"But you..." ric said, his brow tightening.
"My chaotic force can devour any kind of power, including heavenfire," Jared said. "The Pyre Chasm isn''t as dangerous to me as you think."
What he didn''t say was that the primal fire-essence inside him was also yearning for that heavenfire.
That power of me had been building since the Ethereal Realm.
It had slept all this time in the deepest part of his bloodline.
He could feel it. The moment the aura of the Pyre Chasm entered his senses, the primal fire-essence inside him started to tremble.
It trembled with anticipation.
It trembled with hunger.
ric held Jared''s gaze and said nothing for a long while.
"Mr. Chance, are you certain?"
Jared nodded.
"Alright." ric didn''t try to stop him again. "We''ll wait outside for one incense stick.
If you don''te out within one incense stick, we''re going in."
Jared smiled. "Alright."
One incense stickter, ric personally led 300 Ghost n warriors toward the eastern reaches of the Nether Mountain Range.
Jared picked L up in his arms, then handed her over to the old woman.
"L, Uncle''s stepping out for a bit. I''ll be back soon."
L caught the corner of his clothes and refused to let go. "Uncle Jared, that''s not true. They all said the Pyre Chasm is dangerous. Once you go in, you can''te back out."
Jared crouched down and looked her in the eyes.
"L, do you trust Uncle?"
L nodded.
"Then Uncle''s telling you this. I''ll definitelye back. And when I do, I''ll tell you a story."
L held on for a long time before she finally let go.
"Then you have toe back."
"I will."
Jared rose to his feet, turned, and hurried after the group.
Behind him, L stood at the city gate with a rag doll in her arms, watching his back until it disappeared into the ck fog.
*****
The Pyre Chasmy in the eastern reaches of the Nether Mountain Range, about half a day''s journey from the Moonshade Realm.
ric drove the group through the mountains.
The farther they went, the faster he moved.
And the more urgent it became.
His face grew darker and darker, because he could feel Lydia''s presence weakening.
"Move!" ric shouted. "Faster!"
The Ghost n warriors gritted their teeth and ran with everything they had left.
Atst, after they climbed over the final ridgeline, the Pyre Chasm came into view. Jared''s breathing cut off right there.
It wasn''t a chasm.
It was a sea.
A sea made of me.
Crimson me churned, burned, and roared across the vast bottom of the chasm, swallowing a thousand miles ofnd in every direction.
The heating off it was monstrous. Even from the ridgeline, still dozens of miles from the edge, Jared could feel that scorching breath mming straight into him.
The color of the me kept shifting—crimson, orange-yellow, gold-white, ghostly blue-and every color marked a different degree of heat.
At the very center, the me had already turned an almost transparent white, the kind of color that only appeared when the heat climbed so high even the light started to warp.
Something was moving inside the me.
They were heavenfire beasts.
Their bodies were condensed out of me, each one taking on a different form.
Some looked like dragons. Some looked like tigers. Some looked like birds. Some looked like fish.
They moved through the heavenfire and let out low, heavy roars, and the sound rolling off them made the ridgeline tremble.
Then, along the outer rim of the Pyre Chasm, on a stone tform near the north side, Jared spotted two familiar figures.
Lydia and Gwendolyn.
They were pressed against a massive boulder, with an icy blue radiant barrier sealed around them.
That barrier had been condensed from Gwendolyn''s Frost God''s power.
Under the burning assault of the me, the barrier kept melting away, and Gwendolyn had to keep pouring fresh power into it just to hold it together. Lydia was slumped against Gwendolyn, covered in blood.
Her left arm hung limp at her side. The wraithde stood buried in the ground in
front of her, the de webbed with cracks.
And in front of them stood a pack of heavenfire beasts.
At least twenty of them.
They ringed the radiant barrier from
the outside, mming their bodies
Page
inst and scorching the ice blue
surface with heavenfire.
The radiant barrier was already covered in a dense spread of cracks. It looked ready
to shatter at any second.
"Lydia!" ric''s voice shook.
He turned to Jared, his eyes fixed on him in naked appeal.
Jared said nothing.
He raised a hand. Violet chaotic force gathered in his palm.
Then he drove that palm into ric''s shoulder.
ric''s body jolted hard, and a soft force pushed him back onto the ridgeline.
"Wait outside," Jared said.
Then he leaped straight into the Pyre Chasm.
A long streak of violet radiance cut across the Pyre Chasm.
Jared didn''t draw the Dragonyer Sword. It had been damaged in the spatial storm and he had no
intention of putting more strain on t
in a ce like this.
He only clenched his fist, packed the chaotic force onto the front of it, and threw a
punch.
The first heavenfire beast lunged
straight at him. Its body looked like a burning tiger, jaws spread wide as it bit for Jared.
Jared smashed a punch into its head.
The violet punch force collided with heavenfire and burst into a blinding sh.
The heavenfire beast''s head blew apart in an instant under the devouring chaotic force, turning into a storm of fire sparks.
Its body hadn''t even fallen yet when the second and third heavenfire beasts were already on him.
Jared didn''t give an inch.
His fists mmed out like a rainstorm.
Every punch carried the devouring power of chaotic force.
In front of chaotic force, the heavenfire beasts were as fragile as paper.
One punch dropped one. Then another punch dropped another.
Where the violet radiance passed, heavenfire beasts burst apart one after another.
They broke into fire sparks that sprayed through the air.
But there were too many heavenfire beasts.
They poured in from every direction.
They just kepting, one wave after another.
There were too many to kill.
Wounds started opening across Jared''s body.
ws ripped through his arm. Teeth punched into his shoulder. A tailshed across
his back.
Golden blood dripped down.
The heavenfire shed over it and burned it into golden mist.
Jared did not stop.
His eyes stayed locked on the rocky tform in the distance.
Locked on those two familiar figures.
Lydia caught something and lifted her head.
Then she saw that violet radiance.
The rims of her eyes turned red.
"Jared..."
Gwendolyn looked up too.
She watched the violet radiance rushing closer and closer, and the corner of her
mouth lifted slightly.
"He''s here."
When Jared was still 100 yards from the tform, thergest heavenfire beast
appeared.
It was ten timesrger than the others.
Its body was no longer scarlet. It had turned an almost transparent white.
It was shaped like a dragon.
Two burning horns rose from its head, and its eyes were two bottomless holes of
fire.
Its aura was at the True Immortal Realm Level Five.
The heavenfire beast king.