Jared didn''t go after them.


    He slid his sword back into its sheath and turned to look at Darian.


    Darian''s face had already gone paper white.


    It had known Jared was powerful, but it had never expected this.


    More than a thousand Demon Dragons hadn''t evensted the time it took an incense stick to burn in front of him.


    Power like that was already beyond anything it could stand against.


    "Darian," Jared said, his voice even. "I''ll give you one chance. Kneel, and I can spare your life."


    Darian''s body gave a slight tremor.


    It looked at Jared, then at Rnd, and something pulled tight in its eyes.


    Then...


    It slowly knelt.


    Its enormous body lowered to the ground. Its dragon head bowed, and its hoarse voice scraped out, "I... admit defeat."


    Rnd watched it happen, and the look in his eyes turnedplicated.


    He hated Darian.


    He had carried that hatred for countless years.


    But now that Darian was really kneeling in front of him, Rnd found the satisfaction he''d pictured all those years didn''te nearly as easily as he had expected.


    "Rnd..." Darian''s voice came out low. "I know you hate me. But when I turned to the demons back then, I was forced into it. I had no other way."


    Rnd''s face shifted. "Forced into it?"


    "You think I wanted to be the demons''pdog?"


    There was a rough bitterness in Darian''s voice. "Back then, the Sky Dragon Lineage was already being crushed by the celestials. We were on the verge of being wiped out. If I hadn''t turned to the demons, the Sky Dragon Lineage would''ve been exterminated long ago. At the very least... at the very least, after siding with the demons, the bloodline of the Sky Dragon Lineage could still continue."


    Rnd''s fists clenched until the joints ground against each other with a sharp crack. "You still have the nerve to say that? After you turned to the demons, how many of our nsmen from the Sky Dragon Lineage did you kill?"


    Darian fell silent for a moment.


    "The ones I killed were the ones who refused to submit. If I hadn''t killed them, the demons would''ve ughtered our entire n. I had no choice."


    A shadow passed through Rnd''s eyes.


    He knew there was some truth in what Darian was saying.


    Back then, the Sky Dragon Lineage really had been driven to the edge.


    With the celestials suppressing them, if they hadn''t found someone to rely on, the Sky Dragon Lineage truly might have been wiped out.


    But that still didn''t make what Darian had done right.


    "Mr. Chance." Rnd turned and looked at Jared. "I want to... handle this myself. ''


    Jared looked at him, then gave a small nod.


    "This is a family matter within your Sky Dragon Lineage. You decide."


    Rnd walked up to Darian and stood there in silence for a long time.


    Then he finally spoke.


    "Darian, I''m not going to kill you. ''


    Darian lifted his head, his eyes filling with undisguised surprise.


    "But you''re taking us somewhere first."


    "Where?"


    "To their of that demonic cultivator behind you."


    Darian''s body went stiff.


    "That demonic cultivator... already ran."


    His voice dropped low.


    "Three days ago, he vanished out of nowhere. Before he left, he took everything


    with him. He didn''t leave a thing behind."


    Jared frowned.


    "Ran?"


    "Yes."


    Darian nodded.


    "He left in a hurry. Looked like something had scared him. I asked


    him why, but he wouldn''t say My


    guess


    is it had something


    to do with


    Skr leaving."


    "A few days ago, after Skr left, he never came back."


    "1


    Even Skr hadn''t been able to beat Jared. That demonic cultivator had no nerve to stay in the Demon Marches after that.


    "Take me there," Jared said.


    Darian led the group through the vale and brought them to the front of a great hall in the deep Demon Marches.


    The great hall was no small ce, but now it stoodpletely empty.


    Its doors were wide open. Inside, everything was a wreck, the whole ce obviously stripped in a rush.


    Jared stepped into the great hall and swept his gaze across the ce.


    A trace of demonic aura still lingered in the air.


    It was so faint it was almost impossible to sense.


    He walked all the way to the deepest part of the great hall.


    Looking at the vast, emptied-out chamber, he gave a sudden smile.


    "You sure ran fast."


    He raised a hand.


    Purple chaotic force gathered in his palm and condensed into a violet me.


    The me dropped onto the floor of the great hall.


    In an instant, it spread in every direction and swallowed the entire hall whole.


    Violet zing firelight lit up the gray, murky sky over the Demon Marches and drove away every scrap of darkness around it.


    Jared turned and walked out of the great hall without looking back.


    "Let''s go. We''re going home."


    Rnd looked at the burning great hall, then at Darian still kneeling on the ground.


    He stayed quiet for a moment.


    "Darian, I won''t kill you. But from this


    day on, you and your people are not to set foot in the Sky Dragon


    Lineage''s territory again.


    Otherwise..."


    He didn''t finish the sentence, but the meaningnded in enough.


    Darian lowered his head. "I understand."


    Rnd turned and followed Jared out.


    Behind them, the violet me still burned.


    It kept eating through that great hall that had once stood above everything around it,


    until all that remained was ruin.


    On the way back to Cloudhaven City, Rnd didn''t say a word.


    Jared walked beside him and left him alone.


    He knew Rnd needed time to take in everything that had happened today.


    The enemy he had hated for countless years had dropped to his knees right in front


    of him and begged for mercy.


    But when the moment for revenge finally came, he found out the things that man had done weren''t simply evil.


    "Mr. Chance," Rnd said suddenly, "was I wrong not to kill Darian today?"


    Jared gave it a moment, then shook his head.


    "There isn''t a right or wrong to this


    regret


    There are only choices. You chose not to kill him that was your decision. As long as you dont it, then it wasn''t wrong."


    Rnd fell quiet for a long time.


    "I don''t regret it." His voice came out soft, but it held steady. "But I won''t forgive him


    either."


    Jared patted him on the shoulder. "That''s enough."


    The group picked up speed and flew toward Cloudhaven City.


    Behind them, the ck mist over the Demon Marches gradually thinned in the


    zing firelight.


    Thatnd, buried under darkness for countless years, showed its true color for the


    first time.


    Gray-white rock.


    Cracked earth.


    And far off in the distance, a faint trace of greening through.