By the time Jared and Gwendolyn returned to Moonshade Realm, it was already deep into the night.


    Moonlight spilled down through gaps in the ck mist.


    It washed the ruins of the ancient city in ayer of silver-gray.


    At the city gate, ric and Lydia were still there, waiting for them.


    Lydia had a thick coat wrapped around her shoulders. Her face was still pale, but her eyes were bright.


    The instant she saw Jared, the tension went out of her whole body.


    "You''re back," she said.


    Her voice was light, but Jared caught what sat inside it.


    "We''re back." Jared nodded.


    ric came up to him and looked him over from top to bottom. Only after making sure Jared wasn''t hurt did he finally ease up.


    He looked like he wanted to speak, then stopped. He wanted to ask, but couldn''t quite bring himself to what exactly had happened over at the Pyre Chasm?


    Had the different factions shed?


    Had the celestials given him trouble?


    Jared saw straight through him and smiled. "Let''s talk inside."


    In the Council Hall, everymp was burning.


    Edric had set moonstones into the wall one after another, filling the entire stone hall with a white light bright as day.


    ric sat in the seat of honor, with Lydia beside him. Jared and Gwendolyn sat across from them.


    Edric stood in the corner with his hands folded in front of him, listening in silence.


    Jared told them everything that had happened at the Pyre Chasm, one detail after another.


    When ric heard that more than thirty factions and over a thousand cultivators had gathered at the Pyre Chasm, the color shifted in his face.


    When he heard that those factions had fought until blood ran over the emberstone crystal, leaving countless dead and wounded behind, his brows pulled tight.


    When he heard that Elder Gilt of the Celestial Tribunal had stepped in, driven everyone away, and seized the emberstone crystal for himself, ric''s fists clenched until the joints crackled.


    Then he heard what Jared had done.


    One punch had heavily wounded Elder Gilt. One palm strike had sent the celestial deputy flying. One sentence had scared every celestial cultivator there into a scrambling retreat.


    And right in front of more than a thousand cultivators, he had dered that the Nether Mountain Range was the Ghost n''s hiding ce, and no one was allowed to disturb them.


    ric''s mouth fell open and stayed there.


    "You... what did you just say?" His voice shook. "In front of everyone, you struck an Elder of the Celestial Tribunal?"


    Jared nodded.


    "And right there in front of all of them, you dered the Nether Mountain Range belonged to the Ghost n?"


    Jared nodded again.


    "And you made everyst one of them promise they wouldn''t cause trouble in the Nether Mountain Range?"


    Jared gave him a third nod.


    Tears burst out of ric all at once.


    Not from grief. He had waited too long for this day.


    Too many years.


    The Ghost n had been hunted, ughtered, and driven off by the celestials, forced to hide in the dark like rats. They hadn''t dared make a sound. Hadn''t dared show their faces. Hadn''t dared let anyone know they were still alive.


    Their children had known what fear looked like from the moment they were born, and their elders had stayed on the run all the way to the end.


    They had thought this was all their lives would ever be. Thought the Ghost n would be wiped out in their generation.


    But now, an outsider, a human cultivator, had stepped forward for them in front of thousands of cultivators.


    "From this day on, no one is allowed to search, dig through, or harass the Nether Mountain Range. Otherwise, Cedric''s fate will be your example."


    ric had waited thousands of years to hear those words.


    "Mr. Chance."


    He rose and bowed deeply. His voice came out so hoarse it was almost impossible


    to hear. "A debt like this can''t be repaid with thanks. The entire Moonshade Realm will never forget it, not for all eternity."


    Jared caught him before he could stay bent over. "Sovereign, don''t do this. I told you before with me here, nobody touches your people."


    ric wiped at his tears and sat back down.


    He had steadied himself some, but the wet shine was still there in his eyes.


    "Right, Mr. Chance." Something struck him suddenly. "You said all those factions were trying to win you over?"


    Jared nodded. "The Wandering Cultivators Alliance, the Skywolf Tribe, the Shadow Hall, and a few dozen smaller factions all sent over calling cards."


    ric''s eyes lit up.


    "Mr. Chance, I have an idea."


    There was something he couldn''t quite keep down in his voice. "Since they''re all trying to win you over, could you use this chance to ask for the Reincarnation Core and the Soulkindling me back?"


    Jared paused. "Ask for them back?"


    "That''s right." ric got to his feet, walked to the map of the Fifteenth Firmament hanging by the wall, and pointed to the positions marked for the demon Shadow Hall and the beast-race Skywolf Tribe. "The Reincarnation Core is in the demon


    Shadow Hall''s hands."


    Soulkindling me is with the beast-race Skywolf Tribe.


    .n


    Those two treasures are the key to opening the path of reincarnation. If we can get them, then find a way to take the Nether Lamp from the Celestial Tribunal, we can go to the Reincarnation Division and guide o?t those trapped Ghost n souls and sense."


    His voice kept climbing, and the finger pressed to the map trembled slightly.


    "The souls and sense of tens of


    thousands of Ghost n cultivators: if we can guide them out, then the Ghost n still a has a future. Not the kind of future where we barely hang on. A real one. A future where we can live openly, with our heads up."


    Jared said nothing for a moment as he looked at those two marks on the map.


    Then he nodded. "All right. I''ll go ask for them."


    ric''s eyes turned red again.


    "Mr. Chance, be careful. The demons and the beast race aren''t easy to deal with. They''re trying to win you over now because you''ve shown them your strength. But if you open your mouth and ask for their supreme treasures..."


    "I know." Jared cut him off. "I know where the line is."


    He rose and looked toward Gwendolyn.


    "We leave first thing tomorrow morning."


    Gwendolyn nodded.


    Lydia parted her lips, ready to say, "I''m going too," but the words reached her mouth


    and stopped there.


    Her injuries still weren''t healed. If she went, she''d only hold them back.


    "Be careful," was all she said in the end.


    Jared smiled, turned, and walked out of the Council Hall.


    Gwendolyn followed behind him.


    Moonlight spilled across the streets of the ancient city, stretching their shadows long


    behind them.


    "Where are you nning to go first?" Gwendolyn asked.


    "The demon Shadow Hall," Jared said. "The Reincarnation Core is in Mchy Vane''s hands. That old fox is even harder to deal with than the beast race. Better to handle the hard one first and the easy one after."


    Gwendolyn nodded. "I''ll go with you."


    Jared nced at her. "Of course you are. Aren''t you still looking for people with the Ice God Bloodline?"


    The corner of Gwendolyn''s mouth lifted a little, but she said nothing.


    The two of them walked side by side under the moonlight, heading for the stone hall.


    Behind them, the lights in the Council Hall gradually went out.


    The ancient cityy silent in the night, like some sleeping beast.


    The ancient city of the Moonshade Realm was steeped in ck mist and moonlight woven together, with not a sound anywhere.


    Jared did not sleep.


    He sat cross-legged on the bed inside the stone hall, while purple chaotic force moved slowly around him, casting the whole chamber in a dreamlike glow. Ever since he absorbed the quintessence of heavenfire in the Pyre Chasm, his cultivation had broken through to the Top Level High Immortal Realm Level Eight, only a single step away from Level Nine.


    But he knew that step wasn''t something he could cross just by absorbing outside


    power.


    What it required was a deep understanding of his own strength, and perfect control


    over it.


    He closed his eyes and sank his spirit sense into his body.


    Inside the spirit well, chaotic force turned slowly like a purple vortex.


    At the center of that vortex, a me woven from gold and violet burned in stillness.


    That was the chaos-me, a brand-new me forged from the quintessence of heavenfire, the primal fire-essence, and chaotic force.