Jared spent another three days recovering in the Celestial Pce.
Over those three days, his body recovered fast.
The power brought by the Heart of the Northern Abyss was still slowly merging into his body.
His cultivation at the Top Level High Immortal Realm Level Seven hadpletely stabilized, and his chaotic force had grown far more solid than before.
He even found time to test his own limit. With a single sword strike, he could shave off half the summit of the 1,000-yard ice peak outside the Celestial Pce.
Gwendolyn stood beside the ruins of the ice peak and looked at that smooth cut surface, polished like a mirror. She stayed there in silence for a long time.
"If you go all out now, probably no cultivator below True Immortal Realm Level Five can beat you," she said, giving him a fair assessment.
Jared slid his sword back into its sheath. Nothing much showed on his face.
The jump in strength was worth something, sure, but another matter had been hanging over him the whole time.
Cloudhaven City.
Would Skr make a move on Cloudhaven City while he was away?
Could Rnd and Vivian hold the line?
Had Lydia and the others made it back yet?
The questions kept chewing at him like worms that wouldn''t stop.
On the morning of the fourth day, Jared went to find Gwendolyn.
She was standing beneath the Worldtree, her head tipped up toward the golden canopy.
Morning light spilled through the gaps in the leaves and fell across her. White clothes like fresh snow, long ck hair, the whole of her still enough to pass for a painting.
"I''m leaving," Jared said, getting straight to it.
Gwendolyn didn''t turn around, but her shoulders tightened just a little.
The shift was so slight that if Jared''s senses hadn''t grown so much sharper, he wouldn''t have caught it at all.
"Your friend has already been brought back to life and left safely. You really don''t have any reason to stay here anymore."
Her voice stayed level, level enough toe off a little cold.
Jared walked up beside her and stopped there, shoulder to shoulder with her.
"I promised you three things. Taking my blood counts as one. Going with you into
the Ancient Battlefield counts as one too. There''s still one left. Have you decided what you want?"
Gwendolyn finally turned to look at him.
Something moved faintly in those deep eyes.
There was hesitation in it. Resistance too. And one more trace of something Jared couldn''t make out.
"I have," she said.
"Say it."
Gwendolyn drew in a deep breath, then turned fully to face him.
"Help me restore the Frost Deity Branch."
Jared froze for a second. "What?"
"I''m the only one left in the Frost Deity Branch now."
Gwendolyn''s voice was quiet, but every wordnded clean. "Aldric''s remnant souls are inside your body. You''re the only person in this world with a deep connection to the Ice God Bloodline. If you don''t help me, then the Frost Deity Branch is truly finished."
Jared frowned. "How am I supposed to help you? I''m not one of the celestials." "You have the Ice God Bloodline inside you."
Gwendolyn held his gaze. "After our dual cultivation, the chaotic force in your body already fused with the power of the Frost Deity Branch. If you''re willing, you can use that power to awaken more people who carry the hidden genes of the Ice God Bloodline and make them awaken again."
Jared went quiet for a moment.
"When you say awaken them, what exactly do you mean?"
Gwendolyn pulled out the ice-blue jade slip from her sleeve and held it out to him.
"This is the bloodline-sensing art of the Frost Deity Branch.
Once you cultivate it, you''ll be able to sense everyone within 10 thousand miles who carries the hidden genes of the Ice God Bloodline.
"Those people are scattered all across the celestial realm. They don''t even know Frost Deity Branch blood is flowing inside them.
As long as you find them and use chaotic force to activate the bloodline in their bodies, they can awaken again."
Jared took the jade slip, but he didn''t look through it right away.
"Even if I find those people and awaken them, then what?"
Ket
"The Frost Deity Branch didn''t decline because there was no one left. It declined because the other celestial ns kept targeting it. The celestials are under the rule of the Sovereign Branch now. You think they''re just going to sit there and watch the Frost Deity Branch rise again?" Jared said.
Gwendolyn''s expression shifted, just a little.
Jared was right.
On the surface, the fall of the Frost Deity Branch looked like the result of its bloodline thinning out and fading away.
But at the root of it, this had always been a power struggle inside the celestials. Back then, a female cultivator from the Frost Deity Branch had run away with an outsider, viting one of the celestials'' ironws.
The Sovereign Branch seized on that and joined forces with the other ns to suppress the Frost Deity Branch for thousands of years.
Their experts were assassinated. Their resources were cut off. Their inheritances were burned away.
Step by step, that was how the Frost Deity Branch had been driven to extinction.
Now the Sovereign Branch had ruled the celestials for tens of thousands of years, and its power ran too deep to shake easily.
Even if Jared helped her awaken more carriers of the Ice God Bloodline, as long as the Sovereign Branch still stood, the Frost Deity Branch would never be able to lift its head.
"I know." Gwendolyn''s voice dropped a little. "But I don''t care."
Jared looked at her.
"The Frost Deity Branch isn''t going to rise again by hiding and cowering."
Gwendolyn''s gaze turned firm, with
a hard streak in it now. "If the
Sovereign Branch wants to stand
the way
then we wipe out the Sovereign Branch. If the celestial alliance wants to keep targeting the
Frost Deity Branch, then we bring that whole system down."
Jared sucked in a sharp breath.
"Do you even hear what you''re saying? Wipe out the Sovereign Branch? Bring down
the celestial alliance? That''s the same as dering war on all the celestials."
"I know."
Gwendolyn''s tone stayed so even it
only made the words hit harder. "I
didn''t wait all these years just to
keep waiting. Jared, Aldric''s remnant souls are inside you. The power of the frost Deity Branch is running through you. You''re part of this. You don''t get to stand outside it."
Jared stayed silent for a long time.
He remembered the way Gwendolyn had knelt in front of him.
He remembered her reddened eyes when she said the Frost Deity Branch could not
be cut off in her hands.
He remembered her fighting for his life on the Ancient Battlefield.
He remembered the way she gave him the Heart of the Northern Abyss without
holding anything back.
For the sake of her people, this woman had already given up far too much.
"What are you nning to do?" Jared asked.
Something lit in Gwendolyn''s eyes.
"I''m going with you."
Jared froze for a second. "Come with me?"
"You''re going back to Cloudhaven City. I''m going with you."
Gwendolyn said, "Didn''t you say Cloudhaven City is under threat from the demons?
I''ll help you hold the city. In return, you help me search through the firmaments of
the celestial realm for awakened carriers of the Ice God Bloodline."
"What about the Celestial Pce?"
Gwendolyn nced at the Worldtree behind her.
Something faint passed through her eyes, reluctant to let go, but it was gone almost
at once.
"The Celestial Pce existed to protect thest me seed of the Frost Deity
Branch. Now that the me seed is with me, there''s no reason for the Celestial Pce to keep existing."
She turned around to face the direction of the Celestial Pce and raised her right
hand.
Ice-blue divine radiance poured from her palm.
It split into countless strands of light and shot toward every pce and every stone chamber in the Celestial Pce.
The instant those strands touched the buildings, everything inside was swept up at
once.
The texts, the healing elixirs, the arcane implements, the spirit stones-everyst thing turned into streaks of light and disappeared into Gwendolyn''s sleeve.
In only a few breaths, the entire Celestial Pce was stripped clean. Nothing remained except bare stone walls and the Worldtree.