Chapter 5504

Jared ignored the rising panic behind him. His right hand lifted from the stone recess, bringing with it the half-man-tall Soul Urn.

A thread of Black-White Flame danced at his fingertip. With almost casual grace, he touched it to the vessel’s clay skin.

The flame looked fragile, a candle flicker-yet power rumbled inside it like a star held in cupped palms.

Soul-engraved runes webbing the urn split apart with a brittle crack. Pale blue soul threads seeped out, drifting upward, and the instant they tasted open air, they scattered like spooked sparrows, fleeing into the distance.

They were only remnants, spirits torn from former owners, now weightless and lost, drifting on invisible currents in search of a home they would never find.

“S-Soul threads…” the white-haired elder whispered, voice quavering with disbelief.

In a single breath, he grasped the awful truth: everything Jared had warned them about was real. Their so-called advancement had been nothing more than the siphoning of their very souls.