A Man Like None Other (Jared Chance) novel Chapter 6555

And the sight of that woman made Jared go completely still.

Standing between the two massive male cultivators, she looked even more slender.

She wore a long dark-red dress, the hem embroidered with living flame patterns.

Her black hair streamed softly in the wind.

She was breathtakingly beautiful.

There was something in her face—an inborn nobility, a chill that kept the world at a distance. But her eyes were dark red, like burning coals, like blood-bright jewels with impossible depth, flashing with an eerie light in the morning sun.

The moment Jared saw her face, he went dead still.

He knew her.

Josephine.

The woman he'd never stopped carrying in his heart.

The woman who had been at his side from the very beginning, back in the mundane world.

The woman who had followed him from the mundane world all the way into the Ethereal Realm.

He wanted to get up.

He wanted to rush out.

He wanted to call her name.

But a hand clamped down hard on his shoulder.

Gwendolyn.

She wasn't using much force, but her hand felt like cast iron, pinning Jared's shoulder in place and refusing to let him move.

"Let go," Jared said, his voice so low only Gwendolyn could hear it.

"No."

"No."

Gwendolyn kept her voice just as low, but there was no arguing with it.

"Look at her carefully. Right now she's one of the demon race, and this is the Ember God Palace's territory. If you run out there now, you'll drag her down with you."

Jared went rigid.

She was right.

Josephine was with the demons now, and obviously not some ordinary figure among them.

Those two Golden Immortal Level Three demon cultivators stood half a step behind her. That alone said her status was above theirs.

Jared drew in a deep breath and forced the surge inside him back down.

Slowly, inch by inch, he loosened his grip on his sword.

But his eyes never left that dark-crimson figure.

Down in the valley, Josephine's appearance left everyone stunned.

The celestial cultivators took one look at their comrades' bodies on the ground, then at Josephine and the two Golden Immortal third-tier cultivators standing behind her, and for the first time, fear broke across their faces.

Golden Immortal third tier.

In the Eighteenth Firmament, that level might not have meant the very top.

But to low-ranking celestial cultivators like these, it was overwhelming enough to crush them without effort.

And there weren't just one or even two Golden Immortals.

There was also a woman none of them could read at all.

"Fall back!" one of the celestial cultivators shouted, then spun and ran.

The rest broke with him.

They threw down their weapons, abandoned the bodies of their own companions, and bolted for the way out of the valley basin.

Josephine didn't go after them.

She didn't even spare the fleeing celestial cultivators a glance.

Her gaze moved across the valley basin and settled on the demon cultivators sprawled across the ground, dead and grievously wounded.

A slight crease touched her brow.

Then she raised her right hand, and a dark-red primal fire gathered in her palm.

It was small, no bigger than a fist.

But the power packed inside that flame hit Jared even from far away, hard enough to make his heart jolt.

Golden Immortal second tier? Third? Or even higher?

Josephine's cultivation was far beyond anything he'd expected.

She flicked the primal fire into the air.

It burst apart overhead, splitting into dozens of fine threads of flame that dropped with terrifying precision onto every injured demon cultivator.

The fire didn't burn them.

Instead, each thread dissolved into warm spiritual power that poured into their meridians and began repairing the damage inside them.

The caved-in hollow in the bald giant's chest filled back out before the eye could miss it.

Broken ribs knit together. His internal injuries closed just as fast.

That aura felt like—

No. That couldn't be right. How could that aura possibly appear in the Eighteenth Firmament?

She gave a slight shake of her head and forced the thought away.

Impossible.

He couldn't be here.

She drew in a breath, turned, and launched herself into the air.

Her dark-crimson figure carved a clean arc across the sky, then vanished above the valley basin.

Two Golden Immortal demon cultivators shot after her.

Three streaks of dark-red radiance vanished into the distance, leaving the valley basin in ruins.

The bald giant finished clearing the battlefield with the remaining demon cultivators, then heaved the Lava Lion King's corpse onto his shoulder and staggered toward the mouth of the valley basin.

Before long, silence settled over the valley basin again.

All that remained were the blood-smeared ground, shattered arms, and a few celestial corpses left behind.

Behind the distant scree heap, Gwendolyn finally lifted her hand from Jared's shoulder.

Jared rose slowly.

His gaze stayed fixed on the dark-red radiance that had already disappeared beyond the horizon, and something turbulent rolled through his violet eyes.

"She didn't see us," Gwendolyn said softly beside him. "Or maybe she did, but she wasn't sure."

Jared said nothing.

He knew that last glance Josephine had thrown toward the scree heap wasn't because she'd discovered them.

It was because she had sensed his aura.

They had been too close.

But she hadn't recognized him.

Not because she couldn't.

Because she hadn't dared believe it.

Josephine probably couldn't bring herself to believe he had already reached the Eighteenth Firmament.

And Jared couldn't make sense of it either—how was Josephine in the Eighteenth Firmament?

If Josephine was here too, then what about Skylar?

Why hadn't Skylar appeared with her this time?