A Man Like None Other (Jared Chance) novel Chapter 6545

"Chief Preceptor," Cedric Vale said with a cupped-fist salute, his voice trembling slightly. "You sensed it?"

"The Aureate Codex."

Master Alaric Vale's voice was calm as still water, yet it made everyone's hearts pound. "I sensed its aura. It's on a youth in the Godfall Wastes."

The Godfall Wastes.

That name made the people below the Cliff of Contemplation fall silent for a moment.

That was the site of the ancient war of the gods. Tens of thousands of years ago, countless Golden Immortal Realm cultivators had fallen there, and the lingering killing intent and resentment still hadn't dispersed. Spatial fissures covered the entire wasteland, capable of awakening slumbering ancient remnant souls at any moment.

It was one of the most dangerous forbidden grounds in the Eighteenth Firmament. Even Golden Immortal Level Four cultivators didn't dare venture deep inside lightly.

And the aura of the Aureate Codex was right in the center of that land of death.

"Grand Elder..." At that moment, a disciple leaned close to Cedric Vale's ear and whispered a few words.

Cedric Vale's brow furrowed, and his expression changed a little.

"What is it?" Master Alaric Vale asked.

"Chief Preceptor, both the Ember God Palace and the Abyssal Exchange have sent people to the Godfall Wastes. They're very likely after the Aureate Codex," Cedric Vale said.

"The Aureate Codex is an inheritance of the Aureate Way. It's only natural that other factions would have their eyes on it." Master Alaric Vale nodded.

"Chief Preceptor," Cedric Vale said after a brief hesitation, "the Godfall Wastes are too dangerous. How about I take some people there and bring that youth back?"

"No."

Master Alaric Vale shook his head, and a rare gravity appeared on his usually unreadable face. "You can't go. None of you can. If you move out in force, and so many factions clash head-on in the Godfall Wastes, then this won't just be a matter of fighting over an inheritance. It will become the first great war between powers in the Eighteenth Firmament in tens of thousands of years."

He paused, his gaze sweeping over the people below the cliff before finally settling on a young priest standing at the very back.

The priest looked barely in his early twenties. His features were refined, and there was a steadiness between his brows that didn't match his age.

He wore plain robes and had an unsheathed wooden sword hanging at his waist. There wasn't the slightest fluctuation of spiritual power from the blade. It looked like nothing more than an ordinary piece of peach wood.

But a closer look revealed that the wood grain on the sword faintly formed some kind of ancient sacred sigils. It was the Heavenly Wood Sword, long lost to the Aureate Way, forged from ten-thousand-year thunderstruck peach wood as its core and nurtured by the arts of the Way for a thousand years before it could be completed.

That was Adrian, the most outstanding disciple of his generation in the Aureate Way, a Golden Immortal Level Two.

"Adrian."

Master Alaric’s voice softened a fraction.

"Come here."

Adrian stepped out of the crowd and walked up onto the Cliff of Contemplation.

He stopped three paces in front of Master Alaric and bowed.

He said nothing.

He only waited.

Master Alaric studied him, and a flicker of approval passed through his eyes.

He had watched this child grow up, from a tiny novice of the Way to Golden Immortal Level Two in less than three thousand years.

In the Aureate Way, that pace was not the fastest.

But no one of this generation had foundations as solid as his, or a heart of the Way as steady.

More importantly, he was a man of few words, careful to the point of severity, and he never acted without certainty.

"Go to the Godfall Wastes and find the youth carrying the Aureate Codex."

Master Alaric spoke lightly, but every word landed with perfect clarity in Adrian’s ears.

"Do not make an enemy of him. Do not deliberately get close to him, either. The Aureate Codex chose him. That means heaven has already made its will known. All you need to do... is appear at his side when he needs help."

Adrian lifted his head and met Master Alaric’s gaze.

There was something in those clear eyes he had never seen before.

It was not anticipation.

At that moment, he still had no idea several factions already had their eyes on him.

They had been watching since the instant he set foot in the Eighteenth Firmament.

He took an elixir from his Storage Ring and swallowed it.

As it dissolved in his stomach, spiritual power coursed once through his meridians and restored the chaotic force he had spent on the road.

The dark red wasteland stretched endlessly before him.

The light of the three blazing suns pulled his shadow and Gwendolyn’s long across the sand, dragging them into two warped black shapes.

He had already been crossing this wasteland for several hours.

Along the way, he had passed countless skeletons and battlefield ruins, while keeping his spirit sense spread to its limit so that not the slightest disturbance could escape him.

Gwendolyn stood at his side, her silver-white longsword already drawn three inches, a faint cold gleam flowing along the blade.

Her spirit sense was not as powerful as Jared’s, but the perception of the Frost Deity Branch still let her feel, faintly, that something was off.

"Someone's tracking us," she said softly, her gaze fixed on a point deep in the Wastelands.

"Mm."

Jared nodded. In his violet eyes, several golden motes streaked fast across the horizon.

"Three peak Golden Immortal Level Three fighters, with thirty Golden Immortal Level Ones behind them. They're still 800 miles out. At their speed, they'll catch us in less than ten minutes."

His voice stayed calm. He'd sensed them long before she had.

They weren't strong enough to matter, so Jared hadn't bothered worrying about them.

Gwendolyn turned to look at him, her white robes stark against the dark red wasteland.

There was no fear in her eyes. Just the faintest trace of helpless amusement, a shallow curve at the corner of her mouth.

"Golden Immortal Level Three again?"