Chapter 5790

Jared sighed inwardly. Showboating always came with a bill, and the bill had arrived on schedule.

“Very well…” he said at last, forcing a half-helpless smile. “It seems I must impose on you for a few days, Master Cloudridge.”

Linden’s laughter rang across the scarred battlefield. “Excellent! I knew you were a man who sees the larger picture.”

The tension that had coiled in his shoulders slipped away.

Curiosity and guarded respect still churned behind the old swordsman’s smile. A fiend who had shaken level nine a millennium ago was stirring again he needed every scrap of information Jared could provide.

“Tend the wounded, gather the fallen blades, and form up for the march home,” Linden commanded. Then he offered Jared a sweeping gesture toward the sky. “This way, my friend.”

Jared glanced once toward the distant peaks where the Myriad Beast Sect waited. A faint ripple of unease stirred in his chest, but he pressed it down, stepped beside Linden, and together they streaked off as twin arcs of light toward the Myriad Sword Mountains.