A Man Like None Other (Jared Chance) novel Chapter 6755

Elder Nether stared, his pupils tightening. "You've... heard of that man?"

"I made some inquiries."

Jared descended the steps and stopped before Elder Nether. "That madman escaped because he had lost his mind."

Elder Nether's brow knitted sharply. "Because he was mad? What do you mean?"

"There is something inside the fissure," Jared explained.

"Gray fog, bone puppets assembled from bones, and illusion arrays layered one upon another.

"The bone puppets aren't what truly prevents people from escaping. It's the arrays.

"Each one encloses another, conjuring a person's deepest fears and obsessions until they become lost and can never find the way out.

"Almost everyone who enters either dies at the hands of the bone puppets or remains trapped until their spiritual energy runs dry."

His gaze swept across everyone present. "But that madman was different. Terror destroyed his sanity soon after he entered.

"His spirit sense fell into such chaos that the illusion arrays could no longer interfere with him properly.

"That allowed him to pass through them and find the exit, although he could never regain his sanity afterward."

Elder Nether lapsed into silence.

The three escorts exchanged looks. Uncertainty entered the middle-aged cultivator's voice. "Then... how did she get out? Did she go mad too?"

"She was fortunate."

Jared said, "We entered shortly after she was sent in, before Iris had been killed. We held off the bone puppets and led her through the illusion arrays."

Elder Nether regarded Jared for a long time.

His blue eyes held a tangle of emotions: shock, suspicion, an indefinable relief, and the faint dawning realization of someone who had finally found an answer.

"Come with me."

Elder Nether turned and lifted the curtain. His voice remained low and rasping. "I have questions I must ask you alone."

Jared glanced at Gwendolyn. She nodded slightly, telling him not to worry.

Jared went through the entrance behind the elder.

The curtain dropped behind them, shutting out the muted red light and the noisy voices outside.

Elder Nether returned to his black stone stool. In the gloom, his stooped figure resembled a sculpture frozen in time.

Only after a long silence did he rasp, "That fissure... Do you know what lies inside it?"

"A demonic soul lies dormant there."

Jared continued, "Or rather, it used to be one. It has been consuming the souls of the sacrifices to restore itself."

A slight shudder passed through Elder Nether's frame.

The elder gripped his knees and waited a long while before voicing the question. "Is it... awake now?"

"Yes."

Jared nodded. "But it hasn't fully recovered. Its power remains weak, and it can only control bones assembled into puppets to guard the fissure.

"If it ever recovers completely... it may devour the entire Nether Abyss."

The elder shut his eyes.

The muted red light deepened every wrinkle in his face. He resembled an ancient sheet of paper folded and unfolded countless times, 10,000 years of weight and exhaustion carved into every crease.

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