Its heat ran high enough to melt the protective spiritual power of a True Immortal Realm cultivator, yet inside his spirit well it stayed utterly quiet, like a sleeping
phoenix.
Jared drew his spirit sense back from the spirit well and turned his attention to his meridians instead.
Chaotic force flowed through his meridians like streams of purple rivers.
Wherever it passed, the tiny cracks along the meridian walls were repaired one by
one.
Under the steady nourishment of chaotic force, his body kept growing tougher and stronger.
The power packed into his flesh alone was enough to let him tear apart a True Immortal Realm Level Five enemy with his bare hands.
Then his attention settled on the Dragonyer Sword.
The swordy right beside him. Its scabbard looked in and ancient, and several fine cracks ran across the de.
Those were scars left behind by the spatial storm.
Jared reached out, wrapped his hand around the hilt, and sent a thread of chaotic force into the de.
Violet radiance ran from the hilt into the sword and stopped at the cracks.
Under the nourishment of that chaotic force, the cracks actually began to heal.
The change came painfully slow, so slow it was almost impossible to catch with the naked eye, but they were healing.
Something shifted in Jared''s gaze.
The Dragonyer Sword had followed him for years, from the mundane world all the way to the celestial realm, through battle after battle, until the wounds on its de had long since be too many to count.
He had always taken those scars as permanent. He hadn''t expected chaotic force to be able to repair it.
He poured more chaotic force into the sword.
Violet radiance swallowed the entire de, and the cracks across its surface began healing at a speed the eye could clearly follow.
One crack, then another, then a third...
In less than the time it took to drink a cup of tea, more than half of those fine fractures were gone.
Therger cracks were shrinking too. They still hadn''t fully closed, but the de already looked far better than before.
A low hum rose from the sword, as if it were answering its master''s power.
Jared opened his eyes and looked at the Dragonyer Sword in his hand.
The corner of his mouth lifted.
As Jared''s power kept flowing into the Dragonyer Sword, a sh of light burst out, and ra stepped from within the de.
"Master..." ra called out the moment she saw him, her whole face lit up.
Looking at ra''s soft, delicate appearance, Jared''s expression brightened too.
"ra, how''s your body doing?" Jared asked at once.
"I''m notpletely recovered, but I can still serve you, master."
Color rushed into ra''s face.
Jared knew exactly what she meant.
He grabbed ra in one pull and pinned her beneath him.
It had been a long time since ra had felt this kind of sensation.
Jared had been too rough, and ra''s body was still carrying injuries. By the time it was over, the color in her face had turned bad.
Jared brushed her cheek with a careful hand. "Don''t leave the Dragonyer Sword so easily again."
"Once this is done, I''ll help you recover properly. When you''re fully healed, it''ll still be plenty soon enough for you to serve me again."
ra nodded. "I just couldn''t bear watching master stay there by himself. I know master can''t go without a woman at his side to serve him. Otherwise, master will go crazy."
That pulled a flush onto Jared''s face. "It''s not that serious. It''s only been a few days since I did anything. I''m not going crazy over it..."
ra smiled and returned to the Dragonyer Sword.
Jaredid the sword across his knees and kept circting his chaotic force.
Violet radiance moved through the stone hall, throwing the Ghost n runes on the walls in and out of dim light.
In the stone hall next door, Gwendolyn hadn''t slept either.
She leaned by the window and looked toward Jared''s room. As that thick chaotic force kept washing over from that direction, somethingplicated flickered through her eyes.
Because she had heard a sound she couldn''t quite make sense of. She had never heard that kind of sound before, but it was strangely pleasant, enough to make her blood surge.
It was the sound between a man and a woman, the kind that reached straight in and hooked the soul.
Early the next morning, Jared and Gwendolyn went to the Council Hall.
ric already had the map and various healing elixirs prepared, and Lydia had been waiting there for some time.
Herplexion looked a little better than yesterday, but it was still pale. When she walked, she still needed the wall for support.
"Mr. Chance, there are two roads to the Shade Abyss." ric spread the map open and pointed to the two marked routes on it.
"The first is the shortcut, through the Blightmist Wood. The wood is
packed with demonic aura. It can corrode a cultivator''s spirit and anyone
below the True Immortal
Realm who enters will die foosure.
Even a True Immortal will suffer damage to the spirit if they stay inside too long. But this path cuts the travel time in half. You can reach the Shade Abyss in two days."
He pointed at the other line. "The second is the longer route, by way of ckstone
City. ckstone City is a neutral stronghold. It''s safe, but it takes longer—four
days."
Jared looked at the map and said nothing for a moment.
"We''ll go through the Blightmist Wood," Jared said.
ric''s face changed. "Mr. Chance, the demonic aura in that wood..."
"I know," Jared cut in. "My chaotic force suppresses all demonic aura. This is a good
chance to sharpen that suppression too."
ric parted his lips, clearly about to try again. But the moment his eyes met
Jared''s calm gaze, the words stopped there and went back down.
"Then... be careful." In the end, that was all he said.
Lydia walked over and held out a bundle to Jared.
"Dried food and some healing elixirs. For the road."
Jared took the bundle and looked straight into her eyes.
"Take care of your injuries. Wait for me toe back."
Lydia nodded and said nothing.
Jared turned and walked out of the Council Hall.
Gwendolyn followed behind him.
The two of them rose into the air and turned into streaks of light, flying toward the Blightmist Wood.
On the way there, Gwendolyn kept shooting Jared strange looks.
"Why are you looking at me like that?" Jared asked, bafflement written all over his
face.
"You look all refined and proper, but turns out you''re a damn beast..." Gwendolyn snapped.
That one line hit Jared so hard he just nked.
"Spell it out. How exactly am I a beast?" Jared stopped midair and turned to ask her.
"Lydia''s already hurt that badly, and you still messed with herst night. She looked even worse this morning." Gwendolyn had assumed the woman with Jaredst night had been Lydia.
Jared froze for a beat, then caught on almost at once. A grin suddenly broke across his face.
"You were listening outside my roomst night?"
"Who was listening? We were staying right next to each other. You two were so loud
I couldn''t not hear it."
Gwendolyn rolled her eyes.
"You''ve got me wrong. I wasn''t with Lydia at all. Lydia and I are clean. Nothing like
that has ever happened between us."
"Actually,st night it was..."
Jared told her about ra the Sword Spirit.
Then he added, in a helpless tone, "My cultivation''s been advancing too fast. The zing force inside me gets too strong, and there''s really nothing I can do about it. If I just let it keep burning, it''d be very easy for
me to lose control and suffer bacsh."
"ra''s still injured, but she saw what I was dealing with, so she still insisted on
staying with mest night..."
After hearing that, Gwendolyn realized she''d wrongly used him.
"I''m sorry. I didn''t know your body was dealing with something like that..."
"It''s fine. As long as the
misunderstanding''s cleared up. Yeah, I need a woman for this, but would never force any woman into And when I helped Lydia, it wasn''t because I was trying to do that with
her."
"Same goes for helping you. I wasn''t doing it because I wanted to do that with you
either. I''m just helping because that''s the kind of person I am..."
Jared said it like that, in and direct.