Chapter 5754

With Gavin and Yvette leading the way, Jared threaded through a maze of razor ridges and half-hidden goat tracks that laced the outer rims of the Myriad Beast Mountains.

The two guides bled with every step, yet their instincts spared the party from spore-choked ravines and dens where slumbering monsters breathed sulfurous steam.

Long hours passed. When the sun drooped low and painted the western clouds a molten orange, Gavin lifted a vine curtain to reveal an illusion- shrouded fissure between twin peaks.

They crossed the illusion array. The hollow beyond opened wide, a secret valley cupped by cliff walls the color of tarnished bronze.

Dozens of huts-stone foundations topped with cedar trunks-hugged the slopes in careful tiers. At the center squatted a taller hall of slate blocks, and before it, on a wind-scoured plaza, loomed a weather-pocked statue of some primeval beast whose features had long since blurred into myth.

Wolf-tailed sentries polished bone-handled spears. Fox-eared artisans flayed scaly hides for armor. Bear-clan youths heaved baskets of ore toward smelters that hissed with green fire. This was Rockhold Gorge, an outpost the Myriad Beast Sect treated like a dagger pointed at the mountain’s edge.

Curiosity rippled across those faces when Gavin returned with an unknown human and a unicorn whelp that radiated sacred heat. Yet the moment their senses brushed Jared’s aura-merely Human Immortal Realm, level seven-many gazes cooled into thin disdain.