The King Of Warriors novel (Jared Chance) novel Chapter 6381

Jared and Gwendolyn traveled north the entire way, riding the air without stopping.

They flew like that for three days and three nights straight.

The eastern region had always been a land of broad open fields and city walls stretching one after another.

Even where mountains and rivers cut across the land, the terrain was usually open, gentle hills, with cultivators constantly coming and going, and a thick, lively pulse of everyday life everywhere.

But the northern region was nothing like it.

The moment they crossed into the northern region, the spiritual essence in the world turned sharper.

The wind carried the bitter scent of grass and trees, with a faint trace of something ancient hidden underneath it, and even the sunlight seemed to thin out.

The farther north they went, the denser the forest trees became.

The mountains rose harsher too, growing steeper with every stretch.

At first, they could still spot traces of wandering cultivators moving through the mountain hollows.

Most of those cultivators wore rough cloth and fitted travel gear, with herb baskets or weapons strapped to their backs.

They moved through the woods on guard, and it was plain enough what had brought them here: spirit herbs and rare heavenly treasures found only in the northern region.

Every now and then, a few small market towns appeared as well, tucked between the vales.

The towns were small.

Most of the buildings were wooden, and cooking smoke drifted up in thin curls.

The townsfolk mostly lived off the mountains.

There was something rough and plain in their faces, the kind that belonged to people from the northern region.

When they saw Jared and Gwendolyn—two cultivators dressed far too well to be ordinary travelers, their auras steady and deep—they only watched from a distance.

No one dared walk up and start a conversation.

But by noon on the second day, every trace of human life had vanished completely.

The hills underfoot gradually gave way to a boundless primeval forest.

As far as the eye could reach, there was nothing but ancient trees blotting out the sky.

There wasn't a single sign left of humankind having ever passed through here.

Even the wandering cultivators they had occasionally seen before were gone without a trace.

Those ancient trees were often dozens of yards tall, with trunks so thick it would have taken more than ten people to wrap their arms around one.

Their bark was split and weathered, covered in the marks of age, as if they had rooted themselves here back in some ancient era and watched age after age roll past.

Their crowns layered over one another and tangled together until the whole sky was sealed shut above them.

Sunlight could only struggle through the gaps between branches and leaves.

What little made it down scattered across the ground in shifting patches of light and shadow, swaying with the wind like countless tiny spirits in motion.

The forest floor was buried under a thick carpet of fallen leaves.

When they stepped on it, it gave way soft beneath their feet and answered with a dry rustling sound.

Other than that, there was nothing.

The forest was so quiet it turned wrong.

Wrong enough that the silence itself started pressing in on a person.

There were no crisp birdcalls. No waves of insects chattering back and forth. Even the rustle of leaves when the wind moved through them had thinned to something barely there.

It was like someone had hit mute on the forest, leaving only the faint sound of their clothes stirring as the two of them flew through the air.

Jared kept his spirit sense spread out in secret, covering several miles around them the whole time.

Within that range, he could clearly pick up countless faint presences hidden all through the forest.

Those presences were ancient.

Still.

They carried no trace of malice, yet there was a thin edge of wariness in them.

They hid deep in the roots underground. They hid inside the thick trunks. They hid among the twisting vines knotted over one another.

They were like a cluster of sleeping elders, and like pairs of eyes watching in silence at the same time, taking in every move Jared and Gwendolyn made.

Beside him, Gwendolyn's brows had been tightly drawn together from the moment she stepped into the primeval forest, and they had not eased once.

The icy divine radiance drifting around her had dimmed a good deal from its usual brilliance, and a faint strain showed on her face.

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