A Man Like None Other (Jared Chance) novel Chapter 6750

The fissure remained black as ink, its edges smooth as a mirror. No light escaped it, and not the slightest aura stirred. It was as quiet as any ordinary crack in the rock.

Appearances were deceptive. This unremarkable split in the rock had claimed countless Ghost Clan lives.

Holding his breath, Jared circulated his chaotic force and extended his spirit sense.

Chaotic force was the source to which all laws returned, allowing him to perceive every law and aura in existence. But the instant his spirit sense touched the fissure, it vanished as if cast into a bottomless sea. Nothing at all came back.

Jared's heart tightened. The fissure was every bit as extraordinary as he had expected. It could even block spirit-sense probes.

At that moment, faint footsteps sounded in the distance.

Jared immediately withdrew his spirit sense and lay motionless among the wraithgrass.

Three black-robed Ghost Clan cultivators came into view. They were escorting a young Ghost Clan woman toward the fissure.

She appeared no more than 16 or 17. Her face was ashen, and her eyes overflowed with despair and terror as she cried without stopping, "I don't want to go! I don't want to be sacrificed! Please, let me go!"

One of her escorts, a middle-aged Ghost Clan cultivator, answered in a voice as hard as iron. "Quiet! This is clan law. Your turn has come, and that is your fate. Struggling won't change anything. It will only make this more painful."

"Clan law? What gives you the right to uphold it with my life?"

She fought their grip and sank her nails into the middle-aged man's arm. "My parents are still waiting at home! I want to live! How can you decide my fate for me?"

"What gives us the right? You are a member of the Ghost Clan, and the Nether Abyss can remain at peace only if someone is sacrificed."

An elderly cultivator spoke next, weary numbness in his voice. "Three thousand years ago, the Abyssal Lord halted the sacrifices. The resulting eruption of nether energy killed nearly 1,000 people. Do you think we want to do this? We have no choice."

"If it must be done, why aren't any of you offering your own lives?"

Tears streamed down the woman's pallid cheeks as she wailed, "I'm still young! There is so much I haven't done! I don't want to vanish into the darkness!"

The elderly cultivator said nothing more. He merely waved a hand. The middle-aged cultivator and their younger companion hoisted the woman up and dragged her to the fissure.

She fought desperately to pull back. Her feet scraped white trails across the rock, but she could not overpower two grown cultivators. In the end, they shoved her brutally into the fissure.

"Aah!"

A piercing scream came from within, but it lasted for only an instant before disappearing completely, swallowed cleanly by the darkness.

The fissure remained still and silent, as if nothing had happened.

For a short while, her three captors remained at the opening without speaking. Then they departed.

Their backs looked slightly stooped. Their faces betrayed nothing, but a trace of heaviness lay buried deep in their eyes.

Jared waited until all three were well out of sight before easing upright among the wraithgrass.

He walked to the fissure and looked down into the black abyss, anger and uncertainty churning in his violet eyes.

The young woman's scream still rang clearly in his ears.

Yet not a sound of struggle had escaped the fissure, nor had any aura leaked out. It seemed to be a bottomless void capable of devouring all life and sound.

Jared reached out and brushed a fingertip against its edge.

This aura... Jared's heart stirred. He immediately circulated his chaotic force, wrapped it around the alien presence, and examined it closely.

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