. "What is it?"


    Jared didn''t answer. He only reached into his robes and slowly took out the soul crystal.


    Inside the soul crystal, the two streaks of white light had dimmed even further.


    They drifted more and more slowly, then slower still, like two exhausted souls on the verge of stopping altogether.


    Jared''s fingers trembled slightly.


    The Celestial Basilica had been wiped out. The soul-returning array had been


    destroyed. Cedric was dead too.


    Sidney and his wife''s remnant souls...


    There was no way to release them now.


    "Jared?"


    Lydia walked over to his side and lowered her eyes to the soul crystal. Understanding passed through her gaze. "The remnant souls in this soul crystal... they''re about to disperse?"


    Jared nodded. His voice came out rough. "The Celestial Basilica''s soul-returning array was destroyed, and Cedric is dead. Without the array, the remnant souls can''t be released... and after a little more time, they''llpletely dissipate."


    His hand mped around the soul crystal until his knuckles went white and the veins stood out across the back of his hand.


    Lydia said nothing.


    Evelyn came over from behind and carefully caught hold of Jared''s sleeve.


    Her eyes were red, and when she spoke, her voice was soft, but there was a steady kind of gentleness in it.


    "Young Master Chance, don''t rush. The Celestial Basilica is gone, but... there''s still the Celestial Pce."


    Jared turned to look at her.


    Evelyn pressed her lips together, then pushed herself to keep going. "The Celestial Basilica and the Celestial Pce are both branches of the celestials. The Celestial Basilica had the Rite of Returning Souls. Maybe the Celestial Pce has it too?" "And the Celestial Pce is older than the Celestial Basilica, stronger too. Their inheritance is moreplete. If there''s anyone left in this world who can release the remnant souls inside the soul crystal, it would have to be the Celestial Pce." Something shifted in Jared''s eyes.


    Evelyn''s words cut through the dark ce he''d been staring into like a thin beam of light.


    Right...


    There was still the Celestial Pce.


    The celestials weren''t made up of the Celestial Basilica alone.


    The Celestial Hall, the Celestial Basilica, and the Celestial Pce were known


    together as the three great branches of the celestials.


    The Celestial Hall had already been destroyed by Skr. The Celestial Basilica had also been torn down by him and Skr working together.


    But the Celestial Pce was still there.


    That most mysterious, most ancient, most powerful Celestial Pce was still there.


    "Do you know where the Celestial Pce is?" Jared asked.


    Evelyn


    nodded and chose her words carefully. "The location of the Celestial Pce is extremely secretive. I once saw some records about it in a damaged manuscript. It saje the Celestial Pce isn''tin the Luminous Sanctuary it''s in another extremely hidden ce somewhere in the Fourteenth Firmament."


    "What that ce is called, and where it is, the manuscript never clearly said. It only brushed past it with three words... the Outer Heaven."


    She paused, then added, "And there are very few stories about the Celestial Pce.


    In the Fourteenth Firmament, a lot of cultivators don''t even believe it really exists."


    "Some say it''s just a legend the


    celestials made up to glorify


    themselves: Some say the Celestial


    Pce died out tens of thousands of


    years ago. And some say it''s actually been there this whole time except its disciples never show their trúe faces, keep an extremely low profile, and never take part in any conflict in the Fourteenth Firmament."


    Jared frowned. "Wasn''t the Celestial Basilica and the Celestial Hall part of the celestials too? They didn''t know the Celestial Pce''s exact location either?" Evelyn shook her head. "The Celestial Hall, the Celestial Basilica, and the Celestial Pce were all called the three great branches of the celestials, but the Celestial Pce had always kept to itself. It barely had any contact with the other two branches.


    "The Celestial Hall and the Celestial Basilica stood in the open. They founded sects across the Fourteenth Firmament and took in disciples far and wide. The Celestial Pce stayed in the shadows, hidden beyond the world, never involving itself in mortal affairs."


    Jared fell quiet for a moment.


    This was a lot more troublesome than he''d expected.


    At first, he''d assumed the Celestial Pce was like the Celestial Basilica, a well- known power in the Fourteenth Firmament that he could find just by asking around. Only now did he realize that the Celestial Pce itself was a mystery, one even the celestials didn''t seem to understand all that well.


    "But..."


    Something seemed to click for Evelyn. Her eyes brightened a little. "There was one line in that damaged


    scroll. I can''t remember it clearly, but


    Lit


    it


    d something like,"


    The Celestial


    Pce hides beyond the farthest


    north, past the snowfields. Only


    those with fate can enter its gates.""


    "If that record was right, then the Celestial Pce should be even deeper past the northernmost reaches of the Fourteenth Firmament, farther than anywhere anyone has ever gone."


    "Beyond the farthest north..." Jared repeated under his breath.


    Lydia cut in. "When I was in the Fifteenth Firmament, I did hear people mention something. They said the northernmost edge of the Fourteenth Firmament had a stretch of ice ins called Return to the Void. That was the end of the Fourteenth Firmament. Beyond that was the void.


    "Supposedly, gale winds blew across those ice ins all year long, cold enough to freeze a soul to pieces. Even cultivators at the opening stage of the True Immortal Realm wouldn''t dare go too deep. If the Celestial Pce is really there..."


    She didn''t finish, but the meaning was in enough. If the Celestial Pce was


    really hidden in a ce like that, then the danger waiting for Jared on this trip was far beyond what he''d imagined.


    Jared carefully tucked the soul crystals back into his robe.


    His gaze settled, steady and unmoving.


    "No matter where the Celestial Pce is, he was going."


    Jared''s voice stayed quiet.


    There wasn''t a trace of room to argue with him.


    Lydia frowned. "I''m going with you."