Gwendolyn walked past Jared and stopped in front of him, facing the void.
"Step back."
Jared paused for a moment, then stepped back a few paces anyway.
Gwendolyn raised her right hand.
The motion was so casual it looked like she was brushing away a mosquito flying past.
She didn''t even stir any spiritual power.
She only gave her hand a light wave.
Just that one motion.
The void looked like it had been torn open by some invisible giant hand. Right in front of Jared, a massive crack burst wide open, a full 3 yards across.
The edges of the crack were smooth as mirrors.
There wasn''t the slightest ripple from space around it. Not even a shrill sound.
It simply hung there in silence, as if someone had sliced a sheet of white paper with a paper cutter.
Clean. Precise. Effortless.
Beyond the crack, he could vaguely make out a vast stretch ofnd.
That was level thirteen.
Jared stood there staring at the crack.
Everything in his head had gone nk.
He had thrown everything he had into it. Three strikes, and the widest crack he managed was only 2 feet. It hadn''t evensted a breath before snapping shut.
But Gwendolyn had only lifted a hand and casually waved, and a passage 3 yards wide opened just like that.
Steady. Broad. Unhurried. As if tearing through the barrier of space was no harder for her than breathing.
The gap between them wasn''t just one level or two.
It was the distance between heaven and earth.
"Let''s go," Gwendolyn said as she turned and looked toward Sidney and Cadence in
the hollow. "The passage will only hold for 30 breaths."
Sidney and Cadence supported each other as they walked out of the hollow.
Together, they came to the crack.
Sidney turned back and looked at Jared.
Too much sat in that look to put into words.
"Mr. Chance..." His voice caught. "I won''t insult this by saying thank you. Once we
get back, we''ll cultivate properly. One day, we''ll repay you."
Jared shook his head. "Senior, don''t say that. After you get back, focus on healing up. Don''t put yourselves in danger again."
Sidney nodded, kept hold of Cadence, and stepped into the crack.
The two of them moved quickly farther and farther away inside the crack.
Their figures shrank fast, until atst they vanished into thend of level thirteen.
The crack slowly sealed shut, and the void went still again.
It was over.
Jared stood where he was and said nothing for a long while.
Then he turned and looked at Gwendolyn.
"Your strength... how strong are you, really?"
Gwendolyn didn''t answer. She only gave him a calm look.
Her eyes were quiet as water, but under that gaze, Jared had the sharp sense that
nothing about him had stayed hidden.
"You don''t need to know," she said.
Jared fell quiet for a moment, then asked, "Then who are you, really?"
Gwendolyn lifted a brow a fraction. "Don''t you already know? I''m the Master of the Celestial Pce."
"No. That''s not what I''m asking." Jared held her gaze. "I''m asking about your identity. Master of the Celestial Pce is just your position. I''m asking where youe from, what bloodline you carry, who you really are."
Something in Gwendolyn''s eyes shifted.
The change was so slight it was nearly impossible to catch, but Jared caught it.
There was a trace of surprise there. And a trace of caution.
"Why are you asking all that?" Her voice stayed as even as ever, but a faint distance had slipped into it.
Jared didn''t answer right away.
Then something hit him.
Back in level ten, he had met someone.
A woman.
Cold in the same way. Powerful in the same way. Just as impossible to see through.
The master of Northern Abyss Pce.
The woman who had called herself the Holy Maiden of the Celestials.
Her eyes looked a lot like Gwendolyn''s.
Not in shape or features.
It was the air around them. That inborn chill. That depth that only came from ages piled on ages. That calm way of looking down on everyone else as if nothing in the world could really stir them.
Jared reached into his robe and took out the Northern Abyss token.
It was a palm-sized token, ice-blue from edge to edge.
The front was carved with the words "Northern Abyss," and on the back was a blooming snow lotus.
A faint stream of frost energy leaked off it.
Even here on the islet, wrapped in the warmth of the Worldtree, that biting cold still pressed against the skin.
"When I was in level ten, I met someone," Jared said slowly, looking straight at Gwendolyn. "The master of Northern Abyss Pce. She called herself the Holy Maiden of the Celestials."
Gwendolyn''s gaze dropped to the Northern Abyss token, and her pupils tightened just a little.
The change was tiny.
Jared still caught it clearly.
"She gave me this Northern Abyss token and said that if I ever needed help, I could take it to the people of the Frost Deity Branch."
Jared spoke.
Gwendolyn said nothing.
Jared slipped the Northern Abyss token back into his robe.
Then he held Gwendolyn''s gaze and asked the question, slow and deliberate, one
word at a time.
"Gwendolyn, are you from the Frost Deity Branch of the celestials?"
The air seemed to lock in ce.
The breeze over theke''s surface died.
The leaves of the Worldtree stopped swaying.
Even the great beast deep below theke, the one called Return to the Void, stopped moving, as if the whole world were waiting for Gwendolyn''s answer.
Gwendolyn looked at Jared.
Something shed through her eyes. Shock. Appraisal. And one more thing, buried so deep it almost disappeared-wariness.
"How do you know about the Frost Deity Branch?"
"How do you know about the Frost Deity line?" Her voice was still calm, but beneath
that calm was a disturbance she could not quite suppress.
"Very few people know anything about the celestial branches. Even the great sects of the Fourteenth Firmament have no idea the celestials are divided into even tiner branches inside their own kind. Did the master of Northern Abyss Pce tell you?"
Her eyes stayed fixed on Jared, sharp as des.
"Who are you, really?"
The look she gave him put a hard edge under his skin, but he didn''t back down.
"I''m just an ordinary wandering cultivator."
"As for the celestial branches, yes,
the Master of Northern Abyss Pce told me. She didn''t just tell me the celestials had branches. She also told me there were ranks were ranks among those branches, high and low, noble and base. She said the Frost Deity Branch was one of the oldest and most honored bloodlines in the celestial race, and that it once produced a Sovereign."
Gwendolyn''s pupils tightened again.
This time, the change was far more obvious than before.
"Northern Abyss Pce..."
She repeated the three words under her breath, so quietly it almost sounded like
she was speaking to herself.
"That celestial branch from level ten... how would they know anything about the
Frost Deity Branch?"
She stayed silent for a long time.
So long that Jared had started to think she wouldn''t answer at all.
Then, without warning, she spoke.
"You''re right."
Her voice came out lower than before, carrying something Jared had never heard
from her until now.
"I am from the Frost Deity Branch. To be exact, I am thest heir of the Frost Deity Branch."
Jared''s chest jolted.
"Thest heir?"
Gwendolyn turned away from him and looked toward the giant Worldtree rising over
theke.
"The history of the celestials is far longer than you imagine."
Her voice was steady, but beneath that steadiness sat the weight of ages.
"In the oldest era, the celestials were the most powerful race between heaven and earth. The entire
celestial race was made up of amet
alliance of the most elite bloodline adepts. These cultivators of different bloodlines ruled the
celestials together, each handling
their own duty and guarding their own domain."