Chapter 5925

Ignatius continued with his introductions, gesturing toward the younger pair. “Behind him stand his personal disciples, Leopold Hawke and Selina Moonfield. As for the rest of our guests… All of them fled here from level twelve.”

Fled?

The single word echoed in Jared’s mind, cold and metallic. His pupils constricted, a blade-thin glint flashing across his amber eyes.

For cultivators, the road had always been simple to name and cruel to tread. They had to defy fate, risk their lives, and constantly strive toward higher realms of existence.

Those stranded in level eleven dreamed of breaching the twelfth. Those already astride that summit whispered of a fabled thirteenth level, then of realms so distant they carried no name at all.

This hunger for ascent was an iron law, older than dynasties, etched into the marrow of every era.

Yet today, elites of level twelve had fled-battered, desperate to seek shelter on the eleventh. The very notion cracked destiny’s spine.