A Man Like None Other (Jared Chance) novel Chapter 6548

At the edge of the Godfall Wastes, the dark red sand had begun to thin.

Gray-brown rock broke through the ground in patches, with only a few scattered blades of dead grass clinging to life.

Jared and Gwendolyn had walked for a full day.

Behind them, the wasteland had shrunk to a dark red line on the horizon. Ahead, the outline of a city flickered in and out through the falling dusk.

The city wasn't large. Its walls were built from black volcanic stone, rising about 30 yards high, and every 100 yards an arrow tower stood watch with dim yellow fire burning at the top.

Above the city gate, three ancient characters had been carved into the stone—Rookfire.

There weren't many cultivators coming and going through the gate. Most looked like wandering cultivators, dressed in arcane robes of every color, low-grade arcane implements and satchels of holding hanging at their waists.

Their cultivation was generally below the True Immortal Realm.

Now and then, one or two at True Immortal Realm Levels One and Two passed by, and even that already counted as the strongest presence in the city.

"Rookfire," Gwendolyn read off the name above the gate.

Her gaze swept over the walls. "Interesting name."

"This is the Flame Deity Branch's territory. A city with fire in its name isn't strange." Jared glanced at the guards by the gate. Just a few True Immortal Realm cultivators—not even one Golden Immortal among them. They posed no threat to him at all.

He was just about to step into the city when a woman's voice called out from behind him.

"Mr. Chance, a moment."

The voice wasn't loud, but it carried clearly.

It had a carefully measured ease to it—enough to stop someone without sounding abrupt, enough to be polite without sounding forced.

Jared stopped.

He didn't turn around right away.

His spirit sense had already locked onto the source of the voice.

Thirty yards behind him, a woman in a blue-gray dress was walking toward them from the direction of the Godfall Wastes.

She wasn't moving too fast or too slow. Her steps were light, the hem of her dress dragging shallow marks across the dark red sand.

Her face was clear and delicate, untouched by powder. Her long hair had been pinned up casually with a wooden hairpin, with a few loose strands stirring in the wind.

Taken as a whole, she looked plain in the cleanest possible way.

Like an ordinary female wandering cultivator who had spent too long crossing the wilds—dusty from the road, but still somehow composed.

But Jared's violet eyes rested on her for a single beat, and that was all it took for him to see what was wrong.

Her cultivation fluctuations sat around Golden Immortal Level One—neither high nor low, exactly the level of someone who could move along the edge of the Godfall Wastes without drawing too much attention.

But those fluctuations were too steady.

Steady to the point of manipulation. The rise and fall of spiritual power between every breath was exactly the same, and on a real cultivator, that was almost impossible.

More importantly, her aura matched perfectly with that same trace he had caught after the fight—that unmistakable merchant smell.

She was the one who had hidden inside the distorted chamber and watched from the shadows.

Claire walked up to Jared and stopped five steps away.

It was a very deliberate distance.

Close enough not to feel cold, far enough not to feel rude.

She didn't rush to speak. Instead, she bent first and gently set a satchel of holding on the ground by Jared's feet.

The motion was natural, almost casual.

As if she were just setting down an ordinary bundle by the roadside.

"The Abyssal Exchange wishes to make friends with Mr. Chance. A small gift to mark the meeting."

She said it simply, in an even tone, without unnecessary courtesy or flattery.

There was even a distribution map of the spatial fissures inside the Godfall Wastes. Their locations, sizes, and activity cycles were marked in astonishing detail, and some areas carried extra notes—"This fissure connects to the slumbering ground of ancient remnant souls. Approach carries risk."

The value of this map couldn't be measured in spirit stones.

Any map of the Eighteenth Firmament sold on the open market would, at best, show the rough locations of a few major sects. This was on an entirely different level.

This one was more like someone had laid the Eighteenth Firmament's hidden hand faceup right in front of Jared.

Beyond the jade slip, there was the silver-white token.

It was about the size of his palm. On the front was an engraved treasure ship cutting through the void, the lines smooth and alive, the sails swollen as if the vessel might sail straight out of the token at any moment.

On the back was the Abyssal Exchange's mark—a whirlpool formed from nine arcs, with an ancient character for "void" at its center.

A faint silver glow moved across the token's surface. Jared could feel an exquisitely refined law of space sealed within it, linked to one of the Abyssal Exchange's formations. In a life-or-death moment, the holder could activate it and be sent directly back to one of the Exchange's safe zones.

It was a guest elder token from the Abyssal Exchange.

And judging from the material and the complexity of the sigils, it wasn't low-ranking. At the very least, it stood just below the chapter master's level.

Jared turned the token over in his palm and went silent for a moment.

Gwendolyn leaned in for a look, surprise flickering through her eyes. "A guest elder token from the Abyssal Exchange? They're trying to win you over?"

"Not win me over." Jared put the token and the jade slip back into the satchel of holding and tied it at his waist. "They're setting a long line and waiting for a big fish."

"What do you mean?"

"A map. A token. No demands attached. They didn't even leave a name. It's too clean." He let that sit a beat. "So clean you'd feel guilty refusing it."

Jared lifted his eyes toward the direction Claire had gone, but that blue-gray figure had already vanished into the dusk of the Godfall Wastes. "The moment you accept the gift, you owe them a favor. And once you owe a favor, sooner or later, you pay it back."

"Then you're still taking it?"

"I need the map." Jared paused. "As for the token... I'll keep it for now. Whether I use it is another matter."

He turned and headed for Rookfire, with Gwendolyn falling into step beside him.