A Man Like None Other (Jared Chance) novel Chapter 6035

Jared’s voice cooled to bare steel. "Now we can have a real conversation."

His gaze never blinked. "Tell me everything you know—celestials, soul crystals, the Heaven-Ascending Path, the Grand Venerable, Primal Origin Breath—leave nothing out."

Celestial Metal Venerable answered with a broken laugh. "Go ahead and kill me. The moment I touch those secrets, the seal in my soul triggers. Body and spirit together—gone. You’ll get nothing."

Jared’s lip bent into a chill curve. "We’ll see."

He summoned a thread of chaotic force, finer than silk yet purer than molten ore, and guided it into the hidden chambers of Celestial Metal Venerable’s soul toward the dim golden sigil lurking there.

The instant gray met gold, the sigil flared, ready to blow.

Gray light blazed in Jared’s pupils. The single thread split into a lattice of countless filaments, wrapping the rune the way fresh leaves wrap sticky rice.

Szz-szz-szz.

Pale gray nibbled at fierce gold. The rune thrashed, tried to erupt, but the net of chaos pressed tighter, grinding each stroke of golden script.

A muffled groan punched from Celestial Metal Venerable’s chest. Thin golden blood trickled from nose, ears, and eyes.

The silent struggle dragged on. Only after the long span of an incense stick did time feel ready to move again.

A full stick of incense burned away.

A faint pop snapped through the charged hush, brief as a bubble bursting.

A beat later, the air quivered with a barely audible crackle—the exact note of a thin film giving way.

Deep inside Celestial Metal Venerable’s soul, the golden seal rune dimmed, fissured, and collapsed into dust-gray motes.

The chaotic force kept grinding, refusing to let go until every last trace of the sigil lay erased.

"The seal… it’s gone?" Celestial Metal Venerable’s voice slipped out as a thin rasp, more breath than sound.

He felt the phantom blade that had hovered over his spirit vanish, and the hollow it left chilled him even deeper.

Someone standing before him had just unraveled a soul lock planted personally by the Grand Venerable—an impossibility he could neither grasp nor deny.

Opposite him, Jared’s face turned a shade paler, exhaustion flickering beneath eyes that still cut like blades.

He held that glare steady. "Now—talk."

Strength drained away, Celestial Metal Venerable folded onto the floorboards. The fight in him was gone.

"What… what do you want to know?"

"Everything." Jared answered with a single, unyielding syllable.

After a fraught pause, Celestial Metal Venerable began, voice raw.

"The Eastern Region Divine Punishment Hall is only one of five strongholds the celestials raised on level thirteen."

"East, south, west, north, and center—each domain keeps its own hall with a Grand Venerable in command."

"The five of us were merely the Eastern hall’s enforcers."

"The Grand Venerable lives deep within the Divine Punishment Sanctuary on the Central Heaven-Origin Sacred Continent. There, an entrance to the Heaven-Ascending Path is kept under guard."

"The Heaven-Ascending Path…"

Awe and dread twitched across his eyes.

"That corridor connects the world above to level thirteen. The celestials rule here and harvest soul crystals for one reason—keeping that passage stable and delivering periodic offerings upward."

"Offerings?"

Jared pressed, "What exactly lies above? Is it only your clan chief? If resources are needed, why not carry them up directly instead of feeding that path?"

Celestial Metal Venerable shook his head. "I don’t know. Only the Grand Venerable holds that secret. We simply enforce—suppress resistance, gather high-grade soul crystals."

"Soul crystals are refined from special spirits. The stronger or rarer the soul, the higher the crystal’s grade and the better it sustains the path and the tribute."

"Materials can’t be ferried straight to higher realms. The laws forbid it; if anyone could strip lower worlds at will, those worlds would perish."

"There’s a loophole," he added, a bleak laugh catching in his throat. "The Heaven-Ascending Path slips past those laws and their scrutiny."

Hearing that, Jared froze. He had never pictured the celestials—so proud of their purity—using a crack in the rules to pull off petty theft.

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