The King Of Warriors novel (Jared Chance) novel Chapter 6402

"In the next breath, the violent spatial turbulence slowly settled.

Everyone landed on solid footing, their boots steady beneath them, and the world around them had become the vast, barren expanse of the Epean Wastes."

What hit them first was a rolling wave of heat, followed by the sharp, choking stink of sulfur.

"A dry, scorching gale shrieked past them.

It swept up countless flecks of fine crimson sand, and the grit struck their robes with a constant rasping hiss."

"As far as the eye could reach, the world stretched bleak and empty.

Not a blade of grass grew there. Cracked blackened earth and burning volcanic stone covered the ground, leaving only dead silence and not the slightest sign of life."

"At the far end of the horizon, a colossal volcano towered up from the land.

Its entire body burned a deep red, its rock walls split into savage cracks, layer upon layer of volcanic stone stacked like scars, breathing out destruction and violence."

From the enormous mouth at the summit, thick black smoke kept surging upward, blotting out the sky.

"The dense smoke coiled overhead and stained the whole sky a dark, sunken red.

The weight of it pressed down on everything beneath it."

"Through countless chasms in the mountain, red-hot molten fire crept in slow streams.

It wound down the rock face, dropped to the ground, and burned up into bursts of white smoke."

"From deep underground came the faint roar of molten fire rushing through the earth.

The ground trembled slightly, and every moment, without pause, the place gave off a terrifying heat that seemed ready to burn the sky and scorch the land flat."

"The air was so dry and hot it seemed to leave no room for breath.

Every inhale was like dragging blazing fire into the body, searing the throat and lungs on the way down."

If ordinary cultivators failed to circulate spiritual power to shield themselves, the heat would scorch them within moments and drain their spiritual power dry.

"Far in the distance, a gigantic black prison sat embedded in the belly of the volcano.

Its barriers were severe and heavily guarded, and deathly stillness clung to it."

That was the final destination of this journey—Ashenbrand Gaol.

"Danger waited everywhere.

Killing intent filled the air, and that desperate prison cage now stood right before them."

"Jared slowly crouched and touched the scorching volcanic gravel underfoot with his fingertips.

Heat seeped through his skin at once."

"His expression did not shift.

He calmly drew the fine, detailed map from his robe and placed his fingertip with exact precision on twelve faint motes of light around the outer mountain foot."

"The twelve ringward outposts of Ashenbrand Gaol are arranged around the perimeter, some open and some hidden, each supporting the others. Every outpost has a garrison of 100 men."

"They are reinforced by alarm arrays and the Saintlight Ward. If any one of them sends out an alert, the whole Ashenbrand Gaol will go on full guard in an instant and seal off every entrance and exit."

"Once that happens, the difficulty of a frontal assault will multiply several times over."

"Before the celestials notice anything wrong and pass along the alarm, we have to remove all twelve outposts without a sound."

"We kill every garrison cultivator on the perimeter, cut off every warning channel, and strike perfectly, leaving the enemy no chance to react."

Jared's gaze held a cold edge as he finished.

"Nathaniel's brow pulled tight.

His eyes moved over the dense spread of outposts marked across the map, and his face grew strained."

"The twelve outposts are scattered all around Mount Cinderfall. The distances are too great, and they are separated from one another."

"If we split up, our forces will be spread too thin. They could break us one group at a time."

"If we gather our strength and attack them one by one, we will be too slow. The longer we drag it out, the more certain it becomes that our tracks will be exposed and the alarm triggered."

"The allied host cannot be divided that far. There is no way to clear them all at the same time."

"There is no need for the whole army to move, and no need for simultaneous attacks."

"Jared slowly folded the map away and rose to his feet.

Violet chaotic force moved in silence around him, and every trace of his aura drew inward until nothing leaked out."

"His whole body seemed to sink into the sweltering dark around him.

No sound. No presence."

"He lifted his eyes toward the volcanic outposts stretching across the distance.

When he spoke, his voice came out flat."

"The twelve outposts. 1,200 celestial cultivators. Me alone is enough."

"It was only one simple sentence, spoken without a ripple.

Yet it carried the weight of someone standing above every rival in sight, and it struck through everyone present hard enough to make their hearts jolt."

"Nathaniel's pupils snapped tight in an instant.

His face made it clear he could not take the words in, and his voice broke out before he could hold it back."

"You alone? The twelve outposts span 100 miles of territory. Their defenses are tight, their wards are layered, and more than 1,000 troops are stationed there. None of them are weak."

"With only your own strength, how could you wipe them all out quickly? That's too reckless!" Nathaniel still had the look of a man who could not accept a single word of it.

Slowly, he drew the Dragonslayer Sword from his back."

The long, pitch-black blade gave off a faint cold gleam beneath the dim sky.

"A vast, dense surge of violet chaotic force poured into the blade like a tide.

It coiled, circulated, and wrapped over the sword in layer after layer."

"The overwhelming chaos-wrought resonance stayed locked inside, giving off nothing beyond the blade itself.

Not even the slightest ripple of spiritual essence stirred."

"He lifted his wrist just a fraction and swept his arm out.

The motion flowed cleanly from start to finish, without the smallest wasted drag."

A violet chaos-wrought blade-flare, compressed to its absolute limit and thin as a strand of hair, cut through the void without a sound.

"No heaven-shaking phenomenon erupted.

No deafening roar followed. It did not even stir a breath of air."

Utterly contained. Utterly lethal.

Tss—

Only one faint, splinter-thin sound slipped out, so soft it nearly failed to exist before the roaring wind swallowed it whole.

The violet blade-flare pierced the entire outpost in an instant, sweeping with flawless precision across the fatal point between every celestial cultivator's brows.

The next second, all 100 celestial cultivators in the outpost froze at once.

"Their eyes flew wide. Their pupils snapped tight.

The cold, guarded look of patrol duty still clung to their faces, but every trace of life had already been stripped from their bodies."

Inside them, the saintlight nascence, the spiritual meridians, and the soul-root foundation were all broken down, torn apart, and dissolved in a single instant by the chaotic force.

Chaotic force countered the Myriad Arts. The holy light the celestials took such pride in turned pitifully fragile before pure chaotic nascence.

It was like snow meeting a raging fire, melting and collapsing the moment they touched.

In the span of a single breath, the 100-man garrison had fallen to the last.

Then, one after another, the bodies of the celestial cultivators began to fade, turning into shattered motes of golden holy radiance that drifted away on the wind.

They dissolved into the scorching air, leaving behind not one drop of blood, not one complete corpse.

Clean. Precise. Savage to the extreme.

From start to finish, there had been only silence. No one screamed. No one called for help. Not even the thinnest alarm escaped the outpost.