Early the next morning, Jared got out of bed looking refreshed. Vivian was still lying there, too drained to move.


    Jared took Rnd and twenty elites from the Sky Dragon Lineage and set out for the Demon Marches.


    Lydia Wraithmoor, Evelyn Ashcroft, Luther, and Grace all wanted to go with him, but Jared didn''t allow it.


    "I alone am enough," he said. His tone was calm, but it left no room to argue. "You all stay in Cloudhaven City and watch over home."


    Lydia Wraithmoor wasn''t willing to let it go, but she also knew Jared was telling the truth.


    With the power Jared had now, there really weren''t many people left in the


    Fourteenth Firmament who could stop him.


    "Be careful," Lydia said.


    "Mm."


    Jared led Rnd and the others into the air.


    They broke into streaks of light and vanished into the horizon.


    Gwendolyn stood upon the city walls, watching their retreating figures disappear into the distance, a faint crease touching her brow.


    She had wanted to go with them.


    Jared hadn''t allowed it.


    Gwendolyn turned and walked down from the city walls.


    Lydia stayed where she was atop the wall, looking at Gwendolyn''s back as she left.


    Then she suddenly said, "Do you like Jared?"


    Gwendolyn''s steps halted.


    She didn''t turn around.


    "Does it matter whether I do or not?"


    Lydia froze for a beat.


    Gwendolyn''s voice came out very soft, almost like she was speaking to herself. "I''ve lived for over ten thousand years. I''m long past the age for talk of love. My mission


    is to rebuild the Frost Deity Branch. Everything else... doesn''t matter."


    She kept walking and disappeared around the turn in the city wall.


    Lydia stood there without moving, watching that distant, frost-cold figure.


    Something rose in her chest, hard to name and harder to shake.


    That woman was far more alone than Lydia had imagined.


    The Demon Marchesy 30 thousand miles north of Cloudhaven City, a barrennd shrouded in ck mist.


    The sky there was always dim and ashen.


    The sun stayed buried behind thick clouds, and only once in a while did a few pale white rays slip through the cracks.


    Not a de of grass grew from the ground.


    There was only charred ck stone and cracked, dried earth.


    The air was thick with the mixed stench of sulfur and rot.


    It was enough to make a person sick the moment they breathed it in.


    After Jared and his group entered the Demon Marches, their pace noticeably slowed.


    It wasn''t because anything was blocking them.


    It was because the ce was too quiet.


    Wrongly quiet.


    "Mr. Chance, something''s wrong."


    Rnd kept his voice low. "There are usually plenty of low-level demons roaming around the outer edge of the Demon Marches. But we''ve been walking this long today, and we haven''t seen a single one."


    Jared gave a small nod.


    He''d picked up the same thing.


    This stretch of the Demon Marches looked like something had swept it clean.


    "Keep moving," he said, his voice steady. "Whatever game they''re ying, we''re ending this today."


    The group kept going, pushing deeper in.


    After another 2 hours or so, a massive vale appeared ahead of them.


    On both sides of the vale, ck cliff walls rose so high they disappeared into the sky.


    Along the valley floor ran a wide passage, and at the far end of it, a giant stone door stood dimly visible.


    Savage Demon Dragon reliefs were carved across the stone door.


    Two enormous dragon eyes had been set with blood-red gems, and in the dark, they gave off a cold, dim red glow.


    "That''s the Demon Dragon Lineage''sir. Wyrmdeep Vale." Rnd''s voice tightened. "Darian was named after this vale."


    Jared looked at the stone door, and a smile pulled at his mouth.


    "Wyrmdeep Vale? Not a bad name. Too bad after today, this ce is getting a new one."


    He took the lead and walked straight toward the vale.


    Rnd and twenty elites from the Sky Dragon Lineage followed close behind him.


    They had just stepped into the vale when a roar of crashing sound exploded behind them.


    From the cliff walls on both sides, countless massive boulders came tumbling down and sealed off the way backpletely.


    At the same time, countless pairs of blood-red eyes lit up at the far end of the passage through the vale.


    One Demon Dragon after another stepped out of the darkness.


    Some wererge, some smaller. The biggest stretched 300 yards long, and even


    the smaller ones were still dozens of yards from head to tail.


    Their bodies were covered in pitch-ck scales.


    Through the gaps between those scales, a dark red glow flowed like molten fire under the earth.


    ck smoke poured from their mouths, and their eyes burned with naked bloodlust.


    At the front stood thergest Demon Dragon of them all.


    Its body stretched a full 200 miles long. The horns on its head were twice as thick as the other Demon Dragons, and the demonic aura. pouring off it was so dense nearly looked solid.


    The instant it saw Rnd, somethingplicated flickered through its eyes.


    "Rnd. It''s been a long time."


    Its voice came out low and rough, with the scrape of metal grinding against metal.


    Rnd stared back at it, his eyes fixed hard on the massive dragon. "Darian."


    Darian''s gaze slid off Rnd and settled on Jared.


    A trace of wariness shed through Darian''s eyes.


    He had already seen what Jared could do Jared''s cultivation leve might not look high, but hisbat strength was enough to wipe out a True Immortal Realm Level Two cultivator in an instant.


    That kind of strength wasn''t something Darian could handle.


    And now, from the look of it, Jared''s cultivation level had risen again. Even a True Immortal Realm Level Three cultivator probably wouldn''t have been a match for him.


    "Jared, I know you can fight."


    Darian''s voice stayed low. "But this is the Demon Marches. This is my turf. No matter how strong you are by yourself, do you really think you can take on my thousand Demon Dragons?"


    The Demon Dragons behind him let out a low roar at the same time, and the wave of sound made the whole vale tremble.


    Jared looked around at the packed mass of Demon Dragons surrounding them, and


    the corner of his mouth lifted slightly.


    "A thousand? That''s a lot. But..."


    He raised a hand, and purple chaotic force gathered in his palm.


    "Numbers don''t mean anything to me."


    The moment the words left his mouth, he moved.


    A purple de-re ripped through the darkness of the vale like a bolt of lightning.


    With the first strike, the ten Demon Dragons charging at the front were swept by the


    de-re and torn to pieces like they were made of paper.


    With the second strike, the Demon Dragons clinging to both sides of the


    cliff walls, waiting to ambush him, were cut clean in half at the waist. ck blood poured down in sheets, like a storm breaking loose.


    With the third strike, Jared himself turned into a streak of purple light and shot


    straight into the mass of Demon Dragons.


    He moved so fast the eye couldn''t catch him at all.


    Everywhere the de-light swept, Demon Dragons dropped in rows like wheat


    under a sickle.


    One strike, ten dragons fell.


    Ten strikes, a hundred.


    In the span of a few breaths, nearly half of the thousand Demon Dragons had been


    ughtered.


    The Demon Dragons that were left finally broke.


    They let out shrill, ragged cries and scattered in every direction, trampling over each


    other as they fled toward the depths of the vale.