Moonshade Realm, Council Hall.
ric''s face looked terrible.
"The scout came back with a report. At least 30 factions have already sent people."
He handed the intelligence over to Jared. "The Celestial Tribunal, the demon Shadow Hall, the beast-race Skywolf Tribe, the human Wandering Cultivators Alliance... big factions, small factions. They all came."
Jared took the report, nced over it, and said nothing.
"Officially, they''re here to investigate why the Pyre Chasm went out. But in truth..."
ric ground his teeth. "They''re here to snatch things. The rocks inside the Pyre Chasm were scorched by heavenfire for tens of thousands of years. They''ve already turned into extremely rare emberstone crystals. Those crystals hold fire-aspect spiritual power. For anyone cultivating a fire technique, they''re priceless."
He pushed to his feet and started pacing across the Council Hall.
The more he walked, the faster his steps became.
"If they start searching all through the Nether Mountain Range, there''s a good chance they''ll find where our Moonshade Realm is hiding. And when that happens..." He left the rest unsaid, but there was nothing unclear about it.
When that happened, the celestials would be the first toe killing their way over.
The Ghost n''sst hiding ce would be erased.
The Council Hall went silent.
Lydia sat off to the side. Her face was still pale, but she was already able to get out of bed and walk around.
She watched her father''s restless back and tried to speak, but the words never came together.
Gwendolyn leaned against the doorframe with her eyes closed, as if she were resting.
The Ghost n''s survival or destruction didn''t matter much to her.
What she was waiting for was Jared to speak.
Edric stood in the corner with both hands clenched so tightly his knuckles had gone white.
Jared set the intelligence down on the table and rose to his feet.
"Sovereign, don''t be afraid."
Every eye in the hall turned to him.
Jared''s voice was steady, so steady it almost came off cold. "As long as I''m here, nobody willy a hand on any of you."
ric stopped pacing and looked at him.
That worn face held too many things at once-gratitude, doubt, and one thin strand of hope that refused to fully show itself.
"Mr. Chance, you alone..."
"I''m enough on my own."
Jared cut him off. "They didn''te here to wage war. They came to grab what they can. They''re a mob with their own agendas. There''s no way they''ll truly join forces. As long as I show enough strength, none of them will dare make a move lightly."
He walked to the doorway and nced up at the sky outside.
"And besides, I want to get to the bottom of what happened at the Pyre Chasm too. Those emberstone crystals... they can''t end up in celestial hands."
Gwendolyn opened her eyes and looked at him.
"I''ll go with you."
Jared nodded and didn''t refuse.
"I''m going too." Lydia struggled to her feet, only for ric to press her back down.
"You''re not going." ric''s voice left no room for argument. "Your injuries still aren''t healed."
"But..."
"No buts." Jared turned and looked at Lydia. "You''re staying here to recover. Gwendolyn and I are enough for the Pyre Chasm."
Lydia bit down on her lip. The words had already reached the edge of her mouth,
but the moment she met Jared''s steady eyes, every one of them stuck in her throat.
"Then be careful." In the end, that was all she said.
Jared smiled, then turned and walked out of the Council Hall.
Gwendolyn followed right behind him.
The two of them crossed the ancient city, passed through the mountain gate, and disappeared into the ck fog.
Lydia stood at the entrance of the Council Hall and watched their backs fade away. Something thick and hard to name rose inside her.
She wanted to go.
But she knew that if she went now, she would only slow them down.
"Lydia." ric walked over and lightly patted her shoulder. "He''s right. What you need now is to heal."
Lydia nodded and said nothing.
She turned, walked back into the stone hall,y down on the bed, and closed her eyes.
But once she closed her eyes, all that filled her head was Jared.
His back as he cut straight through the Sea of me.
The pounding in his chest when he carried her out of it on his back.
The side of his face at the city gate when he said, "I promised you."
This man always treated her business like it was his own.
He always put other people''s lives above his own.
She turned over and buried her face in the pillow.
"You bettere back," she murmured.
*****
the Pyre Chasm
The Sea of me that had once raged there had gonepletely dark.
The giant pit, stretching for a thousand miles in every direction, gaped up at the sky like a huge open mouth.
Its walls wereyered with rock burned into a ssy sheen, throwing back a strange light under the sun.
At the bottomy a field of ckened earth.
Scattered across it were countless dark red emberstone crystals, rock that had been forged by heavenfire over tens of thousands of years.
Emberstone crystals.
They came in all sizes, the small ones no bigger than a fist, therge ones as wide as millstones.
Every single one gave off searing heat.
Dark red light flowed across their surfaces like frozen molten fire.
At that moment, the edge of the Pyre Chasm was packed with people. Celestials, demons, the beast race, the human race... more than thirty forces and over a thousand cultivators had surrounded the central region of the Pyre Chasm.
Every gaze was locked on the dark red emberstone crystals at the bottom of the pit, and there was nothing subtle in those eyes.
But not one of them made the first move.
Whoever moved first would be the target of everyone else.
"Everyone."
A celestial cultivator in a golden robe stepped forward. His cultivation was at the True Immortal Realm Level Four. He was an Elder of the Tribunal, Cedric Gilt.
"The Pyre Chasm lies within the territory of our Celestial Tribunal. The resources here naturally belong to the celestials. You should all leave."
The moment he finished, a Demonic Cultivator let out a coldugh. "Cedric Gift, you''ve got some nerve saying that The Pyre Chasm has
been here
tens of thousands of
years. When did your celestials ever
daree near it? Now that the
heavenfire is gone, suddenly it''s your turf?"
"Exactly," a beast-race warrior called out, backing him up. "The Pyre Chasm doesn''t
belong to anybody. Whoever gets their hands on it, keeps it!"
"That''s right! Whoever grabs it, owns it!"
"Then everyone can fight for it with their own strength!"
The crowd surged at once, voices piling on top of each other.
Cedric Gilt''s face turned uglier by the second.
He might have been a True Immortal Realm Level Four, but there were at least
dozens of other Level Four experts standing here.
There was no way he could press down the entire crowd by himself.
He ground his teeth, then stepped back into the celestials'' camp.
"Fine. Then we do it by strength."
"But don''t forget this. The Hall Master of our Celestial Tribunal is True Immortal Realm Level Eight Whatever you manage to snatch here, whether you can carry it home at all... that''s another question."
Thatnded, and faces around the pit changed on the spot.
True Immortal Realm Level Eight.
That stood at the very top of the Fifteenth Firmament''s fighting power.
Even if everyone present joined forces, they still would not have been enough for
the Tribunal Venerable alone.
After a short stretch of silence, an old man from the Wandering Cultivators Alliance
stepped out.
"Elder Gilt, that isn''t right."
His voice stayed level, neither yielding nor provoking.
"The Pyre Chasm belongs to everyone under heaven, not to the celestials alone.
The Tribunal Venerable may be powerful, but he can''t very well make an enemy of
the whole world, can he?"
"Exactly! The whole world!"
"Our Wandering Cultivators Alliance may be small, but we''re not pushovers!"
Cedric Gilt''s face darkened even more.
He knew he''d pushed the wrong way.
A threat could work, but not one this naked. Push too hard, and all it did was turn the
whole crowd against him.
"That wasn''t what I meant."
He eased his tone.
"I''m only reminding everyone that, in
the end, what happens at the Pyre Chasm still has to be led by our Celestial Tribunal. Everyone takes what they need nobody rosses the
fine, and we all walk away Vin peace. Wouldn''t that be better?"
No one answered him.
But the tension in the air had clearly eased a little.