Chapter 5864

The elder’s brows pinched together, carving a fine line between his eyes. He weighed his words, then spoke with the care of a seasoned archivist-his voice little more than the hushed crackle of parchment. “Jadeheart Marrow… I recall seeing a fleeting reference to it buried in one of the oldest compendiums I ever handled. It is said to gather in the deepest fissures of the Infernal Lava Abyss, seeping drop by patient drop from the living veins of the planet’s core. One drop takes ten millennia to form. And that single drop, legend claims, can fortify the body’s root, bind the soul to its shell, and anchor the spirit against oblivion. Understand, though-these are only whispers handed down as myth. I have lived in level eleven for several thousand years, and in all that time I have never met anyone who has actually laid eyes on the thing.”

Once again the same hollow answer, echoing like a door that refused to open.

Jared masked his disappointment and forced his voice steady. “Then where, exactly, is this Infernal Lava Abyss?”

“South of here,” the elder replied, lifting a finger as if tracing a distant horizon. “Deep inside the Blaze Region of level eleven-no less than a million miles away. The place is merciless. Earth-fire rages there without pause, rivers of molten stone cross the land like hungry serpents, and even those who stand firmly in the Heavenly Immortal Realm hesitate before stepping across its threshold. If you truly intend to venture there, young friend, you must prepare for every terror the abyss can conjure.”

A million miles. At Jared’s current top speed, even flying without pause he would need a full month just to arrive.

And that was only the travel. Surviving the Blaze Region itself would demand a plan far more intricate than anything he had sketched so far.

What Jared did not know-could not have known-was that the moment he and Vermilion had stepped through Sandrock City’s gate, a silent pair of eyes had fixed on them and never once blinked.