Under the impact of that violet radiance, the ghostly green mes covering the three skeletal hands went out in an instant.


    Cracks spread across the bones, dense and countless.


    They let out a silent screech and slowly pulled back into the Sea of me.


    But Jared paid for it too.


    Blood seeped from all seven of his facial openings.


    The meridians inside him burned like they were being fed to a furnace, and the pain nearly knocked him out.


    The chaotic force was powerful, but the drain it demanded was just as terrifying.


    That one strike had nearly emptied him of everyst bit of strength.


    The passage started to copse.


    The walls of me on both sides started closing faster.


    Ghostly green fire came flooding in from every direction.


    Jared dragged out thest of his strength and charged for the isle.


    Ten yards.


    Five yards.


    One yard.


    Atst, his foot mmed down onto the ground of the isle.


    The instant he made it ashore, the passage behind him crashed shut.


    Ghostfire rolled back over the entire basin.


    Jared''s legs gave out, and he dropped to his knees.


    He sucked in rough breaths. Blood seeped from the corner of his mouth, from his nostrils, from his ears, then dripped onto the charred ck rock.


    Gwendolyn rushed over and caught hold of him.


    "Are you out of your mind?" Her voice shook, and her eyes had already gone red. "Do you even know how close that was? If you had been one step slower, you would''ve..."


    "But I didn''t die." Jared forced out a smile and wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth. "Where''s the pearl?"


    Gwendolyn looked at him.


    Her lips trembled a little, like she wanted to say something, but in the end, nothing came out.


    She stood up, walked to the stone dais, and reached out to take down the pearl that kept changing colors.


    The pearl gave a slight tremor in her palm, then went still.


    Its color finally settled into a pale gold.


    That was the color formed after the Ice God Bloodline and the Golden Dragon Bloodline fused together.


    Gwendolyn held the pearl in both hands and stayed quiet for a long time.


    Then she turned, walked over to Jared, and crouched down in front of him.


    "Take it."


    Jared paused. "What?"


    "The Heart of the Northern Abyss."


    Gwendolyn set the pearl into Jared''s hand. "Your chaotic force can hold it. Fuse it


    into your body, and your strength will make a real leap."


    Jared looked at the pearl in his hand, then back up at Gwendolyn.


    "Isn''t this what you wanted? The source of the Frost Deity Branch..."


    Gwendolyn shook her head.


    The corner of her mouth lifted a little. In that faint smile, something had finally loosened, and along with it came a softness that didn''t need a name.


    "I don''t need it anymore."


    She raised a hand, palm up.


    A pale golden radiance appeared in her palm.


    It looked denser than before, brighter too. The dimness that had clung to its edges waspletely gone.


    "Our dual cultivation, plus the fight in the Sea of the Dead just now, has already tempered my bloodline enough. The bloodline of the Frost Deity Branch has alreadye back to life."


    "More importantly, the bloodlines our dual cultivation fused together now carry each other''s feelings."


    She looked at Jared, her gaze quiet and gentle.


    Jared understood what Gwendolyn meant.


    If that first round of dual cultivation had only been a transaction between them, then things were different now. At this point, what Gwendolyn felt for him had already gone far beyond that.


    "Right now, the Heart of the Northern Abyss is only icing on the cake for me.


    But for you... it''s exactly what you need. Your chaotic force is still too weak. It needs more power to nourish it.


    "The Heart of the Northern Abyss


    holds the refined essence of Aldric''s lifelong power. If you can absorb it, your strength will rise to a


    Jared said nothing.


    He lowered his eyes to the pearl in his hand and felt the huge power sealed inside it.


    That power was ancient, pure, and overwhelming.


    It was like a sleeping ocean, lying still and waiting for someone to wake it.


    "Then I won''t hold back."


    He didn''t put on an act. He pressed the pearl straight against his chest.


    The instant the pearl touched his skin, it melted into a mass of pale golden liquid and sank into his chest.


    Then...


    A surge of power unlike anything he had ever known exploded inside him.


    It tore through him like a burst dam, like a volcano blowing apart, raging wildly through his meridians.


    His spirit well swelled violently under the impact.


    His meridians stretched so hard they were on the verge of breaking apart.


    "Ah!"


    Jared threw back his head and let out a roar.


    Purple light erupted from his body and spread over the entire isle.


    At that moment, his cultivation broke through.


    High Immortal Realm Level Six.


    Then it surged again and broke straight into High Immortal Realm Level Seven.


    It kept climbing all the way to the top of High Immortal Realm Level Seven before


    that wild power finally started to settle down.


    He was only one step away from the True Immortal Realm now.


    Jared dragged in great gulps of air, his whole body soaked through with sweat.


    He lowered his head and looked at his hands.


    That terrifying power rushed through him in steady waves, and for a


    moment even standing there


    his own body none of it felt quite real.


    Top Level High Immortal Realm Level Seven.


    At that level, hisbat strength was already enough to instantly kill a cultivator at


    True Immortal Realm Level Four.


    If Skr showed up in front of him again, Jared could put him down with ease.


    "How does it feel?" Gwendolyn''s voice came from beside him.


    Jared lifted his head and looked at her.


    Something in his eyes had gone unfixed, with a question sitting right behind it.


    "I can feel it... there was more than just power inside the Heart of the Northern Abyss."


    "What else?" Gwendolyn asked, her brows drawing together slightly.


    Jared closed his eyes and carefully felt for the changes moving through his body.


    Deep inside that overwhelming surge of power, Jared caught the faintest trace of something else.


    That presence was ancient beyond imagining. It carried a kind of weight that made his chest tighten.


    And yet it was so weak it was almost gone, like thest bit of me on a candle in


    the wind, ready to go out at any second.


    That presence was trying to send him a message.


    Broken. Blurred. Barely holding together.


    "Save me..."


    Jared''s eyes snapped open, and the color drained from his face.


    "What is it?" Gwendolyn asked.


    Jared looked at her. When he spoke, his voice came out rough.


    "Aldric... is still alive."


    Gwendolyn''s pupils contracted hard.


    The two of them locked eyes.


    Around them, the ghostfire rolled in silence, as if something buried in sleep had


    heard its name.


    The three moons still hung overhead, one blood-red, one ck as ink, and one split in half.


    Their three-colored moonlight poured down and stained the Ancient Battlefield in an even stranger shade.


    And in the deepest part of the Ancient Battlefield, some existence. that had slept for no one knew how many tens of thousands of years seemed to stir, just slightly.