"What happened after that?" Jared asked.


    "Later..."


    Gwendolyn''s voice paused for a beat.


    "Later, too many things happened. Because of the pride buried in celestial blood, they could not engage in dual cultivation with bloodline adepts outside their own lines. So after hundreds of thousands of years of inheritance, their bloodlines grew weaker and weaker."


    The second Jared heard that, he thought of the royal families in the mundane world.


    Wasn''t it the same thing? They couldn''t marry outsiders, the odds of close-kin unions kept rising, and after enough time, the bloodline started mutating.


    So the celestials were facing that same problem now.


    No wonder both the Celestial Pce and the Celestial Basilica had been secretly pushing bloodline fusion.


    She turned back and looked at Jared.


    For the first time, something fragile showed in those deep eyes. It was only there for an instant, but Jared saw it clearly.


    "Our Frost Deity Branch started as one of the noblest bloodlines, then slowly declined. Later, a female cultivator from our branch was chosen as the holy maiden, but she ran off with someone. In the end, the whole Frost Deity Branch was dragged down with her."


    When Gwendolyn said that, something sharp shed through her eyes, then vanished just as fast.


    "The master of Northern Abyss Pce was that woman?" Jared froze for a beat.


    "You''re right. The master of Northern Abyss Pce should be that female cultivator who ran off back then. Because of her, our Frost Deity Branch was destroyed. Now only I am left as its heir." Gwendolyn gave a small nod.


    "Do you hate her?" Jared asked.


    "I do, and I don''t. I used to hate her. But now... she only wanted to go after her own love. What was wrong with that?"


    "It''s the celestials'' rotten system, their oppressive hierarchy, that caused all of this."


    By then, her eyes had gone clear. Whatever had been there before seemed to have loosened and fallen away.


    "Satisfied now?" Gwendolyn looked at Jared and gave him a bitter smile.


    Jared said nothing.


    He hadn''t expected it. This woman who was strong enough to tear open the void with a casual hand, this pce master who had lived for who knew how many tens


    of thousands of years, was actually thest survivor of an entire race.


    Alone, she had stayed here guarding this ancient tree, guarding this coldke, guarding thest bit of glory from a race that had already vanished.


    "I''m sorry," Jared said quietly. "I shouldn''t have asked."


    Gwendolyn shook her head. The bitterness in that smile slowly faded, and in its ce came a kind of release.


    "There''s nothing you shouldn''t have asked."


    She said lightly, "Sooner orter, someone was going to find out about all this. Rather than let you hear it through some other channel, I''d rather have you ask me directly."


    She paused, and her gaze stayed on Jared''s face for a moment.


    "You carry the Golden Dragon royal bloodline. You could produce the Northern Abyss token. You knew about the Frost Deity Branch. Most importantly, you''re only in the High Immortal Realm... Jared, you''re a lot moreplicated than you think you are."


    Jared gave a bitter smile. "I just got lucky, that''s all."


    "Lucky?"


    Gwendolyn let out a softugh. It was quiet, but there was something teasing in it. "You made it all the way to the Fourteenth Firmament, crossed the Voidwind of Return to the Void to find this isted ce, and you''ve got both the Golden Dragon royal bloodline and the blood of the human race in you. And you call that luck?"


    Jared parted his lips, meaning to exin, but when the words reached his throat, nothing came out.


    Gwendolyn didn''t press him any further.


    She turned and walked toward the Worldtree.


    "Come on."


    Her voice went t again.


    "Your friends already left safely. It''s time for you to make good on your promise too."


    Jared blinked. "What promise?"


    Gwendolyn stopped and looked back at him.


    That look held a little cunning, a little mockery, and a trace of a smile even she didn''t seem to notice.


    "You promised me you''d stay in the Celestial Pce and do three things for me. What, you forgot?"


    Jared: "..."


    He really had forgotten.


    Or maybe not forgotten. He''d just assumed Gwendolyn had tossed that out casually


    and never meant to hold him to it.


    "You''re not joking?" Jared asked, testing the waters.


    Gwendolyn''s expression turned cold on the spot, like theke''s surface after a hard


    gust of winter wind, a thin sheet of ice sealing over it.


    "I never joke."


    Her voice came out cold and t, dead serious, and Jared caught it at once.


    She meant every word.


    "Then what are the three things?" Jared asked, epting it.


    Gwendolyn gave it a moment, then raised three fingers.


    "The first thing."


    She folded one finger down and let her gaze travel over Jared from head to toe.


    "The Golden Dragon Bloodline in you


    is unusual. It''s not as simple as just


    a Royal Bloodline... there''s


    something else mixed into it,,


    something even I''ve never seen. before. need to study it."


    Jared looked at her with open caution. "How are you nning to study it?"


    Gwendolyn answered lightly, "Just drawing a little blood. It won''t hurt."


    "...You''re sure it''s just blood?"


    Gwendolyn didn''t answer. She only gave him a look that seemed to carry a lot more than she was saying.


    A bad feeling hit Jared all at once. It really did seem like he''d handed himself over to someone dangerous.


    No.


    Not "seemed." He definitely had.


    Gwendolyn led Jared through the tangled roots of the Worldtree and brought him around to the other side of the trunk.


    There was a small stone chamber


    there. It was much smaller than the


    hollow from before, but everything


    inside had been arranged with


    striking care.  g


    Several luminous pearls had been set into the walls, giving off a soft pale blue glow.


    A stone table sat in the middle.


    On it, a whole spread of tools had been lined up in neat order, most of them with names Jared didn''t know transparent ss phials, silver needles as thin as hair, several


    jade slips carved all over with runes, and an old yellowed tome.


    "Sit."


    Gwendolyn pointed at the stone stool in front of the stone table.


    Jared sat down like she said and looked at the instruments on the table.


    For no clear reason, he got the distinct sense that he''d just climbed onto a chopping


    block.


    Gwendolyn drew a silver needle from her sleeve.


    It was fine as a strand of hair, and at its tip a faintyer of golden light moved in a


    slow shimmer.


    She sat down across from Jared, raised the needle to eye level, and said in that same t tone, "Hold out your hand."