The King Of Warriors novel (Jared Chance) novel Chapter 6257

Jared forced himself back to his feet. Cold sweat kept breaking out across his forehead from the stabbing pain in his chest, but he still shook his head.

"I won't die."

He lowered his eyes to the monster's corpse on the ground.

Something complicated passed through his gaze.

A fused monster at the peak of True Immortal Realm Level Three...

If Lydia hadn't cut it down with that last strike, he would have been the one left here today.

"Where's the Basilica Elder?"

Something hit Jared all at once, and he snapped his head up.

The end of the passage was empty.

Cedric was gone.

"He ran the second you drove your sword through the monster's chest."

Luther's voice came from behind them, edged with regret. "I'll go after him—"

He hadn't finished speaking when a scream suddenly tore in from the distance.

That voice... it was Cedric's.

Jared's stride hitched for a split second. Then he forced down the pain tearing through his chest and rushed toward the sound.

Luther followed right behind him.

The three of them pushed through the passage and came out on the other side of the vale.

The moment Jared saw what was waiting there, his steps stopped hard.

Cedric's body lay on the ground.

A thin line of blood cut across his throat, and fresh blood was still slowly seeping from the wound.

His eyes were stretched wide.

That look was still frozen on his face too—something between shock and disbelief, like even at the very end, he still couldn't accept that this was where he'd die.

Lydia stood beside the corpse.

Blood was still dripping from the wraithblade in her hand.

Her face gave nothing away.

If anything, it looked almost cold.

"He tried to run," Lydia said. "So I killed him."

Jared stayed quiet for a moment before he spoke.

"I... wanted to leave him alive."

Lydia turned and looked at him. "What for? Keeping someone like that alive would only bring trouble."

Jared said nothing.

He couldn't.

He couldn't tell her the only reason he'd wanted to keep Cedric alive was because he still needed him to control the soul-returning array and release Sidney and his wife's remnant souls.

But now...

Cedric was dead.

Jared turned and looked toward the stone dais at the end of the passage.

It had already been blown apart. The soul-returning array had been completely destroyed in the fight just now, its complicated markings shattered into countless pieces scattered across the ground, beyond repair.

Something in him dropped straight to the bottom.

"Jared?"

Lydia caught the change in him at once and frowned. "What is it?"

Jared didn't answer. He only reached into his robes and slowly took out the soul crystal.

Inside the soul crystal, the two streaks of white light had dimmed even further.

They drifted more and more slowly, then slower still, like two exhausted souls on the verge of stopping altogether.

Jared's fingers trembled slightly.

The Celestial Basilica had been wiped out. The soul-returning array had been destroyed. Cedric was dead too.

Sidney and his wife's remnant souls...

She paused, then added, "And there are very few stories about the Celestial Palace. In the Fourteenth Firmament, a lot of cultivators don't even believe it really exists."

"Some say it's just a legend the celestials made up to glorify themselves. Some say the Celestial Palace died out tens of thousands of years ago. And some say it's actually been there this whole time, except its disciples never show their true faces, keep an extremely low profile, and never take part in any conflict in the Fourteenth Firmament."

Jared frowned. "Wasn't the Celestial Basilica and the Celestial Hall part of the celestials too? They didn't know the Celestial Palace's exact location either?"

Evelyn shook her head. "The Celestial Hall, the Celestial Basilica, and the Celestial Palace were all called the three great branches of the celestials, but the Celestial Palace had always kept to itself. It barely had any contact with the other two branches.

"The Celestial Hall and the Celestial Basilica stood in the open. They founded sects across the Fourteenth Firmament and took in disciples far and wide. The Celestial Palace stayed in the shadows, hidden beyond the world, never involving itself in mortal affairs."

Jared fell quiet for a moment.

This was a lot more troublesome than he'd expected.

At first, he'd assumed the Celestial Palace was like the Celestial Basilica, a well-known power in the Fourteenth Firmament that he could find just by asking around.

Only now did he realize that the Celestial Palace itself was a mystery, one even the celestials didn't seem to understand all that well.

"But..."

Something seemed to click for Evelyn. Her eyes brightened a little. "There was one line in that damaged scroll. I can't remember it clearly, but it said something like, 'The Celestial Palace hides beyond the farthest north, past the snowfields. Only those with fate can enter its gates.'"

"If that record was right, then the Celestial Palace should be even deeper past the northernmost reaches of the Fourteenth Firmament, farther than anywhere anyone has ever gone."

"Beyond the farthest north..." Jared repeated under his breath.

Lydia cut in. "When I was in the Fifteenth Firmament, I did hear people mention something. They said the northernmost edge of the Fourteenth Firmament had a stretch of ice plains called Return to the Void. That was the end of the Fourteenth Firmament. Beyond that was the void.

"Supposedly, gale winds blew across those ice plains all year long, cold enough to freeze a soul to pieces. Even cultivators at the opening stage of the True Immortal Realm wouldn't dare go too deep. If the Celestial Palace is really there..."

She didn't finish, but the meaning was plain enough. If the Celestial Palace was really hidden in a place like that, then the danger waiting for Jared on this trip was far beyond what he'd imagined.

Jared carefully tucked the soul crystals back into his robe.

His gaze settled, steady and unmoving.

"No matter where the Celestial Palace is, he was going."

Jared's voice stayed quiet.

There wasn't a trace of room to argue with him.

Lydia frowned. "I'm going with you."