A Man Like None Other (Jared Chance) novel Chapter 6082

Night had not fallen, yet the mountainside looked darker than dusk.

Flames, blood, and drifting ash turned the slope into something that felt borrowed from a lower hell.

Everywhere Jared looked, pilgrims sprawled across broken flagstones.

Their limbs twitched, voices cracked into sobs and prayers that dissolved into raw screams.

Ribbons of crimson light tugged at their chests.

The blood essence tore free, gathered into thin streams, and arrowed uphill toward the summit.

Bodies with little cultivation shriveled in seconds, skin clinging to bone.

Those with deeper reserves knelt shaking, hands digging at the ground while they tried and failed to hold their life inside.

Overhead, eight pillars of blood-red radiance locked together, forming a cage that wrapped the entire Sacred Mountain.

Between those pillars, energy braided itself into chains.

Each link pulsed, tightening the prison even as more blood threads joined the weave.

Jared followed the lattice with his eyes until the pattern vanished in clouds above the peak.

Cold light settled behind his gaze.

He flared into motion again, a single streak climbing the same invisible paths the blood took, driving straight for the summit.

The higher he flew, the heavier the pull.

Blood-red mist thickened, trying to claw heat from his veins.

The chaotic force inside him swallowed each tug before it could bite.

At mid-slope, the haze condensed into resistance thick as mud.

Without that same chaotic core, even he might have begun to bleed.

A sudden cluster of silhouettes stepped out of the storm ahead.

They spread shoulder-to-shoulder across the ledge and blocked the ascent.

Their leader, a white-haired elder in a gold celestial robe, stood motionless.

His breath ran deep and tidal—Top Level High Immortal Realm Level Eight.

Twelve gilded celestial generals arranged themselves behind him.

Each one carried High Immortal Realm Level Six or Level Seven power that rolled off their armor in metallic waves.

"Halt," the elder said, voice calm enough to be mistaken for courtesy.

He added, "The Sacred Mountain is restricted.

Strangers keep out."

No threat, just fact.

Jared stopped mid-air and let silence hang a beat.

"You celestials lured pilgrims here for blood sacrifice.

You butcher thousands.

Does your Celestial Palace think no sky judges that crime?"

The elder allowed himself a small laugh.

"Sky judgment?

Inside the Fourteenth Firmament, the Palace is the sky.

And you—Jared from level thirteen, correct?"

Jared's brow rose.

"So you recognize me."

"Naturally."

The elder stroked his beard, still casual.

"You broke the Skyreach Path, slew a Grand Venerable, sent an Envoy fleeing.

The Hall Master remembers names that loud.

He asked us to recruit you if possible."

He paused, then made the offer clear.

"Join the Celestial Palace.

With your talent, you'd reach True Immortal inside a century.

Why die for the ants of the Lower Realm?"

Jared's smile showed teeth.

"Recruit me so one day you can drain me like these pilgrims?

Not interested."

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